Solid Snake's Pseudo-Let's Play: Mass Effect

[Solid Snake]

Guess I failed to write a compelling enough LP to compete in today's market, eh? =)
If folks actually are reading and interested in this I'll keep it going, but if not, I'll shut it down...no biggie.

[Zakreon]

I'm loving it, to me its either read this or buy the game. And I'm a bit short on cash...

[01d55]

Reading this is what caused me to buy the game.

I ran with an infiltrator in my play through, and never put any points into charm. Despite earning enough paragon points to unlock the achievement, I earned a grand total of 3 free points in charm throughout the entire game. I was able to charm Saren in my first encounter, which causes him to go bugfuck nuts between that and the second fight with him.

When I looked it up later, it turns out that "Don't put any points into conversation and earn them for free with paragon/renegade" means "Exploit a bugged conversation midway through the game on your second playthrough to maximize your paragon/renegade bar and then play the game's main quest over and over."

I guess we should start talking about your next level so that you can level up as soon as you earn it and use your points in the fight. You can also order your allies to switch weapons mid-combat.

Everyone will get 2 points, and the max for each of their skills will increase by 1, so Shepard will be able to unlock pistols and put a point in it, Ashley will be able to put a second point in shotguns and take another point in soldier, Kaidan will be able to get the second rank of the encryption tech and a second point in electronics, which will boost his shields.

Also: that's the shotgun, not the assault rifle. You can tell because shotguns have 1 barrel with two flaps on either side, while assault rifles appear to have two barrels.

[Azisien]

Play the damn game booger face.

Yes I read the thread. I'd play along as well or even offer to help but I use the console version.

[Krylo]

Some of us have to work and can't answer your damn questions within the hour, asshole.

ANYWAY, to answer your question as to builds: all your rambling about it has inspired me to start a new game on hardcore.

However, while you've been jerkin' it on Eden Prime, I've been all over the galaxy and back multiple times. Enough to get to level 51, and get my Quarian Ally (which I'm amazed I didn't already have) achievement just before Virmire.

My (female) Shepard spacer war hero is built thusly:

Soldier
8 points pistols (eight points is what it takes to get advanced marksman/carnage/etc.)
8 points shotguns
8 points assault rifles
8 points sniper rifles
8 points combat armor (wear heavy armor)
6 points first aid (advanced first aid)
8 points assault training (advanced assault training)
12 ponts fitness
3 points singularity
12 points commando (You get to pick a prestige class eventually)
4 points charm (haven't bought any)
1 point intimidate (haven't bought any)
12 points Spectre Training

I plan to max out assault training and then increase singularity enough to get advanced singularity (eight points in).


My vanguard character, whom I beat the game with, is 46. She's a war hero colonist.

Her build is as follows

6 pistols
12 shotguns
5 assault training
7 tactical armor (just enough to unlock medium armor usage)
12 throw
12 lift
5 warp (really shoulda maxed this instead of putting points into charm and intimidate...)
2 barrier
10 Nemesis (again, prestige class)
11 charm
9 intimidate
4 spectre training

Siaka Shepard, whom I ALSO beat the game with, is my adept. This is probably what you'd be the most interested in. Note that I maxed her intimidate, and she's still bad ass at level 52. She's also Ruthless and Earthborn. Just like Taran. They'd get along well.

5 basic armor (pistol unlock)
12 pistols
12 throw
12 lift
12 warp
12 singularity
5 barrier
0 stasis
0 first aid
12 nemesis
2 charm (didn't buy them)
12 intimidate
4 spectre training.

I've had a few male characters, but the voice acting is so much better for the females. Plus you can make them look quite a bit better... I never get all that far with the males.


As for party members, I almost always bring Tali or Liara. You have neither of them yet.

Tali is a super engineer who can use shotguns.

Liara is a super adept. (You probably know about your party members, but just in case, this way you won't know they're them when you meet them right away).


Oh, and Kaiden is fucking useless.

Fucking useless.

As that I've beaten the game multiple times, I've made almost every decision, except the paragon one at end game. I'll be doing that this game. And the builds should speak volumes of what I've found useful for my characters.

[Kerensky287]

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't actually beaten the game yet.

