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| Mass Effect 2 DLC Review by Fortinbras 09/18/2010, 8:17pm PDT | ||||
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| Excluding the Cerberus Network/free DLC at release:
Cerberus Armor/Weapon Pack: The Cerberus Assault Armor was nice to use back at release, the new armor packs recently released and the customized mix-and-match of the in-game purchased armor reduces it value, plus it looks pretty stupid. The M-22 Eviscerator shotgun is awesome, though. Makes Grunt's customized shotgun useless with its one-shot magazine. Also it's free. Content Rating: 4/5 Value Rating: 5/5 Arc Projector: This became my new second favorite heavy weapon after the M920 Cain. It puts the Collector particle beam to shame with its ability to absolutely annihilate a group of enemies simultaneously. On Veteran or below if you just come across a group of enemies minding their own business around the corner, use this to kill them all instantly. Reasonable ammo consumption. Also free. Content Rating: 5/5 Value Rating: 5/5 Firewalker Pack: I was really excited when they finally got this out, I hoped it would be the fun of the Mako rides without the tedium of exploring endless blue wastes. Unfortunately like most of the side missions released with ME2, all the Firewalker missions are on rails. The Hammerhead has paper-thin protection, you can't hop out except at scripted points, and its weaponry is pretty boring. The Firewalker missions are terribly boring, with zero exposition or dialogue, about what you'd expect from a vanilla ME2 side mission. If these had been there at release, I wouldn't really notice, but after playing through the entirety of the game you can't help but notice how little time they put into this. Still, it's free. Content Rating: 3/5 Value Rating: 5/5 Alternate Appearance Pack: Hell yes. This doesn't really affect the game much, but it gives Garrus, Thane, and Jack a third outfit that you don't have to unlock through their loyalty missions. Garrus gets suit that hasn't had a round put through the collar and a headset mic that attaches to that stupid fabric bandage on the side of his head, making him look like less of a cripple. I think it also changes the shade of his eyes. Thane gets some nice shades and a red leather jacket, Jack gets some actual clothes, as well as some shades that go well with her bald look to make her look like something out of a William Gibson novel. Putting Thane in his shades can ruin some of his moments in the game where he gets all emotional (and a weird camera angle when you're talking with him about Mouse on the Citadel) but otherwise it's a great improvement over Jack and Garrus's default outfits. Bioware said they might be considering a second pack, I'm hoping Tali's on the makeover list. Only 160 MS points. Content Rating: 5/5 Value Rating: 4/5 Kasumi - Stolen Memory: The highly accurate SMG you get during this mission alone almost makes it worth the price. Kasumi however is a great additional character, with unique abilities. On hardcore/insane modes her stealth attack power makes her one of the few useful party members to have, and the mechanics of the attack ensure that she's not exposed to attack much. Her Frag Grenade is a bit disappointing, it's exactly the same as Concussive Shot with a bit of an area of effect I think. The stun effect from the upgraded flashbang is probably a lot more useful. The loyalty mission addition is nice, with excellent writing, and nicely combines dialogue/RPG events with a corridor-shooter and a miniboss at the end. For those of you who play female Shephards, you can wear a cocktail dress around the ship. 
560 MS points is a bit high for the amount of content included, though. At best I'd say it's worth 400. Content Rating: 5/5 Value Rating: 4/5 Overlord: Boring. Disappointing. Overpriced. Combines the tedium of the Firewalker vehicle segments with the zero-dialogue side missions that culminated in a rampant VI on a robot factory. Boring corridor fights broken up only by vehicle segments and occassionally having to hop out of the Hammerhead to flip a switch. Dialogue consists of Simon Templeman as a mad scientist occasionally transmitting half messages to you before they get cut off and a retarded VI screaming garbled messages that will break your speakers. Couple of interesting moments include the scene at the satellite dish, and the wrecked Geth ship playing the elevator music from Mass Effect only in a Twilight Zone spooky messed-up mode. Worst of all, it doesn't even give you paragon/renegade points for whatever decision you make at the end. I think the entirety of the cost of the DLC went to paying Simon Templeman for his voicework, because the rest of this is fucking boring dogshit and should have been released for free. 560 MS points? That's just insulting. Content Rating: 2/5 Value Rating: 1/5 Equalizer Pack: The Inferno Armor is nice for the +Persuasion bonus if you don't want to wear the ugly-as-hell Death Mask, and I use the Archon Visor a lot, even though the bonus sucks. The Capacitor Helmet looks stupidly goofy though. 160 MS points. Content Rating: 4/5 Value Rating: 3/5 Aegis Pack: The sniper rifle is useless if you already have the Widowmaker, but if you don't it's a decent substitute. It is also excellent in the hands of teammates as they seem to be incredibly accurate with it. I love the Kestrel armor. It looks good, it has nice bonuses. But the fact that the helmet looks EXACTLY like the Banshee unit portrait from Starcraft 2 and the release time of this DLC coinciding with the same month Starcraft 2 was released is just downright disconcerting. Observe:  
160 MS points. Content Rating: 5/5 Value Rating: 5/5 Firepower Pack: The Geth Plasma Shotgun turns Engineer-classes into murder machines, by far the best shotgun in the game. The M-96 Mattock Heavy Rifle is nice, and it's a toss-up whether it's the best rifle in the game or the Geth Assault Rifle (obtainable on Hastrom on hardcore/insane mode). The M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol combines the best of both the vanilla pistols, with lots of stopping power but a decent magazine so you don't have to make every shot count. Content Rating: 4/5 Value Rating: 4/5 Lair of the Shadow Broker: It's awesome. Amazing cinematic choreography, good writing, well designed corridor shootouts, a flying car chase scene that George Lucas could learn something from, and you can romance Liara again if that was your thing in Mass Effect 1. The price is high, but the content in this DLC puts some of the other parts of the original game to shame. My only gripe is that it's designed for play after you've done the final mission from the original game and requires a full Paragon/Renegade bar for some of the influence checks. Definitely worth all 560 MS points. Content Rating: 5/5 Value Rating: 5/5 |
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Mass Effect 2 DLC Review by 09/18/2010, 8:17pm PDT  fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap fap NT by 03/29/2011, 1:44pm PDT Arrival blows by 04/14/2011, 9:14am PDT Why does Shepherd always have to shuck and jive when he talks? by 04/14/2011, 11:07am PDT |
