Should I play ME1 before 2?

C

Climber

Supreme [H]ardness
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Well lets make that a tad more clear. I played it on the 360 when it came out and finished it and loved it. House was broken into 360 stolen and library stolen... Hence the dilema.

Should I get this on the PC and replay it through before I play 2? Does 1 affect 2 that much or is it not really a big deal if I've already played and beat 1.
 
If you've completely forgotten the story, I'd say it's worth it. If you just need a refresher, hit up youtube for a couple for ME1 clips before you head into ME2. You can always try to find a saved game character similar to what you had in ME1 and load that up for ME2.
 
Yes. A lot of stuff will fly over your head if you never played the first one.
 
wespott said:
If you've completely forgotten the story, I'd say it's worth it. If you just need a refresher, hit up youtube for a couple for ME1 clips before you head into ME2. You can always try to find a saved game character similar to what you had in ME1 and load that up for ME2.
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I remember the story pretty well. Forgot what class I was though. I just keep hearing talk of your save games can affect the later games and the choices you get. Someone mentioned that ME3 would be heavily influenced by the choices and ending in ME2.

Didn't know if that was the same in 1.
 
Climber said:
I remember the story pretty well. Forgot what class I was though. I just keep hearing talk of your save games can affect the later games and the choices you get. Someone mentioned that ME3 would be heavily influenced by the choices and ending in ME2.

Didn't know if that was the same in 1.
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You re-pick your class anyway. The choices don't make much a difference for ME2. Who knows how your ME2 choices will carry over to ME3. If you remember the story just download a save with the choices you made on 360 (if you remember) and jump into ME2.
 
I'd replay ME1. You can get through the main story fairly quickly if you just want a savegame with your main decisions saved.

I'd feel weird playing off of somebody else's save for this game. There are a lot of things, like messages at your personal console and dialog that are affected by even small interactions with the first game.

If you didn't 100% ME1 and dont plan to 100% 2 then you can probably just start with 2 and use somebody else's savegame. Most of the things that have shown up in ME2 that began in ME1 are background story related and I realize some people aren't into to that.
 
I just finished ME1 and followed right into ME2 and it was very satisfying to run them together like that.

Granted, the controls change a lot between the 2 which is killing me atm, but overall, liking it a lot.
 
I was in similar situation a few months ago. I played Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 when it first came out and loved it, but shortly after finishing it, I sold my Xbox 360 to save up for a gaming PC. This past winter, I found Mass Effect for $9.99 on Steam and picked it up. I do not regret doing so at all; Mass Effect on the PC is so much better than it is on the Xbox 360 -- it's like an entirely different game.
 
ME2 will remember a lot of the smaller decisions too, though it will mostly consist of quick encounters with certain people.
 
i wouldn't go with someone elses save game, the entire point of going from me1 to 2 is to have what "you" chose effect the outcomes in ME2. Play ME1, i am going through it again and plan on going right into ME2. Get it on the PC and just go through it, spend the time though and really play ME1.
 
i will wait for ME1 to go back in deal on steam. I have such a huge backlog that i dont have time ... but i want to play it someday.
 
z3r0- said:
You re-pick your class anyway. The choices don't make much a difference for ME2. Who knows how your ME2 choices will carry over to ME3. If you remember the story just download a save with the choices you made on 360 (if you remember) and jump into ME2.
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This. The choices you made in ME1 affect ME2 in the following ways:

You will land on a planet and see one of two character models which used to be in your team from ME1, depending on a choice you made. You will never see this person again.

You will land on another planet and see *another* character model, assuming this character survived in ME1. Again, you will never see this person after this encounter.

You will receive bonuses based on your achievements; Acquiring higher levels provides you with experience bonuses, and getting the "rich" achievement gives you bonus credits.

You will have a conversation with Anderson, and depending on your choices in ME1 his dialogue may sound slightly different but it does not affect the overall game in any way.

There's probably some effect on Conrad Verner, but he's pretty much just for comic relief anyway.

I think that's it. Not exactly game-changing decisions.
 
btw, has anyone play ME2 without importing a save? does it do anything different?
 
Sikkyu; As far as I know, when you're being questioned by Jacob and Miranda, your answers determine what actually happened rather than just being to refresh your memory. That's what I read anyway. Basically, you just tell the game "This is what I did last time. I promise."
 
Spewn said:
This. The choices you made in ME1 affect ME2 in the following ways:

You will land on a planet and see one of two character models which used to be in your team from ME1, depending on a choice you made. You will never see this person again.

