Board 8 > Mass Effect Legendary Edition Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mac Arrowny posted...

ME1 always had better gameplay than ME2.

What the fuck

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ME1's gameplay is nice because of how much slower it is than ME2's. Feels more like a relaxed RPG than a fast-paced third person shooter.

ME3 was a big improvement over ME2 though.
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ME3 > ME2 > ME1 in terms of combat gameplay, easily.

ME1 leans way too RPG, ME2 leans a little too TPS, ME3 I find strikes the best balance.

wow I actually agree with Mac here, but obviously I know it's the minoirty opinion

ME1 was janky and clunky but that sort of made it feel more unique to me, whereas ME2 sort of felt like a generic late 2000's-ealry 2010's third person shooter. ME3 fixed that for me and made it more of its own thing, and I ended up enjoying it much more.

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You like ME1 best if you like RPG part of the series, you like ME2 best if you like the action stuff, you like ME3 best if you have bad taste

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I agree with Mac and Bane that the uniqueness of ME1 is awesome, but also ME3 is the best one.

3 > 1 > 2

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Hell yeah ME3 is the best one.

I'd actually rank ME1 and ME2 pretty much equal, but ME3 is best by a lot. Those set pieces are amazing, and it has some great emotional moments, especially if you're a Renegade.
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ME1 is unique in the way moldy bread is unique

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yeah ME1 is unique for a reason

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I preferred ME1 to ME2 by a pretty large margin, at least where combat and character building are concerned. I always had to be worried about managing ammo in 2, and leveling and bonuses seemed few and far between and never really seemed to do much.

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Managing ammo in ME2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> managing ME1's weapons and items inventory, which is the worst in any game I've ever played

I had actually repressed it until you posted that, thanks for dredging up memories of converting dozens and dozens of useless items into gel

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azuarc posted...

and leveling and bonuses seemed few and far between and never really seemed to do much.

If anything this is ME1 more than ME2, with the "put a point into this to get .2% extra shields" skill trees.

ME2 is a bit better, I actually feel the upgrades there, but the upgrade paths are pretty linear. ME3 does the version of it with the splits in each skill's tree actually feeling different.

azuarc posted...

I always had to be worried about managing ammo in 2

Another issue they've fixed here!

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Murphiroth posted...

If anything this is ME1 more than ME2, with the "put a point into this to get .2% extra shields" skill trees.

Maybe not every skill, but I could at least feel differences when I picked things in ME1. And because you got more than 1 point at a time, you could get ".2% extra shields" 4 or 5 times, which was still 100% more than the effects I felt from ME2 bonuses and skills. ME2 combat was just "peek over the cover, shoot and hope you don't run out of ammo, and do nothing else because you have no buttons to push or tactics to employ."

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azuarc posted...

ME2 combat was just "peek over the cover, shoot and hope you don't run out of ammo, and do nothing else because you have no buttons to push or tactics to employ."

huh

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Kind of hard not to feel like changes matter in ME1 when you have to spend half an hour fucking around with the shitty inventory and 50 pieces of gear that all look the same but in various shades of purple.

Total placebo.

Still gave ME1 10/10, considered it one of the greatest games of all time when I played it BTW. But after 2 is is very, very difficult to go back.

Excited to do so, though!

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azuarc posted...

Maybe not every skill, but I could at least feel differences when I picked things in ME1. And because you got more than 1 point at a time, you could get ".2% extra shields" 4 or 5 times, which was still 100% more than the effects I felt from ME2 bonuses and skills. ME2 combat was just "peek over the cover, shoot and hope you don't run out of ammo, and do nothing else because you have no buttons to push or tactics to employ."

I mean maybe if you chose to play it that way! I was tossing out biotics (biotic detonations are so good) and tech left and right in ME2, even moreso in ME3 where you have tech bursts on top of biotic detonations.

Also IIRC it's only 3 points per level in ME1 for LV 1-5, then only 2 for like 30 levels, then 1 the rest of the way to LV60. ME2 is 2 points until LV20 and 1 point from LV20 to LV30. Not much of a difference IMO.

