990 réponses à ce sujet

[Saerdna256]

Unfortunatly, I'm rather disappointed. But let's get to the good things first:

• Hackett - 'nuff said
• The "sneaky" part, though (probably due to engine limitations) sometimes ridiculous (I'm close enough to hear some batarian banter and they don't hear a shot from the Widow?)
• music
• prison design
• "assuming control" of a droid
• reference to BdtS

What I didn't like:

• The Story. Perhaps it's just me, but I see all the struggeling of my Shephard to delay the reapers arrival crumbled to dust by the idea of an "alpha"-portal. Mind you, I just played the games so I don't know any additional information the books/comics might give.
• "Plot-Twist"? It would have been an interesting twist if just for once after hearing the word "indoctrination" nothing like that happens. Really, this "twist" get's old. Even before mentioning a reaper device, I always waited for the "poor" Doc to shoot my back. She just "feels" like a traitor to me, so I would have been much more surprised if she remained loyal and perhaps even sacrificed herself in the end.
• No real choices
• Bugs (after starting the DLC, voice acting frequently gets muffled, music and soundeffects stay normal - I have to restart the whole game to get back to understandable voices)
• "secret" asteroid station designed like a vacation center
• solo-play; I came in there with my infiltrator fully specced to handle armor and health with nothing but my SMG to handle shields. Why should I, my Squad always took care of that. So what's the only prot-layer (on normal) through the whole DLC? Shields. Just to point out why solo-combat-play in a sqad-based game isn't always the best idea.
• I think someone already mentioned: If you're a femShep wearing the Evening Dress you do look like making a blatantly open suggestion to the poor old admiral... How on earth did that pass QA?
• Why doesn't Hackett even mention the Doc in the end, after making it clear they are "old friends" in the beginning?

I still liked playing through the Arrival, no question. But it could have been SO much better. And most of this because of (in my eyes) poor writing, which is something I really am not accostomed to regarding BioWare.

Personal Rating: 3/7, better than that joke of a second DLC for ME1 and Project Featherhead, way worse than Kasumi. BdtS, Overlord and LotSB (in ascending order of my personal preference).

[Woodstock504]

Very nice work Bioware. it was kinda short but interesting and satisfying. however something may have been overlooked (but nothing major). I think I noticed that when you FIRST arrive on the asteroid, you don't have an enviro mask on to protect you from the vacuum of space. (unless you put one on before the mission). but later into the mission it IS provided. lol, one of the game scenes were kinda lame but overall I'm greatful for the extra content. can't wait to get my hands on ME: Deception and ME3. I think we should get a Batarian squadmate in ME3, and a volus shipmate. more DLC for the franchise could include things that were happening when Shepard was still MIA. like a remake of Mass Effect: Galaxy. when Jacob saved the citadel. liara nem, and Anderson/Sanders. Kai Leng and all that jazz.

[Maniccc]

I did not enjoy this DLC at all.  I was very let down by it.

1)  What was the point?  I don't see how this bridges to ME3 in any special way.

2)  Very short.

3)  No squadmates
 
4)  Several holes in the story that others already pointed out

5)  No Ash or Kaiden...the DLC felt very disconnected and "tacked on"

6)  Dialogue was weak and felt rushed.

HOWEVER, I did think taking over the bot was a cool idea.

[diskoh]

I quite liked Arrival. I don't have a lot of feedback though, just a few points.

1. It really takes me out of the moment when I see a character and think "Oh that's Kelly's hair." or "Oh femShep has that hair option" because the character creation is so limited. I'm sure it's too late now and ME3 will be the same, but seriously, is there NOTHING to be done?

2. Maybe it's because it's new and I haven't played through it 10 times to predict how people will react and where I should go and what I should do, but the AI was a bastard. That was fun.

All in all, excellent DLC and thanks for providing it.

[Sursion]

I disliked not having a squad. Other than that, it was great. I still don't know why we weren't allowed to have one. For the prison mission, alright, it makes sense. But why couldn't we call the Normandy while we were flying to The Project base?

