Mass Effect 2’s combat is probably the main reason why it’s so accessible to fans outside of the western RPG scope. In recent years, the third person shooter has been overshadowed by its FPS counterpart, but Mass Effect manages to do it well enough to steal some of the shooting spotlight. That said, for those not familiar with how the game works, you may find yourself eating the dust enough to make you want to break your keyboard or controller. Here are a few tips to get you through some of the more frustrating missions.
Squad Selection There’s a wide cast of characters to recruit and while it doesn’t matter who you bring along on easier challenges, as you gently turn the knob up the encounters start to filter out the weaker party members. Generally speaking shotguns aren’t very exciting in Mass Effect 2, unless you’re using a biotic charge to get into point blank range and unfortunately none of your squad mates have that ability. Miranda is always great to bring along because of her maxed out ability boosting your squad’s health and weapon damage, whereas Jacob is simply a pushover that’s a chore to bring along even on his own loyalty mission. Grunt stands out as a safe choice in most missions simply because like all Krogans, he’s incredibly difficult to take down and acts as a safety blanket in that regard. Both Garrus and Zaeed are also great choices because of the weapons they use and very good passive abilities (50% weapon damage for Zaeed and 25% weapon and power damage for Garrus).
Use the camera to your advantage Due to the fact that you’re constantly in third person perspective you can see around corners without actually poking your head around the corner. While your instincts may tell you to keep your eyes on the guy with the assault rifle shooting away, you should be mindful of what other enemies are doing; losing track of one can mean you’re about to get flanked or you’re moments away from catching a shotgun in the back. It also helps to look for new places to reposition your squad since they have a habit of getting themselves into bad situations once you start playing on Veteran and higher. In fact, you should always be mindful of where your squad is since the AI has a really bad habit of running out into the open or in some cases trying to sell fresh cookies to Krogans.
Don’t poke your head around While you may notice that your weapons have the most asinine recoil or horrendous spread, the enemies don’t. If someone is firing on you while you’re in cover and you decide to pop out to return, you’re going to get lit up like a Christmas tree. The soldier and infiltrator classes have ways around this (mostly due to being able to slow the game down and the infiltrator being able to disappear from sight), but other classes truly need to wait for a break in the fire else they run the risk of having their face redecorated. Another reason not to sit in the ‘aiming’ mode is because even while you’re behind cover the reticule is active. This is most helpful for sniper rifles when you want to take a quick shot but it works for every weapon. Keep in mind that you can aim before your Shepard ever looks at the intended target.
Being Rambo doesn’t work Even if you’re playing as a vanguard and you can zip across the map, it usually doesn’t pay off unless you know what you’re doing. If there’s a single enemy on the far left then by all means, zoom over and take him out in order to take over the flank, but if there’s a bunch of mercenaries lined up, you probably won’t last past a single pull of the trigger. Sprinting from one piece of cover to the next is a good idea, so long as you’re not trying to cover too much of the map. One way to determine that it’s safe is the behavior of your squad. Once the coast is clear they’re step out of cover and regroup on you, letting you know all of the enemies are down.
Use your squad’s powers They’re there for a reason. While the game gives you the option to let them use their abilities willy-nilly there are times when you’ll want them to focus their efforts on a particularly dangerous enemy. There’s no real point in watching Garrus use his concussive shot cooldown on one enemy when there’s another with a shield that you’re currently dealing with. Combining powers is also one of the finer points of combat. While there are several combinations, one of the funniest things to see is a mercenary floating through the air care of Jack while a vanguard Shepard charges right up into the sky to knock them silly.
