Gaming Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

Massive Spanner

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I forgot how much of a cover based shooter ME2 was and even though that was fine at a time, it's a bit annoying in 2021, still an amazing game, though, incredible really that they managed to improve so much on the first in less than three years. Superior in almost every way (story and some RPG elements aside). Lair of the Shadow Broker is also a GOAT DLC.

ME3 is still a joy, though. The combat is so perfectly refined, they completely nailed it. I don't think I appreciated it enough at the time because they simplified dialogue options - but let's be honest, who the feck every bothered with the middle option anyway, which is actually understandable as there were 40,000 lines of dialogue vs 25,000 in ME2. And, obviously, the shite ending. It's an awesome game.
 

Siorac

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I forgot how much of a cover based shooter ME2 was and even though that was fine at a time, it's a bit annoying in 2021, still an amazing game, though, incredible really that they managed to improve so much on the first in less than three years. Superior in almost every way (story and some RPG elements aside). Lair of the Shadow Broker is also a GOAT DLC.

ME3 is still a joy, though. The combat is so perfectly refined, they completely nailed it. I don't think I appreciated it enough at the time because they simplified dialogue options - but let's be honest, who the feck every bothered with the middle option anyway, which is actually understandable as there were 40,000 lines of dialogue vs 25,000 in ME2. And, obviously, the shite ending. It's an awesome game.
Yes, I'm playing through ME3 right now and the gameplay blows the previous two out of the water. I particularly appreciate the return of weapon customisation and deeper character development.

My overall problem with Mass Effect remains the same: the Reapers are too powerful. A single one almost annihilated the combined fleet of the Citadel in the first game - yet in the third I'm supposed to have time to hop around planets, doing odd missions while thousands of them are laying waste to everything? My suspension of disbelief can't really survive this.
 

Massive Spanner

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Yes, I'm playing through ME3 right now and the gameplay blows the previous two out of the water. I particularly appreciate the return of weapon customisation and deeper character development.

My overall problem with Mass Effect remains the same: the Reapers are too powerful. A single one almost annihilated the combined fleet of the Citadel in the first game - yet in the third I'm supposed to have time to hop around planets, doing odd missions while thousands of them are laying waste to everything? My suspension of disbelief can't really survive this.
Ha, so true, pretty much every modern RPG does it though.

World faces impending doom, must act, but.. oh this kid wants me to go collect five purple flowers for him. Well ok then!
 

Shane88

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10 years I thought ME2 was the best but going through the trilogy again has made me change my mind to ME3 being the best. The gameplay is undoubtedly the best but Mass Effect is all about the squad and ME3's squad and interactions between everyone blows the other two games out of the water.

ME1: Your squadmates hang out in the hangar and don't interact once. Liara stays in the medbay. The characters are good individually but the squad feels hollow. The game was made in 2007 though so I'll cut it some slack.

ME2: A huge squad, some great missions and hugely improved gameplay but very little in the way of interaction with each other. Every character is rooted to their spot in the ship and has quite limited dialogue overall ("Calibrations...") with two main characters (Wrex and Liara) being relegated to side mission and DLC status.

ME3: Way, way more banter and interactions. After almost every single mission and side mission, people have new stuff to say. They got rid of the middle dialogue option but everyone still feels way more fleshed out (Kai Leng aside but feck him). The ship feels far more alive with squadmates moving around, chatting, cooking, fighting, getting drunk. Turian and Quarian government officials stay on the ship temporarily. The genophage storyline, Rannoch too. It's a brilliant game.

Really? What happens after you do it?
Nothing :lol: Vega compliments you and Shepard can't life their arms. I thought I might get a weapon mod or some "Gun Show" war assets!
 

Minkaro

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Apparently he's got a lot of backstory in a couple of the Mass Effect books, which nobody has any interest in reading. But he's meant to be this guy who keeps failing but ends up becoming more and more machine every time. Like Nebula but without the decent acting.
I still can’t believe that’s Troy Baker. He’s usually great!
 

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I might should apologize on my earlier comments regarding difficulty, because I’m running a sort of glass cannon Vanguard on Insanity in ME3 and getting my ass handed to me regularly. This is rough.

