# 54
So I really liked the story of ME1 even though I had already seen a cliff-notes version in the Genesis interactive comic. I like that you get most of your crew mates up front and then off you go to save the galaxy whereas ME2 you basically spend the entire game assembling your team, and then it’s time for the last mission. I was also happy that ME2 figured out a better way to make use of the entire team during the end game mission instead of in ME1, in which the during the last 2 missions the rest of your squad don't do anything. Was it too much to ask to show them manning turrets on the Normandy during the final space battle or something? On Virmire, there is obviously something else the 1 or 2 remaining squad members could have been doing given how that mission ends, but they don't because...reasons.
Driving the mako on the surface of planets isn't as annoying as I have seen people comment. Though
those planets which are 80% high mountains and deep valleys, those are really annoying to navigate as it takes forever to get from point A to B. Shooting wouldn't be so bad if the cover system was better, but it's pretty bad. When you press up against objects you do not snap in nearly as well as in ME2. Also since this is more of an action RPG there is tons of loot. 4 different weapon types (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle) all which have about a dozen different weapons manufacturers. Each of those different weapons have a level from 1 to 10 so in the early to mid-game you are constantly finding new weapons and mods (which also have a bunch of different types and 7-10 levels) to the point that it becomes a bit of a pain to constantly be switching out weapons and mods for you and your team. Though once you hit a million credits in the bank which unlocks Spectre gear it all becomes moot as those weapons surpass nearly every other weapon available without drawbacks.
The plat requires 3 full playthroughs (to do the majority of the available missions with all 6 crew members), and you have to beat it on the 2 highest difficulties, but there is a way to cheese it so that all you have to do is beat the 2nd phase of the final fight two more times to get the difficulty trophies out of the way, then you can play the other 2 playthroughs on whatever difficulty you want.
There's also the requirement to kill 150 enemies with each weapon, but it can be a pain in the ass to kill with weapons you are untrained in as the reticule is very wide and you don't get any damage bonuses from skill points. There's also the problem of your crew members snaking kills from you due to you doing weaker damage. There is a side-mission called the lost module in which docile monkeys have taken a piece of tech off a downed satellite. They appear in groups of 10 or so, with 2 groups of those groups close together. Make a manual save A, kill all the nearby monkeys (since they are docile your crew mates will not attack), make a save B in a different save slot, then load up save A; rinse and repeat. Your progress toward kills for the trophies is saved in a different file so you can knock out kills for a weapon you are not trained with in about 25-30 minutes each by reloading the first save and killing the same monkeys over and over.
They made the rather strange design choice to lock off aspects of the game until you start a new character. There are trophies for acquiring a million credits, killing a certain amount of times with each weapon, using a certain power X times, but these are tied to in-game achievements as well. When you start a new character you can choose a bonus power which was not a choice available to your first character. If you have completed one of the weapon or power use achievement with another character, then you can pick any of those as a bonus power. I was disappointed that this option was not provided to you when you reload a completed save to start NG+ with the same sheperd. I only figured out it existed when I started a fresh adept (basically a scifi-wizard) for my 3rd playthrough and was given the option of a bonus power at character creation (I chose sniper rifles for a change of pace).
Had I known they were more heavily leaning toward a remaster of the trilogy I probably wouldn’t have started it (it was announced partway through my 1st playthrough). But for the story, introduction to the ME universe and passable gameplay I would say it’s definitely worth at least 1 playthrough on normal or lower difficulty if the remaster ever hits before moving on to ME2.
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If going for the plat I would recommend this trajectory. Start with an Adept or Engineer (you have to use both of those classes at some point for the use powers X times trophies), pick 2 squad mates to play with the whole way through. I would recommend saving Liara for an engineer playthrough as she has powers very similar to the adept. Focus on getting all the weapon kill trophies (it is probably worth grinding it out killing monkeys) and power related trophies for your chosen class in the first playthrough. Most powers you can just cast even when there are no enemies around and it will increase the use counter, but AI Hacking (engineer) requires a drone or geth target for it to count so get that skill as soon as possible and use it as often as you can when fighting against synthetics. Also try to get the accumulate a million credits trophy to unlock Spectre weapons so that they will be available early to your 2nd character. As soon as you get 2 ally trophies and all that classes power trophies, beat the game.
Start a new character with the other class and now you will have the choice of a bonus power. If you got all the use class powers and weapon trophies out of the way, you can pick 1 of the 3 weapons or any of those skills as your bonus power. The reason to switch characters now is not only to make the game more fun with a different power set / extra power / weapon choice, but because your level is capped at 50 your first playthrough. Since you need to level your character to 60 for a trophy, any XP acquired after that point in the first playthrough is wasted. This second character you will be playing for 2 playthroughs. Get 2 more ally trophies and do every every non-collection side mission available while trying to kill as few enemies with the mako guns as possible (mako kills give 1/3rd the XP). This should push your level to the mid 50’s in the first playthrough with your second character. You can try to get all the rest of the powers use trophies in the first playthrough, but it isn’t required since power uses carry over into NG+ on the same character.
Either at the end of the first or second playthrough you should look up and use the hardcore/insanity difficulty made easy glitch to make unlocking those trophies very easy. Start up a new game and choose to load your second character’s profile to start NG+. By this point you should probably just have the medigel use trophy, the last 2 ally trophies, the lvl 60 trophy, and maybe either the paragon or renegade trophy left to unlock. Since you got a head start on lvl 60 in your second playthrough you should have no trouble reaching lvl 60 before the end of your 3rd playthrough. You will likely unlock all the rest of the trophies without even needing to beat the game a 3rd time.
I did it the opposite way (which is closer to what the guide recommends), 2 playthroughs and then 1 final playthrough with a different class and I was having to scrounge for every nugget of XP in my 2nd playthrough to reach level 60. I also did the first 2 playthroughs with an engineer and I didn’t end up enjoying that as much as the adept (though that might have also been due to the bonus weapon power). The Adept just has so many other fun crowd control options. So if I had to do it over again, I probably would have done 1 playthrough with the engineer and then my last 2 playthroughs with the adept.
