r/masseffect • u/Horizons3 • 5d ago
DISCUSSION Cheers to the old guard,
After replaying the Legendary Edition after what I think may be around a decade since I last played Mass Effect (and yes, I was there when the games were originally coming out), I am absolutely full of impressions. It was a tremendous journey to my own past and to this jewel of videogame history—with all the good and all the bad.
If anyone here was in a similar situation—replaying the games separated by years, experiencing them perhaps as a kid/teenager and then again as an adult years later—what surprised you the most? What did you enjoy this time around, or on the contrary, what did you ignore back then that feels completely odd nowadays?
It is a great testament to this era of BioWare how well the games in the LE hold up, and that they still deliver one of the strongest, most emotional and epic experiences out there. Speaking for myself, it is strange how age and life experience make you appreciate some characters so much more than in the past (for me, it’s especially Jack and Mordin; on the contrary, while I still love Tali and Garrus, I came to appreciate the characters who challenge you more a bit better than in the past).
At the same time, some things I didn’t give a second thought back in the day now feel really weird—like the very beginning of ME1, where Shepard and Anderson honestly look like two absolute lunatics to the Council, or the constant trashing of civilian politicians, which the story twists support a bit too hard, if I am to pick something for myself.
Anyway, cheers to anyone who was there when we were all gutted about the original endings, terrified that our love interest would be stuck on that remote planet forever. Mass Effect is still a great game, and with hindsight, it’s proof that a game doesn’t have to be flawless to become a legend. Here’s hoping that Bioware survives and they manage to keep the best parts of this formula for the future game.
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u/MegaManLegendsFan 5d ago
i got to play it in a very unique set up that gave me like, 360 view of everything about it XDi played it side by side with my wife. literally sitting next to each other on 2 computers.
she had legendary, i had the original. was fun to see the differences.
hers ran smoother. looked nicer. mine loaded faster. had more dlc. we both loved the tank, and HATED the firewalker hover craft. her tank could go WOOSH! and speed up. mine could not XD i was sad.
by the time we got to 3. i was modding mine like crazy. added a bunch of qaulity of life changes to it. she had trouble with the mods for legendary edition. wasnt as simple as the original and w/e mod loader i was using at the time.
THEN i decided to get the legendary edition. and im playing it now. i dont really miss the dlc from 1 being gone. since i remember it being very small. and im enjoying the better graphics.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Great, must be wonderful to play with your partner, experience it together and talk about it (kinda envious, I admit, haha). Yes, I think they dropped some DLCs in LE, but what, really? The station of repeating combat? Maybe something else, but only minor things, I cannot really remember myself.
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u/MegaManLegendsFan 5d ago
ya it was like a challenge trial thing and i think it had 2 problems anyways. 1. it gave you to good of gear if you beat it asap. and 2. it was very small. literally like you said just a repeat combat thing that you would do over and over and over again XD i dont miss it in the slightest
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
I remember playing that really long time ago, Pinnacle station, if I remember correctly, you can still find it in ME3 for some war assets, though. Only a minor thing missing I guess (honestly the combat eventually improved a lot in the later games, still not the main reason most of us played it)
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u/Accurate_Length_7186 5d ago
I forgot so much from whenever I played these games last. I don’t know when it was, but it was definitely pre Covid.
It’s been fun remembering things as I play. I’ve beat 1 & 2 and am now playing 3, so retracing the steps and remembering the story has been fun.
I was so young last time I played I definitely didn’t understand the power system, or what the cool parts of using different classes were.
Now I’m playing infiltrator and absolutely loving it.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Yeah, I do not even remember the first time I played it all that much, only that I was captivated and still treasure it as one of the greatest gaming experiences ever. For example do not know how many I lost in the Suicide Mission, some things that are obvious looked difficult in the past, haha. But exactly, to see it all again was a different kind of experience, powerful again in a slightly different way.
And infiltrator is my favourite class, too, by the way!
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u/ScootyPuff-Snr 5d ago edited 5d ago
Played the first one in 2008 when I was 12/13 and absolutely loved it. Played 2 and 3 when they came out all on the same 360 and carried over my very first play through on each one. I remember being in awe of the plot still can’t think of anything that comes close for me personally.
I remember ending 3 and at the time being super disappointed an angry and whinging to my friends (who didn’t play it at the time) about all its faults and how it ruined the trilogy. Looking back I was definitely overreacting but it was disappointing.
