3 Big Things You Should Know Before Starting Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Almost All of the DLC is Included

The Mass Effect trilogy has a well-established history of introducing lots, and lots, of DLC. Whether it’s massive packs like Lair of the Shadow Broker or just weapons and skins, there was plenty you could spend your money on back in the day.

This time around, all but one piece of DLC will be added to their respective game at no additional cost. Not only are they in there, but they also have been added into the game naturally. Meaning if you were playing the trilogy for the first time, you might not even know that Lair of the Shadow Broker was DLC and not just part of the story.

What DLC didn’t make the cut? Pinnacle Station from Mass Effect 1 will be the only DLC not added to Mass Effect Legendary Edition and likely won’t be added or available for purchase any time soon, if ever.

The reason for that is kind of wild. The files are apparently corrupted according to BioWare (via Game Informer), and cannot be restored, nor can they track down original files that would be usable.

While Pinnacle Station was kind of meh anyway, it still sucks to know that it may be lost forever, or at least on the Legendary Edition.

Mass Effect 1 Has Received a Major Face Lift & Will Play a Bit Differently

While Mass Effect 2 and 3 look great too with the Legendary Edition’s graphical improvements, Mass Effect 1 will look almost like a completely different game. Its visual style has been severely facelifted to look more in line with the two other games in the series which released later on in the Xbox 360’s lifecycle.

In addition, there are some gameplay changes too for Mass Effect 1. Sniping is far less painful as the horrible sway is gone. The Mako’s control scheme has been improved to be less awful to drive, more enemies take headshot damage, and abilities have been tweaked

You can take a look at the graphical comparisons for yourself in the video above via IGN.

Mass Effect 3’s Multiplayer Has Been Cut; Galactic Readiness Works Differently

Yep, it’s bad news all around if you’re a fan of the original Mass Effect 3’s surprisingly great co-op multiplayer mode. It didn’t make the cut. Speaking with Game Informer, BioWare explained how bringing back the multiplayer was an extremely complex task.

Not only would it have been challenging to even do it all, and take a bunch of time, but it also raised new questions they didn’t have answers for like what do they do about the last-gen versions that are still up and running.

So that’s out. But then that also means Galactic Readiness and the War Asset system would need to be tweaked as well as multiplayer factored into that equation in the original game.

As of the Legendary Edition, the amount of content you complete across all three games is going to factor heavily into your final ending in Mass Effect 3. If you choose to skimp through content in the first two games, make wholly bad choices, or just skip the first two games entirely, you’re going to need to make up for it big time in Mass Effect 3 if you want to end the game with minimal losses and have all the final choices open to you.

You’ll need to basically do everything there is to do in Mass Effect 3 and make good choices if you choose not to play the first two games (or just comically botch it up). Keep that in mind before starting Mass Effect 1 this weekend and begin your journey through the trilogy once again.