Mass Effect

[Excelsior]

When you go to Feros (after meeting the Reaper) how much more of the plot line is left? I dunno whether I should keep completing side quests or get on with the main plot, since I am gonna play it again anyway.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
When you go to Feros (after meeting the Reaper) how much more of the plot line is left? I dunno whether I should keep completing side quests or get on with the main plot, since I am gonna play it again anyway.

Basically, finish up your secondary stuff before going to all three Saren places, (Noveria, Feros, and Artemis Tau). I think after you figure out where he's going, you're pretty much locked into the end sequence, at least if you notify the council right away (as I did, not sure what happens if you don't tell them what's going on).

 

[RS8]

iirc, you get spectre weapons (and maybe armor) by accumulating 1million credits (or having that much in your inventory). I think their damage ratings are close to 350 stock, or at least between 300 and 350.

I used the shotgun for the last half of the game, it's retarded good when you're switching out the chem rounds and synthetic rounds. So I had to micromanage my ammo add-ons along with the other two guys. I'm not sure how useful it is to have a NPC carry the sniper rifle though... never really bothered with Garrus.

Excelsior, there is still quite a bit of game left; but if you ignore the side quests, don't expect too much lol.

edit - and yeah, the inventory is awful.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Get 1 mil credits in your inventory to get the rich achievement, and then the citadel and shipboard arms dealers will carry spectre master gear.

Assault rifles kind of suck, don't they?

 

[Excelsior]

Gotcha. I've already had over a million in my category. I've read that you also need to be a certain level to get the spectre weapons. No matter.

Assault rifles kind of suck, don't they?

They do?

 

[theshad]

A little over 19 hours played before was beaten, with doing as many side missions as I could. Was too short.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

As far as I can tell, yeah, assault rifles suck. Despite the high appearing damage number, they just don't hurt enough. My soldier with the spectre AR and maxed stats in the relevant areas was only barely more effective with his rifle then my sniper was with his pistol.

 

[Excelsior]

Thats unfortunate. Makes me want to just do Adept or Vanguard then, on the next go round.

 

[ja1484]

Several things:

Finished it for the first time today, at around 19 hours played. Did quite a few side missions, but not all of them. I agree with TheShad - for a BioWare game, it was definitely on the short side. However, it's definitely a quality title.

A couple gripes:

Most of the Mako exploration side missions on planets felt half finished. Just some large terrain maps with a couple models thrown in here or there. I would have preferred a situation more like KotOR, where there were fewer planets with much more detail to them. I also felt like the story was pretty predictable compared to other BioWare titles. I was expected to kill Saren and then have a few more developments before having to deal with sovereign. I thought I was about 2/3 through the game when I was actually at the end.

The alien design wasn't terribly inspired. Everybody had 2 arms, 2 legs, and a face. The only aliens that actually seemed alien were the Hanharr. Even then, they spoke english. I would've preferred some species with alien language/communication whose english translation was actually provided by some sort of mechanical device or such. It would've added to the plausibility.

I don't know what you guys complaining about assault rifles are talking about, but I went soldier with maxed AR, and the game was too easy to beat. I played on normal difficulty and the final fight with Saren/Sovereign was a cakewalk. I just sort of mopped the floor with them in a few minutes. Near the end of the game, I was able to gun down Geth Colossuseseseses with my AR as long as I had a little cover. I'm gonna wait til the replay to decide if this is a balance issue, or if BioWare just didn't want the ending to be terribly tough.

I rarely took Kaidan, Tali, or Williams off the ship with me. With the proper gear and talent points, Shepherd + Wrex + Garrus gives you a lot of punch in all three "effectiveness" categories, essentially rendering the other party members as swanky NPCs. Liara was helpful in some instances with her Biotics, but overall it was mainly those two in my party.


I loved the production value, voice acting, graphics, and gameplay - they were all the best yet in a BioWare title. But it definitely feels like things could've been solidified around the edges to take the game from "great" to "classic".

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: ja1484


I rarely took Kaidan, Tali, or Williams off the ship with me. With the proper gear and talent points, Shepherd + Wrex + Garrus gives you a lot of punch in all three "effectiveness" categories, essentially rendering the other party members as swanky NPCs. Liara was helpful in some instances with her Biotics, but overall it was mainly those two in my party.

Here's the thing though, you don't need to take the different party members with you in order to process their dialogue. Just talk to them in the Normandy after a quest is completed. I liked Williams character a lot and wish they'd done more with every character.

My standard party was Myself (vanguard), Williams, and Tali.

