do i need to play mass effect 1 before mass effect 2?

My question is do I need to play mass effect 1 before I play mass effect 2 to keep from being lost in the story?

You don't NEED to, but it helps, a lot, especially if you import a previous save game, then you don't get stuck with terrible choices from the first game.

You dont need to but I thought the story/plot in the first game was better and its pretty cool seeing all the decisions you make in the first game play into the plot in the second game.

You don't start watching Lord of the Rings at Two Towers, or Star Wars at Return of the Jedi

ME1 is pretty awesome, and seeing the choices you made reflected in ME2 is a cool feeling.

If you don't play it and import a Shep, ME2 automatically takes the worst possible ending from ME1. One of the coolest characters dies, some other people are dead, and generally you're not set up well for the battle to come in ME3.

So yeah, play ME1 first. It's shorter than ME2. Even doing every sidequest and exploring every planet it only took me 30 hrs. If you just go through the story and best sidequests, it can take less than 15 hrs. And it's wicked fun too.

Well no and yes. First if you don't you will miss a ton of story elements such as characters, places, and past things that happened in the first game. Also you will not be able to import a character which determines how the main story plays out.

If you play the first game and beat it a certain way you create a story for the 2nd game. Although some details stay the same, you do change some major factors in how the game plays out. Also if you play the first. Import to the 2nd beat the 2nd. You again get to import into the third which in total creates a very unique story.

I highly recommend playing the first one. If nothing else just blaze through the main story. Which should only take about 5-10 hours so you know whats going on. Believe me most of Mass Effect 2 uses characters from the first game. No point in messing up a great story by not knowing whats going on.

for a bit of a reference i jumped on the halo bandwagon a little later on (halo 3) and pretty easily figured out the story. is mass effect's fiction more or less complex than halo's?

for a bit of a reference i jumped on the halo bandwagon a little later on (halo 3) and pretty easily figured out the story. is mass effect's fiction more or less complex than halo's?

wallmart56

Mass Effect is WAY more detailed than Halo, they're not even in the same league, Mass Effect is really cheap these days, really cheap, just get it, if you don't, like we've said, you'll miss out on importing your save game into 2, and you are lumbered with god awful choices if you play 2 as is.

My question is do I need to play mass effect 1 before I play mass effect 2 to keep from being lost in the story?

wallmart56

You can but you don't have to, also it would look perfect for timing events.

Highly Recommended. For one thing you get about 20% more game when you import a file. Not to mention the added replayability.

Yeah, then again from me its highly recommended.

Hi again, well if you want to see how the story goes then I suggest playing the 1st before the 2nd. :)