Mass Effect 2

[Spectralist]

-Cover annoys me. I get the impression that the whole "go up to cover objects and stick yourself to them so you can use them as cover" is becoming an oft used mechanic these days?

Yes, sadly, it's become nigh ubiquitous in third person shooters. At least it's better than in ME1, where there wasn't even a button for it so you'd get jerked towards any nearby walls like they were covered in magnets anytime you had your weapon drawn. And you couldn't turn to shoot things beside/behind the cover once you were sucked onto the wall. It was really annoying in tunnels/hallways where you had to avoid going within a few steps of the wall else you'd end up stuck to the wall and unable to shoot anything in the hallway until you took a few steps towards the centre. On the other hand ME1 actually had a crouch button, which was nice.

[Jon AS]

The Geth Shield Boost, or Barrier might be nice to finish things without spending 90% of my time in cover though.

I often found that they could buy me an extra couple of seconds to get (back) into cover on Insanity. I just wish they all worked like Tech Armour instead of having a fixed duration.

[Minaku]

Vanguard is a harder class to play at higher difficulty levels but it's doable. As for changing, when you make a custom Shepard you get to pick your class.

You need to do a few things and understand the mindset of a Vanguard. Vanguard is high risk, high reward. DPS is CC. There is no defense, though in the beginning before you get all your powers maxed out playing defensively is a good idea until you have 2-3 guys left. So, you're going to need your shotguns upgraded. Lots of people use the upgraded Claymore which despite its slow reloading time and frustrating blowback can destroy an enemy extremely fast. Add AP ammo and you are guaranteed to 1 or 2-shot defenseless enemies.

My previous game I used pull in every way possible. I used it both offensively and defensively, in combos, to flush from cover, to isolate so my team could just shoot them out of the sky (pull/throw is hilarious). I had maxed out charge and I got into some sticky situations with pull/charge combos. Usually that meant I landed on places I wasn't meant to land on, and I couldn't charge away from the place I was stuck on, which necessitated a reload. That was frustrating.

Anyway, you'll want to take the helmet that gives you bonus to headshot, as well as the shoulders that give you +25% melee damage so you can charge someone, shoot them, and then punch them in the face for the ultimate combo. Max out charge because you'll be using it to get yourself around the battlefield all the time. Prepare to die a lot. A. Lot. Gets better as you get stronger, then you'll just laugh all the time because you're pingponging back and forth on the field while killing guys.

I had everyone live but Zaeed at the end, but eh, didn't care about him anyway. I sent Grunt off to watch the crew, had Garrus captain of first squad and Miranda captain of second squad. Legion and Samara were my specialists. And I took my usual crack team of Mordin and Garrus with me to the final battle.

Edit: Never discount the usefulness of cryo ammo. Max it out for squad cryo ammo and then laugh at all the stupid guys getting frozen on the field. Then charge from one to another and get shatter combos.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Re Mordin:

His mortality rate seems like it's just higher then everyone else. Sending him to escort is NOT a guarantee, I can speak from experience. From what I've seen, the only true guarantee is bringing him with you on the final fight and making sure he's loyal.

I've been bumming around various forums and everyone keeps complaining about Mordin dying despite doing everything correctly.

Also, I have to make a correction on my initial dislike of the Adept class. After about 5 levels he really started to get awesome and now fights are even easier then on my Van or Infiltrator. Singularity + Warp, Throw or Concusive shot = pure win, there is nothing like blasting your opponent our of orbit or off a ledge. Cryo Blast/ammo + body slam is pretty sweet too. Having Mordin and Garrus around basically mean any armor or shield is a joke and crowd control is easy as hell.

[Relic]

ETA: It just occured to me that I forgot to mention how I beat that fight fairly. You can take cover between the two buildings on the left side (as you enter) and easily take out any enemies in the centre. Be sure to focus enough fire on the Scions as they will slowly advance on your position. Both Grunt and Garrus should probably use their ARs. The one danger is that at one point a new wave of Husks will spawn right behind you, that can be uncomfortable if you aren't expecting it.;)

I couldn't hack the computer in time, so i settled back on my original tactic of sacrificing Grunt and Garrus to buy myself enough time to kite the living shit out of the Scions and the Husks. The next two parts were easier. Horizon down. I really dread the Collector ship mission. I had some issues with it on medium my first time around, so i can't imagine how hard it might be on Insane.

