Mass Effect Ranked
Year: 2007-Present
Developer: BioWare (2007-Present) Iron MonkeyStudios (2012)
Publisher: Microsoft (2007) EA (2009-Present)
Main Entries: 3
Spin Off's: 3
Developer: BioWare (2007-Present) Iron MonkeyStudios (2012)
Publisher: Microsoft (2007) EA (2009-Present)
Main Entries: 3
Spin Off's: 3
In 2003 developer BioWare redefined action RPG's when they released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Where the genre had previously been restricted to isometric 2.5D turn based style gameplay akin to that of the Fallout series, Knights of the Old Republic sought to re-write the rule book and presented players with large fully explorable 3D worlds that were filled with quests, NPC's, side activities, and combat scenarios. Whilst the game retained some turn based combat mechanics due to technical limitations, the groundwork had been laid for BioWare's ultimate goal of building a fully 3D action RPG that utilised real time combat. That dream became a reality in 2007 when BioWare and Microsoft released Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 and PC. The game was critically adored and was a great start for the prospective franchise, though sales weren't quite what Microsoft had hoped and the series future was placed in jeopardy. That's when EA stepped in to acquire BioWare and Mass Effect along with it to give the series the support it needed to achieve greatness. November 7th 2020 marked BioWare announcing a remastered collection of the first three Mass Effect games for current generation systems, as well as an announcement that a new Mass Effect game is on its way! So, because it's N7 day, let's take a look back at Mass Effect!
#6 Mass Effect: Galaxy (2009)
#6 Mass Effect: Galaxy (2009)
Mass Effect: Galaxy is the first of two mobile games the series has the unfortunate burden of carrying. Galaxy concerns itself with telling the story of Jacob Taylor, a companion from Mass Effect 2, and his first meeting with Miranda Lawson (another Mass Effect 2 companion) and his introduction to the human survivalist organisation, Cerberus.
The game is a top down shooter where players must navigate labyrinthian environments to clear them of enemies. It's fairly uninspired and not overly fun to play. It's also something that despite fleshing out the backstory of two important Mass Effect 2 characters is mostly redundant as you can learn almost everything important about these two character in Mass Effect 2 anyway.
#5 Mass Effect: Infiltrator (2012)
The game is a top down shooter where players must navigate labyrinthian environments to clear them of enemies. It's fairly uninspired and not overly fun to play. It's also something that despite fleshing out the backstory of two important Mass Effect 2 characters is mostly redundant as you can learn almost everything important about these two character in Mass Effect 2 anyway.
#5 Mass Effect: Infiltrator (2012)
Infiltrator is the only other mobile Mass Effect game (and the only title in the series not developed by BioWare) and whilst being significantly better than Galaxy, it's still leagues behind what the series was known for and its contemporaries. You play as Randall Ezno, a Cerberus operative who is tasked with assassinating a Turian, however he realises that he has been duped by Cerberus and must fight back against the organisation that betrayed him.
Third person shooter gameplay with some rather impressive graphics for the time, Infiltrator is certainly beter than Galaxy, but still extremely forgettable.
#4 Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
Third person shooter gameplay with some rather impressive graphics for the time, Infiltrator is certainly beter than Galaxy, but still extremely forgettable.
#4 Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
The most recent spin-off for the Mass Effect series and the only one on consoles, Mass Effect: Andromeda was going to be the start of a new Mass Effect series for the eighth console generation. Due to the rather conclusive ending to Mass Effect 3, Andromeda takes place several thousand years in the future in a different galaxy where various 'Arks' of species from the Milky Way have been sent to search for a new home prior to the impending genocide the Milky Way by the Reapers. You play as Ryder, who after a series of complications when arriving in Andromeda becomes the new Human Pathfinder and tasked with scouting out worlds for inhabitation by human colonists. Meanwhile the other Arks are missing and Ryder must uncover their locations and unite the disparate Milky Way races against a new threat, the Kett.
Andromeda had a great premise but squanders most of the great things it does by having a bad story, too much of a focus on combat, and a plethora of technical problems that ranged from audio & visual issues, to game breaking bugs and glitches. Andromeda was a complete mess at launch and whilst some effort was put into smoothing out some of the technical issues, all post release content was cancelled and the planned sequels were also canned due to a poor critical and commercial reception. Whilst most of the issues appear to stem from bad management at BioWare and EA stretching the studio too thin on too many game projects, it certainly left a bad taste in many fans mouths and has put the series on indefinite hold whilst BioWare work out what to do next.
