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

[Spleeni]

I found Mass Effect to be a rather...inconsistant FPSRPG. It seemed very much in love with it's own story, but it never felt RPG'ish to me because I could always pwn the face off anything that came close to me. It didn't seem to make a difference as to what my build was, because I always won. I never felt any challange in the game, so I played it once and put it on the shelf.

 

[shadowform]

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.

Uh, well... that's because there's no cover if you use the path on the right. If you step out into the open in the middle of a gunfight what do you expect?

 

[shadowform]

I found Mass Effect to be a rather...inconsistant FPSRPG. It seemed very much in love with it's own story, but it never felt RPG'ish to me because I could always pwn the face off anything that came close to me. It didn't seem to make a difference as to what my build was, because I always won. I never felt any challange in the game, so I played it once and put it on the shelf.

All of the enemies level at the exact same rate you do. It doesn't matter where the RPG part of the game says you are: you're always at the same spot relative to the enemy as you always are. About the only abilities you really need to worry about are Overkill/Carnage/etc, Shield Charge, and Adrenaline Rush.

 

[Erana]

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.

Uh, well... that's because there's no cover if you use the path on the right. If you step out into the open in the middle of a gunfight what do you expect?

What about all those boxes and pillars my character was using? Don't tell me that a shorter cover location is more effective than one you can stand behind...

 

[Spleeni]

I found Mass Effect to be a rather...inconsistant FPSRPG. It seemed very much in love with it's own story, but it never felt RPG'ish to me because I could always pwn the face off anything that came close to me. It didn't seem to make a difference as to what my build was, because I always won. I never felt any challange in the game, so I played it once and put it on the shelf.

All of the enemies level at the exact same rate you do. It doesn't matter where the RPG part of the game says you are: you're always at the same spot relative to the enemy as you always are. About the only abilities you really need to worry about are Overkill/Carnage/etc, Shield Charge, and Adrenaline Rush.

I know! I could never seem to be a god, but the game just felt like... I was arm wrestling a fast aging child. Sure, the kid gets a little scarier and stronger while I'm ripping his arm off, but he still goes crying home to his mom.

 

[Stella Q]

I played on hard with a soldier, ignored all the weapons except for assault rifles and went everywhere with Garrus and Wrex, who also had maxed assault rifles and just enough tech and bio skills to hack everything and use the occasional biotic. The game was a cakewalk. Plus Garrus is by far the most interesting party member in the game and Wrex is just cool to have around so it's a good setup.

 

[Jandau]

1. Use cover. As others have stated, it's pretty integral to the combat. It'll keep you alive longer.

2. Use your companions. Set up crossfires, set them up in ambush positions, use them to draw fire from you, the list goes on.

3. Use the right weapon for the right job. A sniper is for sniping and in fact makes the game too EASY at times since you can often engage entrenched enemies before you're supposed to. My infiltrator breezed through the last parts of the game since they are mostly wide open areas where I was free to take stuff down however I damn pleased.

4. Pistols are good. Contrary to popular belief, pistols in Mass Effect are very solid weapons. They are accurate, fire fast, heat slow and have decent damage (especially if properly modded). My Infiltrator spent as much time with his pistol as with his sniper rifle. Even had to take the last boss down with it (too close for sniping).

5. Use your special abilities. Dropping enemy shields, overheating their guns, tossing them around, lifting a whole enemy squad into the air... the list goes on. Engineering and Biotic skills are easily overlooked and yet very useful. There is no "mana" system or such nonsense, so you might as well pop them when they cool down.

6. Use the terrain. And not just for cover. Lure enemies back, set up ambushes, get them in exposed areas, etc. You mention getting swarmed by husks. Lure them back down a narrow corridor if you can and just mow them down.

7. Use grenades. Just do it.

ME is harder than KotOR. Granted, KotOR was piss easy, so that's not saying much. ME has a few hard parts, but nothing some trial and error won't solve.

