“Mass Effect Legendary Edition,” is the collection of the original “Mass Effect” trilogy from the video game company, BioWare. 

The series follows Commander Shepard and their ever-expanding crew of aliens and humans on their mission to save all life in the galaxy from the Reapers, a race of sentient spaceship-sized robots. Instead of completely rebuilding the series from the ground up, which would be a remake (like “Final Fantasy 7 Remake”), BioWare elected to remaster the games, sharpening the visuals, partially redesigning some environments and textures, bringing the gameplay up to the now standard 4K at 60 frames per second, as well as adding some quality-of-life improvements. 

All enticing modernizations, and yet, while playing, I was immediately struck by how old the game felt, particularly during cutscenes, where characters initially came across as lifeless and slightly creepy. The RPG elements felt intimidating, having to manage the weapons loadout and skill tree of not just my character, but also individually for the entire crew that I went on missions with. When all of that was included with the resources you must keep track of for upgrades, it seemed like it was going to be a daunting and unenjoyable experience. 

However, before long, I found myself swept up in the staggering scale and epic nature of the story being told, that was being grounded by the characters aboard my spacecraft that I quickly grew to love. I also soon came to realize how truly customizable the player’s experience is, as this is a story where the player’s choices truly matter. The general story progression will be mostly the same for each player, but the magic of “Mass Effect” is that your character and decisions will carry over between Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 with serious ramifications, determining which characters live to see the sequels, how large portions of the story play out, and even how your Shepard is treated by other characters. Taking time to consider how many different possibilities there are for nearly every single moment in this franchise was quite shocking, and only further engaged me with the narrative that I genuinely felt I had a hand in developing. The characters and the story are what these games are about. When taken into consideration with the easily enjoyable combat, the few shortcomings can be almost completely forgotten.