Am I playing the first MassEffect wrong? There isn't much gameplay at all...

[DudeistBelieve]

So my femshep started her run at level 30-something. I'm about to catch Saren at lvl 54 (Whats the level cap? What transfers over to 2?)

and I play as a soldier, and primarily I just shoot things... Except now I'm at the point where I got enough heat coils in the best Spectre weapons they just fire continuously with no-reload, and I hate the cover dynamic so I pretty much just run and gun with the shot gun, and I'm noticing most of the gameplay is just running up the enemy and blasting them away. It's really not that fun, and if it was for the dialog bits and the moral choices (The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!) there wouldn't be much of a game here at all. Of course, I'm only playing on the normal difficulty setting, but I feel like even if I put it on hard there wouldn't be much strategy here.

I mean there are the Mako bits, but I also hate driving and trying to shoot with the damn thing so I generally just drive past the enemies.

I keep wanting to do a Paragon run, but I'm not sure I can stomach this again.

 

[Foolery]

Wrong? Nah, it's just a mediocre game. The first title had lacklustre combat. Also soldier is a very plain class. Infiltrator or Vanguard would give you a little more variety other than just shooting things.

The biggest draw of the series is supposed to be the dialogue and choices. Everything else is just filler, essentially.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Wrong? Nah, it's just a mediocre game. The first title had lacklustre combat. Also soldier is a very plain class. Infiltrator or Vanguard would give you a little more variety other than just shooting things.

The biggest draw of the series is supposed to be the dialogue and choices. Everything else is just filler, essentially.

I can never get into using the powers, I don't know why. It's like why should I make the guy float in the air when I could just blast them with the shot gun?

I also should say, I've somehow hit the max money one can own. and I'm kinda miffed at this, because I remember my first playthrough being so dirt poor that I couldn't afford to buy the good equipment. Now I'm pretty just omnigelling everything, just out of sheer clutter.

 

[Racecarlock]

This is a game that's all about dialogue and choices. There's some vehicle gameplay and some shooting gameplay and that's it. And there is no post credits gameplay after the final boss which is my personal RPG deadly sin. I wanted to do the rest of those quests. But just like when it cut to an ending with fallout 3, because of that, I have never picked up mass effect again. I played a mass effect 2 demo which was okay, but I truly do miss games like starflight which were just about finding new worlds and new civilizations and didn't have a story it wanted to tell. It just let you make your own. I like games like that.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

This is a game that's all about dialogue and choices. There's some vehicle gameplay and some shooting gameplay and that's it. And there is no post credits gameplay after the final boss which is my personal RPG deadly sin. I wanted to do the rest of those quests. But just like when it cut to an ending with fallout 3, because of that, I have never picked up mass effect again. I played a mass effect 2 demo which was okay, but I truly do miss games like starflight which were just about finding new worlds and new civilizations and didn't have a story it wanted to tell. It just let you make your own. I like games like that.

Is this Starflight very Star Trek like?

 

[PsychicTaco115]

And there is no post credits gameplay after the final boss which is my personal RPG deadly sin. I wanted to do the rest of those quests.

I know exactly what you mean. I didn't know that you couldn't play the game post credits... I didn't do any of the sidequests because the end of the world seemed more important ;-;

OT: I want to play the game in full but I always get stuck in the beginning part because it's REALLY slow and not that fun to play. Which is a shame because I have ME 2 and it would be cool to play the series it was meant to be, importing your character from game to game

 

[Zhukov]

Nah, that's pretty much it as far as gameplay goes.

Welcome to ME1. Welcome to being a soldier in particular.

The other classes offer a bit more variety, but not much. Biotic abilities basically just ragdoll enemies so you can shoot them without them shooting back. Pretty OP actually. A party of three biotics (say, Vanguard Shep, Liara and Wrex) can waltz through most of the game without a scratch. Tech abilities are pretty useless since nothing they do is as useful or effective as continuously ragdolling enemies into helplessness.

It's odd. I remember thinking it was alright when I first played it, but now ME1 mostly feels like a chore to be worked through.

ME2 improves things by making you significantly less durable (so you can't just stroll through enemy fire like you can at mid-high levels in ME1). They drastically trimmed the fat on abilities, getting rid of the ones that only give passive stat gains. (Stats are improved through purchased equipment upgrades instead.) They balanced biotics and made tech abilities actually useful. Removed grenades for... some reason. They reduced the weapon pool to about 3 of each class, allowing them to actually be different rather than all the same with imperceptible stat differences that are all rendered obsolete by the spectre weapons. The end result feel ends up being of a fairly standard third person cover shooter, but with some fun abilities. Playing as a soldier is still really boring though, especially compared to the other classes.

