Meanwhile, Saren is a strong villain who comes across as both a monstrous traitor and at times somewhat sympathetic. It’s legitimately tough to decide which two characters to take with me on each mission because I want to hear how they’ll interact. Wrex, Liara, Tali, and Garrus’ personalities come through strongly in their voice acting and dialogue, like when Garrus needs to be talked down from his shoot-the-hostages style of law enforcement. To be fair, there’s nothing terribly wrong with your human crewmates, Kaiden and Ashley – they just pale in comparison to the four aliens who’ve earned their reputation as some of the best companions in RPG history.

The story of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy working to stop the rogue Specter Saren from jumpstarting an ancient cycle of galactic genocide hasn’t missed a step in the past 14 years, and neither have its unforgettable alien companion characters.

(The new photo mode is a nice addition, though I don’t know if the original Mass Effect – even after its 4K upgrade – is a good-enough looking game to inspire a lot of photographers who could just as easily be practicing their craft in a game that originated in this decade.) However, the nice thing about aliens is that they’re immune to the uncanny valley effect because for all we know that’s how their faces are supposed to look – so they mostly look excellent. It’s not terrible but it definitely stands out next to current games. Sometimes those eyes have an uncomfortable, unblinking gaze.

In contrast to their detailed and well-lit skin, a lot of human characters look like their faces are paralyzed between their upper lip and their eyes. Its biggest weakness – visually – is its facial animations, which are hard to ignore considering how much you see of them. (I played on Xbox Series X.) Environments are a tad on the sparse side when it comes to how spread out everything is, but textures are sharp and detailed and the lighting effects look respectably modern. In general, Mass Effect looks good at 4K.

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