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Mass Effect series: which do you think is the best entry? [SPOILERS!]

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ME1 was best, the galaxy, planets exploration, Music by Wall and Hullick, first foray into next gen proper, great memories.
Taking out planets explorations was a bad bad decision, they designed so many good looking planets in ME1, which had nothing much to do but gave that open galaxy feel, land on planets , drive around, observe and feel different weather patterns, overcasts, moons, geology etc. They went into great detail at portraying real Space scifi stuff.

With sequels they went more action oriented and linear. More setpieces and epic on your face stuff.
I love exploration, loved DAI for same reason and glad Mako and exploration will be back in next ME.

     
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For me personally I would rank them as:
ME 2
ME 1
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ME3

I really like ME 2 the most, because it streamlined all the problems in ME 1 like the boring side missions and the crazy inventory, and the fighting. The companion missions were amazing, and they are probably the best side missions in any game I have ever played. The missions were just so memorable like the Archangel one, or the Samara vs Morinth encounter. The characters were the best in the series, like Jack, Samara, Garrus (in all 3 games), Thanos, and Mordin Solus + Legion and Grunt. The end mission was really thrilling and exciting. I just loved everything about it. My only complaint is the planet scan mini game which really sucked.

Mass Effect 1 was cool in introducing the world and the characters. It was definitely breath taking when it came out, but being the first one out of the door, it had some downfalls like long loading times (the infamous long elevator rides Smile ), boring forgettable side missions, uninteresting fighting and cumbersome inventory management. The Maco planet missions were pretty lame too. It got the villain, the world, and the characters, and the story right.

The third one was my least favorite. The ending is like taking all the amazing story and world the first 2 games tried to build and flushing it down a clogged toilet. It was one of the worst endings (if not the worst ending) of any game I have ever played. The story just seemed silly, because in a whole wide universe, it was a recurring joke how you just kept bumping into your old teammates. What a small universe we live in.
EDI was a nice touch and was a nice new addition to the squad, and her banters with joker are funny. I just think that the third game just didn’t do it for me.

     
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Am I really the only one that thinks ME3 is (slightly) better than the other two?

Yes I know it had a ******* ending, but honestly what did you expect?
The nature of the whole story and the way the story had progressed, pretty much made it impossible to conceive any ending that wasn’t a bit cheesy, over the top and completely illogical. Simply using the weapon to destroy the Reapers, without any kind of explanation or big dramatic moment would instead simply had been a big anticlimax.

More importantly imo, ME3 had the largest variety of opponents requiring different strategies for different encounters, compared to the rinse and repeat approach in especially ME1.

Even more important imo, is that ME3 by far offered the largest variety and most options in how you wanted to develop your character and how to play each class.

Take for example the Sentinel in ME3. You could either chose to develop them in an extremely tanky way, equip them with a kickass shotgun, and focus 100% on taking down opponents at point blank range with your shotgun. Kind of how the Vanguard worked in ME2.

OR you could chose to focus mainly on the explosive nature of your tech shield, perhaps combined with biotic explosion to soften them up first, and a close combat weapon to finish them off. Kind of how the Sentinel worked in ME2.

OR you could chose to stay in the background and focus 100% on your biotec and tech abilities, causing biotic explosion and tech combos all over the place. Kind of how they worked in ME1.

My point is that no other game in the series offered so many distinctly different choices in how you wanted to play each class. ME2 had some of it, like being able to play the Infiltrator as a sniper or close combat rogue, but especially ME1 only had one single way to play each class, and all you could decide yourself was if you wanted to do a bit more damage with your weapon or your abilities.

Anyway, as I said it of course depends entire of what parts you focus on and value the most, and this freedom in how to develop a character is something I personally value greatly.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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I don’t think you are alone. For me is almost a tie between ME 2 and 3. I loved many things about 3 and I may be one of the very few people that didn’t have a problem with the ending. Like you say I don’t know what people were expecting, either a typical clean happy ending or hundred of many different endings from all the different choices you made, which yeah would have been nice but also a little bit unrealistic. I appreciated what they went for and like you say it was next to impossible to have a perfect ending tied with a nice bow if you look at came before and the type of enemy they were facing.

Interestingly, I loved 3 for different reasons too. Like I said I’m not big on RPGs so for me it was a big welcome the streamlined gameplay of 2 and 3 as well as how the sidequests felt more focused and tied into the main story. 3 was the only one where I almost completed every side mission because I felt they affected the main mission in the form of war assets and what not, specially since I was not going to play multiplayer. It also had some of my favorite moments and missions like Tuchanka and resolving the genophage issue, or the Geth vs Quarians issue.

