Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a gift- it’s a gift for fans of the series who want to jump back into its magical interstellar journey, but it’s also a gift for newcomers who want to see what the fuss is all about. And if you’re one such player and are preparing to begin your galactic journey, this feature might come in handy for you. Here, we’re going to go over a few basic tips and tricks that, if you’re new to the Mass Effect series, you should keep in mind.
PARAGON AND RENEGADE
The Mass Effect trilogy launched before before binary choices became a no-fly zone for video games, so often, you’ll be making decisions based on whether you want your Commander Shepard to be a good cop or a band cop- paragon or renegade? Whatever you decide, it’s a good idea to stay in one lane as often as you can. Of course, every so often, you might want to make dialogue choices based on what seems right based on the situation you’re in, but how much paragon or renegade points you have will often dictate whether or not crucial choices later on are open to you, so as much as you can, you should stick to whichever of those two you’ve chosen as your preferred choice.
CHARM AND INTIMIDATE
Mass Effect 1 is way more of an RPG than its successors, and while you’re investing your skill points into different categories into levelling up, the ones you should prioritize more than the others are the charm and intimidate categories. Not only will these result in bonuses such as discounts at vendors, they’ll also let you select special options down the line that wouldn’t be available otherwise- so keep this in mind.
SPEAK WITH YOUR CREW REGULARLY
This is something you should keep in mind throughout the entire trilogy.. After every major mission, after every important narrative development, make sure that you spend some time on the Normandy to speak with all of your crewmates and squadmates. In addition to giving you additional dialogue options that result in more backstory, world building, and character development, some of these might even open up new side missions. Speaking of which…
SIDE MISSIONS
This should go without saying in any game, especially in an RPG- but do not skip the side missions. You might be tempted to ignore the assignments in Mass Effect 1, for instance, but it’s highly recommended that you track these down rather than skipping straight to the next story mission. They give you valuable XL and paragon or renegade points, but more importantly, some of these will also ask you to make decisions that come into play later on in the story.
LOYALTY MISSIONS
As any Mass Effect fan will tell you, the Loyalty Missions are the heart and soul of Mass Effect 2. On paper, these are side missions, but really, these missions are what Mass Effect 2 are really about. Not only do they let you learn so much more about your squadmates and what makes them tick, they also have a huge role to play in determining who lives and who dies by the time the credits tole in Mass Effect 2– so, you know, do not under any circumstances ignore these missions.
CLASSES
Again, this is fundamental advice for anyone who’s playing any RPG- but when you’re preparing to begin your journey in Mass Effect 1 (or whichever game you start out with), choose your class carefully. Want to be an all-out attack kind of player? Want to focus more on biotics than traditional firearms? Want to focus more on tech than any other discipline? There’s a class for each of those, and classes that mix and match, so pay attention when you choose your starting class.
WEAPON SPECIALIZATIONS
While the original Mass Effect 1 had class-based restrictions on weapon type usage, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition lets you use whatever weapon type you want regardless of which class you pick. Weapon specializations are still class specific, of course, so that’s still worth keeping in mind while investing points after levelling up. But if you’re, say, a Vanguard, but you feel like using assault rifles instead of sticking with pistols and shotguns- well, you’re completely free to do so now.
SQUADMATE ABILITIES
This is something that will pertain mostly to your ME1 playthrough while playing Mass Effect 1. Legendary Edition has made a few tweaks and changes, and thanks to them, you now also have more control over what abilities your squadmates use during combat. While this might not be something that you’ll be too concerned about on easier difficulties, if you’re playing on harder difficulties (or even on normal in some of the boss fights or more challenging combat encounters), you’ll want to make full use of your squadmates’ abilities as well.
DECRYPTION
All too often, you will run across lockers and safes that will require you to run decryption on them if you want to open them up. For situations such as these, you are going to want to have good tech skills or at least somebody in your active team who has those skins- like Tali, for instance. These lockers often have useful items or gear, so any time you’re heading out on missions, make sure you have at least one member in your team who can easily decrypt locked safes and lockers.
JUNK
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has made a lot of small but important tweaks and improvements to the original games, especially where the first game is concerned. For instance, several improvements have been made to the user interface. For instance, you can now mark several items, weapons, and armour as junk and then sell all of these together at vendors in case you don’t need them, or even convert them to Omni-gel. It’s not a huge change, but it comes in handy and saves precious seconds, so keep this one in mind.
GEAR
Mass Effect, ME1 in particular, will give you several improvements and upgrades for your armour. And this should really go without saying, but you should keep checking your equipment, and the equipment of all of your squad mates, and make sure that the best possible upgrades have been applied to your Armour and your weapons. These can come in really handy in some of the tougher fights throughout the game, so make sure you keep checking back to ensure that you have the best possible upgrades equipped for your armour.
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