This is one of those games that I wasn't overly impressed with at launch, and a list of problems a mile long. It was poorly optimized, the gameplay wasn't as fluid and it simply landed up not feeling as good as the sum of all its parts.

Fast forward to today, and I can gladly (and proudly) say that CD Projekt Red listened to feedback. They went back and poured their heart into this game, and made it good. They took away a lot of the clunky feelings to the game and made it into a fun smash em rpg. I found myself very enthralled with the world, connected to the characters, and absolutely loved the absolute attention to detail they put into both the game and the subsequent anime that followed. They literally have locations you see in the anime, in the game. (Sidenote: if you like the game the anime is a must.)

This is one of the few games that pushes my rig to it's limits. So make sure you have a good pc to get the best experience from it. I have an RTX3090 and get around 60 fps with most details turned on. Which is playable but does show how this game will take a relatively newer gpu to really get the perfomance you need to play optimally. It is beautiful scenery when you can play with it on higher settings, so this is one of those games that I lean towards quality graphics over FPS.

As far as story goes, I love that you can start off with a little variation and really build up your characters background a little. I haven't beaten the entire game yet, but know that it has not disappointed in any way on this front. Even the side quests are fun and feel impactful. Its not just the same quests over and over, and there is a lot of variety here.

I consider this game a must play now that they've done the hard work to make it right.

Don't let my low play time on Steam reflect my actual gametime. I've played and bought this game on multiple platforms. I've completed this at least 10 times from start to finish.

So when Bioware decided it was time to Remaster? I was all in.

So what do you get compared to the original? The real big differences are in ME1. Gameplay was smoothed out a lot more and refined. Some more forgiving combat options like being able to use any weapon regardless of class or skill really helps on some missions. The biggest thing that is missing here is the lack of the Combat Arena DLC that was on the original Xbox, which isn't very good or refined anyway. Maybe some more weapons for ME1 itself but not enough to miss it.

What really annoys me is that they really didn't do any refinement on the other 2 games at all. The only real thing I can notice is better reflections in some areas (like mirrors) and the game sounds must have had a pass as well. Audio stands out better in the Legendary Edition. You can hear a lot of detail with a pair of headphones not previously as noticeable. (Like announcements on the Citadel for example.)

The games are more like a trilogy now that the character creation is more universal and can carry the same model through out the trilogy. Which is something they never thought of originally.

As for the game and story? I really don't want to say too much because this is one of those games you must play and experience first hand for yourself. The choices, the characters, and the journey itself are just top notch. You'll find yourself having to play the game multiple times to really get a good perspective of the entire story. It's just that good!

In the Mass Effect fan community you always hear how you'd love to go back and experience this game for the first time again, and I think that sums how I feel about it overall. It just leaves a huge impact on you that you'll never really forget.