990 réponses à ce sujet

[Junthor]

1. Lack of any significant choices.
2. Fighting of the same type of enemies over and over.
3. Lack of emotional connection.
4. No real sense of accomplishment.

[M-Sinistrari]

Overall, as far as plain DLC goes, this one rates a 'meh'. As the big Bridging DLC, it was a rather poor effort, especially in light of the pure sublimity that was LotSB.

The level design was good, and while I'm usually not into game music, the music here was definitely good. Finally having a face to put to Hackett was nice, but I'd've still been fine envisioning him as Lance Hendrikson in an Alliance uniform. Having an alternate way to complete a mission was quite refreshing to see.

What I didn't like was that it was short. For how many points it cost, I was expecting more. Looking at the KBs of the assorted DLC, it was less than Kasumi. Compared to the usual graphics we've seen for animations, this was a bit choppy. While the essential concept of the storyline had scads of potential, it wasn't quite executed to that potential. I've done both Renegade and Paragon paths, and here they really didn't have much if any essential difference. My renegade Sheps have no problem massacring the Batarians, but my paragon would've felt better with something more than a token effort to try to get some evacuated. Equally while it was nice to have some resolution for Sheps that want to return to the Alliance, those who don't want to return are shoehorned into the choice. Seeing batarians in human armour when we've seen them repeatedly with clear visors while not game breaking did have me laughing at the absurdity more than not.

Lack of the VS appearing was jarring since with LotSB there was some resolution with Liara be it reaffirming the romance or reaffirming and building on the friendship. Being solo on the mission while on one hand made sense, kinda falls apart when one has Kasumi who can cloak and Thane who's pretty much a lizard ninja.

The Shep under sedation for 2 days really came across as a cop out of sorts when that time could've easily been filled with some further story elaborations, a VS appearance and extended this DLC to something more appropriate for it's cost.

While I'm not livid over this lacking in quality of this DLC, it's really not had me eager to replay it on my other Sheps compared to Overlord and LotSB. Comparing this DLC to those prior, this was more of a fluffed up N7 mission than the grand bridging DLC we were expecting.

[Rekkampum]

TwistedComplex wrote...

Shadow broker is listed as the best ME2 DLC, yet there are just as few meaningful choices in Lair as there are in Arrival. Your choices literally mean nothing in either, so people should stop trying to factor that in as a reason for a low score.

False. You can choose to resume your relationship with Liara if you are now in a relationship with someone else, which on its own merit is a vey significant choice and there's a nice mixture of variety and one of the best designed levels in the ME series. It was also the first ME2 DLC to be considered "canon", which means that the DLC will probably be referenced in the third game regardless of whether you played it or not. Plus, at 1.6 gb LotSB has lots of bonus material to offer after the mission is completed.

[InvaderErl]

Aeylla wrote...

      > Wasn't it promised several times that the LI between Shep and Kaidan/Ash would get resolved in a DLC

Just wanted to point out that this was never promised. People assumed it would happen merely because we had a Liara-centric DLC, but Bioware never said anything about Virmire surivor and a DLC.

[Bachmors]

7/10

The setting was nice, but the twist with Dr. Kenson was a bit lame (predictable).

+ The stealth part was great! Please more options to avoid fights by sneaking in Mass Effect 3
+ Good Cliffhanger for Mass Effect 3

- The combats are a bit repetitive ... more stealth and some riddles would have gone a long way

Conclusion: Please more sneaking parts in Mass Effect 3 (I would also really like the option to sneak up on an enemy with Tactical Cloak and take them out silently)

[TOBY FLENDERSON]

I really liked it and have only two real complaints:

No real boss battle
No collectible for the captains cabin

[2kgnsiika]

Liked:

– Innovation in gameplay: solo combat, sneaking around, multiple paths
– Challenge to survive 5 waves JUST to show how badass my beloved John Shepard is. Just presenting the option of giving in and still progressing the story really made me want to try again and again until I got the achievement. I would really appreciate seeing something like this in ME3.
– Hackett: it's easy to ruin a character who is a fan favorite despite minimal exposure. Instead, you guys made me like him even more, and now I can't wait to (hopefully) see more of him in ME3
– Interesting plot (though the storytelling could have been better)

Disliked:

– Lack of meaningful choices
– One of the biggest strengths of the main game are the beautifully written/acted characters and how they react to situations and Shepard's actions. For me, Kenson was not really interesting at all, as she was not properly charactarized and her betrayal/indoctrination made me feel nothing. I realize you're in the money making business and wont't hire the entire cast for a 7 dollar DLC, but it doesn't make me feel any better about it.
– What happened here and how it was presented felt out of proportion. There was little build-up for the important events. I played through the entire game and all the DLC in preparation for this, and felt like this was just a disconnected episode in Shepard's adventures. What should have been a climax with a lot of foreplay felt like an unexpected quickie. This was one of the most important things Shepard has done, so far, but it felt like a quick sidequest.
– Hackett called me as soon as I downloade the DLC. At this point I had several missions in the main game to complete and it felt kind of silly to just postpone something this important. It would have been more appropriate if Hackett had called me after the suicide mission.

