About the Game

The well-loved and popular games are action RPGs (role-playing games) in which the player takes on the third-person persona of Commander Shephard. Shephard is a unique galactic soldier whose aim is to unite the galactic community against the enemies. The overarching enemies are synthetic-organic star-ships known as ‘Reapers’.

Each game has a unique take on how the Reapers enact their evil plan, and the three main games form one long and immersive saga to play through.

Shephard is fully customisable, even to his state of morality, and all these customising decisions affect the outcomes of the game. Or rather, games, as decisions made in the first game are carried through, in this legendary edition, into the second and onwards into the third game too. Read on for more info.

The Nitty Gritty

The legendary edition allows you to treat all three games as chapters of the same narrative and this means that you will carry across your inventory, any characters you have customised already – and you will also have to deal with the consequences of your former actions.

The female version Commander Shephard, which was originally only available in Mass Effect 3, is now available in this edition to be played in all of the games. One loss has been the multiplayer mode – the developers say that upgrading multiplayer mode for all three games would have just been too expensive, time-consuming and would have diverted resources from their dream of a single release of all three games as one cohesive story-arc.

But what is included is impressive. You get the single-player modes from all three games, along with a very sizeable proportion – over 40! – of the DLCs (single-player, of course) that have been released over the years. There are compensations for the loss of Multiplayer Mode, such as the improvements to the Galactic Readiness balance, and the inclusion of the brand new Photo Mode.

Games Recap

• Mass Effect: In this, the first game, you join Shephard in his battle to stop the Spectre Saren Arterius from leading an army of sentient machines, called the Geth, to conquer the galaxy. Shephard’s overarching mission is peppered with character interactions with his team and the realisation that the Reapers form a far greater threat than the Geth. Saren is actually in thrall to the Reapers, an early part of their nefarious plan to wipe out all organic life

• Mass Effect 2: Occurs 2 years after the end of the first game. Human settlements are vanishing and Shephard forms an uneasy alliance with the human-friendly Cerberus, a paramilitary organisation. Together they uncover the Collectors, insectile humanoids of advanced intelligence. When they discover that the Collectors are working for the Reapers, Shephard sets off on what should be a suicide mission with hand-picked group of comrades

• Mass Effect 3: The Reapers finally arrive in person and begin their cull of humanity. Shephard, forced into fleeing Earth when the Reapers attack, summons all available galactic help to make a last stand, not only to save the Earth in the here and now, but to break the Reapers’ millions-year-long cycles of destruction for once and for all

Again, do remember that decisions made in the previous games will affect gameplay in the following games, so bad choices in the first game can impact your final battle with the Reapers, when you get there!

Mass Effect Legendary Edition for PC is available for purchase on Instant Gaming for a fraction of its retail price. You will receive an official key and be able to play the game in seconds. Play smart. Pay less.