Simple Question: Which is the best Mass Effect game?

Anyway, here's how I would rate the games using a really frickin' creative one to five scale (five is high):

ME1:

Story: 5
Gameplay: 3
Characters: 4
Graphics: 3
Replay Value: 3
Soundtrack: 4

ME1 hooked everyone on the series through its immersive, meticulously detailed sci-fi universe. It generates the feeling that you are really questing though an immeasurably vast, beautiful, unexplored, and hostile universe. Simmering in the background is the unknown threat of Saren's plot; from Virmire it suddenly becomes horrifyingly real that you are trying to prevent the destruction of all life by a race of unspeakably powerful evil godlike mechanical beings, an endgame that culminates in the battle in vacuum on the Council tower with Sovereign himself looming over you. Add the chance to get to know Wrex, Liara, and Garrus and their respective races, the gut-wrenching Virmire decision, a wonderfully tailored sci-fi-intense soundtrack by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, and a first-class villain in Saren, and you have a winner. The Mako/uncharted worlds gameplay did get old after a while, but you could skip most of this and driving around on a gorgeous uninhabited planet with a toxic atmosphere while moons and stars whirl above you creates a depth to this game that its sequels simply did not have.

ME2:

Story: 3
Gameplay: 4
Characters: 5
Graphics: 4
Replay Value: 4
Soundtrack: 5

I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly what happened to ME2's writers during the development of this game. Everyone knows Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware and did not write all of the story for this one, but I suspect the whole "Shepard dies and gets reincarnated by and works for Cerberus" plot wasn't his doing. As for the Collectors, they are, at least at face value, a creepy and unnatural enemy and Jack Wall's soundtrack, with its discordant piano keys, reinforces this. However, I wonder if they weren't some random foes that some EA suit had sitting around in a bargain bin and said, "OK new Bioware lackeys, here are your bad guys." I found Harbinger to be a scary enemy back before I learned to beat the game on Insanity; now he's just a troll. Regardless, I was taken aback by this game jettisoning most of ME1's plot and half its characters and consider this to be a serious mistake. So why do I rate this game so highly? Because the character development, especially for Jack, Mordin, and Garrus is all top-notch, Omega and Illium are beautifully immersive, the combat system is excellent, and there is a great variety of options for future playthroughs. LOTSB and Overlord are great add-ons, and even Zaeed and Kasumi, while limited in their actions with Shepard (no Kasumi romance, eh Biovar?), are great additions to the team. The Suicide Mission, while overhyped, feels tremendously epic and Jack Wall turns out a heck of a great theme to accompany it. While I find ME1's endgame a bit more epic, because you can lose the entire team on the suicide mission, it feels more personal and the stakes feel higher. I miss the Mako and uncharted worlds missions, but there are enough N7 missions to mercenary bases and rescue missions on many different planets that are thankfully far more varied than those of ME1's "generic dungeons." So while ME2's story stumbles drunkenly out of the pub, and nobody likes Cerberus or resource mining, the side missions, characters, replay value and combat system save the day and help ME2 excel.

ME3:

Story: 2
Gameplay: 5
Characters: 3
Graphics: 5
Replay Value: 3
Soundtrack: 2

Here is the X-Men: The Last Stand to ME1/ME2's X1/X2. More bombastic, higher stakes, more bad guys, more weapons, more drama!!!!!!! See? the Reapers don't need no stinkin' Citadel relay or Alpha Relay! Nope, they could have shown up anytime they felt like it! So the Rippahs show up and start murdering the galaxy by millions per day and Shepard is sent on FedEx quests while everyone dies. The Illusive Man becomes a full-fledged bad guy, summons colossal armies and fleets out of his ass, and proceeds to attack everyone and everything, but mostly you. Good thing Biovar got the combat down, because you'll be doing a lot of it. ME transitions fully to the third person shooter world with even more diverse guns to 'splode heads with as well as an invaluable dodge using the Awesome button. The graphics are another treat, especially the scenes of the Reaper assaults on Menae and Thessia. Liked your teammates from ME2? Too bad, they're NPCs except for good ol' reliable Garrus and Tali. Some FNGs like James replace them, although James, your de facto Krogan, does manage to grow as a character. The Virmire Survivor does not fare so well; Kaidan mostly bemoans the state of the universe while Ashley is too busy having her character ruined to do anything important like emote or communicate with her LI (if you're romancing her). The best character in the game is Javik, whom you have to buy, although he's admittedly worth it. If you are a Liara fanboy your experience will be greatly improved if you only romance her during every playthrough lest you discover how weak everyone else's character development is. There are some scenes with genuine drama, although most are surrounded by such nonsensical plot circumstances that you can't engage your brain too much. EA gave a suitcase full of cash to Clint Mansell to write a mopey soundtrack, you are ceaselessly made to care about Some Kid no matter how Renegade Chaotic Evil Shep you may be, and Biovar managed to magic up an ending that satisfied nobody and made KOTOR 2's look positively Spielbergesque. Also, Kai Leng.

With a few tweaks, ME3 could have been a gaming masterpiece as a stand alone title. As a successor to the groundbreaking ME1, it can't be anything more than a letdown.