Is Mass Effect just shooting?

[Terminal Blue]

There are some classes in Mass Effect where melee is a viable tactic. Vanguards can definitely make a thing of it.

But no.. it's a fairly gritty near-future setting (ignoring that camoflage seems to have been abandoned in favour of fabulous brightly coloured body armour and weapons). Don't expect techno-knights with lightsabers or anything like that.

If you don't want to spend the whole game shooting, above all else don't play the soldier class.. consider a pure support class (adept, engineer, sentinel). They're perhaps a little harder to play, but what's not to love about lifting an enemy into the air with your awesome brain powers then punching them into the sky like team rocket rejects.

Plus, support classes are way more fun in Mass Effect 2 without the minute-long cooldowns.

 

[Nmil-ek]

It would be a shame to miss out on such a strong story/characters because you prefer melee, hell I never liked TPS until i tried Mass Effect maybe give it a try might grow on you. I know it's a heavy risk but the priiiiize.

 

[Twilight_guy]

No, there's talking too. If your referring to combat... I can't powers as not being shooting. There is also an option to go all Melee and just punch it to death but that's a specialized strategy. It also doesn't work well on Korgens, the games version of Klingons on steroids.

 

[plugav]

Apart from what the other people said, there's also some exploration, a simplified levelling system, a few minigames, and in ME1 also a lot of equipment options and some driving sections.

Little to no melee combat, though. For most classes, if your enemies get within melee range, you're in deep sh*t. Which is one of the things I like about the series - it's not just D&D in space.

 

[conflictofinterests]

By the second one the Vanguard does a fair amount of pistol-whipping (along with literal and biotic shotgun blasts), but there are no outright melee weapons.

 

[GBlair88]

Melee is really more of a back up if you have to reload or you're getting swarmed and is only a rifle butt/pistol whip. With the exception of shotguns the combat is ranged.

If you really want to use melee alot in a game then ME isn't for you. Still worth getting otherwise.

 

[Vern5]

Talking and shooting. That's all there is to Mass Effect. The shooting being much more gratifying than the talking.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Apparently melee will be expanded upon in ME3. Every class will have its own melee move, and some enemies will use secondary melee weapons in combat.

 

[littlealicewhite]

Hell no! There's plenty of action, but there also all sorts of other things to do or see! Get it, it's awesome!

 

[Vicarious Vangaurd]

ME 1 is RPG.
ME 2 is gears of war with some RPG thrown in.

 

[Justanothergamer300]

Instead of swords and magic it's guns and botics/force powers.

If you can borrow it from a friend go for it.

 

[NathLines]

You can also slam into people... No, Mass Effect probably isn't for you. The gameplay isn't the focus, the story is.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

People have done ME2 playthroughs with nothing but melee on Insanity. The melee attack is tremendously powerful in ME2, but it leaves you extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.

If you're looking for actual melee combat, Mass Effect really isn't for you. Even though the melee is powerful, it really isn't the focus of the game at all.

 

[SenorNemo]

ME 1 is RPG.
ME 2 is gears of war with some RPG thrown in.

I don't mean to start a thing here, but as I previously said, a role playing game means "you play a character on a mission as you galavant across the setting, interacting with NPCs," not "the computer has a set of d20 dice that it rolls every time you open a door." D&D invented RPGs, but it didn't define them. I can understand not liking Mass Effect. I find it hard to understand why people insist that it's not an RPG, and it downright shocks me how some people claim that this is inherently a fault (not that I'm claiming you're part of the latter crowd, this isn't aimed directly at you).

 

[Duffeknol]

I think he's pretty much gotten his answer about 45 times now

 

[tautologico]

If you are not hung up on old CRPG conventions, I'd say Mass Effect is a must play. Combat is much better than KOTOR, and it is incredibly immersive. I say this as an old school CRPG player.

Having said that, if you really must have melee, maybe you won't like it. I still think in this case you'd be passing out on 2 great games.