Games Mass Effect 1, 2, 3... Your salvation through destruction (Spoilers)

Vega is cool. I went into ME3 thinking I'd hate him on principle, but he turned out to be chill and awesome.

I snipe with a pistol, and use the sniper rifle as a shotgun.

Come to think of it, I do that in every game...

It's the easiest way to max out levels in ME by far. Find hills, corners, etc., and snipe large enemies. About the only one it's usually not practical for is a Thresher Maw (though the Widow works wonders on the one in ME2). Since you get around 4x the amount of XP for killing things on foot as you get from killing them with the Mako, you can easily hit 54 on a single playthrough if you try. I don't think I've ever gotten higher than that, but I've hit that high on a couple playthroughs where I was not trying to optimize XP. I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually possible to hit 60 on a single Insanity playthrough if you make sure not to get any kills with the Mako and you do in fact kill everything you possible can. (More likely, though, you'd top out around 56-57... those upper levels are insanely long XP slogs).

Banshees are far and away the toughest enemies in ME3, IMO. Even with a fully optimized Infiltrator – Black Widow V with damage bonus, maximum damage for sniper headshots, maximum sniper bonus when cloaked, with a relevant ammo power enabled – it took me a minimum of four or five headshots to kill one. On Normal.

All I have to say is that I'm grateful not to have to deal with... blast, can't remember their names. The floating, awful husk-type annoyances with smash-the-ground-make-a-shockwave-and-recharge-barriers ability... as in ME2.

If they do DLC, I hope they include Collectors and maybe some other enemy types, as I would agree that the variety of enemies in 2 felt a bit wider. In 3, it's Cerberus or Reapers, and that's it. Adding some Collectors to the mix would change things up quite a bit. It would be nice to see some basic criminal scum who have just decided to profiteer, too, because let's be honest: even in the hellish situation ME3 represents, there would be pirates, etc. out there. Having to fight some regular folks (renegade Blue Suns, etc.) would make for a nice change of pace.

On which note: am I the only one that noticed that the Blue Suns' history seems to have been retconned? Did they just do that in case people didn't have the Zaeed DLC, or what? In any case, I found it quite annoying, and I'd have really enjoyed seeing Vido Santiago get some payback.

Other things that they really should have done (missed opportunities for awesome): Gianna Parasini. Seriously. Could have been doing her job and stumbled on Cerberus, and you help her take that particular ring down, and it would have been awesome. And she should have been a romance option, after the way they played her in both 1 and 2 (where she was fantastic). Heck, maybe you save her life and she helps you save the galaxy and it's far better than the other new female option for Shepard.

Kal Reegar, of course. The right voice actor for Mordin Solus. I can't believe they dropped those and added freaking Jessica Chobot instead. Which leads me to say: either Emily Wong or Khalisah should have been on the Normandy instead. Given how epic they made that Twitter livestream for Emily Wong, having Khalisah on the Normandy would have been amazing, and so much better than what we got. Especially since Shepard tells her to do exactly what Allers ends up doing on the Normandy if you go Paragon. *sigh*

Actually having to kill Rana Thanoptis instead of just reading about it. That would have been perfect for two reasons. First, it would have made you actually confront something that we've heard the Reapers do but haven't really seen: corrupting insiders through indoctrination and using them to wreak havoc. Saren ended up an outsider quickly enough not to count, and Udina is analagous but not indoctrinated. Second, it would have been a perfect case of Paragon options coming back to bite you in the rear, which I firmly believe they should at times; that's how reality is.

Ah yes, Praetorians. Ugh. Don't miss them. Abominations and husks were both trivial if you had anyone with Push or Shockwave with you. And I actually discovered that Scions were pretty easy... just not intuitive. Unlike every other enemy in the game, they're trivially easy to kill if and only if you're not in cover. You just keep moving, and it's easy to dodge their Shockwaves. Take them down first, and deal with everything else next. Not a problem. Husks were annoying much more difficult again in ME3.

I wouldn't mind seeing them back, actually. Again: more variety is good in general. But with Banshees, that role has largely been replaced.

Last night in MP I ended up killing a husk that grabbed me by throwing it on the ground and crushing its throat. I felt incredibly badass.

Yeah, that's true about the mako. Even with my soldiers, I always made sure to jump out and take things on foot. In hardcore, that was quite a challenge (never tried insanity).

Also, I am disappointed that I could not romance Javik.