Now there's no excuse (Mass Effect 2)

Finally finished installing the Cerberus Network. Time to try this again.

Okay, I've almost completed my first run as a paragon Adept (don't ask how much I played it; it's an excellent game and it got me addicted), which class should I be using next?

I loved the biotic powers and with Miranda and Thane as my companions I had a great time blowing up every enemy, so I'm looking for some other fun class too. Sentinels, infiltrators and engineers didn't sound that interesting.

Oh, and which classes are considered good for Insanity?

Blair Waldorf wrote:

Okay, I've almost completed my first run as a paragon Adept (don't ask how much I played it; it's an excellent game and it got me addicted), which class should I be using next?

Next time around, I'd try something different. If you were Paragon first time through, try renegade the next. Likewise, if you were Adept then try something a little more hands on, like Soldier or Vanguard.

Shep as a Soldier is tough as hell, but Soldier gets criticised for being A) too easy and B) too boring. Soldier's unique power is Adrenaline Rush which is basically bullet time, only you also get a huge multiplier on damage output whilst using it. The cooldown is also very very low, like 3 seconds, so you can spam it repeatedly. Enemies die very quickly, suffice to say. The bad news is that you have no Biotic or Tech powers to spice things up with - a Soldier gets to use all the weapons, (and is the only class that can use the Revenant Machine Gun; for those that don't know, it's a stupidly inaccurate but viciously powerful Assault Rifle that cuts through anything at close to medium range), but this one track gameplay also makes it repetitive for some people. Me? i had a blast with it, because you kinda get the feeling, especially as its the default class, that Shep was meant to be a Soldier anyway.

On the flip side, Vanguard is generally regarded as the most outright fun. However, it's got a pretty steep learning curve and it's quite difficult until you've levelled up a bit. As Neo's diagram illustrated nicely, Vanguard's are all about the Charge power - essentially, you charge across the battlefield and smash into your opponent. At higher levels, doing so does several things; you're invincible when you charge, it fully recharges your shield, and it gives you a second of bullet time at the end during which time your opponent again takes bonus damage. Follow up with a shotgun blast and you can OHKO most creatures, even on Insanity if you're specced up enough. The timing of charge is quite tough to learn, (I'd recommend watching AverageGatsby's tutorial vids on Youtube, they're really good) and if you're more comfortable ducking in and out of cover (as perhaps you may be if you've just played as an Adept!) then you'll likely find it hard to adjust.

And yes, I found Sentinel and Engineer boring, though sniping with Infiltrator was quite fun.

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Oh, and which classes are considered good for Insanity?

Any of them, depending on who you talk to, though obviously Insanity requires a great deal more thought than Normal difficulty because every enemy, even Husks, has at least one layer of protection which means Biotic powers don't work on them initially.

Finally, I'm glad you said 'it's an excellent game'. I've raved about it for nearly a year now, including naming it my GOTY 2010, and I'd feel bad if others tried it even partly on my say so and didn't get on with it.

I've heard that Vanguard and Infiltrator are the most fun classes, and that vanguard and adept are really difficult to play Insanity with.

I just finished the story mode. The last mission was amazing... even though it turned into a warp spam-fest behind cover, but I couldn't resist seeing all those barriers. Husks were ridiculously easy to dispose of too. I only had to use singularity and they'd die trying to come close. Pretty easy level for the Adept class.

Vanguard sounds like a great class. I will try this one next and probably play as a soldier one time too. I don't really see what's so fun about playing as an infiltrator.

So, with appropriate spoiler tags, how did you do in the last mission?

Yeah play as Vanguard.
I have to admit I completely ripped off this guy SabreSandiego's playstyle but it's so damn fun and effective it's hard not to.

Essentially the idea is that you use the Scimitar shotgun, of all things, because although it doesn't hit as hard as the Claymore or someof the DLC shotguns it fires quite quickly and can unload 8 shells before you have to reload, making it amazing for stripping shields and barriers; add Inferno Ammo on top of that and it's even quite effective at taking down enemies with Armor.
Combined with a squad that can pump out warp explosions is extremely powerful, not to mention you take Area Reave which can often destroy medium defenses in one shot and Sniper Rifle training so, along with the SMG from Kasumi's mission, you're powerful at literally any distance.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/1457282

Spoiler:

I also noticed that you can't reach level 30. I've cleared every mission available and I need 10 more experience points... Kinda annoying, but I was still too overpowered for normal difficulty. Only Geth Primes and Ymir mechs posed a problems, until I learnt the squad armour-piercing ammo skill.

There should be plenty left to get you to level thirty. Have you done the DLC missions yet? Have you explored all the galaxies for anomalies? There's lots to find that isn't immediately obvious.

