Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

I didn't either but I kinda felt it was backwards to go back to limited ammo capacity from ME 2 onward after ME 1 had a neat cooldown system.

Infiltrator in 2 is suffering. Hell, even the multi-shot rifles run out of ammo really fast.

Valkyrie/Crusader/Valiant/Hurricane/Eagle best weapon set. Solid for every situation, except for using powers while carrying around that shotgun.

EDIT: Yeah, been hearing that since 2010. However, some of the weapons wouldn't really work with the cooldown system, others are clearly balanced with ammo in mind (Cooldown in the Widow and Claymore breaks them), and, all in all, the gameplay is far more enjoyable this way.

edited 24th Oct '16 9:15:04 AM by Eriorguez

Tell me about it. The Infiltrator was the very first class I ever played in the entire series, too. Running out of Mantis ammo in the middle of the Collector Ship was horrible. I was running around in my cloak looking for ammo so many times I couldn't help but laugh at how bonkers Shepard must've looked like at that moment.

I find the Talon to be much more satisfying as my pistol sidearm. That thing was heaven-sent for my Infiltrator when things got a little too close for comfort.

edited 24th Oct '16 9:22:27 AM by ITNW1989

Hitokiri in the streets, daishouri in the sheets.

Probably why I preferred how ME 1 did. ME 3 did good since it had two weapons that used the ME 1 cooldown thing.

M7 Lancer still da bess tho

Well, to each their own, I found ME 1 gunplay, or combat in general, far too reliant in buffs and debuffs, while the actual gunplay was quite lacking. There were 4 guns in the game, and everything else was a matter of values.

I just started my second playthrough of ME 1 this morning. I decided to play a female soldier with a colonist background who is a war hero. I'm also going to try to go the renegade route(Through there will be some choices where I'll have to be nice).

edited 7th Nov '16 1:20:43 PM by pointless233

So I should talk about my current ME 2 playthrough, with my Engineer. I just did the Collector Ship. I decided to take the Sniper Rifle training, which is the first time I've not taken the Assault Rifle training. I always liked Assault Rifles for having good damage and good ammo. But the Locust SMG is damned good at rapid-fire,and for stripping defences. So, I decided to try the Sniper Rifle. I do miss the slowdown of Infiltrators, and the extra time for lining up shots. But still, the Viper has a big enough clip that misses aren't too big a deal. So I think I'll be pretty glad I chose Sniper Rifles. I've actually figured out a pretty good strategy against Harbinger, too. I use a Combat Drone to keep him busy, and keep him stationary. Then I use the Sniper Rifle to take down his Barriers, and Incinerate to burn through his armour. That approach seems to work well. I may as well add that I took Warp Ammo as my bonus power, specifically to help against Barriers.

I am enjoying this playthrough. The gameplay's good. There's some really fun combat sequences. Still, while it's fun to play, I stand by my criticisms of the story, and I still feel like there was room for a lot more squad interactions. Scanning is also pretty dull.

Also: The Normandy Crash Site DLC. It sucks. Like, straight-up, it sucks. It feels so incredibly half-assed. Collecting the dog tags is such a pointless fetch-quest thing, and the flashbacks to the bits of the Normandy are mostly meaningless. "Hey, remember this little hallway with sleep pods in it? Wasn't that a good hallway? Yeah, you know you liked that hallway." I'm also not sure how so many chunks are in such good shape. The little hallway leading to the cockpit/bridge was remarkably complete given we see it get lasered in half at the start of the game. I would also think that falling and crashing to the ground would have shattered it beyond recognition. But nope, there are several large chunks of the ship that, despite being lasered and then crashing to the ground, are in remarkably good shape. The glimpses of Pressley and the Virmire Non-Survivor are kinda sad reminders of people we've lost. But other than that, the Normandy Crash Site is just so stupid and pointless and half-assed and it bothers me how little work they put into it.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Just yesterday,I managed to find and save Liara for my first mission. I'm going to do a side mission then I'll head to Noveria.

