u/Donald_Dingus

I’ve stated in previous post that I am a Novice in the Mass Effect world. Put it off for decades because for some reason it just didn’t pull me in when watching videos. Legendary edition was $5 so I had no more excuses lol. Loved it and I hate myself for waiting this long. Here are my own rating/review of the game as a casual gamer.

1. Mass Effect 1: 8/10
   - Once I landed on Eden Prime I knew I made a mistake not playing this game. It already felt like it was going to be huge and with the updated graphics it looked very good. Even the combat, while dated, was fun enough to play. A very fun game and intro that is really only held back by it being clearly dated. Reminds me of when I replayed Oblivion (not remastered) a few years ago and thought this games a 10/10 in 2006, but today it’s a little rough. Very simplistic gun play and the world exploring (while impressively big for the time) was very hollow.

2. Mass Effect 2: 9/10
   - Other than being utterly confused as to what was going on in the opening like 3 hours, this game immediately improved on everything gameplay wise for me. And not only that, but true world building and exploring. The assemble a team aspect of this game really opened up all the other species, planets, and history of the world. I genuinely found everything about this game to be a blast. Only reason it’s not a 10/10 to me is retrospective. This game really does feel like a filler episode to me now that I’ve completed the series. 1 & 3 are truly aligned, but 2 almost feels like a fever dream once you start playing 3. Like “oh Shepard retired from Cerberus and is back with the alliance and all those teammates are gone and most won’t come back.” Absolute blast though

3. Mass Effect 3: 8.5/10
   - This game was an 8 for me for the first 20~ hours. It was so confusing flipping back to the Alliance and not having the team I assembled just a game earlier. The fighting “improved” but to me became too “Gears of War” style and combat felt really easy. I barely died in this game. They also took away ALOT of things that I loved with 2. Also there was legit a 15 hours worth of DLC I accidentally played in a row that had me stop and forget what I was even doing in the main mission?! That being said it is undeniably MASSIVE. A blockbuster if there ever was one and once we got into the last 15~ hours of the main story it was go time. Frankly I don’t understand the gripe with the ending. I beat it last night and was sitting there wondering if I picked the right choice for an hour and flipped in my mind like 10 times. I chose Destroy. I get none of the choices you made during the game really matter to the final decision, but it worked for me. Maybe I’m simple. Overall the game was a lot of fun once it kicked off and the third act is some of the biggest I’ve played

Overall: I loved the series and am an idiot for waiting this long. It does bug me that every game kind of felt like a soft reboot? Like the continuity of the 3 games was pretty sloppy for me. Most of the time playing 3 I would just catch myself wondering what even was 2 about?? I loved the RPG-ness of the game and even though as it went on it became less RPG and more action game (as is the trend anymore), I still found a lot of joy in the decision and actually had to think before choosing unlike most games where they give you a choice but there’s no real choice at all unless you’re playing evil. I know my rating will tick some people off (it seems like if you ask 3 mass effect fans to rank the games you get 3 answers), but I truly loved the game.

I am a ME Novice. I’ve always heard it’s a HOF series and groundbreaking character choices that have actual consequences, but I would see the gameplay and not really be drawn in. That was until I saw the Legendary Edition was $5 and I had no more excuse.

I played 1 and could see it was dated (even with the upgrades), but still a very ambitious game for the time, and a blast! Then I played 2 and the upgraded shooting and combat were amazing and the world exploring was greatly leaped forward. It was a 10/10 for me. I am currently on 3, and while it’s fun & the combat is “improved”, I feel like they took away a lot of the things from 2 that I really enjoyed (planet mining, big guns). And then I started to realize that all 3 games have felt like a soft reboot of the previous game in terms of mechanics and your crew and I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed that.

So I guess I’m curious since I’m clueless to the Mass Effect fandom a few things:

1. Was this too felt by players at the time and even today? Did it annoy people? Or was this just an issue with me

2. What are the general rankings of ME games? Could be simply what you liked the best or a more in detail “ME1 story is the best, but ME2 gameplay is the best”