Best Mass Effect game?

horrorshow

horrorshow

Lakewood Original
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I've finally decided to take the plunge and dig into a solid RPG again.

Which game is best?

I've read that ME1 is good and more RPG-ish. But I've also read ME2 has superior controls and a better interface for the comp etc. Apparently, ME3 is garbage.

So, ME1 or ME2?
 
I'd say start with ME1 and then transfer into ME2.

Each has their plusses, but the continuing story is what really made em both worth playing.

ME3 isnt bad if you stop playing before you get to the actual end, or install the mods to change the ending from the "EA/BW Hey Its Art!" crap to something better.
 
I loved ME1 the best - I even loved the Mako which so many hate! It was a fun little change to go from run/gun to drive/gun lol. Just the atmosphere of the game made it the best for me. Weapons were pretty annoying in this game (always having to equip newer more powerful weapons got pretty annoying).

ME2 is probably the best gameplay wise and most fleshed out. Combat is better.

ME3 is really good too, the original ending was just terrible though and the "extended" ending isn't much better.


I'd personally try to start from the beginning of the series if you can. It's a really great trilogy and you won't regret playing any of them. You are just going to be probably angry at the way ME3 ends.
 
I agree with the above.

ME1 is my favorite of three. It has the best storyline, the best atmosphere, the best music, the best ending. I also enjoyed the Mako sections that others hate. :) The inventory system is clunky, but it didn't deserve to be completely axed.

ME2 is a close second. It has the best gun play, the best character development. It has the worst filler (planet scanning) and one part of the ending is incredibly goofy.

ME3 is also very good for the most part, but it feels a little rushed. The main plot missions are all good, but the sidequests are by far the worst of the three games. I didn't mind the ending as much as some, but it's true that it could have been a lot better. The game is also more on rails than the others, in that you don't have as much say in conversations and your decisions aren't as impactful.

Still, I think you'd be missing out if you skip any of them. Great series.
 
You'll have to start with ME1. Otherwise you'll miss too much of the story, which is a huge part of the series. Story wise ME1 is the best, but the shooting mechanics were very lacking. Get all three.

My favorite of the series is ME1.
 
Limahl said:
I'd say start with ME1 and then transfer into ME2.

Each has their plusses, but the continuing story is what really made em both worth playing.

ME3 isnt bad if you stop playing before you get to the actual end, or install the mods to change the ending from the "EA/BW Hey Its Art!" crap to something better.
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I would recommend against that. I say play them in order and beat 3. Then watch the indoctrination video on youtube..... then finally, realize that Bioware and EA are fucknuts and that's where it ends.
 
Deffinitely get all 3, and the DLC, and play them in order. The Mass Effect 1 DLC is "free" now. Bioware put several CD keys online for it, along with the files. It's a little difficult to find though. I have the working CD key and files if you can't find them.

The story is a very important part of this game. Even though they try to fill you in if you start with 2 or 3, you get a better experience by playing all 3. Mass Effect 1 is the most RPGish. The combat is the worst of the three, but still decent. Mass Effect 2 cleans up the combat more, but removes too many of the RPG elements. The gameplay is a little better than ME1, feels less dated. ME3 brings back some of the RPG elements, and has the best combat of the series. Mass effect 3 also has a very strong story. As for the ending debacle, just finish the game. Some people don't have a problem with it, others do. Neither side is really wrong, so you wont know until you play it. I would advise against playing it without the extended cut DLC though (its free, no reason not to).

Edit: One last thing. Play the series more than once. You can't actually see everything in one playthrough, and even if you're the kind of person that only plays one style, you will see new/different things every time. I'm currently on my third-ish playthrough (second full one, I am not an RPG person and I rushed through like a console kiddie the first time).

Edit 2: Also, Bioware did a pretty good job with the AI in this game. Give your squadmates good weapons and upgrades, they will save your ass.
 
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Its really important to play all 3 to get the "full experience". There will be some things that (outside of a lot of savegame hacking) you won't be able to see in ME2 or ME3 if you didn't play the previous titles. They are really excellent games overall, especially in terms of story (I've not finished 3, and I hear the endings are a bit of a let down, which is unfortunate but won't blight all the good stuff so far). I HIGHLY suggest reading the official strategy guides, and getting ALL the DLC for each title, so you get the full experience AND know some choices ahead of time that aren't necessarily made clear in terms of what is necessary for future games. PC version is of course, the best.

