So I started playing Mass Effect 1 again...

[NewYork_Comedian]

... and I had completely forgotten how awful your friendly squadmates are in combat. They hardly ever listen to your orders, or if they do, it's only for a few seconds. Their aim and rate of fire on their weapons is cringe worthy (not able to hit a floating enemy 3ft away from them with the assault rife), and if they don't have any biotic or tech abilities, they are basically useless (looking at you Ashley).

I don't know why I noticed the AI being so bad this time around, possibly because I am playing on veteran, but almost every mission they piss me off to no end. Is their a correct way you are supposed to use them, or should I just be using them to soak up the damage for me?

 

[madwarper]

It depends on where you put their skill points...

Did you put their points into their Weapons skills? Biotics/Tech skills? Passive class skills?

Ashley is a little less useless if you use her as a tank and spec her passive regen.

 

[Rickin10]

It's been maybe a year since I last played ME1, but the word my memory most associates with the combat is 'painful'. Whenever I decide to do a trilogy run-through, I always have to do a risk/reward assessment as to whether to bother with the original,or just start at ME2. The atmosphere and the locations are fantastic, but the combat..? *shudders*

 

[Rack]

Pick a soldier Shepherds main class, use only tech and biotic squadmates and use them as debuff bots.

Then play Vampire Bloodlines, Planescape Torment, Fallout, Mask of The Betrayer, Witcher 2 or any one of a number of good RPGs instead.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

It's interesting how different perspectives can make for different experiences.

I had first played ME1 on my PC because I have no Xbox and I wasn't going to jump into a story-driven series on the second game. So I nutted up, installed Origin, and downloaded Mass Effect onto my laptop. Now, I know exactly dick about how computers work, and I have no idea if my laptop is underpowered, over-encumbered, or what, but nothing I tried could make the game any less than marginally playable. The framerate was terrible, and on the Citadel there were places it almost stopped entirely. This made the combat very bad. Truly awful, I would say, especially as the game was designed with a controller in mind and my laptop keyboard is unresponsive as shit. I still liked the game, thanks to everything about it BUT the combat, but man, were some of those sections atrocious.

Fortunately, I recently got my hands on the PS3 version of the Mass Effect Trilogy, and can finally play my favorite game series, in its entirety, on one platform, and transfer my character through the whole thing. And I have discovered that I love ME1 a lot more than I thought I did now that the combat sections are actually functional. More than functional, in fact, and even enjoyable. I am now convinced that all you jerks who played it on the 360 when it came out are spoiled by Gears of War. Mass Effect has a perfectly decent combat system, with some rough edges to be sure, but really nothing to whine about. Try playing an actually broken game and then we'll talk.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Yeah, the AI wasn't very good, but I don't remember it being too much better in the other two games either. About the only thing squad mates were useful for is telling them when and where to use their special abilities, and that was it. However, the thing I hated most about the first game was the horrible inventory system. How hard it could possibly be to make a simple, easy inventory, I don't know, but it just a goddamn mess in that game and I spent a good 10-15 tedious minutes after each mission sorting through it all, making sure my companions had the appropriate gear and selling off the shit I didn't need (in which I had to double and triple check to make sure it was indeed what I wanted to sell and not something else). Gah, such a mess.

The strange thing is, rather than improve the inventory, they pretty much just scrapped it entirely for the next two games. A bit of a lazy work around, I must say.

 

[srm79]

I just finished playing it, having been unaware until recently that it was on the PSN Store. I had played ME 2 & 3 last year (pre-"fixed" ME3 endings), and this seemed like a really good time to finally do a trilogy play through. All I can say about the combat in ME1, having played its sequels first, is "yuk".

AI squadmates hog the ideal cover refusing to budge from corners. They block your shots. If you order them to move to another spot they tend to run out into the open then stand in no cover blasting away at thin air. If you decide to move to new cover, they follow you and do the hog/block thing all over again.

You get used to it, you adapt and you overcome. But you still swear a lot at it.

I still enjoyed the game overall, but the combat was pretty crappy. And the inventory system? Just....no.

