…Which is to say: start at Mass Effect, play through; then play through all the rest until I hit Mass Effect 3 and the ending? The Mass Effect Trilogy is almost weirdly inspirational in its mere existence, although part of it may be simply because my previous favored ME2/3 Shepard has a small error in her backstory (she’s not Spaceborn, which may translate into a small dollop of extra pain in ME3).
But that’s a lot of free time.
Being a greedy cat, I’d prefer that you write stuff instead.
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Mew
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p.s. Of course, I’ll understand if you do decide to play it all the way through. If I’d found Mass Effect enjoyable, I’d be tempted to do so myself.
I’d be a little torn on wanting to play through the entire trilogy (as it stands right now) in one sitting again.
On the one hand, the first Mass Effect is my favorite game of this game generation. And the continuous story pitch does look appealing. Being able to make all those decisions (with all the DLC cohesively put into the mix) in a true role-playing mode (as opposed to shooting for a pure Paragon/Renegade game) and seeing how that affects the end of 3 would be a fun way to go.
On the other hand, the end of 3 felt rushed and not what Bioware originally intended. Granted, I did not get to really see what the “Extended Cut” changed (my Insanity 2nd run Shepard picked “I’m not playing your stupid game, Star-Child” at the end), but I think EA’s push to get 3 out so fast made Bioware’s attempts to change the ending after that “leak” too hasty. Even then, part of the fun of the continuous story was NOT knowing the mechanisms of changing the ultimate ending, so the magic might not be able to be completely grasped again.
On the gripping hand, you should be able to blast your way through all three games in 60-70 hours, which would be no longer than, say, replaying Skyrim.
Personally, I would want to wait until some kind of definitive re-release collection that easily combines all three games (preferably one that would allow Bioware to re-polish that ending back to what they originally intended) before I would want to start that undertaking.
Meh. I was tempted but viewing the new ending DLC I find the endings still distasteful and not in the spirit of the franchise. Slavery, Genocide, Eugenics and now Suicide. If I didn’t know better I’d think Bioware was trolling the fans.
Oh, the “I’m not playing your game” option was a part of the extended cut? I guess I repressed how the “choices” were presented in my 1st play-through ending.
That, my friend, is a question only YOU can answer.
Personally, I’m tempted to go back and play ME1/ME2. OTOH, I’ve got around four characters yet to run through ME3. I may one day even get around to it.
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Yeah, the endings of ME3 were horrible and completely at variance with the established setting and story. Even “explained”.
There were also the incredible number of cut-scenes (and their ridiculously long durations). I recall being upset after first playing the game for about an hour stretch, and getting only a few minutes of gameplay.
The fact you could interrupt cut-scenes–unless they were important. I could finish a toast, but when my friends were fighting for their lives, I had to sit there passively, and watch a long, extravagant cut-scenes.
Still, there were some great moments. Mordin damn near made me cry. Tali drunk. Shooting skeet with Garrus. Legion’s final conversation with Tali. Grunt’s request for food…