Oh, and I actually really like the COOPERATIVE Multiplayer included in ME3. SO much better than a stupid tacked on deathmatch etc... it is well fleshed out, supported, and impacts your ME3 single player game assets too!
 
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I agree with the general consensus to play them all in order and decide. The entire trilogy is easily one of my favorite series in gaming. They are all simply fantastic games.

Mass Effect 1 is indeed the most RPG-ish of the bunch. In many ways it is my favorite of the three. The Bringing Down the Sky DLC should be free if you're playing on PC, and it's ok. The other DLC, I don't know if it's free or not, but it's just a stupid arena DLC. You can skip it.

Mass Effect 2 changed a lot from the first game, I think. Many of the RPG elements were removed or retooled. It plays a lot more like your average first person shooter, but retains the open-ish world, freedom to choose to complete or not complete certain missions, etc. I found much of the gameplay to sort of be filler, but what little bits of story were there I did find to be very interesting. The ending was absolutely the best of the trilogy. Don't skip any of the DLC on this one. It's a bit pricey, but it's all good, and actually ties into the story well.

Mass Effect 3 is what it is. Most of the game is remarkably good. The combat mechanics are the best of the three games. The story is great. The DLC is worth playing. Don't let anything you read fool you into thinking it's garbage. It's a wonderfully fantastic game with a very disappointing ending. You may be ok with the ending, you may hate it. I certainly hated it. But I loved the rest of the game, the ending wouldn't stop me from recommending the game or placing it among my favorites.
 
2 is my favorite of the trilogy but you really do need to play them all. For all the problems ME3 has it's worth playing through once.
 
nakedhand said:
ME. Story, mechanics, atmosphere and inventory management.
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The gameplay mechanics and inventory of ME1 are kind of crap. The shooting feels terrible, the inventory is probably the worst Bioware has ever done, the Mako is a pain in the ass (not that planet scanning in 2 is any better but still). Gameplay wise it's the weakest of the series even if plot wise it's the strongest (though I'd argue that ME2 has a better over-all cast of characters).
 
Derangel said:
The gameplay mechanics and inventory of ME1 are kind of crap. The shooting feels terrible, the inventory is probably the worst Bioware has ever done, the Mako is a pain in the ass (not that planet scanning in 2 is any better but still). Gameplay wise it's the weakest of the series even if plot wise it's the strongest (though I'd argue that ME2 has a better over-all cast of characters).
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Eh. ME2's plot was crap...especially that laughable final boss battle of the main game. You spend the entire time babysitting your crew, and you're told as such at the very beginning of the game,. EA "Fixed" the ME1 inventory mechanics by entirely removing inventory mechanics from ME2 and ME3. ME2 had tons of characters, except all the DLC charachters had little to no dialogue outside of their 1 and only character mission. All the ME games are anything but RPG, they're 3rd person shooters with dialogue sections to make up for plot....your verbal "choices" have little real impact in plot.

ME1 has the most replay value, IMHO, all the others are 1-playthrough games once you have all the DLC. Don't get me wrong it is a fun series...but EA could have done a hell of a lot more with it.

OP, play em all and decide for yourself.
 
Skripka said:
Eh. ME2's plot was crap...especially that laughable final boss battle of the main game. You spend the entire time babysitting your crew, and you're told as such at the very beginning of the game,. EA "Fixed" the ME1 inventory mechanics by entirely removing inventory mechanics from ME2 and ME3. ME2 had tons of characters, except all the DLC charachters had little to no dialogue outside of their 1 and only character mission. All the ME games are anything but RPG, they're 3rd person shooters with dialogue sections to make up for plot....your verbal "choices" have little real impact in plot.

ME1 has the most replay value, IMHO, all the others are 1-playthrough games once you have all the DLC. Don't get me wrong it is a fun series...but EA could have done a hell of a lot more with it.