Also

Spoiler:

Oh, and incidentally on your next playthrough you get 25% bonus exp anyway, whether it's a new character entirely or if you're doing New Game plus. Be wary of NG+ though... while you keep your level and your skills, all your weapon/tech/biotic reaserch powers are reset, meaning you still need to research them from scratch, and because enemies scale with you, (ie starting at level 30 will mean all the enemies are level 30, except that your guns/ shields etc are suddenly up to 50% less effective than when they were fully researched in the end of your previous walkthrough) it's often harder to start a NG+ than it is to start from scratch. This is especially apparent on Insanity.

I've done every mission, I checked every planet, all DLC too (btw, Firewalker, Zaeed and most of Overlord sucked). There is nothing left to do. The game has so much replaybility that I don't mind though. Trying different classes, character builds, difficulties, teammates, genders, paragon or renegade choices, love interests, major decisions from ME1/comic... I can see me playing this game for the next few months.

Thanks for the NG+ tip. I'll keep that in mind.

Really? You've done everything and still not hit lvl 30? That said, I did start at level five thanks to Improting an ME1 character, so I guess that helped. Oh, and you're not wrong about the longevity either - I must've done at least ten different play throughs, and clocked up around two hundred hours or so.

I finally reached Horizon as a Vanguard on Insanity. At first I wanted to give up because using Charge would often get me killed and I had to play mostly like a Soldier without the powerful guns and Adrenaline Rush to survive which was terribly boring.

Now that I've levelled up a bit Charge is a more reliable tactic. Getting to other side of the area immediately is particularly helpful as it stops most of the enemies from spawning. This playstyle is still too aggressive for my tastes, but I'll keep going and see if my opinion on them changes as I level up more.

Better back-up your files, there's a bug destroying them.

Just finished my first playthrough of this, I have to say, it totally deserves all the praise it gets.

Back up your saves, boy. Unless SONY have approved the patch.

Take Auto Save Off and don't play the ME2 for long periods of time. Simple, that's how I completed the game.

You can reach level 30, there are just little side missions for talking to NPC's with certain characters that net you points or a new assignment. It's missable for sure though.

Kai, how did you get on with the game? You've been quiet on the subject recently.

I've been occupied by other stuff recently, but the 10 or so hours I played of it were pretty awesome.

I can never play a long game without breaks.

Playing through the Thane recruitment mission as a Renegade was great.

Spoiler:

I couldn't help but think the exact same thing.

Definitely up there with disingenuous assertions.

oh god the demo of this was freaking sexy definitely will buy at some point.

Little help does this come with all the DLC on the PSN store?

http://www.game.co.uk/PS3/RolePlaying/~r351148/Mass-Effect-2/

Superbuu3 wrote:

Little help does this come with all the DLC on the PSN store?

http://www.game.co.uk/PS3/RolePlaying/~r351148/Mass-Effect-2/

I doubt it.

It includes the Major DLC pieces, but I wouln't think it comes with the Appearance or extra weapon packs.

And yes, ME2 is freakin' awesome.

SimianWonder wrote:

Superbuu3 wrote:

Little help does this come with all the DLC on the PSN store?

http://www.game.co.uk/PS3/RolePlaying/~r351148/Mass-Effect-2/

I doubt it.

It includes the Major DLC pieces, but I wouln't think it comes with the Appearance or extra weapon packs.

And yes, ME2 is freakin' awesome.

Oh i find appearance packs BS if its just missing the weapons pack though thats cool i'll just pick that up seperately, i'm jst debating if i will play this right now.

I can just see why this is considered to be so awesome BTW, does it make much difference if you choose a different backstory an d does being female effect things much?

Female affects the love interests and a few dialogue choices, and you get Jennifer Hale as VA. Backstory's don't make that much difference in ME2, only a few lines of dialogue.

SimianWonder wrote:

Female affects the love interests and a few dialogue choices, and you get Jennifer Hale as VA. Backstory's don't make that much difference in ME2, only a few lines of dialogue.

I'm not sure why but all of that seemed fairly awesome to me, i guess it does make things more interesting can you be lesbian or gay in this out of curiousity?

Also just double checked seems that the PS3 edition includes all DLC for free, well anything that was available before it was released.

Superbuu3 wrote:

I'm not sure why but all of that seemed fairly awesome to me, i guess it does make things more interesting can you be lesbian or gay in this out of curiousity?

I don't think there are any gay romances, though if you're a femshep you can romance Liara. She's an Asari, and they're monogendered so they're all female.

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Also just double checked seems that the PS3 edition includes all DLC for free, well anything that was available before it was released.

Pretty cool if that's true, though some of the DLC weapons are perhaps overpowered. I'd try not to use them first time around, otherwise you won't appreciate them.