I do honestly. I still love and play the original but I just find myself having way, way, way more fun in 2 and 3 in both gameplay and storywise. That and I just can't play Mass Effect 1 properly anymore just because of how clunky the gameplay feels to me comparatively. I just use console commands to give myself everything at the start.
(ensuing booing)
I feel like the gameplay improvement in each game is proportional to the detriment in the plot and tone.
ME!: best plot, meh characters, meh gameplay, best exploration, best tone/atmosphere
ME2: meh plot, best characters, good gameplay, meh exploration, meh tone.
ME3: bad plot, meh chracters, best gameplay, bad exploration, all over the place tone.
I did enjoyed ME1 the most on my first playtrough (nothing beats the feeling I had when the menu theme starts playing in Ilos, with Vigil 
, best moment in the franchise) and then it goes downhill fast. ME2 is fun to replay several times. ME3 could barely finished, but combat is fun, and Citadel DLC was the most precious thing to ever been DLCed.
Each game has some good and bad about it.
ME1 had a grand sense of exploration, rpg elements and a pretty good narrative. The combat while clunky did have an element of customization I feel was lost in later installments, for instance being able to upgrade your biotics to the point of being able to lift a Geth Colossus or modding your sniper rifle with explosive rounds to turn it in to a high precision cannon, the lack of an ammo counter meant that unlike heavy weapons I could actually make use of it to my heart's content and not worry about using it needlessly. And yes I did enjoy the Mako, could've used a speed boost and some better steering but I still love that thing.
ME2 has the best side missons of the series from a level design perspective, it felt more thought out than the relatively empty expanses of the ME1 planets. While the scale of the planets wasn't quite the same the sense of exploration was still there zooming around the galaxy looking for resources and finding a fair amount of side missions, plus the scenery was usually gorgeous, having three different hubs was also fun. Combat was a mixed bag, it was less clunky than than ME1 but still didn't feel quite right. They added an ammo counter but ammo was so plentiful I wondered what was the point. Heavy weapons were a bit of a let down in that I barely used them. Utterly gutting the rpg elements and ability to customize crew armor was a let down. The narrative was lacking in advancing the actual plot, but the character interactions and variety of things you did during companion missions made it pretty fun since while there was still plenty of them not every mission was a shooting gallery. Exploring Cerberus and the Terminus system kept me invested and finding out the faith of the abducted colonists and Protheans kept me interested. Our imported decision didn't effect much but this being the middle installment I can forgive that given I would expect the next game to be where they really paid off.
ME3 has more misses than hits for me, but let's start with the hits. Combat is the best out of the series, we have the return of weapons mods and can now pick our loadout which was a very effective way to customize our playstyles, and my hat goes off to the dev team for finally making the engineer class worth playing. Even to powers while still more streamlined than I tend to like do edge to closer to the RPG form than what ME2 did. Making heavy weapons one shot items you find on the field was an improvement I think. Level designs still gorgeous. I have few qualms about the character interactions as well they felt pretty meaningful for the most part. I feel mixed about our imported decisions from the previous games. Tuchanka and Rannoch paid off pretty well if you manged to line your cards up, Conrad Verner was a surprisingly detailed touch, while others like the Rachni queen and Collector base where somewhat disappointing with just how minute and ultimately insignificant the changes were. A few things like the decision to remain a spectre or not outright didn't matter at all, nor did romancing Jacob for some reason.
Now the bad, wasn't fond of how cliched a villain Cerberus became in this one, basic things like the journal/codex were (and last I checked still are) bugged to a minor extent and Citadel quest markers weren't great and were back to having one hub that feels a lot smaller than in the first game. Didn't enjoy the new overhead camera much either, nor how most of the citadel sidequests played out with you essentially eavesdropping on people and just handing them a random item you found while scanning planets or running around a shooting gallery. Penalizing the player's war assets if they didn't play the Arrival DLC is a strict no, Kai Lang was a joke more so than Harbinger as harbinger was at least somewhat entertaining. Exploration felt gutted this time around and the war assets underutilized. The side missions were predominantly of the shooting gallery sort this time around so not terrible fond of that. The dream sequences felt like I was loosing control over my character, and less said about the narrative the better, was expecting a grand finish ended up with what I consider a train wreck below even the ME2 bar.