The series only really hit its stride in terms of combat with the third game. Sped everything up. Increased the ability pool and added an element of choice to levelling abilities. Added ability combinations. Brought back grenades and made them both awesome and distinct. Hugely increased size and variety of the weapon pool. Opened up weapon selection to all classes. Made melee actually fun and useful, with better (i.e. not shit) animations and a separate 'heavy melee' for each class. Playing as a soldier... yeah, actually, still kinda boring. Even more so than ever compared to other classes. I don't know why people do that to themselves.

 

[OneCatch]

So my femshep started her run at level 30-something. I'm about to catch Saren at lvl 54 (Whats the level cap? What transfers over to 2?)

and I play as a soldier, and primarily I just shoot things... Except now I'm at the point where I got enough heat coils in the best Spectre weapons they just fire continuously with no-reload, and I hate the cover dynamic so I pretty much just run and gun with the shot gun, and I'm noticing most of the gameplay is just running up the enemy and blasting them away. Of course, I'm only playing on the normal difficulty setting, but I feel like even if I put it on hard there wouldn't be much strategy here.

Eh, I'm in kind of the same boat - hadn't played it before now.

And yeah, it doesn't change much on Hard either.
I went Infiltrator, but I've just ended up using a pistol and grenades near continuously after spamming the various abilities -which are identical in how you use them. Speaking of which, who on earth decided to limit ADS with different weapons to certain classes? By all means nerf damage and other skill upgrades for support classes, but being unable to even hit a target from 20 meters away just makes your character feel crippled (not to mention his flailing around when getting in and out of cover).
And I really wish they'd kept the character switching from KOTOR. The ally AI is crap, and being able to switch - from throwing people around with biotics to pure run-and-gun to hacking - would break the monotony of your particular class a bit and encourage squad tactics rather than just "spam the biggest target with abilities, kill with firearms, repeat".

I hate to go all nostalgic, but KOTOR actively encouraged squad synergy and the AI was simple but effective. And you could freely go with noticeably different tactics and semi-emergent gameplay - to the point that playing as a Jedi akimbo pistollier was a valid strategy!
It's rather damning when a turn-based game feels more dynamic and visceral than a free shooter.

When I get to ME2 I think I'll go Sentinel just to get a bit of variety.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Nah, that's pretty much it as far as gameplay goes.

Welcome to ME1. Welcome to being a soldier in particular.

The other classes offer a bit more variety, but not much. Biotic abilities basically just ragdoll enemies so you can shoot them without them shooting back. Pretty OP actually. A party of three biotics (say, Vanguard Shep, Liara and Wrex) can waltz through most of the game without a scratch. Tech abilities are pretty useless since nothing they do is as useful or effective as continuously ragdolling enemies into helplessness.

It's odd. I remember thinking it was alright when I first played it, but now ME1 mostly feels like a chore to be worked through.

ME2 improves things by making you significantly less durable (so you can't just stroll through enemy fire like you can at mid-high levels in ME1). They drastically trimmed the fat on abilities, getting rid of the ones that only give passive stat gains. (Stats are improved through purchased equipment upgrades instead.) They balanced biotics and made tech abilities actually useful. Removed grenades for... some reason. They reduced the weapon pool to about 3 of each class, allowing them to actually be different rather than all the same with imperceptible stat differences that are all rendered obsolete by the spectre weapons. The end result feel ends up being of a fairly standard third person cover shooter, but with some fun abilities. Playing as a soldier is still really boring though, especially compared to the other classes.

The series only really hit its stride in terms of combat with the third game. Sped everything up. Increased the ability pool and added an element of choice to levelling abilities. Added ability combinations. Brought back grenades and made them both awesome and distinct. Hugely increased size and variety of the weapon pool. Opened up weapon selection to all classes. Made melee actually fun and useful, with better (i.e. not shit) animations and a separate 'heavy melee' for each class. Playing as a soldier... yeah, actually, still kinda boring. Even more so than ever compared to other classes. I don't know why people do that to themselves.

I may just get that DLC thing that lets you make ME1 choices and plugs you right into two no problem, if ME2 is actually more fun to play.

I just don't like using the powers. I know theres technical bullshit reason for it, but they always felt too super-power-fantasy for me... But I am that guy that brings a gun to a magic fight, anyway.

 

[RJ 17]

So my femshep started her run at level 30-something. I'm about to catch Saren at lvl 54 (Whats the level cap? What transfers over to 2?)

and I play as a soldier, and primarily I just shoot things... Except now I'm at the point where I got enough heat coils in the best Spectre weapons they just fire continuously with no-reload, and I hate the cover dynamic so I pretty much just run and gun with the shot gun, and I'm noticing most of the gameplay is just running up the enemy and blasting them away. It's really not that fun, and if it was for the dialog bits and the moral choices (The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!) there wouldn't be much of a game here at all. Of course, I'm only playing on the normal difficulty setting, but I feel like even if I put it on hard there wouldn't be much strategy here.

