A fan of the Mass Effect series has released a modification that brings the multiplayer mode from the third installment back into the Mass Effect Legendary Edition re-release. The original trilogy came out in its updated form in May 2021, but without its online component, which drew widespread discontent among players. Now they can return to cooperative battles.
The modification, called LEMP and created by an enthusiast under the alias PayDay, restores almost all of the content of the 2012 multiplayer mode. Players have access to 66 characters, 19 battle maps, four enemy factions and four difficulty levels. The in-game purchases present in the original have been removed entirely.
The game does not require servers from the publisher, Electronic Arts: the modification uses its own system for finding matches, and players connect to one another directly. Players can transfer their progress from the multiplayer mode of the original Mass Effect 3, but so far only from the PC version. The author promises to work on transferring saves from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.
The modification is in early testing. Players report bugs, performance problems and hit registration issues. The author also advises removing other modifications, since their compatibility has not been verified, and that verifying file integrity through Steam removes LEMP itself. Nevertheless, online matches are already available.
Notably, the author openly stated on the project page that a neural network, Claude, assisted him in the work. According to him, the artificial intelligence performed most of the reverse engineering of the code, without which creating the modification would have been impossible. This fact has sparked debate in the gaming community: some praise the author for solving a problem the developers ignored, while others criticize him for using generative AI.
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