Mass Effect Legendary Edition

 PC
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 518 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 304 out of 518
  2. Mixed: 52 out of 518
  3. Negative: 162 out of 518
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  1. JohnButcher
    Jun 4, 2021
    5
    The cheapest and laziest remake possible. But the games themselves are still good.
  2. Jurigag
    May 16, 2021
    5
    Well as original trilogy is great game for 9/10-10/10 here i am reviewing a legendary edition for PC:
    - very bad 21:9 support, even it was advertised it will be supported - cutscenes and dialogues are in 16:9, modders fixed this after 48h, and they couldn't do it for months in development
    - no option to choose language of subtitles and voice separately - even the original trilogy had it,    Well as original trilogy is great game for 9/10-10/10 here i am reviewing a legendary edition for PC:
    - very bad 21:9 support, even it was advertised it will be supported - cutscenes and dialogues are in 16:9, modders fixed this after 48h, and they couldn't do it for months in development
    - no option to choose language of subtitles and voice separately - even the original trilogy had it, again, modders after few hours fixed this as well, for me as Polish fan where dubiing is just crap this is a big issue, but thanks for modders, but still on consoles you can't mod it
    - first game is pretty much mostly upgraded graphically and gameplay - that's good and i like this
    - but second and third game is the thing we already have on PC with mods - there are close to none changes compared to textures mods, and compared to first game most of the effects stayed as they are, this seems really lazy, they should do the same approach to second and third game, improve it more than mods actually do
    - some weird graphical glitches here and there, mostly in first game
    - broken surround sound in first game - again, it's super easy to fix, you just need to download new OpenAL32.dll and replace it and it's fixed, but why Bioware didn't do it? No idea
    - HDR support is great addition, really like it
    - no option to disable mouse acceleration? what a hell? again, there is super easy fix to ini file, but this should be added to game options
    - also no fov slider - though i don't care about this too much, it's fine for me as it is

    Overall i would say that they should really reduce the price for PC players having previous games, 60$ for basically improved first game, and two others where we already had this graphical level most of the time is kind of expensive. If you are newcommer to a game i recommend buying this legendary edition, those are amazing games that you must play. But if you already played it, have original trilogy and don't have 60$ to pay for this then pass and wait until it will be in ea play or cost around 20$ which i think will be fair price then.    … Expand
  3. SilverOrlov
    May 25, 2021
    6
    Whatever the reason was for releasing of this game, it is good when they try to give a taste to the young generation of players to a great but old idea. The graphics itself is improved, the music is good, some planets are made more beautiful than the original versions. But that's all. In a completely disgusting way, they killed the whole atmosphere of the game by making it brighter andWhatever the reason was for releasing of this game, it is good when they try to give a taste to the young generation of players to a great but old idea. The graphics itself is improved, the music is good, some planets are made more beautiful than the original versions. But that's all. In a completely disgusting way, they killed the whole atmosphere of the game by making it brighter and removing all the halftones. The mimicry of some faces was ruined in an absolutely disgusting way. As well as some of the faces itself.
    The obligatory subtitles were made in an absolutely disgusting way, even with the ad-libbing words that were not in the EN.
    But everyone praises the game for the opportunity to skip the elevator... great, give me two.    … Expand
  4. somedude14
    May 16, 2021
    7
    Better graphics in ME1 for sure, even compared to the original with texture mods. The lighting is just way better. However ME1 is still pretty clunky, Insanity is pretty easy aside from snipers (who will oneshot you the moment you come out of cover sometimes, real frustrating), the Mako sections are still a chore (the problem isn't the Mako, it's the terrain). The new Mako controls willBetter graphics in ME1 for sure, even compared to the original with texture mods. The lighting is just way better. However ME1 is still pretty clunky, Insanity is pretty easy aside from snipers (who will oneshot you the moment you come out of cover sometimes, real frustrating), the Mako sections are still a chore (the problem isn't the Mako, it's the terrain). The new Mako controls will make you drive towards Thresher Maws while attacking them so just turn them off.

    Limited graphic settings so not much scalability, your system will run the game or it won't. No FoV slider, but there is a mod now, however it caps out at 100 at the moment. ME3 will be the worst one to replay, I played it at launch, was really soured at how many corners they cut, replayed it last year, thought it was a bit better with all the DLC, but still really sloppy writing. So know what you're getting into, at least you can do it all in about a week or so of playing now rather than years of imagining all the directions they can take the game with all the potential it has, only to be let down by some shoddy workmanship in the end. But that's life - disappointment and people being people. This trilogy is really just a reminder of the limitations of escapism through art - you're reliant on people doing a good job, and with ME, those people ultimately dropped the ball. But man it sure was something looking forward to ME3 back in the day, wondering how they'd tie it all up, since the Reapers were supposed to be indestructible.

