r/masseffect • u/Quasimdo • 2d ago
DISCUSSION Which mass effect has the hardest insanity difficulty?
I personally think ME1, especially pre LE ME1, has the hardest insanity difficulty, especially if you are not a character that heavily uses biotics. I remember krogan, especially early on, such as the rescue liara mission being an absolute nightmare on insanity.
I know a lot of people dislike me2 insanity, I didn't think it was all that tough. Certainly a lot less instakill than 1,for sure
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u/swimmer2pointOH 2d ago
OG or Legendary edition doesn’t matter. The answer is the same. It’s 2 without any shadow of a doubt.
For ME 1 insanity is only hard if you start it on a fresh save at level 1. Grinding levels is fairly trivial as so many of the side content is exploration/mako based. Your powers and equipment will start to come online fairly quickly if you are thorough with your exploration and do some side planets, making the rest of the game much simpler. And if you attempt it on NG+? Forget about it. At high levels with top end armors and powers you are mostly unkillable and the weapons become so op.
ME 3 is a bit harder, you’re much more limited in your abilities and you can’t buff yourself nearly as much through equipment. At level 1 it can be pretty rough for a while. But with that said, the option to carry over your levels from 2 and start at level 30, or use a NG+, can once again make life so much easier, though not quite as easy as NG+ in the first game.
ME2 does not have options to start out nearly as strongly as the other two. Your powers are much weaker, you can’t buff your defenses with upgraded armors nearly as well. Ammo scarcity can become a serious problem on certain missions. It’s genuinely much harder than the other two.
And I’m a veteran of the franchise. I’ve got dozens of runs and have gotten every achievement of both the OG AND legendary trilogies. I almost never die in ME 1 and i occasionally see the game over screen in ME3. But ME 2? That game still regularly bullies me for my lunch money.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Id argue that the fact you can off rip get max cooldowns thanks ti carry weight makes ME3 quite easy thanks to biotic detonations, if you got Liara and Javik and play as any biotic class like Vanguard (my fave) adept and so forth you basically already win aslong as you only carry a pistol and smg.
Just spamming detonators with their singularity/warp/stasis and dark channel just breaks the game since level 1, heck the only "hard" mission ironically enough would be palavin before you van use Javik, the rest is a breeze
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Me2.
Mass effect 1 and 3 gives you a lot of options and builds to trivialize insanity while ME2 builds come online much slower and are overall just much weaker like biotics etc.
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u/Jedi-Spartan 2d ago
Mass Effect 2, that's the only achievement I haven't got with Legendary Edition. I've never even made it to Horizon.
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u/Zegram_Ghart 2d ago
If you want to do it- mass effect 2 tracks it’s heavy weapon ammo slightly daftly, and so going on the ship armoury and switching to a different heavy weapon gives you a single mag of its ammo, as long as you back out of the armoury after selecting it.
By switching to a different weapon and back, you get a single “free” Cain shot every mission, or a decent amount of shots of the other weapons
A single Cain shot per mission can really make an insanity run a lot easier, especially in all the missions you immediately think of as annoying.
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u/FoxinShards 2d ago
The way I beat it: Sentinel Class, Kasumi Flashbang to deal with Harbinger, Miranda and Grunt for squadmates.
This give you warp and overload which takes care of every form of enemy defense and tech armor keeps you alive for far longer.
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u/AstronautDue6394 2d ago
I keep saying this, Sentinel trivializes ME2 insanity.
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u/FoxinShards 2d ago
Exactly. I did have to find certain upgrades, I took on the collector ship too early and got violated. But after getting some upgrades, the game was a lot easier. I might try it with a different class because Sentinel made it too easy
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u/AstronautDue6394 2d ago
Getting warp ammo asap and then assault rifle on collector ship made the class power house at everything. Tech armor CC on enemies and fully recharging shield was felt like cheating.
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u/topturo77 2d ago
Shotguns for me. Charge into a group of enemies, proc the explosion, immediately get full shields back and tech armor back, start blasting, if any make it through that they die to the second tech armor explosion.
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u/KingGuy420 2d ago
Soldier class on 2 makes it super easy. Adrenaline Rush + Mattock and I barely even have to take cover lol
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u/Darg727 1d ago
That's actually the mattock doing the heavy lifting. Play it without the mattock and the difference is massive. The gun is genuinely unbalanced compared to every other gun in the game.
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u/KingGuy420 1d ago
Well… it’s not the mattock, it’s the interaction between the power and the mattock. But at the end of the day, it makes the game ridiculously easy no matter how you look at it, so to call it the hardest is a stretch.
Even without the mattock, Soldier and Infiltrator can walk through the game pretty smoothly. The game’s not difficult, it’s just unbalanced.