Though I did have, uh, I think it was a Vanguard (soldier/techie crossbreed?) and that was a fun playthrough. I liked being able to completely mess with every enemy's abilities while simultaneously being able to kill them with my awesome pistol skills. I can snipe, too.

It's not my style when I play a game to do each and every single thing to make my characters super-powerful; I like to go with the flow and just play the game progressively. So I just gave my characters whatever looked cool. LOTS of biotics were therefore involved.

I think my favourite characters were Garrus and Liara, though I seem to remember Wrex being involved at some point. I didn't use Kaiden because he's SO INCREDIBLY USELESS, I didn't use Ashley because I had enough brute force and I didn't use Tali because I didn't really like her voice that much.

Thanks for reminding me about this game. I plan to actually beat it soon. Like, when my friend returns my Xbox.

Spoiler: Is there anyone who ACTUALLY decided to save Kaiden over Ashley? Because it seems like a total no-brainer for me.

[Krylo]

Ker: I did once. I was seducing Kaiden and wanted to see how it played out, and as that it doesn't end until after one of them dies... I also wasn't using Ashley anyway.

And I actually really like Tali's voice.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Krylo

Some of us have to work and can't answer your damn questions within the hour, asshole.

I certainly didn't intend to come off as a jerk; (and I really tried not to sound offended, because I'm not) I just wanted to make sure people were interested in the Let's Play because, if I had lost readers, there'd be less incentive to continue collecting screenshots and updating the thread.

All your builds are female; any reason why? (Or do you just, like me, prefer Jennifer Hale's voice?)
EDIT: You answered that question in your post. Nevermind.

Oh, and Kaiden is fucking useless.

Fucking useless.

God, I know.
He's even more useless from a practical gameplay perspective then Carth was, even if he's not quite as annoying. I almost have to wonder whether Bioware purposefully uses the same VA with every character they introduce into their storylines that happens to be completely worthless as if it was some kind of a practical joke.

[01d55]

As a heads up, you will always need someone in your party who can use decryption and electronics. When you pick your party, you get a screen that shows each of your party members with three bars that indicate how much "strength" in a particular field that party member has - combat, tech, biotics. Each party member either has 1 full bar or 2 half-full bars. Any character with tech bar has electronics and decryption, but one of them, the biotic/tech, is Kaiden aka. Whiner MacUseless.

I recommend using the party member with combat/tech: Garrus. He gives a subquest that requires you to bring him along to get extra plot content, and uses assault and sniper rifles. This means you've split your party between weapon types, allowing you to use only the best model of each weapon you have.

I also recommend switching from Ashely to the combat/biotic character, Wrex. He's the most awesome renegade personality, and although he doesn't get as many HP as Ashley, he does get regen and can use heavy armor, and he gets barrier, which gives him crazy shields to make up for his lesser HP. Furthermore, his AI uses shotguns and melee attacks by default, whereas I frequently found myself having to force Ash to switch from her assault rifle, and she never went into melee. Also, major late game spoiler: You need charm or intimidate in order to preserve his life, and since you're making the investment you may as well reap the benefit.

EDIT: To speed things along, I'm going to anticipate the choices you'll have to make and put my recommendations in spoiler tags. I'll clearly label them by the order in which they occur, so you'll know when you can safely read each one. If others do the same we can move this along so you don't have to waste what little playtime you have waiting for us to dick about deciding how to tell you to be a dick. Also, be advised that certain achievements give gameplay bonuses, and the "Get filthy rich award" is probably the best of these.

[Krylo]

How about this:

Choose the lower options. Always.

Lower left hand will be red when an intimidate choice is available. Choose it whenever it's available.

Lower right hand will move the conversation along when it is white. Choose this whenever the red option isn't available, EXCEPT when the middle left is available. That is the option that opens more dialogue. Questions etc.

This is going to be my vote for every question ever.

Until the very very very end.

Choose the paragon ending. You'll know what I mean when the time comes.

Also, I just beat the game with my soldier.

Level 55, 742 health, with all my skills as they were before, except assault training is maxed.

For the record--immunity at max level gives you an 80% damage reduction. This makes you basically invincible. Not totally, but basically. And by basically I mean I was eating missiles without any loss of health. Granted, my armor was great already, but still.

At max level it also lasts longer than it takes to recharge.

This is why I suggest getting fitness maxed on Ashley, ASAP. That and it increases health.