You will land on another planet and see *another* character model, assuming this character survived in ME1. Again, you will never see this person after this encounter.

You will receive bonuses based on your achievements; Acquiring higher levels provides you with experience bonuses, and getting the "rich" achievement gives you bonus credits.

You will have a conversation with Anderson, and depending on your choices in ME1 his dialogue may sound slightly different but it does not affect the overall game in any way.

There's probably some effect on Conrad Verner, but he's pretty much just for comic relief anyway.

I think that's it. Not exactly game-changing decisions.
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Those are the main things that change, but like others have said there are a lot of little things that fill in background story. To me the real point of this game is the story. Some people like 300 page books, personally I dont mind a 2000-pager if the story is good, thats how I feel about the Mass Effect series.
 
Spewn said:
Sikkyu; As far as I know, when you're being questioned by Jacob and Miranda, your answers determine what actually happened rather than just being to refresh your memory. That's what I read anyway. Basically, you just tell the game "This is what I did last time. I promise."
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I heard this too, but when I started the game (my saved game from ME1 is long gone), this did not happen. Not to mention: the game seems to have decided I made all the choices from the first game exactly opposite of what I remember. I may have done something wrong when I started the game, but I am pretty far in, so I will probably finish it up, and play through again if I can figure out how to make that work.
 
x_MaGiuS_x said:
Those are the main things that change, but like others have said there are a lot of little things that fill in background story. To me the real point of this game is the story. Some people like 300 page books, personally I dont mind a 2000-pager if the story is good, thats how I feel about the Mass Effect series.
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Mass Effect is a 2000 page book to you? What's Planescape: Torment, a whole library?
 
the only reason to use/import a save, is if you want the bonus level points as a head start, which you don't need unless you want to play on insane difficulty your first run. otherwise it's no big deal if you already know the story. they will just make some decisions for you that might not match your own. some of it you can decide in the beginning by answering the refresher questions anyway, none of it really has a huge effect on what happens in the game, it basically just swaps out certain character conversations.
 
Spewn said:
Mass Effect is a 2000 page book to you? What's Planescape: Torment, a whole library?
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You missed the point. I was merely trying to say that you can fly through this game is no time at all, or you can do EVERYTHING and have a much more immersive experience. I was also refering to the whole Mass Effect saga, not just the first one.

I have not skipped a single word of dialog and have been doing every mission/assignment I have found. Playing the game this way takes a while.

I missed Planescape:Torment because my pc sucked for gaming back then. I hear its a great game, but if you arent nostalgic about something it makes it harder to play it when it's old.
 
x_MaGiuS_x said:
You missed the point.
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No, I just disagree. ME2 just isn't very immersive for me, and the dialogue that's present is uninspired and incredibly simplistic(read: boiled down). The background presented by ME2 falls far short of what ME1 presented, in my opinion. I took the time to explore the dialogue trees fully in ME1, but ME2's dialogue just didn't inspire me to do so.

Planescape: Torment doesn't necessarily require nostalgia to enjoy, especially if you use the resolution/widescreen fix. What it does require is a similar state of mind to that which you'd have while reading a book. PS:T is as dialogue heavy as graphics-based games have ever been. Something like 800,000 lines worth. TNO and Dak'kon probably say more to one another than Shepard and his entire crew do throughout the whole of ME2, so maybe I'm just spoiled.

In the end, ME2 was fun. It was just so much less than I thought it could be.
 
I agree the background stuff was more immersive in ME1. I like a lot of the things they changed in ME2 but it definitely feels like its a little more on rails than ME1.

I better not have to rescan/probe the entire damn universe for ME3!
 
I no longer have my ME1 save. I played through ME2 twice, once with stock choices made (no import), then the 2nd time with a downloaded save that had about the same choices I made.

I did find my 2nd playthrough more rewarding, it was more "mine", but the changes from the stock playthrough where pretty minimal.
 
arr4ws said:
i will wait for ME1 to go back in deal on steam. I have such a huge backlog that i dont have time ... but i want to play it someday.
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This is kinda my thing right now. My backlog is pretty huge that I didn't even buy ME2 yet. I still have BB:AA on my to do list as well as Demon Souls, Uncharted 2, Dragon's Age (second playthrough) and a couple others I'm sure I missed.

I think I will wait a bit and hope I find a ME1 and 2 deal and just grab them both.
 
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