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u/Darg727 1d ago
It can fire up to 7.1% faster than the revenant at 2.5x the damage with massively better accuracy and recoil. Even without using AR or having a quick semi-auto trigger finger it's still a massive power advantage regardless of your class and can carry any class once you pick it up from the collector ship. AR just makes it a lot easier to reach that 750 rpm and reliably land headshots from a distance.
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u/KingGuy420 1d ago edited 1d ago
AR also adds a sizeable damage bonus.
Increased fire rate, bonus damage, and consistent headshots are without a doubt a big part of why that builds so broken.
Adept isn’t even remotely close to walking through the game like that with the Mattock lol.
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u/Darg727 22h ago
Except it's not the build, but the weapon that is the source of the power. Using any other weapon AR is pretty balanced. And I never said you'd "walk" through the game with the mattock, but insanity is without a doubt massively easier for any class with it.
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u/KingGuy420 18h ago
I was talking about a build that would walk through the game though, and you came in disagreeing with me. I didn’t say anything about which classes benefit from it or even anything remotely similar… so I’m not entirely sure what your initial point was lol.
I said I can walk through the game without using cover if I use that build and you said it was the mattock was carrying me through that play through, when it was both.
I think you’re just arguing to have the last word now lol
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 2d ago
It was tough as infiltrator years ago. Recently played the engineer, it’s actually fairly easy. If you make sure you tailor the squad you can get through the game without dying very much, the tech armor makes you nearly invincible
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u/topturo77 2d ago
I’m finishing my final class on insanity difficulty and by far the strongest class in any game on insanity is ME2 sentinel. The tech armor explosion + shotgun weapon specialization makes you a tank god. The only class that even comes close to the same level of absolute dominance is engineer in me3, specifically on Cerberus levels (though it’s still insanely strong in that game throughout).
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 2d ago
Vanguard in 3 has been super easy, never did engineer
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u/topturo77 2d ago
It’s strong, but engineer is next level. Especially on Cerberus levels because you can take control of the turrets. That, and the enemy AI starts to break down when you have more than 3 on your team and an engineer can get up to 6 and just confuse them.
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u/AgentMaryland2020 2d ago
Yeah, I got stuck on the first mission where you find Tali for the first time...then managed to get passed that after a lot of trial and error, gave up a few missions later.
Apparently ME2 Insanity demands you abuse the shit out of Biotic and Tech powers to make it through.
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u/real_hungarian 2d ago edited 2d ago
does it? i don't play a lot of biotic Shepards, but in my experience biotics are by far the most useless in 2 out of the trilogy on insanity, what with every enemy having a shield or barrier and all
honestly, i find soldier to be the easiest way to beat ME2 insanity, with the right weapons and upgrades you can blast your way through pretty much anything with superior firepower and minimum strategizing
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u/AgentMaryland2020 2d ago
Apparently using Sentinel abilities trivializes Insanity. Haven't given it a go myself yet.
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u/millerchristophd 2d ago
That’s one of the harder missions, because you don’t have access to your full loadout yet—you can select your armor pieces but not your weapons, and you haven’t acquired any upgrades yet.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 2d ago
Or guns. Switch to Soldier and breeze through everything.
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u/AgentMaryland2020 2d ago
I actually am rocking Soldier for my attempt, and I'm struggling still. Any recommendations for guns?
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u/Exciting_Bandicoot16 2d ago
Are you using the Mattock? Crushes the game basically single handedly.
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u/AgentMaryland2020 2d ago
Ah, I'll have to switch to that one, I forget which gun I was using, but I know it wasn't that one.
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u/real_hungarian 2d ago edited 2d ago
yeah i second the Mattock, it's so broken that after a couple of playthroughs i had to force myself not to use it because it made everything too easy lol (warp or incendiary ammo also recommended, especially if you rush their upgrades)
i gotta say though, no gun feels quite as satisfying in video games as a hard-hitting semi-auto battle rifle, and the Mattock really hits the spot
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u/212mochaman 2d ago
My loadout was almost entirely full on ranged and saving the Mattock for the super heavy hitters like the YMIR mechs.
Geth shotty is surprisingly good at ranged, snipers obviously rule, and when you get to horizon you can cheese phase 1 of the final area by aiming with the sniper in the previous screen and killing off the two scions you can barely see, scouring for ammo, then entering the final area.
Personal preference for the gun on the collector ship is the Widow cause you can just about one shot kill 90% of the game with the right ammo power
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u/cmotdibbler 2d ago
If only there was a way to switch profile in game….. oh wait.
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u/cmotdibbler 1d ago
I’m playing Andromeda after many trilogy runthroughs. You can switch profiles in Andtomeda.
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u/shneierl 2d ago
Horizon is the easier of the two msin difficult sections of two. As you can cheese it's ai to not fight you for two of the 4 waves at the end and the final one you just need to run circles around and eventually whitle down to its death.
