Replaying the trilogy but ME1 is boring me ...

I played the trilogy for the first time recently using the Engineer class on 'Normal' and playing the Suicide Mission in ME2 was probably one of the highest peaks of gaming experiences I've had. Listening to its music made me want to re-play the trilogy to reach that specific point again, but ...

I started again from ME1 with a Vanguard and on the difficulty setting that's one notch higher than 'Normal' and it is becoming a chore. I'm usually OCD about exploring every explorable planet but I'm wondering if it's worth trudging through the cloned environments again and again just to level up. My fully leveled up squad absolutely breezed through the latter stages of the game on 'Normal' but in this playthrough I'm having to resort to playing hide and seek with enemies constantly either due to squad mates dying (typically Ashley and Tali) or Shepard's shields being reduced to zero every time I peek out of cover.

Is there any benefit to doing any side missions in this game if all I want to do is get to ME2? Will it make the end sequences easier? Any tips on how to play Vanguard?

Oh and can I intimidate Wrex into backing down on Virmire? Or will I need Charm?

That's interesting, for me it was the other way around. Guess it comes down to tastes. I get why Mass Effect had it's critics, it's far from perfect but I feel the franchise lost it's sense of direction with Mass Effect 2. I'm actually playing through ME2 again (all the Brad talk made me feel that ME3 deserved at least a playthrough) and it's a fun action game, but there's something missing for me that I can't quite put my finger on. Plus Shepard is kind of a dick in whatever dialogue option you pick, he wasn't such a knob in the original I feel. Maybe it's just me being a grumpy old gamer, but I'm far from a fan of ME2. Though I am aware of it's strengths to.

Plus I actually enjoy the mining minigame, which apparently no one did so there must be something wrong with me. :)

Some of the side missions are referenced in ME2, I know that but not to any great degree if I recall. As for Wrex, I remember only being able to talk him down... pretty sure intimidating him doesn't work.

I was thinking of starting another play through myself, I went infiltrator and soldier my first times so I don't have any vanguard tips. You can intimidate Wrex or charm him. 8 points in either one is the ticket I believe.

I replayed ME1 recently and thought it was a blast. I always thought that adept was the best class to play in ME1 (severely nerfed in ME2 though). A ton of fun, even without a lot sturdiness. I played on the setting before insanity without too many problems. Just save all the time and it shouldn't be that bad. You definitely don't need to grind though. You don't need to grind on any difficulty. I don't know where you got that impression.

You can charm or intimidate Wrex. Just put as many points into one of the categories as you can and you should be safe to do whatever.

If all you want to do is play ME2, stop playing ME1 and go play ME2.

yeah, you can ignore all the side missions and just go straight through the MQ regardless of difficulty or class.

be mindful of your ammo and armor set-up, tune them according to what enemies you're facing, also try to level your squad to compliment your own build, and use the pause screen to co-ordinate attacks against bigger groups or against tough enemies - when you get it to work right this is one of the most satisfying things about the game for me.

on the higher difficulties i found using a pistol rather than a shotgun worked better for a vanguard, with no charge available to bring me in close or boost my shields, so that's where i put my points. maybe try that?

I like ME1 the most. It has that space opera sense of adventure and wonder that is a bit lost in the subsequent games. Also, I think ME1's soundtrack is far superior to the ones that came after it; I like that it is such a call back to 70s and 80s scifi instead of the usual orchestral bombast that we got in ME2 and 3.

Oh, and while the prefab buildings on the different planets in ME1 are very much disappointing, I think the planets themselves have some of the most amazing skyboxes and vistas of this generation.

@winternet: I'm doing the exact same thing right now, without a save file for ME1 on my PC I feel I need to playthrough the original. Even though from a gameplay standpoint it just kind of... bores me.

@tangoup: Just wondering what your thoughts on the soundtrack are, playing through ME1 kind of makes me hate the later Mass Effect music; as good as it is, for being more traditional.

Ok, I'll get straight to the main missions then. I actually do like the skyboxes and aerial vistas when you touch down on a planet but there are about ten that are really good. One has the blue/red sun combo, another has the looming asteroid that will hit the surface in 200 years etc. Memorable, but I don't remember where they are.

