What next for Mass Effect?

[Skywalker]

Ah, there we go. Nice work, Reverend!

And yeah, that guy sucks at ME2. The final battle is crazy-easy if you bring the Cain with enough ammo to fire two shots.

[Reverend]

Well to be fair, if it's his first playthrough there's no way to know that in advance.

I recall that on my first playthrough I didn't bring the Cain along and had to take that thing out the hard way. Same deal with the Thresher Maw. Even that's not a guarantee though because on more than one occasion I managed to miss the shot with the Cain and totally wasted it...on the other hand I've also managed to take out the larval Reaper so fast Harbinger didn't even have a chance to show up.

Actually one of the things that bugged me about the heavy weapons in ME2 was that the game conditions you to hold off using them until you really need them so much that I would often forget to use them at all. First time round I think I mostly stuck with the rocket launcher as it seemed more useful than the others (more shots, less likely to miss etc.) To this day I can never figure out a way to properly use the cryo-freezy gun thing.

[SPCTRE]

I've completed ME2 more times than I can recall on Veteran and harder difficulties and I've fired the Cain once, maybe twice.

On complete and utter trash level enemies.

[Skywalker]

Another time I enjoyed using the Cain was during Garrus's loyalty mission, when you're chasing down Harkin. Oh, two giant mechs, huh? KABOOM! I mean, it wasn't really necessary, I just found it hilarious.

And on the thresher maw, of course.

[SPCTRE]

Reverend wrote:

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Actually one of the things that bugged me about the heavy weapons in ME2 was that the game conditions you to hold off using them until you really need them so much that I would often forget to use them at all.

That's not ME2-specific though, that's an age-old videogame/shooter cliché

[Reverend]

True, but it was particularly the case in ME2. The game actually tells you in the loading screens *not* to use heavy weapons. It was sort of the same thing with the grenades in ME1. After a while you forget they're there and stop using them.

Lord Vader wrote:

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Another time I enjoyed using the Cain was during Garrus's loyalty mission, when you're chasing down Harkin. Oh, two giant mechs, huh? KABOOM! I mean, it wasn't really necessary, I just found it hilarious.

And on the thresher maw, of course.

I can top that. On my last ME1 playthrough I took on *every* thresher maw in the game on foot...as an adept! Of course it was a game-plus starting at Lv54 and an assault rifle specialisation.

I did once try using the Cain on those two heavy mechs and it sort of backfired...literally. Those things get in close *really* fast. I usually bring Tali along for that mission so my usual tactic involves stripping the defences off one of them, using her AI hack to make it turn on and weaken the second one. Then you just have to blow the head off the first to turn it into a nuke and kill the other one.

[Herkimer Jitty]

Reverend wrote:

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^Pretty sure that'll work. In my last playthrough I kept to mostly paragon choices, but chose almost exclusively renegade dialogue options. It made for some very interesting scenes.

And the renegade choices for Legion's loyalty mesh much better with the paragon choice, IMHO.

The whole "they're not human, don't judge them by our values" schtick seems to lead more naturally to wanting to reprogram the Heretics than "branwashing is teh bads, you're dope, Legion"

That, and pure paragon dialogue on Mordin's loyalty makes me feel like an idiot.

[Reverend]

Yeah, the paragon/renegade stuff could get a little odd at times. Nevertheless I like to think that you're not really supposed to pick all paragon or all renegade since nobody thinks and reacts in a completely consistent manor. For example, one of my colonist Sheps has an irrational hatred of Batarians and she tends to react more aggressively when they're around. With my main Shep I tend to play from the gut and just so happened to end up with a roughly 80/20 paragon/renegade split.

It's interesting to me how a lot of players can't help but perceive renegade as "bad" when it's supposed to just be a different flavour of "good." Renegade just means taking the Dirty Harry approach as opposed to the Paragon "boyscout" approach. For example I watched part of an ME2 'let's play' on youtube a while back and I noticed that when this guy (who was an old school D&D type who went on and on about the roleplaying side) got to Legion's mission and made that decision, he baulked because he wanted his Shep to take the renegade option but instead chose paragon because he didn't want the renegade points.

I suppose it's really Bioware's fault by choosing to colour code them red and blue since they're almost hard-wired into western psychology as meaning "danger" and "peaceful", respectively.

[SPCTRE]

Reverend wrote:

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True, but it was particularly the case in ME2. The game actually tells you in the loading screens *not* to use heavy weapons. It was sort of the same thing with the grenades in ME1. After a while you forget they're there and stop using them.

Very true, that.

[Herkimer Jitty]

Plus, renegade interrupts are sometimes too good to pass up.

Like those Eclipse mercs on Miranda's loyalty. The look on that salarian's face is priceless.

[Reverend]

^If only the paragon interrupts could be half as much fun....actually it'd be pretty funny if in ME3 you get presented with both a paragon and renegade interrupt during the inevitable third interview with that reporter which *both* result in Shep punching her in the face.

[The Master of Tarquin Hill]

SPOOKTRE wrote:

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Very true, that.

I had that problem too. Which is why I use heavy weapons (in ME2 & other games) as much as possible now. I never miss a chance to use the Cain, and I will relentlessly spam the Arc Projector to soften things up for a Vanguard. I'd rather go into a boss fight w/ low heavy ammo than go around picking up 100 creds everywhere.

ETA: I especially like to use the Cain inside of spaceships.

[Hartzilla2007]

Lord Vader wrote:

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Another time I enjoyed using the Cain was during Garrus's loyalty mission, when you're chasing down Harkin. Oh, two giant mechs, huh? KABOOM! I mean, it wasn't really necessary, I just found it hilarious.

And on the thresher maw, of course.

I like using it on Kasumi's loyalty mission for the boos fight, I just love the smell of nuked rich asshole in the morning.

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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And the renegade choices for Legion's loyalty mesh much better with the paragon choice, IMHO.

The whole "they're not human, don't judge them by our values" schtick seems to lead more naturally to wanting to reprogram the Heretics than "branwashing is teh bads, you're dope, Legion"

That, and pure paragon dialogue on Mordin's loyalty makes me feel like an idiot.

I like the renegade interrupt on that miision my self.

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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Plus, renegade interrupts are sometimes too good to pass up.

Like those Eclipse mercs on Miranda's loyalty. The look on that salarian's face is priceless.

Especially after how the group's commander starts about how screwed you're suppost to be at this point.