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[TMA LIVE]

They really do need to add something to these DLC's besides the story bits and upgrades. Most could just watch it on youtube and save some money, unless importing it does have en effect. So they should add at least a weapon or something to give it more replay value, and convince others to buy it.

[TMA LIVE]

Also, a lot of people wished they had more control over hitting the switch, instead of Shepard making the choice for them. While there isn't an option when it comes to surviving, I do agree on wishing their was more control. I started thinking about stuff like in Snake Eater, where you're forced to pull the trigger on the controller to kill The Boss. A lot of people liked that, and I was thinking the same could've been done in Arrival.

Instead of Shepard hitting it in a cutscene, after the population number shows up, it'll cut to gameplay of your Shepard, who has to step forward and hit the button. If you don't, you can walk around, and think about whether you should hit it. Then after a while, a new countdown will appear, claiming that the switch will be disabled in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 by Dr. Kenson. If you don't hit the switch, it'll becomes disabled, and Kenson laughs about it. Then a cutscene plays, showing the Reapers arriving, and destroying the Citadel.

[Vyse_Fina]

Well, as usual with ME2 I somewhat enjoyed the diverse gameplay but got headache from the stroy after thinking about it for a bit.

Unlike some other people I like the fact that Shepard was sent in alone, because that allowed for a stealth mission. Of course the AI was crappy and you could stand directly in the line of sight of some enemies without being spotted, but hey, stealth. (Maybe nobody else liked the solo aspect because nobody else tryed to stealth through the first part of the mission?...)

After the stealth was over... well there wasn't really too much else left. I was kinda excited playing it the first time but already wondered about 2 things:

Why did Shepard walk blindly into an obvious trap and what the hell are the reapers actually trying to do? After playing it a 2 more times with other characters I also noticed some other stuff as well but let's do this one by one:

Why didn't Shepard start running the moment he/she saw the Reaper Artifact sitting in the middle of the room or even way before that. No matter what a NPCs tells us, the moment we get told someone is researching a reaper artifact every red flag available is raised in an instant. This NEVER went well before. Why did Shepard, the person who probably knows the indoctrination effects of anything made by the Reapers better than anyone else, trust someone who claims it didn't affect her. Why didn't he/she ask how they avoided indoctrination? Why was there no suspicion at all? Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Then Shepard gets knocked out by the artifact (after standing there doing nothing except for commenting how all of this doesn't really add up...) and sedated (without being restrained or tied to the table...). For some unexplained reason the sedation stops working though.
Why?
Shepard is a human being. Why would a sedative affect him/her for about 2 days but not afterwards? And what was the Normandy doing during those 2 days?

Next up: Press the switch.
Well, it was hardly avoidable to press that switch considering that the reapers would be there in a few minutes, but that begs the question:

What were the Reapers thinking???
Seriously, they explain everything to Shepard. That they are close to arriving in the galaxy, that the research team found a reaper artifact (which as I said raised a ton of red flags for me but not for Shepard for some stupid reason) and he exact time when they'd arrive.
Why didn't they tell Shepard that they found some mysterious Prothean artifact they needed Shepard to take a look at since Shepard understands Prothean. Could have been that easy to lure Shepard into a trap without raising suspision...
And why did they even tell Shepard when they'd arrive or that they are close to arriving at all! If they just told Shepard everything was fine and let him/her fly away after the doctor was saved then they wouldn't have had any problems taking over the galaxy in one big surprise attack!

Most importantly though: What was the entire plot of ME2 about?
So the reapers started building a three-eyed terminator (human reaper) in the center of the galaxy. Until now I thought this was part of their plan to activate the Citadel relay so that they wouldn't have to FTL travel from Dark-space to the galaxy, because that would probably take forever.
What was the point of that plan if flying there takes less time than building that new reaper?
Why even bother with the Citadel realy at all if flying takes only 2 years? What are 2 years to a race of immortal machines? Nothing! To top it all off it doesn't even make sense to say it took them 2 years. We see them start flying at the end of ME2. That'd imply they arrived within days!!

Of course you could argue that this wasn't the start of their journey and that they already started it at the end of ME1 instead, but what was the entire human reaper thing about then? If they didn't wait at their relay for the new reaper to activate the relay, then why build it at all? Why risk having the collectors being discovered? They could have been an addition to the reaper army, or maybe they could have been of high strategic value since they could have entered council space without being attacked and even if that is not the case, they drew unneccesary attention and ended up revealing what the reapers are up to... or not...

*sigh*

Look, Bioware I am not demanding perfection. I know how much effort goes into making a game and that it can be hard to keep track of everything when several 100 people are involved during the production, but it'd be nice if fundamental errors like these could be avoided in the future.
The sedative thing for example could be overlooked and so could be the question what the Normandy did during those two days. Even Sheaprd running blindly into an obvious trap could be dismissed as "it sounded plausible at the time" or something like that. The fact that the entire plot of ME was rendered useless however just cannot be ignored. Please try to avoid things like that in the future...

