I'm in the group of people that think ME1 is the best in the series and best playing. I did play it on PC so that could have affected my experience. The way I played ME1 is might as well been a turn based RPG and I loved every minute of it like I did Dragon Age 1. I will also admit I only played as infiltrator and Adept in my playthroughs. I can imagine the other classes would be way less fun and soldier would just be absolutely abysmal to play.

My thoughts on the rest of the series is ME2 is the worst one and is absolutely skippable. It's a middling cover based shooter with pretty much zero rpg elements. (You get to pick from 2 abilities at a highly controlled rate and they are usually the same just more effective against one enemy type or another. yawn.) The story of ME2 is basically self contained and has absolutely no effect on the greater arc of the trilogy. Really going to to ME3 all that ME2 provides is some context on character developments for the returning Mass Effect 1 crew. Explains why your ship now talks and let's you know who those people are when the ME2 exclusive cast makes the briefest of cameos.

Mass Effect 3 is alright. It concludes some thing satisfactorily and others not. It's also a middling cover based shooter with rpg elements.

Mass Effect is an imperfect game. The combat was ok if you played KOTOR, but the technical shortcomings were disappointing and there are some straight up dull sections in there. The last few hours are incredible, though, and the game's necessary to play if you want to experience my favorite new franchise of last gen.

ME 2 improves on a lot of things while taking steps back in others, but I liked it a whole lot more. So you have that to look forward to (considering some people call it the best in the series).

And Mass Effect 3? My favorite game on the 360. And that's before the extended cut or DLC.

So I disagree with most of the stuff you're saying, but these two are just so blatantly false that they could have been part of Trump's upcoming inauguration speech.

2. First off, I thought the opening was great, and it was emotional in a dark way that Mass Effect doesn't often get. The enjoyment of it is however subjective, so if you didn't like it, that's fine. But man, they totally tell you how you ended up in that situation. Even if you didn't play ME2's fantastic Arrival DLC, you should have no problem figuring out why Shepard is in detention, as it is blasted out pretty clearly within the first five minutes.

5. The omni-blade is never, I repeat never, introduced as a stealth weapon, and neither are any other comparable abilities. It's a way to get a stronger melee attack, as well as drag people over cover and kill them.

How can you even list five things you disliked about ME3, and don't include those insanely bad no-journal side quests or the levels that are literally multiplayer levels? Don't be lazy dude.

Oh, don't worry, even in 2007 I remember thinking that the actual gameplay in Mass Effect 1 was pretty bad. It's not tactically interesting or mechanically deep enough to be a great RPG, and the shooting is too clunky and awkward to be a great action game... traits that I imagine have only become worse with the ravages of time. To be fair, given the way I've soured a little on Bioware's style of writing in the last few years, it wouldn't surprise me if I found Mass Effect 2 to be worse than I remember it, though at the very least it's a middling cover shooter pretending to be a RPG instead of a middling RPG pretending to be a cover shooter.

Maybe because it has been a while and I played on PC, but I never found the combat to be bad, not great, but not something that made me quit either. Make sure you equip mods that decrease the overheating of the weapon.

Holy carp. I expected ~2 replies to this, and now, on return to the thread, have a mountain to sift through!

Thank you to everyone for offering up your perspectives (both good and bad) on the game, historical context, and gameplay suggestions. Every post made for a great read. I think I underestimated how passionate fans and detractors of the trilogy can be--both sides of the argument are equally valid.

I've been playing on normal. As @justin258 and @l33t_haxor have recommended, I'll likely give it another shot on easy, and see if this strips away a lot of the thorns I've encountered during gameplay.

To @thegame983: Hours have often been lost in the Mako. On one of my first deployments, I distinctly recall driving out of a tunnel, and my wheel being about a tenth of its width off the elevated road. The restart screen popped up unannounced, and I realised that the insufferable, almost invisible instant-death larva must've claimed me. Incidentally, this occurred about ten minutes after I had attempted to manually save in a preceding tunnel, but saw the option greyed out. Rinse repeat similar scenarios. I'm accustomed to predictable, frequent autosaves nowadays, and ME1's inconsistent, antiquated system is a trial to get on top of. Dying at points I didn't anticipate on dying at has also been partially to blame (one-shotted by a sniper whilst grappling with the unreliable cover system, in one instance).