 

[Guffe]

I haven't played any of the mass effect games but a friend of mine replayed 1,2 and 3 and he said that since he now knew the ending he already in the second game noticed a lot things hinting what was going to happen, and especially in the third game he sais it's crazy how it came as such a shock what was going to happen
It's always easy when you know the future

 

[fix-the-spade]

Is their a correct way you are supposed to use them, or should I just be using them to soak up the damage for me?

For Ashley, upgrade all her durability/regen abilities then use her to aggro large opponents, she becomes pretty handy then.

 

[Frotality]

ive noticed in bioware games party members are less useful the less control they give you over them.

KOTOR/dragon age: full control, and your buddies are an integral part of combat, some better than the player character at points.

mass effect: control of abilities and basic action commands, but only really good for the occasional sabotage or something. you get ashley and garrus and give them high explosive round snipers and youll get some results though.

jade empire: completely passive, and completely useless. you can choose whether they fight or provide a buff, and neither helps. i suppose as a fighter they can distract ONE enemy for a short time before they die...

 

[AD-Stu]

Yeah, trying to get them to do what you want them to do is an exercise in frustration - TBH in all three games I really just use them to spam tech/biotic/combat abilities. ME1 is actually the best game in that regard because they've got more usable abilities and with individualised cooldowns you can spam a lot more of them.

I never really notice where they're shooting and as for directing them (much more difficult in ME1 than the sequels, granted) it's mostly just about keeping them out of the line of fire.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Come on Ashley is a great tank. Send her out into the middle of battle with the right armor on and she can't die. Plus, her immunity power can compensate just in case you don't have very good armor.

Something else that is ridiculous: the health padding. In lieu of actually increasing the actual difficulty on insanity, they just give enemies ludicrous amounts of health. Some enemies are able to survive the lift-throw combo off the LARGEST CLIFF IN THE GAME and lose, at most, half their health bar. And don't even get me started on the Krogan...

Also, why is it that the biggest threat to a tank in that game wasn't giant space worms or turrets or heavy mechs, but snipers? Have enough of them en masse and your shields will do a lovely vanishing act.

 

[Bealzibob]

This amongst many others is why I never bought the second mass effect (though seemly to my own detriment as the second appears to be a work of art). The first Mass Effect was the purest and most expansive example of concentrated "meh" I've ever played. Never have I finished a game before and sat back with the knowledge that I had just played something so amazingly mediocre that I would never again in my life remember how little this game would not effect me.

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

Also, why is it that the biggest threat to a tank in that game wasn't giant space worms or turrets or heavy mechs, but snipers? Have enough of them en masse and your shields will do a lovely vanishing act.

Currently I am doing the side mission where you have to kill a bunch of geth on several planets in a cluster, and I was forced to go on foot to take out those snipers in the towers because my turret couldn't line up a shot because the terrain was to hilly.

Going for the buff Ashley's health idea though seems to be working, that or the stronger armor my squad has on only makes them die from rockets and concentrated biotic attacks now.

 

[templar1138a]

As someone who's gone through multiple insanity-level play-throughs, these are the steps I take to keep my companions from being annoying and make them incredibly useful.
1. Set your AI power usage such that they only use defensive powers automatically.
2. Pull from Tali, Liara, Kaiden, or Wrex. In other words, the ones with the most attack powers. Garrus has some himself, but he's not as sturdy as Wrex and doesn't have as much tech to utilize as Tali. And as you've said, Ashley is practically useless (and an annoying misoxenist to boot).
3. If you know you're about to go up against a lot of enemies, order your companions to take cover at corners that will be behind you. You may see a lot of shots hitting your rear shields, but they won't do any damage to you and your squad will stay alive.
4. With biotics, invest in singularity and lift. They make for awesome crowd control and will save your ass nine times out of ten.
5. If you're in a base on one of the side-exploration planets and both your companions go down, run for the door. Once you exit the building, they'll be by your side and alive automatically.
6. Most important of all, invest in first-aid.

