I'm ****** at the direction they took with the graphics and supposed consistency for LE. It's there for some characters, but not others, or the direction taken was the wrong one. But that's what mods are for...
The first Mass Effect will always be my favorite of the series.
This LE patch mod helps it reach its full potential (there is one for the original, as well).
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I even enjoyed its combat a great deal, especially with the independent cooldowns that we don't get back until Andromeda. Legendary Edition also allows the use of untrained guns without penalty (but also no benefit; a fine and welcome balance).
The overall setting and how it was presented felt very grounded in reality, with exception of the Asari. It's hard to suspend my disbelief that they are 100% human female-shaped, albeit with head tentacles. I know it was established that they're simply supposed to be "space babes" and nothing more, but coomers shouldn't be allowed to write lore. Also, the concept of not knowing what the Quarians look like is ******** because there would be countless photos and vids of them on the extranet from pre-exile.
The squadmates grow with you and feel like actual people within the limitations of the dialogue (even Liara to a minor extent), and it feels like they truly support Shepard. Many would find the UNC missions tedious and/or repetitive, but I enjoy these too.
The main quest is my favorite in the series. So many impactful moments, so badass, very dramatic, etc., etc.
The planets may not have a lot of exciting things going on, but the sights are breathtaking.
The Bring Down the Sky DLC was an excellent showing of the story potential the setting has. It felt like it blended seamlessly into the base game (minus the ship's VI having the wrong voice). The Pinnacle Station one is tedious yet oddly satisfying when you complete it. The reward is neat, story-wise, but ultimately useless. This one feels less seamless, but I think it's primarily because Shepard has much more important things to do, lol.
I like that I can leave insubordinate Ashley to die on Virmire. As much as I value her character growth, a generic soldier is worthless compared to a biotic (especially a sentinel). That, and her character gets completely bastardized in the third game, so killing her is a mercy. The only people who choose her over Kaidan are braindead simps who'd sacrifice a whole platoon to save a vagina.
Mass Effect 2 is my least favorite of the series, but I still enjoy certain things about it a great deal.
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They threw away the realism and grounded nature of the first game for gay movie-cool ********. Goodbye armor, hello catsuits and exposing our skin and eyes to the vacuum of space! Shepard's death (retconned in 3 to just brain death) is ******** and impossible to suspend disbelief for. I have to do mental gymnastics and pretend he simply got caught in the planet's orbit, rather than somehow being in any way salvageable from burning up in the atmosphere and pasting onto the planet's surface.
The camera is claustrophobic, and Shepard's movement has become sluggish. This is also where they implemented shared cooldowns (likely as a result of arbitrarily limiting our total skills), which requires mods to remove. The abilities are more fun; the biotics have a lot more personality, so to speak. This is also the infancy of the biotic charge, which isn't great but will become so in 3 and perfected in Andromeda.
The side quests and companion quests become much more fun and interesting, however the companions' unique quips in the first game are replaced with canned comments that get repeated where applicable. This is one of the things that make the squadmates feel a little less like a unit, along with the interactions with them feeling rather stilted at times.
I like the companion shouts during combat which they sadly didn't carry over to the third game; they have a lot of personality. I wish they'd at least done something akin to ME1's combat shouts so that they'd still feel alive but not yell flippant things during such a heavy time for 3.
The main plot is okay, I guess. It's frustrating at times, especially with the ******** gating of Legion behind a quest that sets off a timer. Mods can help. Also frustrating not being able to calmly explain things to the Virmire Survivor, but BioWare relies on irrational characters even if it's out-of-character. Suicide mission was quite fun, though.
Main DLC: Overlord DLC was enjoyable, albeit tedious in parts. The Hammerhead is a lot more fun than the Mako. Lair of the Shadow Broker is a lot of fun, but I ******* hate Liara. Arrival is dogshit and probably the most egregious example of having no player agency (until ME3). I like Zaeed quite a lot and Kasumi somewhat, but their content is woefully lacking.
Mass Effect 3 is complicated.
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Reaper-centric aspects of the main story are good until
the ******* Starchild thing and its ******** plot dump and EVERYTHING IS SO ARBITRARY. Anyway, mods help, but I recommend avoiding the overly saccharine ones. Don't even get me started on Cerberus and Kai Leng. Goodbye player agency, hello plot contrivance and cartoon villains!
The art style is at its worst. The first and second games had a lot of depth and dimension to the eyes, whereas in 3 they've all be replaced with flat, lifeless doll eyes. The uniforms are hideous, and whoever specifically designed the female uniforms appeared to have been unaware that women have these things called rib cages. Their hips go to their chests, their shoulders are sunken in, and they have gangly nightmare arms I haven't seen since Dragon Age Origin's female dwarves.
Armor is partly brought back to reality, but female armor heavily accentuates the breasts to an almost comical degree. Related: EDI is now a
disgusting sexbot.
Combat is the most enjoyable of the trilogy (especially with a mod that removes shared cooldowns), but not of the series.
Companions feel like a nice blend between what we get in 1 and 2. We're bonding, they have unique comments to make, etc. However, ME3 introduced a non-cinematic dialogue system with a distant camera. This would continue to be used in future BioWare games (Inquisition and Andromeda), much to the dismay of many. It's not used terribly often, but it does feel very impersonal.
The reporter lady is a travesty. The **** yeoman is also a travesty and I can't stand her smug voice actor. It's always an unpleasant surprise to hear her in anything.
Main DLC: Leviathan is my favorite and I enjoy greatly every time I play through it. I
despise Citadel for a plethora of reasons. The story is ********, and the whole DLC is nothing but cringey fanservice memes. It's dogshit. Omega is fun, but I never liked Aria. It feels like she tries too hard to be a man. I like the antagonist and I like that we can spare him. From Ashes is nice. Javik is a perfectly fine companion whose absence is mildly felt if you don't have the DLC, most noticeable would be significantly fewer squadmate interactions. The Eden Prime mission is enjoyable, but I wish they'd had it at sunset, for old time's sake.
Andromeda is better than people give it credit for, but definitely rough around the edges. It's apparent it was made by a smaller team.
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The combat is the best in the series. Really **** fun. For me, it is like the perfect blend of ME1 and ME3. They even have a vintage heat sink you can install in your gun for the infinite ammo of the first game, as long as you take care not to overheat your gun.
The facial animations are not great; they move around too much as if everyone has some kind of tic.
The squadmates are divisive, for sure. I'd rather they not be so young overall, but I was pleasantly surprised by them. It makes it easier to believe they'd defer to such a young Pathfinder, anyway. I like default Scott Ryder. Sarah is dumb and lame.
The worlds are, for the most part, very fun to explore, but I could certainly believe Eos being a filter with regards to the environmental hazard system. Exploration takes me back to ME1, a very good feeling. The vaults are some of my favorite areas to explore.
It's the most pozzed of the series, but the majority of it is easy to ignore.
The main story and the squadmate missions are very fun, IMO. I'm genuinely saddened they dropped support of it before giving us the DLC they were alluding to at the end. The only side missions I don't like are the ones that are based on RNG enemy drops where you require an arbitrary amount of something.
I don't know what the point of writing this was. Maybe it will convince new players to give these games a shot, or at least see how modding improves them.