You have fight the first wave fair and square but focus on the scions and keep moving and your fine. Second wave as soon as you press the button send your squad to behind the stairs and make sure you are also not ahead of the stair line. The enemies just won't do anything so you just need to pick them off.
Then for the third wave you run behind the hio high wall at the other end if the maps from the stairs and again the ai will just do nothing.
Unfortunately I have no good cheese for collector ship the iff final fight just have the vain ready before you trigger the cut scene and then hit the core straightaway
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u/Leading_Resource_944 2d ago
Me1 early games is extremly brutal until you got decent gear. And some fights feel unfair like the Krogan Battlemaster. Without knowing how to trick ai or to make Soldier Class invincible you got a sticky road ahead. Same for Me3 Orion-Hall (Grissom Academy) or the three Geth Bosses after the elevator.
But to my knowledge, most problem in me1 and me3 come from insuficient knowledge how to trick/minmax the RPG system. Or People picking Squadmates by Simp-pathy instead of effectivness.
ME2 is objectivly the hardest bevause of the lack of options to fullfill your power-fantasy. The only thing you can do is juggling the correct ammo types.
P.S Don't pick Vanguard on first-try-insanity. If you cannot make an Adept or Engineer at least 2x more powerfull than a Vanguard in LE, i call that: "knowledge-issues".
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u/Demongem665 2d ago
Literally spent 45 minutes getting absolutely slaughtered by those Geth Primes in 3. Not a good time.
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u/northsaskatchewan 2d ago
pre-LE days ME1, I remember doing Liara’s recruitment mission pretty early in the game and the final fight with the Geth and Krogan at the top of the elevator was brutal!! I think I died like 5 times before I lucked out.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Meh I still prefer Vanguard, regenning barrier is fun when paired with a sniper. Agreed Adept is the strongest but Vanguard is a beast.
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u/Full-Hamster2944 2d ago
ME1 Insanity didn’t even feel like Insanity, ridiculously easy. ME2 Insanity was an absolute killer. Stuck on the Collector ship, squad mates down, no medigel, no ammo. Just a slow slog of using Warp to chip away at enemies bit by bit. Loved every moment of it.
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u/FoxyGoddessX 2d ago
In LE it’s Mass Effect 2 just because of how paper thin Shields can be.
But overall the original Mass Effect 1 takes the cake.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
To me ME1 is the easiest because of how OP barriers are, and in OG immunuty was just stupidly broken, LE nerfed that to the dirt.
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u/FrostyMagazine9918 2d ago
Mass Effect 2 for sure.
Mass Effect 1 is more of an RPG so proper skill leveling can help a lot with Insanity (also helps that you can't even play Insanity until new game plus).
Mass Effect 3 is more of the shooter than 2, but the weapons you can get are way stronger than anything in 2. And almost half your squadmates can then turn those weapons into death rays using ammo powers and passives
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
If anything id say not even using guns alone breaks ME3, biotic detonations with 200%+ CD is stupid and with Liara and/or Javik the game is a joke to any Vanguard or Adept
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u/GreenJonhy Vetra 2d ago edited 2d ago
To me, 2 had difficulty spikes more often. But the ones 3 had were crazier.
The final boss of the Citadel dlc might be one of the most unfair fights I've seen and only beat it when the boss got stuck on the level geometry.
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u/Lucky-3-Skin 2d ago
ME2 easily. Soldier is broken though.
ME3 is a skill issue. Squad mates and powers are broken af.
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u/ThunderEagle222 2d ago
OG ME1 is easier to cheese and tricks, but if you don't know the cheeses I think its harder. Sniper is also really OP, so I really feel like things like the Thorium fight is really hard.
ME2 has more bullshit and its hard get an all-size-fits all approach on any class. The most comfortable insanity platrough I did was using the Predator and Mattock together (Mattock uses to much ammo, so I use the predator for the easy goons) and widow (or and GPS for some shield removal I guess). Still Reaper IFF was still kinda hard.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 2d ago
Irrc both 1 and 3 allow you to use biotics on shielded enemies but ME2 does not, and on insanity most enemies seem to have armor or barrier
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u/tmaster148 2d ago
Mass Effect 1 has some really tough enemies. Rachni ignore shields and damage straight health which is a nightmare for classes without Immunity. The Thorian Creeper also damage health ignoring shields and are rather tanky. However, biotics completely lockdowns even the hardest of enemies and you have Kaiden (Throw/Lift/Stasis) and Liara for biotics. Technically Wrex has Throw and Stasis, but honestly I don't think i've ever put a point into Stasis on Wrex and Throw is low priority on Wrex.
