Mass Effect - some questions

[Pladio]

So, I started a game of ME as an adept.

For now I have not made much use of my powers as combat has not been so difficult.
I am relatively ok with my pistol.

Light spoilers, I am at the point where I am trying to find saren still in citadel station.
So very early in the game.

I have a few questions:

1. Are the people you bring along during quests important for quests ? By this I mean, do they open up new solutions ?

2. Are the people you bring along actually good at fighting ? Or is it better to just bring a techie ?

3. Follow up question, do the party skills matter in opening up containers and such ?

4. Except for speech skills, I am levelling up my adept a bit at random. Any useful tips ?

Thanks ;-)

If you have other useful information i am happy to hear it.

 

[JDR13]

1. No, not unless it's their quest, but I don't recall if ME1 even has companion quests. ME 2&3 both do.

2. You can win battles with any squad combination, but it's better to have your squad at least somewhat balanced.

3. Mmm.. I don't quite remember, but I think those kind of skill checks use the highest skill of the 3 active party members. You can also open locked doors and containers by spending omni-gel if you don't meet the skill requirement.

I played through the series as a Vanguard, so I can't help you with leveling an Adept. There are tons of guides on the web though.

 

[azarhal]

1. Not really, there are some cases where squaddies will have more comments or NPCs. There might be a few cases where they will convince someone instead of you, but aren't needed for the outcome.

2. Yes. If you are not an adept, Liara with Singularity makes the game super-easy. Wrex is super though to kill and makes a good tank. Ash with fully upgraded rifles destroy enemies. There is a good amount of "robots" enemies so a techies (overload/sabotage/damping) is also quite useful. You can switch around, I usually bring my fav based on what I play.

3. Yes, highest party-wide is used.

4. Adept are support, mostly CC. Singularity is the best CC in the game. Wrap does periodic damage + debuff enemies damage protection and Barrier is very good protection on top of your armor. Throw can be useful as CC and funny to watch when thrown proper. Armor is always nice. You don't need to max pistol, at higher level your ability cooldowns are so short you will basically spam Wrap/Throw + Singularity.

 

[Moriendor]

1. Are the people you bring along during quests important for quests ? By this I mean, do they open up new solutions?

No. If a companion is truly important then you will be forced to take him/her but except for that it does not matter too much. You might get a special dialogue option if you have a certain party member with you but usually not with any real consequences. The big choices in the first ME that carry over to the 2nd part are all independent of who you are taking with you on the missions.

2. Are the people you bring along actually good at fighting ? Or is it better to just bring a techie ?

The AI is dumb as a brick in the first game so it doesn't really matter much. For example, you can easily shoot AI behind cover from a distance and the AI will just let you kill it. It will not retreat deeper into cover or come out to fight you.
So just bring whoever you think will help you the most. I personally (Infiltrator) went with Ashley and then either Tali, Liara or Garrus.

As an adept you might want to bring Garrus/Ashley for firepower (or maybe even Urdnot Wrex but I hated Krogans so never considered him) and then Tali/Liara depending on who you like better.

There are barely any tough fights (normal difficulty) as far as I can remember so thanks to the dumb AI anything goes. Besides, it's a typical cover shooter so when things get a little rough, just hide for a few seconds. Kill an enemy. Hide. Rinse, repeat. It's not a very challenging game at all (on normal at least).

3. Follow up question, do the party skills matter in opening up containers and such ?

Yes. You can open stuff as long as one of your squad members has a high enough decryption/electronics skill.

4. Except for speech skills, I am levelling up my adept a bit at random. Any useful tips ?

Definitely master pistols because the aim of your squad mates leaves a bit to be desired.
And then go for Warp/Singularity so you can make enemies float helplessly in the air while picking them off with your pistol.
Then maybe add some Barrier for defense (lower priority) and everything else is kinda redundant (Throw/Lift is almost the same as Warp/Singularity).
I actually kinda half-rushed through the game (I skipped exploring with the Mako because it was no fun to me) in 17 hours and IIRC there was no shortage of available skill points to master everything I wanted so don't worry.