[Icinix]

Was very enjoyable. The additional ambient dialogue of the guards early on and the ability to sneak past them without firing a shot was EXCELLENT. Gave another dimension to the game rather than being on rails.

Downer of that was the lack of squad mates, the in game reason seemed a bit moot when I had both the universes greatest assassin and thief in my employ. Even if there had been a couple of Alliance N7 agents that went with you...just to give some extra conversation once the truth of the whole thing came out.

The combat throughout was great and well paced. Frantic enough to be exciting, but not so much that it felt too hard or like a chore.

Like everyone else, the lack of choice was upsetting, the story disconnects seemingly making the whole story of ME2 redundant, the drugged for 2 days and a few bits like that. Just felt forced for story purposes. As far as choice, it could have been something really REALLY heavy, either alerting the colonies AND not crashing the asteroid or crashing it. This could have dire ramifications for ME3, changing some factions, or losing key places to the Reapers etc etc. Choice is your thing BioWare...people want MORE..not less. Regardless of what they are., can you imagine the debates about the right course of action - give the batarians the change to escape at the expense of early reaper invasion, or wiping them out and buying a few months. Its things like that which make BioWare games great and make the fans passionate.

Loved the conversation with Harbinger, it was almost as awesome as the conversation with Nazarra. Bold, to the point and excellent. However it did really make me wish for the same colour scheme form ME1, Blue, Black, Red. The holograms in gold rubbed me the wrong way. It's a small thing, but that colour scheme just..doesn't sit right with the feel of the Reapers invading.

Apart from some slight dialogue disconnects - The conversation with Hackett was excellent! So glad he's around again. His voice was sorely missed from ME2. It would have been nice to declare once and for all which side of the fence you were on. Right there and then I would have loved to definitively say..I'm back with the Alliance and the Council. Cerberus is done and buried - or on the reverse - tell him that Shep stands with Cerberus.

Instead Shepard declares he's still on a mission (the galaxy was stripmined and nothing was left in a single shop, there was no mission).

Still an awesome DLC, I think the pricing is still just a tad too high...about a quarter less and I think it will be about on the money.

Bring on ME3!

[jbadm04]

@vyse
you should remember the ME2 Prologue... "Awakening", Shepard suddenly wakes up and have to be sedated twice to calm down again, the Batarian bartender on Omega, where the poison actualy kills humans... and finaly the DLC, the logs say the sedative had to be increased all the time. You know, SHepard is full of cybernetics, and andere is still his "prothean" thing around (ME beacon). So this is pretty much explained, or at least "not surprising", but anything else... I have to agree.
The complete DLC is one major plothole and completely bayond my comprehension ^^. Vyse_Fina said it all, why isnt the most "dangerous" person to reapers not restrained, why is SHepard behing held in a cell with active computer consoles (I remember the holding cell from the last novel... tzt)? Kenson talking about a reaper artifact and not indoctrinated because she is not a child? "Right", Shepard should know better then just blindly believing this girl. And then, the reaper artifact in the open? Sorry but at this point Shepard should just raise the gun and start shooting. Then we have the "2 day arrival" right after Horizon, and after this, Shepard goes on defeating the collecotrs, and in the end we see Harbinger and his Reaper buddies turn on the engines and start "flying" towards the Milky Way. Just great. As Vise said, in a project of this scale small mistakes can happen here and there, but such a big plot/story hole (in the size of a galaxy arm) is unexcusable, speaking of which: a trial on Earth? "Right"... to quote Jack once more. I just hope this "when Earth calls you" as said by Hackett is just a synonym for "all humanity and the system alliance" and Shepard has to go to Arcturus Station. Besides, Shepard is no longer System Alliance (Shepard says it when he/she doing Talis Loyalty Mission, Migrant Fleet). So why should he/she bother? Saren killed nearly as many "innocents" and just like anybody knows, and the Council gives a damn. I just hope Im wrong and there will be no plot holes that would make me regret a preorder.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Did anyone else think at first that perhaps the whole thing was a setup, with the Reapers trying to manipulate Shepard into blowing up the relay and starting a human/batarian war right when the galaxy could least afford it? Up until the point where you had to start up the engines to advance to the next part of the plot, I was half-expecting to discover that there was no imminent invasion at all, and that the indoctrinated humans were putting on an elaborate act.

[Zaxares]

I completed Arrival last night. It was pretty good, I feel, but in a different way from most other DLCs. It's severely lacking in the interaction department, much more so than Shadow Broker, Kasumi, or even Overlord. Some people have complained that the voice acting in Arrival is much poorer than other DLCs, and I'm inclined to agree. (It does get better towards the end of the DLC though.)

