Opinion: Every Mass Effect Game, Ranked From Worst to Best

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BioWare’s Mass Effect franchise has been a staple of great Sci-Fi writing and RPG design. The original trilogy, released during the seventh generation of consoles, tells a cohesive story set in the far future of human civilization. With just three games, BioWare set a high benchmark for all RPGs but not all games were created equal.

Here is every Mass Effect game ranked from worst to best.

Mass Effect Andromeda

Andromeda is the black sheep of the franchise. Set in a different galaxy between the events of ME2 and 3, it follows two new protagonists and characters. The problem with Andromeda, aside from its botched launch, is that it strayed too far from the original RPG design into the territory of straightforward shooters. It doesn’t help that the game’s lead characters, Sara and Scott Ryder, weren’t as charismatic or sassy as Commander Shepherd.

Andromeda was released when most players were getting tired of the open-world game design. Previous Mass Effect games had straddled the fine line between large explorable spaces and a fully open world, but Andromeda did away with carefully crafted levels. Its mission design also suffered, inundating players with mindless and repetitive fetch quests.

Mass Effect 3

Ending a trilogy is tough, and nowhere is it more evident than in Mass Effect 3. Perhaps it was always going to be impossible to follow up a great sequel, but ME3’s biggest sin was invalidating player agency in its finale. For years players had been asked to weigh their decisions heavily for all kinds of quests in preceding games, but none of it mattered when BioWare decided to take a linear route in the end.

Mass Effect 3 may be a bigger and technically more competent game, but its mechanics were starting to get repetitive. Everyone loved Mass Effect 2 because of its characters and their complex relationships with Shepherd, but ME3 didn’t dedicate enough time to flesh those relationships out.

Mass Effect

The original Mass Effect will always have a special place in our hearts, but we’d be lying if we said visiting it again isn’t a clunky experience. This is the one that introduced this brand new world and its compelling characters to us for the first time, but all of its elements were vastly improved in its sequels. It may be remembered for its characters, but not for its cumbersome inventory system and under-developed combat.

Perhaps Mass Effect’s biggest pitfall was its exploration. Everyone remembers the tedium of its Mako missions, and its morality system was still nascent in complexity. Fortunately, a lot of its issues were solved later in the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, making revisiting the original viable again.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is the crown jewel of the franchise, and perhaps the best game BioWare has ever made. Like Assassin’s Creed II, this sequel improved on every aspect of the original. A more cinematic story with greater stakes? Check. Deeper character relationships? Done. Cover-based combat that actually works well while giving players enough strategic options? Yep. And who can forget the loyalty system and improved Paragon/Renegade morality system? Mass Effect 2 has it all.

For a Sci-Fi game, Mass Effect 2 also built a palpable atmosphere with a serene, but loud when required, soundtrack from Jack Wall. The final mission makes a long-lasting impression with every choice made by players throughout the campaign taken into account. Mass Effect 2 is the best game in the series by a long shot.