Fanbase Phenomenon: The Latest ME is Always the Worst

I call it the Baldur's Gate 2 syndrome.

Depends which section of fans you talk to. That people like and hate different editions of the series has to do with the different editions of the series being drastically different to one another, similar to Dragon Age and how Origins, 2, and Inquisition are all drastically different to one another. Normally a gaming series tends to appeal to a similar fanbase, but Bioware are unique in that different games of the series appeal to different fanbases.

The general consensus about Mass Effect 1 is that it is the worst game, but the best RPG. It's very unpolished, there's numerous technical faults, the economy is incredibly broken (which is why it was abandoned in future games,) the combat is horrible but based on stats so very "RPG", the exploration is dull and frustrating (which is why it was abandoned in future games.) That being said, compared with ME2 and its glorified recruitment drive, it had a top story, and it also had meaningful stats.

Mass Effect 2 was a better game than Mass Effect 1, yet it was the worst RPG of the series. It was merely a corridor shooter where the combat no longer relied on stats and the story was about hopping from place to place recruiting people (dull.) That being said the gameplay was quite polished and the characters started to really come into their own. Tali became quite interesting, Liara became more interesting, and the same could be said of Garrus.

Mass Effect 3 was the best and most polished game of the series, but was brought down by a crappy ending. RPG wise it sits between 1 and 2. I have only heard that this game was the worst of the series from one person, and that person hadn't actually played the whole series.

So while there was incredibly disappointment surrounding number 3, I don't see how it could be (and I haven't heard many people say it was) the worst of the series. That Mass Effect 2 was worse than Mass Effect 1 depended on who you talked to. That it steered the ME series away from an RPG and toward a corridor shooter with a poor story could lead some people to conclude that EA was indeed ruining the series.

Andromeda ... what a shitstorm that was, ey? I have no problem with people being disappointed in this game. To me it wrestles with Mass Effect 1 as the worst game of the series, and unlike ME1 it can't lay claim to the best "RPG" either.

ME1 would be better off as a book imo. It sucked as a game, bigly. If it is considered the best RPG, then RPGs can die in a housefire. Nothing says fun like micromanaging stats that have no perceivable impact until an actual milestone is achieved and then being hilariously OP once maxed out.

ME2's story may have been almost entirely irrelevant, but like you said, the characters in that game actually mattered, unlike their cardboard cutout compatriots in ME1.

ME3's ending fiasco just screams of entitlement to me. Gamers want games to be recognized as art, but then throw a tizzy when a game ends in a way that they didn't like.

ME:A? That one gets so much flak for problems that have existed since ME1. So many people were determined to hate it from the start, So much so EA pulled the plug on it. Bad game? Not hardly.

ME games became better when EA took over. They actually became fun to play, and I have no love for EA, trust me.

My only kvetch with the ending was a lack of closure. EC fixed that right up.

I haven't heard DA:2 called a great game

Ugh *wrinkles nose*

It happens in any fanbase. Back when I played WoW the forums had people regularly complain about the current expansion and talk about how much they missed the last one. It's because people who are unhappy with changes to a game or series are far more likely to speak out about it than people who are happy with it.

Of course to be fair I do think Mass Effect 2 was worse than 1 and that Andromeda was the worst of any of them, so there's that.

That just comes from caring about different things in the games. I'm not about to deny that Mass Effect 2 has better combat mechanics than 1 does, but it's still a mediocre cover based shooter at best and there was a loss of RP elements that I liked from 1.

The main reason why I put 3 above 2 is because ME3 is the first time the series was a competent shooter that could stand up on just the shooting mechanics, but if somebody cares more about the game being a RPG then naturally they aren't going to care much about that. Generally people who are only interested in the RP side of the game aren't going to be happy when you gut the RP elements, even if you did make the shooting better.

As somebody who plays tabletop pen and paper RPGs, most of that stuff that people go "ugh it was annoying and stupid anyway" are the things we like that allow us a greater control over defining our character even if they aren't optimal or even terribly useful in a lot of cases. I would have liked to see more stats and variation rather than marginal upgrades to guns that are functionally identical to each other.

I can just be happy with a game like ME3 that put a lot more emphasis on shooter mechanics because I happen to like shooters and largely grew up playing Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic.

I wouldn't actually call any of them bad games, though. Not even Andromeda(though it's gonna be a while before I go for a second playthrough).

I honestly don't get it. Bitches gotta bitch I guess.

I don't see how ME:A is disappointing. Played a lot of games in 2017 and ME:A held my interest the longest.

Disagree on ME:A being the worst. ME1 takes the cake solidly in my book. If I hadn't played ME2 first, I would've written ME off entirely.

For me Mass Effect 1 is still a great RPG even if it's a bad shooter, while Mass Effect 2 dropped a notch on the RPG scale without becoming a good shooter. I can forgive ME1's blemishes because it's good points are that good, while Mass Effect 2 doesn't hit those points as well with me even though it is still a really good game.

I consider Andromeda the worst because I didn't care for the characters, found the story to be average, and there was minimal RP in the game. Most of the dialogue options in the game were just picking which tone you wanted to say the same thing in. It felt like they had doubled down on the flaws that the dialogue system of Dragon Age Inquisition had.

It was a good shooter but not so good that it can stand up to other modern day pure shooter games. If all I wanted was a single-player shooter, I'd just reinstall DOOM which is far better in my opinion.

I loved ME1 as well... Not sure if some of it is nostalgia as it was my first Bioware game, but I had a blast playing this game. I did not like driving the Mako but it was still fun to shoot stuff down with it...

In my experience, I would agree with this assessment. Mass Effect 2 is the favorite of many of the Mass Effect fans I've interacted with over the years. However, when it came out, people hated how streamlined it was. Then ME3 came out and, despite having the best mixture of action and rpg elements in the trilogy, the entire game was hated based on its ending alone. When Andromeda came out, I was expecting to see similar behavior and I was not disappointed.

Personally, I think Mass Effect 1 is objectively the worst game in the series.  People may disagree with me, but its gameplay was janky and its romance options were shallow compared to what comes later in the series.  Outside of your alien squadmates, most of your crew was pretty bland, including Joker, who became substantially more witty and funny in later games.  The original Mass Effect will always hold a special place in my heart because it is the original -- it laid the groundwork for the entire series.  However, Mass Effect 2 and 3 had better gameplay, better romance options, more customization, and improved dialogue mechanics.  As for Andromeda, although its story is inferior to Mass Effect 1's, its gameplay was objectively better and more enjoyable, and the squadmates were all on par with the quality of the crew from Mass Effect 2 & 3.  I've even said before that Andromeda reminded me a lot of a better version of the original.  Mass Effect Andromeda may be the least successful in the series, but I'd be lying if I said that I thought it was the worst game in the franchise.