Mass Effect Megathread

[Esifex]

Mass Effect 3 releases soon. That being said, please be careful to mark all spoilers!

FemShep is clearly the better voice actress, but I couldn't play her because my friends would make fun of me. Nurhurhur

This is one of the few game (series), in my opinion, that actually makes a workable morality scale. Being Renegade doesn't mean you shoot civilians just because you're grumpy, and your not out just to kick puppies. It just means you're willing to do what needs to be done, consequences be damned.
Paragon is, of course, the goody-two-shoes counter to Renegade, and plays out about as stereotypically as you'd expect the 'Good' side of the 'Good vs Evil' scale would.


While the first game has massive RPG elements, with multiple skills each having their own tree, equipment coming in a variety of shapes, sizes, and functions, the second game streamlines much of this and simplifies everything. You can still tweak your gear to fit your playstyle, but the inventory management is almost completely gone. Rather than buying pieces of armor, new guns, and mods for both, you simply research the benefits for the equipment you want, or buy the upgrades from NPCs.

Current topic of discussion; did the inclusion of thermal clips influence your class choice going from ME1 to 2?

In ME1, I started as an Adept (use of biotics), but stopped shortly after starting. The power management for biotic powers was a little clunky in the first game, especially since you can only hotkey one skill at a time. Instead I swapped to Infiltrator and sniped things at my leisure, modding my sniper rifle to have outrageous damage while overheating at the first shot. Lots of fun!

[Yog-N'yggoth]

I just took a generic Solider class in the first, and then went Vanguard since it was suppose to be charging the fuck out of everyone with a shotgun.



Was not disappointed in that.

[Esifex]

Biotic Charge looks nice. I went Adept on Mass Effect 2, as mentioned, but I might just start up a new file as a Vanguard for the Biotic Charge + Shotgun being the meanest motherfucker out there

[Yog-N'yggoth]

It's like


seeing this guy ram your best friend from cover and then blowing him up with a shotgun normally used by krogan


And then you realize he just regenerated all of his shields.

[Esifex]

And then you realize he just regenerated all of his shields.

Consider taking on Tali's loyalty power, as well. Triple-redundant shields!

[Amraphenson]

Wouldn't say Paragon is a goody two shoes at all. She honestly does some mean ass shit; Paragon isn't about being Lawful Stupid. It's about making sure everyone's safe, even if they don't like it. Paragon Shep saves everyone regardless of whether they want to be or not. And she understands what that means, I think. She stands up for what she believes in, and, quote, she 'won't let fear compromise who [she] is'.

I wouldn't ever call the paragon ending to Zaeed's mission stereotypical, myself. Threatening a team mate at gun point? That's balls. The Grunt recruitment scene? Also balls. The entirety of Shadow Broker? More balls. Getting a Geth and a Quarian to be friendly to each other? More balls than a bowling alley.

Anyways, I kept with Infiltrator on ME2. Started Infiltrator on ME1. Gonna enjoy sneak attack omniblades in ME3.

[Esifex]

I wouldn't ever call the paragon ending to Zaeed's mission stereotypical, myself. Threatening a team mate at gun point? That's balls. The Grunt recruitment scene? Also balls. The entirety of Shadow Broker? More balls. Getting a Geth and a Quarian to be friendly to each other? More balls than a bowling alley.

RE: Zaeed's mission - I actually did the Renegade option because I though I'd fail the loyalty mission forever if I didn't go after Vido :V

Also, I find Paragon Shepard's recruitment of Grunt to be a prime example of the manliness of Shepard. 'Got me by the throat? I got you by the gut. With a gun. I will stab you with bullets if I have to.' Shadow Broker and Tali/Legion scene came across as forcing people to do the right thing - rather than letting some morally bankrupt power-hungry YAAAAAAGH control information on a galactic scale, he puts someone with a strong moral compass in place, instead, and as for Tali and Legion, well, the Paragon Charm option summed it up best; 'If you two are at each others' throats, that'll just weaken both of you for when the Reapers come.'

