Mass Attraction

At first, I didn't like the shooter aspects, I initially played the game because of the storyline so yes, you can enjoy the story (put the minimal difficulty on it).
However, right now I'm the biggest fan of the shooting thing, it's pretty relaxing (and I tell you because my playthroughs are in Insanity mode so yes, the shooter can grow on you too

What dalinne and Lady Amell said ... play on the lowest level. It allows you to focus on the story and ignore the combat to a large extent. Early on in ME, your Shepard is a bit fragile, but you get better armor and weapons over time, so combat becomes fairly easy.

When you import your character from ME into ME2, you are starting out at something other than the most fragile Shepard ... and again, upgrades will make Shep even more sturdy.

Same for ME3. ME is the only one where (at least for your first play, with your first character) you have to play at your most fragile. But it doesn't last long. And learning will take place. It will become second nature as the game progresses through that first run.  Then, if you go back for a new character in ME, it won't seem so bad being level 1.

Frankly, after playing MP, SP Insanity is somewhere between Bronze and Silver MP and is really not too tough. But you don't have to go there. Just stay at the lowest level and focus on the story. In my first runs, in ME, ME2 and ME3, that's what I did. Then raised the difficulty level on subsequent runs. But for me, the story was always what brought me there.

OBTW, the highest difficulty setting on ME is not much fun nor much of a challenge ... it's just tedious. After scoring the achievement, I played all subsequent runs on the next level lower. ME2 and ME3 are not that way ... they make the higher difficulties more challenging ... but not tedious. Just my opinion, YMMV.

As others suggested above, it might help to play on the lowest difficulty so you can breeze through missions, choose a class that has a lot of powers instead of guns (for example, Sentinel), make another character your tank then. You don't have to land on every single planet, so Therum, Noveria, Feros, Virmire and Ilos (and the Citadel) are the only places you have to go to and that actually have something interesting going on. Also, if you don't like male Shepard's delivery, try female Shepard, or vice versa, if that's okay with you. I think both of the voice actors are good and have their own pros and cons, but femShep really does it for me, personally. The dialogue options vary among nice, neutral/sassy, and blunt/harsh, so it's not unlike DAI's dialogue, in my opinion. (I do find DAI superior in this department, although lacking on more evil options, but it is similar, imo.) While it's true there may not be many options to customise Shepard, you still have the background and psych profile of your choice that influence your character and varied dialogue choices, so there's some space for roleplay. The difference is that you already are an experienced soldier.

You could also try playing ME2 for a bit, if you have it, to see if it gets any better for you and whether it's worth it to play through the first game then if you don't like it that much.

When I started playing ME1, I wasn't exactly crazy about it, either. And that comes from a person that likes shooters. (Other than realistic ones, anyway.) I think the start is a bit awkward and frustrating, when you're still learning the game (and ME1 gameplay mechanics are rather clunky, but that gets better in the following games). It also feels a bit slow at first. The dialogue is scarcer than in DA games, even with the companions and love interests, which was a surprise for me picking it up after DAO and DAII, but there's still enough, I think. My love for this game was a slow burning one. At first I thought it was okay, at times even a bit meh, then I found myself more interested and immersed in the world, then I got caught up in the events and characters, and somehow when I finished ME1 I realised I really loved it and Shepard was one of my favourite video game protags (that was still mine enough) yet. So it definitely wasn't love at the first sight for me, either.

If you like games that are heavier on story and characters, then I think it would be a damn shame to miss out on ME. But if you really can't get through the gameplay no matter what, then I guess it can't be helped.

I liked ME1 at first, but only later have I grown to love the series, now it's my favourite gaming experience, including ME1. The story makes up for the clunky gameplay in ME1, it gets way better from ME2 on

You could try to pause to make aiming a lot easier. You will face a lot of geth, so you could pick the Engineer class, who can hack them so they fight for you (it's hilarious and one of my favourite talents). Engineer also has Neural Shock, which makes organic enemies pretty easy.
Sentinel is a good alternative class for Neural Shock as well and has biotic abilities, which are a lot of fun.