Off-topic: American Express can kiss my ass.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Yes, I found I had to turn the difficulty down on ME1 just because my squadmates were... well what they were. I'm used to playing ME2 - ME3 only, from being on the PS3 and challenging myself with the higher difficulties and enjoying new game + abilities and ME1 was a total ME culture shock for me - until I relented and turned it down to newb difficulty because all I really cared about was the story I'd missed out on, then everything was breezy.

 

[Furioso]

All I remember about ME1 combat is that with the right setup you can use your shotgun at long range very effectively, allowing you to blow away people at only slightly less range than the assault rifle (With the same damage as a shotgun at close range). It's goddamn hilarious and I love the game for it.

 

[Zeldias]

Didn't find it that bad. But I might also be completely in love with how baddies rag doll when I shotgun them dead. Damn do I miss that.

I also bring Liara and Tali almost everywhere (it's hard for me to not bring Wrex/Ashley and Garrus sometimes, since I really like them), and always make sure to get out of the Mako before killing a big enemy to get the full XP.

But yeah, crowd control is your friend in ME1. I found the allies in ME to be largely useless without a good deal of micromanagement in each part of the trilogy, though.

 

[AD-Stu]

All I remember about ME1 combat is that with the right setup you can use your shotgun at long range very effectively, allowing you to blow away people at only slightly less range than the assault rifle (With the same damage as a shotgun at close range). It's goddamn hilarious and I love the game for it.

LOL - never tried that one It's just one of a dozen differrent ways to break the combat in ME1 though. There's the Immunity ability, which makes you basically unkillable AND lasts for about as long as its own refresh time. Or there's the Overload / Sabotage combo which renders your enemies' guns AND shields useless - take along a couple of teammates with those abilities (Garrus, Tali, Kaidan) and you can pretty much spam them endlessly. And then there's abusing the stupid enemy AI by just peeking your targeting reticule around a corner or over a hill so you can pump enemies full of slugs while they spend all their time shooting into the hills... there's the never-overheating assault rifle trick, and then there's all the biotic fun you can have.

 

[Varrdy]

After several years and more than a few playthroughs, I have just completed my first playthrough of Mass Effect (1) on the Hardcore difficulty setting. I skipped over the Veteran difficulty as there's no achievement for completing the game on that level and I am an achievement whore. To make things a bit easier, I used my Level 60 M-Shepard with all the toys carried over from the last playthrough, which is kinda moot to be honest as I only have 2 Shepards - one Male (Lion) and one Female (Rosie) - I do plan on starting anew with a biotic-focused charcater at some point, too. He / She will also follow the renegade path as I've not been down that road, yet.

As the name suggests, Hardcore mode really ramps up the difficulty and I learned quickly that I needed to change my play style, big-time! It throws in more powerful enemies at various points and beefs up the regular ones with better shields and weapons. Needless to say, attrition was right out, even though I finally got my hands on the coveted Predator M X armour - widely regarded as the best "all-round" armour in the game - and my entire squad was kitted out with X-Level Spectre weaponry (the benefits of "New Game-Plus") and, as bad as it can be, I found myself ducking into cover a hell of a lot more.

You need to use whatever powers you have and use them often! It's imperative that you make more use of the squadmate commands, even if it's to stop them shooting at crates / walls because there's a baddy on the other side (this is my biggest annoyance in ME1 - the squad AI is woeful!) as you simply cannot do all the work at this level of difficulty. Spamming biotic and tech powers is also a big help and, with the right timings and aiming, biotics can make the slog up the Citadel exhaust plain a breeze! Just lob them into the air and, if you or your squadmate's lift ability is high enough it can toss them into open space, killing them instantly. If not, you can "help" them on their way with biotic throw or sledgehammer rounds. If you are playing a soldier class, like Lion Shepard is, you WILL need to use Immunity and Shield Boost near constantly and use the weapons special functions too. Unlike on lower levels, you can't just Assault-Rifle everything to death; the shotgun has the Overkill power and Krogan are best engaged with the sniper-rifle or they WILL charge you and, unless you can catch them with biotics, it will be like being hit by a Mack truck!

I will go through ME2 & 3 on Hardcore in due course...and then it will be time for the ultimate test - Insanity mode!