But yes, ballsy. Maybe giving a sweeping statement about the nature of Paragon went a bit far. Not quite goody-two-shoes, like you said, but with more of a slant on the 'I will do what is right BECAUSE it is the right thing to do, not because it's the easiest thing to do.'


Anyways, RE: Thermal clips. Fucking dumb. Glad I played Adept in ME2; after I got Biotic Mastery capped out and reduced the cooldown on my powers, I just Singularity + Warp/Throw my way through every mission. Got through half of the game without firing a shot; even against things with shields and armor, Warp ripped them apart fast enough for Singularity to pull them off the ground.

[Ryuu]

i hope you're all ready to be disappointed by me3

[RSFiye]

Why? Multiplayer was a blast.

Didn't like the controls, but I was playing on a 360, after having played ME 1 and 2 on the PC, and having just played Gears of War 3. So the cover shooting mechanic felt clunkier.

Soldier for the first, Soldier for the second, might change things up with the third.

[Ryuu]

Why? Multiplayer was a blast.

Didn't like the controls, but I was playing on a 360, after having played ME 1 and 2 on the PC, and having just played Gears of War 3. So the cover shooting mechanic felt clunkier.

Soldier for the first, Soldier for the second, might change things up with the third.

>mutiplayer
>soldier soldier soldier
>gow3

nevermind you probably won't care about the reasons me3 is going to suck

[theshirn]

I enjoyed the hell out of both games.  I had problems with each (more with 2 than 1, actually), but still had a blast with them, and I fully expect to have problems with 3 and love it anyway.

Went Infiltrator Paragon maleShep first complete run, and just complete Murderface Shepard's run a couple days ago (Vanguard -> Soldier femShep, Renegade but with Paragon endgame choices).  Hell of a run.

[Reddyne]

I'm strongly considering playing through 2 again because (HEAVY SPOILERS)

Spoiler:

Jack died. Even though I didn't like her at all, I felt kinda guilty. I don't know if you can do more to save the crew, either, but I felt like I was missing something on that end my first playthrough.

The game is great anyway. Enjoying it a second time is like being forced to eat dessert again.

[Suikama]

>mutiplayer
>soldier soldier soldier
>gow3

nevermind you probably won't care about the reasons me3 is going to suck

day 1 dlc woo

[theshirn]

I'm strongly considering playing through 2 again because (HEAVY SPOILERS)

Spoiler:

Jack died. Even though I didn't like her at all, I felt kinda guilty. I don't know if you can do more to save the crew, either, but I felt like I was missing something on that end my first playthrough.

The game is great anyway. Enjoying it a second time is like being forced to eat dessert again.

It is possible to

Spoiler:

have everyone survive - I did both times.  First off, EVERYONE SHOULD BE LOYAL.  Anyone who isn't is already at a very high risk.  After that, it becomes about knowing who to pick for the endgame sessions.

For the infiltration part, the best Techs are Tali or Legion.  Garrus, Miranda and Jacob can all lead the fire team.

The biotic should be Jack or Samara - no one else really has enough power to hold it.  Again, any of the above work for the fire team.

Mordin is by far the best pick to escort the crew back to the Normandy, as he is likely to die when holding the line.

[Ryuu]

day 1 dlc woo

that's like

barely even the worst part

the leaked script is SO BAD

[Yog-N'yggoth]

It is possible to

Spoiler:

have everyone survive - I did both times.  First off, EVERYONE SHOULD BE LOYAL.  Anyone who isn't is already at a very high risk.  After that, it becomes about knowing who to pick for the endgame sessions.

For the infiltration part, the best Techs are Tali or Legion.  Garrus, Miranda and Jacob can all lead the fire team.

The biotic should be Jack or Samara - no one else really has enough power to hold it.  Again, any of the above work for the fire team.

Mordin is by far the best pick to escort the crew back to the Normandy, as he is likely to die when holding the line.

Spoiler:

One could probably do a minimum loyal run; All one needs is the specialists you mentioned  and taking them to the final battle (taking other teammates prior to that is okay)  . The real tricky part is the defense, since everyone has a value that goes up by one if they're loyal I believe. People say Mordin since he normally has the defense of "0". The ones who have the highest defense would be Grunt, Garrus, and Zaeed. Although the only one I had unloyal was Legion since otherwise Kelly and some other crew members die otherwise. Also upgrade your ship, that's another important thing.