To @rebel_scum: I've finished the prologue, the first Citadel visit, Asteroid X57, Therum to rescue Liara(sp?), and explored a planet I've forgotten the name of that was nearby. Now I'm on Feros, and put the controller down at the point the Krogans started charging at me in the tunnels/sewers, which, for lack of a more accurate term, was something of a clusterfuck. It's taken me a long time to make it to this point as I exhaust every narrative choice available to me.

To @doctorchimp: I'm playing as Adept, unfortunately! I restarted to do just this. I'm definitely having an easier time of it, comparatively speaking, but some combat encounters (see above) are still a monstrous, ungainly struggle.

To @oursin_360: Don't worry! I skipped past anything that I thought might be a potential spoiler.

To @geraltitude: My most recent completion was the first Metal Gear Solid, which I love unequivocally. So, not exactly ancient, but certainly somewhat older than ME1. I started gaming in 1997 with the PSX, so you could say I've seen a few.

As others have alluded to, PC is likely the best platform to experience the game on, but I lack a gaming PC. Alas!

I'm fond of the strategic, RPG elements to the combat--I enjoy the micromanagement, but it feels somewhat redundant manually deploying ally powers, as I experienced as much, or at least equal success (and less hassle) letting the AI act autonomously. Strategic movement instructions to my landing party were also often ignored, which again caused difficulties.

Thanks to all for the input.

ME1 gameplay wasn't stellar even back then, as much as I enjoy spamming as many abilities as possible as a Sentinel and then just bum rush with guns. The world building in ME1 is good, but that's about it. The set up is interesting, there is a few good story beats, but it also stumbles a lot, pacing is an issue as expected for a somewhat non linear game. The often heard criticism about ME3 being this "the world is burning, yet here I am looking for trinkets for some NPCs I overheard" is also apt for ME1, perhaps to a slightly lesser extend.

ME2 is a character story game, the world is already set, but you aren't ready to resolve the conflict. I can definitely see why people might find that lacking, but I find the focus on character refreshing and quite frankly more interesting than the actual world and conflict, so I like it best despite it technically didn't go anywhere.

Also fuck film grain.

Yes, full agreement that you should play on easy. Also, be sure to use any weapon mods that help with accuracy or recoil. It's a really stupid way of designing combat, but you won't have to worry about it after this game. The upgrade for combat from the first Mass Effect to its sequel is insane.

luckily Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games ever made so just power through the first one

I went through all of them again in 2015 since EA said what seemed to be definitive, that there were not going to be remasters of the trilogy. I didn't originally get a handful of the DLC but was hoping and waiting for a remaster so I could finally play them again. Since that didn't happen, I went ahead and purchased all of the DLC that I didn't get, which cost almost exactly as much as a full retail game, and while I loved going back through all of them again with the additional content, my feelings of it didn't change other than thinking that the ME3 ending wasn't as bad since it gave me the closure that I didn't know I would be satisfied with. When I originally played the first Mass Effect, I didn't care for it. It was pretty average an experience to me, but since two and three exist, it forced me to play the first again, and again, and again, and again. I've played through the first ME multiple times, and in the end, I like it a lot, and the last time I played it it was the best experience I've had with it ever. That said, the gameplay has always been the worst to me, and I would much prefer that if they remaster it, the combat at least is akin to ME3. I don't necessarily dislike the shooting, but the animations are pretty stiff, be it how Shepard shifts his body as he holds a gun, or how he gets into cover.

@newfangled: You've had a couple of suggestions to play as Adept. I actually feel like Vanguard is the way to go, especially on Easy. Shotguns in the original Mass Effect were hilariously useful, even at range.

This. Haven't played the PSN version but I can't imagine it would be the best version. Personally I thought that the changes they made to the combat in ME2 made it worse (definitely subjective, I can understand why some / most would prefer the more streamlined approach to it).

I literally just beat ME1 again on PS3 and outside of its God awful save system, I found it pretty tolerable. But man does its autosave system suck on consoles.

@soimadeanaccount said:

I HEARTILY DISAGREE, GOOD SIR.

@inevpatoria provides a class-based alternative, if all the recommendations elsewhere in this thread fall flat. It's definitely last-gasp considering I'm already 20hrs+ deep including restarts, but an obliterative slugger Vanguard might be the answer in a subsequent playthrough.

This level of acclaim--plus the touted improvements to combat in subsequent instalments--are the only reasons I'm considering firing the first game back up and dropping it down to easy difficulty. I hate the thought of brute-forcing my way through a significant quantity of ME1, but, in retrospect, it may very well be worth it.