[kennyv217]

Just finished playing it, loved it, but I have a question, what if we just stood there and let the Reaper invasion timer run out? It was going on its own, so what would happen if waited for the timer to run out?

[samuraix87]

it needed and updated me2 ending instead of them in darkspace show a few apearing in the system after the alpha relay blew up that would of made it good

[DyingSkunk]

I haven't read anything else in this thread, but I can only assume that this has already come up...

If there's this "Alpha Portal", and the Reapers can get to it so easily by simply flying into the galaxy at FTL speed... What the heck was the point of the first two games? Why did the Reapers go through all that trouble, if it would have been so easy just to silently, manually fly in and begin the invasion?

Talk about weak writing...

At least Hackett was cool... And I guess the battle sequence where you're trying to stop what's-her-name from overloading the core was exciting... but still... Bleh. I'll play ME3, and I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm becoming more and more disappointed by the story.

Modifié par DyingSkunk, 29 mars 2011 - 10:45 .

[Darth Garrus]

If there´s one story-wise ball dropped, it´s the fact that continuing the mission after the dlc feels a little weird. The Reapers are just arriving, and you are back tracking the Collectors? It´s overkill.

The dlc should have made a way of extending the game, and appearing just after you already took down the Collectors. After the rolling of the titles. Like a post scriptum. That would have augmented the feeling of preparation for ME3.

[Annihilator27]

johnbonhamatron wrote...

annihilator27 wrote...

What did you guys think of the music? Had an impending doom vibe to me.

While playing, the music was good, but a bit muted, compared to LOTSB. It really reminded me of something, too, and I'm damned if I can remember what it is (I think it was something like The Matrix or one of the Bond films that David Arnold scored).

Listening to it on youtube, though, there's some really neat stuff going on in the counter melodies.

Reminds me of bladrunner, I've found the combat theme so far.Very good melodies.

[CanadAvenger]

Darth Suetam wrote...

If there´s one story-wise ball dropped, it´s the fact that continuing the mission after the dlc feels a little weird. The Reapers are just arriving, and you are back tracking the Collectors? It´s overkill.

The dlc should have made a way of extending the game, and appearing just after you already took down the Collectors. After the rolling of the titles. Like a post scriptum. That would have augmented the feeling of preparation for ME3.

QFT.

It does seem really odd that this can be done post-Horizon instead of post-SM, especially since there will be no mention of it in the main game if you DO do it after Horizon.

I agree with Darth Suetam - this should have been left for post Suicide Mission. It's much more logical, and would have left the player with more of a feeling of urgency.

[BigC-VI]

Likes:
-Taking over Robot
-Admiral Hackett (though, did anyone else noticed the recycled Zaeed face?)
-Story (except for the obvious 'twist', Though I wonder what they did to Shepard in those two days)

Dislikes
-Length: For being the last DLC for ME2, I was expecting something much more grandiose. This felt short and rushed, and very tacked on like others have said. I would have prefered a strict, after Suicide Mission story arc. One quest that you can do anytime hardly bridges the gap between 2 and 3.
-Missed Opportunities: They really missed out on some stuff that could have easily been fixed. The Admiral asking about the Dr, Companion reactions to the solo-mission (and if not that, what about Miranda checking your body for whatever they did in those two days?, she did work on you after all)
-Ending: It felt very unpolished. Yes we completed the mission, talked to Hackett, but for what we did, it felt too fleeting. Everything should have been extended. Talk with Reaper, talk with Hackett, It was all very quick.

6/10

[samuraix87]

they could have locked it i started a new game and when i got the galaxy map only normandy crash was up on a tab but once you put disc 2 in the map gets clustered quick with the dlc tabs

[Winterfly]

DyingSkunk wrote...

I haven't read anything else in this thread, but I can only assume that this has already come up...

If there's this "Alpha Portal", and the Reapers can get to it so easily by simply flying into the galaxy at FTL speed... What the heck was the point of the first two games? Why did the Reapers go through all that trouble, if it would have been so easy just to silently, manually fly in and begin the invasion?