[Reddyne]

It is possible to

Spoiler:

have everyone survive - I did both times.  First off, EVERYONE SHOULD BE LOYAL.  Anyone who isn't is already at a very high risk.  After that, it becomes about knowing who to pick for the endgame sessions.

For the infiltration part, the best Techs are Tali or Legion.  Garrus, Miranda and Jacob can all lead the fire team.

The biotic should be Jack or Samara - no one else really has enough power to hold it.  Again, any of the above work for the fire team.

Mordin is by far the best pick to escort the crew back to the Normandy, as he is likely to die when holding the line.

Makes sense.

Spoiler:

Jack was the only one not loyal. But what of the crew? My secretary became soup!

[theshirn]

Makes sense.

Spoiler:

Jack was the only one not loyal. But what of the crew? My secretary became soup!

In order to

Spoiler:

save the entire crew, you need to go straight to the Omega-4 relay after everyone is taken.  At most you can delay once IIRC (so that's a good chance to do Legion's loyalty mission if you didn't do it right away), but any more and the crew gets souped.

[Esifex]

Sat down with ME1 to fire up a FemShep run so I could import one into ME2 with the Paragon endgame choices that I wanted from it (why is the default ME2 opening

Spoiler:

'Sacrificed the Destiny Ascension'? I didn't let the game keep going beyond that to find out if it defaults to melting the Rachni queen, either.

)

In under 5 hours I've already hit level 22, gotten the Lunar Base Specialization Class assignment, and set myself up as a Biotic Bastion (still a little grumbly about the cooldowns for biotic powers in ME1).

Roommate's boyfriend is like 50 hours in, level 41 or so, and has done practically every side-mission/assignment, but he's taking goddamn forever to do the story missions. He keeps griping about how drawn out and tedious the assignments are, because they all boil down to 'land somewhere with the MAKO and drive around this big open map until you find a base to clear out'... then turns around and gripes about how tedious the story missions are

If it's any consolation, buddy, there are only five storyline missions. I'm about ready to blast my way through Feros, then off to Virmire with me.


In ME2, I'm glad they got rid of the MAKO and replaced it with the Hammerhead, but then it's like Bioware was giving us a striptease. 'Look how much we improved on what was easily the worst part about ME1! ... but you only get to use it like twice. Teehee!'

[Zengeku]

They keep saying that the game is to be harder than ME2. Apparently they are going to make the enemies more diverse and dangerous which is a good thing because I can literally only mention one, perhabs two, areas of ME2 that posed a challenge for me on my several Insanity playthroughs with the Vanguard. I haven't tried too many other classes though I hear that Soldier's supposed to be even better at it. I'm hoping that ME3 has a bit more balanced classes so that there isn't two super OP classes, two middle-ground classes that you can use if you really want to and then two classes that just sucks balls.

Mass Effect 2 was a great game and it seems that ME3 will improve the only aspect about ME2 that was somewhat weak. The gameplay.
The game also gets a new composer, i think his name is Clint Mansel or something like that. Oh and some of the DLC composers too. The DLC's had great OST's so that's promising enough though I'm anxious to see if they can top the ME2 OST which I think was pretty damn good.

The only remaining thing is writing. The demo did a good job for me but its so early in the game that I didn't really get to see some of the more important stuff like decision-making and socializing with your party. If nothing else, I'm geared up for reaping some reapers this March.

Though,

the leaked script is SO BAD

What do you mean by this? What is wrong with it? Please keep it spoiler free. I read that there was a leaked script but that it was no where close to done. But that's of course just what they are saying. Can't trust it too much.

[Yog-N'yggoth]

Sat down with ME1 to fire up a FemShep run so I could import one into ME2 with the Paragon endgame choices that I wanted from it (why is the default ME2 opening

Spoiler:

'Sacrificed the Destiny Ascension'? I didn't let the game keep going beyond that to find out if it defaults to melting the Rachni queen, either.

