# Should I skip the first Mass Effect game?



## Tony Lou (May 6, 2013)

Or would I miss important bits of the plot?


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

As someone who literally just got done with playing through the series yesterday for the first time, do not skip.

Do not skip under any circumstance.


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## Death-kun (May 6, 2013)

Why not just buy the trilogy pack?


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## Blue (May 6, 2013)

It's only the best of the three, of course you can skip it.

3 would have been the best, but...


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

Blue said:


> It's only the best of the three, of course you can skip it.
> 
> 3 would have been the best, but...



This.

And yep. 

Yep.


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## dream (May 6, 2013)

Don't skip the first game, it's easily the best one in my opinion.


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## Blue (May 6, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> This.
> 
> And yep.
> 
> Yep.





Solaris said:


> Don't skip the first game, it's easily the best one in my opinion.


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## Tony Lou (May 6, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> As someone who literally just got done with playing through the series yesterday for the first time, do not skip.
> 
> Do not skip under any circumstance.





Solaris said:


> Don't skip the first game, it's easily the best one in my opinion.



Ha.... that confirms it. The guy from the game store was trying to trick me.

He tried to convince me to skip it because according to him it's a lot of story and little gameplay and many people didn't like it.

The first game is considerably cheaper, so I can see why he'd rather have me get Mass Effect 2 instead.


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## Blue (May 6, 2013)

Also choices carry over from game to game, and if you go right into 2 it makes a lot of ^ (not the meaning of the word "respect".) choices for you.


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

Luiz said:


> Ha.... that confirms it. The guy from the game store was trying to trick me.
> 
> He tried to convince me to skip it because according to him it's a lot of story and little gameplay and many people didn't like it.
> 
> The first game is considerably cheaper, so I can see why he'd rather have me get Mass Effect 2 instead.



Well, he's not entirely wrong on the story/gameplay bit. But ME1's combat is enjoyable, it's just that 2 and 3 changed things up for the better. ME1 is fucking wondrous on the story-side, and I've not heard of a single person who didn't like the first game. You're introduced to a whole galaxy of characters and themes. If you jump right into ME2, you'd feel so lost.

That and your choices in ME1 _will_ effect things in ME2 and ME3.


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## Blue (May 6, 2013)

To be honest I preferred the infinite bullet hose gunplay to the pick-up-clips-for-human-weapons-from-dead-aliens-nobody-has-ever-met gunplay.

But I seem to be in the minority.


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

Blue said:


> To be honest I preferred the infinite bullet hose gunplay to the pick-up-clips-for-human-weapons-from-dead-aliens-nobody-has-ever-met gunplay.
> 
> But I seem to be in the minority.



I agree with the ammo issue. What I'm talking about is skills. I played as a Vanguard, so I didn't have the Charge ability in ME1. That ability single-handedly makes that class. (And breaks it.)

I'm assuming this applies to other classes too.


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## Blue (May 6, 2013)

Well on the other hand, adept is unplayable in ME2 on any serious difficulty setting. Biotics bouncing off shields was pants-on-roof retarded.


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## Axl Low (May 6, 2013)

The first mass effect game is the only real mass effect game.
it's the best one.

The power set up and guns were the best thing
putting on 2 500% damage burner scram rails with explosive ammo on a sniper?
Hell yeah blow shit up
Mass effect's insanity is by far the hardest and i relish the ass kicking i got

you could put like 3 mods on the gun and you actually had an inventory system 
Plus as an adept in ME1 you can chain combo the shit out of people as a bastion adept >:3

the universe is so expansive
60 hours a playthrough and i still didnt do the ME1 dlcs and some various missions


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## Minato Namikaze. (May 6, 2013)

no its the best in the series


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

Also, I'm going to save you $5.

Don't buy the Pinnacle Station DLC. It's complete garbage.

If anything, get the Bring Down the Sky one. It's pretty okay. 

Get ALL the ME2 and ME3 DLC though. They're all good.


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## Nightblade (May 6, 2013)

> He tried to convince me to skip it because according to him it's a lot of story and little gameplay and many people didn't like it.
> 
> The first game is considerably cheaper, so I can see why he'd rather have me get Mass Effect 2 instead.


what an asshole. go back to the store and punch his face for Renegade points, OP.


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## Gipsy Danger (May 6, 2013)

ME1 is heavily flawed, in my eyes. 

