User blog comment:Battlemaster Grunt/What is the best Mass Effect? 1,2, or 3?/@comment-41000-20150412170241

Mass Effect 1: Best story, most well realised setting (attention to lore included), best RPG elements.

Mass Effect 2: Best characterisation(?)

Mass Effect 3: Best game-play, best characters.

The combat in ME1 had it's own nice charm and something of a sandbox feel, but was clunky as all hell. Mass Effect 2 introduced a lot of nice gameplay changes, but also lost many aspects of what made the gameplay in ME1 good. The result was something that lacks the charm of ME1 as well as lacking the polish introduced with ME3. ME2 did an excellent job with the characterisation and writing, but I didn't like most of the new characters (Mordin, Legion and Kasumi were great though) and whilst the characters and individual scenes were well written the overall story was pretty poor and should have been something closer to a fleshed out version of the plot of Leviathan or Arrival. ME3 had excellent gameplay, characters (including much improved ME2 characters and new ones like Javik) and some fantastic stories even if the overall plot wasn't great and the pacing could be off.

If ME1 had the gameplay of ME3 it would be hands down my favourite game in the series. As it stands it's a toss up with ME3 which is probably my most played. ME2 is definitely my least played. ME1 and ME3 excelled at different things but ME2 sits between them on everything. Everything it did better than ME1, ME3 did better still and in the process some of what made ME1 so good was lost. Even the bit it supposedly excels at, the characters, generally failed to appeal to me.