Mass Effect Series Catch-All

Little late, but... saw this and thought Eleima might appreciate it.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ySPu77W.jpg)

Awww thanks, BadKen, that’s so thoughtful!!!

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Yes.

Apparently they still celebrate Valentine's Day in 2183.

BadKen wrote:

Apparently they still celebrate Valentine's Day in 2183.

I'm trying to figure out which species it'd be least popular with. Krogan? Quarians?

Vorcha.

All this talk of ME makes me wanna replay. Last time I skipped ME1, but not this time. And because Eleima seems to care so much, this time I'm leaving Ashley to eat the nuke.

I do have the temptation to take my 360 out of storage to fire up the trilogy, but my luck I'll get through maybe a third of one before they announce the upgraded remake for my PS4.

I actively disliked the first game by the time I finished it and didn't play 2 or 3, but I've really enjoyed my time with Andromeda so far. It's got a nice cast, looks good, plays well, and has a neat classic sci-fi vibe. I'm looking forward to seeing where the narrative goes, although I'm worried it'll end on a cliffhanger that'll never be resolved.

Ok, so it turns out that none of my saves have been, well, saved. That was because I bought the game off the shelf for PC over a decade ago. BUT! The CD key still works on Origin (bleh), so I can download if from there and get the two DLC that came out for ME1 that I never got the first time. Some of the achievements make your game easier, so I spent most of yesterday re-acquainting myself with the gameplay by getting most of those achievements. The gun kill ones were pretty easy with Pinnacle Station DLC, and it also helped with AI Hacking, since the lowest level of Survival has nothing but Geth. But since the powers have a crazy long cool down, I resorted to some exploitation. I'd make an engineer and a simple run through the game up until I get my ship gives me enough points to get every ability. After that, find the first world you can explore on and hop out of the Mako. Turns out the Mako counts as a living thing so Neural Shock works on it. So just quick save, cast all your powers at the Mako, load your quick save, rinse and repeat. Biotic powers all work on Rapid Transit consoles on the Citadel, so I don't have to wait as long, but I need to be high enough to afford all the biotic abilities, so that one took a bit longer. So now that all of the ground work is done, I'm left with a question that I put to you.

What should my childhood, military background, and class be?

Spacer, War Hero, Adept FTW!!!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I actively disliked the first game by the time I finished it and didn't play 2 or 3, but I've really enjoyed my time with Andromeda so far. It's got a nice cast, looks good, plays well, and has a neat classic sci-fi vibe. I'm looking forward to seeing where the narrative goes, although I'm worried it'll end on a cliffhanger that'll never be resolved.

Resolves reasonably, overall I think its a solid game, to hell with the nay sayers.

I think I used to always do Colonist, Sole Survivor. Because it lined up with my longest running character from a sci fi Role playing thing.

The class after that varied, but I usually always do my first runs of these types of games as the 'default' version. Soldier in this case.

My primary Shep, Richter Shepard, is Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Infiltrator.

I'm a colonist, sole-survivor, soldier kinds Shepard, and her name was Samus Aran Shepard.

Soldier is generally the most boring class for combat. A shame it's the default. Playing that one makes ME combat like a bunch of other shooty games out there.

Any mix of Tech or Bio powers makes the game far more interesting, so any of the other 5 classes is good.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

I'm a colonist, sole-survivor, soldier kinds Shepard, and her name was Samus Aran Shepard.

This is very similar to "My Canon Shepard" except for the name.

Stele wrote:

Soldier is generally the most boring class for combat. A shame it's the default. Playing that one makes ME combat like a bunch of other shooty games out there.

Any mix of Tech or Bio powers makes the game far more interesting, so any of the other 5 classes is good.

Power cooldowns take so long in the first game that Soldier is less of a chore to get through the game with. Even if I want to play a power class I tend to play the first game as Soldier just to get through.

Spoiler:

Stop lying!!! It is impossible to play 2 or 3 without playing the first one!!!!! ;)

As far as classes go I really wish there was a mod that let you use some of the multiplayer classes in the campaign in ME3. It would be a lot of fun with some of the N7 classes for instance.

Stele wrote:

Soldier is generally the most boring class for combat. A shame it's the default. Playing that one makes ME combat like a bunch of other shooty games out there.

Any mix of Tech or Bio powers makes the game far more interesting, so any of the other 5 classes is good.

Oh yeah on my later playthroughs I usually went for Engineer or Vanguard.

Oh god I have to stop reading this thread. It just makes me feel bad that I have no way to replay ME1-3. Is a PS4 remaster too much to ask for?

Ok, so I'm home, my sandwich is eaten, and the dishes are done. Time to decide my military career. Let's see what suggestions we got for Gemma Shepard.

