If your party is at a decent level with good equipment, use the mako like a chariot. Drive it up close to the enemies, get out, and battle on foot. That's how I got through hardcore and insanity; the mako is a death trap on those settings.

Just make sure you don't get hit by the big slow purple blob the armatures fire. It's a one hit kill unless you're a soldier with high level armour and maxed immunity running. Then you will survive it with a droplet of health.

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IIRC, I started out using the Mako was a sniper vehicle- you could hit enemies out of range, or from behind cover.

However, you are absolutely right that you should fight on foot even if you are tempted to do otherwise. Kills made with the Mako have a huge experience penalty- something like 70% !

FWIW, I actually enjoyed driving the Mako for the most part.

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That's a great idea. I'll definitely start doing that as soon my squad gains a few levels.

I actually don't mind the idea of the Mako, but the damn thing is so hard to control that I end up going over a cliff every 2 minutes. I'm usually OK at driving vehicles in games, but I just should not be allowed anywhere near the controls of anything that shaky. Even when I don't go over the cliff, I'm always crashing into stuff. And flipping over.

Bioware did a decent job with the racing mini game in KOTOR, so I'm not sure why the Mako ended up being so hard to control.

edit - I'm playing on PC. I imagine that it's probably a lot less annoying to control with a gamepad, so if you're playing on a console you're experience with the Mako is probably a lot more positive.

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You're not trying to steer by 'looking' are you? I.e. holding forwards on the movement controls and shifting the camera left or right to steer. I know many players do that in 3D games; I certainly do. In the mako all that does is swivel the gun turret. You have to steer by pressing right and left. Counter-intuitive at first.

The other trick to get used to is the low gravity. You're always in what feels like low gravity, whichever planet you land on. Get used to bumping higher than you'd expect. Bumping is not a problem unless it flips you upside down when enemies are around. If you get flipped the mako will always right itself so the best thing to do is to drop the controls and wait.

Oh - make sure you use the cannon in combat. The machine gun sounds like frozen peas rattling on a tin roof and does about as much damage.

The level I learned to drive on had lava beside the paths. Leave the road and you got melted in a cutscene

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