Starting Mass Effect: Legendary Edition but want to have your original Mass Effect 2 and 3 characters? With save data importing, you can do just that, but your save data for the original 2007 game will have to stay behind.
As confirmed by a GameSpot staffer, the save data for both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 on PC is compatible with the two games in the Legendary Edition.
If you go to your Documents folder on PC and select BioWare, you’ll see your save files for all of the developer’s games in a row. Select either Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3, then select one of your characters and copy and paste the file into the corresponding folder under Legendary Edition. Once this is done, you should be able to pick up where you left off, but with better visuals and other enhancements!
The one game this doesn’t work with is the original Mass Effect, as that game had much bigger changes and improvements made to it that brought it in line with the other two. Trying to import this data will result in a corruption message, so don’t waste your time.
Weirdly, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is only the second game to support importing a Mass Effect 2 save file. Frog Fractions 2 also allows you to do this–in fact, one of the puzzles in the game actually requires it, because developer Jim Crawford is nothing if not unique.
Thus far, GameSpot’s Jordan Ramée has been impressed with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
“All in all, I’m enjoying playing Mass Effect 1 again, something I never thought I’d say (I find the original game’s combat too frustrating). I’m eager to get back to it, and see how the Legendary Edition may have changed Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 as well,” he said in our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition review in progress.
We also have a whole bunch of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition guides in case you get stuck. If you aren’t playing on PC and want to transfer Legendary Edition save data to a newer system, make sure you play on Xbox. PlayStation will not support cross-generation save transfers.
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