Yeah claiming ME2 is worse with abilities is wierd because Biotics and Tech in ME1 were an embarrassing waste of time that no human should ever use. If you weren't playing soldier in ME1 you were just straight up handicapping yourself, there was NO advantage to using another class other than "well I wanna".

Which, I mean, if you wanna you wanna! It's not like it wasn't VIABLE, it was just pointless.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Yeah claiming ME2 is worse with abilities is wierd because Biotics and Tech in ME1 were an embarrassing waste of time that no human should ever use. If you weren't playing soldier in ME1 you were just straight up handicapping yourself, there was NO advantage to using another class other than "well I wanna".

Which, I mean, if you wanna you wanna! It's not like it wasn't VIABLE, it was just pointless.

lolwut biotics absolutely annihilate in ME1. About as broken as Gen 1 Psychic Pokemon.

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ME1 Biotics were absolutely hilarious. ME1 Lift still the GOAT for the shenanigans it could pull lol.

that said if you want to argue NG+ Soldier + Bonus Talent Lift I won't stop you there.

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Maybe I'm just thinking if the tech skills. It has been a while!

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No wonder you dont seem to like ME1, you played as a soldier??

Soldiers arent fun until the sequels, when you get Concussive Shot and can blast everyone on their ass every 3 seconds.

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

No wonder you dont seem to like ME1,

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Still gave ME1 10/10, considered it one of the greatest games of all time when I played it

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Ok, in hindsight you dont seem to like it.

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Well, in terms of "optimal" I think ME1's optimal is Biotics/Adept + Assault Rifle Proficiency as a bonus talent from NG+.

Biotics are super broken in ME1 and the -only- downside of them in ME1 really is limited weapon proficiency but quite honestly you can just ignore that if you want because you can throw out Lift and Singularity and it more than makes up for it. Or just try and meet it halfway with Vanguard if you don't have bonus talents/can't be bothered to try and min-max.

Tech is the big loser in ME1 lol.

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I played as Soldier my initial ME playthrough and still loved it. I didn't learn the joys of biotics and techs until later.

Vanguard became my favorite by ME3, I think, but I'm not sure I've played as all the classes yet. I don't think I've ever done Adept or Sentinel.

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Also they've removed pretty much all of the class restrictions for weapons in ME1 here, which is nice.

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Sentinels are fun because you basically have total control over the battlefield, all the crowd control.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Also they've removed pretty much all of the class restrictions for weapons in ME1 here, which is nice.

It's been a long, long time but I thought you could use all weapon types in all classes in OG ME1, but without the proficiency you lacked the damage talents and like... couldn't zoom/focus aim or some other silly things that made them harder to use.

So, like, you could equip an AR on an Adept but the spray at any distance past point blank made it kind of pointless.

could be confusing it with another game though

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while 2 and 3 play better, ME1 was always my favorite because of its world building (universe building?) and I actually liked the Mako exploration bits.

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I don't remember what the class distinctions are for weapons in ME1, but I know they've changed something about them for the remaster. I forget exactly what it is.

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Three more Insanity runs, I see.

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As someone who has never played ME ever before... do I get?

It never really caught my interest, but I know people love it.

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Best change is the "play the majority of the game with the *insert species here* squadmate" trophies are now just play 5 missions with that squadmate.

Grand Kirby posted...

As someone who has never played ME ever before... do I get?

It never really caught my interest, but I know people love it.

It's an incredible series.

ME was on top of the world until ME3, and there's two things to say there in regards how to someone from the outside looking in might have seen the series through osmosis.

ME3 - still a fantastic game. The legit complaints are all from WITHIN the fanbase, people mad that it was like an 8.5 or a 9 instead of a 10/10 perfect legendary entry in the video game pantheon. I don't think any reasonable person thinks ME3 is an actual bad game. "ME3 sucks" just became a meme.

Andromeda - literally just ignore that this thing exists. It does not matter. No real human beings defend the game, just bots. It has absolutely no bearing on the fantastic quality of those first 3 games, and it is not a part of this in any way.

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Grand Kirby posted...

As someone who has never played ME ever before... do I get?