I don't think it's fair to club the music of 2 and 3 together however. Jack Wall wasn't even part of the music team in 3, correct? The music in 2 just gets your heart pumping and that's why I really liked the Suicide Mission in particular.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I'm gonna pay more attention to the ammo types this time. Let's see if that changes anything.

@wampa1: I'm not a very big fan of the techno music used in ME1 but I can see why it fits. It has the mysterious 'final frontier' vibe to it. Like i said above, the orchestral music used in 2 really goes well with the gameplay especially in tense moments so you can tell where my preferences lie ...

@wampa1: Why do you feel that need?

@Wampa1 for PC, you could simply download a save file if you want one but don't necessarily want to play through the game. That's what I did my first time through ME2 when I'd switched from the 360 to PC. Just found a save that mirrored my play through and went with it. There's a pretty sweet site devoted to save games for the series (pretty sure it's masseffectsaves.com or something. Should be one of the top hits in google regardless)

@winternet: Because even though there are easier ways to get that progress across (like save downloads) I always feel I need to have earned it, besides I haven't played through ME1 since release and a lot of the character specifics are really blurry to me.

@wampa1: Just read on some wiki and you're fine. It's not like it will matter much anyway.

Haha. I see what you did there.

Ive just started my renegade playthrough of the trilogy with all the dlc. While I'm not finding ME1 boring I am kind of wishing I was moving on already. I think its because 2 is my favourite in the series so im constantly wanting to be on that game instead.

Also, I just cant enjoy renegade all that much. Its interesting to see the different reactions to stuff but I'm already missing paragon Shepard.

ME1 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> ME2 > ME3

But yeah, after I beat ME1 the first time I too tried another playthrough on the harder difficult and found it to be a chore for the same reasons you described. I can't remember if you can change the difficulty mid-game (I don't think you can?), but if you can, I'd recommend just bumping it back down to Normal just so you can get through it.

As far as Vanguard tips, I played as one with Wrex and Garrus. Basically just used pistols for long range and shotgun up close; saved charge for when there were only a few enemies left or I wanted to get to another piece of cover quickly. Obviously you'll have to be even more careful in your use of charge because you're playing on hard. Kinda sucks, because my impression is that Vanguard is supposed to charge/shotgun everyone forever but you really get eaten alive if you try to do that and avoid cover.

Man, it's been so long. I should go replay ME1 again.

@tangoup: There are a lot of little touches that pays off in ME2 if you do a lot of the side stuff (like meeting Fist on Omega if you don't kill him in ME1). It's not huge, but there is definitely something fun about that, if you're into the characters and the world.

@rasmoss said:

Technically, dealing with Fist in ME1 was one of the 'main missions' wasn't it?

Yeah, bad example. But people from the side missions turn up too, like that corrupt senator you can help.

One from Terra Firma?

I'm also replaying the trilogy and have just moved on to the second game. If you just go down the critical path the first game can be completed in like 8 hours. I actually miss a lot of things about the first game in the latter two games, specifically the way they handled skills and equipment. Also that frisbee grenade.

@tangoup: This page has a list of all the things in ME1 that affect 2 and 3.

The only thing stopping me from insanity run on ME is the game is well..Its kinda bad now having player the later two. I just need the insanity achivment the arena DLC and beating the game with ashley alive.

How dare you, ME1 is the best out of the 3, shape up or ship out buck-o

Yeah, I I'm doing the same thing. I played through ME1 and 2 on the 360 and then bought 3 for PC and transferred my save from 360 to PC. I think that ME1 would have been less of a chore If I had the PC version, by virtue of it being less glitchy. Even in terms of raw mechanics. I don't think ME1 stands up very well. The combat is just clumsy and dissatisfying while the inventory system is counter intuitive. I think ME 2 did all of this better. On the other hand ME3 stripped a lot of things out in the interest of combat and story. 3 is a fun experience but it's barely an RPG. It's just a bookend. There are lot as many choices in 3 overall but I like that forces you to come to terms with and live with the consequences of other choice you've made throughout the series. Some you may even have forgotten about. I haven't finished 3 yet but I plan on seeing the "original" ending and not the new one

Mass effect combat is the equivalent of clicking on an enemy until his health bar dissapears. It is the most boring shit ever and anyone who says that the combat was better in ME1 than ME2 is a straight retard.