[Mr Plow]

Junthor wrote...

1. Lack of any significant choices.
2. Fighting of the same type of enemies over and over.
3. Lack of emotional connection.
4. No real sense of accomplishment.

Yup pretty much this


It was...alright.  The second half on the station was more enjoyable folllowing the twist.  Solo mission was a change of pace but the novelty wore off fast.  The squadmates were missed. For 560 points it was OK but it was just...there

[Si-Shen]

I was happy with it, it did what it was supposed to do, convey the story that the Reapers were closer then you thought and that the coming future is urgent, not a relaxed stroll through the gun fire.

Was there a lack of connection? to a point, but really, that wasn't the true point of this DLC, I did not feel for the dead in the end, but then again I wasn't sure what to expect. It gave me pretty much what I asked, a continuation of the story and Hacket.

[breakdown71289]

well, i thought "Arrival" helped set up what's to come with ME3 pretty nicely.....but on the other hand, i would've MUCH preferred spending $20 on a DLC that would have lasted me a good 3-4 hours, rather than an hour up to an hour and a half of just shooting the same ol' batarians again and again lol.

[sy7ar]

8.5
good:
different style of gameplay (stealth, solo); music; twist; environment; hackett
not so good:
stealth - not a real stealth game so basically just walk around enemies' back
music - when the loading screen cuts it
conclusion: satisfied (a bit surprisingly)

[ACSSolver]

Just finished Arrival, it's not as good at the excellent Shadowbroker DLC, but still solid.

Likes:

- Excellent environments. Especially the asteroid base, reminded me of Noveria's hot labs. And the final vista with the relay in the background.
- Dark aspect to the story. Goes to show that fighting the Reapers will mean many lives lost.
- Well done stealth options in the prison
- Conversation with Harbinger. Could be a bit longer, but I liked it
- Controlling the LOKI mech. Unexpected and stands out as a memorable moment.
- HACKETT! I really hope there are several scenes with him in ME3.


Dislikes:

- Lack of choices. Having choices is one of the main strengths of ME, yet Arrival only had one Renegade interrupt, no Paragon/Renegade dialogue options or any decisions that alter the course of anything.
- Lack of concern by Paragon Shepards. Shepard quickly agrees to initiate the Project, is not concerned about the lives that will be list. There should have been Paragon options to question the situation, for Shep to ask if that really is the only way, to try and see if somehow lives could be saved.
- Batarians using the generic human merc model felt weird. Two-eyehole helmets and all.
- Joker's silence. I understand that bringing Seth Green in to record 2 lines isn't practical, but there are lines that could be recycled. In ME1 he had a line of "aye aye, secured and away", and that's just off the top of my head.

[Web2nr]

+ Nice to see Hackett
+ Good dialog with Harbinger

- Silent Joker
- Solo mission
- The story felt contrived and decisions didn't really matter at all
- We had to kill 300,000 with no option given to save any
- *nit-picky* Ending explosion was weak compared to that of a headshot YMIR Mech or Cain blast

Overall it was alright. I enjoyed it because it was simply more content to play with. However, it doesn't hold a candle to LoTSB or Kasumi

[Nathan Redgrave]

I thought it was a good buy for the price. The stealth aspect in the first part was really bread-and-butter, and I really wish the batarian soldiers had looks, y'know, batarian. The lack of choice was annoying, and I get that there really was no choice to be had other than to sacrifice the entire system to hold off the Reapers, but allowing the player more room to decide Shepard's attitude toward the situation would have been nice.

I thought it was clever that Shepard's unusual resistance to sedatives (as seen in the first moments of the main game itself) came back to play a significant role in the plot. I thought it was lazy that Shepard just happened to wake up next to a mech control console. I thought it was clever that we got to control a LOKI mech, though. And I'm a bit mixed on the point that the entire DLC seems more like an excuse to have Shepard on Earth without his squadmates at the start of ME3 than anything else.

Oh, and I liked that it wasn't a mission delivered by e-mail, but rather by video-conference. I also found it interesting to go through a mission solo for a change.

