I have completed the game on insanity today. That difficulty level was much more enjoyable but it had a bunch of glitches. Glitches that never show up in normal difficulty shows up on the hardest difficulty in most games. Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2 had the least annoying glitches in the hardest difficulty as far as I can remember. Call of Duty 3 was the worst in my experience.
Some tips for playing the insanity difficulty:
I started with soldier class and had difficulty all through and got stuck at the collector ship moving platform. I was not able to get beyond that despite trying for hours. I went back to Normandy several times to switch squad members and retrain. Nothing helped. Then I noticed the message displayed at the bottom every time I died and the game was reloading “Sentinels are nearly indestructible. Their tech armor provides and additional layer of protection…”. So I abandoned that class and started over with Sentinel class. In the soldier class run, I had a hard time at Horizon with praetorian and was not looking forward to it.
With the help of tech armor, I was able to run around and finish it much easily. The key was not to use other powers when the enemy is near so that you can recharge the power armor when down. I also used the armor piercing ammo with tungsten rounds as my bonus power and kept shooting while running around. Thermal clips is not a problem in that place because it keeps spawning at few places.
On the Collector ship flying platforms, I had Miranda and Jack, both loyal as squad members. Jack had squad warp ammo. Not sure if that helped. I wish a squad mate had cryo ammo. I saw some videos where cryo ammo worked well. Praetorian was again just about running around that place. But needed to take care of the drones and husks first. That was the first place where I used a heavy weapon after Lazarus station. Then on it is just about keeping the distance and asking squad mates to not to rush. Give them cover way behind so that you can use their powers while running around. In the last husk rush I am not sure if I needed to fight or could have just run through them. What I did was to run all the way back and shoot them by climbing across a cover that they won’t cross. They go around to reach you and then you can jump to the other side and continue shooting.
Loyalty missions are much easier and shouldn’t miss on the upgrades they provide. I purchased all damage protections first, then biotic damages and then weapon damage upgrades. The last upgrades I purchased were tech because difficult missions all involved organics.
To get all members loyal and save all crew, recruit and complete all loyalty missions before going to derelict reaper. Talk to Legion as soon as you revive him. Talk again and he will tell you about his loyalty mission. The IFF shakedown will not occur if you go directly to his mission right after completing derelict reaper mission.
Derelict reaper was all about running back. As soon as you see the husks run back, warp and then throw. Heavy warp removes the armor in one hit and heavy throw disintegrates with one hit. When too many, shoot with armor piercing ammo and throw again. Just keep a good distance from Scions. They move slow and can be easily killed with multiple warp. Never had to use heavy weapon.
At the collector base I had Legion and Grunt as squad mates because of their shields. That was a good choice because I only died once and was at the final battle. Didn’t see a Harbinger at the back. All through that mission, the tactic was to kill the drones as soon as they land. Take out the barrier and the Grunt’s squad incendiary ammo took care of them. But don’t wait, just keep shooting so that Harbinger doesn’t get a chance to take over them. If he does, just send a combat drone and he is distracted, finish him off.
I emptied the heavy weapon on the reaper’s eye and kept shooting the eye. I pretty much ran out of ammo on all guns except that sub machine gun. Don’t forget to take care of harbingers that spawn near you. Also, on insanity, the reaper will come up on the sides as well. There is no safe spot. After it falls down, look for the arms. Run to the other side while watching for Harbinger. There will be a reasonably safe spot on the other side. Don’t use powers on the reaper unless there are no drones or Harbingers around or you will not able to get armor back up.