#3 Mass Effect 3 (2012)
Andromeda had a great premise but squanders most of the great things it does by having a bad story, too much of a focus on combat, and a plethora of technical problems that ranged from audio & visual issues, to game breaking bugs and glitches. Andromeda was a complete mess at launch and whilst some effort was put into smoothing out some of the technical issues, all post release content was cancelled and the planned sequels were also canned due to a poor critical and commercial reception. Whilst most of the issues appear to stem from bad management at BioWare and EA stretching the studio too thin on too many game projects, it certainly left a bad taste in many fans mouths and has put the series on indefinite hold whilst BioWare work out what to do next.
#3 Mass Effect 3 (2012)
Mass Effect 3 is perhaps one of the most infamous games in history and it's almost completely undeserved. One of the big features of the first two Mass Effect games was that your unique decisions carried over from game to game; for instance if you choose to kill a seemingly insignificant character causing you problems in Mass Effect 1, you could find that by the time Mass Effect 3 roll's around they would have been a great ally for helping out with the war effort. This meant that gamers were all approaching Mass Effect 3 with vastly different game saves and many found the 'bottlenecking' of choices in the third game to make many choices made in the previous games pointless, especially once it came to the moment where every gamer just got to pick one of the same three endings.
Mass Effect 3 opens with Earth being invaded by the Reapers, the galaxy is now seemingly overrun by the insurmountable threat and the war seems almost entirely hopeless. But Commander Shepard seeks to unite the galaxy against the Reaper invasion and mount a last ditch attempt at pushing them back in an all or nothing fight for survival. By reuniting with old allies, and forming bonds with new ones, the fate of the galaxy rests in your hands.
The gameplay brought back many of the RPG elements that were missing from Mass Effect 2, whilst also refining its combat system to be even more fun to play. The introduction of the 'Galactic Readiness' system that tallied up every action you took to work out how likely you were to succeed in your battle against the Reapers was a fantastic addition. Plus the robust and extremely fun co-op multiplayer suite provided tons of replay value and regular extra content to the game. Whilst the ending may have been a little underwhelming for some, I feel the whole point of Mass Effect was about the journey and the decisions you made along the way, not about how it was going to end.
#2 Mass Effect (2007)
Mass Effect 3 opens with Earth being invaded by the Reapers, the galaxy is now seemingly overrun by the insurmountable threat and the war seems almost entirely hopeless. But Commander Shepard seeks to unite the galaxy against the Reaper invasion and mount a last ditch attempt at pushing them back in an all or nothing fight for survival. By reuniting with old allies, and forming bonds with new ones, the fate of the galaxy rests in your hands.
The gameplay brought back many of the RPG elements that were missing from Mass Effect 2, whilst also refining its combat system to be even more fun to play. The introduction of the 'Galactic Readiness' system that tallied up every action you took to work out how likely you were to succeed in your battle against the Reapers was a fantastic addition. Plus the robust and extremely fun co-op multiplayer suite provided tons of replay value and regular extra content to the game. Whilst the ending may have been a little underwhelming for some, I feel the whole point of Mass Effect was about the journey and the decisions you made along the way, not about how it was going to end.
#2 Mass Effect (2007)
Whilst Mass Effect was not quite as ground-breaking as Knights of the Old Republic, it did manage to establish a brand new sci-fi IP with a lore so richly detailed and expansive right out of the gate that it could contend with the big boys of the industry like Star Wars and Star Trek.
You play as Commander Shepard, a member of the human military who have been newly inducted to the Galactic Alliance. Following reports that Saren, a highly respected Turian Spectre, has turned on the Alliance, you are enlisted into the Spectre program and must form a team of skilled individuals to take on Saren and his army of Geth androids. But the further you go down the rabbit hole the more you begin to realise that this goes beyond Saren and is actually a plot by ancient synthetic lifeforms known as Reapers to eradicate all intelligent life in the galaxy.
Mass Effect's gameplay has not aged all that gracefully but is nowhere near as bad as many would have you believe. Whilst the combat mechanics are certainly clunky, the depth and quality of the RPG elements far exceed any other entry in the series and especially its contemporaries. Whilst many aspects of the original Mass Effect are my favourite in the whole series, it's simply impossible to deny that the #1 entry is absolutely deserving of its place.
#1 Mass Effect 2 (2010)
You play as Commander Shepard, a member of the human military who have been newly inducted to the Galactic Alliance. Following reports that Saren, a highly respected Turian Spectre, has turned on the Alliance, you are enlisted into the Spectre program and must form a team of skilled individuals to take on Saren and his army of Geth androids. But the further you go down the rabbit hole the more you begin to realise that this goes beyond Saren and is actually a plot by ancient synthetic lifeforms known as Reapers to eradicate all intelligent life in the galaxy.
