So, the final piece of story-based DLC arrived yesterday, after a 6-month hiatus from the awesome Lair of the Shadowbroker DLC - a hard act to follow. Arrival though promised to be a true bridge to ME3 with a plot that tied directly into the main storyline of the trilogy and the arrival of the arch-enemies: the Reapers.
So - how is it? initial impressions aren't good, after a brief chat with Admiral Hackett - where he informs you that he wants you to solo-rescue one of his best agents who was working on something to do with the reapers in batarian space before being captured, as a huge favour to him - on the Normandy you land on a rain-sodden planet in Batarian space. Not having been in the rain since Pragia in the main game (though LoSB had some outside a window) it was nice to appreciate the water effects running down Shepard's armour before proceeding inside the prison... which is where the disappointment comes in - prisons are never going to be the nicest environs, but this one is particularly drab and for all it's labrynthine maze-feel, this is an illusion as it's still pretty linear (however to get the achievement for not engaging the enemy before the rescue you have to make good use of the "multiple routes" (read: side-passages) to avoid guards, being an infiltrator made this very easy).
Once you rescue your target, you basically have to shoot your way back out to the hanger you went through earlier, though the layout changes due to different doors being openend and guards appearing everywhere make this a nice challenge. Once on-board the escape shuttle you proceed to the second area of the DLC - the human base on the asteroid that forms the "plan" to stop the reaper invasion, which - according to the agent - is scheduled for a scant 2 days time...
Upon verifying her findings (cool-looking reaper artifact!), there's a plot-twist shocker you really should see coming a mile-off and a massive firefight ensues against literally, everyone in the base plus mechs. Survive 5 waves of this you get an achievement but the artifact still ensures your capture...
You wake up 2 days later and have to break out and try and fight your way to stop the agent from stopping "the plan" and letting the reapers in, which leads you into firefights against the hordes of soldiers (on a clandestine base in Batarian space?) until a final confrontation and, eventual, dramatic escape. Success means you end up with a nice cut-scene and an astronomical body-count, even as a paragon you can't save anyone - nice, huh? Hackett arrives on the Normandy to debrief you, setting up some troubling notions of possible events in ME3, which i'll get to in a minute.
Whilst the DLC is good, it's nowhere near LoSB quality: it lacks the plot, coherence impact and even urgency of that mission. going in solo (for contrived reasons) doesn't especially ramp the difficulty or gameplay. the promised consequences for ME3 must be trivial: the only real choice you get to make in the DLC is whether to warn the Batarian system-colonists about the plan, or not. unfortunately you can't anyway and this makes the whole choice a non-starter - what's the point if you fail regardless? oh, you get 2 paragon/renegade points, just showing how important the choice is. the renegade interrupt on catching the agent at the end was epic though, i will say that.
My biggest problem with the DLC comes at the end: the Hackett debrief - it's strongly hinted that Earth wants a scapegoat for what happened to the Batarians (despite no-one knowing you were even there) and that although evidence is circumstantial you may well be called to face the music at some point soon. but, wait a minute: since when does shepard answer to anyone in the alliance? oh yes - not since becoming a spectre at the beginning of ME1, let alone any subsequent choices - which don't matter because no shepard can canonically re-join the alliance at any point later. They have zero authority to do diddly regardless of what they want, especially if you are still a SPECTRE (which i always am - worked hard for that, dammit). this is total BS and smacks of "you are forced into dealing with this only because of the writers thought it was a cool story/plot to explore" - i hate manadatory scenarios like this, that also ignore your previous game choices. besides we already did the "trial" thing with tali's loyalty mission, i really don't see the need for two in a trilogy, especially when there are better things to be doing, like killing reapers and makin' sweet love with Miranda...
So, overall i'd say the DLC is well worth it for a few hours Mass effect entertainment (certainly better value than any movie i have seen all year) and it just felt so good to play something new mass effect after such a long wait.
Bring on ME3!
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