Ok, traded my MG for a shotgun and holy sweet baby jesus tap-dancing christ on a motherloving bike it's a one-hit kill on every enemy i've encountered so far. Take back what I said about gunplay. All of it. Holy stuff.
Also, coming off of Earth, do I go to Mars or Venus next? I'm stuck on Earth with a mission I can't find on Earth to get to Mars, and then I'm stuck with one more Eximus dude I gotta find and I can't find that forgeter no matter how hard I try.