BioWare held a private presentation of Mass Effect Legendary Edition - a remaster of the legendary trilogy about the journeys of Captain Shepard and his crew with improved visuals, ultra-high resolution and increased frame rate. We tell you more in the article.
Special guests at the presentation were: Mac Walters - Mass Effect project manager, who participated in writing the scripts for the trilogy online games from the studio Friv2Online; BioWare producer Crystal McCord, who will replace Melanie Faulkner in the Legendary Edition team; and character director Kevin Meek, who works in tandem with artists and programmers on visual effects and animations.
Mac Walters said that for years after the trilogy was completed, colleagues would periodically discuss in meetings what the friv game might look like today. This continued until 2019, when they finally decided to officially start work on the remaster. Walters admitted that it was an incredibly exciting journey back in time for him, and he's thrilled that fans of the series will be able to share those experiences with the BioWare team.
"You know, after developing a game and working on patches for a long time, there comes a point one day where you have to let it go and move on and create something new. But our team was lucky, and after finishing the first part, we moved on to the second, and then the third, and in the end we were able to realize everything we had in mind. And now to go back to the beginning with all that experience under my belt and do it all over again is like a precious dream come true for me," Walters said.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be an all-in-one edition with a new download interface from where players will be able to launch any of the installments of the franchise. The collection will include 15 DLC with story content (new stories, characters and planets), 11 armor and weapon add-ons and 15 promo packs. On Xbox ONE X and PS4 Pro, as well as next-gen consoles, the friv game will run at 60 fps frame rate, and on PC will support ultra-wide 21:9 resolution.
"We've also tried to incorporate fan requests for tweaks to certain mechanics like faster elevators, reduced load times, improvements to the Mako combat rover and a number of gameplay features. And for players who see Shepard in their own way, we've greatly improved the character editor, adding hairstyles, skin tones, cosmetics and new options so they can create an even more unique character," Crystal said.
If you ask anyone who played the original Mass Effect what they remember most, they'll tell you about the stories, the relationships between characters, the decisions Shepard made. Someone will remember the first time they were on the icy planet of Noveria or walked through the ring of the Presidium. According to Kevin Meek, the main value of Mass Effect lies in its realization, in the integrity of the concept of the world, which was achieved thanks to the coordinated work of talented artists, designers and scriptwriters.
"For us it is important that the player, running a modern console or PC, sitting in front of a 4K HDR TV, to get the same emotions that were once felt by the pioneers of the trilogy. That's why, while working on visual improvements, adding all new effects to the friv game, we primarily made sure to keep the authenticity of the original Mass Effect," said Kevin Meek.
In a series of videos showing the main graphical changes, we were shown a large-scale redesign of characters and locations. Faces, costumes and weapons of heroes and NPCs received modern textures and improved detail. The developers changed lighting, rethought colors, redrew hair meshes, added new shaders for eyes and hairstyles, and much more.
The fact that the appearance of the characters players meet throughout the trilogy was slightly different in each installment was not overlooked. Some changes were dictated by technical advancements, while others were justified by lore. Working on the outfit and appearance of the characters, the Legendary Edition team tried to smooth out the graphical differences, while maintaining historically grounded changes.
An important role in the redesign of appearance and environments was played by additional effects added by the developers in all parts of Legendary Edition. The games received 4K assets, transformed dynamic range and color gamut, volumetric rays and haze, depth of field (Depth of Field), glow (Bloom), as well as subsurface scattering and background shading (Ambient occlusion) effects. Together these improvements significantly transform the picture, add depth to cut-scenes and backgrounds, favorably emphasizing the atmosphere of the game.
Speaking about the soft redesign of locations (according to the developers' idea, the friv game should look modern, but the models and textures of the original will be taken as a basis), Kevin gave as an example a picture of Eden Prime, made after the first approach of the game-makers to the finalization of Mass Effect territories. He pointed out the updated cliffs and high-quality surface textures, but the team came to the conclusion that the location could be improved even more if they supplemented the picture with reasonable adjustments.
"When you land on Eden Prime, the sun is out of sight and it continues like that throughout the level. It's a green planet under attack, and the gloomy morass that fills the horizon doesn't evoke the proper emotional response. So we decided to move the sun to the foreground, and thanks to the effects that immediately played with the new light source, the surrounding landscape gained the necessary depth and was filled with life," said Kevin.
Thus, smoke appeared on Eden Prime, scattering the yellow rays of sunlight. A hazy haze drifted across the planet's surface, with numerous pieces of debris scattered about. Some of them are still burning, and the wind carries the black ash into the newly painted sky - the developers realized the levels of the friv game as they would do today, based on the capabilities of modern systems and technology.
Toward the end, Crystal McCord briefly demonstrated some gameplay improvements. In particular, she showed the accelerated elevator in the Citadel, the process of developing the aim-assist for the first part of Mass Effect and the shooting range, where the updated balance of most firearms is being tested.
In addition, the studio is working on improving the AI of enemies, targeting system and squad management model. Boss battles will become more interesting, the camera will become smoother, and the amount of experience points received before reaching level 60 will be rebalanced. And this is only a small part of the improvements, which the Legendary Edition team is currently working on.
System requirements for the MS version are as follows:
The enhanced Mass Effect trilogy with all add-ons and weapon builds will be released on May 14, 2021 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, and will eventually receive an update for Xbox Series X | S and PlayStation 5.