The conversations are stiff, and a lot of characters feel two dimensional compared to later entries in the series. The combat is unbalanced, going back and forth between "Your enemies are pushovers, spam all the power buttons in existence" one fight but switching to "jesus why are there so many snipers why oh god I'm knocked down WHY DOESN'T THE POISON DAMAGE STOP AH MY SHIELDS"

It also had a really lackluster cast by comparison. Ashley, Kaiden and Liara are all terrible. Garrus and Wrex are awesome, Tali might be cool later, but was too busy getting no character development and being a Quarian encyclopedia for the first game. Thankfully Patrick Weekes noticed some squandered potential for Tali and all three end up really memorable and awesome characters by the last entry in the game.

(As an aside, Mass Effect 2 is actually my favorite entry in the series because it's got nothing but awesome squadmates that I was glad to go on crazy personal sidequests for... er, and Jacob.

It also gives you as a player the most satisfying triumphant feeling when everything's said and done.)


That said, don't you dare skip ME1. 

There's too much world building done there, and done well. Too many faces to meet and side-quests that provide little touches of continuity down the road. It makes the experience complete, and you miss it all if you skip the first part of the story. The main plot itself is good too, maybe formulaic, but still epic. And when the combat is on the easy side, it's still really fun just because of how POWERFUL you feel.

It's also full of some of the coolest "big decision with sweeping consequences" moments of the three games.

Just let me tell you, don't waste your time on the collectibles when you go down to planet surfaces in the Mako. The Matriarch's Writings, the League of One dog tags and such.  that are really tedious to complete and it's just not worth it. You'll just end up hating the planet surface exploration if you over-expose yourself to it. I know I despised those sections for the longest time, although I've come to appreciate what Bioware was trying in retrospect.


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## Naruto (May 6, 2013)

Luiz said:


> many people didn't like it.



Oh yeah, totally. That's why it went on to be a highly successful new IP.


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## Raidou Kuzunoha (May 6, 2013)

For some reason walking around the Citadel feels a bit too glitchy at times. That's my only gripe.

If there's one thing 3 does right is the fact that the frame is practically Nirvana.


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## The World (May 6, 2013)

Best of the trilogy

It be like asking should you skip A New Hope or Fellowship of the Ring


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## slickcat (May 6, 2013)

dont skip any of them. though 2 was my favorite over all, i come from an action adventure background and the playstyle of the second suits me more. still the first was good


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## WolfPrinceKiba (May 6, 2013)

If you want to skip the best and most complete experience game in the trilogy then sure. Plus the series as a whole isn't as worthwhile if you haven't built up a strong connection with the universe and characters. The former of those connections is done best in ME1 and the latter of them gets it start in ME1 even though its done best in ME2.


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## PoinT_BlanK (May 6, 2013)

ME2 was my favorite, something about it just clicked with me. but the first is good too


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## Gunners (May 6, 2013)

I jumped straight into Mass Effect 3, skipping Mass Effect 1 and 2. I probably wouldn't advise as I'm the sort of the person who is not overly fussy about the story.


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## Deaf Ninja Reaper (May 6, 2013)

Always thought Mass Effect 2 was the best game of all three.


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## Snakety69 (May 6, 2013)

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfpyGyb1J4I[/YOUTUBE]


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## Rios (May 6, 2013)

Just skip all annoying side missions and collectibles, stick to the main plot. Things will get better in the second game.


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## Hand Banana (May 6, 2013)

Blue said:


> Also choices carry over from game to game, and if you go right into 2 it makes a lot of ^ (not the meaning of the word "respect".) choices for you.



Buy the genesis dlc and you can make the choices.


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## Wan (May 6, 2013)

I don't agree that ME1 was the best game of the trilogy.  The story is good but not phenomenally better than the sequels, and the combat mechanics get much improved in the sequels.  But under no circumstance should it be skipped.  It introduces a lot of characters, sets up the Mass Effect universe, and has a good (not great) story.  It's more important to play all the Mass Effect games in sequence than it is for any other game series, ever.

Buy the Trilogy edition if you can.  The "Bring Down the Sky" DLC for Mass Effect 1 will probably be included for free.  When it comes to DLC for the whole series, these are my "can't skip" recommendations (meaning, they're pretty important to the plot):

Mass Effect 2:
Lair of the Shadow Broker
Arrival

Mass Effect 3:
From Ashes
Leviathan
Citadel

These are my "good but nonessential" recommendations:
Mass Effect 1:
Bring Down the Sky

Mass Effect 2:
Kasumi: Stolen Memory
Overlord

And these are the ones that I wouldn't bother buying.  In fact, I haven't bought them!:
Mass Effect 1:
Pinnacle Station

Mass Effect 3:
Omega



Rios said:


> Just skip all annoying side missions and collectibles, stick to the main plot. Things will get better in the second game.




*Spoiler*: __ 



No.  You can inadvertently get Wrex killed that way if you don't know what you're doing the first time through.


