Forum Discussion

Seasoned Ace

4 years ago

Mako or M-44 Hammerhead

Hello, I was thinking the other day while I am making up my own ME3 post ending story of how the Normandy crew could redesign the ship and it occurred me that they could add a ground vehicle to assist with exploration (imagine being able to have the chance to upgrade the ME 2 Hammerhead armor and shielding as well the EEZO core to use it to the fullest in Priority Earth, don't bother Hammer Shepard can maneuver the No Man Zone and speed towards the beam with his team).

That also lead me thinking as to a debate that is very important:

MAKO or Hammerhead?

MAKO pros:

-maneuverable enough and it's armor can stand a few Thresher Maw hits;

-can withstand colder temperatures than the M-44;

-good armamment;

-could withstand electric strikes.

MAKO *:

-of it flips its basically a restart;

-needs the Normandy to land in order to recover it and the bigger mass of the SR-2 is a problem;

-low boost.

M-44 Hammerhead pros:

-it's well suited for city spaces as it can hover over obstacles and has good turning;

-can advance over aquatic terrain;

-speed is amazing;

-modular armaments and armor (add a mini Thanix on top as a main gun plus some anti personal forward cannons and it can cut throught the battlefield as well all it needed was a nice coating of Silarix Armor and good upgraded shields);

-built in sensors can search for buried: survivors, enemies, minerals, etc.

-can be recovered by the SR-2 more safetly;

M-44 Hammerhead *:

-electrical charges can do a lot of damage to the tank;

-in its current armor it's a paper vehicle that even concentrated small arms fire can destroy;

-main turret can't rotate and as such doesn't have a natural 360° range requiring to turn the entire tank;

-can't hover over lava;

-Normandy recovery still requires for either the ship to find a suitable access point or for the tank to hover over the battlefield for a fly by recovery which both leave the crew exposed.

The Tempest in Andromeda fixed a lot of issues with the MAKO minus the lack of armament but the Hammerhead has more potential.

me legendary edition

32 Replies

mcsupersport
Hero+
4 years ago
As a note, if the Mako flips over and is wheels up, if you wait a few seconds and then press and hold the jump jet button(space bar for me on PC) it seems to cause it to flip over so you can continue the mission without restart.....if you don't die from damage taken that is.

Now as to the better vehicle....Mako all the way, armor, weapon, shields, now with speed boost, beats the Hammerhead all the way around.

HH, has trash armor, trash gun, can't handle cold planets, can't really hover/jump high enough except in cutscenes, and usually running over enemies do more damage than normal fighting. Now they have changed the HH jump damage a slight bit in MELE, but here is a fun video I made in Original ME2.....https://youtu.be/aSWD1u0b8DU
draconiam
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@mcsupersport I have tried that trick a few times in ME:LE now and thankfully it has prevented me from restarting.

The HH has room for improvements as I stated (opens quite the good RPG elements potential) and that's from someone who was in team MAKO. Maybe a HH 2.0 with: retractable turbines (picture the Jets that fold their wings for ease of transport), a miniature Thanix, some anti personal forward cannons, Solaris armor, shielding (as the first model doesn't have basic shields), anti personal cannons and you end up with a decent stealth vehicle.
@EA_Mako, I take it you have a clear favorite?
EA_Mako
Community Manager
4 years ago
@draconiam

Definitely the Hammerhead.

...but yeah, perhaps it's the many, many hours logged trying to take near-vertical shortcuts and avoid going the long (normal) way around on countless random planets, but the Mako definitely has nostalgia on its side.

I largely skipped past the Firewalker missions until the Legendary Edition and while they're fun in their own right, not having the HH tie in as much as the Mako keeps me from getting super attached to it for sure.
sundance31us
Hero (Retired)
4 years ago
I'm rather partial to the Mako, though the Hammerhead had a smoother ride. I'm loosely surprised that Shep and gang don't take damage just riding around in the Mako...in the very least the cabin has to smell of sick.
draconiam
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@EA_Mako Yeah, it would have been a nice surprise knowing that the HH survived the Reaper attack and was almost completly retrofitted by the time Shepard and co are in London but that would have required for a VERY different final mission (including Shepard repeating his feat of driving a vehicle on some energy beam) and who knows, a confrontation against The Illusive Man where if you don't have the required Paragon/Renegade options he makes the two companions kill each other while Shepard and Anderson stand agaisnt him, if the LI was present that would have gone very horrible in terms of reaction but, back to topic, we constantly hear Garrus and Liara complain about the MAKO until the Citadel DLC vault break in.
draconiam
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@sundance31us Well, we do know that Liara and Garrus hated the sweet tank which survived not just Shepard missions (I wonder how they transported the MAKO from the Presidium to the Normandy) but also crash landing almost intact on the Normandy Crash site after the Collector surprise attack.
mcsupersport
Hero+
4 years ago
@draconiam well if you are talking upgrades, then why not just upgrade the better vehicle. Take the Mako, add longer boost for greater speed, improve suspension to be more like Nomad of ME:Andromeda, improve the shields and armor more so it is even tougher, add a missile system to increase firepower and then you have a absolute beast of a vehicle.

While the HH can be improved, it generally starts worse than the Mako, thus it is a worse vehicle. When you can RAM a Geth tank, knock it down, boost high up and land on it's back and kill it faster than shooting it, is an issue. When you can RAM a heavy Geth tank and take no damage, yet a standard Geth trooper with a rifle can kill you in a few bursts, there is an issue. When the tracking missiles can't seem to lock on to a target and hit it, so you have to spray and pray is an issue.

Yeah, Mako for me, as if you pay attention to the terrain you can follow the "paths" Bioware put in to almost all points of the map, thus not having to "crawl straight up the mountains".
sundance31us
Hero (Retired)
4 years ago
@draconiam wrote:
I wonder how they transported the MAKO from the Presidium to the Normandy
They should have made it a fully functional monument. 😉
draconiam
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@sundance31us 😄😄😄😄😄😄, with squadmate comments.
draconiam
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@mcsupersport True about upgrading the MAKO (and it's a shame how the ME3 vehicle sections related themselves were to shoot from the same machine gun (not even a Geth version on Rannoch)) and while the terrain in most maps was straight forward the most interesting bits in the maps was out of the way.

The HH weaponry and armor are seriously a hampering which leaves me to believe that it wasn't planned for actual combat but rather scouting missions and that it was a very early prototype.