Is it worth playing the Mass Effect trilogy for the 1st time in 2024?

[mastroego]

Well that point has merit though. Equipment in ME was a mess.

Anyway, I still haven't started again, obviously, but even this preparatory work is getting me in the mood.
I'm inclined to say, yes, it's worthy.

It may be true that Bioware started on its well known path long ago, but another way to look at it is that at that time there were still some in the company who knew what they were doing.
Even the intro is nicely crafted, with the music in crescendo as the brief introductory text leads to the mentioning of Mass Effect as both the concept and the title of the game.
And the music is basically perfect, I have nothing but good memories about it, it totally nails the atmosphere.

Another (minor?) thing.
In all the shooters I've played since I was a boy I've always wondered where the character could possibly store all the carried weapons.
ME is still, to my knowledge, the only one where multiple carried weapons get actually shown and are handled in a sort of believable manner.

 

[Inec0rn]

Me1 equipment was barely implemented, use item with higher number so complicated. You can easily beat the game effortlessly on its hardest difficulty w/o searching for or buying any items in the game just increasing the number.

 

[Skinwalker]

Of course the giant space insect monsters are also extremely poetic and mystical, not to mention telepathic and intelligent. I still gassed acidized the queen and eradicated her brood. Go back to being extinct, space bugs!!

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Of course the giant space insect monsters are also extremely poetic and mystical, not to mention telepathic and intelligent. I still gassed acidized the queen and eradicated her brood. Go back to being extinct, space bugs!!

And then ME3 de facto invalidates your choice. Sad!

 

[mastroego]

Spoiler

Run these commands in ..\Mass Effect Legendary Edition:

echo deleting files
del /s *_de.* *_fr.* *_it.* *_plpc.* *_ra.* *_DEU.* *_FRA.* *_ITA.* *_POL.* *_JPN.* *_RUS.* *_ESN.* *_RU.* *_ES.* *_FE.* *_GE.* *_IE.* *_JA.* *_PL.*
echo done!

Each game can also be archived separately to further save space, e.g. if you only want to play ME1, move 2 and 3 somewhere else.

So, uhm, how do I run this command?
Summon the console from the steam directory containing the game, and type this?

I've finished modding LE1, and deleted (for now) the other 2 games from the SSD.

 

[Vorark]

mastroego, ideally you run these commands before any modding and when all three games are installed so it's a one and done thing, but considering it's just a bunch of audio and subtitles files it should be ok.

Open the console and navigate to ..\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect Legendary Edition and then copypaste the commands.

 

[mastroego]

thanks, I'll do that.
I suppose even if modded I can still remove unused language files...

Modded game looks fine, anyway.
I'm unsure whether to keep or not the film grain, other than that, it seems to be set.

 

[Skinwalker]

Well, that was a giant exposition dump. Was kind of interesting, though. Wish they had spread this info across the game, instead of keeping it all until the very end section. Although, I suppose, that one place did have some contact with the "Sovereign" who said that the Reapers built the citadel and relays, and not the Protheans. Which it had no reason to reveal, lul.

P. S. Wait, the Sovereign is a giant space shrimp?
P. P. S. "Which black guy do you pick for the human council member?"
P. P. P. S. Should I change my class for Ass Effect 2, or keep the Vanguard?

 

[Skinwalker]

So ME1 subverted the usual Biowarian trope of "intro -> visit 4 places in any order and fix their iinternal problems to unlock part of the mystery -> -> after finishing the 3rd place you get a surprise ambush -> finale" by having not four, but THREE places to visit in any order. Also, after completing two of those places, you don't get an ambush, but a friendly phone call telling you to visit a 4th place.

Also, that ME2 intro gave me whiplash.

 

[Iucounu]

P. P. P. S. Should I change my class for Ass Effect 2, or keep the Vanguard?

I suppose you've already started, but yes I recall that's the best choice if you prefer melee and close quarter combat over cover-based popamole.

 

[Iucounu]

Also, that ME2 intro gave me whiplash.

