The first game I ever played in the trilogy was ME3, so my first few games were non-import games until I went and bought ME1 and ME2. But it has been almost two years since I last played a non-import game. So, for grins I decided to fire up a non-import game to see what it was like after almost two years of complete trilogy runs. Here are some of my impressions.
When first meeting Anderson he never mentions Shepard talking to a Reaper and then killing it. Nor does he mention the harvest. Instead, he says "we've read your reports." This struck me as very odd. It makes it sound as though Shepard had visited a remote and unknown part of the galaxy and dealt with the Reapers there rather than at the very center of galactic government. Why this change? It seems it would be more expository to actually talk about how a Reaper almost took over the Citadel.
When talking with TIM Shepard says "you brought me back because you know what I can do." The phrase "brought back" has no context. Nowhere has it been mentioned that Shepard died and was resurrected. Shouldn't the VS have mentioned that? Instead, when the VS finds the dead Cerberus trooper he questions why Shepard worked for Cerberus, but never mentions that Shepard was rebuilt by Cerberus.
When we flew to the Citadel I remembered back to my first time seeing it. The codex states that it was built by the Protheans and that's all I knew. I have to wonder at what point it is going to be mentioned that it was actually built by the Reapers? When we meet star brat at the very end? I also have to wonder what Vendetta will say when he explains that the Citadel is the Catalyst. I have to wonder if the writers suddenly realized that it was stupid a sin for the Council to continue to maintain its HQ on-board a Reaper built mass relay that they don't understand or know how to operate. Rather than try to explain this monumental stupidity, they just decided to sweep the whole "the Citadel was built by the Reapers" thing under the rug. I mean, if someone new to the game (like I was at one time) knew from the start that the Citadel was built by the Reapers right from the start of the narrative, they would have instantly caught on to how poorly the plot was constructed.
Starting at level 1 is a lot harder than starting at level 30. My BE's (playing as an adept on insanity) are hardly doing any damage at all because my powers are all so low ranked. I am used to BE's insta-killing mooks. Now they barely tickle them. I've had to use a lot more medi-gel than usual because I am not killing off the bad guys fast enough. Also, it has been some time since I have played a character without a damage reduction power, either tech armor or fortification. Its somewhat sobering to see how fast my shields and health can be chewed up. I wonder how a non-import Vanguard would fare on insanity. Charging into a group of mooks with a level 1 Charge would probably be suicidal. I have to question why the import game gets the skill bonuses that a non-import game doesn't. Shouldn't a player new to the series be given a boost up, rather than a veteran? Also, why are so many points pre-assigned? And why the level unlocks for certain powers? Not that the levels are that high: level 3 for Throw and Fitness, level 6 for Shockwave and Cluster Grenades. Playing on insanity will get you to level 3 when you first land on Mars, and level 6 by the time you get to the archives.
The Collector's edition guns and DLC guns really shine in this non-import game. With such wimpy powers, having decent guns really makes a difference. Thank god for the Eagle! And I broke my informal rule when we got to Mars and gave Kaidan and James Typhoons. (Liara gets a Hurricane and an Eagle.) Having squadmates that can dish out some punishment really helped because of all the stupid smoke. Smoke was a big problem because my powers were not killing the bad guys fast enough to keep them from continuously popping smoke and making it extremely hard to target them. But since my squad mates don't care about smoke and had decent weapons (OP, really) that was less of a problem than it otherwise would be. I think smoke was a bad idea unless they were going to give Shepard a helmet mod (like the geth scanner) to see through it.
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