So, uh... Mass Effect- Am I missing something?

[Erana]

So, I recently got a 360, and have just now gotten around to playing one of the four games I deemed necessary: Mass Effect. My sister adores the game, telling me it was pretty much KOTOR with a bunch of Pew-Pew lazers thrown in. So, that's nice and all, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing something.
I played Bioware's Star Wars games, and they were at a rational level of difficulty, but I just keep dying in their spiritual sequel. Take, for example, one of the very first firefights, in which you have to shoot some dudes and dismantle a few atomic bombs. Subtle U2 refrences aside, I follow the instinct based in years of FPS games- make some distance and snipe the bastards. I die six times with this method, for god knows why. Then I say, "To hell with it," and take the direct, AKA ten feet away from the enemies' faces route, and the whole thing's a breeze.
This trend has continued in my few meager hours with Mass Effect- be at the right place at the right time or die- and I must say, I find it very disruptive to an otherwise beautiful and fun game. Considering past gaming experiences, I am awefully tempted to think that I am missing a simple, albeit vital factor in the game, so I am now asking yall, rather than immediately condemning it as poor design.

 

[cainx10a]

You really need to rely on the cover system in this game most of the time. This really is not a KOTOR-like game in terms of gameplay, as it's more along the line of an action game like Gears or Rainbow 6 Vegas really.

Also, do set up your buddies/AI companions in the proper spots to provide cover while you are trying to dismantle the bombs.

 

[CapnGod]

I suppose it depends on your character, really. I haven't played in almost a year (crap, gotta get back on that), but my main weapon was definitely the shotgun, so, in good gaming fashion (because a shotgun could NEVER be used for long range), I stuffed that bad boy down their throats until they were shitting buckshot. Worked pretty well, actually. Died occasionally, but nothing too extreme.

 

[Puppeteer Putin]

You really need to rely on the cover system in this game most of the time. This really is not a KOTOR-like game in terms of gameplay, as it's more along the line of an action game like Gears or Rainbow 6 Vegas really.

Also, do set up your buddies/AI companions in the proper spots to provide cover while you are trying to dismantle the bombs.

^^ That.

It is very easy when you use offensive tactics, as they mostly stick behind a couple of areas. Use your team mates to flank and counter... you CAN'T do everything yourself.

 

[The Great Fa]

Wellll...what you're saying is pretty true. There were times when I was playing that game and I couldn't take two steps into a combat zone without doubling over. You do get used to it, though. It's all about using that funny command window pause thingy properly.

Also, I played it on PC. Maybe that made it easier.

 

[Simriel]

Im sorry to butt in here, but i found the game bad... I dont know why... I LOVED KOTOR, And even KOTOR2's funny unfinnished plots and lack of sense. But i just found this well... bad, i only played for about 5 hours before i was thinking 'i cant be arsed with this im going to play assassins creed' and i dont know what it was... Maybe its the huge amounts of FPS iv been playing lately, But i can still enjoy a story driven game... i just didnt get into the story of it... Now i love RPG games... but i didnt feel any role play element to your main character

 

[latenightapplepie]

Yeah the difficult curve in Mass Effect is a little strange for me as well. At first it was really quite difficult, but close to the end of my first play-through I was dominating. Essentially I think, because the enemies all level up with you, it's probably pretty important to have good gear. Also important are your team mates. Too often they will get stuck on a corner and all their shots will go straight into the wall.

This trend has continued in my few meager hours with Mass Effect- be at the right place at the right time or die- and I must say, I find it very disruptive to an otherwise beautiful and fun game. Considering past gaming experiences, I am awefully tempted to think that I am missing a simple, albeit vital factor in the game, so I am now asking yall, rather than immediately condemning it as poor design.

Yeah I died at some epic battle parts and found it a little deflating. I think you're probably just adjusting. KOTOR wasn't the sort of game where you had to be really concentrating and paying attention not to die. Mass Effect on the other hand, is quite easy to die even on the normal difficulty. All the one-hit-kill (or almost) attacks actually require you to be on your toes.

What the other people said is about right. Cover is your friend.

 

[willard3]

The opening level can be difficult for newcomers, especially if your chosen skill set doesn't mesh well with Kaiden and Ashley. Learn to send them in if you're in a pickle.

