Only a few hours into ME1 so far, but it looks and runs great on my one x. I've decided to purge all my many playthroughs from my mind, reading all the codex entries and exhausting all conversation options has reminded me just how utterly fantastic the world building is in this series. Given how much fun Im having, I think I'll do a second run as a paragon too.

And sorry y'all but the krogan are too dangerous, wrex was a true gangsta but he gets one to the back of the head every time.

I wondered if anyone ever played renegade/"evil" in these games. My question has been answered.

You monster.

...OK, but seriously, have you ever actually taken Wrex through all three games? You can save him in the first game if you have... I think it's at least 8 Charm or Intimidate? As long as you've got high enough in those stats you can keep Wrex alive no matter what. Definitely worth it to have his presence in the second and third games.

As far as Mass Effect in general, I agree that it's been a lot of fun so far but playing ME1 again has proven to me how much mainstream RPGs have moved on since then. Dialog works and is interesting, but it feels like almost every conversation option you have results in Shephard saying "explain (concept)" or "tell me about yourself" or something really generic along those lines. Conversations with lots of options are much more obviously infodumps in a way that I don't think would fly anywhere near as well in 2021. That's not to say it isn't still interesting and maybe this is because I already know these games pretty well, but I think the writing in 2 and 3 is a step up from this game and games like Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity far outshine it.

It's still absolutely worth playing and loaded with tons of extremely well thought out lore and characters and concepts and ideas, but the whole "fully voiced conversations" thing doesn't flow quite as well as I once thought it did.

I played 2 and 3 in early 2019 and while I remember having this thought to some extent, I also recall those games presenting themselves in much more engaging ways. It helps to already have a bedrock of lore and events to build off of, but those games are generally more engaging than this one.

@sahalarious: You don't need to save the Krogan race if you save Wrex. Wrex is a ride or die buddy and you sold him out for no reason. You are probably the person they modeled the Terminator Reaper after and the Terminator Reaper is probably nicer!

@justin258: I can see where you're coming from, I think the info dump works for me because of how good the writing for that info is. I agree that Witcher 3 has some of the best writing in an RPG, but I think we're Mass effect succeeds so well is just how many of their elements did not exist prior, whereas The Witcher is certainly building upon European medieval lore plus the books. But the military rigidity that Shepard reacts to things with is a bit stale.

@bigsocrates: haha i think this will be the time to save him, you guys convinced me.

I have somehow already dropped 7 hours into this, and I'm also really enjoying my time with it. I love the vibe of the first game so much. Having said that, it is INSANE to me that they didn't tweak the ME1 inventory at least a little bit. It was a nightmare in 2007 and it is like 100x worse in 2021.

They did add a tag as junk option, so you don't have to sell/dismantle each and every gun one by one. Probably the best they could do without overhauling the entire loot system of the game.

I’m almost 5 hours in and just added Liara to the squad. I almost never replay games. ME 1 & 2 I’ve replayed multiple times. Having the upresed visuals makes ME 1 even more enjoyable, though I’ve noticed more bugs this time around. People say ME 1 barely looks different, or exactly as they remember, but they just haven’t replayed it recently. Very happy with this set of games so far.

True, but if anything in these games needed an overhaul, it was the loot system of that game. I don't even mind the combat like so many, but the loot and inventory, even with the tag as junk option, is just BAD.

Maybe I'm just desensitized to it having played the game so many times over the years, but I don't really think it's that bad. At worst, you'll need to spend maybe 90 seconds managing your inventory every few hours. The addition of the junk option is a nice time saver, and I also appreciate that they gave various weapons within each type some new differences such as varying rate of fire, burst fire, semi auto ARs, etc. to give different weapons more of a distinct feeling.

Obviously it's not the best inventory and loot system ever, but I don't feel like it negatively impacts the overall experience all that much.

Different strokes and all that. I just felt like it was this glaring thing that I remembered despising then and feeling even more like "how was this a thing, and how is it still a thing??" But hey, if it doesn't bug you, glad to hear. I'll just be happy when it is gone forever once I get to ME2!

I've played through the Mass Effect games so many times that I don't know if I'll ever play through them again but probably in the future when I have a beefier PC (I'm rocking a 1650 Super) I'm sure I'll give the original ME trilogy one last go around.

@brendan: I'm rocking a 1070, runs well on 1080p.

I'll most likely jump back in when this collection is $20. I'm still burned out on the original Mass Effect 1 after nine playthroughs across every version of the game, but I don't like the changes that modders made to the Alliance uniforms with the HD texture pack, and I'm curious to see first-hand what gameplay updates were made.

