Help me play the Mass Effect series

Absolutely, only do as much exploration as seems fun to you. I'm with Hammett, the exploration of the first game was a huge draw to me. I loved the wide open spaces and didn't mind that a lot of it was kind of empty and samey - that actually added to the realism to me, though of course not everyone is into that kind of realism. I really missed all that in the second two games. But then again, I thought the ending of ME3 was fine so my opinion is probably suspect.

I love them in TES games as well, but that's not so much how it plays out in Mass Effect. Here, you aren't so much hiding from enemies - though cloak is useful for giving you a breather if your shields get beaten down - but really, cloak is more used so that you can position yourself on an undefended flank to get clear shots at enemies who don't know you're there, and then as a damage multiplier, because you get multiplicative damage bonuses to your headshots by performing them from an Assassin Cloak. (one of two evolutions of the cloaking power). Infiltrators also slow time very briefly when they first raise the scope to their eye, which is helpful for lining up headshots - though I find it fucks me up in ME3, because the stupid autoaim tries to yank me to something other than exactly where I was aiming. Sniping should NEVER have autoaim assistance, damn it.

I love the Mass Effect series, lemme just put that out there right now.
That said, i couldn't get through the first one because I was playing it on console and the Citadel is just too big for me to slowly jog through. TOO BIG.
The second one, though, I played religiously and ended up purchasing twice; once for the 360 and once for the PS3. Hmmm.
- Go through all of the loyalty missions, otherwise...well, just go through all of the loyalty missions.
- The more sidequests you do in ME1 and 2, the easier getting through 3 will be. So GO SIDEQUEST CRAZY (except for at the one part mentioned above where a majority of your shipmates are gone; I don't recommend going sidequest crazy then.)
- Explore! Explore, explore, explore! Open every door you can! There might be a sidequest or a paragon/renegade opportunity behind it. And talk to everyone you can! (This is only for ME2, really; ME1 was miserable about this.)
- i love garrus and you should love garrus too because he is a bro is what he is.
- remember: Lots and lots of things that may seem arbitrary may end up mattering in ME3. Yes, really. I don't know why they did that, since PS3 owners couldn't actually play ME1, but yeah.

My advice:

In ME1, stick to the main missions. The side stuff in ME1 is vastly lower quality than the core stuff. Go ahead and explore if you find you enjoy it anyway, but don't feel bad about skipping anything that can be skipped.
This doesn't hold true for the later games where some of the best stuff is optional.

Play on the easiest difficulty and don't worry too much about loot. Combat and skills in ME1 wasn't great. It gets more interesting in ME2 onwards if you want to get into it, but it's still not essential to enjoying the game.
I played soldier in ME1 and treated the combat sections like a kind of interactive action scene in my Mass Effect movie. Click on robot, robot dies, onwards to next robot! I then discovered I actually enjoyed the combat in ME2, so ended up bumping the difficulty up from 'casual' all the way to 'insanity' as the game went on.

I can't agree with that recommendation. There are so many side missions that later effect how things play out in ME2 and ME3. I ended up doing virtually everything in ME1, and even though it was a pain in the ass to do it twice (once for Adrian Shepard, once for Sara Jane Shepard) it ended up being worth it.

That's what I did in KotOR, I just chose the easiest class that offered conversation options and went through the combat as quickly as possible. Easiest isn't always the most interesting, but then again dying a lot and being frustrated isn't much fun either in my experience.

It still holds true, it's just that the second and third games have two tiers of optional content. Stuff like the loyalty missions they clearly cared about doing right. Stuff like "load in, take ten steps forward into an arena, engage and destroy three heavy mechs, return to ship"? That's filler.

I don't recall whether they did anything that made it obvious that a given quest was filler before you started, unfortunately.

Actually there were three tiers, since there were also quests that involved scanning a planet and collecting your loot.

One of my least favorite phrases to see posted when discussing a game is "you're doing it wrong." The easy setting should work fine for you - you'll still have to shoot, but you can basically unleash your companions and as long as you take a biotic (I always had Liara in my party) or play a biotic, you've pretty much got a win button. And if you make it to the third game, they actually included a "narrative" difficulty, which pretty much turns the game into a LucasArts adventure.

I don't remember any side missions from ME1 that affected anything substantial. Characters reappearing to say "Hey! Remember me?" and then disappearing again is about all I can think of, and that doesn't really count, I think.

Probably best to discuss any specifics in another thread or spoiler quotes, though.

