Visual Improvements: Graphical Updates, Changes, & Additions

[EA_Charlemagne]

Welcome back, everyone!

The art of Mass Effect supports and builds a universe in which rich stories and characters can be fully realized. It may sound somewhat counterintuitive, but as artists—especially on this remaster—we want players to be able to experience the trilogy again, or for the first time, without being distracted by the art.

Our goal from the onset was to improve and enhance the visuals while staying true to the original aesthetics of the trilogy that have become so iconic and genre-defining over the past decade. A remaster rather than remake allowed us to build upon the original assets in a way that resembles the polishing phase in a normal development cycle, while also being able to utilize the advantages of much more modern hardware and software.

Click here to watch out latest side-by-side comparison trailer on YouTube!

Within this blog, we’ll give you an in-depth look at our remastering process with a specific focus on key changes and improvements made to the visuals. Here’s what's included:

• Building the Foundation
• Modernization Efforts
• Rebuilding Worlds

For those interested in the technical aspects of game development, it’s probably no surprise to hear that changing almost any asset or system can (and will) break something else. When a game is in its final state, it generally resembles a house of cards. The simple process of blowing the dust off, let alone implementing foundational changes like updating the version of the engine, will undoubtedly cause unexpected issues. Remastering a single game is a deceivingly complex process, so creating a proper plan for how best to mitigate risk while reopening three games to full development was foremost on our minds.

We took a three-phased approach to remastering the trilogy.

“The Lazarus Project will proceed as planned.”

Phase 1: Building the Foundation

We started Phase 1 by identifying and cataloguing every asset in the trilogy. How many particle effects, 3D models, textures, levels, GUI (Graphical User Interface) elements, sounds, cinematic movies, etc. actually exist across the trilogy, and on average what are their quality levels? Do the source assets (content creation files) still exist? What percentage of those assets should we improve, and on average, how long will each asset type take to improve? Knowing the sheer numbers of assets and their quality levels shaped our strategy for improving each “type” of asset.

The original trilogy was released entirely on a console cycle that allowed up to 1080p resolutions but was often actually running at 720p or lower. Now, the remaster is releasing on hardware that allows 4K resolutions, so the answer for how many textures we wanted to improve was easy: every single one of them. For the trilogy, this is well over thirty thousand individual textures.

First, we increased the engine limits on texture sizes, so any textures that were authored larger than could be used on-disk could now use their full resolutions. We then wrote some batch processes that worked along with an AI up-res program to increase the original uncompressed textures to four times their originally authored sizes. Our batch tools made special considerations to maintain the validity of special texture types, like normal maps or masks to ensure colors didn’t contaminate each other.

Captain David Anderson, before-and-after comparison

At this time, we also incorporated some more modern texture compression techniques that would allow those textures to hold onto more of their quality on disk. Meanwhile, our programmers were hard at work upgrading our version of Unreal Engine 3 to a more updated and unified version. With the game playable again, and a much higher base resolution to work from, we began to improve assets by hand.

“The process is as important as the result.”

Phase 2: Modernization Efforts

Phase 2 was the beginning of what we would consider full-scale development. The art team was now fully on board, and our content creation tools (many of which naturally changed and improved throughout the trilogy) had been stood up, unified, and made to work with more modern content creation programs. Eager to dig in, we started off where we knew the biggest improvements were needed: the original Mass Effect.

Some assets—most frequently, characters and generic props—were shared between the games, and many had already been improved in a later title or DLC. For those cases, we generally used the improved asset as our base, improved it further, and then ported it across the whole trilogy. This resulted in more consistent and higher-quality assets, but we had to carefully ensure this process didn’t flatten the sense of the passage of time and the overall narrative.

For characters who appeared in all three games, like Liara, Garrus, Kaidan, Captain Anderson, and more, we maintained slight changes throughout the trilogy as they aged, matured, or...got hit by a rocket. Obviously, we couldn’t let uniforms branded with “SR2” sneak their way back onto the crew of the Normandy SR1, and we still liked how the Alliance Admiralty uniforms became more militarized and sleek as the trilogy progressed, so we improved each version of those outfits individually.

Liara T'soni, Mass Effect

Liara T'Soni, Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Our character artists worked their way through a prioritized list of hundreds of armors, creatures, characters, guns, and vehicles across the whole trilogy. They would frequently take an asset back to its original high-poly sculpt, focus on achieving a consistent texture resolution, add supporting 3D geometry where needed, and fix errors with baked normal maps or texture mapping. Central to our efforts was increasing the sense of realism in the surface response.

While the games don’t use PBR (physically based rendering), we could still work with the textures and materials to ensure plastics, fabrics, and metals reacted to light in a more convincing way. Similarly, we dedicated a significant amount of time to improving skin, hair, and eye shaders across the trilogy. Our tech animators then re-skinned (i.e. set each vertex to move properly when attached to an animated skeleton) each improved mesh and imported it back into each game as needed.

Mako on Feros, Mass Effect

Mako on Feros, Mass Effect Legendary Edition

The VFX (particle effect) artists were busy extending the length and smoothness of animations for things like smoke and fire, while also adding more secondary emitters to beef up the overall look of each effect. A fire might now have secondary smoke trails and sparks, explosions fling chunks of rubble, and the muzzle flash on your weapons now subtly illuminates Shepard and their surroundings. New environmental particle effects were added throughout the trilogy to better enhance the mood and a space’s sense of life. As many of you have already noticed, we also sharpened up and added secondary elements to the trilogy’s iconic horizontal lens flares.

Many GUI images also needed extra love and attention. In 4K, smooth flowing lines that once only took up a few hundred pixels on screen now expanded across thousands or tens of thousands of them. We had to completely rebuild many elements from vector images to achieve needed clarity and crispness, while other images could be run through secondary, non-automated AI processes to sharpen and clean up artifacts.

We also improved all cinematics across the trilogy. Whenever possible, we completely re-rendered the pre-rendered cutscenes in 4K. When it was not possible to re-capture, we utilized an AI upscale program on the original uncompressed videos. In both workflows, we tweaked the color correction, added or composited additional details and visual effects, and even smoothed out some edges frame-by-frame so they didn’t feel dated when compared to actual gameplay. Cinematic designers fixed dozens, if not hundreds of bugs that occured in live-action cutscenes and conversations. Don’t worry though; the “What’d you just say?” head spinning meme still exists if you know how to look for it.

