I mean, there really is a reason though. "Dad" chooses to save your life, and since he knows he's going to die he transfers all the SAM stuff he has control of over to you. If it had been Cora right next to him he probably would have passed the title on to her. Of course, that wouldn't really work from a narrative perspective sooooooooooooooooooo..

 

I mean yes, but also, it's just dumb. I'd have much rather just played as Alec Ryder, or had the PC Ryder been the original Pathfinder. Would have been significantly more satisfying and sensible in my eyes.

 

Went to buy my copy today, and the assistant told me they'd been authorised to sell it on Tuesday, but not to advertise it - which I wouldn't have minded, but I actually went in on the off chance that they were selling it early, but didn't actually ask anyone!

 

That's really fuckin' weird.

 

Played a few more hours. Finished up the main part on Eos, not sure what else there is to do there. Most glaring thing is just an echo of what everyone has said. The facial expressions really are terrible. It doesn't detract from the game, but I've found myself often getting distracted by how bad they are. No sense in beating a dead horse, but it is kind of a shame since the rest of the game is quite pleasing to look out. Most of the aliens are find as well. VA is hit or miss as well - SAM is quite bad imo.

Anyways, finished up the underground stuff on Eos. Not really much to say about it, other than the whole thing is giving me both Destiny and Halo vibes. I guess you can say it's hard to avoid that sort of thing, but I never really got that type of feeling with the previous MEs. Plot itself is fine. Everything around the Nexus seems completely contrived like a bunch of people have said so far, but the stuff on Eos is fine. Generic, and serviceable. Which is fine, because it gives the gameplay time to shine, and the gameplay is pretty good.

The vehicle we can drive is pretty great too. Mako was always shit, but this one actually does what you need it to do. Haven't figured out the mining for it yet though. Actually haven't figured out the mining from the spaceship yet either. I went into scan mode and nothing seemed to really happen? I'm not sure.

 

Mining from the spaceship is pretty easy. If you get to a planet and scanning shows nothing, it means there is literally nothing on the planet. If there is something, Suzi will tell you and you will see an arrow on your circle when scanning.

For the Nomad, you just have to go somewhere the Nomad says is rich in resources and then you have to do the whole driving around until the minirels are highest and then just dropa mining thing.

 

I am really struggling to beat the architect.
Like shit. Run to reload and get gimped by the turret.

My annihilation+charge+lance build is so shit. I've got a few points in infest to help, but goddamn this is difficult.

Wish I had more time to play to try to kill this thing.

 

You just gotta build for multiple favorites, and not use cover.

Seriously, don't use cover. You can basically avoid all the Architect attacks by strafing, and use the ammo boxes strategically. You honestly don't even need tech or biotics to kill it.

Also, 57 hours played, probably 51 of those are in SP. 36% completion last I checked and I'm going for 100%. I'm loving every second of it, but this is gonna be a long haul.

For those of you currently playing through the game, who're you deciding to romance? I'm playing a male Ryder and Peebee is my romantic interest. Apparently there's such a thing as love triangles and shit but I'm not sure if I wanna go near that during my first playthrough.

 

I'm always hesitant about which romance to pick, because I like to play sort of in character, and in character, most protagonists don't have any fucking time for romance, especially frilly or goofy ones. In Dragon Age Origins, you're trying to save your country from violation by monsters, in Mass Effect, universal sapient genocide. Not exactly atmospheres for conventional romance.

In the original ME I was a big fan of the Samara and Thane romances, because they were so understated and mature. Both are lifelong soldiers who deal with darkness on a regular basis, just like Shepard, so there's the empathy. The other ones always felt too histrionic for someone who's trying to save the entire galaxy. They also fit the tone of the story.

(Was still low key disappointed Dr Michel wasn't a romance option in ME3, because damn, that French accent.)

 

Personally, I've never liked romances in any video game cause they always felt like smutty fanfiction with self-insertions.

That said, I did romance Suzi and 'accidentally' slept with Peebee.

 

You can't avoid the turret by strafing can you?

That's what is generally getting me, or dodging sideways into cover and getting clipped, and dying in the 1 second I have to move out of the electric cage. My biggest issue is that my build does very little damage to bosses. Like 0.

 

You can dodge the turret by strafing. It's how I usually deal with architects.

That said, the turret has a solid like 3 second windup that you can use to find cover until it's over as well.

 

So, I'm finally playing...

Biotic echoes is hilariously awesome.

My current build is Force lift, Backlash and Lance. Do you guys recommend maxing your three skills first, or just one of them plus a passive, or get a nice variety built up for different scenarios.

I mean, I'm playing on normal, so I doubt it matters much. Also, since normal, I'm thinking of dumping the Backlash shield for energy drain for anti-energy plus a tech bomb primer.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about what abilities to skill up tbh. I'm playing insanity and I more or less just maxed Singularity first and everything else kind of as I felt I wanted them. I would say to skill something that takes care of shields though. Most techs get someway to deal with shields early and biotics kind of get them later on. Or you could just skill up guns and take care of them that way.

Also, I generally tend to stay on Explorer profile just because blinking through cover is badass.

 

I just focused on my primarily build first, which is shotguns + charge + annihilation + flamethrower with a vanguard profile. Then I started spreading points around once all those were rank 6. Currently adding points to sniper rifles and invasion for hilarity.

On normal though, it really doesn't matter. It's what I'm playing on too, and you're pretty much invincible. As long as you don't go full mouth-breather, it's not really a concern.