[Terror_K]

My review is posted here:-

http://www.n7academy...arrival-dlc-r19

Arrival actually starts off fairly interesting, with a message from our old friend Admiral Hackett. It's immediately good that we actually get a proper set-up this time rather than just a new email. BioWare could have easily cheaped out and done so, since this is how most of the previous DLC begin, but I'm glad they didn't. I'm hoping that it's signs that they're listening to the fans who have kept telling them over the past year and a bit that ME2 had far too many emails as it was and ME1's sidequest set-ups where Admiral Hackett would actually talk to you (or other people would, like Nassana Dantius, Admiral Kahoku, etc.) to give you the quest. It's also nice we finally get to see the guy, and bringing back Lack Henriksen is a big plus (and, well... kind of necessary in this case). I'm hoping this is a sign that he'll be in ME3 now too (perhaps they had him recording lines for both this and ME3 around the same time... here's hoping).

I liked that there was a decent amount of dialogue and questions with Hackett at the start too. The only thing that really struck me as weird was basically this exchange: Hacket says, "she claims to have some intel on a Reaper invasion," to which Shepard responds, "why contact me?" WAT?! Why would Shepard even question that?! He/she knows that Hackett knows that he/she's trying to stop The Reapers? There's no reason I can think of why contacting Shepard about it would seem strange. That's a bit like Commissioner Gordon calling Batman and saying, "The Joker is running amok in downtown Gotham City!" and Batman saying, "why contact me?"

Moving along... the first section is entertaining enough I suppose. I'm glad we got some more rain, as I loved the effects of it on Pragia in the vanilla game (Mmmmmm... wet Femshep...) and the layout was fairly interesting. The first half of this section seems to be low on combat and high on "puzzles" for the most part. I say "puzzles" with quotes as none of them are particularly challenging or even that inventive or interesting. I suppose I should give the DLC devs props here for at least trying, since I always said that part of what let ME2 combat sections down was the lack of integrated puzzles within the combat and the fact it pretty much was always just "shoot, cover, shoot, cover, shoot, cutscene, shoot, etc." with little variation. It reminds me a little of some of the gimmicky N7 missions, but is a bit better since it's integrated more into a proper mission that includes combat rather than being isolated as if to say, "Look at me! I'm BioWare playing around with little games in the engine and then wrapped in sidequest clothing!" Simply put, there's at least some substance to the puzzles here, and they don't feel quite as gimmicky. I think BioWare can do better (and hopefully do for ME3), but it's a step in the right direction.

The stealth option is nice, if a little too easy. I definitely think there should have been more things where you had to time things well and watch guard patrol routes, etc. As it stands it's a little too easy, and all you need to do is follow the path before you while resisting the urge to shoot the filthy, stinking batarians on the way and it's pretty much done. Props for allowing two alternatives to the situation, but it still could have been done a little better. That said, I'm not sure how easy proper stealth mechanics would be to add to the game since it's not really designed for them, so I can understand if they didn't ramp up said mechanics a bit more (for example, it seems that detection or not was based more on the areas Shepard went --or didn't-- rather than any line-of-sight or proximity to guards mechanics, so perhaps the patrol timing, etc. wouldn't have been an easy thing to integrate).

Once you get the doctor it becomes standard ME2 combat for the most part, except for the fact that instead of two squaddies there's just you and a flimsy doctor with a pistol. This adds a little bit of a twist to things and makes them a tad more challenging, as you have to rely pretty much purely on yourself now, since Kenson is pretty useless (though rightfully so... she's not a combat specialist, so shouldn't be anywhere near as good as any proper companion) and doesn't even stick around that long. It's pretty much just a corridor shoot fest until you both escape, except for one section where you have to protect her. I liked the cutscene where Shepard used the fuel to burn the batarians upon leaving, though I do think that it should have been a Renegade interrupt option rather than an inevitability personally.

I was also disappointed that every batarian was helmeted and there was never a big head honcho to talk to who would monologue in standard villain fashion. In fact, it would have been a great opportunity to have Balak perhaps return briefly for those who did BDtS and let him escape, even if he only threatened Shepard briefly and escaped again. Would have been a nice touch. The main point is, the batarians seemed a bit sidelined here and weren't given quite enough presence beyond "plebe enemy fodder" for the most part. Also, had there been a batarian leader to have a dialogue exchange with, he may have revealed some of the info about what Kenson was doing prior to the shuttle ride back. This would have then also served to break up the dialogue and info dump a little, because the following section once you escape is pretty much just that in big lumps. I loved dialogue more than anything in Mass Effect... don't get me wrong, but it's always better, IMO, to pace it out gradually rather than relegate it to large lumps between combat.

