So, just how Difficult is Insanity?

[WarmongerPhoenix]

I play with Hardcore as my Default difficulty. It brings challenges, but not frustratingly so (most of the time) and is still really fun. For me it's the only way to play.

That said I've never actually done an Insanity run, so I want to know when I'm getting into.

For comparison I counted my number of Deaths in all the games in my last run.
---I played as a Adept in all 3 games and 95-100%ed them---
ME1: 17 Deaths
ME2: 41 Deaths
ME3: 20 Deaths

So based on all of this am I in for a rough time, or what exactly am I getting myself into?

[Verios44]

Basiclly the big difference is that all enemy types besides the very basic have some kind of secondary defense. Armor, shields, or barrier.

Enemies have more health obv, and are more agressive.

Cerberus in ME3 love their grenades :D

[The Gill Thrill]

Originally posted by Verios44:

Basiclly the big difference is that all enemy types besides the very basic have some kind of secondary defense. Armor, shields, or barrier.

Enemies have more health obv, and are more agressive.

Cerberus in ME3 love their grenades :D

I cannot comment enough on how Cerberus really does love their grenades and smoke grenades in ME3 on insanity.

Insanity really is a lot more fun tho, it offers a challenge, and makes things a little more spicy.

[Gidëon]

I have only played on normal and insanity so I don't know how smooth the "progression" between each difficulty is but with insanity all you need to succeed is utilizing cover and powers that can easily destroy shields/barriers or armor, leaving cover is pretty much instant death as well as stuns/any cc that happens to you even with a ♥♥♥♥ load of defense so it is best to just take it slow and only fire/throw abilities when you know you 1. have shields, and 2. know you aren't gonna get hit by a rocket or something since that is basically a death sentence.

I played on sentinel so I had a little handicap with the tech armor but I have't really felt the games too be too hard other than a few parts in mass effect 2.

The first is an absolute breeze with an assault rifle, doesn't matter the class, idk if it was intended but I swear assault rifles are just broken, barely any overheat and the dmg is hilarious.

3rd, combos and giving Garrus the Cerberus harrier makes the game pretty smooth as well.

[Verios44]

Originally posted by The Gill Thrill:

Originally posted by Verios44:

Basiclly the big difference is that all enemy types besides the very basic have some kind of secondary defense. Armor, shields, or barrier.

Enemies have more health obv, and are more agressive.

Cerberus in ME3 love their grenades :D

I cannot comment enough on how Cerberus really does love their grenades and smoke grenades in ME3 on insanity.

Insanity really is a lot more fun tho, it offers a challenge, and makes things a little more spicy.

I will say tho that maxed out Flare is a really fun power. Got a group of centurians? Dont bother aiming the flare. Toss in the middle of the smoke and let the grunting commence :)

[wilky]

I didn't track deaths, but ME2 is by far the most (only) challenging one. ME3 has some cheap one-shot stuff like that dumb bridge in the Thessia mission, but it's not really a big deal to reload the auto-save and do it again. However, I remember dying once on the platforms battle in ME2, and then losing a second attempt when one of my squadmates disappeared, and it was like damn well there went 15 minutes... ME2 the most challenging, but also the most fun because it keeps you on your toes constantly. ME2 has more variety in enemy/mission types as well. In ME3, there are only two enemy/mission types (you've got 20 missions against cerberus troopers and 10 missions against reaper forces), and they're all the same, camp behind cover(don't get one-shot), use biotic detonations, wait for cooldowns, repeat until enemy respawns stop, a bunch of bland multiplayer maps for missions, etc.

[Nosco]

Not hard at all, just play Infiltrator or Soldier.

[Nothing.]

Difficulty and challenge will hinge upon your class mostly. If you were to play Soldier across all 3 games on Insanity for example, it would basically be easy mode since it's a strong class in all 3 games.

