I've been doing an insanity playthrough in Mass Effect 2 and I have to say, it's been significantly easier than I thought it would be. So far it seems like you just have to rely on powers and squad commands a lot more, but other than that I don't see any issues. I'm a little under half way done the game though (I just finished Horizon) so does it get harder nearer to the endgame or something?

Several of the classes are really unbalanced when it comes to Insanity, some make it more difficult that it should otherwise be. Also whenever the Collectors appear there is a difficulty spike.

Yeah, the only really difficult bits are when you fight the praetorians. Those things are unbalanced. Aside from them, it's not bad. I wouldn't call it easy, but not bad. 

If you are a biotic your God if not then you'll suck.

What do you have to do to get the Insane achievement? You just have to pass the last mission right? So as long as Shepard survives it's cool?

" What do you have to do to get the Insane achievement? You just have to pass the last mission right? So as long as Shepard survives it's cool? "

" What do you have to do to get the Insane achievement? You just have to pass the last mission right? So as long as Shepard survives it's cool? "

" What do you have to do to get the Insane achievement? You just have to pass the last mission right? So as long as Shepard survives it's cool? "

" @SethPhotopoulos: I don't know about that. I'm a Sentinel and I seem pretty godly. They have to take down my shield SO fast in order for me to not be able to just bring it to 100% again. "

I dunno either, a lot of people just seem to be bad at games. 

There are a few really frustrating parts, but overall it wasn't the nightmare some people made it out to be.

" There are a few really frustrating parts, but overall it wasn't the nightmare some people made it out to be. Or maybe I was just anticipating that, and therefore didn't think it was that hard since I was prepared for it to be insane...
"

Still not sure which class is the best though. The thing I've relied on the most is the Adrenaline Rush so I can line up 100% headshots. But many say having biotic abilities are superior.
I really want to S-rank before ME3 is out but I felt a lot more frustrated with playing ME2 on higher difficulties than I did in ME1. (I'm that bloody simulation station away from S-rank in that game by the way, already completed Insanity)

I think it was more frustrating because of your squad AI. They have this weird habit of not staying the eff in cover and you end up wasting med kits just to revive them 

Mainly, I think people just complained about that bit with the floating platforms. I had no problem as a sentinel, but tried on my friend's Vanguard character and got continually wrecked, over and over again.

It's not unbalanced as much as it highlights a lot of the flaws with ME2's shooting. The clunky movement, no ability to dodge or anything like that, no blind fire ability, and my freakin' party members who deign it their only strategy for success is to leap over cover when there's around 4-10 enemies in front of them.

Thought it was easy! Although the things that knock you out of cover into a clunky animation were annoying.

Did I fall into a time warp into early 2010? "Everyone" is one guy who said something online to you, dude, because most people finished this game years ago.

Other than the collector ship, Insanity was cake! And that was only difficult because I didn't have enough squad powers for barriers.

Not IMba in the sense that its too hard, its imba in the sense that the classes are not made equal... for instance my Vanguard sucked... i mean his main strong point was rushing in and doing quick kills, and now thats suicide, so he just becomes useless, might as well be a soldier.

Every other class except for the Soldier will be beaten into a bloody pulp in insanity, I've had many friends that have tried a Vanguard playtrough and had to restart the game. Classes aren't balanced at all. Revenant Machine gun should never top Biotic charge and a Krogan shotgun....also giving the enemies a shield/barrier, armour and then normal health, is BS when it comes to you and your squad having the cover of a weak shield that gets blown off by weapons more powerful than a Reapers laser....why can't I get their guns?

Some of the classes are not very good for insanity runs and certain parts of the game are much harder than the others. Any encounter with the collectors is going to be the hardest part of the game.

I see that my thread was bumped back up today. I finished my insanity playthrough a few days ago. I was a sentinel, and found it reasonably easy, except for a few difficulty spikes, which were absolutely ridiculous. The hardest part though was definitely the Collecter ship. It just gets easier from then on out. Even subsequent collector encounters weren't that bad, because at that point most of my powers were maxed out, allowing me to take down those pesky Harbinger possessed Collectors pretty quickly.