I mean there are the Mako bits, but I also hate driving and trying to shoot with the damn thing so I generally just drive past the enemies.

I keep wanting to do a Paragon run, but I'm not sure I can stomach this again.

Most people tend to agree that ME1 had the worst combat of the series. The cover mechanic was absolutely pointless and the biotics absolutely break the game by making it way too easy. So no, you're not playing the game wrong, you're just experiencing it the way that most everyone else experienced it.

That said, on the other hand, a lot of fans of the series tend to agree that ME1 had the best story of the bunch, so it's got that going for it. :3

As for the level cap: it's at 60. If you take a level 60 character over into the next game, you'll start with some bonus credits and you start out at level 5, allowing you to get some free skill points at the very beginning of the game. As for what carries over, it depends on what all you did in ME1. Did you shoot Wrex on Virmire? If so he's still dead, if not he's still alive. Which crew member did you sacrifice on Virmire, Kaiden or Ashley? Because they're still dead while the other makes a cameo appearance about half-way through ME2. The Rachni choice doesn't really come into play in ME2 except that if you spare the Queen there's an asari NPC that says she's helping the Queen by being her agent to get stuff from the rest of civilization since the Rachni can't exactly just go to Space Wal-Mart without causing a huge fuss.

Then there's the bits that pissed people off. If you save the council, they're still there...but they're still a bunch of ass-hats towards Shepard. If you don't save them, they'll be replaced by a new one and they'll hate you even more. For that matter, a lot of the NPCs hate humanity and Shepard for refusing to save the Council.

As far as extras are concerned: if you carry a file over that had a lot of money (which if you're playing ME1 on a New Game + you should have plenty of cash) you start out with bonus money in ME2. If you do all the search-and-find sidequests in ME1 (finding the Matriarch's writing, turian insignias, the various elements - such as Rare Earth, Heavy Metals, Light Metals, etc - and Salarian dog-tags) you'll start out with bonus resources which are needed for upgrading your gear and weapons in ME2...you also get access to a special - albeit not very valuable - war asset in ME3.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even if you carry your game over from ME1 to ME2, you're actually given the option to change classes if you want to. The Soldier is still pretty good in ME2 and makes the game a lot more actiony as you're switching between different weapons and ammos for different situations. That and the Adrenaline Rush ability is really great. The Infiltrator was always my favorite though since they actually have a cloaking device in ME2. The Adept is good, the Engineer is alright, the Vanguard is broken (not in a good way), but if you ask me the Sentinel is the most OP class in ME2 based on the combat system.

The combat is based around the different health bars that enemies have: Barriers, Shields, Armor, and Health. Barriers are weak against Warp, Armor is weak against Warp and Incinerate, Shields are weak against Overload, and Health is weak to pretty much everything. Being a Sentinel gives you access to both Warp and Overload, which means you're fully prepared to face Armor, Shields, and Barriers at any given time. This allows you to take pretty much any squad you want since you've already got the fundamentals covered. Otherwise it's highly recommended that you take a squad that compensates for what your Shepard is lacking. Specifically: you always want to have someone with Warp and someone with Overload on your team. Just so happens that Miranda has both of those skills as well and so technically I'd rank her as the best squadmate in the game.

 

[Racecarlock]

This is a game that's all about dialogue and choices. There's some vehicle gameplay and some shooting gameplay and that's it. And there is no post credits gameplay after the final boss which is my personal RPG deadly sin. I wanted to do the rest of those quests. But just like when it cut to an ending with fallout 3, because of that, I have never picked up mass effect again. I played a mass effect 2 demo which was okay, but I truly do miss games like starflight which were just about finding new worlds and new civilizations and didn't have a story it wanted to tell. It just let you make your own. I like games like that.

Is this Starflight very Star Trek like?

It's like star trek except you can create your own crew from scratch and one of the races you can choose from is a tree man. It's got the diplomacy, it's got the exploration. I don't know why this game hasn't gotten remade, frankly.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Yeah, the first Mass Effect game in terms of gameplay can feel a bit lacking. Especially once you get the gear you mentioned. The story, characters, and writing are what really made that game stand out. You can try playing as a different class, or you can up the difficulty to Insanity (prepare to die a lot if you do) to try and spice things up.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Am I playing the first MassEffect wrong?

Well I don't know, let's take a look...

(The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!)

You killed Wrex?! Yes, yes you're playing the first Mass Effect wrong!

Spoiler

Besides, the chance to betray him in Mass Effect 3 is sooo much more badass

 

[thetoddo]

Am I playing the first MassEffect wrong?

Well I don't know, let's take a look...

(The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!)

You killed Wrex?! Yes, yes you're playing the first Mass Effect wrong!

Spoiler

Besides, the chance to betray him in Mass Effect 3 is sooo much more badass

I felt like such a jerk when I did that, not during the confrontation itself, but when I got the newsfeed email a couple missions later... The guy deserved a better obituary than what he got.

