There’s no denying that Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a rock-solid way to experience the original Mass Effect trilogy. The 2021 bundle includes all three Shepard-led Mass Effect games, complete with (almost) all their DLC and enhanced with sharpened visuals, audio, and performance, plus a slew of quality-of-life improvements and new features that are nothing but positive.
It’s good that there’s an easy and reliable way to play the Mass Effect trilogy, not just for the obvious reasons, but also because Mass Effect 5 has officially been canceled, and BioWare shuttered alongside it. For many gamers, myself included, this is tragic news, as it means the definitive end of Mass Effect, at least for the foreseeable future. With the last Mass Effect game, 2017’s Mass Effect Andromeda, leaving a sour taste in players’ mouths, it’s devastating to know that the series won’t get its chance to redeem itself. Unfortunately, while Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is, as I said, a great way to play the original ME trilogy, it’s not actually definitive, nor is it complete, and forces beyond EA’s control have come together to rectify this.
Mass Effect 3 Is Getting Its Multiplayer Back, Courtesy of Modders
ME3Tweaks is the name of a Mass Effect modding group which gained prominence through a series of much-needed mods for Mass Effect 3, including one that reprises the Pinnacle Station DLC: the ME3Tweaks team was able to recreate this Mass Effect 1 expansion, which had been lost due to corrupted source code, inside Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. More recently, the modding collective has turned its attention to the multiplayer mode of Mass Effect 3, which was left on the cutting room floor for the Legendary Edition. According to modder Audemus (via PC Gamer):
“[The mod is] not just a ME3MP port but rather an extensive remaster of the experience. This includes new features like bringing forward [Legendary Edition‘s] native features like controller support/HDR, overhauled UI, rebaked level lighting, upscaled/redrawn textures, upgraded shaders, improved networking/server replication, extensive bug fixes, new gameplay modes, and a stable format for future mod support and easy installation/compatibility.”
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Significantly, it would appear that ME3Tweaks has greater ambitions than merely reinstating the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. The original rendition of this mode, while perhaps looked upon more fondly in hindsight (it wasn’t exactly changing the world in 2012), is quite terrific, and an unexpected highlight of the third Mass Effect, so it makes sense that audiences would want to see it come back. But the “extensive remaster” that Audemus describes above is much more enticing.
The original Mass Effect 3 multiplayer is composed of a variety of different cooperative PvE modes, wherein players must work together to complete tasks while fighting off enemy hordes. It’s a straightforward but thoroughly addictive co-op sandbox that was ahead of its time in many ways, both good and bad. Indeed, while some of Mass Effect 3‘s better multiplayer and progression features would weave their way into more impactful looter-shooters like The Division, so too would its negative aspects, namely microtransactions. It’s often overlooked, but Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer was one of the progenitors of the loot box trend.
Rather than simply being a walk down memory lane, ME3Tweaks’ Mass Effect 3 multiplayer revival aims to be an actual improvement, reintroducing the mode in a better light. This will mean no microtransactions, naturally, but could also lead to other improvements. For example, the official Mass Effect 3 multiplayer doesn’t have PvP at all; perhaps the ME3Tweaks version will feature such player-versus-player action, making for a radically distinct experience within a decade-plus-old game.
ME3Tweaks’ Efforts Send an Interesting Message About Modern Game Development
In theory, mods are meant to be addendums to a game, unofficial tweaks or additions that are made just for fun. Of course, we all know that that’s not really how many mods operate in practice. In reality, there are countless mods designed with the express intent of improving abject flaws in the vanilla version of a game, whether that be unofficial patches for bugs and performance issues ignored by developers, or changes to wildly unpopular design choices.
In the case of ME3Tweaks’ multiplayer mod, we see how the modding community is able to deliver in a way that, astonishingly, the multi-billion-dollar EA hasn’t. Most gamers didn’t much care about the omission of ME3‘s multiplayer in the Legendary Edition—this is famously a single-player franchise, after all—but it nevertheless indicates a bit of short-changing. As ME3Tweaks proves, and with far fewer resources than EA, it’s possible to make ME3‘s multiplayer not only playable in 2026, but also potentially improved. It’s disappointing to know that the gamers may have to continue to rely on the modding community for these sorts of things, but also comforting that this community exists in the first place.
- Released
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May 14, 2021
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Electronic Arts
