Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is just weeks away, and BioWare is once again showing off the visual facelift they’ve given the games, particularly the first entry in the series. According to a new blog post from BioWare, they've updated the games with over 30 thousand redone textures, remodeled certain assets, improved various shaders and special effects, and modernized lighting with the use of ambient occlusion, subsurface scattering, and more.
The improvements to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition go beyond technical tweaks though. Every cutscene has been re-shot and recaptured with their updated engine and assets in 4K, and certain areas like Eden Prime, Noveria, and Feros have received more significant makeovers with new objects and art added to their environments. The end result still doesn’t exactly look cutting edge, but the games should look much more presentable on a modern 4K TV. Check out the comparison trailer for yourself, below.
Haven’t been keeping up with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition? You can get the lowdown on some of the gameplay and quality-of-life changes included in the remaster at this link. Here are the key features you can expect from the collection:
Relive the Cinematic Saga
- Three Games, One Launcher: Play through the single-player base content and over 40 DLC from all three games, including promo weapons, armors, and packs.
- Remastered for a New Generation: Experience the trilogy in 4K Ultra HD with enhanced performance, visuals, and graphics, all available in HDR.
- Visual Improvements on All 3 Games: Updates include enhanced models, shaders, FX, lighting and depth of field, plus full-resolution audio.
Experience the Legend of Shepard
- New Shepard Customizations: With improved hair, makeup, eye color and skin tones you can create your Shepard in a unified character creator with all options available across the full trilogy, or choose to play as the iconic Femshep from Mass Effect 3 now available in all titles.
- Gameplay Enhancements for the First Mass Effect Game: Enjoy improved aiming and weapons balance, SFX, better Mako controls, input/controls, squad behavior, cover behavior and gameplay cameras.
Reflect on Your Choices
- Visual Enhancements for the First Mass Effect Game: The game's been given a full world-building pass including environmental art, VFX and level relighting.
- PC Updates: Enjoy a modernized PC experience across all three games with native controller and 21:9 widescreen support, user interface navigation improvements, and DirectX 11 compatibility.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will be available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 (and playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 via backward compatibility) on May 14.
