Recently, BioWare (or rather the EA studio calling itself BioWare) announced Mass Effect Legendary Edition. As of spring 2021, fans will be able to enjoy remastered versions of all three games on current-gen consoles. It’s something that many fans have been asking for for a long time, and I’m happy they’ll be able to enjoy the games again. As a former Mass Effect fan, I feel as though I should be happy about this to, but instead I feel conflicted.

I call myself a “former” Mass Effect fan, because that’s what Mass Effect has become for me: past tense. It’s something that I used to enjoy and now no longer do. I don’t mean to say that I’ve grown to dislike the Mass Effect series, not at all. I still hold a fondness for the games and characters I with which I spent my final years as a student. Since then though, I’ve felt no compulsion to return to them; none whatsoever. I’ve not wanted to relive even a moment of Commander Shepard’s adventures or spend so much as another moment talking with previously beloved characters like Garrus and Tali. It’s been years, and I still can’t wrap my head around why that is. I used to absolutely love these games! I was fully invested in them, even thinking of myself as a diehard fan who could never get enough of the world and characters they contained. And then, one day I…wasn’t. In what felt like the blink of an eye, I went from super-fan to passively interested. And I still don’t fully understand why.

I’m sure part of the reason can be found in the ending to Mass Effect 3. I, like many, was thoroughly disappointed by it and found myself feeling rather betrayed by BioWare and the story in which I had been so deeply invested. For awhile, I thought this was the source, but now I’m not so sure. Now, I’m thinking it’s also because the trilogy had an ending at all. Disappointing though it was, Commander Shepard’s story ended pretty definitively in Mass Effect 3, and there wasn’t really anything left to explore in that world. It was over; it was time to move on, so I did. Even so, I still wonder if I’d legitimately be able to enjoy the games again if I ever did find the stomach to start them up.

So here we are, eight years (and counting) from my last experience with the original games. I’ve been convinced that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them ever again, and soon I’ll have a great chance to test that idea. Will it prove true? Will I be unable to make it even a few hours into the original Mass Effect, or will my supposition be wrong and be replaced with the wonderful, elusive feeling of coming home again at long last? I guess there’s only one way to find out.

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Will you be getting the remastered Mass Effect games? Do you think you’ll have any difficulty enjoying them again after so many years?

Lede image is official promotional art