Though that's nothing on...

Spoiler

Mordin turning his back on me and looking over his shoulder saying "someone else would get it wrong" with a voice full of hate before forcing me to shoot him in the back. I have never had a game make me feel like such an asshole.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

snip

That's kinda the problem I have with playing Mass Effect 3 as a Renegade character. The first two games are fine, since they mostly just present you as being no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, pragmatic, and maybe a little bit of an ass.

Mass Effect 3 just seems to go out of its way to make Renegade Shep seem like nothing but an over-the-top asshole who makes asshole decisions just to be the universe's biggest asshole.

 

[Tom_green_day]

That game took a lot of willpower to finish due to that gameplay. Saying that I played it after 2 & 3 so that may have influenced it but it was just annoying. Also the way weapons are limited by class, so you have to be soldier to have an assault rifle, just made it boring.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Wrong? Nah, it's just a mediocre game. The first title had lacklustre combat. Also soldier is a very plain class. Infiltrator or Vanguard would give you a little more variety other than just shooting things.

The biggest draw of the series is supposed to be the dialogue and choices. Everything else is just filler, essentially.

I can never get into using the powers, I don't know why. It's like why should I make the guy float in the air when I could just blast them with the shot gun?

The first game never did much to give you a reason to use powers as they were, by and large, less efficient than simply shooting things with guns. The second game introduces the notion of different types of protection making powers actually meaningful while further differentiating the classes. The vanguard, for example, becomes an incredible shotgun user because of the biotic dash ability while the infiltrator gets a set of abilities, cloak and a brief interval of time dilation that make sniper rifles legitimately viable weapons.

As one free bit of advice, the game's combat is more or less rubbish and that's more or less all you find in any of the sidequest stuff. Simply playing the main story path in Mass Effect is enough to see just about all of the good bits and virtually nothing of consequence will be missed. If you import into Mass Effect 2, you'll only miss out on an experience level or two anyhow but simply importing is enough to ensure you get close enough to the level cap.

 

[Longstreet]

yes you are playing it wrong.

YOU SHOT WREX!

You cruell bastard.

Other than that, there is no way set in stone to play that game. Just do whatever the hell makes you smile the most.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Am I playing the first MassEffect wrong?

Well I don't know, let's take a look...

(The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!)

You killed Wrex?! Yes, yes you're playing the first Mass Effect wrong!

Spoiler

Besides, the chance to betray him in Mass Effect 3 is sooo much more badass

Spoiler

Dude, betraying Wrex in ME3 was just an emotional ambush on me. I'd played it like 5 times before I got a combination that led to that scene where he confronts you. I was so not expecting it. And thoroughly enjoyed it.

snip

That's kinda the problem I have with playing Mass Effect 3 as a Renegade character. The first two games are fine, since they mostly just present you as being no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, pragmatic, and maybe a little bit of an ass.

Mass Effect 3 just seems to go out of its way to make Renegade Shep seem like nothing but an over-the-top asshole who makes asshole decisions just to be the universe's biggest asshole.

I dunno, there were some things you could do in the first two that were just unnecessarily dickish. Pushing people out of windows who won't talk to you, assaulting reporters for expressing negative opinions of you, straight up shooting people before even attempting to defuse the situation. Playing full renegade sometimes makes Shepard look like an out-of-control sociopathic killing machine, all through the series. The asshole decisions just seem bigger in 3 because the stakes are higher throughout the game.

 

[McKitten]

So my femshep started her run at level 30-something. I'm about to catch Saren at lvl 54 (Whats the level cap? What transfers over to 2?)

and I play as a soldier, and primarily I just shoot things... Except now I'm at the point where I got enough heat coils in the best Spectre weapons they just fire continuously with no-reload, and I hate the cover dynamic so I pretty much just run and gun with the shot gun, and I'm noticing most of the gameplay is just running up the enemy and blasting them away. It's really not that fun, and if it was for the dialog bits and the moral choices (The way Sheppard executes Wrex is so badass!) there wouldn't be much of a game here at all. Of course, I'm only playing on the normal difficulty setting, but I feel like even if I put it on hard there wouldn't be much strategy here.

I mean there are the Mako bits, but I also hate driving and trying to shoot with the damn thing so I generally just drive past the enemies.

I keep wanting to do a Paragon run, but I'm not sure I can stomach this again.

Well if you've played the others first that's where the confusion comes from. See, while ME2 and ME3 had good gameplay and shit story, the first one had shit gameplay but a good story. But if you're looking for strategy, i'm afraid you're looking in the completely wrong genre. At best you might find some slightly more varied combat if you play as Biotic (or anything but Soldier and Infiltrator), but unless you really want to see every variation of every sidequest, there's no big reason to replay the game.