- New to Mass Effect? Only partially finished the trilogy?

Don't just sit there, get this and go play! The Mass Effect Trilogy is a true masterpiece in terms of epic stories, characters you will love to bond with (or love to hate), sci-fi worldbuilding, deep and fascinating lore and truly impactful game choices. Play the games in order, and export your character and his choices from each game to the next. You are in for a hell of a ride!

- Expert ME player who has been through it all before, maybe several times to see all endings?

Pass! While the visual and QoL improvements are definitely noticeable and welcome in the first game, 2 and 3 recieved only minor facelifts such as dynamic lighting and shadows, lens flares and godrays and the like. There's mods to make the first game look better, including QoL improvements such as custom FOV. That's right, you still need to install a mod to get a tolerable FOV if you like most people play your pc games with a monitor half a meter away from your face.


- The titles are mostly well paced. Typically there's missions of varying length but rarely more than 30 mins per mission, followed by (optional but recommended) interludes where you chat with your crew to learn interesting bits about them, thoughts on the previous mission, or visit a hub city to do some shopping. On a few occasions, the amount of time spent just running around and talking to different people can be a bit much. I remember at least one evening I was playing this, and didn't fire my guns a single time because there was a lot of story bits to talk through. I don't mind it that much since as mentioned above I LOVE the lore and characters on offer, but I also know some people get anxious if the downtime is long between the action-bits.

- None of the titles are without their small or big annoyances.

In Mass Effect 1, planet exploration is mostly a timeconsuming drag, and while exploring the game loves to constantly make you do the little stupid hacking minigame. Despite some improvements to weapon accuracy, there's no getting around that the combat is definitely starting to feel outdated and a bit janky.

Mass Effect 2 can feel 'gamey' because they for some reason felt the need to present a results screen after each mission, sorta makes you feel like you're playing through levels in an oldschool FPS like Duke3D again. While exploring, every single planet you come across can be scanned for resources which is at least better than driving around on them like the first game, but it still quickly becomes a dull chore if you don't want to miss out on stuff. Also more hacking minigames.

Mass Effect 3 wisely ditched the busywork regarding planet scanning, and bypassing locks are done automatically, but it has its own annoyances as well. First and foremost, unlike in the first game you can't holster your guns outside of combat and explore places without looking like a space murderhobo. Pretty darn annoying since the camera is a close and over your shoulder POV the whole time on missions with its zoomed and narrow FOV.
There is also the matter of big, vital plot points that were cut from the game at launch, and sold as DLC. In this package you don't have to worry about that, but lets not forget what they tried to pull with this game, there is no excuse for doing that, ever.
Finally, the mission log is incredibly unhelpful for some reason. Often it gives no hints which system you're supposed to go to, and it does not update if complete their conditions. ME1 and 2's logs were much better.

Concluding thoughts:

Now it might sound after the paragraphs above that I hate these games but I assure you, the positives these games gave me FAR outweighed their negatives. Sadly this game cannot get a GOTY from me since there are no fishing minigames, but the experiences and feels I've had with Mass Effect Legendary Edition are among the finest I can recall, EVER.

Mass Effect as a trilogy is a strong 9/10 for me.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition, judged as a remaster for those who have done it all before comes out less favourably. Lets say a 5/10 for the nice facelift it gave the first game.

[h1]TL;DR Worth Buying Guide:[/h1] [i]- New to Mass Effect? Only partially finished the trilogy?[/i] Don't just sit there, get this and go play! The Mass Effect Trilogy is a true masterpiece in terms of epic stories, characters you will love to bond with (or love to hate), sci-fi worldbuilding, deep and fascinating lore and truly impactful game choices. Play the games in order, and export your character and his choices from each game to the next. You are in for a hell of a ride! [i]- Expert ME player who has been through it all before, maybe several times to see all endings?[/i] Pass! While the visual and QoL improvements are definitely noticeable and welcome in the first game, 2 and 3 recieved only minor facelifts such as dynamic lighting and shadows, lens flares and godrays and the like. There's mods to make the first game look better, including QoL improvements such as custom FOV. That's right, you still need to install a mod to get a tolerable FOV if you like most people play your pc games with a monitor half a meter away from your face. [h1]Some more thoughts (spoiler free of course):[/h1] - The titles are mostly well paced. Typically there's missions of varying length but rarely more than 30 mins per mission, followed by (optional but recommended) interludes where you chat with your crew to learn interesting bits about them, thoughts on the previous mission, or visit a hub city to do some shopping. On a few occasions, the amount of time spent just running around and talking to different people can be a bit much. I remember at least one evening I was playing this, and didn't fire my guns a single time because there was a lot of story bits to talk through. I don't mind it that much since as mentioned above I LOVE the lore and characters on offer, but I also know some people get anxious if the downtime is long between the action-bits. - None of the titles are without their small or big annoyances. In Mass Effect 1, planet exploration is mostly a timeconsuming drag, and while exploring the game loves to constantly make you do the little stupid hacking minigame. Despite some improvements to weapon accuracy, there's no getting around that the combat is definitely starting to feel outdated and a bit janky. Mass Effect 2 can feel 'gamey' because they for some reason felt the need to present a results screen after each mission, sorta makes you feel like you're playing through levels in an oldschool FPS like Duke3D again. While exploring, every single planet you come across can be scanned for resources which is at least better than driving around on them like the first game, but it still quickly becomes a dull chore if you don't want to miss out on stuff. Also more hacking minigames. Mass Effect 3 wisely ditched the busywork regarding planet scanning, and bypassing locks are done automatically, but it has its own annoyances as well. First and foremost, unlike in the first game you can't holster your guns outside of combat and explore places without looking like a space murderhobo. Pretty darn annoying since the camera is a close and over your shoulder POV the whole time on missions with its zoomed and narrow FOV. There is also the matter of big, vital plot points that were cut from the game at launch, and sold as DLC. In this package you don't have to worry about that, but lets not forget what they tried to pull with this game, there is no excuse for doing that, ever. Finally, the mission log is incredibly unhelpful for some reason. Often it gives no hints which system you're supposed to go to, and it does not update if complete their conditions. ME1 and 2's logs were much better. [i]Concluding thoughts:[/i] Now it might sound after the paragraphs above that I hate these games but I assure you, the positives these games gave me FAR outweighed their negatives. Sadly this game cannot get a GOTY from me since there are no fishing minigames, but the experiences and feels I've had with Mass Effect Legendary Edition are among the finest I can recall, EVER. Mass Effect as a trilogy is a [b]strong 9/10[/b] for me. Mass Effect Legendary Edition, judged as a remaster for those who have done it all before comes out less favourably. Lets say a 5/10 for the nice facelift it gave the first game.