     
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see I remember when all the promo for the games were coming out and that is what bioware promised us, that your choices did matter and that your character would truly shape the universe. and lets be honest thats not really what happens. its the same problem I have with telltale games. they tell a great story usually but when walking dead came out, telltale had the same talk, your choices matter, but really they dont other than the odd line of dialogue; characters live or die depending on the script not your choice. just be honest to us gamers is all im asking.

take wrex he could die in the first game, so instead of delivering on the promise that your choice matters, the devs just basically wrote him out of the game, just in case he did die in some players game.

and before you say well no game can give you that much free will I call bs, wing commander 1-4 all gave you actual choice, with real consequences. wing commander 4 had 5 distinct endings based on player’s choice and your actual flying ability. here is one scene from that game that has very little spoilers. this is the ending you get if you just suck at flying lol, and yes that is mark hamill and Malcolm MCdowell.ps as I sadid in my gabe knight 2 review I thing wing commander is the only great fmv games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pte2qHwsc2k 
     
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Jdawg445 - 13 November 2015 11:03 AM

take wrex he could die in the first game, so instead of delivering on the promise that your choice matters, the devs just basically wrote him out of the game, just in case he did die in some players game.

Ehhh .. Wrex wasn’t written out of the story, in fact he plays a relative and surprisingly large role in the sequels, he just isn’t a companion to Sheppard any more. In fact some things in the 3rd are only possible if he does survive. Similar if you look at the other companions that could die in the 1st or 2nd, some only make a cameo appearance, some are just with you for a single mission, but in the case of Ashley & Kaiden the one that does survive will actually be back as a squad member.

They could of course have gone a bit further with this, but it is still much better than anything I have ever seen in a Telltale game.
The one thing that did annoy me regarding the choices, was that at the end of the 1st you have three choices to chose between, but in the 2nd game they had reduced it to two, converging two of them into one, which basically meant that everybody including Sheppard, was acting like I had made a choice that I actually hadn’t made Shifty Eyed

As for your choices affecting the ending .. Well, it is a game about saving the life of every single sentient being in the galaxy, do you really want everybody to die because you made a bad decision in the first game?


P.S. I also really loved the Wing Commander series, but I don’t recall that the endings of one game actually carried over to the next as it does in ME.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Jdawg445 - 13 November 2015 11:03 AM

see I remember when all the promo for the games were coming out and that is what bioware promised us, that your choices did matter and that your character would truly shape the universe. and lets be honest thats not really what happens.

That’s because you keep thinking of the ending. The consequences of our choices don’t shape the ending - they shape the entire third game!

All possible ways to end the genophage subplot depend on whether Wrex survives or not, whether you’re lying to him or not, what you did with the research in the second game, etc.
The fate of Mordin also depends on this.
You need to have made some very specific choices in the first and especially second game to be able to end the conflict between the Geth and the Quarians, and you need to do some very specific things in the third as well. Not that many people ended that war peacefully - so there’s three outcomes to this plot line, with the golden one being very difficult to attain.
Who survived and who didn’t in the second game has a massive impact on several of the individual missions in the third game. Heck, even how you treated Conrad Verner in the first and second game becomes important.

A lot of these things only really become obvious on subsequent playthroughs, but almost everything in the third game changes, based on your decisions in the first two.

I’m not saying the consequences are massively different, and they sure don’t account for much towards the ending (being reduced to war assets and all), but claiming that there are no consequences at all for any of your actions in the first two is just daft, imo.

Iznogood - 14 November 2015 12:57 AM

The one thing that did annoy me regarding the choices, was that at the end of the 1st you have three choices to chose between, but in the 2nd game they had reduced it to two, converging two of them into one, which basically meant that everybody including Sheppard, was acting like I had made a choice that I actually hadn’t made Shifty Eyed

Please elaborate, as I’m not quite following.
This is a spoiler thread, feel free to actually mention what the choices are. Tongue


Edit: I’ve edited the thread title to accentuate the spoiler-y nature of the thread. Cool

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 14 November 2015 02:31 AM
Iznogood - 14 November 2015 12:57 AM

The one thing that did annoy me regarding the choices, was that at the end of the 1st you have three choices to chose between, but in the 2nd game they had reduced it to two, converging two of them into one, which basically meant that everybody including Sheppard, was acting like I had made a choice that I actually hadn’t made Shifty Eyed

Please elaborate, as I’m not quite following.
This is a spoiler thread, feel free to actually mention what the choices are. Tongue

Mkay:


(Sorry for the poor quality, I lifted it from a youtube playthrough)

The problem is that the “Concentrate on Sovereign” choice is retconned out, and everybody including Sheppard him/herself will act like you let the council die because you thought they were complete bastards that deserved to die, and NOT because it given what is at stake, was the best military decision to focus 100% on taking down Sovereign.

(If you use the whatever it is called to created a background to import into ME2 without actually playing ME1, you are actually only given two choices, save the Ascension or not)

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Ah, I see, in my memory the choice was “save the council” and “don’t save the council”, I’d forgotten about the “neutral” third option.

I get that “concentrate on Sovereign” is considered equal to “let the council die”, though.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 14 November 2015 02:31 AM
Jdawg445 - 13 November 2015 11:03 AM

see I remember when all the promo for the games were coming out and that is what bioware promised us, that your choices did matter and that your character would truly shape the universe. and lets be honest thats not really what happens.