While it doesn't necessarily affect the later games, it may be worth pointing out that Cerberus really only shows up in side missions in the first game, and they're a big player in the latter two games.

By coincidence I just started playing ME1, too. I have a sleepy-looking Shepard who is an infiltrator. My plan is to shoot everything from a safe distance. I may try a few other classes, too. Mirriam will probably stay ahead of me because I get distracted very easily when playing single player games, but I will take advantage of that by learning from her experiences.

IIRC class doesn't determine squishiness as much as spec. You're probably too early to spec much into defenses or power re-use.

ME1's power reuse times SUCK and are part of the system that was heavily changed in 3 (for the better), but a few spec points in whatever you use will help. Powers like Overload and Throw are low recharge spam powers, I believe that's true in ME1 as well.

ME1's combat is an unfun slog though, imo. Mostly it's about learning where your cursor will appear when you peek out of cover, and already having the shot pretty much lined up. Never poke out to unload a clip, just poke out for 2-3 shots.

ME1 also has armor as actual equipment, so making sure you're wearing something usefully protective is a big deal. ME2 and 3 drop that entirely.

edit: from memory, the beginning of ME1 is the hardest part of the game entirely because you have shit gear and few spec points to play with but they don't hold back on sheer volume of hostiles.

Well, I may be completely alone when I thought it was neat when I stumbled on some of the very minor characters from ME1 in later games. It didn't affect my score, it still felt cool and to me was one of the many appeals of the series. I'll not name any one of them here.

Oh, in case it hasn't been mentioned: aside from combat not being a chore in ME2 and 3, you also get to import your character AND pick a new class in 2. So if you want to play a solider in 2 because the power spammers are a little complex, you can totally pick a power spammer in the new combat engine later.

edit: and with all our polling, ME1 Sentinels are actually crazy overpowered because their armor ability doesn't have any drawbacks. In 2 and 3 they're boring and shitty because the armor was nerfed to hell. But if you are having issues with dying constantly and just want to slowly line up shots on things the Sent's primary power is an always available damage reduction.

Also I have to say, I find it odd people are so worried she'll make "mistakes." Some of the less-than-stellar outcomes are far more interesting than the EVERYONE WINS YAY ones, and those mistakes, if they bother you enough, make fixing them add siginificantly to the replay value. Of course, I have an extremely difficult time doing it the non-EVERYONE WINS YAY way once I've done it "right," so perhaps I'm just annoyed I managed to accidently do everything "right" on my first playthroughs of ME2 and ME3. :P

Ignore everything in this thread and go play the damn games.

You'll probably get ahead of me since I'm still not quite sure which class to play :D I got off the first planet with my adept but I'm not really sure about that class anymore.

How do you find the Infiltrator so far?

Seriously, bail. I see people trying to save you from, as Sjofn says, "mistakes". It's like they hate you and are trying to ruin the games.

In fairness, I did kind of/sort of ask for that when asking for hints and tips. They are just trying to share their wisdom on how to get the best/most optimal/ happiest play-through ;)

(and I have to admit, I do love happy endings)

I'm pretty sure you can solo ME2 and ME3 with a Vanguard if you felt like it. Charge+Shotgun ends up being fairly ludicrous. The trick is that the shotgun does a TON of damage up close, charge gets you there, and charge also makes you invulnerable for a few seconds. So you end up charging ALL THE TIMES. In trouble and taking damage? CHARGE. need to kill big ting? CHARGE. Charge iirc also stuns most things, so it's useful for stunlocking.

Yeah, but because you haven't played it yet you don't realise that running into that sort of thing is the joy of the series.

That's true also. I haven't clicked on any of the spoiler tags yet, since most of it seems to refer to ME2 anyway.I always make plenty of saves anyway in case I do not like the way things evolve.

I'm just waiting for my daughter to go off to bed, then I'll start playing again.

I have faith you won't make the WORST mistakes!

I hate to go there, but there is a critical mistake that can be avoided in the first game. Mirriam, if you get a quest option to to look for Wrex's ancestral armor, you should do this as soon as you can. I will say no more.

I know about that one ;)

Just out of curiousity, what is it about the Adept that has you unsure? Are you dying a lot?

I actually started my very first ME1 game as an Infiltrator and didn't like it that much - sniping just felt really clunky in the early game. After my Xbox red-ringed in Noveria, I put the game aside and didn't play it for a year. The next time I started fresh and rolled a Soldier, because I figured that'd be the simplest, most durable class to play that also has the most firepower available. Those are indeed upsides, but the downside (IMO) is that Mass Effect then becomes a much more standard cover-shooter in space. Playing a class like the Adept is likely more challenging (especially at low level when you don't have much in the way of powers or gear) but I think it's a much more unique way to experience the ME universe.