 

[Erana]

I dunno, it just doesn't seem fun, to me.
Today, I was on some random planet, and I open a door only to be attacked by over a dozen husks. I'm sorry, but it breaks game flow to have sparkly, blue zombies gnawing at my ankles and your character can't use a shotgun at point-blank range.
And the sniper rifle: I'm sorry, but at ten feet away from the target, you should be able to have a half-decent grip on your gun.
And most recently, I boarded this ship only to be attacked by terrorists. They killed the hostage, then proceeded to kill me eight times within the first four seconds. Seven seconds, if I was lucky. There was no decent cover available, or anything.

Now, before I seem like I hate the game, I must admit that its very fun, and more importantly to me, eyepoppingly gorgeous. It was like biting into fresh berries and creme fraische on creme broulee in the same spoonful. And then the battle's like the raspberry seeds. Seemingly unnessary, to me.

 

[Fightgarr]

It is definitely not a run and gun game. You'll also want to get the hang of the abilities and weapon add-ons because they make the game infinitely easier.

 

[shadowform]

Yeah. Sniping in Mass Effect is really crappy. The gun sways too much at range to aim effectively, one shot is never enough to kill (that I've noticed), the first shot always alerts the enemies, you can't zoom in far enough to make the distance an effective defense against opponents, etc.

But then again, Mass Effect had a few major problems in my opinion. The point of a leveling system in an RPG is that you begin to feel stronger than old enemies, and facing newer, stronger enemies. But that doesn't click in Mass Effect. All of the numbers go up once in a while, yeah, but everyones numbers go up. Enemies get tougher the instant you level up, you get more XP, more money, weapons do more damage. there are no set *baselines*. You don't even get a cheap palatte swap - the first geth you see is exactly the same as the ones you fight when you're in the last area. There's that little thought in the back of your head that says "Hey, I'm hitting him for 300 damage now instead of 30!" but that's suppressed by the fact that he has 1000 health now instead of 100.

The subquests are... hellish. The first few are kinda fun, but after the 10th time you make planet fall you really just wish there was an option to skip straight to the mission. Driving is at best mildly fun, at worst frustrating, and completely unnecessary in the first place. All of the mission zones are nearly identical copy-pasted clones with a few boxes shifted around and a Villain of the Week around every corner.

Oh. And very low replayability. Really, clearing the game with a pistol isn't a whole lot different than clearing it with a rifle, even if you can throw an glowy blue ball that might do something (if you're lucky) once every minute. The glowy green ball helps mix it up a bit, but you don't get either until you're far enough into the game that you're so bored you don't care anyway, so it doesn't matter either way.

Also, what's this 'Be at the right place at the right time or die' thing? There are only a few timed events and none are terribly hard. If you're talking about things like dodging massive balls of energy, well... yeah. That's part of playing a game with fighting in it: don't be in front of the bullets.

 

[Erana]

Also, what's this 'Be at the right place at the right time or die' thing? There are only a few timed events and none are terribly hard. If you're talking about things like dodging massive balls of energy, well... yeah. That's part of playing a game with fighting in it: don't be in front of the bullets.

Back to the bomb scene- I used cover, I used what few abilities I had, and what not, but I kept dying when I used the route on the right. I use the route on the left once and kick ass.

When I got swarmed by husks, I died several times by making distance and standing slightly left of the door, but beat them with hardly any damage when distanced and to the right of the door they were coming from.

 

[sneakypenguin]

MMM masseffect, it's pretty hard at first until you get your character figured out. I have to ask what type are you playing as I don't remember the classes but is it soldier scout tech or the "force" character. If playing a "force" guy the game gets much easier about 25% though it as you cast shield, warp, and the throw moves etc.

 

[Alex_P]

I found that the most effective tactic was generally to grab a pistol, flip on Marksmanship, and charge, using shield recharge and Immunity to soak most damage coming your way.

The stealth and tactical aspect is fairly negligible. And fighting enemies with biotic powers is pretty much just a crapshoot.

-- Alex

 

[Isaac Dodgson]

I tried to play the game like an FPS at first, using cover, and what not, but my party was of course always standing in the open, or at the very least behind a rock that needed to be crouched behind for cover. Eventually I'd run out, shoot up what i could and then retreat fifty yards back behind a wall or rock or something to heal, and repeat...it annoyed the crap out of me but worked...

 

[Novajam]

The first level is (by some odd twist of fate) the hardest, and mainly because of the time limit. Remember to keep using cover, and using your squadmates as bullet magnets.

Pro-tip: Don't bother aiming for the head either. Bullets do the same amount of damage no matter where they hit.

 

[mark_n_b]

I am awefully tempted to think that I am missing a simple, albeit vital factor in the game, so I am now asking yall, rather than immediately condemning it as poor design.