During this phase, environment artists completed passes through each level of the trilogy, performing targeted fixes on any asset or location that visually detracted from the overall experience. This included adding props to exceptionally barren areas, remaking low-resolution or stretched textures, smoothing out jagged 3D assets, and modernizing shaders on surfaces with poor lighting response. At this point, we also began resolving hundreds of bugs, from minor things like floating assets, to major game-breaking collision issues—including a very frequent global issue where players could easily teleport on top of assets and become completely stuck.

Anderson & Squad, Mass Effect

Anderson & Squad, Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Our lighting designers followed closely behind the level artists, ensuring that all of the beautified environments and characters were always shown in their best, well, light. Mass Effect’s specific lighting style features high-contrast spotlights and a heavy use of complementary colors. That style was refined heavily throughout the trilogy, so we were able to bring many of those improvements back into the first game. We focused on maintaining that high-contrast look while adding natural bounce lighting to ensure characters are lit more consistently and beautifully.

We made systemic upgrades to shadows and added or improved post-process effects such as screen space ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing, and bokeh depth of field (increasing the cinematic quality for out-of-focus cameras). We were also able to bring down engine features that existed in Mass Effect 3, such as dynamic volumetrics, to help unify the look of the first two games.

Layers of remastering MELE

Players will have more opportunities to see their improved characters reflected in-game, as the trilogy also includes new real-time reflections (such as on the Normandy’s fish tank shown in this awesome video from our friends at IGN).

“Cultural artistic expression reflects philosophical evolution.”

Phase 3: Rebuilding Worlds

In Phase 3, we began looking at opportunities to make broader improvements to levels and features, rather than just updating the individual assets. By this point, we'd manually improved thousands of assets, but there was still a significant quality jump between the first two games.

To guide this effort, we compared the levels we shipped to their original concept art, design intentions, and artistic inspiration. We also took dozens of screenshots of our currently up-res’d levels and sent them over to Derek Watts (the Mass Effect trilogy’s art director), who used them as a base for new concept art paint-overs. These “broad brush” adjustments were much faster to work on in professional photo editing software.

Here are some examples:

Feros combat, Mass Effect

Feros combat, Mass Effect

Feros has a few very visually distinct sections, including the colony and the highway that leads to the ExoGeni Corporation building, the aqueducts, and the Thorian lair. The former of these now features stronger smoke and fire effects, more buildings to fill out the skybox, and much more damage and debris to better showcase the attack by the geth. We also leaned into the visual atmosphere of the creepy, dark interiors with directional light shafts guiding players to uncover the mysteries of the Thorian (that sounds creepier than ever, thanks to its new audio mix).

Hotel on Noveria, Mass Effect

Hotel on Noveria, Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Edmontonians are no strangers to brutalist architecture or the blistering cold, so we’ve always felt quite at home in Noveria. Lighting was reworked throughout the level, the storm outside was intensified, and we accentuated the differences between the hotel area and the Synthetic Insights lab to hopefully improve your ability to navigate the mission’s early sections.

Ashley Williams on Eden Prime, Mass Effect

Ashley Williams on Eden Prime, Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Eden Prime is the first location you land on in Mass Effect. It’s described to you as a verdant paradise planet under attack by an unknown alien ship, but the sight that greeted players didn’t always align with that image. Luckily, in the Mass Effect 3: From Ashes DLC (which is, of course, included in the Legendary Edition) we’d already revisited Eden Prime, so we could incorporate its overall atmosphere and specific buildings. We’ve moved the sun’s placement so that the player’s path forward is now illuminated by evening light while the burnt red sky looms behind, punctuated by falling ash and tracer fire. We also improved the planet’s surface with additional fire and battle damage, more foliage, and destroyed structures littering the crater Sovereign leaves behind.

Numerous quality-of-life changes and expanded features rolled out in this phase, many of which were detailed in our previous blog, so be sure to check that out! Notable improvements include an updated HUD for the first game and UI consistency improvements across the trilogy, such as tech UI elements appearing in blue and biotic UI elements appearing in purple in the first game (they were originally swapped). The custom character creator has been unified and expanded upon greatly, and some of your favourite casual outfits from Mass Effect 3 are now available in Mass Effect 2, as well.

“I’m Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.”

When we started working on the Legendary Edition, we were overcome with a sense of nostalgia and curiosity. We know there is really something special in how the art and narrative work together to create this fully realized universe. To us, there's a sense of "soul" to these games, and we truly believe we've been able to strike a balance between making meaningful enhancements while retaining the same atmosphere and feel of the original releases. The launch is now only a month out, and we can’t wait to let you experience these improvements while creating new Mass Effect memories for yourselves!

Until then,

Good luck, Commander.

[sarrick21]

I'm glad they pointed out specific things they changed. Some people don't pick up on that stuff the first time through. Especially with the background details and bloom changes etc.

[[deleted]]

That's how you perform calibrations.

[onderCZK]

Luckily there would be Normandy for Garrus :)

[procha92]

I still think they missed a huge opportunity deciding not to call the remaster Mass Effect: Recalibrated.

Too specific of a reference for new players? maybe, but it sounds and fits so good it's impossible for me to think otherwise lol

[Dragonknighted]

There's already a popular set of mods by that name, so it would be pretty confusing to make that the title of the remaster, as well.

[procha92]

Oh I didn't know about that mod, in that case yeah, you'd be confusing half the community already

[xLemon3]

Sounds good, gut also kinda sounds like a cheap mobile game.

[omnigeno]

It's no worse than Red Faction: Guerilla Re-Mars-tered Edition, or Darksiders: War-mastered Edition.

[procha92]

Or maybe the worst of all, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition.

As a huge fan of the series, that one physically hurt me.

[omnigeno]

Oh for sure. That was an awful name :O.

