Eversince this new title from BioWare was announced, RPG fans (and Xbox 360 fans) have been dying to get their hands on it. Now, though, the wait is over, and this epic space opera is finally on store shelves.
Mass Effect tells the story of one Commander Shepard, an Alliance soldier that's tasked with saving the galaxy from utter doom. We've all saved the world in RPGs before this, but an entire galaxy? That ups the stakes considerably. Along the way, Shepard will need to rescue damsels in distress, make sweet alien love, explore strange planets, and discover wondrous technology that's been lost for millenia.
After creating your character, you'll be permitted to begin your career in the Alliance. Well, that's not quite true: your character will already have spent many years in the Alliance military, so that you don't wind up having to go through basic training or anything like that.
Speak to Joker and the co-pilot here (you can use the X button to skip dialogue), then start making your way backwards through the ship. You can speak with Navigator Pressly as well as Doctor Chakwas and the unfortunate Corporal Jenkins for some Codex information and small XP bonuses. You can also go to the Squad screen to allocate your first skill points.
Tip: First Aid can be activated with the Y button if you're hurt. You can only hold five medi-gels at a time, and they'll be fairly commonplace here on Eden Prime, so don't hesitate to use them if you need them. Likewise, you can hold five grenades (usable with your Select button). If you pick up medi-gels or grenades when you already have a full supply, the extras are discarded, so try not to be full at any given time.
Get your bearings here, and get used to the basic combat systems. Pull the left trigger to aim your weapon, and the right trigger to fire. You can switch weapons with the LB button, but note that any weapon you're untrained with will be all but unusable; you won't be able to aim properly. RB will use any special attacks that your character is capable of.
Make your way through this first area, using the gasbags as target practice. You can find your first treasure chest in the water in front of you; hang a right into the little culdesac to find some upgrades. Move on until Jenkins takes a dirt nap. Be careful here; the Geth Probes have special weapons that will ignore your shields, so it's easy to take damage from their fire. Shoot back until they go down, then check Jenkins body before moving on.
Move along, continuing to shoot any enemies you spot and check for loot in the chests and containers that you spot. You'll probably gain another level pretty soon, so be sure to check your menu screen and allocate points when you can do so.
Eventually you'll run across Ashley Williams, who's on the run from the Geth. Save her and she'll join your squad. As a Soldier, she's a good replacement for Jenkins. Load her up with Assault Rifle points and give her some Soldier skills to regenerate her health.
Near Jenkins, you'll find a bunch of equipment in chests. You'll want to use the Equipment screen around this time to switch out your equipment and upgrade it with any new tech that you've found. You probably have a set of Scorpion armor at this point; if your character can only use light armor, it'll be a handy upgrade.
When you reach the camp, a few Husks will reanimate. Like any other zombie, they'll shuffle towards you, attempting to overload your shields with an electrical burst. Backtrack away from them to prevent them from reaching you, and use Kaiden's Throw ability to keep one of them on the ground while you shoot the others.
When you get past the Husks, move into the camp and attempt to unlock the door with the Decryption mechanic. Save your game before doing so. Decryption is a basic button-tapping game. It will either be easy or difficult, depending on your hand-eye coordination, but if you miss your chance at the decryption it'll cost you 25 omni-gel to override, which you probably won't have unless you break down a number of items. If you can bust through the door, though, you'll find Dr. Warren and her crazy assistant. If you investigate, she'll tell you more about the attack; you can also punch out Manuel.
Make your way to the spaceport over the hill; you can kill the Geth Troopers by firing on the explosives near them. When the Husks are dead, hack the door on the pod nearby to find some farmers. When you attempt to leave them, you can use your Charm/Intimidate abilities, if you have them, to try and wheedle out more goods and information from them. At the very least, though, you'll get a nice pistol. Be sure to check inside the hut, too; there's a locker you can hack into for more goodies.
Head to the spaceport nearby to find Nihlus' body. Before checking it, open the medical crate nearby and look behind the fire for an upgrade kit. When you check out Nihlus' body, a man nearby will tell you what he saw. If you managed to get Cole to give up his contact's name, you can press him for some grenades.
