Review - Mass Effect 3: Citadel (PS3, 2013)

Citadel is the final story-driven DLC release for Mass Effect 3 and marks the official end of the game's development. It follows From Ashes, an almost essential DLC that adds an important new character, Leviathan, which I found to be a mixed bag, and Omega, which had some fun combat but often terrible writing and wasn't worth the price. After being massively let down by Omega, I wasn't expecting much from Citadel. Thankfully, Bioware proved me wrong; Citadel is the fullest, most well made DLC content in the entire Mass Effect series.

Review - Mass Effect 3: Omega

Three months after the release of the Leviathan DLC, Bioware took another shot at expanding the story of Mass Effect 3. This time, players join forces with Asari crime boss Aria to help her take back her turf, the sleazy asteroid mining colony Omega, from Cerberus forces. Smartly, this DLC focuses on a smaller part of the universe, which makes it more understandable that unlike Leviathan, its plot really shouldn't affect the universe at large. This DLC is also much more combat-centric.

Review - Mass Effect 3: Leviathan

 
When done right, using downloadable content to expand a game's world and story is a pretty great feature of the current console generation. It's a way to keep players coming back to a game long after release, and in some of the better examples feels like a complete, short form game of its own. Dark Souls' Artorias of the Abyss is probably my favorite example of this being done right.

Mass Effect 3 started off on the wrong foot when it came to DLC; the day the game launched, players could buy From Ashes, a DLC mission that added a new permanent squad mate, Javik. The mission was fun and Javik adds a lot to the game if you keep him in your party, but having to pay $10 on top of the game you just dropped $60 on in order to complete your squad just feels sleazy. This wasn't content later made and released after the game had been running for a while, it was right there on day one, letting you know that without purchasing it, you're not getting the full experience.

Some Words of Mouth on Mass Effect 3's Ending

It seems that it's impossible to discuss Mass Effect 3 without raising the issue of its ending. After the game was released, fan outcry over how the series ended was enormous, with letter writing campaigns, demands of apologies, and, perhaps most bizarre, people reporting EA to the Better Business Bureau for apparently selling them an unsatisfactory product. As of the time I write this article, the game's User Rating average on Amazon.com is 2.5/5 stars, with there being almost as many 1/5 star reviews as every other rating combined, and a great many of these reviews state that it was a 5/5 star game until the last 20 minutes, which ruined everything related to the series forever.

If you've read my reviews, you'll know I find number based ratings largely meaningless, but that still leaves me pretty dumbfounded to read. As I said in my own review, I find this backlash overblown, but I didn't want to discuss major spoilers in an article meant for people who hadn't played the game yet. So now, with that said, I want to discuss it in depth, both pros and cons. If you care about spoilers, don't read past this point.

Review - Mass Effect 3 (PS3)

Mass Effect 3's PS3 demo was, perhaps strangely, my first step into the Mass Effect series. I missed out on the first game and didn't play the second until the third game was released, and I ended up playing ME2 and 3 essentially back to back. ME3 offers refined gameplay, streamlined resource management, fantastic setpieces, and a fun but shallow multiplayer mode. At the same time, it brings with it a notable downgrade in quality of writing, a poorly implemented sidequest system, and an ending that made the internet explode with rage. I will address the ending in a separate post (I don't think it deserves the outcry it's received); for this review, I want to focus on the 99% of content that makes up the rest of the game.