What squadmates are people running with by the way? I've been teaming up with Drack, because you always gotta run with the Krogran squaddie, and Vetra because she's awesome. What's everyone else using?

 

Just finished Eos, and I'm really enjoying it so far. I didn't bother with character customisation, just flipped a coin for brother or sister (and ended up with brother) and cracked on. I've put slightly more focus into tech and combat than anything else, but it's still early days on that front, and I've mostly used Cora and Vetra so far.

Things I've loved:
The gameplay - it feels a lot smoother and more fun than previous installments. The jump jets work really well, although they're not quite as cool as the profiles which replace them with biotics.
The graphics - a few issues aside, it looks wonderful. The galaxy map is a particular stand out, simply because it's so different to the previous versions.
The bigger focus on exploration. I really missed the random planets in 2 and 3, however bad the Mako was to drive (I always quite enjoyed it, but hey ho). Obviously, only really looked at two planets so far, but it's been really fun barrelling around them and seeing what I can find.

Spoiler

The Remnant Vault. Holy shit it's gorgeous.

Things I'm still deciding on:
The new cover system - it's getting better as I get used to it, but it still seems quite easy to slip out of it accidentally, leading to all manner of pain.
The reduced squad management. On the one hand, I didn't use it that much in the trilogy, beyond the occasional helping hand for tougher enemies. On the other hand, it's nice to have the option, you know? Worse is the fact that - as far as I can see - you can't change their weapons. I'd have been fine with them having limitations on what they could use, like just pistols or shotguns or something, but just that one weapon all game?
The Nomad. It's definitely better than the Mako, but it still seems to have a tendency to get stuck on rocks. Although that might just be my driving.
The plot.

Spoiler

Ok, I've barely scratched the surface, but it's not that riveting so far, and there's a serious lack of emotional content - I might only be a few hours in, but my dad's dead and my sister's in a medically induced coma, so it'd be nice to see a bit more emoting.

Things I don't like:
There are some wonky animations, and a couple of minor glitches (Liam and Cora slowly rising up out of the floor to use a door, and Cora and Vetra exiting the Nomad by dropping ten feet out of the sky above it), but it's more on the level of smirk-inducing than truly off-putting.
Some very clunky dialogue. Looking at you, Foster Addison, although she's far from the only culprit.
EDIT: Oh, and apparently I can't romance Dr Lexi. Don't put Natalie Dormer in a game and make her un-romanceable!

 

So I switched to infiltrator profile for increased damage to weakpoints, which really helped out vs the architect. The other thing that was surprisingly helpful was the stealth-strafe.

Right now I've maxed out annihilation and biotic containment which gives me a bonus to my aoe radius. The whole thing takes up like half a room. Then I use my shields to chuck lances (upgraded to cost me half my shields) and dying enemies reload my shields. Plus I have my charge to dart around reloading it more. Plus I have an asari sword which gives me invulnerability during blinks and reloads my shield from the vanguard profile.

I can tank the minigun khett on insanity.

 

If the thing I liked most about ME3 was jumping around the battlefield with Biotic Charge and shield Novaing everyone, will I like the combat in this one?

 

Those things are still in the game. I personally didn't play that way. There are gifs of what you are describing (somewhat).

There's also this which is badass.

Anyway, I finally finished the game. Overall, a pretty solid Mass Effect game. It's Mass Effect 1 but better imo. It's generally a lot more lighthearted and some of the responses Ryder says give me a very strong Malcolm Reynolds vibe.

For the most part, I liked the mysteries that the game presented and I feel that they resolved enough of the mysteries to leave me satisfied and wanting for more on some of the other stuff they left open ended.

The Kett are kind of boring at the start and just come off as really boring alien enemies but later on, they kind of have their Sovereign moment though it isn't hyper focused on one conversation but throughout an entire mission.

The character missions I think are some of the highlights of the game. Liam's character missions is especially great and Peebee's is probably the worst if you don't do them in conjunction to other missions on the planet. If you plan on doing her missions, I would really suggest not leaving it all to one moment if only because of the travelling between planets. The absolute best mission in the game is the Movie Night mission, the character interactions are just fun.

Which leads onto my favorite aspect of the game, the crew. To answer what Agayek was asking earlier, I never stuck to any two. I kept changing which characters I took with me (Except Peebee because she is useless in combat wtf) because I liked them. The crew is honestly my favorite of all Mass Effects, and I love how it feels like the crew is friends with each other. Jaal and Liam have this bromance going on which is fun to watch, Suzi and Kallo are best friends and have moments where they interrupt conversations you have with the other, Drack and Vetra have this weird dynamic going on. There's even the whole Peebee and Lexi thing where Peebee is distrustful of doctors and later on you see how it affects Lexi. All sorts of conversations happen on the ship too and they are fun to listen to. It just feels like a tight knit group and you're the Malcolm Reynolds of the Tempest.

 

Uh yeah I think so.

You can no longer carry a pistol and get 200% cooldown reduction. But rank 6 of charge gives it 75% reduced cd, (see gify above for rough idea of timing) and nova doesn't have to use shields, but it can be upgraded to do so at rank 6. At level 20 I had 90 points to place and it takes 21 pts to max a skill, and I hit level 20 before finishing the second planet.

The early levels are pretty boring shoot and scoot but you have the jumpjets from lvl 1 with like a .5 sec cd. Just in general the game feels like every class can play like a vanguard because of how mobile you can get.