Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in order - do you have to start with the first game?

The collection comprises the original trilogy (we still love you, Andromeda) and adds in all the DLC that was released - that adds many hours to the already substantial amount of time it will take to complete.

Buy Mass Effect: The Legendary Edition at Amazon

But what if you love the second and third game in the series but you aren't so keen on the first, can you skip it and start with the second? Here are the details - and do check out our Mass Effect Legendary Edition review to see what we thought of the remastered collection!

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Mass Effect games in order

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a compilation of the video games in the Mass Effect trilogy. They are:

• Mass Effect (original release - 2007)
• Mass Effect 2 (original release - 2010)
• Mass Effect 3 (original release - 2012)

Do you have to play Mass Effect 1 first in the Legendary Edition?

Let's get something out of the way first, the Mass Effect trilogy is, obviously, designed to be played in order and if you skip past the first one then you will be missing out on some great, important connections between characters that will come back into play in future games.

Two big characters can be killed off in that debut entry, depending on how you play, and their losses will be felt throughout the series – hard to feel sad about it if you have never spent any time with them to begin with.

But if you have played the games before and you did not get on overly well with the first game, things did change for the franchise in a number of positive ways starting with Mass Effect 2, so you may want to start with that one and the good news is that you can!

When the Legendary Edition boots up, you are greeted by all three games ready to select - so just start wherever you like and you do get the DLC motion comics that fill you in on what came before if you need a refresher.

Keep in mind though that if you are an achievement or trophy hunter then there are several of them designed around playing all three games and you will miss out on them.

But to stress, if you want to experience this story in full and get the most out of it then you should definitely start at the beginning - even if you are one of those who found the first game to be a bit of a slog at times - we blame the MAKO!

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