I have been replaying Mass Effect 1, and it actually was my least favorite mass effect, the Mako was clumsy, the exploration tedious, way too many repeat maps, the characters were more simple, and less involved.
But in further inspection, it, Jade empire, KotOR, and Dragon Age Origins all have something the more recent games dont.
They play more like a tabletop rpg. They have lots of little choices that tell you, how you can play and interact. There are no fetch quests on the citadel. Each is a small story, that you can do or not, even the keeper one has an extra element. Heck, most of the ones on the citadel didn't involve combat. Dealing with the hanar, Under cover waitresses, double cross that does not go sour, Weapon mod illegal smuggling, these don't all have to end in combat, they are a way to play your character.
Getting past everything on Noveria is an amazing moment, which to me, meant more then the choice about the Rachni Queen later.
Compare that even to my favorite Mass effect game, ME2 where we have choice but no flexibility in that choice. Only a few things does it come up, usually in things like Miranda vs Jack which is less about how we play and defining our character through play, and becomes who we like more.
We defined ourselves in the Big quests then in a bunch of little ones. You turned quests down in KotoR because it didn't suit your alignment, and quests like figure out who did it, or even rescuing a character from the dark side. Every quest seemed to have a flavor. The cities seemed alive. And it was how can I use the crow quests, or Sam Cauldry to define my character. In Lothering, an evil or just self interested character can fleece the town, while a good character can calm things, and feel like a hero.
Fetch quests were about figuring stuff out half the time, and figuring whose side you want to be on. I love that you can side with the officer or the Hanar with Paragon or Renegade. Or that the Main character in KotoR had mind powers that didn't always work, but could make things much better (and sometimes worse)
In ME3 and DA:I, which I enjoyed. It was disapointing, since the emotions were so unemotional, and you could really only go along with the story. Every time as an inquisitor it seemed people kept saying no, you can say that but its a bad idea. And in the end its about reacting to the story rather than playing the story (something I feel DA2 is the most guilty of) which feels hallow compared to earlier games where it felt every choice gave you radically different results on how to play.
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