Talk about weak writing...

At least Hackett was cool... And I guess the battle sequence where you're trying to stop what's-her-name from overloading the core was exciting... but still... Bleh. I'll play ME3, and I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm becoming more and more disappointment by the story.

1: No one ever proclaimed Sovereign sane

2: Harbringer might very well work on his own with the Collectors, these things seem to have minds of their own. it fails so he rally the enormous fleet.

3: If you are to attack someone, you do need a plan. A attack straight on might be horrendous when something from another galaxy attacks. Uniting the Council races and Terminus system races combined with Rachni and Migrant fleet flotilla and what else Shepard manage to do...heck geth even? And you will have a fleet that is so large that it will probably break the reapers in the end or hurt them so much they will get problems to conquer the next wave of new organics. 

Which right now seems to be their options alone. A full out war that they know they win but that they know will give them problems since 2 failed attacks have left reaper tech in the galaxy and if the council dies, Turians for example will massproduce dreadnoughts. 

Let us say the number of "Greater" reapers like Sovereign and Harbringer is 1.000.000. Imagine the war taking a quarter of that. It's a lot. Especially if they screwed up Citadel relay those blasted organics and if they left a ton of even more things for the reapers to clean out. They missed Ilos, imagine if you have much longer time to know of the reapers invasion. Imagine how many traces you can leave. 

Also other reapers been shot down before. Like the one floating around a planet. Pretty screwed over! 

[Winterfly]

BigC-VI wrote...

Likes:
-Taking over Robot
-Admiral Hackett (though, did anyone else noticed the recycled Zaeed face?)
-Story (except for the obvious 'twist', Though I wonder what they did to Shepard in those two days)

Dislikes
-Length: For being the last DLC for ME2, I was expecting something much more grandiose. This felt short and rushed, and very tacked on like others have said. I would have prefered a strict, after Suicide Mission story arc. One quest that you can do anytime hardly bridges the gap between 2 and 3.
-Missed Opportunities: They really missed out on some stuff that could have easily been fixed. The Admiral asking about the Dr, Companion reactions to the solo-mission (and if not that, what about Miranda checking your body for whatever they did in those two days?, she did work on you after all)
-Ending: It felt very unpolished. Yes we completed the mission, talked to Hackett, but for what we did, it felt too fleeting. Everything should have been extended. Talk with Reaper, talk with Hackett, It was all very quick.

6/10

I agree with you, the team pretty much just "I give no **** about it Shep".

You sit on the best assassin in the galaxy and the best thief. Yet, Shepard is sent and you cannot even suggest it to Hackett. But it was a easy escape from the voice acting and whole...yeah capturing. 

Had it's ups. Hackett is awesome although.

[Pani Mauser]

I enjoyed the DLC, especially stealth part and controlling the mech. Also, asteroid station was beautiful, I loved it to the bits! Music was great too. And the final run with mass relay in the skies was awesome. I really enjoyed not having the boss fight at the end. I hate when boss fights are in games just for the sake of being there, because it is a tradition and stuff... It felt more realistic and natural just to fight through the wave of enemies and jump onto the ship.

I just wish it was only playable after Suicide Mission and ended with Hackett taking Shepard away to the trial, so you are not able to return to the game afterwards. It would add so much weight to the ending!

I would love to have my squaddies with me or save at least some of the batarians, but I can understand the time/budget limitations for this.

The only nitpick of mine is the lack of dialog option to mention that Shepard is a Spectre and doesn't answer to the Alliance anymore.

The first thing I do in all my playthroughs is reinstate the Spectre status, so my character could have no bounds as I really don't want Shep to be loyal Alliance soldier. I like 'special agent' role a lot more.

In this case Hackett could mention that the Council supports Alliance's decision and is willing to revoke the status. It wouldn't change the ending, but it would be a really nice touch for those who prefer to be Spectres in the first place. I don't like that the final dialog was written as if Shepard is still an alliance soldier.

But overall I liked the DLC and I would put it as the second best after the Shadow Broker. It was short, but intense and satisfying, and also gave a nice closure to the game.