Before you even make it to the project base you should be pretty damn suspicious of Kenson and what's going on. This is kind of due to a rather Catch 22 approach to betrayal that BioWare are always a little guilty of in Mass Effect. The thing is, it's both a blessing and a curse. Tela Vasir suffered the same fate in LotSB too. The problem is basically that BioWare not only don't seem to make any betrayal or traitor characters subtle, but they even go out of their way to make them suspicious. They use all the great movie tricks to hint that somebody is not on the level, and it works great from a cinematic standpoint, but the thing is in a movie the watcher is completely removed from the thing and is purely an observer. In a game like Mass Effect the player is part of the experience, and is taking on the role of the hero. As a result BioWare are putting them in a position where they fully know the character in question isn't on the level and will probably be pointing a gun at them fairly soon, but the character they're playing may not. That said, I'm pretty sure Shepard was fairly dubious at least halfway on the shuttle trip. Particularly when Object Rho came up and she heard the've been studying it for a while. Shepard was there watching pretty much every time Kenson acted suspicious, while Vasir in LotSB was often the most obvious when Shepard was either not paying attention, was gone or was looking the other way.

Sure enough, the gun gets pulled after a short but sweet vision for Shepard. The achievement-linked wave survival section in the next part is quite interesting, and reminded me of the one mission I enjoyed in Pinnacle Station: the final one that simulates part of the First Contact War that Admiral Ahern took part in. The first time I played I actually died fairly quickly after getting flanked from pretty much all sides. The second time I managed to find a place where they could only come from two sides and I had a fairly clear view of the battlefield and I made it to the end where Object Rho blasted me anyway. It's a neat little survival section, I have to say, and I enjoyed it because it was a little different from the norm. And again, a bit more challenging and different because it's just you... no squaddies.

The next section is one of two sections I'd call "neat and different" and I liked that. This is the bit where you control the LOKI mech for a short period. Yeah... it's kind of simple and doesn't last long, but it's just different enough to be interesting. It's no Illium car chase for sure, but it's still kind of neat. Much of the rest consists of shooting and short elevator rides while you hunt down Kenson and try and stop her. I enjoyed the moral dilemma of killing all those batarians, and despite attempting to warn them failing, I like that it was an option and at least paid off in some manner in the dialogue with Hackett at the end. When finally taking down Kenson it was nice there was a Renegade interrupt there, but kind of disappointing that taking it didn't really change that much beyond whether you got some points or not. There's still an explosion, Kenson still dies and you still get knocked out for the second time in as many minutes and wake up to a rapidly ticking clock.

The final run is the second section I call "neat and different" simply because of the nature of it. It normally would be fairly standard combat, but the fact that it's timed with an ever approaching relay in the distance and that it's in a vacuum and the sounds are heavily muted and muffled really did add a sense of both tension and danger. I never really realised the extent that I relied on sound to convey information combat before this, and much like the shield-stripping sunlight on Haestrom this rather simple mechanic added a nice little twist to things to make them different and interesting. I'm hoping ME3 will do something interesting with gravity at some point now, and perhaps even use this mechanic again.

Finally we have a little chat with our good friend Harbinger (or The Collector General if you haven't completed the game... who is also technically Harbinger) before an exciting escape, a cool cutscene of an exploding Mass Relay, and finally a nice little chat with Admiral Hackett. Like the early section of the game, I really enjoyed being able to chat with him, and I like the implications of what this could mean. Tensions with the batarians, Shepard having to go to trial and The Reapers on our doorstep... it's all interesting stuff, and I hope it pays of at least twice as interesting in ME3. I know some surmised that perhaps ME3 kicks things off with Shepard on trial with the Alliance for what happened in ME2 and his/her involvement with Cerberus, and the ending of this DLC seems to support that. Here's hoping that if it's true importing a save that's done Arrival has a few scenes related to the events here. I also loved how in my main canon Paragon playthrough that Hackett commented that he "wasn't sure the Normandy even was a Cerberus vessel any more." As somebody who felt Cerberus was a tad shoved down my throat in ME2 and wanted to distance myself from them more, this was a nice little treat.

I suppose I should cover a few other aspects of the game I haven't yet. I liked the environments for starters. The first section in the prison with the rain and dank cells, etc. was nice. Like I said before, ever since Pragia I loved the rain effects and wished they'd used them a bit more. The section section was admittedly mostly inside a fairly samey-looking base, but I like that they at least put the effort in to have some large windows and long glass causeways that looked out onto the asteroid's surface, etc. BioWare could have just as easily blocked you to the outside world and made things dull, but it was nice they didn't and let the place feel large and interesting. Even the little elevator rides and general layout of the place was pretty well done. And again, I loved the final section with the ever-closing relay in the distance. It looked awesome and really did make you think time was of the essence.

The music was good too. From the early prison stuff to the final epic piece that accompanied the destruction of the relay, it felt very appropriate and also very 1980's sci-fi. I know I'll always probably miss Jack Wall since he left, but they did a good job here without him I felt, and if this is the team that Clint Mansell is going to be taking with him onto ME3 then my confidence in the musical nature of that game is a little higher.

