ME 1 : the first mission after having been appointed a Specter. I have to pass a bunch of Gerth on Feros and no matter what I try, I keep dying in the process (which I must have tried about 30 times). My armor and/or my weapons are simply not effective enough. "Mission Critical failure" says the system ... any suggestion to get me out of this dead end my friends ?

1) Always have at least one squadmate who has the Decryption skill (Tali, Kaidan, Garrus), and invest points in that skill if you don’t wanna buy new gear. With Decryption you can open boxes and get loot (weapons, even armor).
2) some ppl seem to forget but this is a squad-based game. That means use your teammates’ powers! Liara has some really useful crowd-control abilities like Singularity. Kaidan and Liara are good with crowds, both of them have Lift, Throw and Warp. Downside is that they can only wear Light Armor. Tali, Kaidan and Garrus can overheat enemies’ weapons for a short time, meaning they won’t shoot at you for a little.
4) combine the powers! Like you have a tough enemy to deal with and you have Tali and Liara w/ you. So you pause the game (L-shift) and select Tali’s Overload skill and Liara’s Lift. What you get? An enemy that has no shields and is in the air, so it’s basically defenseless. Experiment w/ the powers! And use Shepard’s and your teammates powers frequently!
5) get/buy upgraded Omni-tools and biotic-amps for you and your squad! They can reduce the cooldown of powers, they give +shields etc.
6) equip mods for your weapons! Take the time to equip stuff cause they’re very useful and some of them can be OP af. Like Tali w/ a Katana shotgun that has Explosive Rounds mod and a HeatSink mod, she can one shot a lot of enemies. Wrex too.
7) take cover and shoot from cover. It’s not cowardice, it’s a game mechanic and you can even use powers from cover.
8) pause the game (L-Shift) if you need to. That way you can see and examine the combat situation and think for a strategy

Also, on the road to the facility, use the Mako to kill all the enemies, especially the turrets. Use the terrain to your advantage where possible, and don't be afraid to strafe, since the Geth--unaccountably--don't use guided munitions, and the unguided ones are slow as molasses in January.

I assume this is obvious but I figured it couldn't hurt to mention it.

Don't forget to use your abilities and your squad. If you hold space with your weapons out you will bring up the tactical pause, you can assign your special abilities to hot keys or just use them from the tactical pause. This includes your squad's abilities.

Also, unlike most games, your squad members are actually some what effective in a fight. Give them move orders, put them in good positions before and during a fight. Have them assault enemy in cover while you cover for them if you have to.

I also recommend you do the side quests that are available. The ones that involve investigating random, barren planets. It's a bit grindy but it's a good source of xp, money and loot.

Other than that, don't forget to sell and buy better loot, especially if you don't have the skill for unlocking the more advanced loot crates on missions.

Wow .. that's a lot to learn.. i think that my worse weakness is not to know how to drive my teamates during combat. I'll look into the squad capabilities as you told me to do; Thanks for your help my friends !

One thing to do in ME1 is to go to options and turn off that the mako turns where the turret points. Makes it way easier to handle thresher maws by just bating attacks and then moving out of the way while firing.
For team mates just aim at enemy and hold shift and press on skills you want to use.
Its the most stress free way because the game pauses.

Another good set of advises ! I'll look into the Mako drive wherever it is... found it annoying indeed and btw, I survived the first Feros fight allright (with a little help from y friends :)

Originally posted by NisseDood:

One thing to do in ME1 is to go to options and turn off that the mako turns where the turret points. Makes it way easier to handle thresher maws by just bating attacks and then moving out of the way while firing.
For team mates just aim at enemy and hold shift and press on skills you want to use.
Its the most stress free way because the game pauses.

I did not found this Mako adjustment in the options .. Just will have to live with it :(

Might be on gameplay options