It's ok for most parts, but there are just some parts that are fucking ridiculous BS. The collector ship.... ugh.

Insane is only insane and unbalanced when playing on a New Game plus, with a maxed out character. When starting a new game it's very easy. The only hard part in the game is the collector ship in the middle of the game.

Mainly, I think people just complained about that bit with the floating platforms. I had no problem as a sentinel, but tried on my friend's Vanguard character and got continually wrecked, over and over again.

Not IMba in the sense that its too hard, its imba in the sense that the classes are not made equal... for instance my Vanguard sucked... i mean his main strong point was rushing in and doing quick kills, and now thats suicide, so he just becomes useless, might as well be a soldier.

@Teran said:

@gamefreak9 said:

Not IMba in the sense that its too hard, its imba in the sense that the classes are not made equal... for instance my Vanguard sucked... i mean his main strong point was rushing in and doing quick kills, and now thats suicide, so he just becomes useless, might as well be a soldier.

Balance isn't really achievable in that regard though unless there are no classes or customization. The classes exist to give the player variety, not provide a perfectly balanced experience on the hardest difficulty. I'd also point out that insanity requires players to adapt to a different play style no matter which class they play as. Personally I enjoyed vanguard even though it couldn't be played the way it could on normal. I found myself using charge offensively to flank enemies rather than score quick kills... or defensively for the free shield recharge. Once you unlock assault rifle training (rather than picking up the claymore) the tactical potential of the class expands quite a bit as you now have a great medium to long range weapon for those moments in the game where you can't utilize charge or get very close to the enemy.

Indeed. Having done every class at Insanity multiple times, I definitely feel every class is absolutely viable at Insanity. Hell, two of those were a weaponless Adpept, and a weaponless Engineer - talent-only Insanity runs, and both of them kicked arse. But yes, some classes are more straightforward than others at Insanity. But 'straightforward' isn't an inherent good in my view. For a straightforward Insanity run, you'd be hard-pushed to beat the Mattock-wielding Soldier with Heightened Adrenaline Rush and Stasis. Gets kind of old though. I always prefer really tactical, talent-focused playthroughs, where Shepard and shore-party fight as a well coordinated whole - Adept, Engineer, and Sentinel being my favourite classes.

I don't see that a game should be balanced so that every class is equally challenged - I don't know such a thing would even be possible, frankly. But a game *should* be balanced so that every class (and build therein - no gimped builds!) is viable, and ME2 definitely does that.

@rudeboy217 said:

@MaFoLu said:

" There are a few really frustrating parts, but overall it wasn't the nightmare some people made it out to be. Or maybe I was just anticipating that, and therefore didn't think it was that hard since I was prepared for it to be insane...
"

Collector ship...

Actually I was able to beat it pretty easily after realizing a power I had could kill everything in basically one headshot.

Yeah. This.

I've since beaten Insanity with every class, but my first run was with a Vanguard. And the Collector Ship has a section or two buggy sections whose technical hiccups--while slight--were significant enough to make my Charge-Shotgun strategy somewhat worthless.

Once you go through it once with a Soldier or an Infiltrator, though--two classes seemingly hand tailored to deal with the rigors of Insanity--then you have a better idea of what sort of beast you find yourself pitted against. Obviously, the margin of error is exponentially more slim than, say, the default difficulty (as it rightly should be), but there are a lot of moments where the player is locked in situations they can't necessarily control, situations that more often than not lead to their death. And that's a bit frustrating.

@FreakAche: Insanity is unbalanced when starting a new game plus with a high-level character. I've done it. It's INSANE. Enemies are the same level as you, but there is a bug in the game that wipes every stat upgrade you have bought in the previous playthrough. I succeeded in doing some of the early missions (Archangel, Warlord, Katsumi and the Mercenary). But when I got to Jack's, I couldn't even get past the first encounter. It's batshit crazy. That's why people were saying Insanity was unbalanced. It is so only when starting a game with a high-level character. When starting a brand new game, it's quite easy. The only true hard part is in the middle of the game, when fighting the Collectors in their ship.