Side missions will not make ME2 easier, but all of them (except the collectables) pretty much have an impact on ME2. Either by receiving an email or talking to some random dude in the game. Some even have an impact on ME3.

Having beaten the game on insanity, my advice is:

• to bring in a high level character,
• always use Tali and Liara as squadmates
• avoid wasting away skill points into charm or intimidate
• make use of cover/infinite ammo
• Warp and Damping will counter enemies that use Immunity
• Get the Collossus armor, easiest to get by doing the "bring down the sky DLC"
• Get spectre master gear through the C-sec req. officier or the alliance dealer on the normandy
• Avoid doing assignments: The game is basically divided into: Prologue, Noveria, Ferros, Liara's dig site, Virmire, Illos, end game. It should not take you more than 5-6 hours if you skip all dialogue/drive past all enemies in the mako.

But it seems like all you want to do is get to ME2. Play on casual (xp is the same regardless) and only stick to main missions, unless you enjoy visiting the same 3 bases over and over. Do some of the citadel assignments though. They are fun and don't require much combat.

In the past week, I've done everything in Mass Effect 1, and everything in Mass Effect 2, and now I'm 7 hours into Mass Effect 3, and I tend to agree a little bit. I think the story is more interesting in ME1, but only slightly. But overall I have more fun when I play ME2 and ME3.

Okay, wow, kind of offensive but whatever. Want me to explain why I feel that way, or am I just automatically retarded?

I prefer the combat in ME1 because it felt like you had a bigger choice in how you played it, with all the different modifications you could do to the weapons. It was far more of a dice-roll game than straight up shooter, which is why I find it so interesting that you say that "Mass effect combat is the equivalent of clicking on an enemy until his health bar dissapears" when it became more and more like that as the series progressed. Part of why I liked it was that it didn't use ammo, you instead had to keep an eye on the heat of your weapon to make sure it didn't overcharge and leave you for dead.They even gave a lore reason for them not having to use ammo which they just kind of discarded in the 2nd game.

If you are playing on PC, there is a pretty simple way to change the amount of XP you get from killing enemies with the Mako that can make it so you reach max level from just one enemy.
This means you don't have to do any "grinding" and can focus on only doing the side missions that you want to do.

Just open BioGame.ini in the bioware folder in your documents, and find "m_fVehicleExpScaleFactor=0.4", and change the 0.4 to some ridiculously high number and you will get way to much XP from killing enemies while in the Mako.

Then of course there is always the save editor for ME2 that lets you select all the choices that matter from the first game, but that's not really the same as actually playing the game.

@azteck: yeah go play on insanity and tell me how much fun your having holding the trigger for a full minute while the health bar on a thorian creeper slowly dissapears....thorian creepers are just fodder enemies by the way.

You can get the best weapons, the best mods and have your weapons never overheat and you're still just standing there, holding the trigger on an enemy watching as their health bar slowly vanishes. Mass Effect 2 required you to use the cover intelligently, activate the right bullet mods at the right times, use your powers to avoid being overwhelmed and risking your neck in order to get more ammo to survive.

If you prefer the ME1 combat to 2 that's fine, but to come out and say it was better before is dumb.

I did finish it on Insanity and found it a breeze with my NG+ character. Also dude, ever heard of a little thing called opinions? No? It shows.

Yeah your opinion is fine (I understand you enjoy being bored when you play games) but objectively the combat is better in Mass Effect 2, get over it.

What the fuck is your problem? I prefer the feel of ME1, that doesn't say anything about me. I generally don't enjoy shooters, so ME2 devolving to that didn't make it better for me. Call it better if you want but don't start assuming things about my person from your narrow view point.