I‘m not walking back anything on ME2 though, this run has actually reinforced my opinion it’s the worst of the original 3. It’s cover shooter combat is like Gears of War light; it’s just not that great. And there’s no epic story or world building to make up for it.
 

Droid_Repairs

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I might should apologize on my earlier comments regarding difficulty, because I’m running a sort of glass cannon Vanguard on Insanity in ME3 and getting my ass handed to me regularly. This is rough.

I‘m not walking back anything on ME2 though, this run has actually reinforced my opinion it’s the worst of the original 3. It’s cover shooter combat is like Gears of War light; it’s just not that great. And there’s no epic story or world building to make up for it.
You don't think being
literally raised from the dead
makes for an epic story line? I absolutely love that about ME2. It opens up all kinds of philosophical and existential questions. This twist blew me away all those yars ago, and I still love it now.

Also, the endgame is pretty intense (spoiler heavy flow chart) - basically any of your squad can die and there are many different eventualities that lead up to this. Often RPGs are criticised for decisions not mattering enough, but in ME2, the decisions you make within the loyalty missions and the way your organise your team at the end can lead to drastically different outcomes - which in turn affect who is still around for ME3.

I love them all, but ME1 is probably my favourite. It's an emotional ride and it asks the hardest questions and gives the toughest dilemmas - who to leave on Virmire, what to do about the Rachni queen. It is sensational and I love it.
 
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Bebe

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Finished ME2 (still got Arrival to go) last night. It's still a brilliant game, but there's a large part of me that prefers ME1 especially with the technical improvements. If ME2 had a good main narrative, it would be more or less perfect.

The combat in ME2 is fun, but knowing the further improvements to come in 3 makes it a bit less enjoyable. Still hate the change to one universal cooldown for abilities.

With all the excellent DLC included, as a standalone game it feels more of a full experience than it used to. Still, the trilogy as a whole is still better than anything I played in the PS4/Xbone gen. This series is such a gaming triumph.
 

Droid_Repairs

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Finished ME2 (still got Arrival to go) last night. It's still a brilliant game, but there's a large part of me that prefers ME1 especially with the technical improvements. If ME2 had a good main narrative, it would be more or less perfect.

The combat in ME2 is fun, but knowing the further improvements to come in 3 makes it a bit less enjoyable. Still hate the change to one universal cooldown for abilities.

With all the excellent DLC included, as a standalone game it feels more of a full experience than it used to. Still, the trilogy as a whole is still better than anything I played in the PS4/Xbone gen. This series is such a gaming triumph.
There is a mod for ME2 and ME3 that reverts back to the classic individual power cooldowns, unfortunately none of the old mods work with Legendary Edition and are having to be made from scratch.

ME1 would be perfect if they had brought the combat in line with the other two, even with the improvements it's still very clunky, and while I appreciate the texture upgrades I still don't understand how it still looks so dated compared to the other two. It's still my favourite of the trilogy though.
 

Organic Potatoes

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You don't think being
literally raised from the dead
makes for an epic story line? I absolutely love that about ME2. It opens up all kinds of philosophical and existential questions. This twist blew me away all those yars ago, and I still love it now.

Also, the endgame is pretty intense (spoiler heavy flow chart) - basically any of your squad can die and there are many different eventualities that lead up to this. Often RPGs are criticised for decisions not mattering enough, but in ME2, the decisions you make within the loyalty missions and the way your organise your team at the end can lead to drastically different outcomes - which in turn affect who is still around for ME3.

I love them all, but ME1 is probably my favourite. It's an emotional ride and it asks the hardest questions and gives the toughest dilemmas - who to leave on Virmire, what to do about the Rachni queen. It is sensational and I love it.
I loved that beginning bit in ME2, along with The Illusive Man. The ending was dramatic as well, but in between just felt like a bunch of side quests.
 

Shane88

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Still feels wild seeing Martin Sheen as TIM. Usually big celebs phone it in on video games but he was excellent in ME2&3.
 

Droid_Repairs

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PC mods incoming. The devs behind the tools to mod the original games have released an updated toolset to work on Legendary Edition.
 

Garethw

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So did they remove all of the shots of Miranda’s arse from ME3?
 