...Oh, and 21:9 is highly appreciated.

There are definitely aspects of the first game that feel dated (and things like the inventory that were awful even back in the day), but I've been surprised by just how well it holds up overall and how engaging it still is in 2021.

It is shocking at just how instantly complete and well realized the world feels in this game. The way they're able to quickly and naturally establish so much in this game is still first-class. There certainly are some conversation paths that are just there for exposition, but most of them still manage to work pretty well.

It's probably because you're picking up the story in an existing world. It's not an origin story for a change. You're discovering something new. Many other games it would have been the first contact war, I imagine.

Man this HDR is nice, this game has so many lights! I'm staring at the drive core while I eat my lunch haha

Well, I was having fun until the first Mako vs Thresher Maw encounter. Now remembering why I prefer ME1 with mouse & KB.

@frytup: The mako is better but still not perfect. I still prefer having it and being able to have those larger worlds, it felt so odd for the game to become smaller with its sequels as they removed the mako

About 20 hours in now, and I am looking forward to never getting in the mako again. The non conversation based segments as re still rough, but I'm still quite in love. Looking forward to starting 2

@sahalarious: I'm not quite 20, more like 15 hours and halfway through and that Geth base, 4 planet base side mission is really sapping my Mako strength.

After watching a playthrough of the entire trilogy a couple years ago, I think the games don't hold up super well. The writing is relatively good, but I feel like the Witcher 3 does everything these games do but way better.

@cubidog: these games have always been about the story, and even though Witcher 3 is probably my favorite RPG, nothing comes close to ME as far as sci Fi story and world building. I wouldn't say they aged poorly at all, 1 was clunky back in 07 and 3 and 2 play well still.

The first impressions were great. I played through it on XSX, but after doing all side quests, exploring all planets (again [it's my fifth playthrough of ME1]), and the main quest, taking 40 hours, I have to say I was left feeling the same way I did after I went back once ME2 came out, which is that it's not that great. The last time I went through the trilogy was in 2016 after EA had said they don't plan on doing a remaster, so I bought the remaining DLC I hadn't gotten throughout the trilogy and went through it all again. I really liked one at the time; it was my favorite experience of it up to that point, but now... Well, I'm glad I'm on two now.

The Mako felt worse than ever, which is ironic perhaps. I didn't love going back to all those planets. The majority of side stuff was a bit of a bore, and the dialogue/relationship stuff is laughable. The characters have always been less interesting in the first outing. The visual improvements were nice; it helps make it feel more cohesive with the rest of the trilogy. I enjoy the combat fine, but it doesn't feel all that improved over the original outside of the sniper rifle which is a go-to weapon now considering its steadiness.

I've always played as a male, paragon, soldier in Mass Effect, and that's not changing here. The only change I've made with this is that instead of sacrificing Kaiden, I've sacrificed Ashley (which I don't feel bad about). So, that'll at least be interesting to see Kaiden progress through the trilogy, which I've never seen. I've also never really taken Kaiden on missions, but throughout this remaster playthrough, I took him on about every mission I went on. I just wanted to see if I'd like him more because he always bored me.

Some of the dialogue is still fun between NPC's or characters like Wrex. It is interesting how timely some of the stuff is because not only is Mass Effect inclusive, but there is a lot of talk and characters in the game about race and their intolerances with another. I know it's been there, but it's never been something I've thought about too much outside of the discussion of Ashley being racist, and then ultimately how all races need to come together despite their issues. I enjoy reading and listening to the codex entries, and a few of the story points are still good, like meeting Sovereign or talking to the AI on Ilos.

The music wasn't really doing it for me. The main theme is great, but outside of that, I wasn't into it despite thinking it was great back then. I think two and three have better soundtracks.

@sahalarious: Idk why but they just seem kinda dull to me now, which is crazy because I absolutely though 2 was one of the best games that year. I'm just disappointed I don't like the games as much as I used to. None of the characters are as standout as I remembered them being. I don't really have super strong feelings about any of the characters, which in a party based rpg is kinda sad. Idk, I wish I liked the games as much as some people but they just don't if for me like they used to.

Finished the first game today. Hey, that game's still rough. I enjoyed it and definitely think you should play it, but it's so obviously and clearly a CRPG dev's first attempt at a console third person shooter/RPG.

