The combat's definitely better thanks to that freedom, though the AI is rough. Though you pick your face, class, and background, you're always official space badass Commander Shepard of the Normandy-a ship conveniently sized for jogging around talking to NPCs between missions-and every questline planet you land on is another episode of your own TV show. ME1 is best when it's about stepping off your spaceship into a sci-fi short story with a gun and a conveniently invisible tool for translating alien languages. ME1 promises the full space captain experience, and then makes you regularly check in with a shopkeeper in your ship to make sure you don't fall behind the gear curve. Over in camp two, ME1 is seen as a bit clumsy, both because of the controls-particularly the Mako, a tank that flips on its back like a turtle eager to be used in a Voight-Kampff test-and the way it clings to design elements that don't fit the kind of story it's telling. For a broader look, we've also published a technical analysis of the entire Legendary Edition.
Despite that, we decided that reviewing just the first game, which got the biggest overhaul, would be more useful than reviewing all three at once. It's sold as a package, and you can't buy the remasters individually. Mass Effect Legendary Edition includes remastered versions of Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3, plus most of the DLC.
