The announcement of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition last November may not have made such a big splash as the unveiling of a new game in BioWare’s sci-fi series, but it did raise all sorts of questions. Will they add any brightening Easter eggs? Will I be able to create the same Shepard as I did 14 years ago? Are they going to romance Kaiden from the beginning? All of these questions are worthy inquiries, but in the immediate aftermath of the unveiling, one debate was the highest on the mass-effect subreddit: should they make the Mako better, or leave it exactly, in all its glorious glory?
You remember the Mako, right? The first Mass Effect game introduced a hardened six-wheeled tank that Commander Shepard used when landing on any of the boring, arid planets of the galaxy. It was, in theory, a novel enough idea – no one wants to traverse an arid spatial landscape on foot, so why does the player not offer a taste of the moon robber’s fantasy? The Mako seemed like a neat solution to the problem – if only it had a little better control. Most people today regard the Mako as one of the hilarious eccentricities in the Mass Effect series. At the time, BioWare was still working out the design of the vehicle, and it looks like the Mako handles like it’s 1,000 tons of futuristic steel at the same time, but also as light as a spring. Even the smallest intergalactic speed bumps were enough to make it fly. BioWare (especially the BioWare of the ME1 era) was not exactly known for its skilled mechanical ingenuity – grenades were once mapped on the Back button (you can remember it as ‘Choose’, it’s now Share / View) – but the Mako was still a deep outline. Here was this pulpy sci-fi odyssey full of iconic characters and a world-class story, with this clumsy excuse for a humvee stuck in it. It’s hard to take Tali, Liara and Ashley seriously as they walk across the moon. “Is the Mako the worst designed game vehicle ever?” asks for a preliminary GameFAQs forum thread. It probably is not, but it could be high on the list.
And yet, even now, some people are willing to defend the Mako to the ends of the earth – or Therum or Ilos – and back. No amount of slander can break them, and they will turn away every antagonistic forum thread untouched. For them, the Mako is a net positive profit for the range, and (as far as they are concerned) BioWare should better not mess with the formula.
“The Mako was awkward and God knows that physics was like hell. But it also makes players explore worlds in a way we could not otherwise, and I will still keep the Mako as a better alternative to planet scanning from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, ”one apologist from Mako, who posts as Kanguran on Reddit, told IGN.“ To drive across a plain to make five to one turn on the map to explode more looting , Was nice. Plus, high-powered cannons always provide good times on soft targets. “
Kanguran told me that when they first played Mass Effect, they were too young to be an active participant on the internet. Only when the sequel rolls around in 2009, after becoming a little more net-savvy, do they discover a dense group of gamers requesting BioWare to purge the Mako completely out of the Milky Way. The studio followed, and the Mako was nowhere to be seen in Mass Effect 2 or 3.
“It was a strange feeling, I agreed with their complaints, but I saw it as fun rather than broken,” says Kanguran. “I think the time has shifted the balance slightly where the pro-Mako faction has a significant following, although it is still a minority by a wide margin.”
Overall, The Mako is still the victim of a lot of ridicule in the Mass Effect community, but if you search hard enough, you will find many people who at least have the idea that the rubbery controls of the Mako should be preserved the upcoming remaster. One fan, Jon (who is holding TheQuarrelsomeEmu by the hand), argues that the Mako in the Legendary Edition is significantly less functional. “Left bumper should cause a random Joker wink,” she reports. “B-button throws out a random group mate.”
“The Mako sucked, but it’s one of the things that sucked so much that it’s been fun to watch,” he says in an interview with IGN. “Like a bad movie, you could not tear your eyes away. I think there is a lot of nostalgia for such things in the first game. The improvements they made in certain systems in later games did not give you that kind of strange experience. ‘There is some truth to that. The Mako may have been a dud, but compared to the many other never-ending debates about the subreddit – it’s been 3,000 days and it still can not agree on what the Synthesis end implies for the rest of the universe – the relief for that clumsy truck. has faded. Nowadays, the Mako is essentially an internal meme that can evoke the purity of youth, when the rampant suspension of Commander Shepard’s ride was one of our most pressing concerns about the series. About the other choices BioWare has made over the years with Mass Effect, it’s easy to get excited about, but Mako disputes are always pretty light.
“I think a lot of things have become a touchstone like this. The Mako is one, but you see the same thing with your interaction with Wrex, where all he says back to you in conversation is your name, or the awkward fight that really gets in later. games patched, ‘says Jon. “The Mako is just another example of how insane some of the game’s subsystems actually function, and how good the story and characters had to be to make up for it.”
He tells me he would like to see EA airbrush on some Mako shortcomings in the reissue. In particular, he wants an updated weapon capability, instead of the faulty cannon on top of the roof. But, of course, other diehards still believe that the Mako was perfectly fine as it is, evoking an attitude: “You will pull my broken space truck out of my cold, dead hands.”
“The Mako is a mess, but damn it’s a beautiful mess. Bouncing on the map, climbing slopes that put Skyrim’s horses to shame, shooting enemies apart in one shot, all went together to make a fundamental to make part of the experience “finish Kanguran. “In a perfect world, there would be an interplay between the old physics and the new. But I would do a little more pleasant handling, and an extra kick behind the jumpers.”
Bioware, in turn, has already confirmed that it will adapt Mako’s physics and give the player more camera control. The studio has not formally ruled out a “Mako Classic” option, but it’s probably another case of game purists disappointed by change – look at any remaster and you’ll find similar suspense. What about Final Fantasy VII from last year who throws his story into a blender? Or the people who develop mods to give the Resident Evil 2 remake a prehistoric and objectively awkward, fixed camera angle? It’s not told how a game’s legacy – or its peculiarities – can be remembered a decade later. Although you can hastily declare that a mechanic is making a game of ‘trash’, it can just as easily become someone else’s treasure.
Luke Winkie is a writer and former pizza maker in Brooklyn. Follow him further Twitter.