OP
OP
I'll just get the entire DLC bundle then, since multiple people share your opinion here. Thank you!I'm a huge Mass Effect fan, so I would almost recommend every DLC for the 3 games. The only ones that could be ignore due to their lesser quality is Arrival for Mass Effect 2 & Omega for Mass Effect 3, but they're still kinda worth it if you fall in love with the games.
I don't know if you're missing any DLC characters from 2 & 3, but it would be a good idea to have them too.
As someone else has said, there is no official controller suppport on PC, although some fans made something I think. The games play well enough with keyboard and mouse(easier to aim + more shortcuts for skills) that I never bothered looking into that.
Awesome, thank you! They still seem pretty expensive, especially considering they're really old games. But better to get them now than at full price though.Edity: Just checked for you, The Mass Effect 2 and 3 DLC bundles on Origin are currently 60% off so good time to buy.
In that case, I hope EA upgrades the standard versions to the remaster for free. Though I doubt it.Yeah, EA themselves said they will be launching "fan favorite" remasters soon:
I won't skip anything, that's for sure. I want to experience the entire series! (Not Andromeda though, that doesn't exist)Yep. Even Pinnacle Station, for its price, is worth it if you like ME1.
But yeah OP, just buy every story related DLC if you can, and don't listen to people telling you to skip an episode (wtf, seriously). Some of the DLCs for ME2 and 3 are among the best expansions of last gen.
Major Mass Effect player here. Got dozens of playthroughs under my belt on multiple systems. Let me give you MY exhaustive recommendations for optimal experience (my preferences, of course).
DLC:
Get ALL the story content.
Yes, all of it.
Some of it is naturally better than others, but almost all of it will enrich your experience and the story and the characters in the long run. The ONLY story DLC I would remotely say is 100% inconsequential is "Pinnacle Station", which mostly just serves as ME1's challenge trials (though there is very minor story in it, and you can win a nice little apartment in the middle of nowhere with a great view).
But the rest? ALL worth it. Bring Down the Sky is worth it in ME1 as one of the best missions of the game, and an introduction to a major alien race. ME2's Kasumi and Zaeed are ESSENTIAL as adding two party members. Overlord is imaginative, Arrival ties directly into ME3, and Lair of the Shadow Broker is considered ME2's best expansion. All the Cerberus Network stuff is free now, too. ME3's Javik is a major party member worth getting, Leviathan greatly explains the motivations of the major antagonists and their origins, and Citadel is the best damn DLC of anything ever. Omega is arguably the least important, but it's a great one-off. Just... get them all and you'll be happy you did, even if those DLC prices still hurt.
And, of course, grab the Extended Cut ending DLC.
Mods:
Get the controller mod. The games can be played on KB&M, but it was clearly optimized for controllers and it feels organic that way. I also recommend things like the MEUITM for improved textures, and there's some big QoL mods out there that do everything from speeding up elevators to adding back in cut content, but those are optional.
Playthrough:
The games are amazing, but I also recommend you experience them multiple times. The first time through... stick with your choices and consequences. It makes every decision have massive weight. You can always replay the games and "fix" choices that get people killed or cost you resources, but that's part of the fun. I always do a Paragon & Renegade run, and I encourage you to stick with one or the other (the game pushes this too) to open up as many story options as possible late-game. And all classes play quite differently as well, and there are countless permutations for romances, alliances, backstabs, and more - many of which won't be apparent until the THIRD game.
For ME1, explore everything and take your time. It's the most leisurely game in the series. For ME2, you have more hard choices of where to invest your time and resources, and if something seems like it's important and you shouldn't put it off, DON'T. There are consequences for waiting. ME3 is likewise time-intensive for some missions.
Also, because of how good BOTH VAs are, do one playthrough as MaleShep and one as FemShep. They are both great but different in many nuanced ways.
Last bit of advice... get the space hamster. And make sure you check up on him from time to time. And don't forget to feed your fish!
No rambling at all! This is all valuable to me, thank you very much for the write-up!
