Mass Effect Series Catch-All

Eleima, apologies if my comment came across as writing off every other playstyle. It's certainly open to play the games with very different approaches which compliment the classes. Indeed, I've never cleared any of the ME games on highest difficulty level whereas I'm sure many here and elsewhere have done it in all the other classes.

As ME2 was my first cover based shooter (after a long hiatus from the genre) I went with something which was a class that is hard to play poorly. However I must say my memories of 2 (Soldier) and 3 (Vanguard) are dim in light of the more recent release of ME:A (Vanguard); in the latter, you could get an accessory which gave reset cooldowns if you killed something with a power; it made cover play almost redundant to that class. That dynamism and fluidity of battlefield mobility redefined how I viewed Mass Effect as a shooter. I still haven't finished ME:A but I may well try a different class to see whether that same level of intensity is achievable. The other thing is that I believe ME3 (and subsequently ME:A) increased the emphasis on melee strikes. This shifted the bias (in my opinion) towards emphasising an aggressive in your face playstyle, which Vanguard excels at.

I suppose my choices also reflected my squad member choices. Garrus and Tali were with me whenever possible.

Vanguard being a close-range, melee-shifting class started off in ME2, and you are absolutely most effective in that class using a very close range style of play. The other class that can accomplish this most naturally is Sentinel, on account of how tanky it is. An Infiltrator can be specced and played to eschew cover in favor of shotgun tactics, but it's kind of a bodge and it can be a bit finicky or demanding in terms of skill.

The other way to play ME is as a power-combo game in the manner of a JRPG, where you combine powers to explosive effects.

And finally, you can play it as a real-time version of XCOM, where you place your squaddies in cover, then proceed to flank targets.

So, I may have a problem. I discovered that there's a bonus for playing through a majority of the game with the same companions, so I switched the game to casual and rushed through most of the game with Liara and Tali. And since I have that save still, I can go back and do it again with Kaidan and Ashley. And after that's done I can restart AGAIN and play through on Hard with Wrex and Garrus, but this time actually listening to dialogue and not skipping and talking to my crew and making choices I want to instead of for the sake of expediency. This way, I can go into Hardcore and Insanity with whichever teammates I want or need and not worry about any achievements I need to get and have the benefit of those achievements from the start.

And just in case you were wondering, you need to complete 45 main and side quests to get this achievement. If you skip any side missions and rush to get Liara, then ignore main missions until all available side missions are done, and do Feros first, you don't even have to finish Noveria to get the achievement. Ashley and Kaidan should be even quicker since I used them exclusively on all the missions up until you get Liara.

As I said, I may have a problem.

Grenn wrote:

So, I may have a problem. I discovered that there's a bonus for playing through a majority of the game with the same companions, so I switched the game to casual and rushed through most of the game with Liara and Tali. And since I have that save still, I can go back and do it again with Kaidan and Ashley. And after that's done I can restart AGAIN and play through on Hard with Wrex and Garrus, but this time actually listening to dialogue and not skipping and talking to my crew and making choices I want to instead of for the sake of expediency. This way, I can go into Hardcore and Insanity with whichever teammates I want or need and not worry about any achievements I need to get and have the benefit of those achievements from the start.

And just in case you were wondering, you need to complete 45 main and side quests to get this achievement. If you skip any side missions and rush to get Liara, then ignore main missions until all available side missions are done, and do Feros first, you don't even have to finish Noveria to get the achievement. Ashley and Kaidan should be even quicker since I used them exclusively on all the missions up until you get Liara.

As I said, I may have a problem.

Is there a bonus for those achievements? I just thought they were achievements. Nice thing about them though is unlocking them carries over to new game plus. Also finishing Insanity unlocks all the difficulty based achievements and Insanity in a new game plus is pretty easy if I remember right.

I remember going for all those achievements on the Xbox 360. Took a lot of partial playthroughs, but the bonuses that unlock make for a snowball effect that make each one easier and easier. They unlock things like extra XP gained, reduced damage taken, increased damage dealt, etc. All those bonuses carry over to subsequent playthroughs. Made the eventual insanity run pretty trivial. Then again, ME1 didn't have "real" shooting mechanics like 2 and 3, so it was already easier to deal with.

The "Use 'X' 'Y' number of times" makes that skill available across all classes for all careers. The ally achievements (as well as a few others) give passive bonuses to cooldown of certain skills, HP regen, and XP gain. I look forward to using them in Insanity, but I also want to set up the passive bonuses for ME2. Importing a lvl 60 Shepard starts you off on lvl 5 as well as having a 50k credits and 10k of every resource. I'm prepping for the long game.

Mass Effect is the only game I can think of that actually tied permanent bonuses to having achievements unlocked. You can tell they were designed in the early days of Xbox 360 achievements when there weren't any norms or best practices yet.

Somewhat different system, but Pillars of Eternity 2 gives you a currency for completing achievements, which allows you to buy various bonuses in later playthroughs.
I kinda like the concept. Would probably get annoying if it became a standard thing to do. But it can add a bit of flavor - and allow you to get through the 'tutorial' part of a game faster. It also has a bit of the rogue-lite design in it, making you stronger in subsequent tries. Though most people never play these long games more than once.