    As is this is a trilogy that ultimately fails to deliver on its promise of epicness and resorts to cheesy, incoherent writing to force the concepts of the finale through, and for owners of the original games, this is an $80CDN texture pack and patch for ME1 (which still has bugs that were present in the original), ME2 gets more ammo, and any changes they did to ME3 were unannounced.    … Expand
  5. Ead
    May 16, 2021
    6
    Pretty bad port.

    First, they now force you to use origin. Which is completely garbage. If you are in China, good freaking luck try login so you can play the game you bought. Second, the visual improvement are nice, but not fantastic. And you still don't have basic option to adjust some very basic setting. Like, brightness. Some part are dark af. Thrid, the hdr didn't work on my    Pretty bad port.

    First, they now force you to use origin. Which is completely garbage. If you are in China, good freaking luck try login so you can play the game you bought.
    Second, the visual improvement are nice, but not fantastic. And you still don't have basic option to adjust some very basic setting. Like, brightness. Some part are dark af.
    Thrid, the hdr didn't work on my monitor. In short, it detects the wrong minitor. If I enable it, colors are washed out. No way around it.
    Four, it's very easy to run into bugs. Visual bug, animations stuck, etc.
    Five, the character creation is still bad af. Very hard to create a not that ugly char.
    Six, the title, description all have chinese. In game, they added Japanese, but no Chinese. I am pretty sure you can call this ad fraud.
    Seven, framerate drops are very common. Sometimes it goes from 144 to 50hz. Good job.
    Eight, you will need some luck to play the game. For me, my game crashed a few times first trying to play the game. Steam auto installed something a few time, finally I entered the game, instead stucking at the selection screen. Good work
    Eight, even they added gamepad support which is nice. But sometimes it don't work as expected. I faced sensitivity incrased suddenly. Skipping dialoge. In the hacking menu, d-pad either don't work
    or responded twice.
    Good part, it's mass effect!
    They added gamepad control which is very nice for me. But the control bugs out sometimes.    … Expand
  6. AJCk19
    May 6, 2023
    6
    A great upgraded repackage of the trilogy, but ending of ME3 kind of crashes the party. Also they could have included Andromeda.
  7. hileger
    Jan 31, 2023
    5
    переоценена херня : ролевая система никакая , стрельба как в щенячем патруле , сюжет графоманский фуфел из 60х , квесты принеси подай сходи убей попизди ,треп убогий и скучный .
    я не знаю что в этой игре нашли хорошего.
  8. TaliMancer
    May 19, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Still the same games as it was in 2007-2012 with improved graphics. I guess that is all they promised and that is what we got. I still need to say that I picked up this game because I was a huge fan back when the originals was released, up till I had finished ME3 and the ending did not only kill Shepard but also my and even Biowares soul. In my case my soul was restored, the same can sadly not be said about BioWare. What a lovely chance they had of improving the ending(s) of ME3 with this release, the ending(s) that de facto killed the entire franchise. If EA and BioWare would have taken this opportunity and given us a chance to get a truly happy ending by letting us finish the entire series with saving the council, no one dying in the “suicide mission” and collecting enough war points it would have saved the trilogy even if it was nine years too late. It would have given a healthy vitamin injection and created a much needed hype for their next installment that so far we have only seen a teaser trailer of.

    But why give the fans what they want when they can repeat the same mistake one more time? Love ME1 and ME2 so much that my daughters name is Tali but really dislike ME3 for so many reasons. ME3 is a soulless husk compared to the two other games not only counting the ending but also the dialog options, or should I say lack of options? ME3 has a slightly better combat system but not many people played these games for the combat, at least I did not so ME3 still sours the dish by making a first class flight crash in the middle of taliban controlled Afghanistan in an explosion with the color of your choice.

    I cannot give this more than 5 despite the two first games being so good as the ending is important and in many cases defines our perception of the entire journey.    … Expand
  9. Ratingss
    Jun 27, 2021
    7
    A casual third person shooter that is very story centered, and that when first came out seemed to be going to be a very special game in regards to story telling and choice making, but that turned to be just an illusion. The gameplay was always bad and a after thought like every Bioware game, they clearly arent very fond of making good gameplay, on this remaster its just a little less badA casual third person shooter that is very story centered, and that when first came out seemed to be going to be a very special game in regards to story telling and choice making, but that turned to be just an illusion. The gameplay was always bad and a after thought like every Bioware game, they clearly arent very fond of making good gameplay, on this remaster its just a little less bad than it used to be.… Expand
  10. xeraMon
    Jul 13, 2021
    6
    I would rather expect some major work for these games, and instead they have decided to simply do a classic homework.
    (in some aspects not even so good, reaching the point of the cheap station.....)
  11. Bearhug94
    Jun 7, 2021
    6
    As EA finally added an option to choose VO and subs language separately, I'm changing my review to be relevant. Mass Effect was and still is a universally loved masterpiece, and seeing it refreshed, seeing the renewed interest of the community, both old and new is heartwarming. Despite all that, I'm here to rate Legendary Edition on its own.