I would recommend these DLCs as mandatory:
Mass Effect 2:
Mass Effect 3:
- "Lair of the Shadow Broker"
- "Arrival"
- Cerberus Network Pass Content: (I think it's free)
- "Normandy Crash Site"
And I would recommend these as optional but they are worth investing in:
- "Extended Cut" (Adds details to the endgame that were originally rushed, to provide more closure. It's free.)
- "From Ashes" (Squadmate w/ story scenes, that was meant to be part of the main story before getting cut. Significant additional story detail and foreshadowings)
- "Citadel DLC" (play after the main game has ended - it feels thematically like the true ending, despite taking place prior to the canon endgame)
Mass Effect 1:
Mass Effect 2:
- "Bring Down The Sky"
Mass Effect 3:
- "Overlord" (Side story)
- "Kasumi: Stolen Memory" (Extra squadmate w/ story missions)
- "Zaeed: The Price of Revenge" (Extra squadmate w/ story missions)
- "Leviathan" (Addresses details that were vague in the ending along with a new Detective-style side-plot)
- "Omega" (Resolves a plot-point that got sidelined in the main game, and was originally supposed to be a real side-quest in the main campaign. It's very long and feels like a long side-story in the middle of a focused main arc.)
For Mass Effect 1 pc is easily the best version. You get short elevator rides (background loading) which takes FOREVER on PS3 and 360, and it has a reworked UI that is better, minigames that were completely redesigned for pc which are more intuitive as well and the game can run at 1080p and it feels good.
If you want to use a controller, you need a mod, which has been released. This means you have to decide before playing. If you want a cinematic couch gaming experience on a TV, go for the controller mods.
ME1: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect/mods/60
ME2: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect2/mods/62
ME3: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/407
Controller mods aside, you need to know that on pc, each game sequentially becomes more like "made for consoles" in its game design.
ME2 removes RPG mechanics such as inventory to put focus more on action and strategy only and lacks QoL pc features like "right click to cancel" instead requiring weird things like pressing the Esc key to back out of menus, or move the cursor to a GUI that says "Cancel". The scroller doesn't scroll in text strings, you have to drag the panel manually by left-clicking, and other things. Otherwise the shooting and dialogue interface feels good with Mouse & Keyboard.
ME3 the shooting and action is also tight with Mouse & Keyboard, and you can move the camera while sprinting, and you also get 8 hotkeys for abilities, which eliminates the need for pausing and selecting. It's a more fast-paced way to play than on consoles and it's also very optimized and easy to run at 60fps on even mid-end systems. However, they significantly reduce player input of choosing dialogues and such in the cutscenes, meaning you will be sitting hunched over at a M&Kb for minutes just looking at cutscenes sometimes, and there are also pre-rendered 30fps sequences that don't blend in organically with the higher-res, 60fps in-game stuff which makes the experience more artificial on pc. I would actually recommend that most people play ME3 on Xbox 360 or PS3 because it's intended more as a "MOVIE" experience designed with the same appeal as Uncharted and the like than a true RPG.
But don't change platforms midgame. If you play ME1 on pc you also play the two others on the same system, because you import your character and their choices through a save, which can't be transported across platforms.
Other than that, I would actually recommend a few mods for the pc version of Mass Effect 3 to iron out bugs BioWare never were able to fix, which the game truly suffers from. "ME3Recalibrated" fixes cutscene bugs and dialogue inconsistencies, and makes it a smoother experience. If you dare, "ALOT" (a high-res texture pack) I would recommend because they over-optimized the game with low-res textures for 720p systems at the time, and ME3 has some very blurry textures.
TL;DR: If all my rambling in the bottom is too much, just look at my list of Mandatory and optional DLCs and stick by that, and remember to play all 3 games on the same platform so you get the full save-import trilogy experience. And bring handkerchiefs because you will start crying at some point.
I'll get all DLC and get the mods, though I'll try the games both with kb+m and controller to see how that goes.
I've never cried because of a game before, so I'm very curious if this can being me to tears lol. And I don't really like cinematic stuff, I like my games to be extremely "gamey", though I have no doubt I'll enjoy some good story telling and presentation.
Thanks again!