Mass Effect's gameplay has not aged all that gracefully but is nowhere near as bad as many would have you believe. Whilst the combat mechanics are certainly clunky, the depth and quality of the RPG elements far exceed any other entry in the series and especially its contemporaries. Whilst many aspects of the original Mass Effect are my favourite in the whole series, it's simply impossible to deny that the #1 entry is absolutely deserving of its place.
#1 Mass Effect 2 (2010)
Mass Effect 2 went from almost never happening because the first wasn't quite as popular as Microsoft had hoped it would be, to having EA demand that it be streamlined into little more than a glorified third person shooter in order to attract as large an audience as it possibly could, before finally becoming what is widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever made.
Picking up shortly after the events of the first game, Shepard and the crew of the Normandy are still searching for more Reaper threats as the Galactic Alliance becomes complacent and believes Shepard to simply be paranoid. Whilst searching in uncharted space the Normandy is attacked by a large vessel with only a few crew members able to escape alive; Shepard going down with the ship and being killed minutes into the game.
That is until you awaken, as Shepard, having been reconstructed from your remains found the Normandy wreckage by human survivalist group, Cerberus. Their price for reviving you, find the Reapers and make sure humanity lives to see another day and damn the other Milky Way races to hell. Shepard doesn't completely agree, but they do utilise Cerberus' technology and funds to build a new highly specialised crew to take on the Collectors, the aliens that destroyed the Normandy, as Shepard believes they may have connection to the Reapers.
Mass Effect 2 can best be described as a game that dedicates its entire playtime to build itself up for the final mission. From the outset of the game you know that the final mission will be you launching an attack on the Collector ship that attacked you, but you must first assemble a team and get them to trust you enough to follow you into what will almost certainly be a suicide mission. This suicide mission is without a doubt one of the greatest levels in videogame history as it draws on not only all of your gameplay skill from the last 50 or so hours you spend with the game, but also requires you to know your teammates backstories and strengths so well that you can command their placements in the assault to gain strategic advantage.
Add to this that all of the cast are incredibly well written and among some of the most interest characters in all of gaming; plus that the game is stuffed to bursting with content that will take you literally hundreds of hours to complete everything. Plus it takes into account all your major decisions from the first game, and promises that the major decisions you make in this game will carry through to the epic finale in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect 2 takes all the great worldbuilding and storytelling from the first game and expands on it tenfold to create one of the richest, most detailed, and most interesting worlds in sci-fi history. Mass Effect 2 transcends gaming and shines as one of the greatest sci-fi products ever created and simply must be experienced by anyone with a passing interest in sci-fi stories.
Picking up shortly after the events of the first game, Shepard and the crew of the Normandy are still searching for more Reaper threats as the Galactic Alliance becomes complacent and believes Shepard to simply be paranoid. Whilst searching in uncharted space the Normandy is attacked by a large vessel with only a few crew members able to escape alive; Shepard going down with the ship and being killed minutes into the game.
That is until you awaken, as Shepard, having been reconstructed from your remains found the Normandy wreckage by human survivalist group, Cerberus. Their price for reviving you, find the Reapers and make sure humanity lives to see another day and damn the other Milky Way races to hell. Shepard doesn't completely agree, but they do utilise Cerberus' technology and funds to build a new highly specialised crew to take on the Collectors, the aliens that destroyed the Normandy, as Shepard believes they may have connection to the Reapers.
Mass Effect 2 can best be described as a game that dedicates its entire playtime to build itself up for the final mission. From the outset of the game you know that the final mission will be you launching an attack on the Collector ship that attacked you, but you must first assemble a team and get them to trust you enough to follow you into what will almost certainly be a suicide mission. This suicide mission is without a doubt one of the greatest levels in videogame history as it draws on not only all of your gameplay skill from the last 50 or so hours you spend with the game, but also requires you to know your teammates backstories and strengths so well that you can command their placements in the assault to gain strategic advantage.
Add to this that all of the cast are incredibly well written and among some of the most interest characters in all of gaming; plus that the game is stuffed to bursting with content that will take you literally hundreds of hours to complete everything. Plus it takes into account all your major decisions from the first game, and promises that the major decisions you make in this game will carry through to the epic finale in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect 2 takes all the great worldbuilding and storytelling from the first game and expands on it tenfold to create one of the richest, most detailed, and most interesting worlds in sci-fi history. Mass Effect 2 transcends gaming and shines as one of the greatest sci-fi products ever created and simply must be experienced by anyone with a passing interest in sci-fi stories.