Again, the level of engagement here is very much appreciated. I'll most likely dip back in later due to all the comments made above.

Yeah, the gameplay was really disappointing back in the day don't worry.

I played mass effect 2 when it was new and thought it was one of the best games I'd ever played(Uncharted had been my only exposure to modern tps'es at the time so the whole cover shooting thing was still novel to me) . 2 Years ago I got the trilogy on ps3 and wanted to play through all of them.

First I played mass effect 1 and I loved it to pieces despite the not super well thought out rpg mechanics. Also loved exploring the largely empty plannets by mako. I thought: Man playing mass effect 2 again is gonna be awesome!

Finished 1, went to 2 and then....... I just suddenly couldn't care less about 2 . It certainly felt and looked better technically but after a few hours I just got really sick of the shooting. Didnt finish it.

Tried 3 for a bit and that seemed even less what I was looking for from the short amount time I spent with it (Also why did they take out the button to sheath your gun wtf.) And then I went back to Mass effect 1 :P

I really liked the vibes of the locations and the visual design throughout the series from what I've seen but, in most cases , I personally would rather have a 'unique weird kinda bad rpg' than the umpteenth polished but avarage coverbased tps to play through.

Its funny how some people say its hard to go back to ME1 after the newer ones like thats a cold-hard fact as its been the exact opposite for me. Tastes do differ :)

On a last note: I totally agree with geralditude about meeting a game halfway, I've noticed that that is something a lot of people sadly dont seem to do (it seems so detrimental to the conversation to me).

*Oh fuck im late for work now, excuse any leftover nonsensical sentences.*

I just finished the whole trilogy again and the series in my opinion definitely feels pretty dated in the shooting department. I get it that these came out when over the shoulder cover shooters were really popular and all that, but it feels so fucking bland even all the way up to Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect as a series is pretty lucky for being known for its likable characters and somewhat interesting story, because if it didn't have that, Bioware certainly would not be making a 4th one right now.

Mass Effect 1 to me feels like a fluke in terms of success. I remember when this game was coming out that Microsoft was promoting the absolute shit out of it since it was one of their exclusives at the time. The trailers and sneak peeks really tried to sell it as being the definitive science fiction cinematic experience and fantasy-fulfillment. Reviewers seemed to conveniently forgot to mention all of the bland environments and hallways that look the same. How slow the shooting felt. The horrendous exploration and side quests that felt like they were tacked on. How poorly it ran on the 360. Plus just how dated the game felt in terms of no auto-saving or checkpoints.

To put it in perspective, Gears of War 1 had already been out for a year, Halo 3 had been out for a few months already, and Modern Warfare 1 had been out for a couple weeks... yet this was so successful that they made a 2nd one... Looking back it just seems so odd that a game as dysfunctional as Mass Effect 1 actually got 9s across the board when there were far superior titles, that for better or worse, modernized the industry and had more impact. The even more cynical part of me thinks that the only reason why it was successful and known was because of the sex scenes.

My bad with the spoilers, I went back and spoiler tagged the bit where I described what the final boss fight is like and gave the proper name of a mission rather than a description of what happens in it.

I played as an adept too. Like pyrodactyl said, I did think it gets more fun later. During the final mission of ME I could just spam abilities everywhere and it was pretty fun. It's a big difference from the early game, which is mostly dull pistol shooting.

I feel like the setting helped. I'm not a fan of the genre, but big space opera games aren't exactly common. You'll hear guys like Jeff or Dan talk about how they don't give a shit about fantasy from time to time, for instance. Or people going "Sci fi is better than fantasy, because it could actually happen". So as an RPG, which are mostly fantasy, it's unusual and can appeal to a different crowd. And even then Mass Effect 1 is very focused on careful world building, complete with a codex, which is much more Star Trek-y than something like Gears or Halo. Even if I think playing the game is an absolute chore most of the time, it did do something fairly unique. Sex sells, but only to a certain extent. Senran Kagura Estival Versus hasn't become the world's biggest game just because it's got boobs in it. If anything, one of the most common complaints I heard about the Witcher series until 3 was how it used sexual content.

@whitestripes09: i think you will find alot of players that dont care at all about the games you mentioned. Its like saying How can witcher 3 get 9s all over in the year of clickers.