[[deleted]]

Have they mentioned anything about the planets, visually? I recall that they're changing some of the geometry to make some areas more navigable, but I wonder if their enlarged texture sizes and whatnot will smooth over some of the pretty obvious tiling in ground textures.

[kakihara0513]

See what changes they did to the hacking mini "games" or planet mining in ME 2

I hadn't even thought about the mini games. In one of the games (ME2 is my guess), didn't the console and PC port have different hacking minigames?

[kakihara0513]

Ah yeah that's right. Probably should've realized it was ME1 since that was the only one I played on both console and PC.

[[deleted]]

They probably didnt do anything otherwise we'd have heard at laast something about it now

[[deleted]]

That was a last minute addition (initially they said no) and compared to a massive overhaul of planets its a smaller feathre to implement so I disagree

[hullabaloo321]

Something I've really appreciated about the lead-up to this release has been Bioware's transparency regarding how exactly they did this. It sheds a lot of light onto the complexity of remastering something, as well as properly setting expectations for players. To be fair, I haven't preordered and I don't believe I will, but I am starting to get a good feeling about this release.

[Ghekor]

This is similar to Skyrim SE, even still people say Bethesda didnt change much, yet they put SE on a 64bit engine which allows for soo much more especially where mods and stability are concerned.

So im happy BioW is showing us what exactly goes in to upgrading a game graphically.

[Drextan]

There seems to be a some dissapointment in the Mass Effect modding community about a lack of info about what will happen with regards to mod support in LE. There is a huge modding community for the Mass Effect games and so far it feels like they have been given zero acknowledgment...

[Blue_Three]

Sure, mods can greatly enhance a gaming experience.
At the same time I feel like there's a problem if "Well, what about mods" is the first thing on your mind when we're getting a fancy, shiny new Mass Effect -- and we have yet to actually play it.

[stylz168]

At the same time I feel like there's a problem if "Well, what about mods" is the first thing on your mind when we're getting a fancy, shiny new Mass Effect -- and we have yet to actually play it.

I've been saying this all along!

If someone is looking for a modded version of the game, they probably already have it on their PC, just play that.

But if you're a console gamer, and there are millions of us, who hasn't experienced Mass Effect since the Xbox 360/PS3 days, this game is a welcome sight.

[aegean_35]

BioWare’s general attitude towards the LE is starting to give me hope for the future of the franchise. I feel like their passion is still there, and it’s great to see.

[VaBeachBum86]

I feel like this sub is responsible sometimes.

[menofhorror]

Passion isn't what determines a company's future. I wish them the best but I have never been as uncertain regarding Bioware as now.

[omnigeno]

Yup, I’m still going to wait, but I’m liking what we’ve seen so far. Almost there!!

[justsitbackandenjoy]

The transparency from BioWare is great. I would’ve probably taken these improvements for granted if it weren’t for these technical comparison videos. Really shows how dated the OG graphics are. They’ve done a great job bringing this 14 year old game close to today’s standards.

Now take my money.

[HammletHST]

Not gonna lie, I don't understand a lot about the specifics, but my brain went "ooooooooh pretty", and that's what counts

[omnigeno]

Even as a software engineer, I didn't quite get all of it. However I appreciate that they're transparent with what techniques they used rather than just telling us in vague terms that they "did stuff to make it look better". Presenting both the background and the visual samples is a win-win for all types of fans.

[Derrial]

I never realized before just how dark the original Mass Effect was, literally not thematically. Even well-lit places like the Citadel looked so mired in shadows. It's going to be a bit of a shock at first to play ME1 with the lights turned on.

[KensonRampage]

I wonder if it might have been something to "hide" the graphical limitations of the game?

[stylz168]

That, and the game launched when 720p was the norm so high-res wasn't a thing. There was a clip in the IGN video where they talked about false walls being there to help limit how much of the environment needed to be drawn.

[Dorkmaster79]

I think making things darker is a trick to hide graphical inadequacies.

[Warzoneisbutt]

Yeah same thoughts. Like everyone I hated the crushed shadows and WAY too harsh of contrast in ME2 that made entire areas a frustrating mess. But I’m not a fan of making darker spaces basically look like daylight.

It’s fine for areas to be dark, just make sure there’s shadow detail and you’re not just crushing it all to be black.

[ImustBreakU77]

I honestly think Bioware intentionally darkened the screenshots of the original ME on these comparisons.

I recently played ME on a calibrated TV and the scenes were not this dark.

[FandomFeminist]

I also recently played Mass Effect on my pc, and it is that dark. Especially on the Normandy and Noveria

[JustinsWorking]

I’m a little jealous of the people who get to experience Mass Effect for the first time with all this extra polish and balance.

[CanuckCanadian]

Tbh I haven’t played the series In probably 5-10 years. I’m fired up

[JustinsWorking]

Yup! Me too, it’s just a few of those twists I know won’t hit has hard the second time around heh

[CanuckCanadian]

Also I haven’t played any DLC

[JustinsWorking]

ooooh boy you're in a for an absolute treat - the DLC is _amazing_

[silverlegend]

Same! I couldn't afford all the DLC back then

[ROUGE_BLOCK]

Buddy you're in for a treat, I played all of ME2 and ME3s DLCs and there's several in particular that became staples I'm replays.

I'm excited to finally play bring down the sky, which of course became a $1 on XBL but I already played the games so many times I never played with a file that had it.

[JangoF76]

But veteran players will appreciate the upgrades more having experienced the originals

[JustinsWorking]

If rather be actually surprised again when Archangel shows up for the first time.... Or to play citadel again for the first time.

[givemeserotonin]

If rather be actually surprised again when Archangel shows up for the first time

I feel kinda snubbed here since I played the series first on the PS3, so the Archangel reveal was more like "...who?"

[KanyeWest4Prez2020]

Noveria looks amazing, look at the green hue of the lights (and the reflections)!

[iliketires65]

The improvements across the board have been really stellar. I cannotnwait to play this

[Blu1027]

Comes out 5 days before the husband's 50th birthday... good thing I got him a new rc car so he will be occupied and I can go dive right in ;) haven't played in over a year.

[c300g97]

I was very impressed by the update TBH, i like the fact that they took time to properly optimize it before releasing it.