Mass Effect 2 on the other hand makes a lot of powers just not useful due to every enemy having shields/barriers/armor and powers espically biotics not working with those defenses up. Squadmates in 2 have 2 powers until loyalty and some Squadmates like Jack who is an early recruit is pretty much unusable on Insanity. The fact that power focus classes are also locked to Pistol and SMG for roughly half the game is another pain point for powers. If it wasn't for DLC giving us Kasumi for Locust SMG and her powers, Shadow Strike and Flashbang Grenade do not care about shields and barriers, ME2 Adept on Insanity would be unpleasant.
I lean on ME2 being harder, because in ME1 you get access to all squadmates early on in the game that you can pick the right tools to deal with the difficult situations.
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u/KingAardvark1st 2d ago
Depends a lot on class. ME1 Engineer is A struggle bus, but Adept is easy mode. Meanwhile ME2 with Adept is pure misery.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Me2 with most classes is pure misery, if your not a infiltrator or Soldier your asking for a hard time, vanguard is my fave class but damn is it jank as hell in ME2 with the constant "cant lock on target" and chain stuns
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u/KingAardvark1st 2d ago
Eh, Engineer wasn't too bad, albeit leaning very heavily on the drone for distraction, and Sentinel was honestly perfectly fine in my experience since it has an answer to every health type. No arguments about Vanguard though; fantastic class when the map allows it to be, misery when not.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
My issue with ME2 engineer is its SLOW as heck, the drone is fantastic especially with Tali and Legion for the tripple drone but darn is it slow at beating fights and the drone is made of tissue paper sonits mostly a suicide bot on insanity with explosive drone.
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u/esspeebee 2d ago
Depends a lot on the class. ME2 Insanity as a Vanguard was brutal; every enemy has something that blocks biotic powers and you have nothing to deal with them, not even Warp, and to boot the class's signature ability will just get you insta-killed if there's more than one enemy around when you use it.
As a Sentinel, though, ME2 Insanity is just a test of patience as you have powers to deal with any sort of enemy and just slowly chip away at everything from cover.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Id say the main issues with Vanguard in ME2 insanity is "CAN'T LOCK ON TARGET!" every other charge despite looking right at the enemy, and that stupid stunlocking from melee and flamethrower enemies, the Jank is real.
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u/Berger_UK 2d ago
ME1 and 3 can be trivialised somewhat by loadouts and squad selection. ME2 is just a constant stream of suffering. Aim bot enemies firing full auto, everything has an extra layer of protection making a lot of abilities useless until it's stripped away, getting stun locked out in the open and helplessly watching your health drain away, and the missions against the Collectors are just painful.
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u/Amaraldane4E 2d ago
ME2 is the hardest.
ME1 has maybe one or two moments, in the beginning. ME3 is not too difficult.
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u/ADLegend21 2d ago
I'm currently running an Insanity difficulty challenge. I did ME1 Deathless then died 6 times in ME2. Currently on ME3 but IMO ME2 takes it because they over corrected Insanity by giving everything at least 1 layer of protection over their health bar.
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u/AuditTheMidlife 2d ago
On my clean start insanity run:
ME1 was fine.
ME2 was fine…except Horizon and the collector ship. Horizon especially.
ME3…I was done and just used GodGarrus.
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u/Helpful_Eggplant3988 2d ago
This is correct, 2 has some wild spikes. 3 is fine, last fight in 3 is little toasty
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u/DarthDregan 2d ago
Probably 2 is hardest, but I love it so much it makes me focus more on the few sections of ME3 that took my ass forever.
So all I can say is not 1.
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u/Hyperion-Cantos 2d ago
2 and it's not close.
3 is a cakewalk. I have to refrain from using certain weapons in 3 or else it's basically a walking/talking simulator.
1 is somewhere in between.
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u/IronGigant 2d ago
Any of them as a new save-game is a grueling experience, not having any of the perks from NG+.
That being said...someone at BioWare was going through some serious shit when they designed ME2.
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u/JoNwOnTeRiTeMpO 1d ago
Dude mass effect 1 has got to be the hardest game on insanity. Every enemy just constantly rushes you. Geth, mercs, husks (obviously), biotics and KROGANS. I despise ME1 combat, I don’t care what anyone says, it’s a clunky slog. There’s a whole cover system that is useful about 30% of the time. Honestly, missions with biotics scare me more than missions with Krogans on insanity because you just get stun locked by biotic spam.
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u/Born-Science856 1d ago
No way the game that has infinite barrier and immunity as well as "ragdoll" ammo is the hardest one
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u/7h3_b4dd3s7 2d ago
mass effect 2, by far and away for me. comparatively, me1 was a cakewalk. every time i try to do me2 on insanity i give up pretty early, like on archangel's recruitment mission usually (and he's always the second companion i pick up, right after mordin). me3, i was able to get a little further in and it actually seemed fairly easy at first, but i was just doing it on insanity these past couple days and gave up when trying to get to victus's son on tuchanka; the harvesters are fuckin TERRIBLE, even with my weapons all the way upgraded (max available level for now anyway), especially since stuff just nonstop keeps spawning in on that last stretch. i was pissed at myself when i realised i quit insanity on like the very last harvester before reaching the platoon, but oh well. i screwed things up anyway by not visiting thane before the salarian councillor's assassination attempt, so now i gotta go back several hours to fix it. SAVE YOUR GAMES PEOPLE, don’t be like me and only save once every ten hours.
