For many fans, the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is the fulfillment of a dream: A modernized and technically refurbished Mass Effect that leaves the story and content largely untouched. But some players would have preferred a completely new edition of the entire trilogy instead. In an interview, chief developer Mac Walters explains why a remake was out of the question for him.
What is the difference between remaster and remake? A remaster is a technically and graphically improved version of a game that does not make any relevant changes to the content – for example as in Mass Effect or Diablo 2: Resurrected. A remaster continues to run on the original engine.
A remake goes even further and builds the game all over again, so to speak. Often new or changed content and a new engine await you here. Resident Evil 2 and Mafia, for example, have received remakes, Gothic is also to be completely reissued.
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Mass Effect: Legendary Edition im Test
Why Mass Effect didn’t get a remake
Walters explains in an interview that it there was definitely a discussion in the studiowhether Mass Effect gets a remaster or a remake. But it didn’t take long to come to an agreement:
“I can explain to you what we were thinking. First of all: ME2 and ME3 are still really good games today. The second part is one of the best rated games ever. We looked at them and said why should we make new?”
For the first Mass Effect, however, the developers had to think more carefully. The game was released in 2007 for the Xbox and in 2008 also on PC and PS3. Accordingly, it was also noticeably older than the successor:
“With Part 1, on the other hand, okay, you can argue that you could do that. But we developed all three games as a trilogy on the same engine, the same platforms, how do you re-create one and avoids making it feel like a foreign body? “
For Walters, the rough edges are doing the job the charm of Mass Effect 1 out:
“There are all these weird little things and stuff. Some of it is the magic. It’s not always just the things that we got right that people like. Sometimes it’s the things that we were a little off about but then it becomes adorable. “
Exactly this desire to keep the magic of Mass Effect should also be the reason why you can still drive the Mako with the old controls (if you want to do it to yourself). Or why you can skip the long elevator rides, but don’t have to. In 13 years a Citadel-sized mountain of nostalgia has built up among many players – and too many changes could have alienated the developers from these players.
“The magic was already there, we just wanted to make sure that it could really shine through,” summarizes Walters. Incidentally, when asked, he was not elicited about the future of Mass Effect. You can watch the complete interview with Electric Playground here on Youtube:
Link to YouTube content
Incidentally, the newly released trilogy is not entirely unchanged: Tali fans in particular should fulfill a long-cherished wish. You can find out how well the remaster is running with all the graphics improvements in our technology check.
