mass effect - suggested start settings

quarryman

I'm about to jump into this game.

to save me playing it for 4 hours and then finding its too difficult or i've selected a crappy class; can anyone recommend a good configuration of difficulty and class arrangement that will get the most enjoyment from the game?

grizzly

Difficultly normal and play Vanguard (good mix of gun/powers)

niallispuresex

may i ask, when do you pick your class? i finished the game but didn't pick any class, and only realised that you can add points to skills near the end, also don't finish it so quickly, i did very little other than the main objectives thinking that you could good back and do them after the main objs which you can't.

mcgovern

You get to choose your class around the same time you choose your gender/story etc.
If you don't choose one it gives you the default I think.

I played it on Veteran using Vanguard. Not finished it yet but for the most part its a bit too easy.

PixelTrawler

I played it through on veteran and theres only one or two parts that were really tricky

You'll be fine on veteran. Also used vanguard - shotgun became my best friend!

Kiith

I was a soldier. While it was a bit hard at times (i.e. that big giant robot geth that you have to fight on foot), it got insanely easy later on. I found the Matriarch fight to be very easy. I loved the assault rifle.

Varkov

Soldier was a bit mad on normal difficulty. Towards the end of my first playthrough I could take down one of those Geth walkers with around one clip from the assault rifle.

Gonna play through renagade/hardcore/vanguard next I think.

Varik

Soldier is by far easyer than the rest , simpler gameplay shoot shoot and shoot some more.

Dman001

Sorry to butt in but does this game have multiplayer over Xbox Live.

DeVore

I played Sniper. I played on the default (Normal I think) and apart from a few tough bits at the start, it was a walk in the park. I loved the sniper though! I never used the shotgun or assault rifle, I was either sniping from a distance (soooo much fun) or using pistol at close quarters (very effective).

I couldnt hit a barn door with the other two guns.

I also found I didnt use tech or biotics much. The primary way of killing things is to shoot them (there are almost no direct damage biotics), but lately I have used biotics to add some variety to the combat. I've finished every single side mission and am about level 42 at the moment, playing through the finale. I can take down just about anything with my pistol (try killing the Geth Primes or walkers with a pistol!)

Did anyone else find that they have tons of omni gel, medi gel and money? I have 999 of both and about 7 Million creds now

DeV.

DeVore

Dman001 wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but does this game have multiplayer over Xbox Live.

No, I dont believe so.

DeV.

steviec

DeVore wrote: »

I played Sniper. I played on the default (Normal I think) and apart from a few tough bits at the start, it was a walk in the park. I loved the sniper though! I never used the shotgun or assault rifle, I was either sniping from a distance (soooo much fun) or using pistol at close quarters (very effective).

Interesting that you enjoyed the sniper rifle.

I completed the game as the Sniper class (infiltrator I think?) and barely used the rifle all game. I tried to but 90% of the time enemies were too close for it to be useful, and it was really difficult to aim with.

The pistol on the other hand was sublime, I could decimate a whole outpost with that easily enough. Think I'm going to go Biotics / Shotgun when I get round to playing through a second time.

DeVore

The sniper rifle could have been more useful its true, but if you approach the game with strategy of sniping you will find plenty of times to use it. All of those bases most people simply drive into? I'm sniping them from 250M away
When I tuned up my sniper skill and upgraded the gun and added some bits to it, it became a joy to use. I can take the head off a Geth who is crouched behind a box from up a mountain now. Add into that explosive tipped rounds and its bye bye Geth heavy hardware!

I agree with you on the pistol too... loving it!

I've been a big goodie two-shoes too with very high Paragon (about 3 "blocks") compared to about 1.5 blocks of Renegade. I'm going to play it again and be a total wanker to everyone to see how the story changes....

DeV.

hotnipples

I went adept, and threw all of my points into levelling up all of the offensive biotic abilities to the max and making the recharge time on them as small as possible, basically there is rarely a time when I can't disable an enemy somehow! One weakness I have found with this is that boss characters I have met so far aren't really affected by these, which just leaves me with the pistol, which I haven't levelled up at all, but I can do a decent amount of damage combined with rail extensions and polonium rounds, rail extensions cause it to overheat very quickly though!

Being a sniper sounds cool, what class did you choose Devore? the soldier/adept combo? I'd say Lift would come in handy for a sniper, lift them up and pick them off. I think I'll go either soldier or soldier/adept combo for the next run through.

I am being an absolute c*nt to everyone this time, and its a blast, I'd imagine the goody-two-shoes way through the game is a tad boring, because being a renegade is great fun, ive levelled up the intimidation to the max aswell so I can be more of a bastard. What a game, its game of the year behind TF2 for me.

vasch_ro

DeVore wrote: »

I played Sniper. I played on the default (Normal I think) and apart from a few tough bits at the start, it was a walk in the park. I loved the sniper though! I never used the shotgun or assault rifle, I was either sniping from a distance (soooo much fun) or using pistol at close quarters (very effective).