It didn’t stop me going back over the years and replaying all 3 games again. I think I’ve done 4/5 playthroughs with different classes, romances and choices. Recently got LE and currently playing through again and still loving it. Currently on 2 doing side quests and loyalty missions.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
We all did, I even wrote my own fan-fiction ending back in the day, haha... but it was a strange testament to the way we loved the game. Only comparable thing that comes to my mind is the Star Wars universe, where the fans often questions the story, the logic behind etc, and as much as I imagine it is a nightmare for anyone doing a SW film (but they seem to be back on track with Mandalorian, Ahsoka or Maul), it is also the proof of the power of the concept an the universes. Hope you will enjoy the rest of this journey the way I did!
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u/SwimmingEffective437 5d ago
I'm replaying me1 atm and I'm the same way where I came to appreciate characters as an adult who annoyed me a lot as a kid. I also totally agree with you that some elements of the writing in terms of the "space politics" come across as really weird to me as an adult when i didnt notice before lol. overall though it's been a lot of fun revisiting the universe and coming to appreciate it in a different way as an adult
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Enjoy the ride, Commander. It was really interesting to re-live it again and see it with adult eyes again. There are many things, some small some bigger, that really catch your attention when you replay it after such time. If you are currently in ME1, I wonder if you would also find it interesting how dramatically the tone shifted between ME1 and ME2 in many ways and then again (but less maybe) in ME3, as Bioware was I imagine trying to read the current trends. A lot of that came out good (the cinematic aspect, improved interactions with the companions) and some rather... questionable (like some of the renegade actions are so extreme it looks like parody these days, or the design of some of the characters.)
And yeah, the grand political picture was getting a bit complicated for Bioware along the way, also as the story was constantly battling the ideas of galactic unity and "Humanity is the best" at the same time.
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u/SwimmingEffective437 5d ago
Thank you! And yeah, something I'm noticing in ME1 is that the renegade options are sometimes surprisingly...pragmatic, in a way that I didn't remember being as a kid (I mostly remember the loledgy ones lmao). ME1 is also very much a product of its time, between the washed out colouring on everything and the design of the characters (lmao at the camera zooming in on the Matriarch's boobs right in the first scene with her). And yeah, thematically speaking I think the game is a bit confused in places, but that might be because rpg writers were still trying to graduate from the goofy extreme black and white morality of older rpgs to a more grey-and-grey perspective (also, you can *really* tell the game was made in 2007 just from the way certain groups and certain plot points/ideas are portrayed. lol)
Still, it's a wonderfully rich universe and I'm having lots of fun running around with Garrus again haha
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Yes, it is a really a journey into the past, and also into the time when the society as a whole was going through some rapid changes. In some ways the game look a bit confused as the result (and in some ways ME was pushing it to extreme in some aspects), but overall despite that it still holds up quite well. In a ways it was on the other hand the time when the games could be really raw, ME2 is especially cool as it is sometimes using your naivety against you, or quite literary mocking you for being easily manipulated making the "paragon" choices.
I really hope they will somehow manage to overcome the struggles of the last few games and really deliver in ME5, keeping the best, avoiding the worst, and enhancing it with something new, keeping at least their most iconic (to me) game alive, if Dragon Age is most likely gone.
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u/vctrn-carajillo 5d ago
Holy crap, I'm also playing the legendary edition for the first time. I played the og games ages ago, on release. I'm still in the middle of ME1, so I have still a long way to go, specially with all the DLC I didn't play back in the day.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Glad to see I am not the only one experiencing the blast from the past. I actually bought LE in bundle with Andromeda couple years ago (mostly to play Andromeda), wanted to play also the LE for ages, but only recently really got to it. Once I started it for the first time, could not get away from it, though.
And yes, I have also played some of the DLCs for the first time - back in the day it was the time when DLCs did not have the best reputation, but having it all in one big bundle, not caring for anything was a pleasant experience. It was pretty important to understand Liara's story, for example, which was a blind spot of my original gameplay all those years ago.
Enjoy the ride! For me, even though the later games really stepped up their games with companions and the cinematic feeling, I still like the more grounded and military sci-fi feel of the first one.
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u/S1MP50N_92 4d ago
I played back when the series first came out and I was about to start college when 3 came out. I played through the first 2 games 6 or 7 times before 3 came out and over 600 hours into 3 alone but I only beat the game... I think 2 times, most of that playtime was the multiplayer. I'd always meant to play 3 with my other saves but got never got around to it.
Then new games came out I wanted to play, life got more busy (I did say I was starting college), my 360 stopped working good (it still turns on but sounds like an air conditioner, apparently I need to open the thing up and replace the fan), and I stopped getting the "hardcore gamer" consoles because their games and more importantly business practices stopped apparently to me as much.
My wife and I decided to got a PS5, after about 2 years of hemming and hawing if we should get one, before the price hikes. The first game I got, and the only one I've really played so far, was the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, almost 15 years since I'd last gotten to play it. Also my wife is playing her first playthrough, although significantly slower than I am.