I do have an issue with the set-up. When I started up my post-suicide save with everything done in it (including all the previous DLC) then I just walked over to my console and the message from Hackett was right there. That's fine and good... I've done the suicide mission, and this is a mission that definitely seems to only be suited (IMO) to being done afterwards. The problem is that I can also get it about halfway through the main story. I can somewhat understand why BioWare did this with regards to played accessibility, but I don't think it really suits it at all given the storyline, and how I have this issue of every future ME2 game I play I'm going to be getting this mission from Hackett that I'll have to keep putting off in the future, which kind of jars. I really do think that this should have only been available to those saves with a post-Suicide Mission tag checked, much like I feel the same way about LotSB (at the very least LotSB shouldn't have been activated until you've helped Liara with her vanilla game missions and then at least left Illium and gone somewhere else, but that's another matter).

There weren't really many (or any I suppose) big decisions here. There's a lot of implications at the end and some set-up for ME3, but I don't really feel any choices I made here will matter that much in the future. At the most I feel that going into ME3 it may simply flag the fact that I've done it and then maybe something will come of it, but I don't feel there would be much beyond that. Perhaps there should have been an option to actually "save" Kenson and at least take her with you, which could have led to her undergoing indoctrination treatment (and/or being studied for its effects) in ME3, but then that would make the final section rather awkward as Shepard tries to shoot with a person draped over his/her shoulder. Warning the batarians successfully could have been an option, but on the other hand I kind of like that they didn't escape for the implications it raises regarding increased tensions and possibly war between the batarians and humans in ME3. Perhaps the fact you tried or not may come up in ME3. As may whether you volunteered to return and stand trial as opposed to refusing. I'd like to think that some of those final things you spoke with Hackett about may affect something going into ME3, because beyond that it seems doing Arrival will otherwise only tag that very fact: that you did Arrival.


Overall it's a fairly decent DLC, but isn't the strongest to come out of BioWare. It's kind of a shame BioWare didn't go out on a bang overall with this, even if it literally does go out on a bang and the final sections are actually the best ones, so the DLC from an isolated point of view does itself go out on a high, IMO. I would have said that perhaps this should have been the one to come late last year and that LotSB should have been ME2's swansong since it's far stronger, but the story, themes and set-ups for this are clearly more suited to being the final piece. If I had to rank it amongst the other DLCs, LotSB and Kasumi would beat it and it would be pretty much on par with Overlord. Both Arrival and Overlord had about the same levels of good factors and not-so-good ones. As it stands Arrival is perhaps a tad short and a little clumsy here and there (some plot points are a tad forced, the Reapers' back door is a little simple and even Deus-Ex machina in some ways, no major choices to speak of, a few plot holes, they couldn't even reuse some existing stock dialogue for Joker, etc.) but it's still a fairly decent effort overall. It's not mindblowing and it's definitely nowhere near as just full-on awesome as LotSB was, but there's enough interesting and worthwhile factors to make it worth it and it does seem to stamp the end of ME2 and set up the final chapter fairly well. Plus there's Hackett.

Grade: 7/10

Modifié par Terror_K, 01 avril 2011 - 12:34 .

[shep82]

I thought it was really well done and set up events for ME 3 nicely. Very tough choice to make and the consequences will be interesting to see. Very satisfied with it except I wish it was a tad longer.

[TekFanX]

Well, I had to wait some time to be rational about this DLC.
If I hadn't had the BioWare-Points still on my account, I would have been disappointed with spending the money.

After playing it through in roughly 45 minutes, I've been quite downed with the idea that this should be the first step towards ME3.

I'm not gonna flame this dlc, it had it's good parts and it's bad ones, but in my opinion it wasn't worth the money I paid for it.

Arrival felt rushed and while the 'acting' of the characters seemed solid(I really liked seeing Shepard desperately thinking in front of the console, it was character-acting like I love it), the 'story' and dialouges felt weak.