[NYG1991]

liked the solo mission aspect.

would've been cool to do some un- armored combat when escaping captivity.

seemed kinda wierd that they would store all my gear right outside my cell. I was expecting to have weapons and ammo be OSP for a bit

[DyingSkunk]

Winterfly wrote...

DyingSkunk wrote...

I haven't read anything else in this thread, but I can only assume that this has already come up...

If there's this "Alpha Portal", and the Reapers can get to it so easily by simply flying into the galaxy at FTL speed... What the heck was the point of the first two games? Why did the Reapers go through all that trouble, if it would have been so easy just to silently, manually fly in and begin the invasion?

Talk about weak writing...

At least Hackett was cool... And I guess the battle sequence where you're trying to stop what's-her-name from overloading the core was exciting... but still... Bleh. I'll play ME3, and I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm becoming more and more disappointment by the story.

1: No one ever proclaimed Sovereign sane

2: Harbringer might very well work on his own with the Collectors, these things seem to have minds of their own. it fails so he rally the enormous fleet.

3: If you are to attack someone, you do need a plan. A attack straight on might be horrendous when something from another galaxy attacks. Uniting the Council races and Terminus system races combined with Rachni and Migrant fleet flotilla and what else Shepard manage to do...heck geth even? And you will have a fleet that is so large that it will probably break the reapers in the end or hurt them so much they will get problems to conquer the next wave of new organics. 

Which right now seems to be their options alone. A full out war that they know they win but that they know will give them problems since 2 failed attacks have left reaper tech in the galaxy and if the council dies, Turians for example will massproduce dreadnoughts. 

Let us say the number of "Greater" reapers like Sovereign and Harbringer is 1.000.000. Imagine the war taking a quarter of that. It's a lot. Especially if they screwed up Citadel relay those blasted organics and if they left a ton of even more things for the reapers to clean out. They missed Ilos, imagine if you have much longer time to know of the reapers invasion. Imagine how many traces you can leave. 

Also other reapers been shot down before. Like the one floating around a planet. Pretty screwed over! 

I appreciate the reply.  The problem with your defense of the story, is that everything you're saying is pure assumption/speculation.

1.  Nothing ever really indicated he was INsane either.  As far as I know, he was the Reapers' "ace in the hole" til Shepered screwed them over.

2.  What?  This is just pure speculation/apologism.

3.  The Reapers are incredibly arrogant.  They've shown this in both games.  They have no reason to believe they can't just ride in and body-rock the entire galaxy like they've done who knows how many times before.

I'm still not convinced that this entire "twist" in Arrival wasn't just really shoddy writing. 

Modifié par DyingSkunk, 29 mars 2011 - 10:57 .

[Woodstock504]

OH yeh, I thought the purpose of the citadel was the same as the so called alpha relay...? anyhow I liked the solo mission idea. It was epic how shepard alone, tore off the enemies' asses and handed them back. and I only play on insanity. I found it heightening that everybody underestimates Shepards abilities as an army of one.

[Pauravi]

Sursion wrote...

I disliked not having a squad. Other than that, it was great. I still don't know why we weren't allowed to have one. For the prison mission, alright, it makes sense. But why couldn't we call the Normandy while we were flying to The Project base?

I was okay with this, and here's why: finding out that The Reapers are coming in 2 days is a monumental realization. A big enough one that having your squadmates NOT comment on it would feel incredibly odd. However, this is a DLC, not a big-budget expansion -- expecting them to pay all the companion VO's to come in and record dialogue seems like it would be outside the scope of the project.  It can also be rationalized fairly easily by pointing out that Shepard went straight to the project base from the prison, and there was no reason for him to expect trouble such that he would ask everyone to come along.

[Darth Garrus]

CanadAvenger wrote...

QFT.

It does seem really odd that this can be done post-Horizon instead of post-SM, especially since there will be no mention of it in the main game if you DO do it after Horizon.

I agree with Darth Suetam - this should have been left for post Suicide Mission. It's much more logical, and would have left the player with more of a feeling of urgency.