Fun fact: In mass effect play as "soldier" and run right into the middle of every fire fight or get your ass handed to you. The game's level design, stats and buffs, and general theme are all built around that one class. The magic / force powers are damn near useless wastes of time, the first level is the only one really built for sniping (I enjoy sniping game-play so chose to be a sniper class my first playthrough... yoish, I got really good with the pistol)

It's not really "bad game design" as the game works really well if you play as a soldier, it is just that it was a game that was made for the one class and because BioWare is BioWare they through in all these other "classes" because it is their style.

They just never charged the game designers with building levels to be appropriate for multiple classes / play-styles or build levels that would gimp the soldier class in proportion to the other classes.

This has to do with the scrum methodology they've adopted at the company, it's not conducive to creative and thorough game design (which is why mass effect is just like a billion hours of the same freaking crap)

 

[TsunamiWombat]

First time I did the bomb scene I got raped like a mofo. Second time through not so much. The trick is to learn to cope with the incredibly shity squad tactical controls (set them to take cover and point them to a specific spot whenever possible). Boost Mr McWhiny's TECH powers during this first mission and then never include him in your party ever again because red mages are shit. Use overload, especially on those Geth with the rockets. Oh and the first mission is probably the only part of the game where you will remember/need grenades, so get behind cover and use those frisbee's of death.

Anyway when you start to think "slick swat team" instead of "l337 james bond commando shoot out!" you do alot better.

Oh, and learn to love Tali, and boost her Quarian Technician and Tech skills to the max asap and stick a shield mod in her armor.She becomes damn near unkillable, unlocks shotguns later, and with enough leveling up can use that shield recharge power so... go nuts! Ignore hacking!

My Mass Effect team consists of ME (Vanilla premade Shepard, put like 5 or 6 points into assault rifle and armor to get heavy armor, max out spectre and soldier training immediatly, oh and I took commando), my sweet beautiful Tali who is more deserving of a romance plot then the blue ditz but doesn't get it with maxed out tech skills and shields, and... some random person with a high first aid. Varies depending on if it's a character mission or not, usually Ashley or the Turian whose name I forget. Sometimes Wrex if I feel like having the lovable guy around. Dr. Blue ass is too fragile and Kaiden is a red mage, which automatically ='s suck.

 

[Fire Daemon]

What class are you using?

If you're using anything but the Soldier use your pistol for the first half of the game. I know people say that the Shotgun kicks arse (and it does) but it only kicks alien butt when your good with it. An un-trained shotgun in Mass Effect is nearly useless. The only gun that's good at a low level is the Pistol.

Use the Pistol untill fully leveled Shotgun, Assualt Rifle or Sniper and then you can use that. You should also upgrade your pistol but make the other guns a higher priority. Don't forget about everything else you can level (Biotic powers and what have you) because often a high level one of those is much better than a gun. Barrier for example.

A fully leveled Sniper Rifle though, is the best against troops and big troops. It's the only thing that will get you through some later missions that have you fight a couple of Geth Amretures (sp?). On hard anyway. At fully leveled it is a one hit kill against most of the enemies and with the right modifications you can pull of three shots without having to worry about the cool down. While this sounds bad, remember that most of that time will be spent hiding from other snipers and missiles so often you'll fire two shots and then have to duck behind cover, cooling down your gun.

It seems like the biggest problem you where having in the first fight was with the snipers. These things are a ***** to fight at long range, especially when your guy can't hold a damn gun straights. Just look out for the red glow, when you see it hide behind cover.

If you're playing as a soldier take Liara with you. Her Biotic powers come in very handy, especially when they get to a high level.

And the most important thing is to take Radioactive rounds. They deal more damage than standard rounds and poision the enemy. They make everything a little to easy.

 

[Aardvark]

I can't relate to anything said so far. I never had a problem with Mass Effect's combat and thoroughly enjoyed it the first three times I played through. For reasons unknown, I went the Infiltrator class, despite it being a bit of a pointless class. I found the sniper rifle to be simple to use, even ducking in and out of cover, with the pistol being useful to take off those few bars of health if they get too close.

I don't see what the problem with Husks is. IF they get close, run in and melee them. It pushes them back a fair way and seems to delay their discharge a fair bit. The only time ingame I found challenging was when I got to the hardest difficulty and had to deal with Krogan with that invulnerability power. Then it was only because I insisted on starting a new class per difficulty, rather than carrying over my superior previous character.