I couldnt hit a barn door with the other two guns.

I also found I didnt use tech or biotics much. The primary way of killing things is to shoot them (there are almost no direct damage biotics), but lately I have used biotics to add some variety to the combat. I've finished every single side mission and am about level 42 at the moment, playing through the finale. I can take down just about anything with my pistol (try killing the Geth Primes or walkers with a pistol!)

Did anyone else find that they have tons of omni gel, medi gel and money? I have 999 of both and about 7 Million creds now

DeV.

i played as a sniper too, and found the exact same, pistol for close encounters, sniper for the bases from far out, also have loads of cash etc

koneko

Renegade is kick-ass, you get to punch and shoot people in conversations. I had my interview with the TV reporter and punched her right in the face when I didn't like what she was asking me.

TheDoc

im a solider, have to say love the game, i completely overlook the shoddy fighting because everything is so gorgous and the story is just epic, its a quality game and so glad i got it, think im going to sit through the hole lot today

CaptainNemo

I'm still playing this game and really taking my time over it. I'm doing all the side missions I can (makes the main missions easier too because of all the level ups and equipment, etc) and just lingering over every aspect of the game. I haven't been so immersed in a universe for a long time.

I started as Infiltrator and like Dev I find the combination of Sniper Rifle and Pistol to be completely awesome. The pistol is very effective and accurate with all the upgrades and training, and the sniper rifle is just FANTASTIC. At first it was very hard to use because of the aiming problems but with training and upgrades it's just fantastic. When it comes to combat I'm a bit risk-averse and there's nothing I like more than picking off my enemies from a ridiculous distance, or nailing them in their foot or the top of their head when they're hiding behind a box.

In close combat with multiple enemies both weapons are a bit crap though so maybe it's good to train up with the shotgun as a backup plan.

koneko

If you already got an achievement for a particular weapon or skill, you can pick that on a new character too. For instance if you finish the game as a Vanguard with the Shotgun achievement, you can pick a different class and add the shotgun even if they don't have that ability. Good for replays, especially if you want to try a harder class, you'd have that option of adding a weapon or skill that'll help them (as long as you got the achievement with another character).

quarryman

ok i started and am playing vanguard.

game is fairly underwhelming so far. I guess i've just come from halo 3 and cod4 so the combat feels clunky.

another game i'm still playing is stalker (which is amazing) so i'm feeling very restricted with all the RPG side of things,

Having said that, I love a big open ended game and the prospect of punching people in the face while they're talking is too good to miss. Reckon i'll go renegade from here....

Fingleberries

I was the same with the fighting, having come from R6V and Halo3 type of things. Standing in one place and trying to pick people off. Dying very quickly and getting frustrated.

Once you change how you look at it, instead of a pure shooter and more RPG-esque it starts to make more sense.

A Handy tip / tutorial is here ... After I kopped on to that I'm flying through most battles.

CaptainNemo

I was doing badly in the battles until I started customizing my strategy to the situation. Selecting the right upgrades vs. synthetics/organics, using special abilities like damping, sabotage, etc. I found the hardest battle so far the one vs. the matriarch because I had to run around and fight close and my crew were useless. The easiest so far was the whole episode on Feros versus the Geth, they are just so easy to pick off from a distance using the rifle and the whole "fight" against the Thorian was a bit stupid (just too easy).

Just occurred to me I'm playing on Normal, will switch to Veteran when I start over with another class.

Tusky

Just started this today. I really like the control of the conversations and the character designs are impressive. I'd say I will eventually love it but the combat seems very clunky.

me-skywalker

koneko wrote: »

Renegade is kick-ass, you get to punch and shoot people in conversations. I had my interview with the TV reporter and punched her right in the face when I didn't like what she was asking me.

haha.. i started out tryin to go the paragon route, i didnt know that they correlate to the top half/bottom halp.... but most of the time the choices i really wanted to use, questions/answers ended up being the renegade way of doing things even tho i wanted to be liek the good guy but... alas its funnier being a moaner adn typically Irish you can imagine him


'wtf do you mean i cant have a pint before we fight, there feckin aliens for godssake'

me-skywalker

jsut a quick one... the manual is crap and there no direct training mission or anything.. its not that i wanted to know how to shhot or move its the little icons and stuff build weapons adding upgrades etc very annoying when i first played it!

quarryman

wow, this thread is old. To update; I stopped playing about 2-3 hours in. Just wasn't my type of game. It was almost too big and expansive. I'm the kind of player that needs to search every crate and check every room. Applying that strategy to this game just exhausted me.

Something newer and shinier came along in the end and this got relegated to the bottom of the pile.