The graphics looked great; the planets looked really nice and the issue I had with Shepherd having a weird spindly neck was mostly fixed. Ashley’s eyes still looked a little crossed, though.
I liked the variation they added to the different guns (e.g. burst fire pistol, slug firing shotgun, semi-auto rifle, quick-firing sniper rifle). Previously I just picked the one with the biggest DPS number but this made me think a bit more.
Slightly better inventory system. Hey, every little bit helps.
The questionable:
What’s the point of having a hacking minigame if you can retry as many times as you want with no penalty?
The weird:
During the elevator cut scenes, did Liara always do “sexy” (I’m using that term loosely) animations like sliding her hand down her chest or running her fingers through her (non-existent) hair? I’m almost certain I would have remembered that from the original version of ME1, but maybe it was always the case.
I liked the extra variety in weapons and armor. I didn’t realise that a bunch of the weapons and armor in ME 3 first showed up as DLC for ME 2.
I thought it was a sensible addition to have less sleazy costumes immediately available for Jack and Miranda.
After playing the DLCs, some of the plot points in ME 3 started to make more sense. In particular, I never really understood who slammed an asteroid into a mass effect relay and what the point of it was. I didn’t realise that actually occurred 6 months earlier as part of a delaying action.
The platforming segments with the Hammerhead tank were kind of silly, but I thought they didn’t overstay their welcome.
Ultimately, the biggest advantage to playing through the DLCs might have been the extra money that you get from having more missions. I could afford to buy pretty much everything I wanted rather than having to pick and choose.
One thing I was confused by: I thought that, after the Normandy’s crew gets kidnapped, there was always time to do one last mission and still rescue all of the crew. But I tried that and Kelly/Ken/Gabby got killed, so I reloaded and ended up skipping Thane’s loyalty mission (that I had saved for last).
My understanding is that it’s a combo of a mission plus the number of mass relay jumps. Apparently if you do no actual mission but bop around to all the stores topping off your inventory, this counts as “waiting too long” in terms of saving the whole crew. I’ve never tested this myself but it’s what I’ve read.
I think I’ve played through ME 3 at least 10 times, and probably 90% of the time I have misinterpreted the conversation prompt “You be Bad Cop” as “You be Bad Cop and I’ll be Good Cop” instead of “Let’s both be Bad Cops”.
It turns out that not much changed when I skipped Thane’s loyalty mission, just some of Kolyat’s dialogue (e.g. saying “Hi, I’m Kolyat” instead of “Remember me? I’m Kolyat”).
It’s always fun to have more options for guns, but it was a bit annoying that you have to shell out a bunch of money if you want to try them all out.
The Omega DLC was significantly longer than I expected and I didn’t realise that it came with its own squadmates. I liked it well enough, although Aria’s Flare power is kind of nuts.
The Citadel DLC was nice, but after a while I got tired of having my email inbox flooded by different NPCs saying “Hey, why don’t we meet at Silversun Strip?”
Javik was an interesting NPC, but sometimes visiting the engineering deck caused my Xbox to slow down to a crawl.
The most annoying thing I noticed was that the top and bottom of the screen was cut off in the Xbox One version I played, so it was difficult/impossible to tell what the bottom two dialogue choices were and difficult/impossible to read the description of interactable items.
For the first time ever, I had Marauder Shields start walking backwards until he fell into a pit. Good riddance!
Prior to the legendary edition, I had only played ME1 & 2, as my efforts to play 3 were thwarted by the never to be sufficiently damned issues with Origin. So I didn’t have the issues many did with 3 coming out and being blindsided by the various endings - I knew what I was getting into.
Having said that though, and taking into account the last 6 years, I find the synthesis almost appallingly innocent. Sure, it makes sense (in terms of story, absolutely batshit in terms of the HOW it’s supposed to happen) as a resolution to the cycles, but again, the last 6 years prove that even if you can ‘understand’ someone, it has little bearing on if you agree with them! And that leaves out those who would likely try anything to undo it, to become ‘pure’ again on both sides. The catalyst was just sick of it all and wanted an end, any end, so it could abandon the cycles itself IMHO.
That being said, with the Leviathan DLC, it confirmed to me that the control option is the best choice for most players. Sure, you’re (mostly) dead, and enslaving a race, but if you destroy, you’re putting in a new class of biotic overlords controlling everything from the shadows, who were happy to enslave everyone prior to the Reapers, and murder anyone who exposes them after. Not a good scenario.
Spoiler-vision just in case. I’m not saying Control is a perfect answer, but having an immortal, hyper-intelligent momma/poppa to oversee the non-stop conflicts of the younger races is probably as good a situation as you are likely to get given that said races were all about multiple flavors of genocide in the centuries and decades prior. Worse case (high Renegade) it might give such races something to truly unite against, but again, that strikes me as extremely doubtful given the games story and real life.
“A computer ghost baby told me to commit suicide so that a wave of energy could put circuit boards on people’s faces and Pinocchio could become a real boy” – nope, nothing batshit about that!