 

[mark_n_b]

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

Ducking in and out of cover isn't a problem when there is cover to duck in and out of which is not something that is provided for in a huge proportion of the game. There is also more than one situation where you're walking around and the game just throws you into the middle of a fuck-fest. No sniping and taking cover means wasting time dying. If the game were properly designed the infiltrator class would not be a pointless class. But that's the point, all the classes (except soldier) are pointless classes.

As an infiltrator with a maxed out sniper rifle ability, if I was on a planet's surface and wanted to blow up those big guys that shoot a million miles (I never bothered learning what they were called in the first place) I was dead, no place to take cover, not even a freaking hill. That tells me that the game was not designed for play styles conducive to multiple classes.

Imagine being the magic user class equivalent.

And while the game-play is fairly easy, if you are going to just stop by the thread to talk about how awesome you are at gaming, thank you, but we're not talking about that. For me, BioWare has hugely fantastic ego for little honest reason, Mass Effect took four years to develop and they gave us a game that did not, in my opinion, live up to the quality standards that length of development time promises. They just had a lot of stuff, and that simply does not cut it, quality is expected in games today, not quantity.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I don't get it. I was under the impression that I sucked at these types of games, yet I had no problems with 99% of the combat. The biggest trouble I had at the beginning was trying to obey the stupid-ass tutorial commands that won't shut up and won't leave you alone "HAVE KAIDEN USE HIS THROW ABILITY ON THE GETH STORMTROOPER" or whatever it was. Just let me shoot it already!

Of course, it may just be that I have way more patience than most people for dying over and over.

I enjoyed the game, but there was just something fundamentally lackluster about it--more of a "huh, that's kind of neat" then forget about it reaction than anything else.

 

[The_Toe_Bighter98]

Remember, Mass Effect may look like an FPS but it isn't; it's a RPG. So every shot you take is predetermined by your stats, abilities active, and other factors (how far away you are). Overall, the game has great game play but it also has AI issues, such as bull rushing enemy soldiers and repetitive side quests...

Anyway, made by Bioware, BUY IT.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Imagine being the magic user class equivalent.

The biotic? If you play a biotic you sneeze all over most of the game. Oh, it's an enemy. Launch it into the air. Oh, they're charging me. Throw them back 30 feet off the cliff. Bye. Toward the end of the game if you took Kaiden and Liara with your biotic character, you hardly had to do anything in combat--it could actually be difficult to find a non-floating or knocked-over enemy to *shoot* at.

The science classes could easily be disgusting as well if you boost Electronics to the sky. You get so much bonus Shields that the enemies stop doing damage to you. This becomes especially disgusting if you play a Biotic AFTER playing a Science class when you can now choose Electronics as a bonus skill.

The best strategy I found was to pick only a few skills and max them out completely as soon as possible--then max out your class so you get the fastest cooldown on all of your abilities. Then use them a lot.

 

[J-Man]

It's best on PC due to an improved command system. Oh, and the ability to actually fucking aim.

 

[Same River New Water]

I liked Mass Effect overall: I loved it until I ran out of new things to find, after which it eventually lost its shine. I didn't find the combat a lot of fun, but it never seemed broken or unreasonably difficult. So I'm going to have to say yes, you are missing something.

If the game were properly designed the infiltrator class would not be a pointless class. But that's the point, all the classes (except soldier) are pointless classes.

I played through as the Infiltrator on Normal and found the difficulty always seemed totally reasonable. The pistol was fine at first, and the sniper rifle was outstanding once I put a few points into it. I rarely died except when I got careless with my shields - which was often enough, but it usually felt like my fault rather than the game's. If I play it again I'll try Hard, and I don't usually go for Hard mode on games. Maybe you put your stats into bad skills?

If you can't find cover in Mass Effect you should look harder. Sometimes it might mean running away, but never more than twenty metres or so. Even standing in a corridor is a form of cover: it reduces the enemies you're engaging to one or two at a time, instead of ten in an open room.

 

[Alex_P]

If the game were properly designed the infiltrator class would not be a pointless class.