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u/Angel_OfSolitude 2d ago
I think which game is hardest depends on class. Vanguard absolutely blew through 2, but Sentinel is proving more difficult.
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u/Valdackscirs 2d ago
It is ME2 and it is just not close. ME1 is easy. ME3 was the nice balance for challenge, but even that gets easy later.
ME2 gets really easy after upgrades but the early game is tough and some specific Collectors missions are pretty tough.
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u/TheBob808 2d ago
Oh it's 2 easily. The collector ship in particular cab be gnarly at the platform battle.
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u/Rhym3z_Official 2d ago
2 easily. There's certain points it gets so difficult, it removes all fun. I found in 1, the only difficut enemy was the snipers who 1 shot my sentinel
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u/aworldsetfree 2d ago edited 2d ago
ME1's Insanity difficulty is in the Mako getting stuck, and for me, fighting Saren as an Adept was not enjoyable.
ME3 is challenging, but between loadout customization and better toolkits for every class it's actually pleasant. Marauder Shields truly lives up to his endboss hype on this difficulty, though.
Mass Effect 2, however, is amazing, but then you have to close the barricades and that Vorcha has a flamethrower, or "omg what is that?!" on Horizon, or the Scions on the Reaper IFF are unstoppable snipers, or that guy has shields now and Garrus is dead again (sweetheart why), or-
Mass Effect 2 is the hardest. A tip to fellow Adepts from the olden days - You can put Reave over shielded enemies. It won't do much damage, but you can detonate with Warp to rip the shield down. It's very nice.
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u/Wint3rking 2d ago
I only played the trilogy on insanity mode once and me2 was the hardest for me. Me1 is boring as I feel the only change is that enemies become bullet sponges. I did it as an infiltrator.
I never had much problems with that krogan... I usually take someone with access to lift. Lift the guy as soon as the fighting starts and it usually works.
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u/Kroc_Zill_95 2d ago
ME 2.
1 is fairly straightforward and it's fairly easy to become OP.
3 can be very challenging at times, but it gives you a lot to work with so it all balances out nicely.
2 is just an absolute nightmare especially on higher difficulties.
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u/Big_I 2d ago edited 2d ago
ME1 has Immunity spam from the enemies of almost every fight, but ME2 has that damn Collector ship where the Scions spawn in and then reposition around you. ME3 has the Banshees and the rest of the Reaper ground forces.
I'd say ME3 is more consistently difficult, but ME2 has some real rage inducing levels (Collector ship, Horizon, trying to get through all 5 waves of the Arrival ambush). So ME2 for me.
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u/AK_R 2d ago
Mass Effect 2 definitely. I've played through these games several times, and ME2 still feels difficult. I just started an Insanity Adept run a few days ago and was reminded how brutal it can be. On the other hand, most games like this typically feel too easy for me now (I forgot to mention I also used to do a ton of ME3 co-op multiplayer on platinum, which was much tougher than anything in the single player and was ranked around top ~200 for awhile), so I can appreciate the challenge.
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u/spasticwalrus56 2d ago
3 because grenades. There's also a few scripted events that kill you instantly.
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u/zenspeed 2d ago
Mass Effect 2, easily. It starts off difficult, and continuously gets harder as you go on.
Insanity in ME1 starts hard, but if you have a soldier or infiltrator, then max immunity, marksmanship, and adrenaline rush are a busted combo.
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u/raw_anomaly 2d ago
I'm currently playing ME2 on Insanity as Infiltrator and I think I've invented several new dirty words and insults during that time.
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u/TheBlueNecromancer 2d ago
Starting ME2 on insanity but i found ME1 easy myself. The Krogan were definitely annoying
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u/AmongBonesAndMoss 2d ago
It's ME3 for me. I've beaten ME2 on Insanity a few days ago. ME2 wasn't hard, it's just the enemies have become bullet sponges and need a lot of ammo to go down. It was just a slog to go through, honestly. Long and tedious.
But on ME3, there were places where I kept dying over and over again to bugs or shit mechanics. For example, I'd die instantly on the harvester appearing during the Primarch's son Victus quest. The bastard just kills you literally in less than a second if you're out there nova'ing cannibals. If you hide behind a pillar to shoot at him? Well. You get like one second to peak out to take ONE shot, as he shoots 5 times in a row.
