Mass Effect’s Mako: The Best (and Worst) Way to Explore the Galaxy.
It’s been about a month since the Legendary Edition of Mass Effect has been released and I am fully embracing and enjoying all the nostalgia that has come with the rerelease of this monumental series. Going back to hanging with the best buddy Garrus, hating on Ashley’s bigotry, embracing the lore, etc. I have been so happy and giddy to be back in this series at least until one dark shadow hangs over the entire first game that makes me dread having to replay that first game for the full experience of the whole trilogy. That’s right, the dreaded Mako.
I know this opinion is rather controversial and there are plenty of people who love the Mako. In some respects I completely understand. Players get the chance to explore a planet’s surface with a freakin space tank! It’s an awesome concept! The Mako is decently speedy, has a good gun, a good machine gun, has boosters for both speed and elevation, turns on a dime, has the optics available to pretty much be a sniper with a tank, etc. There are lots of things to love about the Mako itself! It’s where the concept meets reality that the beauty of the Mako falls apart and could certainly use some optimization.
The planet surfaces that Mass Effect takes you to explore? They are mostly extremely mountainous terrains that often make exploring with the Mako feel more like a chore than something actually enjoyable to do. Especially when points of interest are set on cliffsides, Exploring feels tedious and less enjoyable in the game. There are honestly times where I dread when I see ‘Land’ as an option when exploring systems since I know they can easily turn into 15–30 minutes of driving with little combat, maybe a small mission that is insignificant, and repeat. MIx this also with the fact that the controls are less than stellar can leave one frustrated when you end up heading into the Thrasher Maw’s acid attacks rather than dodging them as intended.
The Mako experience is not one I’d recommend removing fully from the game. As I stated before, the experience of exploring an alien planet via a space tank is amazing! There are a few more reasonable solutions to fix this experience. There could be a remake of the terrain on these alien planets to make either the terrain more vehicle-friendly and less cliff-filled. A.k.a rounding more of the harsher terrain to provide a better gip for the Mako to travel on. They could also just make accessing POIs easier. There is a lot of empty space on these planets and I know at least in my case I am going straight for those, I am not aiming to explore the whole map of a planet. So for those of us who aren’t exploring every rock in the galaxy and trying to get to Noveria or Feros, please just make getting to those POI easier. A third potential solution would be to either expand the amount of time that boosters for elevation or thrust can be activated. A similar game that has terrain like this and is set in a space setting is Battlezone 98 (available on Steam and recommend the game full-heartedly to anyone) that does provide vehicles with elevation boosters that can accommodate most terrain more easily. A feature like this could certainly make the Mako experience way more enjoyable.
This whole rant is of course just a note for the future of Bioware ever decides to fully remaster the Mass Effect series, but for now, it does help simply to vent the frustration of this glaring defect on yet an otherwise legendary experience of a game series. There are other small changes that are definitely on the wish list as well, but I can fully and wholly recommend anyone to take advantage of the Legendary Edition of the Mass Effect Trilogy to try it yourself!
