And to think that ME1 is 10 years-old... well almost there, will be in November this year.
ME1 is among my absolute favorite games of all time, definitely in my personal Hall of Fame. It was virtually perfect, a masterpiece. I only disliked the GUI, but nothing else, literally nothing else; not even the Mako or the 'elevator rides'. But that's referring to when I first played it and maybe for the subsequent year or two. I finished ME1 3 times for three different Shepards. Then I played two other games to about mid point and never completed those, lost interest eventually. My only gripe today nearly 10 years later is that contrarily to ME2 and ME3, in my opinion anyway, ME1 has aged very poorly. It was the first in the series, and the game runs on a very, very old version of the UE3 engine, and it shows. A ME1 remaster would do wonders for that game.
ME2 was good for the characters and their respective stories (and most, although not all their 'loyalty' missions), it also had a fantastic DLC in Lair of the Shadow Broker. I genuinely liked most of the characters in that game, more so than in ME1 for the larger part. I did, however, prefer Liara in ME1. When I first heard her 'new' voice (not the voice actress, she was the same, but the voice tone was completely new) I genuinely thought that the character had an actual cold in the story at that point. But the new cast and the returning characters were, overall (with few select exceptions here and there) fantastic, mostly well-written too. Also, I absolutely adored the soundtrack for ME2, possibly even more than ME1's. However, the main story arc with the Collectors and Reapers (or little there was about them to start with) was absolute rubbish. The suicide run mission was fantastic, sure, but was completely farted on by that space Terminator thing wannabe, stupid design, stupid lore explanation, shocked me by how overall just... stupid it was. A very anti-climactic 'revelation', boring battle, followed by a very abrupt game ending. Many RPG elements from the first game were gone, and so was the customization of gear for the teammates (I.E., no actual gearing system), which at the time blew me away and still does in retrospect, since I realize that they never brought it back and even Andromeda doesn't have any at all, even after FIVE YEARS in development. It's... simply astounding.
ME3... nah I won't bother, not worth my time. It was something I'd like to have never experienced in my life, it never happened.
Andromeda is... such a waste of potential for the whole franchise. Sure, good graphics, but overall game's "production quality" makes some Indie games shine, with a very forgettable and nonsensical main story arc, with very forgettable characters and "soundtrack" as well, if you even want to call it that. Literally, the entire cast was bad, with maybe the exception of Drack, simply because I love Krogans in general (but nothing, absolutely nothing will ever top Wrex). I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 more, and I'm not even joking. I actually liked my Hawk, but could never care about my teammates nor my own Ryder. Although, I have to say that I sort of 'cared' about my Ryder a little more than my Inquisitor in Inquisition, now that one was... oh boy, but that's another subject. Andromeda also pretty much didn't make it possible to play 'evil', or at least 'renegade' style, or to 'turn evil' at some point or to develop into an asshole if I wanted to, or to become dangerous or doing reckless things or make important life-or-death-style decisions à la Vermire in ME1, or "fire" specific teammates from the group like I could in Inquisition. Nothing interesting came out of playing Andromeda.
Anyway, I could go on and on but basically it went down the drain starting with ME2 in part, and ended up destroying itself from the inside out with ME3, and stays a dead horse with Andromeda. The only REAL Mass Effect game, for me, will always be the first. But it could definitely use some extensive remastering work.
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