So ME1 and 2 are about even from me in terms of enjoyment though for different reasons, ME3 is definitely below them in ranking as far as I'm concerned.
ME1 was still the best 'sci-fi' game, if that makes any sense.
ME1 was still the best 'sci-fi' game, if that makes any sense.
I don't even have the words for it, which is strange.
The game just felt wonderful. It's actually the last nostalgic gaming gaming experience I have, on par with getting up before school to play games like Daggerfall, Fallout, or Diablo. Remembering it evokes the same warm fuzzy sense of escapism and wonder that memories of those early games do. Everything since then - even the great ones - have just been games. I haven't been able to appreciate anything else on quite the same level.
I always find it really hard to answer when folks and friends ask me about my favorite game of the series. For one thing, I love the trilogy. For another, it's not as simple as saying ME X is my favorite because of this and because of that. It's probably weird of me to say but evidently I can't answer that question.
What I can say is this: Each game had its strengths and weaknesses. These (the strengths) may be summarized as follows:
Best sci-fi theme/atmosphere/story: ME1
Best characters/cast and character-specific storylines: ME2
Best gameplay/overall fun factor: ME3
So, no, I don't really have a favorite, but I do have favorite aspects from each individual entry. Ultimately, Mass Effect is the sum of its parts. It's what makes it so lovable in my eyes.
You sure that doesn't say more about you than about the games?
It's possible it does.
Again, it's hard to articulate precisely, but I guess it might be more accurate that nothing has impressed me quite so much since then. It's still my favored hobby, and it's not like I can't enjoy things. The thousands of hours spent on DA and Skyrim sort of speak for themselves there.
I thought most people did?
Personally, yes.
Story-wise though, I still think ME1 is great, but it falls behind 2 and 3. ME2 made me feel more invested in Shepard even if I thought some of the game mechanics were... bad (medi-gel, and actively searching for every single damn thermal clip I could find!), but they did fix them in ME3. Regarding ME3, I thought it was still better than ME1 despite how many people disliked the ending, since I liked the story overall. The only thing that really bothered me was how Shepard seemed to know James Vega despite the player not really knowing him at all.
ME3's most definitely worst of the series when it comes to it's narrative content, Between Cerberus and the Crucible and a whole bunch of terrible auto-dialogue it was a disaster, personally.
2 and 3 are definitely better than 1. Because they don't have the stupid Mako. Driving that darn thing is as if Shepard is drunk all the time.
But Shepard IS drunk all the time.
Definitely 2, it's the high point of the series.
Though 1 is better than 3.
My favorite was 2.! I loved it soo mutch. Had so mutch fun playing it.
* PROS *
ME1: Best story (and story pacing). Best Citadel. Best RPG elements. Best exploration (and sense of discovery).
ME2: Best characters-specific stories (characters development). Best soudtrack. Best DLCs. Best last mission of the trilogy (excluding the actual "boss", the Suicide Run was pitch perfect up to that point, then it destroyed the immersion and the atmosphere; still, Suicide Run, overall, was awesome). Best romances (I know, that is very subjective, but it's my opinion anyway).
ME3: Best multi-player? Yeah, best multi-player. Seriously though, the MP is the best part of ME3. Best... combat system? Yeah I suppose, that.
* CONS *
ME1: Worst Inventory GUI. Worst characters development (or rather, not much significance to said characters development, unless it happened to advance the main plot to the next step). Worst terrain for driving? Problem wasn't the Mako, it was the terrain's completely unnatural, odly-shaped and uninspired pointy geometry layout that made it a pain in the ass. Not exactly the best overall dialogue quality of the trilogy (of course ME1's writing has its good moments, all three games have them, but in retrospect... for ME1 it was sort of just "passable", overall). Now, here's the thing, I LOVED the overall atmosphere and sense of exploration of the game, it felt big, intimidating and alien... BUT... that "sense of discovery" came at a price: "exploring" rather barren landscape, SOME of which had decent atmosphere, MOST of which were just boring to drive on until you finally found that seemingly-abandoned or secret "base" that looks exactly the same as the one you discovered and cleared 1 hour ago on that other planet located light-years away.