    LE is basically a quick and rather cheap way    As EA finally added an option to choose VO and subs language separately, I'm changing my review to be relevant. Mass Effect was and still is a universally loved masterpiece, and seeing it refreshed, seeing the renewed interest of the community, both old and new is heartwarming. Despite all that, I'm here to rate Legendary Edition on its own.

    LE is basically a quick and rather cheap way for EA and Bioware to attract interest to ME franchise as a whole, after Andromeda failure and before new Mass Effect game. While graphical and gameplay changes are welcome, there is obvious lack of technical polish. Bugs that are older than a lot of teenagers are still there for our despair, and there are also some new (nasty) ones.

    I really hope it all will be fixed in the end, and what we get is a clean, polished and convenient Mass Effect trilogy for us to return to from time to time and reflect on our memories of playing it for the first time ever.    … Expand
  12. Zalabar22
    Jun 3, 2021
    7
    I am overall mostly happy with the Legendary Edition but the lack of multiplayer, bugs, poor localization, and unpolished nature of the package can leave players frustrated and unsatisfied. I've yet to play Mass Effect 3 in the Legendary Edition at the time of this review but I've played it many time with the DLC on Xbox 360 and can assume as Mass Effect 2 had limited changes 3 is more orI am overall mostly happy with the Legendary Edition but the lack of multiplayer, bugs, poor localization, and unpolished nature of the package can leave players frustrated and unsatisfied. I've yet to play Mass Effect 3 in the Legendary Edition at the time of this review but I've played it many time with the DLC on Xbox 360 and can assume as Mass Effect 2 had limited changes 3 is more or less the same as well.

    Hopefully some patches and after launch support can fix some of the issues, if not it will remain a decent but overall semi disappointing product.    … Expand
  13. Razrback16
    Sep 11, 2022
    5
    Pros:

    * Fantastic graphics * Awesome character in John Shepard * Great side characters and romance options * Very interesting universe * Combat is pretty solid Cons: * Resolution settings in all of the games do not function right * Same with the control settings in Mass Effect 3 - the developers made some of the keys unchangeable * Bad endings. Due to how bad the endings are    Pros:

    * Fantastic graphics
    * Awesome character in John Shepard
    * Great side characters and romance options
    * Very interesting universe
    * Combat is pretty solid

    Cons:

    * Resolution settings in all of the games do not function right
    * Same with the control settings in Mass Effect 3 - the developers made some of the keys unchangeable
    * Bad endings. Due to how bad the endings are I don't know if I'll ever play it again. I certainly have no desire to play Mass Effect Andromeda, now.
    * Game requires the EA Origin launcher to run
    * They censored some of Miranda's scenes. (Glad I borrowed a copy of the game from a friend and didn't buy it - would have been really angry if I had after seeing the censorship)

    Game Length: For all (3) games combined, I'd estimate it taking somewhere around ~130-150 hours total

    Rating: 5/10 - the ending absolutely crushed the rating for me. Would have been overwhelmingly positive had it been a good, solid hero ending.    … Expand
  14. VendonJura
    Jun 25, 2021
    5
    I love Mass Effect series but the problem here is that they have cut out content. There is no Multiplayer mode and they have censored some nice camera angles. The games are rlly amazing but I wish, they wouldn't have cut out Multiplayer. If this game would have Multiplayer as the originals then I would give fully 10/10 Score.
  15. Sholva
    Jun 8, 2021
    6
    I love Mass Effect, it's the closest thing I'll ever have to a Stargate video game series, and Mass Effect does it for me, the trilogy still has that good old BioWare style that I also love from KOTOR, or Dragon Age, you know what I mean, I'm sure.
    But I'm not here to tell you how great the Mass Effect series of games is, we already know that. We're here to evaluate the Remastered    I love Mass Effect, it's the closest thing I'll ever have to a Stargate video game series, and Mass Effect does it for me, the trilogy still has that good old BioWare style that I also love from KOTOR, or Dragon Age, you know what I mean, I'm sure.
    But I'm not here to tell you how great the Mass Effect series of games is, we already know that. We're here to evaluate the Remastered trilogy, on the PC.