It never really caught my interest, but I know people love it.

Depends on what you value in an RPG. It's got top tier world building and cast chemistry. The gameplay gets better as it goes along. I'm generally not a fan of shooters, but ME gives you enough other options to keep it interesting.

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I never played ME3 back in the day, but I remember the uproar. Does this version do anything to fix the ending everyone hated?

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Mobilezoid posted...

I never played ME3 back in the day, but I remember the uproar. Does this version do anything to fix the ending everyone hated?

They fixed the ending a long time ago (although a lot of people still hate it). The original ending isn't in this version.

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Grand Kirby posted...

As someone who has never played ME ever before... do I get?

It never really caught my interest, but I know people love it.

Yeah, this really depends on what you're looking for. I'd say it's a very solid space opera/sci-fi WRPG. If any of that sounds appealing to you, then go for it IMO. ME2 is a legit game of the decade contender.

As you go further into the series the gameplay moves towards more of a TPS with RPG Elements but it executes this much better than it did the earlier (ME1) combat IMO which is a bit of a mess. It can be a charming mess at times but yeah.

Mobilezoid posted...

I never played ME3 back in the day, but I remember the uproar. Does this version do anything to fix the ending everyone hated?

As an OG (and still current imhotbqh) ME3 ending hater, Bioware addressed/fixed the initial ending outrage with a free patch not too long after the original release. Like Leon said you won't be seeing the original dumpster fire ending in this remaster.

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The uproar over ME3's bad ending feels so quaint in a post-Game of Thrones world

It WAS bad though

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Andromeda - literally just ignore that this thing exists. It does not matter. No real human beings defend the game, just bots. It has absolutely no bearing on the fantastic quality of those first 3 games, and it is not a part of this in any way.

I've got a friend who will fight to the death to defend Andromeda as the best game in the series, and who will tell me that I just follow what everyone on the internet says and that's why I'm wrong.

It is both comical and insane.

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I liked Andromeda. It had a lot of glaring problems though.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Andromeda - literally just ignore that this thing exists. It does not matter. No real human beings defend the game, just bots. It has absolutely no bearing on the fantastic quality of those first 3 games, and it is not a part of this in any way.

I actually bought Andromeda recently on sale, and I honestly haven't noticed any issues with the game. Whatever garbage it had upon release has generally been ironed out. I assume. Or I'm just really tolerant. Haven't played it fully through, though. Got sidetracked.

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As someone who never played Andromeda: despite having seen a lot of people say they dislike it, I still have no idea why it's supposed to be bad outside of facial animations. People were SO ready to dump on that game.

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The combat is great but the worlds feel kind of empty and the story is hilariously awful. So many plot lines that just never get resolved or end in a stupid way. It looks especially bad in comparison to how much more well done the trilogy is in that department.

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The story and characters are just really, really horrible, and it gets worse as it goes on. Some of the late game revelations and beats are straight up embarrassing.

I don't say this lightly, I 100% that game top to bottom (misguided belief that there was going to be save data transfers as always, so no matter how bad a time I was having I had to make sure all bases were covered), and it's easily my most dissapointing game of all time (not worst, most dissapointing).

If they ironed out the bugs, that's nice, but it has zero impact on why I had issues. I only ever got one bug in my playthrough, even if it did force an old save. If I'm looking at gameplay, biggest issue is definitely that the open world is empty, pointless, and overall just bad top to bottom.

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Leonhart4 posted...

I played as Soldier my initial ME playthrough and still loved it. I didn't learn the joys of biotics and techs until later.

I always played Soldier in ME1, then went with biotics in the other games. The cooldown in ME1 was just nuts.

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davidponte posted...

So many plot lines that just never get resolved or end in a stupid way.

Remember how the mom storyline panned out? Holy shit.

Also, and I totally forgot, they left out an ENORMOUS amount of content that was intended to be DLC but never made it to fruiting because....yeah...


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Mother fucker the unlock time on this game literally just jumped by an hour once the countdown ended. BOOTY.

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Man I'm so upset. The countdown clock had it ending at 11, and when it reached zero it spun back up to another hour.

Pain.

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