Developer: Bioware
I don't know why I feel like doing a "review" on the ME trilogy. Maybe it's because my blog is severely lacking these past few years. Oh well, I do what I want "foo".
For those who are unfamiliar with the ME series, ME is a sci-fi adventure game with shooting elements. The game advertises itself as having a choice system where the player's choices will transfer through each save through all 3 games, shaping the ultimate outcome of the whole galaxy. I never regretted getting into this series and finishing it; regardless of the pick-your-color endings. You take control of a male or female Commander Shepard, tailoring him/her to your tastes in terms of appearance and skills. I kinda went backwards by playing ME2 and then the 1st one, which was a bad idea in the beginning.
Review time:
Story: The lore of the ME universe was interesting enough to make me care about the end of the game. ME1 focused on stopping the baddie, Saren, from restoring the Reapers (gigantic, mechanical squids) to full strength. ME2 had a story that was essentially a spin-off of sorts where Shepard sets off to stop the Reapers' lackeys called the Collectors. ME3 was the finale where the story went back on course to eradicate the Reapers once and for all. In a more minute detail, Bioware had done a good job on personal interaction with the NPCs and teammates as well as the interactions between every race. The main storytelling focus, for me, lie in the conversations taking place among the crew and acting as a diplomat (or not) in the universe with the attempt to unite everyone against the Reapers. The entire lore built up in the ME trilogy is also something to note. Although the lore might be confusing at times, it still made the ME universe believable to a certain extent (until Bioware botched it towards the very end). ME2 and ME3 heavily emphasizes character relationships between Shepard and the teammates. Specifically, ME2 was character backstory-heavy with the loyalty missions.
Characters: This trilogy is story-heavy so characters are to note for the creation of the ME universe. Shepard is essentially a blank slate so the player can make Shepard totally good or bad. ME1 did fine keeping things neutral, although it's hard to get what you want out of the story if you stay neutral. ME2 and 3 practically halved the amount of neutral responses and left it as paragon or renegade. By picking either side, Shepard becomes the goody-two shoes or becomes a rebelling soldier with a streak of badassery in ME2 and early ME3. Here's a little taste of what would happen if you wanted to raise Shepard to be a renegade in ME2:
Some like Shepard's personality in this manner, and some don't like the restrictive personalities in the sense of gaining paragon/renegade points. Most of the squad mates, to me, were a likeable cast. ME had Wrex/Garrus/Tali/Anderson (from popular observation) to ME2's Mordin/Liara/Grunt/Thane. ME3 almost had a cast of returning characters with the exception to the useless Diana Allers as a new character. The romantic relationships were also icing on the cake, especially for characters who have stuck around from beginning to end.
Gameplay: ME1 had, unfortunately, the most elaborate skill system compared to the other two installments, but it also had some minor flaws in the shooting department. ME1 had things like weight capacity, weapon attachments, and about 10 + skills/traits for upgrading. Compared to ME2/ME3, the first installment had an issue (for me) during battle where the default keyboard layout was slightly inefficient and needed personal keybindings. Also, if you were out of ammo, you were out of ammo. ME2/ME3 allowed Shepard to take cover and leap over certain obstacles as well as having universal ammo to make reloading easier. ME2 lowered the amount of skills per class for upgrades, but the upside is that Shepard gains a bonus ability from any loyal squad mate. Lastly, ME3 simplified the skill system significantly by making each 6+ skills a single thread that branches out to 2 paths for the last 2 upgrades. It's essentially level up > pick skill to be upgraded > level up to the next stage > pick 1 of 2 perks from the upgrade. Some people might be picky about this super streamlining system, but I don't really care. To me, the shooting wasn't clunky and worked fine. ME3 stepped up in terms of gameplay with multiplayer that affects the ultimate outcome of the trilogy. Multiplayer consists of making your own character and then playing up to 4 players against AIs while completing escort, collection, and hacking tasks on a map. Multiplayer is important for ME3's "galactic readiness" where the percentage is multiplied with the total war assets that make up the overall score that determines the amount of damage Earth, Normandy, mass relays, and team takes. The higher the score, the less damage will be inflicted.
Overall: I'd say definitely get the ME trilogy. It may not be Game of the Year-worthy, but it is definitely a good series for the ride. There will be at least one or two characters who will stick on you. Some people feel like the choices they made didn't matter and drastically altered the ending at all. I didn't follow Bioware's advertisement about the choices influencing the ending, but the choices did affect how the player plays through the story? Don't want to have to pick one race over the other? No problem, if you did certain things in ME1 and 2, then you can have both sides on top of picking paragon or renegade. If you wanted the "happy" ending where everyone lives, then you have to use a walkthrough to make sure whatever choices you did fall into the category of plan A or B. An example would be killing A and keeping B, and then you can lie to C and sabotage D in order to get both races to cooperate. But if you want to be a bit masochistic, you can make whatever choices and see if there are any alternatives left to make everyone happy to make it a real twist. In my Paragon run, I didn't have an ME1 save so I was out of luck, had to lose someone to win over a race, and didn't get the support of the other. Remember, the choices you made affected how the story laid out and did not directly affect the endings. The endings are still ok... if you install the Extended Cut DLC from Origin into ME3. Also the EC hit me in the feels saying goodbye to my love interest, but that's in the story-telling section.
Overall: I'd say definitely get the ME trilogy. It may not be Game of the Year-worthy, but it is definitely a good series for the ride. There will be at least one or two characters who will stick on you. Some people feel like the choices they made didn't matter and drastically altered the ending at all. I didn't follow Bioware's advertisement about the choices influencing the ending, but the choices did affect how the player plays through the story? Don't want to have to pick one race over the other? No problem, if you did certain things in ME1 and 2, then you can have both sides on top of picking paragon or renegade. If you wanted the "happy" ending where everyone lives, then you have to use a walkthrough to make sure whatever choices you did fall into the category of plan A or B. An example would be killing A and keeping B, and then you can lie to C and sabotage D in order to get both races to cooperate. But if you want to be a bit masochistic, you can make whatever choices and see if there are any alternatives left to make everyone happy to make it a real twist. In my Paragon run, I didn't have an ME1 save so I was out of luck, had to lose someone to win over a race, and didn't get the support of the other. Remember, the choices you made affected how the story laid out and did not directly affect the endings. The endings are still ok... if you install the Extended Cut DLC from Origin into ME3. Also the EC hit me in the feels saying goodbye to my love interest, but that's in the story-telling section.