It has its flaws for sure but I prefer it to ME2 and ME3. To me it's the only real RPG of the bunch. 2 and 3 are nothing but Halo in space with a mix of Gears cover shooting and something that resembles a skill tree.

It's the best RPG in the series by a long way, and the worst action game in the series by a long way.

I came to Mass Effect as a successor to KOTOR, not as a Gears clone, and that's why it's my favourite in the series.

lol

Yeah... no. It was unheard of at that time to have an RPG-shooter that worked. Period. They approached it as an RPG when creating it (hence the dice-roll combat) and critics and players also approached it as an RPG when playing it. Was it great gameplay at that time? No, of course not. But it was much easier to forgive bad combat in a game like that at that time. You wouldn't compare this game to Gears of War or Halo. No one conveniently forgot about anything. Empty hallways were just incredibly normal for a game like that at that time. It's like saying GTAIII was complete trash compared to V. Yeah, I guess? That doesn't mean III was trash when it came out.

You think Mass Effect did not have impact? It did not modernize the industry? Why don't you research how many games had dialogue wheels and choice before ME came out and after. I think you'd be surprised: that's completely Mass Effect influence. Ingame codexes? Mass Effect influence. If you want to talk about conveniently forgetting things, it seems like you're forgetting every part that made Mass Effect great. Also, it's a crazy notion that anyone even bought this game because of sex scenes, even crazier because there aren't any in the game. I would call that more than being cynical. I'd call that nonsensical.

@newfangled: When you're in the Mako you can sometimes be in the presence of enemies which is why saving is greyed out. It's best to get out of the Mako, wait for your squad mates to give you the all clear then you can save. You also can't save inside elevators. Other than that I don't recall any other instances where saving is greyed out. Hope this helps.

I'm replaying the first one on PC and I'm having a blast, specifically because I unlocked all weapon specialisations through the PC console so my Sentinel Shepard didn't have to be stuck with a dumb handgun. I also unlocked full Paragon and Renegade so I can actually choose the response I feel fits my Shepard rather than play the morality game just so I can unlock late game decisions.

Mass Effect 1 is perfect and the sequel is an abomination.

@probablytuna: I'm more or less doing the same thing. What gender is your Shepard?

@probablytuna I guessed that enemies in the vicinity of the player might be to blame for the disabled save option whilst I was in a Mako section, but if this holds true for on-foot sections (like the tunnels on Feros where I stopped playing), the system must take some serious liberties by what it terms 'presence'! Thank you for alerting me to the audio cues from the NPCs--I'll bear that in mind whilst I'm playing, and interpret such dialogue as code for "save the game".

Many thanks for the accuracy/recoil modifiers tip. As I'm playing as Adept, I've switched my pistol's items accordingly. Game is now set to easy (casual), and aim assist to normal. I'm not certain about how best I should manage squad power usage, or whether I should be switching my party's weapon category in combat more regularly, so I've set the former option to 'defense only' for now.

@newfangled: By tunnels on Feros do you mean the ones on the bridge between the "skyscrapers like the one below? I'm not sure exactly why, maybe there's an enemy stuck in geometry you can't kill? I think this happened to me once exactly in those tunnels shown in the screenshot. Or maybe that entire sequence is considered a combat zone so you can't save until you exit.

@zevvion: I'm doing a FemShep run since I already did a complete male Shepard playthrough when I first started the series. I'm also thinking of switching over to Vanguard when I start ME2 because I don't wanna be stuck with SMGs and pistols as a Sentinel. Unless there's a way to hack weapon specialisation like in ME1. How survivable is Vanguard on Insanity?

@probablytuna: There will be several enemies in two of those tunnels I'm pretty sure, not allowing you to save until you kill them.

Vanguard is great. It is the best class, because they are the awesomest. They are not as survivable as Infiltrators though. Their survivability depends a lot more on you killing things before they kill you, rather than actual defense. The biotic barrier you get from biotic charge only increases your life long enough to get more kills. It is a playstyle change if you are used to Infiltrator. But it is a lot of fun. Especially in ME3 because of the addition of the shield nova and combat roll. Not to mention the insane combo's you can make with your squad.

@zevvion: I never played Infiltrator, although I did use a sniper throughout most of my first playthrough with the soldier class. After hearing you gush about Vanguard I'm tempted to try it! It'll definitely be a drastic change of playstyle compared to what I'm doing now. Really looking forward to finishing ME1 then start ME2 in time for its seventh anniversary. Holy shit this series is almost ten years old now.