Edit - I had Williams and Tali with me during the final battle with Saren. When you order Williams to make sure Saren is dead, I got chills down my spine when she walked down and put a bullet in his head. Very badass scene, it wouldn't have carried the same effect if it was another character.

Edit 2 - Oh, my female adept character had 'relations' with the consort on Citadel. Again, they showed nothing. She tells you to relax, you see her face nuzzle you close, the scene fades to black, you see the consort's hand and forearm thrown back against a pillow, fade to black. That's it. I'm still trying to see what all the fuss was about with the sex scenes in this game.

 

[ClarkJF]

I read some reviews etc before I purchased it, I think its a great game, I am probably hmmm 15-20 hours in and probably have another 10-15 hours left to go. I like to really explore the planets and my surroundings and not use any guides which tend to make things quite a bit longer. I started right on veteran since a lot of people said it was too easy, I definately die a fair amount of times on veteran and some battles are pretty darn tough.

Things I like

1. The washed out colors are great, especially while exploring planets, they really do look like what the surface of mars would be like.

2. Missions are often varied and side missions are often interesting, stories of betrayal, things from your past coming back to haunt you, ancient artifacts transforming a whole crew into robotic zombies etc. Not your normal go here fetch that (although they do exist)

3. Plenty of moral dilemmas to choose from

4. Combat is quite fun

Things I dont like

1. There was a mission where I would run into a bug 90% of the time where a biotic power would be used, knock me over a ledge, make me unable to move or reload and just wait until I died and reloaded again. All while waiting for another cut scene.

2. If you die in a major battle, often you have to sit and watch the cut scene over and over again.

3. There is only one 'ideal' setup in the whole game, wrax, that alien chick with the mask and your main guy (if he is a soldier type), otherwise all other party options are top heavy in one area and completely miss another area.

Thats about it, those are all pretty minor complaints. I may even play through it again at some point..

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: ja1484


I rarely took Kaidan, Tali, or Williams off the ship with me. With the proper gear and talent points, Shepherd + Wrex + Garrus gives you a lot of punch in all three "effectiveness" categories, essentially rendering the other party members as swanky NPCs. Liara was helpful in some instances with her Biotics, but overall it was mainly those two in my party.

Here's the thing though, you don't need to take the different party members with you in order to process their dialogue. Just talk to them in the Normandy after a quest is completed. I liked Williams character a lot and wish they'd done more with every character.

The characters were fine, I just rarely used many of them in missions. I made my way through all the dialogue trees with 'em. Wrex put a bullet in Saren's head for me, because Williams had departed this mortal coil on Virmire.

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
3. There is only one 'ideal' setup in the whole game, wrax, that alien chick with the mask and your main guy (if he is a soldier type), otherwise all other party options are top heavy in one area and completely miss another area.

Not really. I had a soldier character, and used Garrus and Wrex, who both have good combat abilities. Garrus also has tech aspects, and Wrex is a biotic.


Also, the save game titles actually tell you how long you've been playing for.

 

[ClarkJF]

Originally posted by: ja1484

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: ja1484


I rarely took Kaidan, Tali, or Williams off the ship with me. With the proper gear and talent points, Shepherd + Wrex + Garrus gives you a lot of punch in all three "effectiveness" categories, essentially rendering the other party members as swanky NPCs. Liara was helpful in some instances with her Biotics, but overall it was mainly those two in my party.

Here's the thing though, you don't need to take the different party members with you in order to process their dialogue. Just talk to them in the Normandy after a quest is completed. I liked Williams character a lot and wish they'd done more with every character.

The characters were fine, I just rarely used many of them in missions. I made my way through all the dialogue trees with 'em. Wrex put a bullet in Saren's head for me, because Williams had departed this mortal coil on Virmire.

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
3. There is only one 'ideal' setup in the whole game, wrax, that alien chick with the mask and your main guy (if he is a soldier type), otherwise all other party options are top heavy in one area and completely miss another area.

Not really. I had a soldier character, and used Garrus and Wrex, who both have good combat abilities. Garrus also has tech aspects, and Wrex is a biotic.


Also, the save game titles actually tell you how long you've been playing for.

That is an option but if you go by stats, an inferior option, garrus has very low combat abilities whereas the other chick has good tech as well as combat.

I know it shows it but sometimes I will leave and just leave it on for a few hours while I am out so its inaccurate for me.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
That is an option but if you go by stats, an inferior option, garrus has very low combat abilities whereas the other chick has good tech as well as combat.

That depends entirely on how you spend talent points and how you equip the characters. Deficits can be addressed you know.


Anyhoo, starting a second playthrough as a female infiltrator, so we'll see how things shake down this time. Gonna make a few different key decisions and see what happens.

