Which Mass Effect installment is your favorite?

I've played through ME1 twice and ME2 three times, and I think 2 is my favourite as the combat mechanics are more fluid and I prefer the story and characters. I'll echo what others have said and say while I loved the open sandbox of ME1, I hated the Mako. I never bought ME3 as I don't care for the multiplayer and I've heard little but horror stories about the single player.

ME1 - 6 playthroughs, once for each class.
ME2 - 2.5 playthroughs, #2 was Vanguard on Insanity and everything else seemed pointless after that.
ME3 - 1 playthrough that I still regret not uninstalling immediately upon seeing Kai Leng for the first time.

Overall, ME1 was by far the best in the series, and ME3 is still the worst game I've played in the last decade.

2-3-1. I can easily go back and play 2 and 3 anytime and have a blast. 1 though is a real struggle. The Mako parts suck ass. The inventory system is a fucking nightmare to manage. All that side-mission bollocks of going to generic planet D, finding generic building B...etc etc.

Not saying 1 is shit though. I loved it when it came out. But 2 made 1 a good, but very flawed game.

2 > 3 > 1 I think. Combat in 3 was great, but I preferred the plot development of 2.

Agraza_sl said:

2 > 3 > 1 I think. Combat in 3 was great, but I preferred the plot development of 2.

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What plot development? You spend the entire game assembling your party. There were like 3 plot missions in the game, everything else was either recruitment or loyalty missions.

I may have used the wrong words then. I liked Miranda and the Illusive Man. I liked working for him. It made the missions more interesting.

Deathwing_sl said:

I liked Miranda too, but what does that have to do with plot?

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Dat ass. Plus the Aussie accent.

What more do you need, Elton John?

ME2 is the experience that defines the trilogy for me. It is the game I look back on with the fondest memories. ME3 Multiplayer really overshadowed the regular game for me, and it was the portion of the product that I got the most enjoyment out of. ME1 wasn't anything special in my mind. Basically KOTR in a non-Star Wars universe.

Vorph- ...and ME3 is still the worst game I've played in the last decade.

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lol, get over it. You sound like some kid that found out Santa Clause wasn't real and decided he had the worst parents ever.

No idea what that retarded analogy is supposed to mean. I'm about as likely to "get over" what Casey Hudson did to Mass Effect as I am to "get over" what George Lucas did to Star Wars.

Edit: Not saying that Mass Effect is actually comparable to Star Wars, just that the size of the shit that was taken on each franchise is.

I'm going to have to echo - 2>3>>>>1 Platinuming 1 was absolute torture after a while, it's just so wonky mechanically in so many places - and the story is really pretty damn shallow - it's good, but it's shallow. Most of the cool shit about ME1 is learning about the world but they're never expanded upon unlike in 2 and 3.

At no point in Platinuming 2/3 did they ever begin to feel like work. 1 absolutely did.

Ducks and sunlight and nitroglycerine or something.

But yeah I think it's goofy to call ME3 the worst game you've played in a decade, unless you hardly play any games a year and cherry pick the games you do play really hard or something.

Even with how terribly ME3 shit all over everything I hold sacred, the first half was still very good and the gameplay was still incredibly fun throughout

So did the ending DLC not do anything to change any attitudes on the ending? I know you can't polish a turd, but at least they did something.

Speaking of DLC's, that is something they did really well with 2/3. Yeah some were lackluster, but others like Lair of the Shadow Broker were fucking great.

ME1. It's the only one I occasionally want to replay, which usually leads into replaying the other games. Without ME1 I'd probably never revisit the series.

It closed some of the glaring plot holes, but the bigest complaints were:

1. the fact that the ending came from left field while being against everything you had experienced in the trilogy. With Edi and Legion you were organics and AI working together even though you were initially worried they couldn't be trusted. So 2.5 games of "Despite our fears we can coexist peacefully" to suddenly "lol just joking no you can't"

2. You must get as many species/planets on your side if you plan to take on the reapers while you spend 2.5 games rallying the troops to: "lol it's just Shepard by himself"

3. All the countless choices you make throughout the game will impact the ending to "lol red, blue, or green" They also added meta option where if you reject those shit endings everyone dies and you fail.

And finally 4. Kai Leng. DLC replacing him with the Noid would have fit in better with the ME universe.

the DLC didn't do anything those which were the main issues. The plot holes they did fix were just salt in the wounds

ME3 dlc was ok, although I still think Shadow Broker is the best dlc pack I've ever played for any game.

Leviathan was awesome, although I might be biased because it confirmed my theory about the Reapers. Omega was kinda dumb, but Citadel was really fun/funny.