People continue to circulate rumors of a possible HD remake of the original Mass Effect in hushed tones, but we've yet to see anything concrete to indicate that it's going to happen. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but given the lukewarm reception to Mass Effect: Andromeda, it could be some time before BioWare finds the courage to dip their toes back into the franchise.
In the meantime, if you're thinking of dusting off your old copy of Mass Effect and starting another run through the entire trilogy, there are a few things you can do to spice up the game. We've expanded this article to include 5 more of the best mods for the original Mass Effect, for a total of 15. Here's why they deserve a spot on your load order!
Updated by Derek Draven, May 10th, 2020: As mentioned in the updated intro, there are quite a few excellent mods for Mass Effect that you can download right now. We've decided to add 5 more to the list to round out an excellent load order!
16 Faster Elevators
One of the great annoyances of Mass Effect were the long transitional periods when traveling between certain destinations. The largest culprits of them all were the Citadel elevators.
Faster Elevators seeks to eliminate the thumb-twiddling monotony of elevator rides by doubling their speed. Though the mod doesn't affect other elevators such as the ones on Noveria or Therum, that's a small price to pay for not having to deal with all that awkwardness.
15 MEUITM (Mass Effect Updated/Improved Textures Mod)
Thank goodness for abbreviations! MEUITM is a large-scale texture overhaul mod that every Mass Effect player ought to install from the word Go. The mod author tackled everything from shadow maps to character textures, plus armors, clothing and more.
An Anniversary Edition of the mod was released in 2018 allowing customizable variant texture selection during the install process, some optimizations for Reshade users, and lighting touch-ups.
14 ME1 Recalibrated
This mod focuses primarily on bug fixes and addressing other issues that popped up in the vanilla release. It tackles cutscene bugs, quest issues and mission fixes to create a more seamless and proper representation of the final game.
If you're using MEUITM with ME1 Recalibrated, make sure to install the latter first in order to avoid any potential mod conflicts and problems.
13 NerdVisual
This is a simple Reshade preset which can pump up the graphical fidelity of the game with realistic lighting, shading and color. NerdVisual's bloom and contrast effects really bring out the detail of the game, and deliver a better sci-fi experience.
Make sure to do a little homework when installing Reshade in order to save yourself a hassle during the install process. YouTube is a great resource for install and setup tutorials.
12 Mass Effect Mouse Fix
Mouse acceleration sucks, and always will. It reduces the in-game accuracy of mouse controls, making it harder to move and aim. There's a reason why raw mouse input is far more popular among PC gamers.
Mass Effect Mouse Fix brings that raw input to the game by eliminating mouse acceleration altogether. It achieves this by grabbing raw mouse input functionality and injecting it straight into the game via a simple DLL file. Stop torturing yourself, and add this mod to your list!
11 ALOV (A Lot Of Videos) For ME1
The pre-rendered cutscenes of Mass Effect are starting to show their age. Compression artifacts have made them an eyesore, which is why the author of ALOV chose to do something about it.
This mod upscales the game's cutscenes from 720p to a whopping 1440p, with a difference in bitrate of 5.2 Mbit/s as opposed to the original 1.4Mbit/s. The mod page's screenshots tell it like it is! It may not seem like a big deal, but in our age of ultra high definition gaming, there's no excuse for putting up with subpar video quality if you can help it.
10 Improved Mako
One of the most irritating portions of Mass Effect were undoubtedly the Mako driving sequences. While fun in their own right, the enjoyment was hampered by their beach-ball level of bounce, which made controlling the thing a nightmare of biblical proportions.
Improved Mako offers several levels of tweaking to reduce the bounce of the Mako based on your preferred play style. The Extreme value practically gets rid of bounce altogether, causing the Mako to cling to the terrain like a shirt. Plus, it's sure to eliminate the inevitable head trauma the occupants must suffer during a casual romp across a planetary surface.
9 Casual Hubs
Well, isn't this nice - a mod that allows your crew to strut about the Citadel in your casual clothes, instead of a body full of armor! Casual Hubs is all about taking a load off, instead of looking like an armed garrison.
Even Wrex and Garrus get plainclothes options, giving them a chance to stretch their limbs and kick back a little bit. The mod author was wise to make this functionality kick in only after certain criteria have been met on both the Citadel and Noveria, to maintain immersion.
8 El's ME1 Complexion Tweaks
If you're looking to spruce up character faces a little bit, then EL's ME1 Complexion Tweaks has just what you're looking for. It adds blemishes and facial tweaks to every character in the game, giving them a fresh new look for your next play session.
Characters like Liara, Anderson and Joker benefit the most, eliminating their dead-stares and giving them a bit more humanity.
7 Mass Effect Ultrawide
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In 2007, ultra-widescreen gaming was practically unheard of (unless you count EyeFinity), which makes Mass Effect Ultrawide such a treat! This mod appropriately scales the UI layout to compensate for a 21:9 aspect ratio, eliminating the problems usually associated with stretching older games out to ultra widescreen resolutions.
Sadly, there's no support (yet) for 32:9 monitors, but you may wish to give it a go nonetheless, and see if it produces acceptable results. Most 32:9 monitors have a setting which maintains the aspect ratio of your desired resolution, meaning it's possible to set the game to 3440x1440 with some black bars on either side of your screen. Not the worst tradeoff.
5 Same-Gender Romances For ME1
Many gamers were disappointed at not being able to woo the same-sex person of their affections in ME1 - namely Kaidan and Ashley. While other characters were seemingly fair game, these two were locked out for some reason.
Same-Gender Romances For ME1 fixes this by opening up the romance aspect to their respective characters in a seamless manner. Dialogue and gender references are correct, as is the romance scene.
4 ME1Controller
Mass Effect shipped with some bad controller support, and it took a while before the problem was rectified with ME1Controller.
This simple mod enables full X-Box 360 controller support for ME1, with correct implementation of controls. Note: this mod is strictly for those who prefer to use a gamepad! If you want to play with a keyboard and mouse combo, you'll have to uninstall this mod first, or controls will remain broken.
3 Faster Airlock
Simple in approach, Faster Airlock is a quick mod designed to speed up the entry/exit process from the Normandy.
The mod deletes the decontamination sequence and the extra time it takes to travel to and from, which is great for players who have done multiple run-throughs of the game, and don't want to be bogged down by repetition.
2 Expanded Character Creator (ECC)
Mass Effect struggled a bit when it came to character creation, especially for gamers who wanted to go the FemShep route. There simply wasn't much to work with in terms of the sliders.
Expanded Character Creator solves that issue by adding three new female presets, while opening up scar, eye and hair options for both genders. While it may not solve the problem entirely, it is a means to squeeze a little more uniqueness out of the character designer.
1 Goodbye Lens Flares
Mass Effect handled lens flares a far sight better than J.J. Abrams managed to do in his Star Trek trilogy, but we digress! Some gamers hate lens flares, and will sacrifice a lung to get rid of them.
Goodbye Lens Flares is the solution. It eliminates 7 stretched lens flares from Mass Effect to cut down on the overbearing element. To each their own when it comes to this mod. Either you think lens flares add something to the sci-fi element of the game, or you believe they're cornea-wrecking evildoers.