For one... don't try to 100% the first game. I understand the temptation, but don't. Do the main quests, do the side quests related to characters (Tali, Garrus, and Wrex have one), do the DLC quest, and do the one quest you get on Luna (that is, Earth's moon) for your class specialization. As far as side quests go, pick a few that seem interesting and do them until you realize that they really are just copy-paste bunkers and barren randomly generated wastelands. Then make sure that you've put 8 points into Charm or Intimidate to keep Wrex alive and go to Virmire. Also, periodically get rid of all your inventory items that are two levels below what you and your party currently have equipped so that you don't wind up spending an hour thumbing through everything. Unless you're on insane, you don't need the best equipment to beat the game. You'll miss out on hitting max level and there are a few small details in Mass Effect 2 that you won't see, but it's not worth grinding away at those repetitive tasks.

For two, the characters really shine in Mass Effect 2. In one, they're good, well fleshed out characters but they're not quite as interesting or engaging as in Mass Effect 2. Except Wrex. Take Wrex everywhere. I've become a big fan of Wrex and his dry, practical personality.

For three, even though the shooting and the Mako are better, they're still not good. The shooting has largely been fixed by adding hit markers and making all the guns reasonably accurate (which also makes the Soldier class almost completely useless) while the Mako has basically been made "heavier" (it grips the ground better instead of bouncing around like a tennis ball at Wimbledon). Even power usage feels janky - I played an Adept and powers are useful, but all of it feels one step short of finished.

Please don't read this and think that Mass Effect 1 isn't worth your time in 2021. It definitely is, especially if you haven't played it before. It's just that I think Mass Effect 1 builds a great universe with good characters and barely passable gameplay, while 2 adds to that great universe, makes the characters great, and makes the gameplay good.

I have the same feelings about Mass Effect as Jeff Gerstmann. I love the first two games in the trilogy so damn much, and from what I remember the 3rd was a pretty good game if you leave the whole ending sequence out of it. I think that it's a wonderful trilogy, no doubt, and I think Andromeda was a little more enjoyable than many feel it is. But just knowing that ultimately, not much of what you do in the first two games ends up mattering. Listening to Jeff talk about it on the Bombcast just reminded of my the precise problem I have with these games.

Having said that, if/when they pop onto EA Play/Gamepass eventually, I will likely give it another go.

@justin258: I would even argue that the Cerberus quest is like the only one worth doing. Context wise. I'm sure there is some under the hood stuff with companions that maybe matter in 3 (the series makes your smaller choices matter more than it is given credit for) but even the companion missions in 1 are pretty lackluster other than Garrus' (and even that could have been so much better).

Edit: I also am of the opinion that, and this is probably just me, the first game improves with age. I was much more forgiving of some of its weird faults than I was back when it released and the hype machine was going full blast.

Wrex's sidequest doesn't really matter all that much, but talking to Garrus makes his characterization in the second game make a lot more sense. Tali's sidequest involves getting a bunch of Geth data for her to take back to the migrant fleet, which results in (as far as I know) a throwaway line of dialog when you first meet her in the second game - but it still feels good to know that you contributed to her pilgrimage instead of her just getting it some other way off screen between games.

So yeah they're not really necessary, but they're mostly pretty short and easy so I'd still consider them worth it.

I also am of the opinion that, and this is probably just me, the first game improves with age. I was much more forgiving of some of its weird faults than I was back when it released and the hype machine was going full blast.

Is there a specific aspect that you think improved with age? I'd agree that Mass Effect has aged well but, in my opinion, no part of it has entirely escaped harsher criticism, save maybe the aesthetic and tone that doesn't quite match up with ME2 and 3's. I also was only vaguely aware of this game at launch and wasn't really part of the hype train, I just bought it cheap years later for something to play during summer vacation, so the comparison between my feelings then and my feelings now are maybe a little different from someone who was hyped for it in 2007.

As someone who last played 2 and 3 in 2019, I disagree with the notion that few of your actions in 1 and 2 matter in 3. They don't play into your final choice, but a lot of stuff - especially major stuff - plays into the game's overall story. Keeping everyone alive during the suicide mission, for instance, makes a lot of difference, especially for Tali and Legion. It's not often super significant but it's acknowledged often enough. The way they wrap up most of the conflicts from 1 and 2 are what I find most engaging about 3's story. Yeah, the ending's not great, but that's always been a "whatever" for me, it's fine.

Besides, the real secret is that Mass Effect never had all that much choice anyway - the Paragon/Renegade system and how that plays into skill checks that affect certain outcomes pretty much ensures that you only make one real choice throughout the whole series - whether you're a good cop or bad cop. You can be a good cop and still keep up a habit of punching reporters and shocking Batarian mechanics, but the vast majority of your choices need to fall in line. I guess that realization before ME3 ever came out dulled the idea that Mass Effect was ever a choice-driven game for me.

