Mass Effect 2

You get most of the pre story in the game itself, but I would recommend to play the prequel as it is a very good game.

EDIT: Please for the love of everything don't give me any DOTAs, just don't I beg of you.

I just leave this here :3

Semi-agreed with Necroblight, it's not necessary at all to play, but if you don't want your playthrough to suck (seriously, the default story regarding Wrex? Please), you'll want to play the first and import your saves.

You absolutely need to play the previous game in order to fully appreciate characters like Anderson, Garrus, and Liara. Oh and Shepard since you (probably should) stick to the same character you customize for 3 games.

Talking about story, its not completely necessary to play ME1, because you can understand the story reading the wikia. But if we talk about gameplay remember you can import saves from the last game. In other words, the gameplay experience will change regarding how you did stuff in ME1.

ME1 is this best Mass Effect game IMHO. ME2 is good, but ME1 is better. It has an overall better story and the gameplay is more wacky and less 'cod-like'. Avoid ME3, make up your own ending to the series :)

It is absolutely imperative to play Mass Effect to fully understand Mass Effect 2. Emphasis on fully.

I agree with TheImpZA, ME1 is the best game in the series for me as well.

You should really play ME1 first, otherwise you'll miss many great moments. Not to mention that many decisions made in the first game directly impact certain outcomes in sequels.

BTW I don't need Dota, I've got 20+ copies myself (had to put them all on the market just to get them out of my inventory).

I dont understand why everyone is bitching about when ME3 came out... i played it untill i destoyed the Reaper space ship... welll my game keeped crashing after that :(

How ever i thinke all the games are good...

Mass Effect franchise improved on the first game with their second, Everything annoying about the first was improved on / removed with the 2nd. So take Mass effect with a pinch of salt, it does get better. Unfortunately I played the 2nd one first (and as others have stated, I was kept up to date on the story line) but when I went to play the first, all I could think was how much better the 2nd one was and never got around to completing it.

I would say that ME2 would feel a little empty if you haven't played the earlier game, it just feels so much better to play when you really care about the characters and have some kind of past with them.

So I totally recommend you to play ME1 first! It's awesome :)

Oh and btw, Wrex is awesome character, I would be sad if he'd died in my playthrough.

ME1 has a better story. ME2 is just a filler episode before ME3.

In the middle of another playthrough here.

ME1 is a great game. Well worth the playthrough, IMO.

If it's just another game for you - sure, you can play the sequel without playing the 1st part. But for me, Mass Effect was one of the best games I ever played, both story and gameplay wise. I highly recommend that you play all three ME's, multiple times, if possible.