The Infiltrator's not exactly pointless. It's one of three classes that are Soldier-y enough to make the game easy to play. They have access to Shield Boost and Immunity just like Soldiers. They also get the benefit of the huge extra shield from Electronics (Soldiers can get it, too, with the "bonus skill" feature); the actual combat effect of Electronics is pretty handy, too. The Infiltrator's pistol skill is more than enough to face any enemy at any range; you can pick up Assault Rifles as a "bonus skill" if that's what you want to use. Altogether this means that they have defense and offense comparable to a Soldier's.

-- Alex

 

[johnman]

Ive only played this game as a solider as thats the kind of person i am. I then redid it with the same charatcer. I found it fairly moderate, died in epic battles. It takes a while to get use to the interface - i kept trying to reload and end up throwing nades everywhere.
What i dont like is how the galaxy is such an empty place. theres no other ships apart from mission ones, most planets you cant land on and the others are just a boring flat expanse with about 3 items of interest as far away from each other as possible. Or some arbitary enemy camp that means nothing at all and is copy pasted thoughout the game.
I still liked it though.

 

[Ionami]

I've just beaten the game on Insanity with an engineer. I also had Kaiden and Liara in my team the whole time. Was definitely NOT easy.

However, I have not noticed the same problems that the OP is listing. First time I played this game, I played on Casual difficulty, and I rarely ever died. I would snipe, shotgun, assault rifle, pistol and I'd be fine. (I played a soldier though, maybe that had something to do with it.)

So my suggestion is this: Make sure you're actually playing on Casual difficulty, (at least for your first playthrough,) and pick the soldier class (again just for the first playthrough) and you should be fine. It'll help you to get used to the flow of the combat in the game, and should prove to be fairly easygoing and (hopefully) not frustrating.

If that doesn't work, then I don't know what to tell you, OP. This obviously isn't the game for you then, or you just need to practice a lot.

========================================

And for those wondering why the planets are all desolate, it's because DVD's can only at most hold approximately 8 gigs of data, and Mass Effect barely fit onto the disc as it is. I believe that Bioware is aware of this complaint, as it's one of the biggest ones that people had with the game, and are finding a solution to this for ME2. I believe they will either sell 2 DVD's in the package, one for installing data, and one for play. Or they will offer fewer planets to visit, but much more content on each.

Also, if you read the codex it talks about how most of the planets in our solar system are uncharted and have little to no settlements on them. Which is really just a clever way for them to explain the fact that the planets have nothing on them.

 

[Clemenstation]

I liked Mass Effect.

I DIDN'T like how it treated items... everything was a dime a dozen. That's something that Western RPGs rarely get right: a proper sense of gradation in acquiring new weapons and armor, or a feeling of unique reward when you get to the end of a dungeon and get a prize. Too often you get a new gun, look at what you've already got, and they're like the same. I never felt like any of the crap I was picking up was especially worthwhile.

 

[AceDiamond]

Also, if you read the codex it talks about how most of the planets in our solar system are uncharted and have little to no settlements on them. Which is really just a clever way for them to explain the fact that the planets have nothing on them.

Although that's partially based in scientific theories of now anyway, with the belief that even if there are planets we could explore there's a chance we might not find a damn thing anyway.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Its been awhile since I've played ME, but I can remember having a lot of fun with the combat, even though a lot of people seemed a bit miffed by it.

Its not the run and gun cover system of an FFPS, nor the boring turn based battles of a JRPG. It was something in between to me. You could stop time when choosing your next attack or weapon change, so it became...I don't know, sort of a turn based battle with a little action thrown in. Its quiet unlike anything I've played before.

You really have to think stategically, working out where you want your team, where you want to be, what abilitys to use on which enemys, while still being able to sniper that bastard robot.

Personally, the combat only become fun when I restarted as an infiltrator+assult rifle speciality. Allowed be to take a good amount of damage, gave me sweet engineer abilitys, and a handy sniper so I could stll get that headshot goodness.