Mr Pigeon

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The whole genophage segment in ME3 is surely one of the best gaming sequences ever, so damn epic.
I don't know if I just took ages to play through the third game years ago but I was surprised at how quickly that moment came during the Legendary Edition playthrough. I could've sworn that you visited the planet twice with Mordin...
 

Shane88

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Bebe

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Male Shep's voice acting in ME1 is so bad! :lol:

I'm trying a non-space racist renegade run where I am extremely loyal to my squad but an absolute cnut to mostly everyone else. I have a feeling it's gonna be hard to get the renegade points to pass checks.

Was there ever any doubt?

https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/368
I've been doing this and in ME1, there's a bug on Noveria I think where you can get infinite renegade or paragon points, I just used that so I'd have enough renegade to pass checks without having to take some of the ridiculous renegade options that nobody in their right mind would choose and that actively make the story worse.
 

Red Shorts

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Just made my way through ME1 and 1hr into ME2. God this trilogy is so epic.

Dont want to rush through it, but I played ME3 so much I am absolutely pumped to get into it. The finale of ME2 is brilliant though so something good to look forward to currently.
 

Massive Spanner

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I'm actually shocked so many people picked Kaiden.

Pretty much every winning choice there was my choice too. I am but a puppet.
 

Iron Stove

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Gor it at release and was planning to finish the trilogy this summer. Absolutely loved it first time, but ME1 even with the LE upgrades is rough in terms of mission and level design. Guess I've been spoilt. Nearing the end now and story is good though.
 

Red Shorts

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Just finished ME2, thought I followed the right steps to save all the crew. Selected Garrus and Grunt for final fight, then find Tali dead. Bloody annoyed and have to do it again :houllier:
 

Annihilate Now!

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How was Wrex 4th?!?!?!?
Considering the most selected categories are Soldier and Vanguard, you need to take either Garrus or Tali (for decryption/electronics so you can open stuff), which is why they'll be one and two... then if you're a soldier you'll most likely take Liara for her Biotic abilities.
 

Red Shorts

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Considering the most selected categories are Soldier and Vanguard, you need to take either Garrus or Tali (for decryption/electronics so you can open stuff), which is why they'll be one and two... then if you're a soldier you'll most likely take Liara for her Biotic abilities.
Thats a valid point looking back at it. The amount of times I was roaming a planet and couldnt unlock things because I chose the heavies all the time... lesson learnt and onto 3 for me now! Buzzing to get stuck into it
 

Shane88

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Just finished ME2, thought I followed the right steps to save all the crew. Selected Garrus and Grunt for final fight, then find Tali dead. Bloody annoyed and have to do it again :houllier:
Garrus and Grunt are two of the strongest "Hold the Line" characters.

Each squadmate has a hidden value for that part of the mission and you need to reach a certain threshold to keep everyone safe.

Garrus, Grunt, Zaeed are the strongest and Tali, Mordin and I think Jack are the weakest. If you bring two of the heavy hitters with you, the rest aren't strong enough to hold the Collectors off.
 

Red Shorts

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Garrus and Grunt are two of the strongest "Hold the Line" characters.

Each squadmate has a hidden value for that part of the mission and you need to reach a certain threshold to keep everyone safe.

Garrus, Grunt, Zaeed are the strongest and Tali, Mordin and I think Jack are the weakest. If you bring two of the heavy hitters with you, the rest aren't strong enough to hold the Collectors off.
Yeah I sent Mordin off with the survivors, and didnt includr Garrus and Grunt this time. Got the W which is annoying not to do first time around.
 

Revan

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Started it. I remember the main story but not the details. It is still as good as ever, played for four hours without stopping and now completed my squad.
 

Shane88

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New teaser image for N7 day. Zoom in and it looks like Liara, Wrex, Garrus, someone else and a dead Geth in the distance while the crater itself looks like a Geth.

 

Bobski

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Been playing Andromeda for the first time after getting through the trilogy. I was aware of the narrative around it, but thought it was hyperbolic internet noise, however in this case it might just be fair. The odd thing is the combat is the best of the whole lot, but the writing and characters are just awful. Possibly the most obnoxious and unlikeable group of characters in any game I have played, almost impressive.