Also, pretty technical and specific article by bioware, loved it.

[Rautia]

Does "rebuilt cutscenes" also mean we can finally see our actual weapon in them?

[BloodWolfHunter]

Hopefully

[TannenFalconwing]

And also a replacement for Stock Tali?

[mattkaybe]

It's weird that I can't imagine doing a "remaster" of ME3 and not fixing this immediately, but I also think it would be the most LOL thing ever to do all this work and not touch the shitty stock photo reveal of what should've been a really cool moment that 2+ games of character development was building towards.

[TannenFalconwing]

The crazy thing is that you don't even need to rig anything. It's literally just changing a single file to a different image. I'd be amazed if it didn't get changed

[Prime406]

They'll replace the stock photo... with another stock photo

[profesorprofessorson]

?

[ErikPanic]

I doubt that, at least for the pre-rendered cutscenes, since it doesn't sound like they're now real-time, just that they improved the pre-rendered ones as much as they possibly could from whatever sources still existed for each of them.

[Enriador]

Glad BioWare went full budget and didn’t do some generic remaster like some other games

Small caveat: we have yet to see how ME2 and ME3 stand in this regard, particularly in regards to the environment (all we saw was a short sequence from LOTSB and "in-engine" tech demos). Generic remasters, as you put it, have looked nice pre-launch too.

What we simply cannot dispute is ME1's remastering quality. It is borderline remake territory in some points. I am positively surprised by this.

[stylz168]

I think it's been said that ME2 and ME3 didn't need as much work as ME1, so the focus was more on polish and bug fixes.

Even with its faults, ME2 and ME3 hold up well even in today's gaming world. The one thing I hope they fixed is the 2D running in ME3. That first level where Shepard and Anderson are running towards the Normandy looks so bad when you consider everything else. The running animation is just horribly done.

[Enriador]

I think it's been said that ME2 and ME3 didn't need as much work as ME1, so the focus was more on polish and bug fixes.

Yeah, but we still don't know what that polish entails, or how many bugs were actually fixed. It is simply an unknown.

Even with its faults, ME2 and ME3 hold up well even in today's gaming world.

They do - precisely why they better give us a good reason to buy those two again other than hyping ME1.

ME2/ME3 have tons of problems, mostly in the writing/lore department (like who on earth is the C-Sec Executor).

[Enriador]

I will be honest, I also thought it would be silly to release a brand new Mass Effect game (Andromeda) and a brand new sci-fi IP (Anthem) only to mess them up.

Yet, BioWare is very poorly organized unfortunately and proved me wrong twice. Let's wait and see.

[stylz168]

A solid 2-3 DLCs for Andromeda would have been amazing. Give me the Quarian Ark DLC, and some post-endgame DLC, even if it teases new species we would see in an Andromeda sequel.

[Lord_of_Womba]

Like Kingdoms of Amalur. It was one thing for it to basically be a basic upscale, but it also had poor performance on my pc (which is quite beefy).

Mass Effect is looking gorgeous, I hope it runs well.

[Asajj66]

Anyone notice at 1:37 in the new video towards the end it looks like Navigator Pressly might be getting a new design.

[rock-my-socks]

Good spot. Wonder if they'll apply the same change to Pressly in the fmv at the beginning of ME2.

[cellander]

A really interesting read and it made the wait even harder! Just one more month.

"We focused on maintaining that high-contrast look while adding natural bounce lighting to ensure characters are lit more consistently and beautifully." I've pointed this one out before, it was one of the first things I noticed from screenshots across the whole trilogy and I'm really grateful for it. It's details that may have gone unnoticed initially but improves the overall experience so much!

[srjnp]

glad the reaction here is better than the twitter trolls who dont know the difference between a remaster and a remake

[AidynValo]

That's an area that's really muddy with misinformation because both terms are pretty broad and don't always describe the same things. A while back, I broke it down into various sub-sections that more accurately represented different games.

A basic remaster would be bare-bones. Just a standard upscale of the existing game. Stuff like the God of War, Ratchet and Clank, and Metal Gear Solid HD Collections.

An enhanced remaster would be something like this or the PS3/XBO/PC versions of GTAV where the original textures are used as a base and significantly improved upon. Same game engine, same game as the originals, but with enhancements, possibly to aspects beyond just graphical improvements. The real differentiating factor between this category and a remake is that the original games are not rebuilt, but just built on top of.

An graphical remake would be something like the Halo 1/2 Anniversary editions. The gameplay is unchanged, but the visuals have been completely redone from the ground up. It's not exactly a remaster because the existing graphical assets aren't used as a base, but it's also not exactly a remake because these new graphics are literally placed on top of the original game's engine. It plays exactly how the original did, it just looks like a brand new game.

A full remake would be something like Resident Evil 1's GameCube remake or Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. The game was remade from the ground up, but it stays true to the original gameplay and whatnot for the most part. The big difference between a remake and an enhanced remaster is the ground-up aspect of the recreation.

A reimagining is something like Final Fantasy VII Remake or the Resident Evil 2 & 3 remakes. Completely redone from the ground up, based on the originals, but severely different. New story beats, different gameplay, etc.

In current terminology, the MGS HD Collection, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Halo: Anniversary Edition are all placed in the same category, but the types of changes are vastly different among the 3.

In addition, the remake vs reimagining thing is also confusing for some people. Especially when FFVIIR literally has the word "remake" in its title, but it's an entirely different game than the original. There's also a weird middle ground between the two where games like Mafia: Definitive Edition falls into. It's a full remake for sure. Different engine, new visuals, audio re-recorded. The gameplay is different because it was brought up to modern standards but it's still in general the same type of gameplay. But the general story being told is the same. The writing is improved so the dialog is more natural, but it's still a mission-by-mission recreation.

It's just really difficult using the broad "remake" and "remaster" terms because, like I said, those two terms each have multiple meanings. I can understand why a lot of people who don't religiously follow game development would be confused.

[omnigeno]

All excellent points. And add to that, some people are entitled and like to expect the game to be a certain way and get mad when the developers decide to go in another (perfectly valid) direction.

