Mass Effect?

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:31 pm

Finally just got the game, and will probably be jumping in soon. I am seeking some advice before I get to what for me is always the hardest part of any RPG: selecting a class.

Those who have played the game a while and especially those who have tried at least a little bit of more than one class, what do you like and dislike about the different classes? What would you, personally, suggest for a player just starting the game?

I've read that many think the combo classes are overpowered, but I don't know whether to believe that or not. I think I want to stay away from the straight soldier right off the bat, but other than that I can't really decide what I want to do.

Anyone?

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:39 pm

I have a level 38 Engineer that I finished the game with, but by the time I played him I had already maxed Assault Rifles on a Soldier so I actually had an Assault Rifle-wielding engineer who was bad ass.

For the previous question on hacking...some things take decryption, others take electronics. Make sure you have your level raised to allow hacking on "hard" objects for each line if you want to be able to hack everything. It's not the actual hacking line, but encryption and electronics.

I have a tough time dealing with the Adept, but an Infiltrator is the one I'm enjoying the most. I take along a grunt with a shotgun (Wrex) and an Adept so she can levitate and blast things, and I hang back with a sniper rifle and cheese...ie, hold RB to "pause" the game, target the head perfectly, release RB and instantly get head shots. That's the part of the game that makes it RPG-ish like previous KOTOR's with the pause ability.

I enjoyed Soldier but couldn't stomach not hacking anything...I used the Engineer solely as a rifle-wielding hacker, haven't messed with Adept or Vanguard as the powers really don't do it for me. Infiltrator is right up my alley though. Long ranged 1-shot kills mixed with hacking and stealth.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:12 pm

Thanks for the info, Terry. I have a feeling the biotics may be more interesting to me than to you, but I'm not sure if the hacking/biotics mix is going to have enough 'oomph' in the combat.

No one else has anything to add?

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:19 pm

It's a big, slow game that hasn't been out for that long, Zep, and it takes a while to level up skills and get new abilities for the various classes, so I don't know if you'll see too many others besiders Terry 'Power Leveler even without the combat cheese' Crouch who have a good amount of real experience with multiple classes...at least not on this board.

I took a soldier because I want to pause the action as infrequently as possible and I heard that that class was the best one for that, but in a handful of hours I've only been in a few combats...so at this point I wouldn't even be able to fairly assess even one class!

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:36 pm

TCrouch wrote:I have a tough time dealing with the Adept, but an Infiltrator is the one I'm enjoying the most.

Cool. That's the one I picked. I'm only a couple hours in but I like it so far. It's a nice change of pace from the platforming in Mario Galazy, rock band, and sports gaming.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:20 pm

I use a soldier and just shoot stuff dead. I let the rest of the squad do the biotics and all that fancy confusing s***.

...Seriously maybe next play through I will use an infiltrater or engineer.

Game is even better now that I dont die in the vehicle all the time. I finally figured out that it had a sniper scope on the cannon which helped alot. I can pick off the big targets from far away without taking much damage.

I am taking my sweet ass time finishing doing every side quest I come across. I have played nearly 20 hours and I dont think Im have way done yet.

Truely a great time to own a 360 that works.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:43 pm

webdanzer wrote:I don't know if you'll see too many others besiders Terry 'Power Leveler even without the combat cheese' Crouch who have a good amount of real experience with multiple classes...at least not on this board.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say I was only interested in comments from those who have played multiple classes and finished the game. I was more hoping to hear what kinds of things people liked and didn't like about the class they were using so far, if anything.

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:39 pm

This game's a lot of fun. I just finished the first planet/prologue and am just running around the Citadel doing quests.

My major gripe...the damn 360 is so loud that I have to crank up the volume to hear the minor conversations and comments over the system noise.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:30 pm

JohnnytheSkin wrote:
My major gripe...the damn 360 is so loud that I have to crank up the volume to hear the minor conversations and comments over the system noise.

That doesnt sound good. It shoudnt be that loud.

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:59 pm

XXXIV wrote:
JohnnytheSkin wrote:
My major gripe...the damn 360 is so loud that I have to crank up the volume to hear the minor conversations and comments over the system noise.
That doesnt sound good. It shoudnt be that loud.

True, I'm probably due for my second system to die...it IS inevitable.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:10 pm

JohnnytheSkin wrote:
XXXIV wrote:
JohnnytheSkin wrote:
My major gripe...the damn 360 is so loud that I have to crank up the volume to hear the minor conversations and comments over the system noise.
That doesnt sound good. It shoudnt be that loud.
True, I'm probably due for my second system to die...it IS inevitable.