 

[ClarkJF]

Originally posted by: ja1484

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
That is an option but if you go by stats, an inferior option, garrus has very low combat abilities whereas the other chick has good tech as well as combat.

That depends entirely on how you spend talent points and how you equip the characters. Deficits can be addressed you know.


Anyhoo, starting a second playthrough as a female infiltrator, so we'll see how things shake down this time. Gonna make a few different key decisions and see what happens.

aha! But then you would spend points in tech/bio areas that needn't be spent in those areas as much with the optimum configuration I listed hoho!!

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: ClarkJF

Originally posted by: ja1484

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
That is an option but if you go by stats, an inferior option, garrus has very low combat abilities whereas the other chick has good tech as well as combat.

That depends entirely on how you spend talent points and how you equip the characters. Deficits can be addressed you know.


Anyhoo, starting a second playthrough as a female infiltrator, so we'll see how things shake down this time. Gonna make a few different key decisions and see what happens.

aha! But then you would spend points in tech/bio areas that needn't be spent in those areas as much with the optimum configuration I listed hoho!!

If you don't spend talent points in an area, your character is going to suck at it after the first couple of missions regardless of their disposition to it from class.

For lawd's sake...there are plenty of different party combos that will suit plenty of different playstyles.

 

[Sylvanas]

Just finished the game and WOW! Bioware have certain come up with the goods for an epic story what a blast! I particularly felt more involved when I had to make some big decisions one way or another in the closing stages of the game.

Awesome game, if you haven't got it you are missing out.

 

[dighn]

great game. definitely reminiscent of KOTOR, and also Deus Ex, which is a very good thing. Bioware never disappoints!

 

[Sylvanas]

I am considering if I should wait for the 'Bring down the Sky' Downloadable content patch to come out before I start my 2nd run through. It is really tempting to just fire up another run . I think I will try Soldier this time since I never really used any other weapon other than my Pistol as an Adept. The adept was fun however- if there was say an enemy taking cover behind an object, creating a singularity/Lift right next to them would cause them and the object to fly into the air making easy pickings and providing a depth of variation in a fight.

 

[ClarkJF]

Originally posted by: ja1484

Originally posted by: ClarkJF

Originally posted by: ja1484

Originally posted by: ClarkJF
That is an option but if you go by stats, an inferior option, garrus has very low combat abilities whereas the other chick has good tech as well as combat.

That depends entirely on how you spend talent points and how you equip the characters. Deficits can be addressed you know.


Anyhoo, starting a second playthrough as a female infiltrator, so we'll see how things shake down this time. Gonna make a few different key decisions and see what happens.

aha! But then you would spend points in tech/bio areas that needn't be spent in those areas as much with the optimum configuration I listed hoho!!

If you don't spend talent points in an area, your character is going to suck at it after the first couple of missions regardless of their disposition to it from class.

For lawd's sake...there are plenty of different party combos that will suit plenty of different playstyles.

That is correct, I simply notated the best configuration if your main character is a soldier, there are other options of course but there is only one perfectly well rounded selection.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: theshad
A little over 19 hours played before was beaten, with doing as many side missions as I could. Was too short.

I just beat it. Had 27hours in, and I might've missed a side mission or two. I think I was a level 48 or so.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Damnit, the game doesn't like to start with me. It hangs at the splash screen on the desktop for 30 seconds until I start mashing keys, and then if I can get into the game my computer freezes after a few seconds. I updated my video drivers and Creative doesn't make drivers for my sound card anymore. Fuck.

 

[s44]

The game takes a long, long time to load (and tab back in, if you try that). Just wait for it.

OTOH it may be one of the dreaded sound card issues.

 

[CaptainJackSwallows]

just finished my first run through at 9 hours. minimal side quests, but i dont like those very much neway :/ comparing with other ppls times, it shows that side quests basically double the games length.

got to lvl 32 or 33 as an adept (which btw is KICKASS).
barrier = invincibility
lift/singlarity = dead mobs
gonna go through it again as soldier named Jack Shepard from LOST

Overall very good game. 90% of the single-player games ive played dont last more than 2 hours with me, but this one was great; me actually completing an sp means something :>

btw i agree with above about the slow tab-ins, but im getting no probs starting or loading. and as for sound, disabling "hardware audio" or whatever made it perfect.

 

[43st]

I have no idea how you guys went through the game so fast.. Between the lengthy dialog and driving the Mako I think I spent 10 hours alone.

I finished it last night, pretty amazing game and story. It had some rough parts, with the similar building structures and the Mako stuff, but for the most part was a solid experience.