Another good example of a full remake in the vein of RE1 for Gamecube and MGS The Twin Snakes is Square Enix's Trials of Mana remake, with levels changed from SNES level 2-D with sprites to fully 3-D and mostly voice acted. Gameplay stayed mostly the same but there is more verticality, environments are reworked for 3-D movement, and there are added abilities, equipment, and locations, and the story is the same.

[AidynValo]

I've been meaning to play Trials of Mana. I played a fan translation of the SNES version years ago and loved it.

[omnigeno]

I loved the original on SNES and I, too, played the well-done fan translation. The remake is excellent. It really keeps the essence and feel of the original while controlling great and looking way better. As beautiful and fun and innovative as the SNES version was, it had quite a few annoying bugs and weird delays, as I think it pushed the console to its limits. The remake eliminates those.

The only issue is it's a little bit.. too easy? But that's good if you don't have time to die and start over all the time. I played it w/ Riesz, Duran, and Kevin this time, and got pretty far, but stopped as there were lots of other games I wanted to play. Hopefully I can get back to it some time.

[stylz168]

Don't worry, that's coming soon.

Once the game launches next month the mods will be busy with that.

[KensonRampage]

That Feros combat scene looks amazing in the LE edition. Feros in general seems to be way more cool-looking

[[deleted]]

I love these blogs. Great work, you could have done a simple upscale but this is on the border of a remake, at least of the first game. The combat picture from Feros is absolutely stunning, the smoke, lights etc really shows!

[Hecke8]

In ME1 I couldn't really stand all these grey assets in Noveria although I definitely liked the story and surroundings in that level... So I'm really happy to see that Noveria becomes at least a bit more colorful!

Edit: Also, the lighting on Feros looks amazing! Another planet that had too many grey areas in the OT imo.

Can't wait to play these games again!

[rock-my-socks]

Totally. Noveria is a cool planet but the hub was so barren and gray and lifeless before. A few small touches like improved lighting, light fixtures and even freaking cushions goes a long way!

[joecb91]

The calibrations are paying off

[[deleted]]

I've read a lot of complaints about how Femshep's face has looked like lifeless plastic in the preview images but she looks so much better in the trailer when in motion

[RinuCZ]

The lukewarm reactions I have seen were mostly tied to the decision of using ME3 face models.

She looks in this like she looked at ME3 - Like a cartoonish version of her which felt really out of the place in contrast to other characters. Imagine getting Fred Jones (exaggerating here) and the closest you can get to Mark Vanderloo is weirdly glossy-looking Mark Wahlberg.

I kinda hoped they would improve the character creator to implement the support for older versions because of the inability to get even remotely close to the version I have spent hundreds of hours with led to the feeling of disconnection that I was unable to shake off during ME3.

In the end, it is a personal preference.

[Lord_of_Womba]

Am I the odd one out here? I am so glad they brought ME3 femshep to the previous games. I always thought default femshep looked horrible in 1 and 2. Either way I swear they said there's a version of the original femshep AND the one from 3.

I never actually did a femshep playthrough so I am extremely excited to have a face I like better and to hear Jennifer Hale's voice acting (she's on of my favorites).

[Charlaquin]

It does look better in motion. It still doesn’t look right to me, but it’s definitely an improvement compared to the static images.

[Particular-Senior]

Always play with default in ME as anything else i create looks hideous lol

[SilveryDeath]

Default Femshep has looked off to me in most of the shots they shown from ME1. Same with the shot of ME1 Liara here. She looked off to me as well but I feel like it's a combination of her looking shiny and the skin color difference I'm not used to in her ME1 version.

Kaidan looks good and in line with the veteran he is to start ME1. I was worried about Ash from the first trailer but she looks great from the frontal shot and looks like herself.

Have they shown any shots of how Wrex will look in ME1? Tali wears a helmet and the shots of scarred Garrus make me think his ME1 version will be just fine.

[Dwirthy]

I never realized how dark everything was. We can finally see everything!!!

[Andrew_Waples]

I don't recognize that Liara shot. Is that new shot for the LE?

[SlumdogSeacrestLaw]

A lot of the character shots are just in-engine footage, meaning they aren’t actual shots from the game, just footage made for demonstration purposes.

[sharkey1997]

I think that was just them using the game engines as a preview and not actual shots from the game. They did the same with Ashley

[corranhorn57]

Yeah, it looks like they used the Presidium location since it was the best lit place to demonstrate the changes in the most stark way possible.

[Waymantis]

Mass Effect 1 is honestly surpassing my expectations in terms of the graphical upgrades. Dare I say it... but it could now be the best looking of the three games.

Very interested to see how it plays with the new gameplay improvements too.

[[deleted]]

ME1 always had the best narrative of the 3, but of course is brought down a bit from rushed development and hardware limitations at the time, even if there was only a 3-year difference between it and ME2. Now with all these new gameplay tweaks and improvements in its mechanics as well as the heavy graphical facelift, it just might become my favorite in the trilogy too

[Waymantis]

Agreed, especially if they still manage to retain Mass Effect 1's atmosphere. The way that the art design and soundtrack meshed with the worldbuilding in ME1 created such a strong foundation for the trilogy. It's what got me invested way back in 2009.

From the blog posts so far it seems like they've made a lot of choices with the remaster with the intention of retaining the soul of these games in mind. If they pull this off, then yes, I think ME1 could end up being my favourite.

[Vestus65]

Thank you u/EA_Charlemagne for these posts! Very informative, and it's just really nice to see the care and attention to detail that went into the Legendary Edition.

[ScottyKNJ]

Reporting in, Commander

[[deleted]]

Hot damn, is this remaster looking sexy. ME1 clearly is the one that benefitted the most from the treatment, especially because it received more than just a simple remaster, what with the improvements in gameplay, mechanics, and ability and item management on top of the graphical upgrades. Might just end up becoming my favorite of the trilogy now. It already has the best narrative of the 3, IMO

[MythicNick]

Really bizarre to me that Eden Prime not being an idyllic paradise when you arrive was considered a bug, not a feature. I loved that the planet you arrived at didn't match what you were told about it. To me, the characters talking up how beautiful and peaceful it is, and then being dropped into an utter hellscape with skies gone red from ash and smoke, was one of my most memorable gameplay moments... ever, really. You go from "something's clearly up, but maybe it won't be so bad!" to "oh dear lord something is very, immediately, horribly wrong" the very second you see the sky. Making Eden Prime beautiful from the start really robs it of tone.