I didn't even know about them when I first played through. I was on the wiki looking up the import choices. One click led to another and I ended up on the achievement page which looks like it's now going to dictate the next 50 or so game hours of my life.

But don't burn out on ME1! So much good stuff in ME2 and seeing the subplots come to their conclusion in ME3. Also, combat and inventory management feels less cumbersome in 2 and 3 (though be warned it shifts to ammo and cartridge based shooting mechanics, not heat/timer cooldowns).

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/z7mkkevuy5i21.png)

p.s. I had never heard of them until now, but that guy Foxy is based on the lead vocalist for the band Foxy Shazam.

From the comments...

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

Always wanted to do such a playthrough, but I just can't do it.
Some fun moments in those videos though, seems like the game at the end occasionally acknowledges how everyone are dead, but at other times completely fails to do so.

Oh definitely! I'm glad someone else did it so I didn't have to!!

Ok, achievement runs are done. Just need to finish the game once to unlock Hardcore for NG+ so I'll be running this one through for the story. I will need to use only Wrex and Garrus for it, though, so it'll still be fun. Also, I need to make that cheddar for the Rich achievement and finish the game with more damage to my shields than my health, so it'll be a casual run. After that, begins the hard gameplay.

Eleima, I've laid the groundwork for a romance with Kaidan and I will see it through. However, I reserve the right to have Garrus "Calibrate my Guns" in ME2 or ME3 should I choose.

Oh that Garrus

Spoiler:

where you settle who's the better shot...I didn't have it in me to beat my bff.

I have several Shepards. Only the straightest laced Paragon-ish Shepard beat Garrus because she felt it woudn't be fair to not give it her all. It definitely wasn't as awesome as Garrus crowing over his shooting victory, but it felt right for her. Garrus is best boy. Sorry, Eleima.

Its just awful when someone loses to you on on purpose. Wouldn't do that to Garrus.

LarryC wrote:

I have several Shepards. Only the straightest laced Paragon-ish Shepard beat Garrus because she felt it woudn't be fair to not give it her all. It definitely wasn't as awesome as Garrus crowing over his shooting victory, but it felt right for her. Garrus is best boy. Sorry, Eleima.

Same here for my Shep.

My Shepard lectured Garrus about how his self worth shouldn't be tied up in his marksmanship, that he should be proud of himself and his accomplishments, that he is a valued crew member and friend, and that he shouldn't feel like he is living in anyone's shadow because he is amazing.

Then he loses the contest.

ME3 replay is finished!

- A lot of this game felt really fresh to me because between playing ME1 and ME2 twice before, not playing the DLC in this one, and rushing to complete it to join the discussion at release, I barely recalled almost everything going on. While I wish there was more exploration and new characters (I cannot believe some people complained about a lack of closure in a game story that was basically 40 hours of closure), for the most part I liked the writing in this one the best.

- I enjoyed the combat and level designs much more in this one, even though with my carried-over Shepard it was mostly a cakewalk. That pulse rifle alone pretty much broke the game. I very much enjoyed the minerals/probing sub-game since it was more engaging. I also liked how in most cases the dialogue wheel wouldn't even show up on your crew if you already exhausted all options and nothing new was added yet. Also, this game easily has the best hacking mini-game (literally just standing there for a moment).

- Still not crazy about EDI being a sexy robot lady but in hindsight it's not too bad and no more cringeworthy than some of the Miranda voyeurism of ME2.

- The main antagonist being a slightly Asian space ninja is pretty bad though.

- Recollection is weak but I think I liked the non-extended ending better? Whatever, not a big deal. I still assert that if you didn't pick Destroy, you didn't make the Paragon choice.

- Javik DLC is really good, Leviathan DLC is really good, Omega DLC is really good, Citadel DLC was some of the most awful pandering garbage I've ever experienced and I wish I had never played it.

- Oops. One little dalliance with my assistant and my 2-game relationship with Liara was over. I'm under a lot of stress saving the universe and she was always shadow brokering so you think she would have cut me a bit of slack though.

Two story beats I was not happy about:

Spoiler:

- Cerberus going from misguided back to comical supervillian organization makes a lot of what happened in ME2 feel kind of slight.

- Shepard frames the research in Mordin's loyalty mission in ME2 as "Do I want to keep this data that involved the torture of innocents and can be re-done?". Shepard frames it in ME3 to Wrex as "I didn't think the Krogans deserved a cure yet". That was annoying.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Mass Effect is the only game I can think of that actually tied permanent bonuses to having achievements unlocked. You can tell they were designed in the early days of Xbox 360 achievements when there weren't any norms or best practices yet.

Shadout wrote:

Somewhat different system, but Pillars of Eternity 2 gives you a currency for completing achievements, which allows you to buy various bonuses in later playthroughs.

The "Tales Of..." series was also doing something similar, before achievements existed. You earned "grade" for how well you did in fights, with a giant bonus for finishing the game; and got a "grade shop" to pick bonuses (or handicaps, if that's how you roll) in your NG+.