I agree that the Control ending is the least bad (at least for a Paragon Shepard); having a benevolent dictator ruling the Reapers seems more moral than committing genocide on the Geth. I never considered the events of Leviathan, but that’s a good point too.
I just realised yesterday that this is a callback to a renegade Shepard comment from Mass Effect 1 (talking to the C-Sec turian about the hanar street preacher).
I finished playing the Legendary version again (with a renegade Shepard) and I kind of cooled on the ME 3 section; in addition to clipping off the top and bottom of the screen, there was frequently a mismatch between the animation and sound in various cut scenes. And the Citadel DLC mission against the clone was much less interesting the second time around since 90% of the dialogue is identical no matter what you do; it also didn’t help that I was using a biotic Shepard who didn’t have a good way to cut through shields and all of the mooks have shields.
On the other hand, I saved the Leviathan DLC until after I had recruited Tali and I discovered that I had missed a bunch of Tali’s chatter while she’s standing around in engineering. Without the DLC I would usually only see her standing in front of the memorial (after the Thessia mission) or drinking in the lounge (after the Sanctuary mission).
I do find that the renegade / paragon choices mean a lot less in 3, mostly only making a minor difference in the subflavor of the ending you choose, so yeah, it can be disappointment.
And Tali is always a joy. The character who to me at least, grows the most over the series, despite some of the greatest hardships.
Being paragon makes it easier to give her everything she wants though.
That’s probably my main gripe with ME3 - it seemingly goes out of its way to make your Big Moral Choices from the previous games irrelevant. Did you pick Anderson to join the Council? Too bad, he quit between games and Udina got the job anyway. Did you let the Council die? Too bad, there’s a new Council that’s exactly as shortsighted and naive as the old one was. Did you destroy the Collector base or let Cerberus have it? It makes absolutely no difference. Who did you save at Virmire? They behave exactly the same way in the sequels no matter what. The only things that really seem to make a difference in the third game are how you interacted with Wrex and Tali/Legion, and even then the impact it has on the story is minimal. Even if you let some of your squad die in ME2, the game just slots in a Biff the Understudy to fulfill the same role.
I’m in a Mass Effect Fans group on Facebook, and I just saw a picture that shows that if you wait too long to make your decision, the Reapers can actually destroy the Crucible. So you’d better commit to one choice or another.
I don’t play video games often, but occasionally I do enjoy them (typically during the dark winter days). My friend was just talking about how awesome Mass Effect was and while I had heard of it, I had never played it (as I said, I’ve never been a big gamer). I have a Steam account (I’m a big Rocksmith player which is through Steam) so looked it up and the Legendary edition is on sale for $15 right now so I bought it. I look forward to playing it, although I doubt I will play much till this fall.
Another SDMB poster @Mahalothchronicled their experience playing through the series a couple years or so ago. If you are of a mind to, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts as you work your way through (whenever that is…and you certainly do not have to).
It was a blast, but I would warn that Mass Effect 1 feels like a practice run of a game from the company. Many flaws of Mass Effect 1 are fixed in Mass Effect 2, which is probably one of the greatest games of all time.
I’d also love to hear thoughts on someone else playing through. It’s a lot take on, but very rewarding. I still think about the characters and their storylines from time to time.
On a first playthrough, certainly. However, I will add the personal note that I’ve played the trilogy around fifteen times, and the first game more than that (probably twenty), and over repeated playthroughs, I’ve decided the first game is my favorite of the three. Each one is a specific experience, with its own strengths and weaknesses; considering what I look for in a role-playing game, the first Mass Effect stands up to replay and variable choices better than the other two. Yes, the superficial experience is dated and janky. But underneath the skin, it’s really, really impressive.
I’m in the same camp. While I agree, that even with the legendary edition, the graphics are occasionally more ambitious than successful, ME1 is my favorite of the three. The story, the world building, the (comparative) freedom of builds and gear, the slightly more substantial differences in paragon/renegade. All make ME1 the best for -me-.
ME2 is my least favorite, in that the story felt very predictable, most of the new characters felt as thin as Ashley/Kaidan (my least favorite characters from ME1), they oversimplified the equipment and powers, and the enemies (internal and external) felt boring honestly. Happens when you’re the goons, and stuck in the ‘middle villain of a trilogy’ role.
ME3 is mechanically superior to 1&2, with a great compromise between customizing gear and powers, some really well done story beats (especially the non-main bits on the citadel, I love listening to the conversations between the NPCs), but is greatly weakened by how little all your earlier choices ended up mattering. And I don’t think any ending could have lived up to the buildup, but the one you get, even in the extended/legendary version was far from fully satisfying. So ME1 still squeaks out the overall win, with ME3 being close behind.
My best friend sent me her PS4 a few weeks ago, along with several games for it, and the first new game I bought for it was this one.
I’ve relished the opportunity to play a lot of the DLC for the first time, including Omega and Citadel. Right now I’m near the end of the game, so I’m playing the hell out of Citadel.
I very much enjoyed my Shepard dancing with Garrus, and I love the arena.