@justin258: Haha when I wrote that I knew it wasn't very clear. It's more that I think it tries to do a lot of things and I think the lesser parts are less annoying now. Like, say, recurring locales? That bugged the shit out of me at the time but now? It's fine. I don't think it is really a well designed game overall as much as it is a game with big ideas that hits many of them more than it misses. Does that make sense?

Now that I'm in ME2, all doubts about the quality of these games holding up is gone. It looks FANTASTIC, and the characters and writing are all up a good deal. The removal of loot and replacement with upgrades, giving areas of the Normandy a purpose still feels so great. Skipped a lot of side stuff in 1, gonna 100% 2 though.

Just wrapped up the main story of 2 myself. What a dang good game. That end boss is hilarious now as it was back when the game first came out. I found Insanity to be much easier for both ME1 and ME2 this time around, so I can't tell if I just got better at playing games or games got progressively harder since then in comparison. Was fun to learn that the achievement for doing ME2 on Insanity is bugged to not pop though! Same with having a romance in 2. Oh well, more reason to replay it when they fix it.

Gonna mop up all the side stuff in 2 since I was a crazy person and did that in 1, then start ME3 this weekend. I remember almost nothing about ME3 so I'm really looking forward to experiencing it again, so close to having played 1 and 2

Hello to those playing this remaster: Is it worth the buy or can I cheap out and just play the originals on game pass ultimate?

@pg77: Depends on whether you originally played ME1 and/or can look past the jank. If so, the back compat versions are fine. That being said, you won’t get the DLC through the Gamepass versions, which to me are really critical for a thorough play through. The DLCs themselves are quite expensive, so if you don’t want to miss them you might as well get the remaster. You do get a 10% discount for being a Gamepass subscriber, so there is that.

@pg77: it is a substantial upgrade and looks fantastic with hdr especially, plus the dlc gotta do it

@pg77: As others have said the DLC is basically necessary to make the games complete. If you wanted to do the Gamepass route and not buy all the DLC to save money it would be possible, but you'd be missing out on a fair amount.

For ME1 you don't need to buy any DLC.

For ME2 you don't absolutely need to buy any DLC, but Lair of the Shadow Broker is pretty important for a major character's arc, and both Arrival and Overlord are decent little adventures. Kasumi: Stolen Memory is good and introduces a decent character but is probably skippable.

For ME3 you absolutely need Leviathan and From Ashes. ME3 is already a divisive game, but those two DLC represent massive chunks of story that 100% should have been in the main game, and the fact that they're not is one of the worst examples of DLC carve up ever. Leviathan helps explain the whole underpinning of the Mass Effect universe and answers a bunch of questions that have existed in the series from the beginning, and From Ashes includes an absolutely necessary character.

You're probably going to want Omega and Citadel too because they revisit iconic locations and characters from earlier games and help flesh out the third game's sense of bringing the series to a conclusion and closing out character arcs. They are more skippable than Leviathan and From Ashes but both are worth doing (Citadel moreso than Omega, especially if you care about the characters.)

So at the bare minimum you're looking at $20 for From Ashes and Leviathan unless you want a totally carved up version of ME3, and if you want the ME2 stuff and the other good ME3 DLC you're now getting close to the cost of the legendary edition.

I would say it makes more sense to wait for a price drop from the Legendary edition than to buy a bunch of DLC from games you don't actually own, especially because if you're going to save money you're playing a markedly inferior version.

Don't play ME3 without Leviathan and From Ashes.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my question.

I will purchase the legendary edition and play through the series. This would be my first time.

Cheers.

My copy FINALLY arrived. I'll probably blog about this later to focus more on it but man as far as Remasters go this is one of the best ones I've played.

My initial thoughts on the changes to environments and colors was pretty skeptical and I would have definitely been of the camp that would have wanted things to just stay as they were.

Now that I've actually played through the first chapter of the game I'm actually very supportive and think it enhances the game in the best possible way without doing a complete remake from scratch. The new environments look fantastic and really liven up the experience. As someone whose played Mass Effect one probably 10-15 times over the last decade its tough to explain just how noticeable and numerous a lot of these changes are. They really went all out. There are still the odd instances of the new textures and lighting making a character look worse somehow, Captain Anderson stands out, but even that is only really noticeable in the lighting of the Intro Mission and is a little nicer in the later parts of the game.

Overall super stoked to finally have all of this in one spot on my current console with suspend and I can finally toss out the USB Frankenstein I've had for my 360 trying to datahorde these games on a dying console.