The extended surgery cutscene? It's a bit odd to say the least.

 

[Skinwalker]

Yea, I kept the same class. Is armor purely cosmetic now?

 

[Volourn]

Me1: pretty good action rpg with plenty of c&c.

Me2: Lowers the character system, way less rpgy, roleplaying good, one if the best end sequences in ANY game.

Me3: Alright, more if the same, non rpg, dumb downed mechanics, didn't finish it thiugh.


POLITICAL HAT ON:

ME legendary edition - A fully clothed ass shot is considered evil and sexist to the point of being erased by sjw nazis.

Bg3: Fully nudes dicks, ass, and tits is a-ok by the same sjw nazis. Lmao

 

[mastroego]

POLITICAL HAT ON:

ME legendary edition - A fully clothed ass shot is considered evil and sexist to the point of being erased by sjw nazis.

I've noticed there's a mod to restore that shot.
Also there's a mod that rewrites ME3's ending.

 

[Fargus]

That was one of the first mods i downloaded for ME2:LE lol. I don't even like that Michael Jackson chick unmodded, but the ass shot must stay. Good thing they didn't butcher anything else.

Not sure if ending can be fixed, but few people tried. There is this one i guess.

There are some interesting gameplay additions and fixes for entire trilogy. For ME2LE i suggest to get early recruitment mod so you can grab Legion (geth companion) right after prologue at the crash site. I'm not sure why Bioware even made his dialogue interjections if originally you only get Legion at the very end with barely enough time to finish his loyalty mission. With this mod you can even take him to Tali's recruitment mission and watch her getting assblasted.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Well, is it?

If you love space opera it absolutely is. It is one of the best games ever made by that one metric. If you don't care for sci-fi world building, it probably becomes a much less noteworthy game. It all depends on whether you enjoy inhabiting that space opera conceit, as I do more than anything else in fiction. If fantasy is what you prefer to technology, I can see a well-fleshed out tehnologically interesting space exploration canvas being less fascinating.

 

[Iucounu]

Yea, I kept the same class.

The disadvantage is that you can't use sniper rifles or the Revenant machine gun (my favorite for mowing down husks).

Is armor purely cosmetic now?

There are some minor stat differences, +/-5% or so. Edit: I recall this applies to each armor item (in original game, no idea about the remaster). By combining different pieces you might end up with a higher percentage.

 

[Riel]

I also bought the "Legendary" Edition for ~eight eurobucks and I am right now in the middle of a ME2 play through in my planned trilogy play through, I expect to be finished in a couple weeks.

First thing I noticed is I can not play without a working on line connection, which makes me want to pirate the fucking shit.

But back to the content. I was pleasantly surprised by Mass Effect I, it holds up very well with the little Botox treatment it got in LE. Personally I don't think the combat is clunky at all, maybe basic but not clunky, the most annoying thing is I couldn't get Sheppard to clean all that super glue he has on his armour that keeps him getting stuck on any horizontal surface he approaches. Shit I had to use litres upon litres of "S" smashing to get unstuck. Other than that I just breezed through MEI with an infiltrator using mostly the pistol, which came as a surprise to me since I recall using the Sniper Rifle a lot when I first played the game. As far as world building goes it's pretty good, very cliché but it's part of its charm and the scenery is very well designed in that it provides the illusion of being on a large world when you are actually confined in very small areas, but you at least get broad sights. For example, and I am getting into MEII, the Citadel in ME2 is barely larger than the Normandy and it feels so out of place... ME2 has much better cut-scenes, the red/blue interactions are arcadish but works well enough, though the reputation system which was already tied to persuasion in MEI makes a terrible step backwards in that it railroad you to either be a blue paladin or a red douche bag. I just couldn't stomach it so I just used a save game editor to give me more reputation blue and red rep points, problem solved! I can now freely chose my responses... well as freely as the dialogue wheel allows.

