Mass Effect
I've finished my second play-through of Mass Effect, using my Sentinel character.
I'd said before that being a Sentinel was hard work. I tended to die. A lot. There came a stage, though, where I started to figure out the advantages, and stopped trying to play as a soldier.
Things improved drastically when I unlocked the lift biotic power, because it gave me a second power to use in the game in addition to throw, allowing me to disable two enemies for a while when facing a group. Lift also has a much bigger area of effect, and a completely impossible situation becomes possible if I can catch a group of baddies at once.
Apart from that, I figured out the use of neural shock, which, in addition to lift and throw, gave me the ability to take down organic opponents as well. It was only using neural shock that I completed the final fight on the Liara T'Soni rescue mission.
Then I realised that the electronics skill gives you shielding. Lots of shielding. Insanely large amounts of awesome shielding. I was doing a plot mission when I noticed this and had a lot of points to spend in one go after a particularly busy fight, and so I put four points into shielding. Suddenly I went from being a wimp that could be taken out with a gust of wind to one of the most solid members of my team: providing someone wasn't using shield-bypassing ammo.
I eventually figured out that the tactic I should be using is not to conserve my biotic powers, but to hit the enemy with everything I had, take cover and then start shooting, carefully, a little at a time. Once I got better amps, I started being able to use them several times in a mission. I didn't find the tech talents so useful, except for the shielding from electronics.
The plot missions also level you up rapidly and give you lots of cool equipment very quickly. By playing lots of the non-plot missions, I slogged through lots of shoot outs without gaining much in the way of useful kit or levels. In this run through, I did Feros after I did Artemis Tau, and that was when my character suddenly jumped from being pretty atrocious to massively good.
One of the hazards I found in playing as a biotic that wasn't there in the soldier play was the fact that, sometimes, I had to reload a mission because I (or my team member) threw an enemy into a wall, or some other such impossible place, where I couldn't kill them and progress. That was annoying, but it didn't happen too often, and ME is a pretty solidly programmed game over all so that glitches are minimal and forgiveable.
I'd like to try Mass Effect 2 now as I really want to find out what happens next about the Reapers.
aquarion told me that it's even better than Mass Effect. I read through the Wikipedia page and some of the things it mentioned taking out I was a little bit dubious over. Like the Mako. That was fun. I'm also not sure about the training system, but it did work in Mass Effect, and that's been taken out. Some things are exciting, though. All the way through mass Effect, I thought that it seemed a little stupid that they don't give you access to heavy weaponry like rocket launchers especially when the enemy has it. I also kept getting surprised by Ashley randomly rocketing the enemy, and then Wrex. Where did that come from? So it'll be good in ME2.
I think I will have to upgrade my graphics card if I want to get ME2. I'm not sure my current one can hack it, and much better ones are not significantly expensive. If I do that, I can also play Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, which is just over the cusp of what my graphics card can handle. I have to admit, though, that with an understanding of how underpowered the current graphics card in this machine is, I'm surprised at how well it runs so many games. It proves you don't really need to spend that much nowadays to get a good gaming experience.
I'd said before that being a Sentinel was hard work. I tended to die. A lot. There came a stage, though, where I started to figure out the advantages, and stopped trying to play as a soldier.
Things improved drastically when I unlocked the lift biotic power, because it gave me a second power to use in the game in addition to throw, allowing me to disable two enemies for a while when facing a group. Lift also has a much bigger area of effect, and a completely impossible situation becomes possible if I can catch a group of baddies at once.
Apart from that, I figured out the use of neural shock, which, in addition to lift and throw, gave me the ability to take down organic opponents as well. It was only using neural shock that I completed the final fight on the Liara T'Soni rescue mission.
Then I realised that the electronics skill gives you shielding. Lots of shielding. Insanely large amounts of awesome shielding. I was doing a plot mission when I noticed this and had a lot of points to spend in one go after a particularly busy fight, and so I put four points into shielding. Suddenly I went from being a wimp that could be taken out with a gust of wind to one of the most solid members of my team: providing someone wasn't using shield-bypassing ammo.
I eventually figured out that the tactic I should be using is not to conserve my biotic powers, but to hit the enemy with everything I had, take cover and then start shooting, carefully, a little at a time. Once I got better amps, I started being able to use them several times in a mission. I didn't find the tech talents so useful, except for the shielding from electronics.
The plot missions also level you up rapidly and give you lots of cool equipment very quickly. By playing lots of the non-plot missions, I slogged through lots of shoot outs without gaining much in the way of useful kit or levels. In this run through, I did Feros after I did Artemis Tau, and that was when my character suddenly jumped from being pretty atrocious to massively good.
One of the hazards I found in playing as a biotic that wasn't there in the soldier play was the fact that, sometimes, I had to reload a mission because I (or my team member) threw an enemy into a wall, or some other such impossible place, where I couldn't kill them and progress. That was annoying, but it didn't happen too often, and ME is a pretty solidly programmed game over all so that glitches are minimal and forgiveable.
I'd like to try Mass Effect 2 now as I really want to find out what happens next about the Reapers.
aquarion told me that it's even better than Mass Effect. I read through the Wikipedia page and some of the things it mentioned taking out I was a little bit dubious over. Like the Mako. That was fun. I'm also not sure about the training system, but it did work in Mass Effect, and that's been taken out. Some things are exciting, though. All the way through mass Effect, I thought that it seemed a little stupid that they don't give you access to heavy weaponry like rocket launchers especially when the enemy has it. I also kept getting surprised by Ashley randomly rocketing the enemy, and then Wrex. Where did that come from? So it'll be good in ME2.
I think I will have to upgrade my graphics card if I want to get ME2. I'm not sure my current one can hack it, and much better ones are not significantly expensive. If I do that, I can also play Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, which is just over the cusp of what my graphics card can handle. I have to admit, though, that with an understanding of how underpowered the current graphics card in this machine is, I'm surprised at how well it runs so many games. It proves you don't really need to spend that much nowadays to get a good gaming experience.