In your case on Insanity, Adept for the first game will probably be easier, as Adept is a force to be reckoned with and on the upper tier of classes. I don't expect you to have too many deaths as you already have experience with the game know what to expect, enemies are just going to have more health.

The second game will be the hardest on your journey as Adept, as Adept is easily the worst class in the game and most of your powers are useless and the global cooldown makes your class even harder.

The third game will be easier though, as Adept got some teeth back compared to Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 3 is also just kinda easier overall than Mass Effect 2.

In general, all Insanity really does most of the time is increase the amount of health enemies have, they don't really become smarter or anything like that. It makes the biggest difference in Mass Effect 2 because it basically makes every enemy in the game possess a protective layer which invalidates the effects of most powers in the game. This is the reason why Adept is the worst class in Mass Effect 2.

[orthostatic]

Originally posted by Nothing.:

In your case on Insanity, Adept for the first game will probably be easier, as Adept is a force to be reckoned with and on the upper tier of classes

Agree completely unless your game crashes to desktop when using biotics against final boss. Don't know if recent patch addressed this or not, but evidence of this bug is all over the Internet. Adept is still fun as hell, but make sure you bring the beefy companions to that fight in case you have to avoid certain abilities you've grown accustomed to.

[ADhalism]

i'd say that part of what makes ME2 the most difficult is because it's dynamic combat isnt as polished as it is in ME3 and personally I've done a lot of dying because of wrong cover being selected or jumping over the cover, stuff like that.

[ositodefelpa]

Adept is fine for insanity in all three games. It's particularly strong in ME1 and ME3, but more than good enough for ME2. Although I don't count my deaths, you had a lot more deaths on hardcore in ME2 than I did on insanity, which does suggest you have room for improvement.

My advice for adepts in ME2 on insanity is always the same: do not overlook the power of singularity, as it affects both protected and unprotected enemies.

[PatT4]

In me1, I can pretty much play adept and never die, except* for right after getting Liara. That damn Krogan on adept/insanity if you do it too soon... I take sniper rifle as my bonus power and the rest is trivial. What ppl say about adept on ME2 is correct. In me1, singularity pulls enemies (most) out of cover. There are also a few extra mobs on insanity, but nothing you can't deal with. I don't have as much exp. on 2 or 3, and I HATE that damn hover craft in 2.

[Overjoyed PumpkinPie]

It's pretty easy. Even easier with the save carry over bonus that have you start the game with quite a lot of points / abilities already unlocked. ME3 gets particularly easier as you will get tons of stat boosts from various sources and the combat control being pretty smooth; less chance of dying due to sticking to the wrong wall type of crap.

Difficulty would also depend on the class. Infiltrator and vanguard are the easiest imo. Santinel was a beast in ME2 but nurfed hard in ME3 if I recall due to a huge tech armor change. You could play Sentinel in ME2 pretty much like vanguard where you charge in face to face and never dies with the tech armor stun lock, shield gate, shield regen spam. I literally never died the entire playthrough back then on insanity.

Another factor that made ME3 felt ridiculously easy back then was the presence of multiplayer. Playing the multiplayer mode a few times will make any combats in the single player campaign a joke due to the sheer amount of difference in what the game throws at you.

[PatT4]

Originally posted by ADhalism:

i'd say that part of what makes ME2 the most difficult is because it's dynamic combat isnt as polished as it is in ME3 and personally I've done a lot of dying because of wrong cover being selected or jumping over the cover, stuff like that.

Oh gosh, I hate that. Taking cover on the wall facing the mobs. ! Yikes!

[Raider Deci]

How can ME2 be more difficult if youre not playing adept?!
All you need to do is sit behind some cover and wait for health-regen, extremely overpowered compared to the poor AI!

The biggest issue with ME2 outside OP regen, and adept suffers most, is that bioware loved to place enemies in unreachable positions, especially early on. Thankfully they stopped with that in 3

[sarah]

They nerfed biotics way too much in ME2. I never used Jack or Samara because that. You mainly just needed overload and incinerate to get through that game.