I hear 2's is much improved, but ME1 had a lot of gameplay flaws imo. Traversing the side planets with the Mako got really tedious, especially when going through rocky formations, and the level design for the side missions was basically homogenous and got incredibly repetitive. The gun mechanics weren't very smooth either, and the A.I. was pretty bad IIRC, with teammates constantly getting in your way and stuff like that.
Story was good obviously, and the universe had a much greater level of detail compared to the KotOR games (by that I mean elements of the SWG that was unique to the series) but imo KOTOR 1 had the more memorable characters (HK-47 FTW), more interesting world building (the Star Forge, Infinite Empire, Manaan imo was really well designed) and storyline (the twist alone), and KOTOR 2's plot was by far superior to either KOTOR 1 or ME1.
2 is much improved in terms of gameplay yes. ME1 was much more of a clunky RPG than a shooter. I liked the RPG elements, but it is very unpolished in the gameplay.
I think the Citadel and Ilos were just as cool as the Star Forge and Manaan and Wrex is as cool as HK. As for the story, I disagree. The Reaper twist is just as cool as the Revan twist imo.
Originally posted by The_Tempest
👆Gave it a profound sense of scale.
Taking that out was easily the worst thing they did to the franchise. I hope they put it back into 4.