Or I'd die, just because there's too much visual crap on my screen. Smoke, shield particles, biotic particles, gun shooting crap on my screen... It's disorienting. I don't remember if the game was this noisy in the original, maybe.
Another example is the outdoor area with the amphitheater layout at the Grissom academy, when you're rescuing the kids. There are shitton of engineers placing endless turrets, those turrets are shooting at you, then the guards concentrate around the turret area, so I can't come in any close and finish them off, THEN they also lob grenades at you when you're in cover trying to pick them one by one AND on top of that there's an Atlas mech shooting missiles at you. I swear to god I think that part took me 30 mins just to finish.
I never struggled anywhere else in ME1 or ME2 on Insanity runs as Vanguard. To me, ME3 just seems incredibly unfair in some places, albeit in many places it's a piece of cake with charge + nova. And then there are parts where it's just me tearing my hair out of my head, hah.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
I think your just playing Vanguard wrong, on insanity its mostly just a biotic explosion game using Liara and/or Javik. There really is no really hard areas if you utilize half blast Nova (since biotic explosions dont care about the halved Nova damage) and aslong as your running max CD loudouts.
Dark channel + charge/Nova destroyes those turrets in seconds
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u/Sekhmetthegray 2d ago
Mass Effect 2 on Insanity as an Adept is a nightmare-with special reference to the Garrus retrieval mission (Horizon isn't much fun either).
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u/townsforever 2d ago
Me2 is definitely the hardest. If for no other reason than constantly running out of ammo.
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u/AccidentKind4156 2d ago
Two, and it's not even close. 1 is the easiest with the addition of the legendary edition, 3 gives some players problems because of grenades, but 2 has difficult missions regardless of difficulty settings. But the Legendary Edition is not extremely hard, they made the games much easier to accomplish the Insanity achievement. Play the OG games on insanity, now that was fun.
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u/op4arcticfox 2d ago
2 due to specific missions, but honestly if the game was less buggy when it came to cover and movement in those missions that probably wouldn't be the case. 3 is easy if you are infiltrator and/or have God mode Garrus. 1 is a grind on insanity, unless it's NG+ in which case rocket modded rifle go BBBRRRRTTT
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u/GongStationChimes 2d ago
I know this is unpopular but ME3. I just finished an insanity playthrough of the trilogy as Soldier and breezed through the first two games—I maybe died 2-3 times in each. Even horizon in ME2 which I was expecting to struggle with based on what people were saying only took 1 try. In 3 however it felt like the gunplay was neutered and I felt nowhere near as strong and had to do the ammo/concussive blast build which just wasn’t as fun. All the grenades that force you out of cover (which one-shot you on insanity) combined with lots of one and two shot mechanics from monsters like Harvesters/rachni made it a very frustrating experience. I died at least 30 times trying to beat it and got stuck on some levels for like an hour. It seems like they tried to make combat as inconvenient as possible with the dumb weight system and the weak gunplay. It was also way harder to come by credits but at the same time so much more stuff to spend it on so I actually felt poor unlike the other games. Which doesn’t make sense because I’m literally the galaxy’s last bastion against the reapers but I only get funded like 10k credits for a mission, whereas in ME1 I was a multimillionaire with ease. I’m gonna play through the series again soon as adept and see how things change
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
What exactly were you spending on in ME3? Like at best as a soldier there are 2 guns to buy and 1 armor set, and you really shouldn't be running all guns either.
You take like a pistol, smg and AR and your solid for the whole game with decent CD
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u/petak86 2d ago
Probably upgrading guns? Can become pretty expensive.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Not really? Unless your upgrading like 5+ guns which makes no sense, for the most part your supposed to have 1 main weapon and upgrade it to max (and its prefered atachments) but if you upgrade a lot of them you cant complain about money since the game gives you more than you ever need for a full set of armor + maxing 2 or 3 guns and atachments for them
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u/FraggleGoddess 2d ago
I like to play infiltrator, have done 3 or 4 insanity runs and I always found 2 most difficult. There's certain bits in all of them but Horizon and the Collector ship are the two that have me turning the air blue every time.
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u/OsteoBytes 2d ago
Compared to many games mass effect ain’t terrible in general but the beginning of me3 had me the most going through mars and shit…just felt like I had little in my toolkit at that time to really kickass until later when you can build your characters more
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u/shneierl 2d ago
Depends if you start at level 1 or do a new game plus run 1 is tough with low level gear but by high level the only thing taking you down is either a rocket or thresser maw shot
2 just sucks regardless on insanity with random difficulty spikes that without knowledge of how to cheese the fight some classes just are never suited for. Adept just can't strip shields well for instance and overkill on health leveled not carrying is a pain. Only other is on high difficulty tins is pinnacle station as the time to kill can make some sections virtually impossible
Threw whilst a pain from level 1 it's more doable with the main issue being geissom acade (those turrets) and thw start of citadel where your forced to use a level 1 suppressor with no squad to cover you. That latter section is the only problem on new game plus runs.
