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Coming to Grips With the Mako

admin
2022-12-03 10:10:58

The Problem

When the guys and girls at Bioware started creating the original Mass Effect game, I'm fairly certain there was not a single one among the people involved who had any idea what an all-terrain vehicle should look like, how it should behave, what its characteristics are, and how it should perform. Needless to say, the Mako is almost the complete opposite of what an ATV should be.

Its shape alone is ludicrous: If we assume that Commander Shepard is about six feet tall, we have way more than ten feet of car before we even reach the front wheels. That's not what you want in an ATV. You'll want the wheels to be as close to the edges of the car as possible. In rough terrain, your car will crash into the ground constantly otherwise. It certainly doesn't help that when the Mako's bow touches the ground, which happens all the time, it feels like it's made out of rubber - the Mako is suddenly and violently repelled from the ground, in a manner of speaking.

Which only exacerbates the Mako's main problem: It's not heavy enough. The fact that it's not heavy enough means it bounces around whenever the ground is not as flat as a pancake, which is bad, because a wheel that's not in contact with the ground is useless - no grip, no steering, nothing.

Now, there are several mods in existence which attempt to do something about it. The most popular one simply doubles the game's gravity. The Mako suddenly is twice as heavy. This works fine in most occasions, but now we have a new problem: With the Mako being that heavy a car, its engines are no longer powerful enough. There's not enough torque to really allow you to reach the highest mountaintops.

Now, there are other mods which try to work around that particular problem, but those are not that helpful. Yes, the Mako becomes more powerful, but no, it does not become easier to steer, easier to control. To the contrary; the Mako's tendency to be all over the place gets worse, the more power the car has.

So, is there anything we can do about it?

Yes, there is, and the solution is surprisingly simple.

The Solution

For this to work, you need analogue control - analogue sticks on a gamepad, for example.

Now, all you need to do is drive slowly.

And that's it, as easy as that!

This may sound counter-intuitive, but by driving slowly you make sure the Mako's wheels never leave the ground, so they can be steered all the time, and the car will always have traction.

Of course, when the mountains get too steep, you need more power, but when driving in uneven terrain, try driving slowly. You'll be surprised how much of an improvement to the Mako's handling this will mean.

It will not eliminate the Mako's tendency to bounce around with no point and purpose, merely lessen it, but it'll be much more easy to handle in most situations.

It's exactly what truck trial drivers do: They can only tackle the obstacles put in their paths by driving slowly, in low gears, with low speeds, but a heck of a lot of torque. That's how you deal with uneven terrain.

And in the game, it's just the same. When you need to deal with uneven terrain, try doing it at a more sedate pace. It can mean the difference between climbing a mountain or falling down.

Granted, some places, like Eletania (particular near the Prothean Ruin) or Nodacrux (the infamous Cobalt Deposit, which is almost impossible to reach), will always be tough to deal with, but I found that if I tackled the mountains slowly, I didn't have that hard a time doing it.

Just give it a try!

Wrapping Things Up

I do hope this small hint is helpful to you. If it is, please give me a shout. If it's not, please give me a shout as well.

Take care!

Jens "TheCatweazle" Ostendorf

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2576684613

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