Mass Effect Legendary Edition Will Remove Gratuitous Camera Angles

Now that the curtain has finally lifted on Bioware’s Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the team behind the anticipated project is free to discuss what it actually contains and what changes were made to the three modern classic games that are part of the bundle. That includes changes to a few things that haven’t aged too well, and as especially seen in Mass Effect 2, one of these is unquestionably certain gratuitous camera angles involving Miranda. That said, other ones are less obvious but still worth changing, and in a new interview with Metro, Project Director Mac Walters and Character and Environment Director Kevin Meek discussed these changes and why they were made.

Certain things couldn’t be changed from their original form, though thankfully the camera could be changed to help compensate for that. “And then specifically around the animations, we couldn’t really change a lot of those, but there were times where you could change the camera to not focus on one of those animations,” Meek said. “So a male Shepherd animation would have him sitting with his legs quite wide open with a low camera where, if you were wearing a skirt, it would be a bit unflattering. So we can’t necessarily change that animation, but you can raise that camera up slightly to reduce the problem”.

The question of changing an entire character model was raised, specifically in instances like EDI’s robot form or pretty much any of the Asari, were concerned. “I do think a lot of things have evolved since [the original games] but I don’t know if I would say we were ultra-concerned about it or anything like that, but there were considerations,” Walters said.

They did decide to change camera angles that were simply gratuitous though. “Kevin actually called out some camera cuts that were just… why was that focusing on Miranda’s butt? So in some cases we said, ‘Okay, we can make a change there’. But ultimately, to change an entire character model or something like that wasn’t really… it was a decision that was made as part of many creative decisions and just showing it at the best possible fidelity that we could going forward is really the choice for all of the art that we had,” Walters said.

You can find the official description for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition below.

“One person is all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat it’s ever faced. Relive the legend of Commander Shepard in the highly acclaimed Mass Effect trilogy with the Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition. Includes single-player base content and over 40 DLC from Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 games, including promo weapons, armors and packs — remastered and optimized for 4K Ultra HD.

Experience an amazingly rich and detailed universe where your decisions have profound consequences on the action and the outcome.”

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition releases on May 14th.

Do you think they made the right call on the changes so far? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things Mass Effect with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!