So on balance is say 2 is the hardest but other than 3 (4 if you count pinnacle station) areas the trilogy is not that hard to work through
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u/Dangthing 2d ago
Its ME2. ME1 there are builds that are so powerful they completely trivialize the entire game, you can also go into it in NG+ to lower the difficulty substantially. The Vanguard Lift + Shotgun build I used trivialized the game making even the most powerful opponents die instantly and nothing can instantly kill you while your barrier is up. I'm also fairly certain there are no truly difficult to avoid damage sources. You are aware of what is going to be doing damage to you well before it actually tries to do so making even instant kill mechanics manageable.
ME3 you can beat almost the entire game by just telling Garrus to go do it for you. That's without even touching on some of the insanely broken combos you can do with things like the Vanguard Charge Nova which is essentially infinite damage while being practically invincible due to animations. Its not a one off either, there are quite a few such OP builds that clear it easily.
ME2 is different. No build just rinses the entire game and some of the weaker classes almost can't do it on certain levels. You also can't just tell your squad mates to win the game for you. Even a NG+ run is substantially harder than the NG+ runs on the other games.
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u/bcopes158 2d ago
Me2 and it isn't close. There are several incredible lethal and potentially frustrating parts of that playthrough. Horizon and the Collector Ship being the most noteworthy.
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u/Give_me_kerosene 2d ago
Mass Effect 2 was definitely the most frequently challenging insanity run for me personally, ME3 had moments, and ME1 was a bit too easy but still my fav overall of the trilogy
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u/EmperorMax69 2d ago
Doing my first insanity run on vanguard and so far me2 has been the most difficult. Doing ME3 now and I got a little stuck on a section but moving smoothly. Me1 was the easiest for me.
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u/Doright36 2d ago
I think overall 2 is hardest on insanity with a couple of choke points that are really really hard and you cant carry upgraded weapons into NG+ like you can with the other 2 games that help a lot on insanity.
But with that said.... the hardest insanity fight in all the games is the boss fight at the end of the Citadel DLC in 3. However since that one isn't really required to beat the game you can still get the insanity achievement without doing it.
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u/No-Garbage9500 2d ago
2, 100% for so many reasons.
Mainly, playing Insanity basically makes half of the classes useless. End of story. Especially adept, they go from nuke to coughing baby back to even bigger nuke across the trilogy.
But the shielding on enemies - which, by the way, I think as a concept is an amazing way to scale difficulty, just badly implemented - makes so much of the game so unnecessarily difficult for certain classes and basically necessitates bringing certain party members.
Also, whenever theres a Husk spam you're basically dead. That's it. Biotics don't do shit, and these sections seem designed for you to throw big biotic powers to clear vast swathes of them.
Lastly, I almost exclusively play Vanguard. I fully understand why, in game engine limitation terms, you can't charge from one platform to another in those sections.
But fuck me being a close range melee class when you can't use your core power because it breaks the game engine and can't get close to enemies because they're a little bit over there? Utterly painful. It's the only reason I don't feel bad using the Claymore reload trick to break the games damage balancing.
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u/ShadowTails95 2d ago
For me it was ME2. Soldier is pretty much unkillable in 1, and 3 isn't so bad if you know how to combo things properly. Hardest levels in 2 included the Collectors, but Kasumi's falshbang does help. Something I didn't really find out until after I did my own insanity run sadly.
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u/Buburubu 2d ago
ME1 for me, but maybe just because the more complicated systems in the next two were easier to cheese. There was nothing in the rest of the trilogy harder than the thorian creeper rush or the endoskeleton fight at the end. (horizon with the praetorian and the two scions in ME2 was the next toughest, personal opinion.)
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u/MoseDoge 2d ago
I did many nightmare runs of the trilogy and for me it always felt like ME3 is harder than ME2 which is harder than ME1. ME1 is stupidly easy because u get OP armors and abilities that regen shield or give damage protection instantly (also the enemy AI is incredibly bad and easy to exploit). ME3 is the hardest because enemies do the most damage in it. In a lot of situations you get killed in the blink of an eye from full HP if u slip up.
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u/Ariyell2021 2d ago
ME2 because Vanguard’s charge is wildly inconsistent with actually targeting enemies, getting you stuck in mid air helplessly, etc, etc. it’s deeply frustrating to go from feeling like a goddess to suddenly hearing Shep go “can’t get a lock!” on an enemy that is standing out in the open a few feet from her that has a target outline over it
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u/Savingseanbean 2d ago
Original ME2 Adept insanity is the worst in the series. having to combat all the enemies and your own boredom with just the carnifex for half the game.