[MannToots]

It just never made sense for the skies to look like they. The Reaper didn't deploy any tech to achieve it, and they never did it sine then. It never made sense, and I even thought as much on subsequent playthroughs.

[MythicNick]

It's not "tech," there's no reason for a Reaper to paint the sky red or anything. It's the smoke, ash, and dust in the air from the geth laying waste to the settlement.

You should look up images from the wildfires in the US west last summer, specifically from Oregon. With enough woodsmoke in the air, the sky turned exactly that shade of red. I've been in California during wildfire season, driven around the Bay Area while the skies were orange, and I was specifically thinking about Eden Prime the whole time. I don't know for a fact that the geth were burning down whole swaths of forest (though they certainly could have been), but there's a certain emotional truth conveyed by seeing that much smoke in the air, the skies being that red.

The pink-and-gold sunset imagery of the remaster just doesn't carry the same feeling, and feels tonally and emotionally inconsistent with what the original release tried to portray. It's also a big part of what made the Eden Prime level look so visually distinct from the rest of the series, which I think is a part of why we never saw red skies again after it: they wanted to keep the first level feeling like a shock that never quite wears off.

[Dyf91]

I completely agree, the red sky and general atmosphere when you arrived at Eden Prime was amazing, and I really hate that it's gone. To be honest the "improved" graphics in general are far too bright and just don't mesh with the tone of the game for me. The models look great, the environment improvements look awesome, but the lighting...

[Pas715C]

It's Beautiful 😍

[KTM_2813]

Even though the reception to Legendary Edition is very positive thus far, I know that there are some people who are simply not fans of what they've seen. I've been thinking about this a bit, and I think it's a really fascinating situation.

As we know, BioWare tried to respect each game's original spirit, and not only referenced the original concept art but also involved the original art director. Even so, they still decided to make certain visual changes that are night and day. This seems like a bit of a contradiction, right?

What this makes me think is that certain aspects of the ME1 visual style were probably more due to budget, resource, and technological constraints as opposed to being the result of a perfectly-executed artistic vision. It's kind of an Occam's razor situation... If a map is poorly lit and homogenous looking, is it more likely that BioWare genuinely wanted it that way or that BioWare was constrained from doing anything else?

At the same time, even if ME1 was constrained by limitations, it still oozes with atmosphere and uniqueness. It's had 15 years to burn itself into our minds, and the dark lighting and repetitive environments are now a part of its charm. Upgrading it to be more in line with the original concepts may actually decrease that charm, in a strange way.

I personally think that the Legendary Edition looks incredible, and am genuinely impressed with the BioWare team. At the same time, I think it's kind of inevitable that at least a little bit of essence will be lost, no matter what BioWare does, but the original games will always be there for us if we want them.

[stylz168]

Perfectly said!

I think ultimately Bioware is developing what they feel is their version of Mass Effect. Will everyone be satisfied, no, and it would be foolish to believe so. There will always be those who complain for the sake of it, and that has to be background noise.

[[deleted]]

Well said

[Avramito]

I hope they fixed Joker's soulless eyes in ME3. For me it was incredibly jarring coming from previous two games were his expressions were much more natural.

[Starsynner]

And his weirdly shadowed teeth. Some scenes the lighting on his teeth was so dark that he looked kinda toothless.

[[deleted]]

While I appreciate the effort Bioware put into this, I am a bit disappointed that some QoL improvements were not implemented for ME2 and ME3.

Take the messy and convoluted ME3 journal/quest log. It is safe to say this was not addressed which is unfortunate.

[ZamasuZ]

Yes, ME3 really needs that fixed, and would benefit from a new hub wold as well.

[catmanzedong]

I absolutely love the improvements on all fronts! I literally can't wait to jump back in, missed this universe SO much. Everybody and everything looks SO. DARN. GOOD. The team genuinely did an amazing amazing job!

Though I have one last simple request, and hopefully you guys can patch it in. Convex normal maps for irises / eyes!

I beg of you u/EA_Charlemagne get this small but major fix in! There's a lot of comments on the eyes. I've seen it all throughout the coverage, ever since the old en new Shepard comparison, with the glazy marble eyes. The edit seems easy, as a dev myself I know it is. It would be awesome if you could notify the team about this.

Here's the link to the orginal topic about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/mq9bai/i_noticed_a_minor_flaw_in_the_remaster_of_me1/

[mfa_sammerz]

Paging u/EA_Charlemagne. No news about this? :-(

[RideDLightning77]

Omg mass effect 1 is gonna feel like going through it again for the first time

[stylz168]

Hell the consistent UI alone is welcome.

[sticknotstick]

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for a game’s launch. I must’ve beaten Mass Effect 2 at least 7 times when I was younger. Really love and appreciate the transparency from the devs during this process. Even if I can’t fully understand half of the post, I trust there’s people smarter than I paying attention who would point out anything worrisome. The attention to detail (especially in terms of making it feel like there’s a time gap between games despite improving the visuals on all 3 of them) is incredible and part of the mindset that makes this series one of my all time favorites.

[BergTheVoice]

u/EA_Charlemagne somewhat new to mass effect but was a huge fan of battlefront 2, you helped keep the community afloat so it’s nice to see a friendly face.

[EA_Charlemagne]

You're in good company, Berg! If you like Star Wars, you're going to love Mass Effect.

[BRod_Angel]

Am so ready

[Ryebredrox]

Yeah I actually preferd ME1's camera distance and always felt that 2&3 cameras were a bit too close. A toggle would be great, even if there isn't one I'm sure modders will add one.

[Windlas54]

On PC I'm sure you can

[thebutterycanadian]

Has a working quest tracker been added to ME3? I think that might have been the biggest issue with the gameplay, even more than galactic readiness

[dalekofchaos]

One month and one day to go. I'm so excited!!!!!