The combat is the same broken mess in all the Mass Effect games. Nothing really changed between them.

Way too long to type how wrong you are, but man that's wrong. The difference between ME and ME2 is night and day and the difference to 3 made it actually a game you wanted to play instead of just experience.

@probablytuna To be fair, I'm hyping up Vanguard a tiny bit. But they are totally the best that the best people use in the best situations at the best times because they are the best. Vanguard is the best best best best best best.

I'm a big fan of the series but If I'm honest, the mechanics of all 3 games are a little on the garbage side.

Although they do incrementally improve from the 1st one, in terms of tone and mood, 1 is a great narrative entry point.

I just started another playthrough of ME1 recently. I've played the first like, 5 times? but it's been awhile. The game definitely feels tedious today but I haven't decided if that's because I played it so much or because it truly didn't age well. I can see someone coming to it for the first time nowadays and really disliking it but man, that game is an all time favorite for me.

I can admit that ME2 (and even 3) are just better games, but ME1 is by far my favorite.

To @probablytuna: Nice screenshot! The tunnels I was referencing had you turning on water valves--not too far before the section in the image, which I've just Mako-d through (almost missing the tunnels you helpfully circled in the process). Easy made the Krogan protecting the Geth beacon in said tunnels as soft as dough, so that's ancient history now. Your tip about listening out for the dialogue hinting at saveable states has helped. Incidentally, I'm playing FemShep, too.

Two huge differences I've noticed already (although I reserve the right to retract this statement once I'm unexpectedly confronted with the next horde of enemies): turning aim assist to normal (previously at low), and fortunately/inevitably encountering a massive haul of weapon and armour upgrades during the past half-hour seem to have made a significant difference to my efficiency. I've bumped the difficulty back up to normal, but won't hesitate to ease it up again if combat hassles resurface. I switched out Tali for Garrus, too. Again, I may well be proven wrong in short order, but I could have been underpowered. That, in conjunction with poor aim, may have enhanced the game's deficiencies.

Just finished my ME1 run a few days ago, and Mass Effect 1 and 2 are totally inverse ways of universe building; ME1 is all about the overarching story beats and ME2 is all about character development.

I played through ME1 with my brother-in-law who is 17, and he loved it. Obviously very rough around the edges, and that save system can fuck right off, but still held up really well.

Starting to play through ME2 and man, the combat feels miles better. I do miss weapon stats, i find it totally crazy that there aren't stats for your weapons in ME2.

@newfangled: Ahh ok I know where you're referring to now. Yeah the audio cue helps immensely since it means I can focus on exploring and find loot crates. If you haven't already, I'd suggest choosing squadmates that have high electronics and/or decryption skills so you don't miss out on loot locked in crates. Then again loot is pretty easy to come by, and no doubt you'll get better upgrades the further you progress.

Since you're playing an Adept, remember always use your biotic powers. Powers like Lift and Stasis make combat much more manageable when you can incapacitate harder enemies and pick off the weaker ones first.

Boy, something broke BIG TIME on Feros. My AI party stopped following me, no matter what tactics I employed and commands I issued. They left me to fend for myself in battles. I made it to the Thorian's den despite this, only to be confronted by health bars on the Thorian neural nodes that looked exactly like the door operation mini-game to decapitate the Geth ship earlier in the level, right down to the interface (font work, markers on the health bar to indicate the correct 'pressure'). I wish I had taken a screenshot. I died, reloaded, the scripting fixed itself, the health bars on the neural nodes, and even their individual HP changed!

This is a weird, weird, broken, but highly entertaining game.

@probablytuna: I've been min-maxing a fair bit with respect for each character's specialities (e.g. shovelling upgrade points into electronics for Garrus). Probably didn't help my early game.

If you keep dying and losing progress, knock down the difficulty

It wasn't that long ago that I played ME1 (ME3 was out) and I loved it's combat system. It felt like a proper RPG in the same veins as KOTOR was but with a little bit of action.

I remember in one of the boss fights I'd got to grips with the system enough to just silence the boss, drop their shields and make them fly through the air in the space of a second through a coordinated attack.

ME2 streamlines it more in the way of a third person shooter but I'll always have a special place and love ME1's system.

