I had a long discussion about how trying to compare the Mass Effect games is impossible.



My take:



Mass Effect 1 was probably the strongest. It had exploration, felt new and huge and the game had a perfect balance of powers and gunplay. Also, the gear and character builds deeply affected how your character played.



You could be deeply tactical with your builds, shut off guns and abilities, the biotics felt so powerful and gun play wasn’t just busy work until you could use a power again.

Also the music and presentation directly called back to mid 70s to mid 80s sci fi. My god, those synths.



But the cover based shooting wasn’t there at all. The first few times I beat it I didn’t know it was a cover shooter.

While gear mattered, the inventory system was hot garbage and late game there were clear choices for best gear.



Exploration felt amazing and there were many planets to check, but most amounted to nothing, the exploration areas were tiny and the Mako did pilot like a lunchbox tumbling down a ski hill.



Also, for those who played Knights of the Old Republic, you could 100% tell that the game was descended from that game.



The characters were great, but the interaction with them was rather limited. If you haven’t played it in a while, you’ll be surprised to find that there are only around 6-10 conversations for each character you can have with them on the Normandy.



In voice acting, while FemShep’s voice was the tops, BroShep voice acting is like a sedate space ghost.

Also, the DLC was laughable and unnecessary.