More Mass Effect DLC Possible

[Dodece]

The last pack was very good value for money. Here is my review for Bring Down the Sky. The download content for Mass Effect has perhaps been the only expansion purchase I have had no reservations about.

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=20493

Should I or shouldn't I that is probably the question your asking yourself. The answer is yes you probably should especially if you enjoy the full game. Here are the basic facts upfront. A play through is between 45 and 90 minutes. There are half a dozen dialog trees. Four interior fighting instances. Five exterior combat instances. Six points of interest. Half a dozen cutscenes. This is modest DLC for a modest price all of five dollars. So you shouldn't be expecting a complete planet such as Feros. However it lies somewhere between your standard generic terrain world and one of these fleshed out worlds. Further more this content has two distinct play throughs available. You have to play it twice to get both endings.

Let me say this up front this is worth playing, and it is worth the meager investment. Your going to get your moneys worth out of it. Playing through a couple times and attaching it to subsequent play throughs of the game. You are getting a lot of value here. The developer even managed to throw out a good bit of originality. The environments are either unique or have been reworked. There are some new combat scenarios. The vista is wonderful, and you are treated to a good dose of new visual textures.

You should be pleasantly surprised by the combat changes. Turrets often have protective sheilds, move on rails, or are well placed to keep the player honest. Other scenarios involve negotiating mine fields during a fire fight, and fighting in an interior bunker that is actually quite similar to the citadel interior. Though it has been optimized for a good protracted fire fight. Even the three generic interior bunkers have seen wonderful reworkings, and for those who like the higher difficulties these layout changes should be an interesting diversion.

The environment has a lot of exterior eye candy free floating heavenly objects, a distant world, and a wonderful aurora effect work wonderfully. While the majority of interior spaces are reworked generic environments. The developers did deliver one original interior which was not only pleasing to the eye, but was an entertaining combat arena. With three distinct levels and attacks from all levels on harder difficulties or with lower level characters the environment should shine.

The story is somewhat typical. Evil terrorists hatch a plot to ram a asteroid into a planet and kill four million innocent people. They think nothing of taking hostages let alone shooting them if their demands are not met. They think nothing of using hostages as human shields either. That said the Batarians are more a space age portrayal of disenfranchised population. They feel victimized and that justifies their actions in their eyes. Even that said some of them have scruples about what they are doing. They aren't saints as you can see from their bloody rampage and their evil plan. However they aren't utterly evil monsters. Which leaves some moral middle ground. You can see where they are coming from.

The dialog reflects this and the moral high ground here is a little harder to see. The cut scenes provided only accentuate the gravity of the decission as one character makes the ultimate sacrafice, but in the end you are asked could you make that sacrafice. Basically the dialog stand alone is very good, and leaves you a lot of room to work with. Beyond that the scripting was plesant from finding a pirate radio station I wish it played some actual rock inside joke. Further more the logs, and voice recordings add a few nice little touches that make them worth discovering.

The bottom line this modest expansion is worth serious consideration. You will easily find that it is worth the money. You will find something to entertain you for a few hours easily, and it will add replay to your game in the long run. I hope Bioware can deliver two or even three more such expansions this year. The price was right the content had meat to it, and it is a permanant enhancement to the game as a whole. Bioware delivered something really nice to gamers. This is the kind of TLC that more DLC should receive. I will not apply a rating to a small expansion such as this, either it will be beneath, meet, or exceed your expectations. However in regards to DLC that entirely depends on how realistic your expectations were to begin with.