EDIT: just noticed I had already replied to the thread a month ago. Ha.

@AuthenticM: Yes. Starting a NEW playthough with a leveled up character makes the enemies the same level as you. It is best to start a new play though with a new character.

Also, I went vanguard which was not smart but at least I had fire/ice ammo and reave and miranda and thane around me.

As Infiltrator class I didn't have any problems with the Collectors at all. In fact, the final mission was super easy compared to a few other parts of the game (I had a terrible time with when you first recruit Garrus lol). But I only got stuck 2-3 times.

@DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

I played a soldier and for me it wasn't that difficult that being said I would NEVER atempt to do it as a Engineer

You are missing out; Engineers own Insanity! Hell, weaponless insanity Engineer was one of the breeze-through-ist and arse-kicking playthroughs I've done.

I played a soldier and for me it wasn't that difficult that being said I would NEVER atempt to do it as a Engineer

Cause popular opinion is that video games shouldn't be hard lately.

@DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

I played a soldier and for me it wasn't that difficult that being said I would NEVER atempt to do it as a Engineer

You are missing out; Engineers own Insanity! Hell, weaponless insanity Engineer was one of the breeze-through-ist and arse-kicking playthroughs I've done.

@DEMONOLOGY_24: @DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

@magimix said:

@DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

I played a soldier and for me it wasn't that difficult that being said I would NEVER atempt to do it as a Engineer

You are missing out; Engineers own Insanity! Hell, weaponless insanity Engineer was one of the breeze-through-ist and arse-kicking playthroughs I've done.

really I might give that a try I just assumed Insanity was more of a guns playthrough

Some of my most enjoyable insanity runs have been talent-focused. Its mostly a matter of having a good understanding of how the various talents affect defended enemies, as well as defenceless ones, and how different talents and squad members synergise. Throw in a dash of smart cooldown management (which also ties into how you pick and use you shore-party), and a decent level of mobility in the field (for the most part, bunkering down will make a fight last as long as it can, as you fight the maximum number of possible enemies), and you'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Insanity was a breeze as a Sentinel.

I make insanity my bitch no matter what class I use.  Like a boss.

My issue with Insanity is that it just isn't fun. I've played Soldier in both ME1, and ME2, and on Insanity I basically spend all my time hiding behind something, micromanaging my team mates powers.

All you have to do is keep running forward. The checkpoints in this game are like every 20 meters, and the checkpoints kill every enemy left alive. So the Collector Ship was nothing but me running constantly, positioning my team to block all of the Husks from hitting me while I hacked the doors.

I should also note that I found that out on accident, as my party died and I was low on ammo so I said "Screw it!" and got the hell out of there, and by the time I stopped, they were all dead. I was like HELL YEAH. 40 minutes of fighting reduced to 10 seconds of running.

My insanity run through was with Vangaurd class and it was a pain in the ass until I got the Sniper Rifle upgrade. As soon as I got that the rest of the game was a breeze. My main problem with insanity as a Vangaurd is that your special ability is pretty much useless.

I wouldn't say Insanity is challenging, just boring. In ME1 Insanity was just about holding the trigger down with the assault rifle until your enemy used up all their immunity powers and died. In fact the most challenging part was making sure your hand didn't go numb from all the controller vibration. In ME2 it's a little more engaging but with regenerating health it turns into a game of hiding behind cover for a very long time and occasionally shooting (Health regeneration in ME2 works on a curved scale: the more damage you take, the longer you have to wait for it to regenerate. If you get knocked down to a sliver of health, you'll literally have to wait 20 seconds for it to regenerate.). Instead of being frantic and fun, the combat on insanity just feels like going through the motions until it's over.