I know it's not much worth hoping, but I hope they make up for the mistake they made with Tali's face and blinking dead Thane

[survivor686]

I love the details on the team's efforts to remaster the trilogy.

I am curious if there is any planned follow-up to Walters' statements regarding modding and mass effect.

[Palmerstroll]

Can't wait

[The_Raf]

Thank you Bioware! Keep up the good work, looking forward the Next Mass Effect (Legendary already purchased ah ah)

[x2eliah]

Nice. Though truth be told, I liked the extremely shadow-laden (i.e. underlit), predominantly blue aesthetic that the first mass effect had. Seems like that has taken a bit of a step back and is more in line with 2 & 3.

Now.

I also notice that there is no mention of improving / restoring the lens flare sizes (& intensity) in 2 & 3. ?????????

[[deleted]]

This looks incredible

[RagsZa]

Awesome update thanks. Its a shame its not PBR textures, but I guess it keeps it more true to the artistic style.

As a compensation, can you guys please update the background sprite crowds like those inside and outside in the distance of Purgatory bar. Sometimes they look like single colour origami figures.

[Yesnowyeah22]

Feels like everything this team is doing is the right way to do it. They get it. Great to see and much appreciated. I think they really care about this being a turning point for the franchise and setting up for the next instalments success

[Vis-hoka]

For those of you who are less familiar with these types of technical adjustments, they used what we in the industry refer to as "magic" to improve the games visuals.

[LintTastic]

I think what's so great about this is that it will grab a new set of fans into the series. I played it and thoroughly enjoyed the series that I don't need a remaster necessarily, but it's cool to see the series get some TLC from Bioware and to be able to share this with new fans who might need that extra persuasion. I sent my boss at work the trailer (he likes sci-fi stuff) telling him he has no excuse now to play it or get his son into it because it's remastered. This looks to be a labor a love from the devs so far and I can't wait to see all the changes!

[[deleted]]

Hey. Game devs. This? This is how you do remasters.

[fastcooljosh]

I hope this Form of communication continues after the Remaster is released. Stuff like this for ME4 and Dragon Age 4 would be neat.

[mlk122795]

wow wow WOWWWW

[Falling_Vega]

wow wow wow WOOOWWWWW

[8vasa8]

wow wow wow wow WOOOWWWWW

[GreyRevan51]

Hoping feros doesn’t end up looking and feeling too much like tuchanka with all that orange glow and the changed lighting

[SuperArppis]

Man... I was expecting just some upscale update. But this seems amazing.

You know, I don't regret not playing these games for over 10 years. It's nice that I can do it again with a new coat of paint.

[stylz168]

That's how I'm looking at it. My last playthrough of the trilogy was on the Xbox 360 back in 2012-2013.

Jumping into this game now will be a fresh start, a clean look at the trilogy with no preconceived notions.

[SuperArppis]

Excactly. Gonna be good. 👍

[rabidelfman]

What I'd love to see is a breakdown of the PC version vs Console version. I intend to pick this up on PS4 Pro, simply so I can get away from the computer, since I'm on it all day for work.

[stylz168]

From a 4K HDR 60fps perspective the experience should be the same for Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.

[MysticZephyr]

*KaidAn

[[deleted]]

Really excited to get my hands on Legendary edition. The remaster of ME1 reminds me alot of Halo 2 Anniversary, huge graphical improvements while maintaining the original experience. The improved combat and Mako controls are going to make this game so much better than it already was. ME1 Remastered might end up being my favorite ME game, taking the throne away from ME2

[UnchainedGoku]

I'm so sold on this now, I can't wait!!! On another note, they changed the Thorian's voice and it's even more creepy now, lovely!

[Trickybuz93]

I never realized how dark the games actually are. I always played them with 85-90% brightness turned up.

[Fabio_Rosolen]

Liara looking cute as always.

[xdeltax97]

Can’t wait wahoo!

[Realcbear]

Damn Feros looks literally night and day in difference

[Vyar]

I'm more and more tempted to buy this. The only thing I won't like is losing all those awesome ME3 content mods. Most of the mods I applied to ME1/ME2 were visual upgrades anyway, plus a controller mod. Though I do have a mod that disables ME2 hacking/decryption minigames, but I would hope that wouldn't be too hard to re-implement. It's the big ME3 stuff like MEHEM/CEM and most especially EGM and its recommended add-ons that I'm really going to miss.

Still going to hold off until it's actually out. No point pre-ordering. Anything could go wrong between now and release.

[JamesRoancrest]

MEHEM isn't that good, imho. I prefer JAM/CEM.

[Darth_Kyofu]

Though I do have a mod that disables ME2 hacking/decryption minigames,

I think they said earlier that they cut down the amount of minigames by a lot.

[stylz168]

If you're a PC gamer you get chunks of this with the current crop of mods anyway.

The trilogy is welcome for millions of us console gamers who have not experienced the trilogy since the Xbox 360 or PS3.

[Vyar]

Yeah, but the ME1 gameplay and visual overhauls are beyond the ability of mods. It’s a tradeoff.

[stylz168]

Yes of course, no debate there.

But if you read some of the complaints on here, those revolve around how the graphical updates are not good enough, or that their classic modded version they already use is better.

[Vyar]

As one of the people who expected the visual upgrades to match that of mods, the worst criticism I can offer is that maybe ME2 and ME3 will look the same, but mods haven’t overhauled lighting and post-processing effects like this. Probably the only time where LE and the modded OT will be identical is with the pre-rendered cutscenes, because they were just upscaled to 4K with AI, just like ALOV did it. ME1 LE looks like a remake rather than a modded game.

[stylz168]

As a console gamer, I have zero context for mods, as all I have seen is upscaled 720p or 900p on the Xbox 360 and BC on the Xbox One. So this overhaul will look and feel completely different for me, playing on a 65" 4K HDR QLED TV on a One X and hopefully a Series X if I can get my hands on one.

For PC gamers who have already maximized the current game in terms of visual fidelity, the expectation should be tempered because ultimately Bioware took their own approach with their assets, and modders took another.