That’s because you keep thinking of the ending. The consequences of our choices don’t shape the ending - they shape the entire third game!

All possible ways to end the genophage subplot depend on whether Wrex survives or not, whether you’re lying to him or not, what you did with the research in the second game, etc.
The fate of Mordin also depends on this.
You need to have made some very specific choices in the first and especially second game to be able to end the conflict between the Geth and the Quarians, and you need to do some very specific things in the third as well. Not that many people ended that war peacefully - so there’s three outcomes to this plot line, with the golden one being very difficult to attain.
Who survived and who didn’t in the second game has a massive impact on several of the individual missions in the third game. Heck, even how you treated Conrad Verner in the first and second game becomes important.

A lot of these things only really become obvious on subsequent playthroughs, but almost everything in the third game changes, based on your decisions in the first two.

I’m not saying the consequences are massively different, and they sure don’t account for much towards the ending (being reduced to war assets and all), but claiming that there are no consequences at all for any of your actions in the first two is just daft, imo.

Iznogood - 14 November 2015 12:57 AM

The one thing that did annoy me regarding the choices, was that at the end of the 1st you have three choices to chose between, but in the 2nd game they had reduced it to two, converging two of them into one, which basically meant that everybody including Sheppard, was acting like I had made a choice that I actually hadn’t made Shifty Eyed

Please elaborate, as I’m not quite following.
This is a spoiler thread, feel free to actually mention what the choices are. Tongue


Edit: I’ve edited the thread title to accentuate the spoiler-y nature of the thread. Cool

See i disagree totally, I let Talia die on purpose and the only thing that changed was some dialogue and not much else. Even the whole redo your character for mass effect 2 was over done and out of place. for instance a lot of the decisions really dont matter, let council die who cares there will just be a different group. It all comes down to war assets in the end.

     
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Iznogood - 14 November 2015 12:57 AM
Jdawg445 - 13 November 2015 11:03 AM

take wrex he could die in the first game, so instead of delivering on the promise that your choice matters, the devs just basically wrote him out of the game, just in case he did die in some players game.

Ehhh .. Wrex wasn’t written out of the story, in fact he plays a relative and surprisingly large role in the sequels, he just isn’t a companion to Sheppard any more. In fact some things in the 3rd are only possible if he does survive. Similar if you look at the other companions that could die in the 1st or 2nd, some only make a cameo appearance, some are just with you for a single mission, but in the case of Ashley & Kaiden the one that does survive will actually be back as a squad member.

They could of course have gone a bit further with this, but it is still much better than anything I have ever seen in a Telltale game.
The one thing that did annoy me regarding the choices, was that at the end of the 1st you have three choices to chose between, but in the 2nd game they had reduced it to two, converging two of them into one, which basically meant that everybody including Sheppard, was acting like I had made a choice that I actually hadn’t made Shifty Eyed

As for your choices affecting the ending .. Well, it is a game about saving the life of every single sentient being in the galaxy, do you really want everybody to die because you made a bad decision in the first game?


P.S. I also really loved the Wing Commander series, but I don’t recall that the endings of one game actually carried over to the next as it does in ME.

To answer your question yes, be better than just three endings no matter how you played the game.

     
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I agree with TimovieMan, if you don’t focus on the ending, the whole third game is about seeing the consequences of your actions on the previous games. Granted, there’s not like super big changes and at the end it all boils down to war assets, but if you think about it, the choices are carrying over entire GAMES, which is very different from decisions made over one single game experience where obviously you have more room to offer distinct changes and endings. It seems you were expecting ME3 and its ending to be like multiple games in one, which I think is unrealistic, is just one game (and a a fairly lineal one at that) where the characters’ fates and plot resolutions are shaped according to decisions made in previous games, and that for me is an incredible achievement in itself. Like I said before, I know there might have been things that could have been better and missed potential but for me personally was incredible to see the galaxy and its inhabitants be shaped by my actions and decisions over the course of three games.

     
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Hi fellow adventurers !

I just downloaded the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 from PS+.
Is it a big problem if I skip ME1 (there´s no PS3 version of the 1st one) ?
Should I watch a playthrough or at least the cutscenes ?

what do you think ?

     
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Hi Tiocfaidh, ME1 should be available in the Playstation Store (and if you’re planning on going through the whole trilogy I recommend playing it). But if you want to skip it, IMO is not a big deal, you can definitely watch some movie versions in youtube and make sure to download the free DLC, it would give you access to an interactive comic book summarizing the events of ME1 where you can make the most important choices so that you can carry them over (As well as two extra characters)

     
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@Tiocfaidh
I would definitely recommend playing ME1 first, as the three games more or less constitute one whole story, kind of like Star Wars episode 4, 5 & 6.

But if you don’t want to do so or it is not an option, then there is as danigar mentioned, the interactive comic book that gives you a synopsis of the most important events in ME1, and you can probably also find a story playthrough on youtube, where all the combat has been edited out.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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