Well the game is about a decade old at this point so yeah controls have evolved and games generally run better/faster. For it's time the game was incredibly ambitious and delivered on a lot of what it tried to do. But it was absolutely an RPG that evolved into a 3rd person shooter with rpg elements in the 2nd and 3rd installment. If you are expecting a shooter when playing ME1 you're going to have a bad time.

@newfangled: I didn't have any issue with the Thorian, but when I tried to pacify the mind-controlled settlers I ran into some issues. You know that prefab house or whatever that hides the entrance to the Thorian? One of the villagers got stuck inside/underneath it, with their leg sticking out through the side. The game wouldn't let me progress(lift the house) until I shot them in the leg so they died, which is a pretty bad way to go, considering the rest of them only got hit with those sleep/anti-Thorian grenades.

@newfangled said:

Just brace yourself to be slightly disappointed. The GB community has hyped ME2 to the high heavens. It's not a bad game by any stretch, but it has its own share of problems. They just happen to be different problems compared to ME1. One of those is the fact that the weapon selection is tiny (just 1-2 of each type), especially without DLC.

That said, I've noticed with my replays of ME1 that there is a huge difficulty cliff, that once you scale makes the game way easier as any class. I've actually developed a specific playthrough order because of it. What I always do is rush my weapon skill, since that determines your gun's spread and accuracy, and then focus on getting high damage resistance armor and heat and recoil reduction weapon mods. The Hahne-Kedar Mantis/Predator/Scorpion/Ursa armor is the best early-game armor, and you eventually want everyone in Colossus (except maybe Rex, Krogan get several special armors). I've even save scummed to reset merchant inventory, good armor is that important to your survivability. Don't focus too much on the shield stat, several attacks and DoT bypass shields. Be sure to look at the wiki and see which vendors are even capable of selling which armors, and you'll want to buy out the Normandy quartermaster periodically to reset his inventory as well.

But just to show how fragmented opinion is of these games - I actually greatly prefer the system in ME2. Sure, there were fewer weapons, but they were more meaningful when you got them. Each one actually behaved differently, as opposed to the first game's "this is basically the same assault rifle, but it does 2 more DPS." Plus, ME2 was really about the research upgrades for the weapon types rather than the weapons themselves, which I thought was a far better and more manageable system than having to sort through pages of junk weapons like in ME1.

Mass Effect's story is great, but honestly you can experience 90% of that through youtube videos and stuff. I totally wish there was a Tell Tale version of Mass Effect 1 that I could play as the actual gameplay and mechanics of ME1 are terrible.

While I see your point, remember also that classes are locked into only the weapons they're proficient in in ME2. Adepts for example only get the horrible M4-Shuriken SMG for half the game, and the M-9 Tempest isn't much better at even medium range. The low spread M-12 Locust is in the Kasumi DLC. The weapons are also locked to specific story beats, with no chance to get a much needed upgrade earlier. Compare that to ME3's wide selection of guns that all still manage to feel different.

I can still go back to that game because I know it's an evolution of KOTOR. Mass Effect is a turned based RPG first, third person shooter second. I love the first Mass Effect because of that; it was a really novel idea at the time. And while the shooting doesn't really cut it with all the third person shooters these days, I still enjoy the RPG elements of the first game. And the Mako was fun too!

I like Mass Effect 1 for what it set up, but I agree that the game is difficult to enjoy the way I once did back in the day. I don't need Bioware to overhaul the first game to make a trilogy though; I just want a trilogy package with all the DLC from all 3 games included.

Oh man, that's a bummer. I ran out of grenades (despite restocking in the village) and had to shoot three civilians. Bad times. I ran around like a headless chicken desperately looking for more grenades, but had no luck.

To @freedom4556: I've powered the console down for the night so I can't cross-reference how I've specced so far compared to your advice, but, if my memory serves me correctly, I think I've leant on shield perks a little too much for your taste. I'll bear your thoughts in mind going forward, and won't overemphasise shielding. Normal difficulty seems quite reasonable now (or perhaps the latter encounters on Feros were just straightforward affairs and I've been lucky with loot). I've hardly bought anything from vendors so far, bar a weapon here and there, but have sold a whole lot of junk to clear my inventory. I think I have over 100k in credits after Feros.

Ultimately though, thanks to the advice and encouragement in this thread, I'd say I'm in a position to see the game out. I'm also appreciative of those who have sought to both temper and bolster my enthusiasm for MEs 2 & 3.