Just finished (well, not for the *first* time, for the first time in a couple of years--played the hell out of this back then) and...I don't really have much to say about it, strangely. It held so much promise, but then again, so did gaming itself at the time.

“Like a flame is real enough, isn't it, while it's burning?-even if there's a time it goes out?”
― Joyce Carol Oates, Foxfire

There are many different games there and many ways to take them. In many ways, each game is a different take on the same broad design. ME1 is more of a traditional Western RPG, with only one ending and minor broad strokes. ME2 and ME3 are closer to dating sims.

And that's my "lore" replay done. I was mostly Paragon, I convinced Wrex to cool his jets. I saved Kaidan and sexed him up afterwards. While I like how tight the story can be if you ignore assignments, I do think that I prefer the style upgrades of later games. Characters roaming the ship. Lots of newer dialogue that you can miss if you aren't paying attention, little changes that make tracking these people down and clicking on them worthwhile.

That said, Eleima, I was distinctly disappointed with the Kaidan romance. However, I realized that I didn't really like how ANY of the options were handled. This was my thinking the first time I played it all those years ago. My main interest is how this relationship affects later games, and as far as that goes, I prefer where the Liara romance can go via the Shadow Broker DLC. I think this was a young game and the devs learned a lot in between games. I am interested in seeing how Kaidan reacts in ME2 and ME3. While Ash's reaction to Shepard being alive in ME2 was understandable what with her "aliens suck" mentality, it did make me content with the fact that she wasn't on my suicide squad. I remember having a perfect Paragon run ruined in ME3 because I couldn't help but shoot her. I'm hoping Kaidan will have more understanding dialogue and just be stuck where he is instead of that whole "ewww, Cereberus" crap I get from Ash.

In fact, my favorite dialogue options from this game are when I hard pull rank on Ashley, telling her to stow that "don't trust aliens" sh*t. The voice actress did an excellent job of sounding like a person who thinks they can talk racist sh*t about someone else behind their back only to find that the superior officer they were talking to wants none of it.

All I have left now is a hardcore, then insanity run through. I'll be trying to max out renegade on this one to get that achievement. Kinda hard with my charm maxed out, but whatevs.

I think one of the most gratifying moments a game has given me was telling Ashley in 3 "I am done justifying myself to you."

Grenn wrote:

While I like how tight the story can be if you ignore assignments, I do think that I prefer the style upgrades of later games. Characters roaming the ship.

That only happens in Andromeda.

Grenn wrote:

That said, Eleima, I was distinctly disappointed with the Kaidan romance. However, I realized that I didn't really like how ANY of the options were handled. This was my thinking the first time I played it all those years ago.

I have read these sentences several times and I still don’t understand them.

Grenn wrote:

I am interested in seeing how Kaidan reacts in ME2 and ME3.

Well he’s not going to be happy in ME2, that’s for sure. He’s an Alliance Soldier, Cerberus is a terrorist organization and you’ve been dead for two years and just show up like nothing’s happened.
In ME3, things are, well... different.

Grenn wrote:

I'm hoping Kaidan will have more understanding dialogue and just be stuck where he is instead of that whole "ewww, Cereberus" crap I get from Ash.

You’ve just done a “full life” ME1 replay. Did you not have Kahoku sent you after his men? Did you not hear that Cerberus is a rogue black ops cell that has sprouted in a terrorist organization? Did you not find the body of Rear Admiral Kahoku? That’s who Cerberus is to the Alliance. Not Shepard’s
Savior, terrorists and murderers.

Grenn wrote:

In fact, my favorite dialogue options from this game are when I hard pull rank on Ashley, telling her to stow that "don't trust aliens" sh*t.

Say what you will about Kaidan, if you pull rank on him, he will listen and respect the chain of comman, no question.

Eleima wrote:
Grenn wrote:

That said, Eleima, I was distinctly disappointed with the Kaidan romance. However, I realized that I didn't really like how ANY of the options were handled. This was my thinking the first time I played it all those years ago.

I have read these sentences several times and I still don’t understand them.

This made me laugh my ass off.

Grenn's experience is making me want to ditch my ME2 replay, which is currently a little stalled on Omega, and force myself to replay ME1 again just to romance Kaidan. I've never done it in the past because... Well, I've done gender swapped romances in games before. I don't have any problem getting in touch with my feminine side. However I roleplay a woman, though, I still need to have some basic shallow attraction to the dude I'm going after. Something about their look, how they move, their voice, that sort of thing. Kaidan, as lovely as he is on the inside, doesn't give me that spark. To contrast, Garrus has the voice (except on the rare occasions when he is being whiny). I can't say that I find the exoskeleton very appealing, but that voice...

Anyway, I'm willing to give it another go, though, because honestly, I never really evaluated Kaidan as a romantic partner on anything other than a very basic surface level.

And I wouldn't mind trying all these achievements that I'm reading about!

Garrus' voice is dreamy. He is best boy fer sure. But Kaidan, he gives you respect and he gives you space. I like that, too. He's also all sorted-out so if you don't like keeping house with someone who's got issues, Kaidan's got you covered. He's very dependable.