Mass Effect 3 redeemed to glory as modder puts its ME1-style elevator back in

Nightmarishly, it’s possible there are people reading this who were either unborn or incapable of forming long-term memories when Mass Effect 3 released in 2012. If that’s you: consider it a blessing, because my chief recollection of that era is everyone being very upset about it on the internet.

What were they upset about? Well, they said it was a lot of stuff to do with the endings and your choices across the series not mattering that much. I know better, though. In their heart of hearts, in the deep, festering reaches of their collective subconscious, the gamers yearned for the lifts. The first Mass Effect was beloved. It was also a game about standing in a lot of lifts. These things are not unconnected.

Now, a doughty modder has restored the third Mass Effect (in its Legendary Edition form) to the pristine condition of its predecessor. Glorious Elevators (LE3) comes from Linkenski, who also put in the work to restore the original setup for ME1’s Saren fights to the Legendary Edition and created, ah, Miranda Buttfarts Restored.

“Glorious Elevators return to Mass Effect beyond the first game,” declares our modder. “Originally Mass Effect 3 actually had a working elevator right up until its finaling phases. Because the game was stuck on PS3/Xbox 360 as the lowest common denominator at the time, they couldn’t optimize the game any further and ended up with load times just as notorious as Mass Effect 1 was originally known for.”

But in 2025 my PC vibrates with parts potent enough to wound god, and there’s no need to cut out these little additions. So Glorious Elevators sticks them back in. Using the lift in the Normandy? Rather than a humdrum load screen, you will whirr your way up or down in (something resembling) real time. I know. I’m excited too.

It is, I admit, a pretty minor thing, but I find this kind of obsessive, detail-oriented modding rather admirable and more than a little fascinating. Plus, I hear tell it’s a banger. “It’s better than the elevators in ME1, and adds to ME3’s signature seamlessness and slickness,” boasts Linkenski. “That’s why this is a must-have!”