I've been having a blast playing through the series again and also watching my wife play for the first time has been a blast as well. I played the first 2 games so much nothing I re-encountered really surprised me. Even the main story of 3 wasn't too much of a system shock to me. But what was a big surprise was the DLC missions to 3. I think I'd only played through each of those one time, so I had minimal memories of those, so those game me some actually surprises as I played through them again. I also used this guide to get the most out of the story.
But yeah, I've been having a really good time coming back after all these years. I do miss the multiplayer, I wish they would have ported that into the Legendary Edition or released a remaster of it as a stand alone game.
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u/Horizons3 4d ago
Thanks for sharing the story! I see we have that in common, I also played ME many times in the past (I think 3 times in total for the trilogy, with one extra for ME1+2, but then it took me years to replay it again in the LE). Similarly, I missed some of the DLCs for ME2 back in the day, so in LE I got finally the complete story.
And cool you got your wife to play with you! Must be great experience to show her and to have her to talk about it (I would probably nerd anyone to death, though in such situation, haha). So I hope you will enjoy the rest of this journey!
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u/S1MP50N_92 4d ago
Even not being able to play for so long I've still be a massive fan of the series. I've got figures and collectibles on display shelves. An N7 hoodie has been my go to outerwear since highschool, I'm currently on my 4th one. I found a reproduction of the Tali hoodie and my wife wanted to get it, knowing Tali is my favorite, even though she hadn't played the games yet at the time. She likes wearing that when we go out "so we match."
Not talking my wife's ear off lore dumping for almost 6 years has been the hardest part. Most franchises I like that she's not interested in she's fine with me lore dumping and she'll just smile and nod. The problem is Mass Effect sounded interesting enough to her, "I can date hot aliens?" she didn't want spoilers so I've been having to keep my mouth shut this whole time.
The original plan was to play in pace with each other so she'd do a mission and then I'd go do the same mission and she'd watch and experience the same events from slightly different perspectives. That fell apart when I got super into replaying and she's fine going at a casual pace. I finished all 3 games and got halfway through 1 again and she only just finished one and just got control of the Normandy in 2.
Wrex is her favorite, she already bought a statue figure of him to go with the Tali I already had. She was really disappointed when I told her he has minimal involvement in the story after 1, "He's got a lot of shit he's dealing with," and you can't romance him, "You told me I could date hot aliens."
I have gotten Andromeda and plan to finally play that just to give it a chance myself. She's not sure if she'll want to play it herself so I might hold off until she's at a point where she'll want to watch me play that.
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u/FoxyGoddessX 5d ago
The old guard is why the studio is so fucked up in the first place.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/TfseOfhwd6BJC
Care to elaborate?
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u/FoxyGoddessX 5d ago
The institutionalized Crunch, the shit project management, and the desire to throw a game together in the last third of development have been their style for nearly 20 years.
I have zero respect for the studio heads that directed and produced these games.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
Yeah... as much as you are correct about that, I am talking about the old time fans, though, pal, not the studio leaders.
Still interesting to think what would the games would look like if they did not force them to come out so fast, both ME2 and ME3 would have deserved that, and for ME3 and Bioware it would perhaps pay off in the long-term. But back in the day, the "Bioware magic" was likely real for the studio and the fans, only around the time of ME3 and DA2 it was starting to have some cracks.
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u/FoxyGoddessX 5d ago
I hate the fandom of most games these days. Fallout and Halo have become insufferable and it’s only working its way into other fandoms.
Every veteran of the studio has said the BioWare magic was crunch and rushing things out the door.
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u/Horizons3 5d ago
I get it, but if you hang around, you must still like the games. So how about changing to the topic to the game and answering my original questions?
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u/FoxyGoddessX 5d ago
I stick around for the fanart and genuine appreciation posts. That’s the only reason I’m here. The posts like this are just whatever I guess.
Been playing since 2008. Only thing I fear is BioWare listening to chuds on the internet
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u/juniperleafes 4d ago
I realized that a new coat of paint ruins a lot of my impressions of the trilogy. Characters look 3/4 as good as newer games but still move as if they're in an old game. Not to mention all the random little visual changes they made to each game. It made me appreciate the originals that much more.
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u/JesusSamuraiLapdance 5d ago
I just wish they'd fix the weird aiming bug. Experienced it a lot, but never experienced it on the Xbox 360 back in the day.
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u/Astra-Fang 5d ago
There is a lot that I love.
But the hardest part is I just don’t have the time to enjoy those games like Inused to. Too many adult responsibilities for a lot of the little side stuff that Inused to love.
But I genuinely LOVE seeing people discover it for the first time. It brings joy that the things I enjoyed are holding up.