[Poobah]

I just spent nearly an hour dying and reloading on one fight on insanity, lol.

At the end of the mission to recruit Grunt, y'know? Where that woman is shooting at you with a rocket launcher from behind cover, there's a nasty big mech and a new Krogun hatching out of a tank every time you kill one (presumably you could kill all of them, but when I tried that it just took so long that my ai controlled squad-mates invariably made a mistake and got shredded by the mech, or a rocket). In the end I had to rush in and use disruptor ammo + my sniper rifle + hardened adrenaline rush to quickly snipe down the woman's shields, then leg it back to cover in time to take down the krogun's armour so I could Dominate him. Since the Krogun didn't die a new one didn't respawn... I spent almost the whole time chain-casting Dominate on him but it was worth it to take him out of the fight and allow us to gradually bring down the mech. I probably needed different squad members. I had Miranda and Garrus, but I accidentally spent Garrus' ability points wrong so he's not exactly all he can be, and since I can't ever get a refund I'm feeling pretty annoyed about that. Miranda does kick ass, albeit only when her rather squishy self isn't lying on the floor trying to tempt me into using medi gel (which I did end up using in this fight).

I need to go and recruit Jack, and I can remember the end of that mission too; it was distinctly unamusing at the time. I think I'm gonna get torn apart. In other news I downloaded the DLC and picked up Zaeed, plus did his loyalty mission, which was rather fun. I feel really dense though because I didn't realise that those horrible fire spraying containers overhead in the final area could be shot down to cause chaos on hapless enemies below. Instead I spent ages sniping, rifling, pistoling, shotgunning and even rocket-launchering the hordes of goons that Zaeed's buddy sent after me. And then the mech too.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to be able to stick it out through inasanity. It's certainly fun, but it's also very insane.

[Dio]

I really dread the Collector ship mission.

As well you should. I finished my renegade infiltrator insane run a few days ago, and that was one of only 3-4 fights that took 3+ attempts, and I probably failed it 15 times. Fuck you, Harbinger. Seriously. The energy ball thing that knocks you out of cover is ass. Normally it's not hard to dodge, unless he rushes you and just stands two feet in front of the cover you're trying to hide behind. My advice is to take whatever heavy wep you're most comfortable with and burn all of it on the trash drones as fast as you can so he can't possess them. Ignore the scions, they'll kill your AI buddies because they're too stupid to stay in cover, but as long as you keep an eye on them, they can't hit you.

The only fights I really had trouble with on insane involved being rushed. Husks, varren, krogans, light mechs, geth, etc (but not the praetorians, they're just too slow). The enemy AI seems programmed to avoid your squadmates and just swarm you. I made liberal use of cloak. Liberal as in spamming it every single time it cooled down. Swarmed, cloak, run away, snipe a couple, SMG spray until they surrounded me, cloak, repeat. Anything that stayed at range was easy, just a headshot clinic.

Re Mordin:

His mortality rate seems like it's just higher then everyone else. Sending him to escort is NOT a guarantee, I can speak from experience. From what I've seen, the only true guarantee is bringing him with you on the final fight and making sure he's loyal.

I've been bumming around various forums and everyone keeps complaining about Mordin dying despite doing everything correctly.

I heard this too, so my first run with a vanguard, I took Mordin with me and everyone lived. Second run, I took Miranda and Grunt (Grunt is damn near unkillable, even on insane; he had like 1200+ combined health with max Fortification), sent Mordin back with the crew, everyone lived. Everyone was loyal both runs.

Anyway, I loved the game. It's rare that I'll instantly replay an RPG. I'll do hard runs in action games or whatever, but RPGs are usually too long to want to play through again. I loved ME2 so much that I actually started a third run with a sentinel on veteran. Not sure if I'll finish it, but sentinels are crazy fun, as is playing on a lower difficulty after suffering through insane.

[Galactus]

I love Mordin though "Flammable! Or Inflammable! Which one is it!? Doesen't matter!"