On the story:
It was too much of a briefing, instead of being the epic prelude it should be.
Reapers come, Shepard cuts their route.
Except for Shepard already having knowledge about the Reapers, the base-line of the Arrival-plot makes me think of ME1 compressed into a sidequest by a different writer.
Rather than making a cutscene for the end of the countdown, I had preferred seeing the batarian colonists standing in front of habitats, looking up to the light of the exploding relay and vaporising.
The so-called sacrifice seemed all too much of a side-note, this could have helped.
Sure we got to see the epic destruction of a mass-relay, I liked it, but the consequences being shown by a blast-radius analysis on the Normandy...BioWare, you can do better.
I admit I just played the DLC after finishing the Collector-Base as a Paragon, therefore I can't judge the dialouge Harbinger would bring up on the landing-deck just after Horizon, but I'd like to comment on my view on the bad reaper:
What was that?!
While the cryptic threatening Harbinger blurted out on the base while everything exploded made me shiver, this speech seemed like it was copied from a cheap anime.
Protagonist and villain face each other:
Harbinger:"We will bring your destruction, there is nothing you can do."
Shepard:"Maybe, but we will fight."
Bla bla bla...
I expected Shepard pulling out a Beyblade, yugioh-deck or what else there is in todays toy-stores to be advertised by an anime.
A talk on the well lit landing-deck, rather than the atmosphere on Virmire in ME1, where it was truly dark, intermediating and well placed.
Maybe everything would have looked better if the landing of the Normandy wouldn't have disappointed that much.
A low-texture-Normandy approaching with another faceless voice.
I understand that there wasn't a budget for hiring the old voice-actors again, but would it have been that much of a problem to sample an old file of Joker saying something like "Approaching for pick-up, commander." from any of the two main-games?
If not, just cut the radio-call out completely.

Let me come to another part that made this product less interesting for me: Shepard acting like a rookie.
I could be wrong, but Shepard should be one of the most experienced persons in Reaper-Indoctrination-cases in existence.
If a scientist he/she never met before talks of visions from a reaper-artefact and says they were catious with it, Shepard should hear at least a dozen internal alarms in his/her head.
On this part of the writing I can hardly understand any arguments I've heard for Shepard going solo on this part of the mission.

I think I've said enough about what I disliked about the DLC, so I'll come to the parts I really enjoyed:
New gameplay-mechanics:
-Controlling a Loki remotely? I liked the change. It was a neat idea and I would love to see more complex versions in ME3(rewiring circuits in a ventilation-shaft Shepard couldn't go into, clearing the way through toxic dump...etc.).
-Alternative routes and possibilites: Not new in the genre or ME at all, but a most welcome mechanic for ME2.
While the fight against the Collossus in the main-game offered different routes with different layouts, Arrival even offered to avoid direct fights at all.
I'd love to see this in ME3 more often. Instead of just having paragon/renegade-interrupts, I'd love to actively search alternative routes throug a level. For example hacking a crane to get an alternative bridge over a well guarded cliff. Or even smashing the guards into the abyss with the crane-controls.

Effects/Cinematics:
-Explosion of the Relay: One word: Epic. I couldn't want it any different.
-Frying guards with the shuttle. Maybe a bit too renegade, but refreshingly creative.

Level-Design:
-Prison and science-base both were great. I loved their layout and the art-style consistent throughout both locations. Moving switches to clear the way was fun, but I'd prefer a bit more complex versions if there isn't a countdown behind it. A variant of the bypass-game or the shutter-controls on Feros in ME1 would be nice for this.

Overall I'd give this DLC a 4/10.
While I liked the optic of the effects and the level-design, story and dialouges have been way too flat/not atmospheric enough.
Pushing Shepard into focus to further dramatize his/her role in the fate of the galaxy may have been a reason to isolate him/her from a squad, but the way it turned out it appears too hollow to really make sense at all.

[shep82]

TekFanX wrote...

Well, I had to wait some time to be rational about this DLC.
If I hadn't had the BioWare-Points still on my account, I would have been disappointed with spending the money.

After playing it through in roughly 45 minutes, I've been quite downed with the idea that this should be the first step towards ME3.

I'm not gonna flame this dlc, it had it's good parts and it's bad ones, but in my opinion it wasn't worth the money I paid for it.

Arrival felt rushed and while the 'acting' of the characters seemed solid(I really liked seeing Shepard desperately thinking in front of the console, it was character-acting like I love it), the 'story' and dialouges felt weak.

On the story:
It was too much of a briefing, instead of being the epic prelude it should be.
Reapers come, Shepard cuts their route.
Except for Shepard already having knowledge about the Reapers, the base-line of the Arrival-plot makes me think of ME1 compressed into a sidequest by a different writer.
Rather than making a cutscene for the end of the countdown, I had preferred seeing the batarian colonists standing in front of habitats, looking up to the light of the exploding relay and vaporising.
The so-called sacrifice seemed all too much of a side-note, this could have helped.
Sure we got to see the epic destruction of a mass-relay, I liked it, but the consequences being shown by a blast-radius analysis on the Normandy...BioWare, you can do better.
I admit I just played the DLC after finishing the Collector-Base as a Paragon, therefore I can't judge the dialouge Harbinger would bring up on the landing-deck just after Horizon, but I'd like to comment on my view on the bad reaper:
What was that?!
While the cryptic threatening Harbinger blurted out on the base while everything exploded made me shiver, this speech seemed like it was copied from a cheap anime.
Protagonist and villain face each other:
Harbinger:"We will bring your destruction, there is nothing you can do."
Shepard:"Maybe, but we will fight."
Bla bla bla...
I expected Shepard pulling out a Beyblade, yugioh-deck or what else there is in todays toy-stores to be advertised by an anime.
A talk on the well lit landing-deck, rather than the atmosphere on Virmire in ME1, where it was truly dark, intermediating and well placed.
Maybe everything would have looked better if the landing of the Normandy wouldn't have disappointed that much.
A low-texture-Normandy approaching with another faceless voice.
I understand that there wasn't a budget for hiring the old voice-actors again, but would it have been that much of a problem to sample an old file of Joker saying something like "Approaching for pick-up, commander." from any of the two main-games?
If not, just cut the radio-call out completely.