    So, I’ll start with what I consider the best part of this remaster, or the best two parts: Visuals, and Photo Mode. From the visuals, I can say the three games look as good as they can, while still being held back by the shackles of old Unreal Engine 3, even if they used an improved version of UE 3, there’s a limit on how much you can add to it.

    The visual presentation of these three games I found it pretty satisfactory, I have played these games in the past with the custom texture mods, and I do believe BioWare surpassed those here, but it’s been a while since I last tried those mods, anyway.

    Photo Mode has been a great addition to these games, I’ve spent many hours in total taking screenshots, I have so many, at last, proper screenshots to save forever from these great games. It’s great, all games should have a photo mode, it just enhances the experience and lets us take some breaks to admire the visuals or capture funny moments.

    Despite all the efforts to improve ME 1, the first game still feels the clunkiest of the trilogy, that has not changed, it’s a lot better now, that’s also true, but it’s still the oldest.

    And it’s also the one with the most Performance issues, too, which is where I start pointing out all the bad decisions BioWare has made for these remastered games: they have NOT fixed most of the major bugs and issues the original games suffered from, like: lack of FOV adjustment, terrible negative mouse acceleration in ME 1 (fixable in 2 and 3 via “Mouse Dampening setting”), some questionable animations here and there, zero changes for those (but they took the effort to change the FOV for that well known “Miranda’s backside POV conversation” (mind you, while still keeping most of her other scenes where she basically does the same, but not as close to the screen, so why bother?).

    Anyway, I feel happy and sad at the same time, because I’m always happy when I replay these games, but then sad because these series deserves so much more, and so much better, and these remasters feel pretty barebones here on the PC, at least from a technical point of view, with pretty basic Graphics Settings, old bugs not being fixed, etc.

    As I mentioned, performance is not excellent for ME1, in some parts like uncharted planets, it can drop below 60 FPS no matter what’s on screen (which normally is a whole lot of empty planet). Frame-time spikes are also common in ME 1, less so in ME 2 and 3, but still not perfect there, while much better than ME 1 for sure.

    With my Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 3060 Ti I’ve played these games at 4K DSR and capped 60 FPS to avoid high FPS related issues (like the mouse sensitivity becoming very erratic at 3 digit FPS in ME 1 and 2), yet still in ME 1 I had frame drops at times, despite the GPU not being maxed at all.

    And this is why I cannot really give this a very high score, because I’m not evaluating Mass Effect as a series here, that’s what the old games are there for, already: this is the score for the job done on the remasters, period.

    ME 3 is the game with the least amount of issues, to surprise of no one, since it’s the last one, but yeah…this is the PC platform, they could’ve done better in certain aspects, this…is Mass Effect, it deserves better.

    It is still enjoyable? Sure it is, if you enjoyed the originals…this is the same, but looks better. Is that worth $60 or your equivalent? It’s not, IMO, not if you own the originals and all their content already.

    But, it is still Mass Effect, these remasters have their strong points….and weak ones, it all depends on what you value most here, but alas…cannot give too much of a high score here, so I’ll keep it in the yellow zone, for now until they fix the major issues.    … Expand
  16. Daermon
    Aug 16, 2021
    7
    Pro:
    - All in trilogy pack
    - ME1 remastered

    Cons:
    - There is no ME2-3 remaster
  17. Starfree
    Sep 5, 2023
    7
    Playing this on Steamdeck and I love the story and the gameplay is good enough. Mass effect 3 is quite an amazing game and it’s great to have on the go… for the 20 minutes you get to play without internet. All of my problems with this game are because of the EA launcher. It takes 3 to 10 minutes for the game to load up and if you disconnect a pop up comes up saying there is an error.Playing this on Steamdeck and I love the story and the gameplay is good enough. Mass effect 3 is quite an amazing game and it’s great to have on the go… for the 20 minutes you get to play without internet. All of my problems with this game are because of the EA launcher. It takes 3 to 10 minutes for the game to load up and if you disconnect a pop up comes up saying there is an error. Expect there is none, the game still plays and runs great but you can’t close the pop up on steamdeck. If this game didn’t require being online logged in to an EA account this would be a 9/10 maybe even a 10/10 the game is amazing. But once again EA shoots themselves in the foot.… Expand
  18. MeatGrindeR
    Jul 21, 2021
    5
    Почему нельзя было сразу же добавить русские субтитры в первую часть непонятно, а добавили только после поднятия шумихи, когда многие уже первую часть прошли и начали играть в следующие части.
  19. Ivan0Z
    Jun 7, 2021
    7
    Option "ENGLISH VOICE ACTING + RUSSIAN SUBTITLES" appeared in the game. Thanks!
  20. Blyamk
    Sep 10, 2021
    7
    When i first saw MELE trailer i was damn excited, but now after playing 1st game and half of 2nd i was left incredibly disappointed.