Start making your way down to the train level. There are loads of Geth on it, however, including a Destroyer. If you look carefully, though, there are also some plasma cells that you can shoot to blow them up; that'll help you wean the enemy Geth a bit. The Destroyer will make its way up the center of the train, so take cover and shoot at it as it approaches. If it gets near to you, use Throw and any other abilities you have to knock it out, then sprint down the train to get close to the remaining Geth and destroy them as well. This can be a tough fight, to be sure, so don't hesitate to replay it and get used to the controls here. Your abilities can make all the difference in this fight, so don't hesitate to use them.
When you get to the other platform of the spacedock, you'll find that the Geth have triggered four charges designed to blow the whole place sky-high. Apparently they're not concerned with their own well-being, either, as they've decided to stay behind and guard the charges in an attempt to prevent you from shutting them down.
The Geth here are a lot more difficult than what you've been facing before; there are shock troopers and even a sniper or two in position. They'll deal heavy damage to you, so take things slowly. Stay behind cover as you approach, use your grenades from a distance, and use your abilities to weaken them up or knock them down. Don't worry about the charges until your foes are dead. When you've cleared everything out, return to their positions on your minimap and shut them all down.
With the charges done, head to the other side of the spaceport, where a few Geth await you. Shoot them and the Husks, but be sure to examine the port carefully for containers and lockers before approaching the beacon. When you do investigate it, your mission ends.
After speaking with Anderson, head out to the mess hall and talk to Ashley and Kaiden. This is optional, but you can get into their good graces, or bad graces, depending on how the conversations progress. You can check the CIC area and the navigation area for some codex entries. When you're ready to move on, head to Joker and begin your run to the Citadel.
You land on citadel station and immediately meet with the human Ambassador, Udina. He's not a pleasant man. He'll tell you and your party members to meet him in the Council Tower so that you can brief the Council on Saren's actions.
You now have free reign of the Citadel, but you'll want to head directly to the Council Tower. Doing so will get you some quests and give you a little context to your actions. When you do get the chance to explore, though, make note of the Citadel transit system: it'll help you get around quickly. You'll also want to speak to an Avina module to get more information on the Citadel, if necessary.
Regardless of what you do, the Council will find Saren not guilty, so it'll be up to you to find some proof of his misdoings. That will lead you into the Garrus and Shadow Broker quests. You can perform both of these quests at the same time; both will net you new party members.
From now on, we'll mostly focus on giving walkthroughs for individual missions and assignments instead of telling you what to do step-by-step. If you're curious about where to obtain a mission, we'll usually tell you where to nab it; if not, you can assume that it pops up normally while you play.
Garrus is the C-Sec investigator who was assigned to look into Saren's misdeeds. Saren hides behind layers of obfuscation, though, and nothing that Garrus found was capable of sticking to him. If you can track Garrus down, though, you can perhaps compare notes with him.
Head to Chora's Den in the Wards. Some special friends will be waiting for you outside. Kill them and head in. You'll find Harkin at a table inside the bar. He's no charmer, but he'll give you the information you need: Garrus can be found at Dr. Michel's place in the Upper Wards.
Wrex is a krogan bounty hunter that was apparently tasked with tracking down Saren on behalf of the Shadow Broker. He can currently be found in the C-Sec Academy. Track him down and speak to him; he'll join up.
After gaining both Wrex and Garrus for your party, it'll be time to make a little trip to Chora's Den, where Fist is located. Chora's Den has been shut down, however, and converted into a bit of a shooting gallery. You may want to park your party members outside by pressing down on the D-Pad, then moving to the doorway and using your powers to off a few of the guards before regrouping and heading inside to mop up.
After dealing with the warehouse workers, head into Fist's office. You may want to deal with him yourself, again. You can simply hold your partners back, hide behind one of the panels, and start shooting; you can also just tell your teammates to move forward to the far panel and fire from there. The turrets offer a bit of experience, so try to kill them before taking down Fist.
Fist will reveal that he's set up the Quarian in an ambush; she'll die in a few minutes if you don't reach her first. If Wrex is along, he'll ice Fist whether you like it or not. You can grab a data disc off of his body which will come in handy for the Reporter's Request; presumably you have some way of obtaining it if Fist doesn't die. Before you leave the room, hack Fist's wall safe for some upgrades.
3a8082e126