Haven't played any of the ME games. Hear great things other than the ME3 ending, but it's like 100 hours I don't have to invest.

Saw the whole of ME2 played through by the GF and I really don't get the hate, it was a great game. Especially the character interaction was vastly improved over 1, it was fun to watch. She complained about the needing ammo some in the beginning but in the long run that really wasn't a problem anymore.

After having seen her play through 3 I already know I'm going to struggle putting together a team in that one for my own playthrough since I really don't feel the characters in that one were that interesting. (I was pretty excited about the DLC companion, till he started talking ...)

I still think the first game is best because of its atmosphere, less mainstream and the non-ammo weapons made it more authentic as an actual science-fiction shooter/adventure. Ammo is too old school. The inventory sucks and the multiplayer shouldn't have been included in the third. The best part about the series is the Repears because they're unknown and ridiculously powerful.

My (s)cent!!! :)

For people moaning about ME's gameplay...it pretty much sucked on all 3 games, very boring and repetitive, its only the story i played the games for

Yeah, well, after ME 3 and especially after the Leviathan DLC, we can't really call them unknown anymore. At this point, we know basically everything there is to know about them.

The gameplay has always sucked in Mass Effect, just like it sucked in Dragon Age. The only thing that's changed is BioWare has made it suck more with each iteration to attempt to appeal to the broader market.

Yeah I know, make the game suck more to appeal to a wider market. I shit you not, when they're counting on box sales they ramp up the marketers to snaz and wow the product, and dgaf about how good the game actually is as long as it moves so many units.

You can't blame EA for this either, BioWare has been essentially making the same game for the past 10 years.

I have not played any of the mass effect games yet.

Depends if you like Bioware's storytelling overall. If you enjoyed ME 2, there's a good chance that you'll enjoy the third one.

I haven't played it, myself. I don't care enough to actually buy or rent ME 3, but for some reason I DO care enough to spoil the plot for me. As I said earlier, ME 2 didn't exactly wow me, and with all the things I heard about ME 3 during the weeks before and after its release, I decided to leave well enough alone. The controversy surrounding the game, especially the ending, intrigued me enough to read up on some things. That's how I know about the Reapers and their origins.

You're entitled to that experience, but for me Dragon Age Origins was clunky, unwieldly, and most of the time I didn't have enough power to do anything but one or two power attacks, having to rely on my party to do everything else (I was melee). To me, the gameplay mechanics were not fun.

Actually, that would be the worst part about the gameplay.
They half assedly ripped that element from EVE and assumed it would work in their game.
It's a very clunky and annoying aspect of the game at best.
In the first game you had three armor types: synthetics, flesh, and then shields. This worked well enough.
Nevermind that fact that it doesn't make much sense, the addition of armor and biotic barriers that can only be pierced by certain things was annoying and unnecessary. Now you have to switch between shotguns, submachineguns, sniper rifles and pistols constantly in addition to your powers. This is not "intuitive" or "tactical", this is simply an annoying game mechanic meant to offer artificial complexity to this bland 3rd person shooter, likely to compensate for the loss of actual complexity, in the form of numerous powers and ways to configure your character, from the previous game. The game is very much not tactical. It's a mediocre 3rd person shooter.
Maybe if the AI was much smarter, and also had to play by the same annoying rules you did in order to kill them, and then having to configure your own biotic shields and physical armor, then the game might be considered tactical.

Opinions!
Did you play on console by any chance? The PC version is a very smooth and solid tactical RPG with great gameplay.

One thing I didn't like about the later games was how they handled the Reapers. In ME1, they're Lovecraftian horrors from beyond space who consume everything for no reason other than it's their nature. In ME2, they still have that inconceivable-horror vibe ("even dead gods can dream"), but I found the baby reaper reveal to be a little underwhelming. In ME3, they're reduced to being simply big spaceships. I never got that "birthed from the darkness of the universe's cold womb" feeling from them, especially after I killed two of them. I don't know if anyone felt this way, so don't be afraid to call me an idiot if I'm wrong.

They definitely felt weakened and less interesting as the games went on. I felt it was partially redeemed in the ME3 ending, which explained them well I thought, but otherwise they were certainly neutered.

Honestly the first game is many times over a better game for story purposes. Tone, music, style, dialogue and almost everything else. Kind of a shame, but the two sequels are still pretty decent story-wise and have a lot of cool locations.

You cannot use that fact as a point to magically refute my arguments.
What are you, 15?

Here look I can do it too: Well er, hurr durr, THAT'S YER UPINONION!@?

Forum is for discussion, not stating obvious facts. If you don't have something intelligent to say you don't say anything.

You seem to like using the word "tactical". How about you play a round of Arma 1 with me, I'll show you tactical. Game is free btw, and not very hardware demanding. And yes that is a challenge.

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