Resistance is futile...Im on My 3rd.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:26 am

Johnny you might not have a bad 360. You might have a disc drive where a washer is loose. There was a link either here or at OS about this issue and how to fix it.

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:11 am

JRod wrote:Johnny you might not have a bad 360. You might have a disc drive where a washer is loose. There was a link either here or at OS about this issue and how to fix it.

I've been banned by the authorities at OS after four years so I can't see the link if it's there.

It's just the constant fan noise and disc loading...even though the rear vent doesn't get as warm as my old system.

Oh well

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:21 am

There was a video on youtube showing you how to fix this. Maybe search for things like 360 drive noise and you should find it.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:46 am

Drive noise is often a sign that the little magnet on the drive, inside the Hitachi DVD drive, is coming off. Eventually you get the "unplayable disc" error and you're screwed.

I had that.. fixed it myself. You have to open your xbox and that will void your warranty (but mine was out of warranty anyway and MS wanted $110 to fix it... I fixed it for $3.99 for a bottle of crazy glue)

Look up videos by "freonsmurf" on youtube. PM me if you need help.

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:46 pm

Great game overall.

One gripe I have is that the scope of the game is not as big and as varied as I thought it would be. I'm pretty sure I'm close to the end, and there appear to be 4 or 5 modest-sized main worlds to explore, along with a bunch of side planets that are more or less the same thing over and over again. I must have been to 10 bases that had the EXACT same layout. Unless my memory serves me wrong, or I'm not as close to the end as I think I am, KOTOR felt a bit more expansive than this one.

That quip aside, I've really enjoyed this game. The combat and exploration are lots of fun, and the storyline is really well done, with some plot twists that really caught me off guard.

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:03 pm

Just beat it as a good guy (Paragon) Infiltrator and loved the ending. I like how the Charm/Intimidate actually influences more than just "Joe Shopkeeper" and the setup for a sequel was well done, as it fully closed this chapter and yet left you wanting more.

I'm planning on going through it again as a ruthless Soldier. The lack of hacking will suck, however blasting everything and being a major jerk seems like a lot of fun.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:23 pm

I finished it as an engineer, what an awesome game. The only thing I wish was that after it ends you could go back and still complete some of the side missions. I still had a bunch I didn't complete.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:43 am

Best 360 game I've played all year - no contest.

seanmac31 · Post by **seanmac31** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:50 am

I've just gotten into this one, having passed when it first came out. I'm only about five or six hours in, but am I the only one who finds the combat model so terrible as to make the game not much fun? I'm hoping it gets better as you upgrade, but I have a hard time seeing how that would make any difference.

Basically, it feels like KOTOR, only with a terribly conceived combat model. And no lightsabers.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:00 am

seanmac31 wrote:I've just gotten into this one, having passed when it first came out. I'm only about five or six hours in, but am I the only one who finds the combat model so terrible as to make the game not much fun? I'm hoping it gets better as you upgrade, but I have a hard time seeing how that would make any difference.

Basically, it feels like KOTOR, only with a terribly conceived combat model. And no lightsabers.

I've been relatively unimpressed too. I'm not really even crazy about the dialogue, which was supposed to be one of the game's strong points. It's pretty much your standard 'tell me about X,' where the NPC then launches into a great big spiel about the history of something that may or may not have any real relevance to the story.

I'm very early on too, though, but at this point I haven't felt a strong urge to pop it back in the system with so many other more compelling (to me) games out there.

But I sorta expected the combat stuff, as I never felt the actual gameplay in previous bioware titles was anything more than average.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:20 am

Definitely NOT in the same boat. As soon as I figured out how to get into and out of cover efficiently, combat was very fun for me.

A month later, Mass Effect has still left a bigger impression on me than any game I can think of. As far as 'the experience', it might be the best game I ever played. So, I may be off my rocker here, but I was about as far on the other end of the spectrum as it gets. It was just literally like being in the middle of a sci-fi movie, and I love sci-fi. Rare, rare experience for me to enjoy a game and a story so much.

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:49 pm

This game doesn't want to leave my 360. I'm now on my THIRD playthrough trying to get to level 60 with my first character (a male Infiltrator) as well as those ally achievements.