Exactly. By the time you are talking to Hackett, the Reapers are just arriving. It will only take them longer to reach us, but they are there. After knowing that, how can you go after Collectors? And risking getting killed with your squad fighting people that just became irrelevant? If the dlc doesn´t take place after ME2 is completed, it makes the rest of it irrelevant. If you can unite planets and races to take down the Reapers, what would save the Collectors later? No urgency to justify going after them when you know the "Arrival".

[King Killoth]

it is a great set up for ME3. felt a little short but im hopeing this is not the last DLC for ME2. I would still like one more clothing pack for the last three squad members. also maybe another mission pack leading to the trail. over all Arrival was a good adision to the ME2 story and it was awesome to meet hacket face to face.

[TMA LIVE]

Despite my complaints, I do think this is a good DLC. It definitely makes Shepard more human, nails down how far he's willing to go in order to stop the Reapers. This is definitely his loyalty mission.

[Pauravi]

DyingSkunk wrote...

I haven't read anything else in this thread, but I can only assume that this has already come up...

If there's this "Alpha Portal", and the Reapers can get to it so easily by simply flying into the galaxy at FTL speed... What the heck was the point of the first two games? Why did the Reapers go through all that trouble, if it would have been so easy just to silently, manually fly in and begin the invasion?

It seems fairly obvious, really.  Several reasons:

1. The Reapers are in dark space conserving energy.  The Citadel Relay was meant as a method of making a "blitzkrieg".  No chance of anyone detecting them on the way in, it is an instantaneous, completely surprise invasion, without having to expend the energy it takes to travel all the way in from dark space.

2. The Alpha Portal is only a means of getting around the galaxy.  The Citadel, on the other hand, contains all the information The Reapers would need to ferret out every last sentient being that is part of the interstellar community. The more quickly they gain access to it, the less chance anyone has of thwarting their attempts to find everyone.  The Protheans almost did it on Ilos even with no warning, they just couldn't sustain themselves long enough.

3. Without the events of the first game, The Reapers would ALREADY have invaded and massacred everyone in the galaxy.  I'd say that's pretty important.

[Schattenkeil]

I found arrival pretty intense. Tactical interesting setups, challanging fights. When it started I found it a little too easy with my infiltrator on insanity, but that changed when it came to defending this fixed position. What really annoys me in those extensions are those flashbangs - half the difficulty comes from those since it's the only way enemies can fight you while under cover. I really liked the scripts of some enemies though. They didn't let themselves be forced into cover and taken out one by one but really charged.

The survival fight was a little too tough on insanity. I tried several times but I just didn't last long on that survival fight on insanity. The problem was that even when I was cloaking it was difficult to find cover in time because they spread in the room quite. The problem was that unlike most NPCs the kept moving when I started cloak and were pretty good at cornering you. That was a problem once you ran low on ammo. And I even had the advantage of having a cloak ability, I don't know how anyone who's not an infiltrator might have done it. The fight on the final platform could have been harder. Not more enemies, but the existing enemies should have been pushing harder. Even on insanity I had a third of the time left when I blasted the Mech...

As for the story. Hm. I never thought I'd commit genocide. When the story started I thought the whole thing was a setup, it just couldn't be right. When the story came to its twist I just I was slightly disoriented. Is this a trick to make me slaughter so many people? Is this really necesssary? Are they trying to manipulate me and, if so, to do what? The reaper vision could have been a bit more detailed and clearer, to really convince the player the reapers were coming. That sudden sudden indoctrination, that complete change of attitude in seconds... but it could have been a setup, she had nothing to gain by filling if it had all been a scheme to fool me. I reaped five renegade points when I shot her, though I am usually after paragon points. I am curious if it would have been possible to earn paragon points in that situation as well...

This extension greatly changes the way I see Shepard. Yes she always was one to make sacrifices - in particular the council in my case. Yet still she had something honorable, noble about her. Something knightly. That's gone now - she's an enforcers, James Bond style at best. There is nothing noble about that.