Have any of you guys ever done a straight renegade run? I'm mostly choosing the renegade options but when it comes to certain things such I can't help but choose the nice choices.

I did. I started really regretting it after the Tuchanka arc.

Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore

My second playthrough was like what you're describing— talked tough, but ultimately did the right thing when all was said and done. Renegon, if you're nasty. That actually ended up being my golden playthrough, because I didn't save Maelon's data and I rewrote the geth on my full Paragon run. Choices which I though were maybe dubious, but seemed more Lawful Good at the time.

Later, though, I played a Terra Firma engineer and got everyone killed on the suicide mission except Zaeed and Morinth. Which isn't how I planned it, but I thought it was appropriate that sticking to my character's guns kept blowing up in his face.

Nah, pure Renegade is just an uncaring sociopath.

Pretty much. Some Renegade options are contradictory, too.

Well, I have one◊ or two◊ kinds of Fail Shep to use, but due to custom classes being a pain to make, I'll take my time before going with those.

I have a similar setup. My sole Renegade Shepard almost does everything renegade except that one Colonist sidequest. Which he then brushes off Tsundere style. I also made him bald and wit an evil beard only he ended up looking spookily like Joseph Kucan.

I've only done one Renegade Shepard, who was basically supposed to be a slightly altered version of my 'canon' Shepard. While the latter was initially a hard Lawful Neutral "for the greater good" character who eventually softened up a bit and still couldn't bring himself to Shoot the Dog if had too personal of a connection (e.g. not killing Mordin, much to his own shame), the former never softened (except around Tali). He stayed hard Lawful Neutral, and basically did the most turian thing possible in almost every scenario. This extended to destroying the geth due to their lack of reliability, killing Wrex when he pointed a gun at him, and shooting Mordin when he tried to cure the genophage. This same mindset did lead to picking some "Paragon" decisions though, like saving the Council.

It felt like shit. The games are frankly really bleak already, don't need to make them more so.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

I don't feel any negativity from playing a Fully Renegade Shepard.

I think I ended up doing something like 95% Renegade but I did strive for consistency so I couldn't do it all the time. Especially in ME 1 where a lot of Renegade options are Humanity Fuck Yeah/Fuck You Aliens stuff and my Shepard was not a racist.

Come ME 2 and 3 though I felt Renegade improved significantly so I could choose more Renegade options. I didn't shoot Mordin though or betray Wrex because my Shepard was very loyal to his teammates. (except one time. I feel obligated to throw that in here)

Finished Lair of the Shadow Broker this morning, which means I have completed every mission and assignment in Mass Effect 2, with the sole exception of Arrival, which I will be purchasing this weekend, setting myself up to go on a DLC spending spree in January for Mass Effect 3.

Is Leviathan worth getting? It's the only 3 DLC I still don't have, and I'm tempted to buy it just for extra squadmate dialogue.

edited 15th Nov '16 6:37:01 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

It explains the origins of the Reapers and there's guns and attachments and shit. I love guns and attachments and shit.

Oh really when?

I'd wait for a sale if you can— it's good, but kinda short for the price, I thought. If you're playing on Origin, it might come with that subscription service they started, if that's still going. Five bucks and access to a bunch of other games isn't bad.

I've never seen ME do a DLC sale.

I do play on Origin. It's been pretty good even though I almost never use it for any game except ME-3. It's gifted me eight free games and two free DLC packs.

Well, I already have the weapons from pre-orders (and they're useless anyway), and have no interest in the attachments.

edited 15th Nov '16 10:48:55 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Not as good as Citadel, better than Omega. Some interesting combat moments.

Not as good as Citadel is quite an undestatement. Citadel is bloody amazing.

"Yeah, it's a shame. Here we are in an underground cave with all these lasers, and instead of having a rave we're using it for evil."