I'm replaying ME1 as a renegade adept (I've never played an adept before) and it's certainly an interesting experience. You play it a lot different from an engineer (when you basically tried to get as many powers off as quickly as possible)

[Jacen]

I like cover systems because it gives games more of a realistic feel to them. In the real world nobody stands in the open and lives in a fire fight.

(cheap nitpicks ahead)

Of course, in the Mass Effect universe this doesn't make quite as much sense, because the cover objects obviously do not have kinetic barriers...yet somehow they easily absorb the rounds of these guns which are supposed to hit with the force of a freight train.

Also, it's kinda funny how every area has these convient walls and little cover blinds built in already for you, very thoughtful of the designers. I think I'm gonna build a steel half-barrier in my living room, never know when I'm gonna need that. Kinda reminds me of the bullet-proof couch in the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

[Spectralist]

I like cover systems because it gives games more of a realistic feel to them. In the real world nobody stands in the open and lives in a fire fight.

True. But I've been using cover in games since long before cover systems existed. The only difference is the game didn't have a separate "cover state" that was awkward to enter/exit and made manoeuvring in tight spaces a pain in the ass. Granted having a cover system looks better but that's not a good enough reason to make the controls muddier in my opinion. Of course a cover system could probably have good controls if they tried a bit harder. But no cover system games I've played seem to have put much thought into it.

[Relic]

But no cover system games I've played seem to have put much thought into it.

Gears of War?

[Spectralist]

Gears of War?

Haven't played it.

[Poobah]

True. But I've been using cover in games since long before cover systems existed. The only difference is the game didn't have a separate "cover state" that was awkward to enter/exit and made manoeuvring in tight spaces a pain in the ass. Granted having a cover system looks better but that's not a good enough reason to make the controls muddier in my opinion. Of course a cover system could probably have good controls if they tried a bit harder. But no cover system games I've played seem to have put much thought into it.

This.

Hence my asking for a crouch button. I've been doing the "run up to rocks/crates/walls, and crouch/strafe between being hidden and being out in the open" thing for aeons in first and third person shooters.

[WhiteHaven]

Should I trade in Garrus for Jack? I mean, well it's Garrus but somehow, on Veteran, he keeps dying like a fly because he (and Miranda, but she kicks ass) are too stupid to crouch behind cover.

Seriously, why are your sqaud mates so stupid =( The fight where you recruit Grunt (who fails as Wrex replacement) wouldn't be so hard if your AI mates would stop running in the line of fire. That mech is shredding them to pieces.

[Jon AS]

Seriously, why are your sqaud mates so stupid =( The fight where you recruit Grunt (who fails as Wrex replacement) wouldn't be so hard if your AI mates would stop running in the line of fire. That mech is shredding them to pieces.

Are you just letting them do what they want or are you telling them where to go? If you do the latter they usually stick to cover.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Are you just letting them do what they want or are you telling them where to go? If you do the latter they usually stick to cover.

It is unfortunate how unintelligent the AI is. I've seen Miranda climb on top of barriers and get shot down in seconds far too many times.

[Poobah]

I dunno, my Miranda + Garrus team did kinda badly on that fight too, on insanity, though honestly I think the arena is to blame. The tanks act as sort of cover, and there are little boxes at right angles to them in places which are also only partial cover. I think the AI gets confused about whether or not it's in the line of fire with all the pseudo-cover lying around in that room. Elsewhere they can stay in cover quite well, although I need to make Miranda not use her SMG or she runs forward so she can actualy shoot accurately with it and gets ripped apart.

I'm really annoyed with Garrus - and actually a few squad members I've been recruiting - because at level 30 they only have 28 ability points, and only some of them start with 2 points pre-spent, while others have 1 or 0 points pre-spent. Possibly when they go loyal they get an extra point pre-spent in their loyalty ability, I'm not sure. But it makes deciding where to spend the ability points a nightmare, especially because I can't get a refund after, and having certain abilities on certain squad members require you reach level 2 in another one of their abilities adds another level of frustration to getting them the skills you want them to have. I managed to mess up Garrus' abilities so he'll never be able to get to level 4 of his armour-piercing ammo when it unlocks which has me pissed off. I at least have Miranda set up nicely with her 3 non-loyalty skills all maxed out (I don't really care about her loyalty skill anyway, so it's all good) as they're all great and she has 2 points pre-spent allowing me to do it, and I use her all the damn time, what with Warp being all out great for any situation where overload isn't as strong, and her passive boosting the rest of the squad.