    Starting off with the first game, i find russian localisation TERRIBLE. Yes, it IS THAT bad. Sha'Ira for whatever reason always calls you dear friend/dear captain, which wasnt in original, its just a "fantasy" of people that made the localisation. So is    When i first saw MELE trailer i was damn excited, but now after playing 1st game and half of 2nd i was left incredibly disappointed.

    Starting off with the first game, i find russian localisation TERRIBLE. Yes, it IS THAT bad. Sha'Ira for whatever reason always calls you dear friend/dear captain, which wasnt in original, its just a "fantasy" of people that made the localisation. So is Cpt. Ventralis's "in fact" that he loves to put in his every sentence, so is Udina's "that magical way" or "that simple way", which i repeat, are NOT in the original. The game itself wasn't bad, i haven't experienced any gamebreaking bugs, but the amount of simple bugs in a FINISHED product astounds me, really. Theres been different sorts of bugs - enemy looks out from their cover, points gun in other direction, but actually aiming for you, one time i fell through the floor, had to reload again. New MAKO? I really liked the original rather than LE. One more thing that bothers me - is not having an autosave system. REALLY? its 2021, you make a remaster, and simply dont add such a needed thing to the game? i had to restart the planet inspection a couple times just because BioWare was lazy to implement such a simple thing. Of course, you can press F5 for a quicksave, but you often just forget about it, having an autosave every 2 minutes would be nice. The few good things in ME1LE are improved graphics and UI, really.

    As for Mass Effect 2... the game is the same, as it was, not touching the graphics. Having all the DLCs in one pack is nice, but having to double-buy things in ingame shops for credits seems kinda weird, when in original The Illusive Man just sent them to you via letters (the "Dragon" or "Terminus" armor sets, weapons, etc.). As for Miranda's angles everyone seems to be angry about - i found them out of place in the original, glad to see them gone, but theres one in Kasumi's loyalty mission, just in the beginning, when she briefs you. Also, my FemShep turns her head 180 degrees and starts looking in my eyes. i even have a screenshot. Wish i could pin it here

    To be fair, I think, i expected a bit too much from the remaster, so i was left incredibly disappointed. if i could turn back time - i'd really rather buy original campaigns instead of this.    … Expand
  21. Woolee
    Sep 26, 2021
    7
    Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a phenomenal remaster of the original trilogy, with enough changes to not only feel fresh, but with enough quality-of-life
  22. Rotwah
    Jan 26, 2023
    6
    Well, this also contains Mass Effect 3, so I can't give it a super high rating.

    How about this: ME1 9/10 + ME2 9/10 + ME3 0/10 = 6/10
  23. kesik93
    Dec 7, 2022
    5
    Very lazy remaster. Only ME1 got true remaster treatment. Others games didn't receive the same upgrades. They didn't even fix some of the old bugs. Lazy cash grab.

Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Best PC Game of 2021
18
#18 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. CD-Action
    Dec 7, 2021
    80
    Some things about Legendary Edition disappointed or irritated me (no support for the mods, no option to import save files or characters from the original games, no multiplayer in ME3, Denuvo, some bugs and glitches) but as an avid fan who played through the trilogy many times, I enjoyed the remasters immensely. [07/2021, p.28]
  2. Softpedia
    Jul 6, 2021
    90
    Mass Effect Legendary Edition is not just a love letter to fans, but also a great gift that BioWare is making to newcomers to the series. Although some of the issues present in the original games haven't been fixed, there are so many improvements to the first two Mass Effect titles that I'm willing to overlook the minor bugs. The entire trilogy sends players throughout this amazing sci-fi universe that feels alive and vibrant everywhere you look. Perhaps these games should have been remastered separately to get the attention they deserve, but having the entire trilogy in a single bundle that's perfectly playable nearly 15 years after the release of the first game is surely convenient.
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  3. Gaming Nexus
    Jul 1, 2021
    88
    Beautiful, engaging and every bit as fun as it was nearly 15 years ago, Mass Effect Legendary Edition lives up to the name. It's a gorgeous, robust title that will make veterans remember how much they enjoyed the series while giving newcomers a memorable ride for the first time. There's no question you should pick this up if you fall into either category because Commander Shepard deserves that much attention.
    Read full review
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