- Nov 16, 2006
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Mother of God, wrapped up the Mass Effect Legendary Edition playthrough. 90 hours for all 3 to games, and that's using a save editor to give me all the money, skills, and resources to avoid any tedium.
I won't go into detail of the core games, that's a known quantity. The legendary edition did do a good job cleaning up and unifying the trilogy a bit better visually, mechanically, and thanks to all the DLC packed in fleshed it out from a story perspective as well.
For any ME veterans who never bought the DLC, the LE is absolutely worth it for the $5 it goes on sale for. I'll give a brief overview of the paid DLC below, as it was my first time experiencing much of it.
ME1:
No paid DLC, only Bring Down the Sky which was free. Pinnacle Station isn't included but it was a garbage free arena combat thing anyway so no major loss.
ME2:
Overlord: Solid. Has Sheperd assisting a Cerberus base that has a mysterious rampant rogue VI. Good mix of combat, using the Kodiak hover tank, and plot intrigue.
Kasumi: Meh. You get another Zaeed style mercenary character on your team who has limited interaction with the rest of the crew and a somewhat unique if silly loyalty mission. As a squad mate Kasumi is pretty low tier.
Lair of the Shadow Broker: Meh. This mission certainly helps from a lore perspective filling in major parts of Liara's arc between 2 and 3, but as a mission itself it's a bit of a grind. At least there is some solid lore payoff at the end.
Arrival: Garbage. This DLC was clearly put together in the dark. Tons of reused assets, no squad interaction, characters doing stupid things to move the plot forward, and honestly the whole thing is a grind. It's also important to understand the start of ME3 as well, which just makes it worse.
ME3:
From Ashes: Legendary. It's honestly criminal that this was cut from the game to be turned into DLC content. You get Javik, a new fully fleshed out squad member who is absolutely fantastic. Tons of interactivity, squad interaction, lore... This is it chief.
Citadel: Great. A sort of love letter to the franchise, this DLC is heavily character driven and a sort of final get together for your entire ME1/2/3 squad set to a goofy but fun side story. Play this one last before you cross the point of no return.
Leviathan: OK. A quest to discover the origins of the Reapers. Starts with a fun detective routine that slowly opens up into a sort of Lovecraftian horror vibe. While fun and varied, the actual payoff leaves something to be desired.
Omega: Ugh. Omega has you helping the insufferable Aria retake Omega station from Cerberus. The mission is just a really long slog, you're forced to partner with Aria who has all the charisma of nails on a chalkboard, and it's another "characters do stupid things to advance the plot" missions. High point of the DLC is actually one of the side characters, low point is how stupidly the side character dies.
I won't go into detail of the core games, that's a known quantity. The legendary edition did do a good job cleaning up and unifying the trilogy a bit better visually, mechanically, and thanks to all the DLC packed in fleshed it out from a story perspective as well.
For any ME veterans who never bought the DLC, the LE is absolutely worth it for the $5 it goes on sale for. I'll give a brief overview of the paid DLC below, as it was my first time experiencing much of it.
ME1:
No paid DLC, only Bring Down the Sky which was free. Pinnacle Station isn't included but it was a garbage free arena combat thing anyway so no major loss.
ME2:
Overlord: Solid. Has Sheperd assisting a Cerberus base that has a mysterious rampant rogue VI. Good mix of combat, using the Kodiak hover tank, and plot intrigue.
Kasumi: Meh. You get another Zaeed style mercenary character on your team who has limited interaction with the rest of the crew and a somewhat unique if silly loyalty mission. As a squad mate Kasumi is pretty low tier.
Lair of the Shadow Broker: Meh. This mission certainly helps from a lore perspective filling in major parts of Liara's arc between 2 and 3, but as a mission itself it's a bit of a grind. At least there is some solid lore payoff at the end.
Arrival: Garbage. This DLC was clearly put together in the dark. Tons of reused assets, no squad interaction, characters doing stupid things to move the plot forward, and honestly the whole thing is a grind. It's also important to understand the start of ME3 as well, which just makes it worse.
ME3:
From Ashes: Legendary. It's honestly criminal that this was cut from the game to be turned into DLC content. You get Javik, a new fully fleshed out squad member who is absolutely fantastic. Tons of interactivity, squad interaction, lore... This is it chief.
Citadel: Great. A sort of love letter to the franchise, this DLC is heavily character driven and a sort of final get together for your entire ME1/2/3 squad set to a goofy but fun side story. Play this one last before you cross the point of no return.
Leviathan: OK. A quest to discover the origins of the Reapers. Starts with a fun detective routine that slowly opens up into a sort of Lovecraftian horror vibe. While fun and varied, the actual payoff leaves something to be desired.
Omega: Ugh. Omega has you helping the insufferable Aria retake Omega station from Cerberus. The mission is just a really long slog, you're forced to partner with Aria who has all the charisma of nails on a chalkboard, and it's another "characters do stupid things to advance the plot" missions. High point of the DLC is actually one of the side characters, low point is how stupidly the side character dies.
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