OP, play em all and decide for yourself.
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ME2's plot was pretty bad but I find it the most fun game in the series. I can replay ME2 over and over. I struggle to replay ME1 because I hate the part where I'm actually playing it. It just doesn't have a good feel to anything. When it comes to guns my opinion is if you're going to put gunplay in a game either do it right or don't do it at all. If you give the player full control over aiming and shooting, don't tie everything from damage to accuracy to what amounts to a dice roll.

As for the characters, ignoring Zaeed and Kasumi (the later is is one of my favorite characters in the series) the writing for all the characters in ME2 (Jacob aside) is better than ME1. The returning characters are improved and given more depth to them as they grow.

I don't mind them taking out the inventory really, 99% of the stuff you found in ME1 was nothing more than vendor trash. The bigger issue is the leveling system which had too few options, 3 did s really good job with that. Removing armor and not revealing weapon stats was another decision I'm not overly fond of in ME2, same with not allowing you to customize your squad member's armor in ME3.
 
horrorshow said:
I've finally decided to take the plunge and dig into a solid RPG again.

Which game is best?

I've read that ME1 is good and more RPG-ish. But I've also read ME2 has superior controls and a better interface for the comp etc. Apparently, ME3 is garbage.

So, ME1 or ME2?
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The fundamental problem with this question is that it isn't like Final Fantasy in which the stories between games are unrelated. ME is designed as a trilogy, with each of the three games adding major plot points.

ME:1 is old enough that it now feels dated, and some of the mechanics got improved further on, but for the story, music, and voice acting alone it has to be played. The story arc of course then continues with ME:2 and ME:3. It makes NO sense to start playing a game further in the series if you haven't played the previous games.

Bioware did try to make it so that gamers who didn't experience the previous games could still 'hop-in' and there is a crash course at the beginning of the game to catch you up, but if you're serious about your RPG's, the ME series in general offers a lot of nuance, as well as being able to carry over your characters and decisions from previous games.

In short, if you're going to play the ME series, it's best to play them all, for better or for worse.
 
Derangel said:
The gameplay mechanics and inventory of ME1 are kind of crap. The shooting feels terrible, the inventory is probably the worst Bioware has ever done, the Mako is a pain in the ass (not that planet scanning in 2 is any better but still). Gameplay wise it's the weakest of the series even if plot wise it's the strongest (though I'd argue that ME2 has a better over-all cast of characters).
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Granted the shooting mechanics are way better in ME2 and 3. This of course is an incredibly essential mechanic. Still I like the first better when all the pro and cons have been weighed. I think it is safe to say that ME2 was much more mature in terms of basically everything with the exception of the writing and the intangibles (atmosphere, emotional impact etc.). Anyway I did not mean technical mechanics, such as engine specific mechanics. I was being completely unclear. My point was game mechanics, such as pacing, action, tasks, looting etc.

For me it was a big let down what they did to the inventory system - slaughter. The loot aspect was dead in ME2. And I like myself some loot :D
 
ME1 was my favorite story. Some really cool moments that just felt "epic".

ME2 had overall smoother gameplay, introduced Miranda. (I mean, seriously)

ME3 welp... I haven't beaten it yet... Don't know if I ever will. I don't really know what all I have to do to get whatever is considered the "best" ending and don't feel like wasting my time.
 
Its a trilogy for crying out loud so you would start with the first one. :confused:
 
·PitBuLL·;1039553540 said:
ME1 was my favorite story. Some really cool moments that just felt "epic".

ME2 had overall smoother gameplay, introduced Miranda. (I mean, seriously)

ME3 welp... I haven't beaten it yet... Don't know if I ever will. I don't really know what all I have to do to get whatever is considered the "best" ending and don't feel like wasting my time.
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Take my word for it....once you find the perfect endings for ME2 and ME3...all replay incentive evaporates. I want to replay ME3, but suffer in lacking any motivation to bother...because I already know the endings and how to get them.
 
Skripka said:
Take my word for it....once you find the perfect endings for ME2 and ME3...all replay incentive evaporates. I want to replay ME3, but suffer in lacking any motivation to bother...because I already know the endings and how to get them.
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Knowing how something ends rarely stops me from replaying or enjoying it. I'm more of a "it's more about the journey than how it ends" type of person. Though I agree with the lack of motivation to replay ME3. I intend to one of these days, but it's on the back burner while I slowly bring a new Shepard up through the previous games.
 
