Can I play mass effect from a nutral position?

Timzilla

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I've resiliently decided to do 5 Mass Effect play-troughs. One paragon male, One renegade male, do the same for two female Shepherds (if that makes sense) and then a male Shepard where I just do things my own way regardless of standing (I make the decisions I would in real life.)But I don't know if the last play-through is a good idea. This would mean I would have to delegate points to both charm and intimidate in ME1, and I wouldn't get the sweet bonuses that come with being full paragon or full renegade. So, the question I am really trying to ask is, Would the last play-through e a wise idea. If anyone has tried something like this in the past, tell me how it turned out.

Edit: My main concern is saving all the characters possible.
 

mindlesspuppet

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It's a bad idea. Because you need to have a certain amount of paragon/renegade points to avoid certain problems.

My first playthrough was pretty neutral, as I picked what I wanted to with no concern for moral points, twas a mistake.
 

Hader

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Timzilla said:
I've resiliently decided to do 5 Mass Effect play-troughs. One paragon male, One renegade male, do the same for two female Shepherds (if that makes sense) and then a male Shepard where I just do things my own way regardless of standing (I make the decisions I would in real life.)But I don't know if the last play-through is a good idea. This would mean I would have to delegate points to both charm and intimidate in ME1, and I wouldn't get the sweet bonuses that come with being full paragon or full renegade. So, the question I am really trying to ask is, Would the last play-through e a wise idea. If anyone has tried something like this in the past, tell me how it turned out.
A 'paragade' playthrough is quite common, and not as hard as you think it is. Though it can be if you make a really weird mix of paragon/renegade choices that balance out too finely.

I would suggest in ME1, just go through and do exactly what you want. Don't worry too much about charm/intimidate options there, just get certain story points as you want them. The most ME2 is going to give you is a small boost to paragon and renegade in the start anyways, and while that is helpful, it isn't that significant.

Basically, things should work out fine if you just do whatever the hell you want, regardless of paragon or renegade alignment, just as long as you go with one or the other and not do something that nets you zero points towards either side. Just make sure that whatever you do, you get points towards something. ME2 will make it harder on you with the way the system works, but with an imported save and its boost benefits, you can go far in both cases. I once finished an ME2 playthrough from and ME1 port with 100% paragon and almost 70% renegade.
 

Sneeze

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It's possible but as a result you may loose certain opportunities and miss out on certain things but that in itself will create a whole new experience so it's not a bad thing per se. I intend on doing it myself in the near future.
 

cubikill

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It works. Just make your last guy a solider, because there are less skills you need to upgrade, thus freeing up skill points to max out both charm and intimidate. And there are enough choices to max out both. So go for it, its fun.
 

squid5580

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I did it after doing a few runs and netting the full 1000. It was fun not being locked into one or the other.
 

RatRace123

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My main playthrough is as a neutral, it did take a lot of prep though, I had to go through the game 2 times once as a paragon and once as a renegade, this got me to level 60 and allowed me to max out persuade and intimidate without sacrificing many skill points (I only put 4 into each)
Afterwards though I was able to do a fairly neutral playthrough, with both paragon and renegade pretty much topped out, I ended up being more paragon than renegade, but not by much.

The point being, yes it's possible, it just takes at least 2 playthroughs of prep time.
 

Timzilla

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Sneeze said:
It's possible but as a result you may loose certain opportunities and miss out on certain things but that in itself will create a whole new experience so it's not a bad thing per se. I intend on doing it myself in the near future.
Will Vanguard work?
 

Sneeze

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Timzilla said:
Will Vanguard work?
Any class should work really, shouldn't really have much of a difference on Renegade or Paragon. I'm going to do it as a Biotic. That way I'll have one of each "main" class, Paragon Soldier, Renegade Engineer and a Mixed Biotic. Can't be bothered with the hybrid classes, personally.
 

Kortney

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Yeah, but you will be punished for it. Can't say much more without spoiling things however.
 

FirstPersonWinner

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Timzilla said:
I've resiliently decided to do 5 Mass Effect play-troughs. One paragon male, One renegade male, do the same for two female Shepherds (if that makes sense) and then a male Shepard where I just do things my own way regardless of standing (I make the decisions I would in real life.)But I don't know if the last play-through is a good idea. This would mean I would have to delegate points to both charm and intimidate in ME1, and I wouldn't get the sweet bonuses that come with being full paragon or full renegade. So, the question I am really trying to ask is, Would the last play-through e a wise idea. If anyone has tried something like this in the past, tell me how it turned out.
Basically the problem is that:
(A) You're character will act like he/she's bipolar
(B) Since you need to have high karma points on either side of the board to keep a lot of bad things in the games from happening (Including several character's death's: usually after you can't quell an argument) You're allies and things will die. A lot of them. In both games.
 

JourneyThroughHell

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It's a good idea if you're a good guy - this way you'll still be getting most Paragon points and, at the same time, really enjoying the game.

In fact, I suggest your last playthrough is the first one.

Yeah, there will be some problems if you're strictly neutral because BioWare made such a great morality system[footnote]They didn't.[/footnote] and some crucial dialogue choices could be unavailable to you, but it won't make the game much harder.

I did my playthrough as myself (as in - making the choices I would make) - and I turned out fairly good.
 

Timzilla

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Kortney said:
Yeah, but you will be punished for it. Can't say much more without spoiling things however.
Cant you just put anything you need to say in that spoiler box thing?

JourneyThroughHell said:
Yeah, there will be some problems if you're strictly neutral because BioWare made such a great morality system[footnote]They didn't.[/footnote] and some crucial dialogue choices could be unavailable to you, but it won't make the game much harder.

I did my playthrough as myself (as in - making the choices I would make) - and I turned out fairly good.
When I say Neutral, I mean just making choices as I would. Not trying to balance out my paragon and renegade point or trying to keep from getting points. I will mostly be making paragon choices, but There will be some renegade options I want to take.(Mostly in 2)

kman123 said:
I suggest going out and doing more productive things than FIVE playthroughs of Mass Effect.
There is nothing on T.V.
 

badgersprite

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You can. Absolutely. My first playthrough was like this. It made things interesting because options to resolve missions in the best way possible often weren't available to me because I didn't have enough Paragon/Renegade points to unlock higher Charm/Indimidate options.

I'd actually advise doing a neutral, "gut feeling" playthrough first like I did, because you won't have any previous experience telling you what the 'correct' choices are or influencing your opinion about certain issues that come up about, say, whether someone should be allowed to live, or whether they're too dangerous. Also, doing this one first would make it way more rewarding when you're able to resolve missions in different ways on your later playthroughs.
 

GiantRaven

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Everybody is coming at this from the wrong angle. It isn't a bad idea because you lose out on the best opportunities. The game just plays itself out to different consequences.
 

goddz001

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thi thing with this is that it really shows you that the most plasuable things to do that you would do in real life are often the hardest choices. its quite the experience and if your willing to spend this much time on the game i say go for it :)