P.S.: If you haven't yet then make sure to grab the HD Texture Mod. The game has not aged very well (IMO) so every little bit might help .

 

[Toff]

I still need to play this as well. I've been having a hard time deciding what to play next and since I already own this my answer is found I think.

 

[Pladio]

Thanks for the answers all.

I was going to ask a stupid thing but it took me an hour to figure out how to get out of the mako...

 

[Pladio]

Another question

How important are the side quests that make you travel to other planets ?
Any of them interesting ?

They all seem samey...
Go to Planet X, kill everyone, find item, go back...
Or something like that.

Any ideas or comments ?

 

[joxer]

It you'll use your savegame for ME2 and then for ME3, there are indeed some sidequests in ME that affect war assets in ME3.

Other than that, it's mostly just a filler and lore addition, but I adored Mako and just had to find every single trash maw to nail. Some of that filler is tied to the main story in sequels for example AI that went crazy on the moon will appear again just where you couldn't possibly expect.
Sadly, of two suspicious "companies" that appear in sidequests, only one continues in 2 & 3, while the other one (ExoGeni) sadly gets removed from the story with silly excuses by writers.

Keep in mind that trashmobs don't respawn (except in the final mission if you're staying at the same spot instead of pushing forward) so ME filler is not annoying as in DA:I.

 

[azarhal]

ME has more assets reuse than DA2 and more MMO-ish questing than DAI, but there are some interesting side quests among them lorewise. In general, the more there is VO to introduce the quest, the more there is a storyline behind it.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Another question

How important are the side quests that make you travel to other planets ?
Any of them interesting ?

They all seem samey…
Go to Planet X, kill everyone, find item, go back…
Or something like that.

Any ideas or comments ?

Eh, half of the game was a slog...ignore pick up of Mother What's-her-name teachings, salarian dog tags or something.
Do Moon mission...you need it to further spec.
And don't visit the monkey planet. You'll go mad.

 

[azarhal]

And don't visit the monkey planet. You'll go mad.

Unless you love the Mako, it's one of the less annoying planet from the ones not related to the main story for driving around.

 

[joxer]

ignore pick up of Mother What's-her-name teachings, salarian dog tags or something.

"Mother What's-her-name teachings" that I suppose are Asari writings plus Data Recovery on Feros (Gavin's Data up the stairs from geth shrine) and if Conrad Verner was "charmed" in both ME1&2 then survived in ME3:
= 5 points war asset in ME3

Only 5 seems nothing, but 5 here, 5 there… It tends to matter.

Salarian dog tags you can definetly ignore.
Unlike Asari writings, these pokemon are useless in sequels.

 

[JDR13]

Eh.. what was the monkey planet? I'm trying to jog my memory...

 

[azarhal]

Eh.. what was the monkey planet? I'm trying to jog my memory…

The planet with the pyjaks with the quest Lost Module.

 

[JDR13]

Ok, I remember that now.

ME1 had the best exploration of the series by far.

 

[Pladio]

So, it seems it may affect ME2/3, but other than that it's basically for experience and a teeny bit of lore.

I guess I'll just go ahead and do the companion side quests only, like the Krogan armour one and maybe a few others which sounds somewhat interesting.

I don't think the Mako is particularly interesting after 10 missions or so. It's a cool mechanic though and I wish other games experimented with these things.

 

[Moriendor]

FWIW, as I said I did not enjoy the Mako very much (the Firewalker glider in ME2 was way more fun IMHO but it's a DLC thing) and finished ME in ~17 hours without doing any/many optional assignments. I never felt like I missed out on anything in part 2 or 3. You definitely don't have to torture yourself .

 

[joxer]

You'll miss *everything*!

 

[Falksi]

I loved the sidequests and Mako. The worlds themselves just felt so atmospheric, it really helped make me feel like a starship commander exploring space.

 

[Pladio]

Just downloading the HD mod

It's 4.4GB

Hope it makes a difference