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Normally 20-40 hours. Shorter if rushing a lot. Longer if completionist.
Main missions are:
-Eden Prime
-Citadel (can be revisited)
-Therum
-Feros
-Novaria (these last three can be done in any order, and can later include the fourth that is..)
-Virmire
-Spoiler+Spoiler
-Spoiler
So you are just finishing the Citadel and got your ship. You got a while to go.
If doing sidemissions, aim to finish them before starting the 4th mainmission after Citadel (often Virmire but not necessarily).
Doing Tali's companion sidemission in ME1 affects possible outcomes in her Loyalty mission in ME2 which affects ME3 outcomes.
Doing Wrex's companion sidemission in ME1 affects later games in what he mentions.
Doing Cerberus ME1 sidemissions affect some misc lines in ME2 and maybe ME3.
Doing a certain sidemission for a character in ME1 makes her recognize you in dramatic shock in the next game.
Doing lots of stuff in ME1 affects what War Assets you get in the War Asset system in ME3.
Internally, in ME1, only a few things 'matter'. It comes down the Paragon and Renegade for the most part.
You can turn Ashley a little more Paragon or Kaidan a little more Renegade.
But yeah, when it comes to the White Dialogue in most conversations, it only affect tone slightly, and maybe rewards certain Paragon or Renegade points. If you pick the left options, that usually Investigates, if you pick the upper right, it may be Paragon+, if you pick the lower right, it may be Renegade+, if you pick the middle it may be either/none. The Red and Blue Dialogue depends on your Charm or Intimidate skill, and may affect things later in the game or series.
No problem. You just access the save file from the previous game.
Also keep in mind that some DLC impacts story as the games go on:
ME1:
-Bring Down the Sky (yes)
-Pinnacle Station (nope)
ME2:
-Zaeed: The Price of Revenge (yes)
-Kasumi: Stolen Memory (yes)
-Firewalker (nope)
-Overlord (yes)
-Crash Site (nope)
-Lair of the Shadow Broker (yes)
-Arrival (yes)
Though 'yes' can mean anywhere from 'barely' to 'somewhat'. Bring Down the Sky changes almost nothing, while I'd say Overlord changes a little bit, and Lair of the Shadow Broker is near essential for fans.
Mass Effect 2 I'd say around 20ish hours if you just do the loyalty missions + story and around 30-35 if you do all the side missions. I think two probably has the most amount of content out of the trilogy.
I don't remember much about three because I've only finished it once as I always get burned out when binge playing all three.
Because:
-Reading everything (especially Codex), talking everything (no spacebarring either), exploring everything (every single corner), which includes all planet descriptions.
-Maximizing gear setups frequently
-MAKO. I actually go on Mass Effect Wiki to see the UNC maps in order to grab every landmark on every map. I hate the Mako but when I do play ME1, I do it completionist.
-Harder difficulty may mean more careful gameplay and reloading.
80 hours is definitely on the extreme end, but it is still possible. Generally though, I say it is around 60 hours max.
If you know what you're doing, that can be taken down to 40-50 hours max.
Given that each big mission itself is 30-60 minutes, that's not normal, as there are around 23 missions. Between all those missions and the other stuff that always happens - Normandy talking and hub exploring - that's quite a bit. Add in the hours of sidemissions and planet scanning too and you get much more than 20 hours, even if the 20 hours may be considered the core hours of playtime
20 hours in ME2 is certainly very possible, but it isn't the normal playtime for a regular playthrough, not from all I've known and seen. If you rush, sure. One does shave a lot of time by not aiming for upgrades and by spacebarring through many conversations.
~~~
ME3 is actually the longest without filler, if you add in the DLC at least. One can actually easily go up to 40-50 hours (again with DLC) with all that's there, but I suppose still 30-40 if rushing. To get 20 I think you'd have to stick to a critical path, spacebar through, and play on an easier difficulty, etc all that stuff.
ME2 may have the most amount of content in itself (without DLC), but ME3 adds up to the largest at the end of things (with DLC), and ME1 can be considered the largest if you consider its filler content (which many don't).
I just don't think that 20 or often even 30 hours for any of the games is an accurate timescale to tell other players, because they even though they MAY end up doing only the main content, most end up taking their time in at least SOME sections of the game, so minimum 30-40 hours is probably a better figure to give - just with a 'YMMV' warning.
ALL IMO. I mean no disrespect, just wanted to use a lot of words to express myself.
~~~
Regardless of our possible differing opinions, I think we can both agree that 10 hours is very atypical for a Mass Effect playthrough (save for sprinting through ME1's main story) and that 20 hours is possible but doesn't normally represent doing all of the content. That 30-40 hours is something that often happens. I also agree with you that 80 hours is a lot; it must mean a lot of aimless Mako driving, slowly reading things, backtracking through areas. They did say "listen to everything and check everywhere", after all. But even as a Mass Effect addict, I've never had an 80 hour playthrough (only 60ish tops, but that's with the game sitting idle sometimes haha, so more like 40-50).
Mass Effect 1 is something I have a hate/love relationship with. Every time I play it I tell myself I'm going to skip those stupid collection missions but I do them every single time and then up doing everything again.. Those files take around 30hours.
I'm not dismissing what you're saying though because I can see some of these games going upwards of 40-50 hours if you read absolutely everything but many people won't do that. From my personal experience though with me and my group of friends (who can't resist to complete everything) the hours I listed is what we get on an average playthrough. Without skipping dialogue. Exploring everything too. I'm very obsessive when it comes to that stuff because like you said everything carries over in some way.
Don't worry about disrespecting though because in the end everyone plays games differently. Some people are fast readers and can blitz through text while some aren't. Some know where everything is already and some don't. Some people plan out and finish a zone completely before moving on to avoid backtracking while some don't. Things like this can influence your completion time a lot.
Now back to ME2..
SSD shouldn't be assumed TBH, though I do have one! Doesn't matter much in ME2 because it forces a BS console-designed loading screen anyway :(
I'm actually a fast reader - but I backtrack and listen to almost all ambient dialogue, that sort of stuff. Things can seriously add 10-20 hours.
I never said 40-50 hours is what to expect, just that it can easily go up to that.
Sorry, by 'rushing' I used a more personal definition :P. It means more 'not smelling the roses and not concerned about completion rate'.
My disagreement with you is really a quibble (hehe quibble). Where you say at least 10-20, I say at least 20-30, and some others say 30-40. Anything beyond that is nuts but still possible. My ME3 file is in the 50s of hours but that's with all DLC and derping around and completionist, whereas it would probably be in the 40s or maybe even 30s otherwise.
TO OP: Game length should prepare to be 10-20 hours at bare minimum. I think everyone can agree to that
i.e. one playthrough, always nice/polite. another, the middle option. and yet another playthrough, always the badass option of dialogue. Wouldn't someone get the overall scale of the bigger story canon wise if you played this game like that? Not assuming that you'd spend at least 1 playthrough exploring and getting your path down?
I'm using Fallout 3 logic here, multiple playthroughs, but choosing divergent paths each time. Getting both sides of the overall story in multiple playthroughs. The way I see it, attacking the game in a rushed way multiple times, you'd essentially get more of the story possibilities in what could be under 40 hours (3 playthroughs,) compared to one completionist playthrough (50+ hours.) Chances are, you're not gonna play the game exactly the same each time, so you'll get more of the story through multiple playthroughs "casually."
Or I'm just a jerk.