Differences between Mass Effect and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

This is a list of changes made to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition over the original Mass Effect video game.

General

 * Achievements have now been rebalanced to be easier and more consistent for a single playthrough. In additional, several achievements are tracked across all three games.

Engine

 * HDR, ambient occlusion and other lighting effects are now supported.
 * Textures across the board have been upscaled to 4K, and the game now natively supports 4K resolution.
 * The character creator, using the Mass Effect 3 defaults, has now been unified across all three games, which also means that the redesigned FemShep from Mass Effect 3 is now the default FemShep. Some customization options have been imported from Mass Effect: Andromeda.

M35 Mako

 * The XP penalty for killing enemies while in the Mako has been removed.
 * When travelling in the M35 Mako, there is also a new UI, which sports not only easier-to-read health and shield meters but also an improved damage indicator.
 * The Mako now has accelerating thrusters that can be engaged independently from the manoeuvring thrusters.
 * The Mako's physics have been reworked; the vehicle is heavier and maintains balance better.

User Interface

 * The HUD has been completely altered; players now see their shield strength and health meter much more prominently, and the player now regains health slowly without the use of medi-gel.

Gameplay

 * The player can choose to use normal levelling, which has been rebalanced to enable the player to get to Level 60 in a single playthrough, or Legendary Mode, which lowers the cap to Level 30.
 * Players can still climb onto crates but need to have their weapon holstered to do so.
 * The right mouse button no longer takes you back one level in the Galaxy Map.
 * Thresher Maws have had their behaviour updated; they are now shown to be visibly tunning through the ground, and this causes a severe camera shake when they are in very close proximity to the player. They can now also occasionally spawn sensory tentacles; if the player travels near them, it helps direct the Thresher Maw towards the player. The Thresher Maw more frequently uses (and is now more accurate with) its acid attack, which causes damage to the Mako itself rather than to its shields, but causes less damage per shot as a result.
 * Enemies now take more damage when you get a headshot, even geth.
 * All weapons can now be used by all classes.
 * The sniper rifle has been rebalanced, and the player no longer has to compensate for severe motion swings.
 * Weapon mod drops have been balanced so they drop during the entire game correctly.
 * If a player fails to manually unlock a container the first time, the ability to attempt another unlock is not removed.

Misc

 * Elanos Haliat's character model has been changed from human to turian. This addresses a complaint from players that the character being a human didn't make a lot of sense, given the character's apparent anti-human stance.