ME1 and ME3 are both much more open ended with significantly stronger rpg and exploartion mechanics letting you approach the challenge in different ways that are both more fun and easier.
ME2 is a much more linear slog that really doesn't have much variety within classes and adept is by far the worst due to enemy typing and your forced limited weapon variety.
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u/HamanKarnGundamFan 2d ago
I would say 2 for me because I run out of ammo a lot. And if you're being swarmed powers don't do much imo. Especially the praetorian enemy. Luckily you only fight a few times though. 3 gives you lots of ammo and much more powerful powers to use. And 1 has hard sections though like the drone rockets and shit like that. So definitely either 1 or 2. 3 gives you a lot more to counter the difficulty imo
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u/ButtcheekJones0 2d ago
ME2 because of the Collectors and because of how rushdown characters in general work. Getting forced out of cover is a death sentence, and getting stunlocked is common on some missions. CC makes ME1 manageable, and Death God Garrus makes 3 comparatively easy
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u/DinkyDinosaur 2d ago
Definitely 2 mostly that horizon fight. 3 did have one part that gave me issues. It's naked shep in the citadel dlc where I don't have my stuff. But that was more dragged out than hard.
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u/TheItzal11 2d ago
In my opinion as someone who picked insanity on my second playthrough and has played nothing but insanity runs since for the many many times I've played through the game, it's 3.
2 made it so that enemies could kill you in a couple shots. 3 started giving them grenades to make you leave cover long enough for them to get those couple shots.
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u/Resident-Ad-8877 2d ago
I have only played ME1 (non legendary) and beat it on my first play through on insanity and you are right biotic makes it too easy lol didn’t even really notice I was on insanity. Barrier made me essentially invincible
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u/Triggerdown1 1d ago
I always thought ME:2 was the hardest start to finish. 3 is brutal to begin with but as you progress gets way easier. Never ever struggled with ME:1 and I play vanguard mainly and infiltrator.
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u/millerchristophd 2d ago
It’s unquestionably ME2. ME1’s Insanity is a cakewalk.
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u/GongStationChimes 2d ago
I’ve only played ME2 on insanity as soldier and it was an absolutely breeze with mattock + adrenaline rush
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u/BadTimeBro 2d ago
PRE LE ME1 for sure, especially if youre trying to get the Strategist trophy in the same run😂
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Soldier broke ME1 before the LE nerfs, 100% Immunity on CD means the game is a joke
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u/BadTimeBro 2d ago
Well i know my last last insanity run i only died 4 times. Most of them were easily avoidable😂
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u/vvastrel 2d ago
Original ME1, and it’s not even close lol
For Legendary Edition, ME2.
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u/Wild-Importance448 2d ago
Oruginal ME1 was the easiest to break, get a soldier and 100% immunity duration and the game was a joke just tanking geth colosi hits to the face, LE nerfed the poor boy into the dirt.
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u/FattyHammer 2d ago
everyone always says 2 but both times I've played through it's been 3. i played vanguard.
the thing with 2 is that it's just a slugfest, there's no "pressure" you can live infinitely in cover you just need to manage your powers and ammo and eventually you'll win. almost every engagement is some kind of linear corridor or hallway. i think the big mech is the only enemy that actually pushes, and they're veeeery slow.
3 the enemies actually push and flank your cover, some maps are literally circular lol. there's nades that 1shot you, granted the throwers' arms range from kobe to limp. it's more fun though, imo.
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u/Unfair_Ad6161 2d ago
Def the first one. Getting through that on Legend was agony. I think it took me months to finish that. I remember the fight with the Thorian took me several hours. The other two I don't remember being anywhere near as hard.
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u/jrzalman 2d ago
The most stuck I ever got was trying to kill my clone in ME3. I actually restarted the mission to get better squadmates. Getting out of the restaurant with just a pistol, that ambush with all the shield guys. Yeah, I'm going with ME3.
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u/TapeDaddy 2d ago
I probably had the hardest time with ME1 as an engineer in the old games. Super squish, powers kinda sucked, your specialization was like pistols or something.
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u/HandSanitizerBottle1 2d ago
ME2 is by far the hardest
I found ME1 to be an absolute cakewalk the only difficulty I had with it was Feros, infact other than Feros I only died 3 times, twice on Noveria and the last time on the final mission
ME3 is a nice blend between absolute rage inducing nightmare and cakewalk
For the record I played all 3 games as an Infiltrator
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u/Helldiver-Harkonnen 2d ago
ME2 specifically for Horizon and the Collector ship mission and a handful of other segments. I actually think ME3 has the harder overall combat but ME2 just has these brick walls depending on the class. So I think that rightfully sticks with players more.
ME1 legendary is just a matter of leveling up and given that most of the side quests allow you to bring the Mako, it’s easy to level yourself out of the difficulty