Which Mass Effect is Best?

[Puddleglum]

I'm sorry but a lot of the combat and customization changes in ME2 annoyed the heck out of me. I guess I'm wondering if it is just me or are people downplaying this because it's still ME and we love it.

[beastlyskronk]

The customization did regress but overall it was a better RPG. There was more to do and the side quests actually felt like they had somewhat of a point. The first one focused a lot on the main story and while that is important the side quests suffered and it took away from my experience. Plus I kind of liked ME2's continuation of the story better than ME1's starting point.

[LordTrychon]

I can see how some would dislike the lesser customization. Actually, mainly because I've seen so many mention it.

For me, it was a bit much. I don't mind customizing my own gear a bit, but to have to do it for the entire team (especially when some characters aren't used often, but still have to be used at times...)... well, it was more than I needed personally.

They'll probably find a medium ground on that in the third, I hope.

I thought the FPS portion of the game was much improved, and that made it very enjoyable to me too.

The story wasn't quite as shocking, but ME1 is hard to follow up in that. I really liked a lot of the new characters and story progression in ME2 anyway... and that made it nearly as good story wise.

[Amari24]

Definitely Mass Effect 1. I think Mass Effect 2 is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, but it's no where near as good as ME1.

ME2 felt so stripped down that it barely had any RPG elements at all. It felt more like a Third-Person Shooter than an actual RPG, and that was probably for the worse. We only had 3 ammo attachments to choose from, whereas in Mass Effect 1, we had tons of them. None of the weapons felt different, all of them did around the same amount of damage, and there weren't that many weapons to begin with, which is awkward because if the game is more like a shooter, why so few weapons?

In ME1, different weapons did different things, and the grading system for them were overall much better than they were in ME2. There's no planet exploration in ME2 either. Yeah there's the side missions and stuff, but those were limited itself, most of them only took about 5 minutes, and just involved going through corridors. Overall, it just felt really underwhelming as a sequel.

[Amari24]

I can see how some would dislike the lesser customization. Actually, mainly because I've seen so many mention it.

For me, it was a bit much. I don't mind customizing my own gear a bit, but to have to do it for the entire team (especially when some characters aren't used often, but still have to be used at times...)... well, it was more than I needed personally.

They'll probably find a medium ground on that in the third, I hope.

I thought the FPS portion of the game was much improved, and that made it very enjoyable to me too.

The story wasn't quite as shocking, but ME1 is hard to follow up in that. I really liked a lot of the new characters and story progression in ME2 anyway... and that made it nearly as good story wise.

I didn't have a problem with this at all, actually, I welcomed it, I felt more in control of my team, rather then having everything already done for me. It was more tactical gearing up my team for the right mission and for the right situation. Getting them equiped with the right weapons, attachments, and armor, added a whole new strategic element that wasn't in Mass Effect 2 whatsoever.

The easiest solution around it if you didn't like it was simply to only customize the characters that you planned on using. The only problem would be if you use Kaiden and Ashley a lot, and they have to be separated on Virmire.

[Gordon Freeman]

ME1 had the more memorable story and environments, ME2 had better combat.


ME1 for me.

Also I prefered using the mako to explore planets over the extraction (which was an absolutely terrible idea)

[baphamet]

The customization did regress but overall it was a better RPG. There was more to do and the side quests actually felt like they had somewhat of a point. The first one focused a lot on the main story and while that is important the side quests suffered and it took away from my experience. Plus I kind of liked ME2's continuation of the story better than ME1's starting point.

huh? i thought the rpg was way better in the first one. the second ME was more of an FPS than a rpg, more so than the first one that is.

[Amari24]

huh? i thought the rpg was way better in the first one. the second ME was more of an FPS than a rpg, more so than the first one that is.

ME1 has FAR more RPG elements than ME2. ME2 is more of a TPS than RPG imo.

[baphamet]

ME1 has FAR more RPG elements than ME2. ME2 is more of a TPS than RPG imo.

well yeah, it is third person but there really isn't a huge difference between first person and third person as far as game play goes, at least not in that game when the camera is right behind the character.

its basically first person with the camera scrolled back just a tad.

[Amari24]

well yeah, it is third person but there really isn't a huge difference between first person and third person as far as game play goes, at least not in that game when the camera is right behind the character.

its basically first person with the camera scrolled back just a tad.

Ohh sorry. I wasn't at all trying to correct you on it, I just specified it as a TPS instead of putting FPS. I was just trying to point out that I agreed that ME2 wasn't much of an RPG.

[baphamet]

Ohh sorry. I wasn't at all trying to correct you on it, I just specified it as a TPS instead of putting FPS. I was just trying to point out that I agreed that ME2 wasn't much of an RPG.

[Skywalker]

I can't decide. Both have their strong and weak points. The biggest thing for me I guess is that I greatly prefer the squadmates in ME2 than ME1 as characters.

ME3 is going to be awesome because I think it's going to find the happy medium between the two. You get some RPG customization back but it won't be so overwhelming and (annoying) like it was in ME1, and we get ME2's combat system.

[Hoserman117]

Overall they were tied for me, but the ending of ME2 was just way too freaking epic, and pushed it above the 1st IMO.

[Puddleglum]

Overall they were tied for me, but the ending of ME2 was just way too freaking epic, and pushed it above the 1st IMO.

This is so strange I thought the end to ME 1 was WAY better than ME 2. You gotta admit you got chills when he popped out of the rubble.

[Hoserman117]

This is so strange I thought the end to ME 1 was WAY better than ME 2. You gotta admit you got chills when he popped out of the rubble.

The end of ME1 was really cool, but that fight with Saren I thought was a little boring. It was still a great ending, but in comparison, I thought the whole build up and overall execution of the ME2 ending was probably the best ending to a game I've ever played.