I think there's a DLC for that, where you just have a small comic detailing all the big events, though it assumes you haven't done the side quests. Well, that's what they did in the PS3 version anyway.

Spoiler:

Basically, I think they just went for the renegade choices, council dies, Wrex dies, Queen melts, etc if you don't import.

.

In ME2, I'm glad they got rid of the MAKO and replaced it with the Hammerhead, but then it's like Bioware was giving us a striptease. 'Look how much we improved on what was easily the worst part about ME1! ... but you only get to use it like twice. Teehee!'

Ehh, I kinda enjoyed the Mako at times, when you don't have to stroll around and instead shoot the hell out of the enemy. Hammerhead was okay, but the damn thing had the armor of paper. I will give the third some bonus points if they incorporate a vehicle that has the best of both worlds.

[triangles]

The Mako sucked but so did the planet mining replacement!  I have never been close to throwing a controller at the TV until that blasted thing.

The best part is even if you go paragon the game is so generous with points you have enough to go punch reporters without trashing your alignment :V

Also regarding ME2 ending options

Spoiler:

MJP played through first and had spoiled that people die and how to save Mordin since he was the one I would shed emo tears if he died.  But now that I think about it, I think Thane would "make sense" having died in the line of duty, so I might go back and figure out how to knock just him off, but I already did all the ship upgrades and I don't think he's one you can send to his firey death in the beginning of the end mission....

Also if you

Spoiler:

killed Wrex

you are a terrible person because he is the bestest.

[theshirn]

just sayin'

[triangles]

Yes that too.
I totally cheated on Kaiden for Garrus.  Can't wait for them to duke it out for my affections  :dragonforce:

[ICE]

Can confirm soldier on mass effect 2 is INSANE.  Basically once you get the skill that slows time up to the highest level, it provides a 5 second slowdown with 3 second recharge (so effectively 5 out of 8 seconds are spent in Adrenaline Rush mode).

In that mode, time slows by 50%, but your damage doubles (so basically you do damage at the same rate, but with everyone else moving at half speed).  Then if you choose the right option, you take half damage too.

So basically you can slice down enemies while taking 25% normal damage (half time rate, half damage), then duck behind a wall for 3 seconds, then continue.  I did Vanguard on hard for my first playthrough, then did Soldier on Insane, and the Soldier was FAR easier for 90% of encounters, Adrenaline Rush is just THAT powerful.

Also the Revenant is just... absurd.  I have no other words for it.  The Revenant is literally the most powerful weapon in the game, good in every single situation, great rate of fire, good ammo capacity, etc.

Probably the Adept would be the hardest for an insane playthrough, although frankly it would be more insanely frustrating than actually difficult (none of the Adept's powers work on insane, basically)

[theshirn]

Adrenaline Rush is stupid, yes.  I took the other specialization for it, which makes it 70% time dilation and 140% extra damage.  Thoroughly dumb. :V

[ICE]

Adrenaline Rush is stupid, yes.  I took the other specialization for it, which makes it 70% time dilation and 140% extra damage.  Thoroughly dumb. :V

That was alright, but thoroughly limited battlefield mobility (since you were affected by the speed slow). 

Since I like to get in people's face with shotguns, I definitely preferred the other one.  I can state with 100% certainty the Soldier is far better with shotguns than the vanguard

[theshirn]

I sat back with the Revenant myself.  Or sometimes got in people's faces with it.  It worked really well either way.

But neither match the sheer awesome power of the Widow.

[ICE]

Widow was awesome, but usually too slow for my tastes.  Adrenaline Rush Sniping was the nut high though.

Soldiers: Better with shotguns than the Vanguard, better with Sniper rifles than the Infiltrator.  Fair AND balanced!

[Amraphenson]

Widow was awesome, but usually too slow for my tastes.  Adrenaline Rush Sniping was the nut high though.

Soldiers: Better with shotguns than the Vanguard, better with Sniper rifles than the Infiltrator.  Fair AND balanced!

Infiltrator finds your cooldowns on time dilation and your need to shoot anything more than once quaint.