I'm having a hell of a hard time on that end fight on Horizon. I brought Miranda and Jacob (because I wanted to finish the stupid Tactician achievement, of all dumb reasons, but Jacob is ok-ish enough that I don't think restarting and bringing a better character will change much) and we're just getting owned. I always get totally bum-rushed by all those husks while the scions slowly sneak up on me and then shockwave us all to hell. I'm gonna give it another few tries after I put my dinner in the oven.

[Relic]

I'm having a hell of a hard time on that end fight on Horizon. I brought Miranda and Jacob (because I wanted to finish the stupid Tactician achievement, of all dumb reasons, but Jacob is ok-ish enough that I don't think restarting and bringing a better character will change much) and we're just getting owned. I always get totally bum-rushed by all those husks while the scions slowly sneak up on me and then shockwave us all to hell. I'm gonna give it another few tries after I put my dinner in the oven.

Out of all my guys Garrus seems to die the most . Im not sure what the deal with him is.

I had Garrus and Miranda for the fight at the end of Grunt's recruitment mission and stuck them behind the cover right in front of you when you enter the area. They did fine. I handled all the Krogan that rushed us, and the Mech wasn't able to get to us. After 5 or 6 Krogan all we had left was the Mech and the boss.

For the Horizon fight i suggest kiting the husks around the outside of the map, away from the Scions. Have your team attach a Scion until they die, and continue running your ass off, shotting incoming Husks. At some point it will just be you and the Scions and you can snipe them off after the Husks stop spawning. The next part of the fight (after you hack the terminal and trigger a auto save cut scene) will require you to change your position up a few times. As long as you seak cover opposite the field from where the waves spawn you should be ok. The tird part is easy enough, just requires you to Kite the flying fucker (creepy stalker that it is it only targets Shepard) until it dies.

Edit - what class are you? I had three people with Concussion SHot for the entire fight, which made taking out all the barriers in the second and third phase much easier.

[Jon AS]

I had Garrus and Miranda for the fight at the end of Grunt's recruitment mission and stuck them behind the cover right in front of you when you enter the area. They did fine. I handled all the Krogan that rushed us, and the Mech wasn't able to get to us. After 5 or 6 Krogan all we had left was the Mech and the boss.

My final tactic was to leave my companions near the entrance and rush over to kill the boss first. After that take out the Krogan (wihtout the boss to release them you don't have to worry about more spawning) and finally the mech.

ETA: I can't believe how much I'm enjoying combat in this game. I've played a little with an Infiltrator and it is again quite different from both Soldier and Sentinel. Tactical Cloak makes a lot of fights almost trivial. At this rate I'm going to end up trying out every single class.

[Poobah]

I'm having a load of fun on insanity. I'm a soldier by the way, which is very fun.

I managed to clear Horizon in the end. I had my guys move over to the left side and get behind cover while I pumped rounds into the scions with my sniper rifle, then legged it over to the cover myself. Jacob got totally swarmed by husks but managed to get off a pull field after I got their armour down which took most of them out before he died, me and Miranda finished off the scions. Mostly here I abused my totally lore-breaking Domination on the Collector Assassins and LoS'd the Harbingers while my mentally controlled Assassins did what they do best. The praetorian at the end I ended up emptying my beam rifle into because I didn't really have anything else to effectively take down the biotic barriers it kept putting up, then going at its armour with my pistol/sniper rifle/assault rifle and Miranda's biotic powers.

I'm annoyed with the shotgun right now. It's useless against armour and the husks all have armour. This is relevant because the shotgun is supposed to be the anti-zombie weapon, so what's going on here!?

Edit : one thing I've been wondering, because I was considering making a new character : what effects, if any, do the two choices you make about where you grew up (spacer, colonial, or earthling) and what reputation/background you have (ruthless, sole survivor or war hero) have on the game? I haven't really noticed anything, but if they don't do anything then why are they there?