User blog comment:Sperez2012/What is YOUR favorite Mass Effect?/@comment-1388547-20120813084319

This is a tough choice, because all three games have things they do best.


 * ME1 had my favorite story of the series -- I liked the pacing, with a smaller number of much longer missions than the sequels, and the plot had a fair amount of focus without railroading the player. ME1 also had a lot of nice incidentals -- background details showing how the ME galaxy worked, and adding flavor.  I even liked the planetary exploration, except for the Thresher Maws.  The combat mechanics could be a bit on the clumsy side, though, the limited enemy chatter was annoying ("I will destroy you!"), and the inventory system was a total pain.  And then there were the famous elevators...


 * ME2 was the most polished game of the series, overall. The gameplay was vastly improved, the graphics were also substantially better (particularly the texture loading), the clumsy, time-wasting inventory was gone ... I found it a big improvement.  The story was good, but since Shepard spent most of it recruiting squadmates or helping them resolve their personal issues, it felt a lot less focused than ME1.  The mining mechanic was pretty obnoxious, too, at least before the patch that made it faster.


 * ME3 ... yeah, we've all been discussing ME3 a lot. It has some further gameplay enhancements, particularly the increased depth in the power combos.  Surprisingly enough, I'm also enjoying the online multiplayer.  I'm still not sure where I stand on the weight/cooldown bonus system, since I really like using powers but I also want to play around with some of the fancier weapons, and I can't do both at full effectiveness.  I find the story fairly depressing, though, and I also don't like how linear the game is -- all the primary missions have to be completed in order, and even the side missions expire after a certain point in the main plot, so every playthrough ends up being pretty similar.  I also really dislike the new Journal -- it's a major step back from the previous games.

All told, ME2 is my favorite. I'd still be playing it today if I didn't practically know it by heart already.