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## Patchouli (May 6, 2013)

Rios said:


> Just skip all annoying side missions and collectibles, stick to the main plot. Things will get better in the second game.



Do not listen to the devious parrot.

Do all the side-missions. They don't take that long, and some of them have ramifications if you choose to avoid them.



Oman said:


> I don't agree that ME1 was the best game of the trilogy.  The story is good but not phenomenally better than the sequels, and the combat mechanics get much improved in the sequels.  But under no circumstance should it be skipped.  It introduces a lot of characters, sets up the Mass Effect universe, and has a good (not great) story.  It's more important to play all the Mass Effect games in sequence than it is for any other game series, ever.
> 
> Buy the Trilogy edition if you can.  The "Bring Down the Sky" DLC for Mass Effect 1 will probably be included for free.  When it comes to DLC for the whole series, these are my "can't skip" recommendations (meaning, they're pretty important to the plot):
> 
> ...



I liked the Omega DLC. It was 4 hours of shooting and slamming into things. 

Overlord was my favorite mission in the entire series. Dat ending and music.


*Spoiler*: __ 



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BPWWa-NUu4[/YOUTUBE]


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## Wan (May 6, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> Do not listen to the devious parrot.
> 
> Do all the side-missions. They don't take that long, and some of them have ramifications if you choose to avoid them.



Heck, even one of the collectibles (Matriarch Delinanga's writings, IIRC) is a little important later on.




> I liked the Omega DLC. It was 4 hours of shooting and slamming into things.
> 
> Overlord was my favorite mission in the entire series. Dat ending and music.
> 
> ...



I'm sure Omega was fun, but it adds nothing to the overall plot (which was much more important to ME3 than ME2.)  And for the $15 price tag I feel it should add more to the game after you complete the mission, like Shadow Broker and Citadel do.

Overlord was great, no doubt about it, but Shadow Broker and Arrival are more crucial to setting up the story in ME3.  If you have the money to buy it, don't hesitate, but if you're on a limited budget I would go with Shadow Broker and Arrival.


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## Gunners (May 6, 2013)

These DLC must add up to more than the actual game? Allow that fuckery.


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## Tony Lou (May 7, 2013)

While we're at it, I also need to ask....

What about the BioShock series? Just go straight for B. Infinite or much of the franchise's experience would be missed then?


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## The World (May 7, 2013)

You can skip 2, but I thought it was still a good game worth playing

1 and Infinite are a must of course


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## Suzuku (May 7, 2013)

No it's the best one you dumb bitch.


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## Patchouli (May 7, 2013)

Luiz said:


> While we're at it, I also need to ask....
> 
> What about the BioShock series? Just go straight for B. Infinite or much of the franchise's experience would be missed then?



Never played 1 or 2, but I've completed Infinite. Never felt like I was missing out on some context. But I hear the first game is good. May want to give it a try.

(I hear it's scary, so balls to that.)


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## The World (May 7, 2013)

Not scary, just really creepy and atmospheric at certain parts


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## Axl Low (May 7, 2013)

bioshock 1 is great just as infinite is


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## Furious George (May 7, 2013)

Well... it definitely *isn't* the best game in the series. 

It starts off incredibly slow, the exploration planets are tedious palette swaps, the inventory system is needlessly complicated and gets messy quickly and the gameplay is dated.

That being said, I still enjoyed it more than Mass Effect 3 and you are definitely missing out if you don't start Shepherd's journey proper. 

So yeah, do not skip.


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## Byrd (May 7, 2013)

Fuck no... play it


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## Hunted by sister (May 7, 2013)

Don't skip.

a) it's good (ME2 > ME1 > ME3)
b) default continuity in ME2 is shitty

//HbS


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## Stunna (May 7, 2013)

I prefer _ME2_, even though its story was super linear.

And I'd recommend _BioShock_. Never played the second, but both it and_ Infinite_ are fantastic.


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## Bishamon (May 11, 2013)

You should skip the whole series.

Well ok if you wanna follow the story well then no.


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## Jena (May 13, 2013)

Definitely don't skip the first one. You _can_ skip it and still understand the story, but you miss out on a lot (and like others have said, the default choices are fucking terrible). I played the second one before I played the first one and I wish I had done it in the correct order. 

Plus, you don't want to miss out on the Mako, do you?


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## WolfPrinceKiba (May 13, 2013)

I enjoyed the Mako sections personally. I can understand why they're disliked but for me it adds to the atmosphere and universe building that makes ME1 a more complete game experience than ME2.


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## Wan (May 13, 2013)

The worst part about the Mako -- the uncharted world missions you take it on, really -- was how the environments were bland and recycled, much like Dragon Age II.


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