Mass Effect Legendary Edition's Mako Lets You Toggle Original Controls, In Case You Hate Yourself

The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition makes a ton of changes to the original trilogy, particularly to the first one since it hasn't aged quite as gracefully as the others. But for purists and/or masochists, you can still cling to one piece of the original if you so choose: the Mako. The crappy, crappy Mako.

"For those people out there who do like pain, we've left the option to leave it back kind of closer to the original controls as well if you want," environment director Kevin Meek told PC Gamer. Project director Mac Walters added that you can toggle it back and forth, in case you want to experiment with the original.

Those who didn't play the original may not realize that the Mako was particularly divisive. While Mass Effect was lauded as a huge achievement in BioWare's RPG oeuvre, it was clear that vehicle design was not exactly its strong suit. Imagine trying to pilot a homemade boxcar racer through a swimming pool. So it was an obvious place for BioWare to modernize and refine, but if you love a challenge you can still switch it back.

The original Mass Effect has been changed to work a bit more like its sequels in general, which refined the shooter controls and made the RPG stat-infused randomness less front-and-center. That means your squad will control more like Mass Effect 2, so you can more easily manage your teammates. The inventory system also received a rework, and some old animation bugs have been smoothed over. The trilogy features a universal character creator including a more unified look for the default "FemShep"--the female version of the protagonist, Shepard.

The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on Friday, May 14. It will be backwards compatible on PS5 and Xbox Series X, which should result in faster load times and higher resolutions. Check out our Mass Effect Legendary Edition preorder guide for more details.