So, let's briefly talk about completing ME3 with what we would consider the "best" possible ending, although from what I've read they all suck. Do I just have to complete all the main missions and side missions? Or is there some bullshit grind?
 
·PitBuLL·;1039553638 said:
So, let's briefly talk about completing ME3 with what we would consider the "best" possible ending, although from what I've read they all suck. Do I just have to complete all the main missions and side missions? Or is there some bullshit grind?
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If you don't want to play multiplayer you will need to do pretty much everything you possibly can in single player in order to build up your points enough to unlock all the endings and stuff. The Extended Cut does make the endings better though I'd still say they're not great. I've heard people say that playing the Leviathan DLC on your first time through the game makes some things better.
 
·PitBuLL·;1039553638 said:
So, let's briefly talk about completing ME3 with what we would consider the "best" possible ending, although from what I've read they all suck. Do I just have to complete all the main missions and side missions? Or is there some bullshit grind?
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To get the best ending IIRC, it requires you to play the multiplayer crap....as you need more "War Asset" points than the SP game all-quest completion gets you.

You *can* edit the coalesced.bin to get past that requirement by modding the War Asset values, BEFORE you play those quests...if you have a utility to do it. EA employs MD5 hash-summing to prevent easy modification of the game settings file. There are half a dozen of these freeware programs that spoof the protection and let you modify as much as possible.

I modded the hell out of my coalesced.bin because the stock settings blow.
 
Skripka said:
Take my word for it....once you find the perfect endings for ME2 and ME3...all replay incentive evaporates. I want to replay ME3, but suffer in lacking any motivation to bother...because I already know the endings and how to get them.
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I don't really believe in a "perfect ending". Each play-through is a combination of different choices and interactions. You're never going to have two identical experiences unless you write down everything you do and follow a script.
 
Like many people said, what's so good about Mass Effect is the story itself. You can't skip any.
 
Play all three. They're great games that make the best trilogy in video game history, IMO. Definitely install the updated ending to ME3 and ignore ALL the bad commentary. Find out for yourself what the series is all about.
 
Mass Effect 2 overall. The Omega 4 relay created a sense of momentum, urgency, and fear that few games have.
 
wizdum said:
I don't really believe in a "perfect ending". Each play-through is a combination of different choices and interactions. You're never going to have two identical experiences unless you write down everything you do and follow a script.
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There aren't that many different interactions....you can be a dick and pick the red conversation or St. Shepard the Immaculate and pick the goody-two-shoes options...either way they usually end up following the same exact plot so long as you take the quests. The only real effect dialogue choices have are romance.

Yes it is easy to get two fairly identical playthroughs.
 
I've only played 1 and 2 so far. Have them both on Steam. I've held out on ME3 so far since it's Origin only. I hope to play it someday since 1 and 2 have great stories and gameplay, but I'm remaining stubborn for now. Anyway, like others have said, you should definitely start at the beginning.
 
ME1. Best story, insanely good hard-Scifi atmosphere that takes me instantly in to Babylon 5 feelings, poor combat, poor squad AI (you have to baby sit them basically, or ignore them and do it all yourself), terrible inventory. RPGish of the bunch however.

ME2. Most balanced of the bunch and the one I played the most. Great characters, nice story, great sidemissions, combat is excellent. Inventory got removed though, sadly. It needed fixing, not amputation if you ask me. Some poor design choices that killed the hard-scifi atmosphere of the original and went for the Call Of Booty wow-factor however. Least RPGish of the bunch.

ME3. Most mixed bag of the bunch and definetly the most rushed of the bunch. Gameplay and combat is good much like ME2, but sidequests are very poor. Characters are great and story is good too with lots of highlights that tug the strings of your heart, but also shoots itself in the head with an ending that leaves behind a plothole size of a galaxy. More weapons to choose from and you have more options while leveling up, which might make it seem like its more RPGish than ME2, but is not because you have much less dialog options, less changes to "roleplay" your character, only paragon and renegades without room for middle grounds plus a lot of auto-dialogs that you cannot control at all.
 
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