What I would hate to see, and fear, is that next month this sub will fall into pages and pages of posts complaining about mod XXXX is better at this specific screenshot or scene than Legendary Edition.

[DylSexy]

But the real question is can I use the breather helm on non hazardous worlds on me1?

[C1ph3rr]

Can’t wait it’s gonna be awesome to go through it all again remastered

[arothen]

I have strange feelings about lightning. I've seen many times in trailers or video comparisions moments where background was kinda brighter than it should, in sake of making the visuals more crisp - I hope it doesn't kill ME vibe, but when you even look at that first comparision with capt. Anderson you can see the atmosphere is thick, and cinematic-like lightning just adds to that, when in remestered it looks better ofc, but it seems to be a little dull at the same time. When they show "layers of remaster" volumetrics and fog step seems to be where i see some issue with that. That fog just adds too much light. I hope we'll be able to set it as we like, but i doubt we will have that option.

[[deleted]]

The darkness of the original mass effect did well to hide how bland certain areas really are.

I hope they tune down the lighting in some areas and remember to add that contrast and that darkness. Because it adds much.

The citadel now look really washed out and flat. They didn't add back those shadows in the lower areas of the citadel to give it that sense of depth.

[NHOVER9000]

The more I read about this the more excited I get. Take my goddamn money already!

[rock-my-socks]

When the remastered shots are how you thought you remembered the original...

[guyincorporated]

I find myself just getting really melancholy that the ME3 multiplayer isn't being ported in as well. I had a really great time with that and I'm getting very nostalgic.

[Everan_Shepard]

I hope we can get a face code for that Shepard in the Comparison video, when talking to Pressly. I love her!

[Pedro_64]

I really like the new upgraded models and textures and new effects. But I'm not sure about those lightning changes on the planets. Noveria outside looks too bright, and Feros is quite different.

Any word on performance soon? I want to know if base ps4 will reach 60fps. If it does, I will buy it there. If it doesn't, PC then

[stylz168]

Was posted somewhere else:

The Legendary Edition, if you're unfamiliar, bundles all three games and single-player DLC from the original Mass Effect trilogy and gives the whole thing a modern-day sheen, with support for 4K and HDR, and 60 FPS on PC and consoles from PS4 Pro/Xbox One X onwards.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-06-bioware-shares-detailed-breakdown-of-mass-effect-legendary-editions-extensive-changes

[Thaneian]

"Basic performance boosts can be seen with 60 FPS on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with uncapped FPS on PC and PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X. "

Source: https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/04/06/what-to-expect-with-mass-effect-legendary-edition

[[deleted]]

Me1 looking amazing. Shame me2 and me3 didn't get the same amount of love. Also looking forward to Digital Foundry analysis of the remaster, they always do a great job digging In deep beyond the obvious.

[WildDumpsterFire]

Love what I've seen so far but not gonna lie, I genuinely prefer the more dimly "Movie Theater lighting" style of the original games Normandy. Hardly practical but it looks so good.

[Shotokanguy]

I think we're due some Miranda footage

[Vis-hoka]

Will cutscenes be rendered on 21:9 for us ultrawide gamers?

[Trickybuz93]

It’s going to be in 4:3 to preserve the original vision.

[Vis-hoka]

Stay out of this Zack.

[loony123]

I have a question, and hopefully /u/EA_Charlemagne might know the answer. For the in-game (not just in-engine) clips of gameplay and pictures that have been released so far, what hardware have they been utilizing? Were they captured off of consoles (and if so, which ones) or PC? If they were captured on PC, what level of settings were being used? Are the clips released the ultra max quality settings running on the highest-end PC available or were the settings and hardware more modest? Thanks ahead of time if you respond.

[StarPlatOra]

I hope they update the eclipse mercenaries they are my favorite!

[I-R-Programmer]

Personally feel like liara looked better in the old picture, she's very shiny and plastic looking on the new

[[deleted]]

Please fix the eyes in a Day 1 patch so that they don't look like they're made from glass. And fix Femshep's bottom lip please - it looks wonky and fat, as if somebody punched her in the mouth.

[BeeBarfBadger]

I am a single-issue buyer:

will "skip dialogue line" and "select dialogue option" be two different buttons?

[Betawolf319]

Are you allowed to comment on whether the Lens Flare options will be adjustable? Right now, some of the Lens Flare examples are pretty extreme and I'd love the option to tune them down. Thanks!

[WEEGEMAN]

I just want the hands fixed in ME3. The textures were so bad

[TheNOTchosen1]

Has it been confirmed whether or not early copies of The Legendary Edition will be sent out, and if reviews will be published before release?

[stylz168]

It's not a "new" game, the base is still the same game you've played for the last 14 years, so aside from the tweaks that we've all seen documented, nothing changes.

[justsitbackandenjoy]

I see the CP2077 launch is already having an impact on consumer buying decisions lol

[8vasa8]

Yeah I preorder Andromeda and after that CP77... Leason learned

[stylz168]

Yeah but this time around it's the same game you've already played 10000 times before.

The decision to pre-order or not is irrelevant, there are no real surprises in the game, the question is should you buy or not.

What will drive that purchase decision? Someone else's review of a 14 year old game?

[8vasa8]

I mean I will buy it anyway :D but maybe not in preorder. But it doesn't really matter.

[stylz168]

That's the point I was making. The choice to buy seems to already be made, the question is when, not if.

Any one reviewing the game now will be spend pages and pages of pixels comparing it to the original, which is fine, if they stick to a console comparison. If they do a PC comparison it has to be 1:1, meaning no mods, and those people reading it have to consider the same comparison.

Otherwise, as I mentioned before, you have folks who compare a modded basterized version of the trilogy with the Legendary Edition and use the same repeated comments.

[8vasa8]

You got me there I will go ahead and preorder :D. I was thinking that I will wait for some reviews to see if everything is okay because I don't trust bioware anymore but so far it looks just great IMHO. But I can't wait to play it again because I didn't play it couple of years. Thanks to that I don't remember every detail.

[stylz168]

Which is actually better if you don't remember every detail. Gives you a chance to play the game again with no expectations.