I'm not gonna lie, you will still have to shoot a lot, but on the lowest difficulty, this should not be too much of a problem. Also fully level up a weapon, gun preferably! I have found out that this results in a lot of damage
In ME2 and 3 you can mostly get through without having to use a gun, if you don't play Soldier.
If you absolutely don't like it then probably there's no way around but to avoid at least ME1. There's plenty of playthroughs on Youtube if you're only interested in the story.

Last night I downloaded the ME2 demo and tried it. I found I could live through the awful shooting bamboozle thanks to the streamlined mechanics - only to discover, after getting the full game, that contrary to Dragon Age, I couldn't set the past events in some sort of Keep to import into the second game. And this means I'm stuck with Ashley Further, this also means that if I want sexy Kaidan at my side, I will have to go through the slog of playing the 1st chapter. *sigh*


Hmmm, there must be console commands that lets you kill everyone and win any given fight immediately?

There's a comic for starters of ME2, initially only PS3, but according to the wiki it's also available for XBox and PC.
Please find more details here: masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect:_Genesis
It's $3,99 for XBox and 320 BW Points for PC.

Of course, like natureguy85 mentioned, a save editor works as well

And here he is:









38 hours... not exactly epic is it? Mind you I was playing on Casual - without any major DLCs.

Zaveed, Legion & half the crew died at the end - oh and Jack tried to dig for romance but He's an Alenko's man.

If you're that concerned about dying, use a console command to give you super armor and a super gun.  It makes you nearly invulnerable in fights and the weapon will kill anything with pretty much just one shot.  That will allow you to enjoy the really awesome storyline but not worry about the fighting.  However, save frequently anyway.  ME1 was horrible with the autosaves.  There are certain ways you can die regardless of the special armor and gun (the Mako is still very much vulnerable) and replaying certain areas repeatedly probably won't make you happy.

You probably don't want to hear this, but I suggest going back and starting the trilogy over now that you've finished 2 but before you've finished 3. The galaxy is 100X richer with an import save and it will definitely increase your enjoyment of ME2 (hard as that might be to believe) because you will have a much better understanding of the characters and galaxy. I played ME2 first and thought "this is cool, who is this dino-cat who apparently is my friend? Who are these Cerberus guys -- apparently I don't like them?" The second time I almost cried with joy at seeing Garrus again because I was working for those filthy terrorist Cerberus bastards and I needed a friend I could trust. Not to mention running into all the NPCs who referenced things my Shepard had done in the first game.

If that isn't enough incentive, some of the problems in ME3 can only be solved optimally if you chose the correct options in ME1. Also, you really want to have Wrex (and Conrad) in ME3.

I managed to finish Omega and Rannoch.  My Shepard is an infiltrator, because of the sniping rifle - which is the closest thing to the Skyrim crossbow or the DAI greatbow I used to enjoy in those games.  In any case I'm doing the Citadel DLC now - Anderson's apartment and all the notes for his biography were quite a nice touch - almost as if they were a message to Shepard; I can see why he came to see A. as a father figure.

I fully intend to restart with the first chapter, now that I'm used to the pace of this gaming genre.  I still don't like the rts mechanics but I can manage.  But first I'll install the Mehem mod to finish the game and avoid the nonsense of the holo child.

Is there a cheat code to bypass those absurdly annoying decryption locks in ME1? I'm on that planet where you have to deactivate a probe booby trapped with a nuke and I get fried all the time. Can't even use medigel on it.

For the record, I was never a fan of shooters. Found them a bit boring. Yet, I fell in love with ME. It's my all-time favorite game.. I've spent a lot of time playing the trilogy and nothing else has fully attracted my attention. Sometimes I'll go over to DA:I for a bit but them I'm back to ME.