Spacer, War Hero, Adept
Colonist, Sole Survivor, Soldier
Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Inflitrator
Engineer or Vanguard

I think I'll nix Soldier because it's what I usually play and I remember have a helluva time trying my hand at Hardcore as a Soldier. Plus I wanna try some of these powers people keep talking about. That said, I also think I also want more of a hybrid character than a min/maxed techie or biotic. So Sentinel it is for me. As for background, I think this will be more of a paragon than renegade so I think a Spacer War Hero fits. Finally, as I've already vowed to keep Kaiden alive (for the very first time) should I romance him, Liara, or just pine my days away for Dr. Chakwas?

Kaidan. You should romance Kaidan (with an "a").

Sentinel is also a super fun class, that's usually my second choice.

Vanguard if you haven't already. Shotty, charging and punching things. I honestly feel that furious type of gameplay is how ME should be played. I picked up ME2 late after its release and went with Soldier to pick up the ropes. It's functional especially with the weapon choices. But for a replay? I'd probably try something a little different, perhaps adept for the biotic explosions. Though I found with ME2 I was running out of ammo pretty often on higher difficulties with spray and pray shooting.

Bfgp wrote:

Vanguard if you haven't already. Shotty, charging and punching things. I honestly feel that furious type of gameplay is how ME should be played. I picked up ME2 late after its release and went with Soldier to pick up the ropes. It's functional especially with the weapon choices. But for a replay? I'd probably try something a little different, perhaps adept for the biotic explosions. Though I found with ME2 I was running out of ammo pretty often on higher difficulties with spray and pray shooting.

Can I go a different class with the same character on replay?

Grenn wrote:

I think I'll nix Soldier because it's what I usually play and I remember have a helluva time trying my hand at Hardcore as a Soldier. Plus I wanna try some of these powers people keep talking about. That said, I also think I also want more of a hybrid character than a min/maxed techie or biotic. So Sentinel it is for me.

I think in the first one, all the powers are on independent cooldowns? I played by getting as many powers unlocked as possible at the expense of getting to the top of those powers quicker. Don't have any figures to back up whether that's smart, but it seemed like a good theory.

Oh, and remember some skills are necessary to unlock some loot containers. And if you've got enough spare points, you can get Unity as soon as they make you a Spectre and unlock that skill for you. Two things I forgot about on my recent playthrough.

Grenn wrote:
Bfgp wrote:

Vanguard if you haven't already. Shotty, charging and punching things. I honestly feel that furious type of gameplay is how ME should be played. I picked up ME2 late after its release and went with Soldier to pick up the ropes. It's functional especially with the weapon choices. But for a replay? I'd probably try something a little different, perhaps adept for the biotic explosions. Though I found with ME2 I was running out of ammo pretty often on higher difficulties with spray and pray shooting.

Can I go a different class with the same character on replay?

You can change classes between ME1 and ME2. That really makes you want to think about whether the resurrected Shepard really is the one who died, but that's super sci-fi deep end mindbending.

It is because of the frog dna they added.

Grenn wrote:

I think I'll nix Soldier because it's what I usually play and I remember have a helluva time trying my hand at Hardcore as a Soldier.

I did Soldier for my Insanity play-throughs in all three games. Was probably the hardest in 2 just because of the ammo thing. Ended up using the Revenant a lot just because you go like 500 rounds of ammo for it. In 3 I think I used the Saber until they released the DLC that had the Harrier in it.

Bfgp wrote:

Vanguard if you haven't already. Shotty, charging and punching things. I honestly feel that furious type of gameplay is how ME should be played.

I really hate it when people say "this is how it's meant to be played", because it completely flies in the face in the face of how BioWare built the game trilogy series. Versatile enough to offer different playstyles and approaches that suit everyone's varying tastes.

Sniper rifles and long range biotics is where it is at. My Shepard(s) doesn't like to get her hands dirty. That is what Krogans were created for.

Shadout wrote:

Sniper rifles and long range biotics is where it is at. My Shepard(s) doesn't like to get her hands dirty. That is what Krogans were created for.

Well, they don't make them like they used to. Genophage five!

Eleima wrote:
Bfgp wrote:

Vanguard if you haven't already. Shotty, charging and punching things. I honestly feel that furious type of gameplay is how ME should be played.

I really hate it when people say "this is how it's meant to be played", because it completely flies in the face in the face of how BioWare built the game trilogy series. Versatile enough to offer different playstyles and approaches that suit everyone's varying tastes.

I'd say there's some validity to it, but not in the sense that Vanguard is the only way the game ought to be played. If the player isn't having fun with the third-person cover shooting (stale, rote, repetitive, what-have-you), then it stands to reason that they ought to try other ways of playing the game before saying the game isn't all that.

Specific to the Soldier in ME2 is squad-based tactics. Between Shepard's damage and everyone else's damage output, even Insanity is relatively easy if you take advantage of your squaddie firepower, covering fire, and flanking. Asking your squaddies to move under fire is a big mistake, of course, but if you situate them well, they can provide enough of a beatdown for you to flank around and take out the enemies quite quickly. Garrus and Ashley are quite fantastic in terms of their firepower at Medium and Long range.