User blog comment:Battlemaster Grunt/What is the best Mass Effect? 1,2, or 3?/@comment-1440333-20130524094544

Taking each game in its complete form - ie with ALL DLC - then Mass Effect 3 is the clear winner for me for Citadel alone.

Taking away the DLC and I think I will probably still have to go with 3. Mass Effect 1 was amazing, with a cracking story and some amazing ideas. However the gameplay lets in down - there are too many holdovers from previous RPGs like KOTOR, and especially when compared to later installments they make it stand out as a bastard child.

Mass Effect 2 was much better. Despite some unnecessary ideas the general overhaul to gameplay and story-telling, especially the characterisation, made tremendous improvements to the series as a whole. My biggest problem with the game is that the direction of this middle episode is less focused. Despite Shepard's determined speech to stop the Reapers after ME1's epic ending we are instead dealing with mercenaries and a threat to humanity for most of the game. Obviously the Collectors get linked to the Reapers, but we are over halfway through the game by that point.

Mass Effect 3 however built upon everything that came before and took it up to 11! The gameplay, combat, and characterisation were the best in the series, and the story and emotional gravitas were grand in scope. There were flaws to the game of course, even before the ending (which I will not discuss here). One of my major gripes was the reduced conversation options, however while it did cut down on some of the reduntant responses that plagued the earlier games it could be a bit disconcerting when Shepard was starting to speak without any input from me at all.

Yet even with those flaws the game was incredible - we resolved not just the Reaper conflict, but also many other plotlines that had been building through the series, such as the genophage. All of the characters we had come to know and love reappeared to help Shepard in the War, and the game was full of epic moments that I will remember for ever. However most of those moments would not be possible without ME1 and ME2 - characters would not appear, and the War would take a greater toll. In effect ME3 is the game it is BECAUSE of the previous installments.

So Mass Effect 3 is my favourite from the Trilogy, yet it requires the earlier games to achieve this greatness.