Fans of the Mass Effect franchise have eagerly been awaiting an official announcement from Bioware about the release of the remastered original trilogy, tentatively called the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. With hopes for an N7 Day release, or at the very least confirmation of its inevitable arrival, the company has remained tight-lipped about the project.
As rumors continue to circulate about the remastered edition, rumors continue to swirl about the release. If the latest rumors are to be believed, Mass Effect fans should put away hopes for a 2020 release, as EA doesn't feel that at least one part the trilogy is quite ready for a release.
Fans of the franchise can all agree that despite the overall trilogy's re-playability, Mass Effect 1 is not in a great place when compared to the games that followed it. Awkward graphics, menus and controls in the first game make for an experience many gamers suffer through to achieve certain story arcs before launching into the rest of the series. At this time, it would seem there is still much work to be done on that first game to remaster and remake it into something that can stand beside its companion games.
Ensuring that the first game is truly glorious will not only satisfy longtime fans of the franchise, but it's necessary to lure in a whole new generation of Command Shepards ready to take on the Reapers and save the galaxy. Poor quality and lack of attention to the upgrades Mass Effect requires could deter new and old players alike from taking a chance on the second and third games in the trilogy, tanking the project entirely.
One can only hope EA and Bioware learned a valuable lesson after the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, which arrived on the scene with a host of negative fan feedback before it even had a chance to make it to market. Complaints about how rushed the game felt, how glitchy and buggy it was and how underdeveloped the story was have tainted the game for numerous players. Many fans didn't even give Andromeda a proper chance because they'd heard so many bad things about it from trusted online gamers and reviewers who got to preview it before release.
Andromeda's poor reception did a lot of damage to the franchise overall, with Bioware taking downloadable content for the game off the table and pushing any future games in the franchise indefinitely to the backburner. Many fans made it abundantly clear that the only way they'd ever give Mass Effect another chance was if Bioware brought back the game's iconic hero: Commander Shepard.
The endings of the original trilogy did not offer much promise for a Shepard resurrection unless the developers found some way to go back in time to Shepard's early career. Realistically, it wouldn't be the same, but there is hope that a full remaster of the games that drew fans in originally could stoke the fire for the franchise's future again.
While it would have been ideal to release the Mass Effect Legendary Edition in conjunction with new consoles later this fall, the fact that EA and Bioware are taking their time to get this project right inspires hope. As much as fans want a remaster now so they can dive back into the stars with the crew of the Normandy, waiting until 2021 for a chance to save the galaxy again with pristine graphics and more navigable menus is undoubtedly worth it.
All that's left is waiting for an official announcement from the company confirming the news that has fans eagerly on edge. Perhaps there is still something to look forward to this N7 Day after all, but it certainly won't be the remastered game everyone is hoping for.