A quick note, this is for the original Mass Effect. I have not attempted to get all the achievements in the Legendary edition and don’t know if I will or not.

Anyway, Mass Effect has a pretty interesting achievement list. There are the standard story achievements, achievements for using various powers/weapons a certain number of times, and, of course, difficulty achievements. Sprinkled in were a few achievements for using certain squad members or passing some difficult speech checks.

For me, the real struggle was the achievements related to using powers and weapons. One of the great things about Mass Effect is that there is a lot of freedom and choices with the classes that allow people to enjoy the game regardless of which type of gameplay they might prefer. Having to go through at least a significant chunk of the game with certain classes to have access to the powers and/or be able to actually level up particular weapons was not the most fun for me. Still, you can do this on easy, and you really don’t have to beat the game. By the time I got to playthroughs with the classes, I really disliked I could honestly play without paying much attention to the story and just push through quickly. The only problem is that it becomes so easy you might miss kills because your team can eat through others so quickly.

After that, it’s really the insanity difficulty that will make or break this one. I personally found Mass Effect to be much easier than the other two, and while it was hard, I was able to get through insanity. There were more than a few deaths and a lot of frustration, but it wasn’t too bad. I would like to note that I am not the best gamer, and I also don’t have a lot of patience for when things in games get too hard, it’s a hobby, damn it. So, if I can do it, it’s a pretty good sign that others can.

Of the three games, this was the only one I attempted, mostly because the difficulty achievements on the other two just seem… too much. Mass Effect on insanity is challenging, but I was able to pull it off. Mass Effect 2 on normal already started to give me some issues at key points, so I can’t even imagine it on harder.

In the end, if you haven’t already completed this one but only have a few to mop up, I’d say it might be worth going for it. Give you that extra completion while not being too hard. However, with Legendary out, you might just want to focus on that.