All 3 Mass Effect 3 Paid DLC

Rating: 2 out of 3 Stars (why only 3 possible stars?)

Genre: Third person cover shooter; Sub-Genre: RPG

ESRB: M (same stuff you'd find in ME3)

Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 10/4

Developer: BioWare 

Wiki page

To clarify, this doesn't include any of the free DLC nor does it include the Javik DLC, or item/skin DLC's. This is just the three released post-launch that fill out the campaign story and I can only think to refer to as "proper DLC" since it actually includes content and costs money (although free DLC is very very nice). That means this review is about three pieces of content: Leviathan, Omega, and Citadel. I've talked a lot about this damn game, but this is a good opportunity for me to review DLC. Other reviewers do that stuff, you know. The thing is, though, I hate DLC. There's a potential in it that I like and I can respect the smart business of giving rich people a way to part with their money for cheater items and vanity crap. But I simply loathe these dinky two hour snippets of gameplay that are intertwined within the normal story. Why? Because I already played through the whole game by the time they come out! I don't want to come back to it just for a measly couple hours, especially after the story is done, and most games I only beat once so I'm not going to replay it just for the sake of DLC. Except with a game like Mass Effect. It's a series I care about enough that I want to come back to it again. Also there is replay value in choosing a new class and seeing the universe with different choices. All that being said, I still hate this method of story-telling. Really, if not for the handicap of "being DLC" I would give this content a 1 out of 3. Didn't expect me to rate this so low, huh? Check it out.

Yay, mystery!

I'm doing these in chronological order of when each piece of content was released. So first up is Leviathan. If I had played this when it first came out, I might have had more hope for the coming DLC's. This is arguably the strongest entry here as it actually assists the story in providing additional lore, fitting tone, and being a kind of long side quest that I wished the game could have featured instead of all those fetch quests on the Citadel. Of course, if ME3 had quests like this in place of ALL the ones it does feature then it probably would need a development cycle that would have been three times longer. Despite all this praise, this doesn't live up to how good the three ME2 DLC's were. I'll talk more about those later, but my last note on this is that some of the acting and writing is awkward in this. Especially at the start of it. I do wish it was better because it's all downhill from here.

Mass Effect's "Mos Eisley cantina." Good for a shoot out.

Next comes Omega, which I would say is as good as Leviathan except for two things: major missed potential and an inexplicable 50% price increase. The latter item is easy to explain by asking, "Why does this DLC cost $5 more?" I honestly don't know the answer to that. But where it missed its potential is in its limited content. Without giving any spoilers, this is about liberating the Omega space station for its owner, Aria (that description is available in the download and is explained when you first meet up with Aria). When it's all said and done, the player is not able to go to Omega. You literally teleport from Citadel space, get locked into this long quest, then teleport back to Citadel space. It is a rather lengthy mission, but for $15? And you can't even bring any squadmates with you and the two the game does give you do not follow you through the rest of the game. That's three things I wanted out of this DLC that I did not get. Leviathan doesn't give me two of those things, sure, but it didn't ask for 50% more money to deliver the same amount of content. But more content isn't always the answer. The next entry is a good example of this.

When I go "duh" it makes a "duh" sound!

Citadel was the most recent release, and what a mixed bag this is. On the one hand, it gives you a beefy amount of stuff that should easily be worth the $15. On the other, it's really ... REALLY dumb. The setup seems simple enough: Shepard tries to take some shore leave but ends up falling into another of his/her bullet-filled adventures. It gives you a house, filling the needs of players who felt they needed a housing feature in a non-open world game that already has infinite storage and a limited continuity. I'm being sarcastic because I really have no idea who asked for housing when all I want is my damn hover tank from ME2's DLC and to get to explore some planets with it. And you can customize it with an incredibly limited pool of swappable furniture, so there you go. There's also an arcade with a few mini-games that aren't terrible for the 5 minutes of entertainment they provide. But the best feature this DLC provides is an arena. A very, very cliche thing for an RPG to have, I know, but I still love it. It provides some quests, rewards, and a way to farm money with a nifty little match customizing interface so it almost redeems this DLC by itself. Almost. Unfortunately, this DLC must have had either the B or C team of writers working on it. Instead of the seriousness and infrequent dry humor of Mass Effect, it has constant bad humor by way of forced one-liners. Seriously, every line of dialogue is a one liner. Just imagine Star Trek: The Next Generation versus the Star Trek TNG movies. Yeah! Out of character, wrong tone, and the story doesn't even make sense. I really don't get the motivations for the villains in this one. And this is coming from a guy who found the cosmic mumbo jumbo from the Reapers and the Leviathan to be acceptable. My only guess is that BioWare realized that ME3 is too much of a downer, so they injected some Jay Leno to lighten up the mood. Naturally that makes it much more depressing so... oops!

Vehicle exploration is officially completely absent from ME3 and its DLC.

To restate, I really don't know how to rate DLC because I don't like how it's executed. But you know what actually convinced me to keep giving DLC a try (when it's for a game I like)? Mass Effect 2. Yup. All three of its DLC pieces were solid. Overlord featured vehicle exploration and a cool Tron-like section. Lair of the Shadow Broker had some great set pieces and had a car chase, offering the most thrilling adventure of the three, and also gave the player additional little features like a form of housing (sorta) and the ability to see Liara again (although she doesn't stay with your team). Lastly, Arrival was completely essential to the story in bridging ME2 and ME3, in addition to just generally being an acceptable piece of DLC. Also, these were priced at $7, $10, and $7 respectively.

I don't blame BioWare, though, I blame EA. BioWare gets rushed to death to make these games.

Conclusion:
If you really love Mass Effect or love it a little and love the concept of DLC then these are all decent entries. None of them stand out as fully adding to the game or being exceptional on their own, so don't get too excited.