ETA: Irrelevent to the topic, but I had a love/hate relationship with ME after it red-ringed my Xbox AGAIN at the same point in the game, at Noveria. I didn't actually finish ME1 for years after it first came out because it kept killing my consoles. :(

It is obvious which quests are which; they're all prefixed in the quest log with things like "Jacob: Go Do Thing" or "N7: Go Do Other Thing".

Pogue Mahone, I think that definitely falls into the category of unnecessary advice that Sjofn and Quitch were talking about. It's not even true. I missed that when I played, and all went well.

Yes, this. I am so glad I did things "wrong" my first time in ME2. Sure it made me reload and rerun stuff so I'd have a 'good' save to load for 3, but missing out on the other stuff would have been totally shitty.

On classes - I actually really prefer to avoid biotics in ME in general. Soldier is probably the most 'hard scifi' option available and the biotic stuff (and even some of the engineer stuff) always feels like it is a little too magic-y for how I like to view the ME setting. Soldier can be extraordinarily entertaining with some of the advanced weapons in later games, too.

EDIT: Dammit. Now I have to play through all 3 games again, I can feel it.

I am giving information to Mirriam that she is of course free to heed or ignore at her leisure. Your approval is not required.

Yes I die or my health drops dangerously low all the time, I'm very squishy :( Also, I can only use my powers once in a blue moon and then end up hiding behind a wall. Quite often enemies seem out of reach of my pistol but they can hit me. I'm also not very good at aiming/targeting enemies.
I feel that in between trying to learn how to play the game, keeping an eye on what the companions are doing and trying not to forget an eye on my healthbar battles are very hectic and out of control, ending up with my death.

I suppose I'm looking for something simpler. The infiltrator might be nice with the stealth options giving me a chance to aim, but then again the soldier might give me a bit of extra survivability and an easier play-style by just aiming my weapon and shooting. Since companions can pick up biotics, tech and so on anyway.

I'm also not feeling to well due to a flu-bug and can't think that clearly, so I'm probably having a harder time deciding what to play and learning the game then usual ;)

Once you get used to aiming powers they're probably easier than point-and-shoot since they're a lot more forgiving about going for something that's just sort of near the cross-hairs unlike the guns.

Gotcha - that's understandable. Space mages have their drawbacks, and like normal earthbound mages, squishiness is one of them. :)

If you continue feeling like you're struggling, I'd consider going all the way to the other end of the spectrum and making a Soldier. She'll be far more durable and you won't have to think about powers and such, just cover and shooting. As you mentioned, you can farm out biotics and tech to your squaddies (which is basically what I did for all 3 games on my first playthrough) and not have to think too much about them.

Generally speaking, your squadmates should be able to handle themselves fairly effectively; especially while you're learning the game I'd keep the option enabled that lets them use their abilities on their own, and just issue commands on rare occasions when you want a specific enemy's shields Overloaded or something like that.

Pick a class that can use assault rifles and just spray bullets everywhere. That's how I did my first ME1 playthrough. <3

That settles it, soldier it is. If I'm going to play a military space-chick I might as well go the whole way :D
I'll restart tomorrow, for now I'll be snuggling up in bed with hot tea and Netflix ;)

And if you get tired of being a soldier by the end of ME1, you can pick your class anew in ME2 (and again in ME3) while keeping everything else the same. My original Shepard went from soldier to infiltrator (then stayed infiltrator). My ManShep was ENGINEER 4 LIFE though.

At the highest difficulty level, the Infiltrator and Sentinel probably offer the best chance of survival in ME2. The Infiltrator cloaking ability is invaluable for both offense and defense. The Sentinel gets Tech Armor for defense and Warp for offense, both of which you will want to use constantly. I imagine the biotic Barrier ability might also allow you to survive on Insanity, but because of its short duration and long cooldown it isn't as reliable.

Oh, but I should warn you that Sentinel is underpowered in ME1. For ME1, I would go with a Soldier or Infiltrator. Personally, I prefer offense to defense in these games, because a dead enemy doesn't shoot back.

This thread got me going on what I'm going to try and make my "canonical" ME playthrough! I think I'm going to start Shep as a renegade infiltrator... we'll see how it goes.