I've done Paragon male, Renegade female Soldier, now a "gray" run through (since BioWare says you will use your character), and since the 60 cap seems impossible the first re-play, might have to go through the game AGAIN!

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:38 pm

I was very concerned pre-release that the decision to go with real time 3rd person shooter combat would be a big mistake, but I have been pleasantly surprised at the combat. It's certainly not nearly as good in terms of its basic shooter mechanics as the dedicated shooters out there, but how could it be? In my first complete play through I used an engineer and only really became comfortable with the combat once I started KoTORing it more. That is, using the RB pause and queuing up my engineer attacks and my biotic teammate's biotic attacks, while also getting my soldier teammate into good position and shooting at my target of choice. Using my marksman skill once in a while made my pistol shooting a lot more useful and satisfying. The squad AI and controls are not very good, but I never felt that the combat was so poor that it ruined the experience. Lifting never got old.

I did find that much like KoTOR, I didn't die all that often. There were only a handful of situations where I had real difficulty, one side mission in particular where I had to resort to hanging back in the previous room with my squad and funneling the enemies into the corridor. For the most part, once I got the hang of using the right engineer powers against the right enemies, most of the encounters were fun but not frustratingly difficult. Some were harder than others, to be sure.

I didn't learn until late that killing enemies in the Mako gives you a lot less XP, and once I did start getting out to kill everything on foot I died a lot fighting the bigger enemies which can be pretty challenging on foot. Eventually I got pretty frustrated by that and gave it up, but I could see myself trying to stick to maximum XP on future play throughs, especially with my soldier character and the sniper rifle.

I was a little disappointed with a lot of the specific dialog examples, and the way the system works, it doesn't really allow for very good acting. It all comes off a little stilted, a little silly ('tell me about yourself'), but in the end the whole of it, for me, is very cool and very satisfying. One of the main reasons I want to go through it at least twice more is that I want to see how, if at all, the story plays out differently with different paragon/ renegade choices made in certain key dialog scenes. It's pretty clear when those key moments are that will turn the story one way or the other.

I also really enjoyed the few times where there was a sort of a 'dialog puzzle' moment, such as one side mission that involved some pissed off biotics and a politician they had taken hostage. That event was really fun for me, and whether or not the politician lived or died, or the biotic lived or died, or I killed everyone was entirely up to the dialog choices. There weren't too many situations like that, but for me that was a perfect example of what they are trying to do with the whole paragon/ renegade scale, the charm/ intimidate skills and dialog trees. Adding in that there are actually read and acted lines, and the neat 'not exactly what I'm going to say' choices, plus the rhythm of being able to make your choice while the other guy is still talking, and it all worked pretty well for me. I can see it getting a heck of a lot better in future games, but this is a really good place to start.

When I get back home to my 360, I will really be deciding between continuing my 2nd Bioshock play through, this one on the hardest difficulty, in order to try to find all the little recordings, or playing through Mass Effect again with two different characters (or three; I really should make a female, to see what differences there are). I don't think it's much of a fight between the two, really. I don't think Bioskock will be very different if at all a second time through, but that's not to say it won't be enjoyable, since it's so well done and polished. I do know, however, that with Mass Effect, at least in certain key scenes and because of certain key decisions I will have to make in regards to the story, not to mention the differences of the character classes, which of course will result in me taking along different squad mates with each play through and hearing all their individual 'throw away' lines, it could turn out to be pretty different each time through.

Here's hoping that they add at least some kind of add-on missions or expansion packs for download in the future, a lá Oblivion, but I'm not holding my breath.

(Oh, and I don't fully understand the idea of continuing the leveled-up career for a second play through. OK, so now I start the game at level 41 or whatever and with all my bad-ass gear; what else is there to that concept? Can I change his class? What am I missing with that?)

JohnnytheSkin · Post by **JohnnytheSkin** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:43 pm

Zeppo, going through with the same character is pretty much for the Achievement only. You are uber-powered, have all your cool gear, and it's only worthwhile if you play on a harder difficulty. You can't change your class or anything.

One cool thing is that the weapon pick-ups level up with you, so on Eden Prime at the start you are picking up such and such IX and X level weapons, upgrades, armor, etc.

As for DLC, BioWare hinted that they'll put some more missions for some of the planets and other systems, which will naturally make me play through it once more.

I'm also thinking of going through 'BioShock' again with the new FOV and try and pick up those few tapes I missed the first time through. Crazy that so many good games are out right now!