ME2: Worst main story-pacing. Worst main story development of the trilogy (ME2 should have had a significant development in regards to Reapers themselves, NOT a suddenly-new threat that happens to be tools for them, seriously what the hell was that). Worst end boss in recent video gaming history (well OK... ok it made some creepy "alive machinery" sounds, there's that). Worst mini-games (doors security hack / resources scanning, both absolutely useless and actual interruptions to immersion in my book).
ME3: Worst ending(s) in recent video gaming (and general entertainment) history. Worst overall main story and pacing (the intro alone happens too abruptly, then you suddenly find yourself on Mars and Liara reveals something important and way too convenient, then oh, look, you're on the Citadel already, just overall really disliked the first 2 hours or so of the campaign). Worst RPG elements of the trilogy ("auto-dialogue" Shepard, really? Wasn't enough to not allow us to give our teammates armors to make them look badass, you had to make Shepard auto talk?). Worst "side quests" of the trilogy (especially in the manner we acquire them, just walking by or standing right next to some people talking and OH, * ding * got a new mission there... damn technology went far lately!). No loyalty-type missions whatsoever (I suppose if everyone was loyal to Shep in ME2 that they'd maintain their loyalty during ME3's events, right? I guess...). Some of the worst dialogue of the trilogy (not all of it was bad, but overall especially compared to ME2's level of quality it just got crushed, even ME1's was mostly better). Worst Citadel of the bunch. Worst romances of the trilogy. Worst soundtrack (hate me if you want, but NOTHING tops ME2's brilliant and perfectly-fitting OST in the trilogy, and I also preferred ME1's OST over ME3's). I think I might be forgetting a couple of cons for that one... but I'll leave it at this list, point should be clear here (I just disliked ME3 overall but absolutely loved its multi-player which isn't sarcasm, I've played about 1100+ hours of it).
* OVERALL *
Well here I'll just answer the actual thread's question, and my answer is: Yes, and no.
Yes I preferred ME2 for some things, and no I did not prefer ME2 (and certainly not ME3) for other things.
In retrospect, for me, what "made" Mass Effect was its original story (yes, imagine that, even above romances, crazy isn't it?). What I mean by "original" is quite literally the first Mass Effect's story. The main story arc in ME1 was simply brillant. To me, the Mass Effect franchise did not "need" to become more action-oriented, ME1 not having a "fast-paced" or responsive or simply not having a "fun" combat system was NOT a problem because it was more of a "talky / techy" universe than a Gears of War style game set "in space" that needed to have your character do all sorts of combat acrobatics in real time with lots of particle effects and explosions coming out of big guns to shine. I tolerated ME2's streamlining of the RPG elements AND I accepted the "change" to the combat system (I.E. simply making the series now more action-focused just out of the big blue). I still liked ME2 and I still believe that - despite the extremely weak main story arc - it is one of the best games that BioWare has made, and one of the best sci-fi action video game ever created, period.
Now, still, overall what "truly feels Mass Effect" to me, to this day, remains the first game of the trilogy. So the answers here will probably depend on what sort of game-play or story-related elements people prefer. If you'd happen to like a good main story in a game, you'll most likely say that you still prefer ME1. If you happen to prefer characters-centric story development then you'll probably go with ME2. If you instead just like your game to have "some story", regardless of its actual quality, with a great, fast and responsive combat system with good mobility and freedom of movement around then you'll certainly choose ME3. I suppose that, in the end, the Mass Effect trilogy offers something for every tastes.
I think there's a sense of exploration in Mass Effect 1 that isn't quite there in the sequels. ME1 also did a great job at introducing the universe...it truly felt like a huge living universe populated by various races and cultures. ME2 and ME3 didn't really re-capture that magic, imo. And I didn't feel as invested in Mass Effect 2's story (which was essentially solving your crew's personal problems because the main story about the Collectors was basically non-existent) as I did Mass Effect 1's. ME3 had some great moments, but it's really from Thessia and onwards that the story begins to fall apart. Gameplay and the character interaction on the other hand were things which steadily improved as the series progressed.
ME3's most definitely worst of the series when it comes to it's narrative content, Between Cerberus and the Crucible and a whole bunch of terrible auto-dialogue it was a disaster, personally.
ME2 is my favorite, but my issues is having 12 squadmates when only 8 is needed for everyone to survive and then everyone can be dead or alive depending on the playthrough
Mass Effect 2 is the best Mass Effect game, that is widely known.
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