A brief comment regarding the dialogue wheel, yeah I get it, it sucks not knowing exactly what your Sheppard is going to say when you chose an option, many times I have regretted my choices but I am going to play the devils advocate here, would you play for hours a voiced content if you have to read a good part of the dialogue lines to later listen to them? My point is: the dialogue wheel is a result of the cinematic scope of this game's narrative, and it's actually the lesser evil compared to any alternative I can think of that doesn't involve removing the protagonist voice from it.

In regards to the story, I think ME2 is the bottom of the three games. It's a bare bones story that only serves as a background for all those retarded guys and gals you recruit who all have their personal problems and for some reason you are playing more Sheppard the psychiatrist than Sheppard the war hero. It's all just a little bit too much for me, can we get on with the Collectors already, pretty please! Well I guess it will be soon enough. Since I already played the game back when this shit was released I already know there's the suicide mission waiting for me. So I don't think this new edition holds any surprise for me, but it's still one of the best game endings in terms of tying it all up in a reasonable satisfactory manner, end boss excluded, that's just cringe.

After that I will play ME3, while I haven't had a feel of it in the Legendary Edition I expect it won't have changed much, this time I intend to install a few mods, unofficial patch and an expanded "take back earth" mod that supposedly makes the last mission more responsive to Sheppard's actions. I do remember being sorely disappointed at the ending, but with time I've come to expect it so in a sense I also came to terms with it being what it is and at least the rest of the game is mostly about Sheppard's war story, which is imo an improvement over ME2. Well anyway I will report on my feeling about the rest of the remastered trilogy when I finish it.

Btw: unless you are authistic and have way too much free time I recommend using two mods in ME2 that you can get from NEXUS mods, one that allows you to survey planets with one probe and one that skips the hacking mini games, they will save you so much time...

 

[Skinwalker]

FUCK that "rescue private Garrus" mission, FUCK IT IN THE FUCKING ASS. He just stands in the middle of the room and dies faster than I can kill the mobs, no way to have him take cover or anything. WHAT THE HELL

 

[Poseidon00]

Yes, 100%. It's a solid RPG with an interesting world you can easily find yourself wanting more of. The original is the worst in terms of gameplay, if you can suffer that it gets better, trust me.

 

[Iucounu]

FUCK that "rescue private Garrus" mission, FUCK IT IN THE FUCKING ASS. He just stands in the middle of the room and dies faster than I can kill the mobs, no way to have him take cover or anything. WHAT THE HELL

General gameplay strategy

Enemy shields are best destroyed with submachine guns equipped with distruptor ammo, as well as bionic biotic powers such as overload. Without, enemies with shields become bullet sponges, so it's safest to always bring at least one squad member with the above capabilities. Meanwhile submachine guns are very weak against armor, which is better destroyed by pistols or sniper rifles with appropriate ammo/bionics biotics (not sure about shotguns at close range, maybe they work too). Sometimes you may have to switch your own and your squad mates' weapons and ammo type even against a single enemy (like bosses that use shields with armor beneath).

 

[jackofshadows]

Also do not neglect heavy weapons, use them more liberally in cases like that. They are different though and it's a pain to properly test them all but most are very good against armor iirc.

 

[mastroego]

But back to the content. I was pleasantly surprised by Mass Effect I, it holds up very well with the little Botox treatment it got in LE. Personally I don't think the combat is clunky at all, maybe basic but not clunky,

well, it IS a bit clunky in ME1

though the reputation system which was already tied to persuasion in MEI makes a terrible step backwards in that it railroad you to either be a blue paladin or a red douche bag. I just couldn't stomach it so I just used a save game editor to give me more reputation blue and red rep points, problem solved! I can now freely chose my responses... well as freely as the dialogue wheel allows.

I downloaded the "Paragade" mod for that. Seems like a reasonable solution

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

every time i feel like replaying mass effect i remember its inventory and the million items i had to remove one at a time. has this been fixed in the remakemasterboot?

 

[Modron]

every time i feel like replaying mass effect i remember its inventory and the million items i had to remove one at a time. has this been fixed in the remakemasterboot?

Only if consoles stopped existing.