Let me come to another part that made this product less interesting for me: Shepard acting like a rookie.
I could be wrong, but Shepard should be one of the most experienced persons in Reaper-Indoctrination-cases in existence.
If a scientist he/she never met before talks of visions from a reaper-artefact and says they were catious with it, Shepard should hear at least a dozen internal alarms in his/her head.
On this part of the writing I can hardly understand any arguments I've heard for Shepard going solo on this part of the mission.

I think I've said enough about what I disliked about the DLC, so I'll come to the parts I really enjoyed:
New gameplay-mechanics:
-Controlling a Loki remotely? I liked the change. It was a neat idea and I would love to see more complex versions in ME3(rewiring circuits in a ventilation-shaft Shepard couldn't go into, clearing the way through toxic dump...etc.).
-Alternative routes and possibilites: Not new in the genre or ME at all, but a most welcome mechanic for ME2.
While the fight against the Collossus in the main-game offered different routes with different layouts, Arrival even offered to avoid direct fights at all.
I'd love to see this in ME3 more often. Instead of just having paragon/renegade-interrupts, I'd love to actively search alternative routes throug a level. For example hacking a crane to get an alternative bridge over a well guarded cliff. Or even smashing the guards into the abyss with the crane-controls.

Effects/Cinematics:
-Explosion of the Relay: One word: Epic. I couldn't want it any different.
-Frying guards with the shuttle. Maybe a bit too renegade, but refreshingly creative.

Level-Design:
-Prison and science-base both were great. I loved their layout and the art-style consistent throughout both locations. Moving switches to clear the way was fun, but I'd prefer a bit more complex versions if there isn't a countdown behind it. A variant of the bypass-game or the shutter-controls on Feros in ME1 would be nice for this.

Overall I'd give this DLC a 4/10.
While I liked the optic of the effects and the level-design, story and dialouges have been way too flat/not atmospheric enough.
Pushing Shepard into focus to further dramatize his/her role in the fate of the galaxy may have been a reason to isolate him/her from a squad, but the way it turned out it appears too hollow to really make sense at all.

Well thought out but I disagree. IMO it was a great prelude to ME 3.

[LeVaughnX]

Upon finally purchasing and playing this I have basically come up with a series of goods and bads to this DLC and a few questions that I hope people on this little thread answer.


+ Music is fantastic, best I've heard yet
+ Story is great
+ Characters are always awesome
+ They make the Reapers look like a threat once more
+ Epic Explosions
+ Puzzles!

- Shepard is forced to kill over three hundred thousand and he has to go to jail for it, really?
- A little cookie cutter for me, took little over fourty minutes, too straight forward.
- Massive glitch for the Infiltrator where your slow-motion vanishes about half way through.
- Got stuck in an elevator then randomly fell below the map then poped back up, which was cool...
- The whole mission felt rushed to an extent.
- No truely epic ending. Only semi-epic.


I understand that its only 560 points and that its meant to kind of feel rushed because in reality Shepard is being "rushed" so it makes a little sense. Though I was expecting more of an epic end and more about Anderson and maybe the VS and possibly Hackett (sp) defending you for your decision - not just saying ""HEY YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL BYE!"". I'm also rather upset that now that you have a LOT of proof of the Reapers existance AND their coming - that your actions wouldn't be considered justified as well as necessary especially because you tried to save the Batarians.

I mean honestly - this DLC had forced you to look like an **** though you are doing everything in your power for the good of the universe. It kind of reminds me of "Batman - The Dark Knight" where you basically take the heat for everything and make yourself look like crap just to save everyone else.



Anyway - I have a few questions..

1.) About the ending, does it mean that basically Shepard is going to go to jail for basically nearly dieing over a thousand times just because he saved the universe for the most part? I mean honestly, I can see how it can cause trouble but ---

2.) --- what about the proof he recieved? By end game he has enough proof that every race should know by now that what he did was for the greater good (though I didn't like killing the batarians, and I'm sure my super Paragon Shep didn't either).

So can you guys help fill in the blanks for me?

[shep82]

LeVaughnX wrote...