I bit the bullet and decided, out of curiosity, to see how the remaster stacks up the original. I'm only a little ways into ME1, but damned if this isn't coming across as the most cynical, low-effort, make-a-quick-buck remaster they could have put out. It takes all of 15 or 20 minutes playing to see how BioWare absolutely did not care about the product they were putting out. To wit:

• The graphics "updates" are kind of . . . bad? The changes they made to the faces increased the uncanny valley quotient about 200%. The eyes are all way too big and the characters almost never blink. The default male Shepard's eyes also bulge out, so he looks like Total Recall when people smash their helmets. It's super unsettling.

• Also, while they updated the facial models, it seems like hair didn't get the same treatment. Having a block of low-texture hair was fine for the 360 when it was matched with a similarly low-texture face. It's not so fine when you improve everything else but the hair. It's extremely bad and extremely noticeable. Kaiden and Ashley look like part of their model failed to load.

• Some of the graphics options are also broken. Turning film-grain on and off does, as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing.

• The tutorial pop-ups are too large and stay on the screen way too long. They will even persist through cutscenes if you're trying to blast through. I had a giant "Hold L1 to aim down sights!" box covering the top 1/3 of the screen during the cutscene where Jenkins was killed. It feels like a first pass of something you would put in the game just to make sure the tutorials worked, intending go back to later to make the pop-ups look good. Except they never went back to make them look good.

• The combat was always kind of bad in ME1. Now that it's updated, it's still bad, just in a different, less-forgivable way. When ME1 first came out, the combat system kind of made sense as an evolution of where BioWare games were coming from and where other games were at the time. It was a mostly failed experiment, but you could at least see what they were trying to do.

Now? They've tried to change it by making the aiming more like ME2 and ME3 and downplaying the RPG numbers behind the scenes. However, they now have the worst of both worlds. All they've ended up with is a system where the shooting still doesn't feel good as future games, but now the RPG mechanics behind the shooting are virtually worthless. I just don't get it. Why update the combat at all if you weren't going to make it good? It isn't like they don't have any examples. They literally made better examples themselves in ME2 and 3, so they should already have the template.

Gah. The whole thing is just majorly disappointing. Which I suppose is par for the course with BioWare for the last several years. It looks particularly bad when stacked up against the recent successes of more substantial remasters and remakes. If they'd taken the time to actually put some effort into things, maybe actually rebuild the combat and RPG mechanics from the ground up rather than the unholy abomination they have now, it could have been a really cool update to a classic game.

@therealturk: Sounds like you would have preferred a remake, but they very clearly billed this as a remaster that would largely touch things up more than anything. I wouldn't really call it lazy to tell people what they're going to get and then deliver that.

Would I have preferred a remake? Yes. However, even by the lower standards of a remaster, this is still bad and yes, I would still consider the word lazy to be perfectly fair. A remaster still implies that there are improvements over the original version and I just don't see that being the case here.

For one, there are just too many things that are either easy things to fix that they didn't fix (tutorial messages overriding cutscenes, etc.), or are straight up broken (the film grain filter). On the gameplay front, a lot of their changes didn't improve on the original product. The menus sucked originally and the redesign . . . still kinda sucks? Everything is still way too big and hard to navigate.

Plus, I'm in the camp that thinks a lot of their graphical "improvements" look significantly worse than the original. The lighting and color grading was clearly done to show off their marginally improved textures rather than trying to serve the story. As a result, a lot of the atmosphere and tone of the original were lost.

I finished the trilogy yesterday morning. Ultimately, I felt nostalgia, maybe more than ever for any game, but at the same time was not as enthralled with the trio as I once was. It made me ask myself "why did I go through this trilogy four times?" There's still a lot of good moments, but the character interactions didn't hold up as well as it used to for me, and since I had finished all these games multiple times, I was just going through the motions. The bad parts of the trilogy were worse than ever to me, and the good parts, while still good, just didn't hold up as well. I hope the new Mass Effect does something to grab me like ME once did.

Overall, I'm enjoying ME3, but boy has his time away made me forget just how unpolished and rushed that game is. A lot of it is stuff that doesn't super matter and is just aesthetics, but they're still kind of crazy for such a huge game. In particular, the fact that in maybe double digit cutscenes my Shep has the N7 assault rifle despite the fact that I've never carried it in the game is a big one. Other than that, so many abrupt transitions and little graphical quirks (why even bother doing the "fingers to the ear talking on the radio" thing if no one is going to actually touch their ear???), it's wild. Then there is some of the story stuff...I just finished Rannoch and man...while that is a satisfying ending to the situation for the most part, the writing for the Geth and the Quarian took an INSANE nosedive after 2.