Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, a complete remaster of BioWare’s original trilogy and most of its DLC, is releasing in May of 2021, and both long-time fans and new players are excited to see what has and hasn’t changed with the opportunity to revisit the series. With a slew of new features, UI, and graphics updates on the table, questions are being raised of what else will differ from the original release of the Mass Effect franchise.
Among the new features that have already been announced for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition are photo mode, a first-time inclusion for the series, and improved and expanded character customization options. Accompanied with the overhauled graphics, especially in the case of the first Mass Effect game, which by now is nearing fourteen years old, these new experiences will give players a chance to fine-tune and show off player characters and memorable moments from the game.
But along with these new additions come a few losses that aren’t making the switch over from the original Mass Effect trilogy. Whether it’s because of the age and outdated nature of the original features, or if they were too impractical to overhaul, here are a couple things that Mass Effect: Legendary Edition won’t be including from the original games.
Original Mass Effect Features That Won’t Be Included
One feature that BioWare has confirmed won’t be making a comeback is Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer game mode. In the original release, multiplayer could be used by players to earn additional Galactic Readiness points, which factored in to the ending of the game. Instead, the remastered Mass Effect 3 will now take choices from the first two games into account when calculating Galactic Readiness, thus shifting the focus entirely over to single-player decisions to compensate for the lack of a multiplayer game mode.
Additionally, despite the over 40 DLC included in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, not all of the DLC that was originally released for the franchise are going to be present. Notably, Pinnacle Station, the second DLC in the series, will be entirely missing. According to BioWare this is due to corrupt code. Pinnacle Station brought forth new areas to the game, notably a secret alliance station, and new gameplay opportunities such as combat scenarios. Given that the DLC did not contain any story changes or even much story content at all, it was easier to cut than to delay the entire release to rebuild it from the ground up, but for players who never got the chance to experience Pinnacle Station in the original Mass Effect releases, the loss is still a let-down.
Questions have been raised about other features that may end up vanishing in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, such as the infamous elevator conversations held between companions during long loading screens between areas of the Citadel. BioWare is offering players the option the speed up Mass Effect’s elevator moments, but there’s been no other direct confirmation by BioWare in terms of everything else that may or may not be altered or excluded, so fans will have to wait and see on May 14th the game releases.
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