Upon finally purchasing and playing this I have basically come up with a series of goods and bads to this DLC and a few questions that I hope people on this little thread answer.


+ Music is fantastic, best I've heard yet
+ Story is great
+ Characters are always awesome
+ They make the Reapers look like a threat once more
+ Epic Explosions
+ Puzzles!

- Shepard is forced to kill over three hundred thousand and he has to go to jail for it, really?
- A little cookie cutter for me, took little over fourty minutes, too straight forward.
- Massive glitch for the Infiltrator where your slow-motion vanishes about half way through.
- Got stuck in an elevator then randomly fell below the map then poped back up, which was cool...
- The whole mission felt rushed to an extent.
- No truely epic ending. Only semi-epic.


I understand that its only 560 points and that its meant to kind of feel rushed because in reality Shepard is being "rushed" so it makes a little sense. Though I was expecting more of an epic end and more about Anderson and maybe the VS and possibly Hackett (sp) defending you for your decision - not just saying ""HEY YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL BYE!"". I'm also rather upset that now that you have a LOT of proof of the Reapers existance AND their coming - that your actions wouldn't be considered justified as well as necessary especially because you tried to save the Batarians.

I mean honestly - this DLC had forced you to look like an **** though you are doing everything in your power for the good of the universe. It kind of reminds me of "Batman - The Dark Knight" where you basically take the heat for everything and make yourself look like crap just to save everyone else.



Anyway - I have a few questions..

1.) About the ending, does it mean that basically Shepard is going to go to jail for basically nearly dieing over a thousand times just because he saved the universe for the most part? I mean honestly, I can see how it can cause trouble but ---

2.) --- what about the proof he recieved? By end game he has enough proof that every race should know by now that what he did was for the greater good (though I didn't like killing the batarians, and I'm sure my super Paragon Shep didn't either).

So can you guys help fill in the blanks for me?

1. He likely will go on trial but be pardoned when the Reapers arrive and I'm sure they'll take into account that he really had no choice.

[Bomb In My Pants]

As someone posted earlier, I also did not feel any real sense of accomplishment, but it made everything seem more....real?.....I guess. I don't know, but I had a really weird feeling when it was over.

Also, I didn't like the part where you have to go through ten elevators to get to one of the valves. That part confused me.

I felt really rushed, although that can be a good thing too. I think the whole "you're going to crash into a mass relay!" thing made it seem more real, not in the sense I meant a min. ago though.

This isn't really a complaint, but it's going to be impossible for me to get all the achievements for it.

It'll be interesting to see how it ties in with ME3 with the Reapers trapped in that now non-existent system. Plus, it was fun to do things on my own for once.

8.5/10

Okay, what are you supposed to do with the crane thing when you're going to get the scientist out of prison? I could never figure that out.

Modifié par Bomb In My Pants, 01 avril 2011 - 02:41 .

[Bomb In My Pants]

Oh, justs remembered- Bioware should have made the 2 days thing legit. Oh look, you get the e-mail, you don't do the mission immediately, two days later BOOM! the Reapers are there! And you didn't even get to Horizon.

Shep: No, no, no. I'm supposed to kill the Collectors, THEN you guys come in the third game.
Harbinger: Wait....I thought......Ohhhh, I see. We'll go wait in that system for ME3, then kill that
British sniper. Sorry!
Shep: Toodles!

[lazuli]

I enjoyed it, but the battlefields didn't feel as polished as in other levels and DLC.  Lines of fire and cover placement could use some work, particularly while protecting Dr. Kenson as she hacks security, and in some segments between/after the cooling rods.

I like fighting enemies with varied powers and tactics available to them.  Please don't give every grunt in ME3 access to flashbangs, though.  With Kasumi, LotsB, and now Arrival, the constant flashbang spam is getting old.  I wouldn't mind it on one faction of enemies (like one set of mercs from ME2).

Modifié par lazuli, 01 avril 2011 - 03:01 .

[HappyHappyJoyJoy]

Can I get my MS points back? I'm actually not joking.
The DLC was, frankly, boring. After the increased quality we've seen from ME2 DLC (LotSB being top-notch), this was a huge regression. It was short - 1.5 hours with all conversations chosen, I would guess a relay would result in 40 minutes or so of actual game time. It was all combat with no real RPG aspects - I'm not talking Big Decisions but even character interaction. It didn't leave me wanting to play it again; instead ME2 is going back on the shelf. Others have pointed out plot holes, so I'll spare you.
But the lack of interaction - the Doctor wasn't terribly interesting to talk to, unlike (say) Archer from _Overlord_, combat-only focus, and the frankly lazy end boss (a YMIR? _Again_?) - I'm sorry, but this was a poor effort and I expected more.
And honestly if I could get a refund, I would.