That said, Arrival feels... a lot more like ME1 than ME2. Unlike the rest of ME2, which felt like it was a shooter game set in space, Arrival hearkens back to the atmosphere of ME1. There's a real feeling of urgency and importance riding on you, which is largely missing in other missions. It's also one of the more challenging missions I've ever done, although that might largely be due to the fact that Shepard is alone for much of it.

All in all, I rather like it. I think it sets the stage up for ME3 quite nicely.

[raist747]

Pros:
Felt like ME 1. Especially the Alien skies and the Music. Truly felt like someone read my posts about the music and landscape and fixed that.

The Cons:

Too Short, and I got tired of killing the same mooks I did all of ME2.

[Dracotamer]

I liked meeting Hackett and the showdown with Harbinger. I disliked everything else. Please stop dumping down your games. We like you for RPG's not shooters.

[Vyse_Fina]

Zaxares wrote...
That said, Arrival feels... a lot more like ME1 than ME2. Unlike the rest of ME2, which felt like it was a shooter game set in space, Arrival hearkens back to the atmosphere of ME1. There's a real feeling of urgency and importance riding on you, which is largely missing in other missions. It's also one of the more challenging missions I've ever done, although that might largely be due to the fact that Shepard is alone for much of it.

Right, i should have mentioned this in my rant above. Looking past the plotholes this DLC felt more meaningful than pretty much anything done in ME2. ME2 felt more like it was about saving your squad during the suicide mission, Arrival finally felt like it was about the entire galaxy again and only Shepard could do something about it. In other words: ME1 feeling. I hope for more of that in ME3 (minus the inconsistent plot, plus more open/exploartion friendly level design)

Modifié par Vyse_Fina, 03 avril 2011 - 09:33 .

[spacehamsterZH]

Here's what I want to know: am I crazy, or is the computer voice on the project station the same voice actress that did Kasumi?

[Phaedon]

 Pros:

• Level Design
• Hidden Loading
• CGI Cutscenes
• Hackett
• Enemy dialogue
• "One-trick pony" features
• Good OST...

Cons:

• ...which didn't work very well with the gameplay's pace.
• Lack of voice acting
• Solo mission

[Esbatty]

Overall I enjoyed the experience. I thought I wouldn't like soloing an encounter like this, but for the price and the promise of Hackett-y goodness I couldn't resist. Totally picked it up that morning but didn't play it til the next day.

The only time I felt ripped off was when I tried to warn the Batarians but got interrupted almost instatntly. That sucked so hard for my Paragon FemShep. We'll see how my renegade MaleShep deals with reaper ruckus.

[Horsemanlawyer]

Guys: I have been sitting on this for a while, but it keeps bugging me and so now’s the time to say it.

2007, imagine the greatest, happiest, almost-divine moment of your life, whether that’s when the young woman you love said “yes”, the birth of your first child, or that feeling you had when you were a child, you woke up Christmas morning and, yes, not only had Santa come but he’d brought you that one thing!

I got to feel that way every day in 2007.

You see, since my earliest memory, all I have ever wanted on the first Saturday in May was to be at Churchill Downs for the annual renewal of the Kentucky Derby. In my soul, I just adore everything about that place and that time there. Sometime shortly after the millennium, just being there wasn’t enough, so I started taking care of racehorses, for fun and for free, just for the love it.
In 2007, I got to help take care of the horse who won that most extraordinary of Thoroughbred challenges, the 133rd Kentucky Derby. So, before heading to work, I would wake at 4:00 and go handle that animal, a champion, and I was with him every day.

It was thrilling, joyful and exhausting. So, when we dropped the horse off to his new owner at his new home, I wanted to settle myself down, be at home and just relax, play, reflect on the year.
I thought a game would be fun. I was cautious about 360 games because there was so much moronic tripe being produced, shoot shoot shoot and I found that dull. So, off to Amazon I went looking for something just a little above the stupid, but not too much. Instead, I found ME1. What, an RPG (like D+D from my childhood”, set in SPACE, about RELATIONSHIPS!

Was on board. I entered the world you all had created and reveled in it. I have never, before or since, replayed a game, but I replayed your Mass Effect 8 or 9 times with 6 different characters. I was immersed in the story, I cared about the characters like I had their counterparts in great movies – hell, I jumped up and cheered when Shepard emerged from the rubble in the first battle. What a way to end the most extraordinary year of my life!

Couldn’t wait for the next. Bioware, you all had my complete faith in what you produced, and I’m wary of spending my money when it comes to games. I pre-ordered the DAO Collector’s Edition fully out of trust in you guys. I was thrilled by that work as well.

But, there were some warning signs. There was that whole “you gotta create and link up an account” thing. So, I’m on the phone with EA, and it took a week to get the thing straight, So, I’m thinking “is my inkling correct, was this purchase by a major firm going to dilute creativity, force a push to homogenization in the name of revenue, become a pain in my hindquarters and, frankly, a bit dull?”

You see, there was a bar on a busy, eclectic urban street here in Louisville. Louisville’s small, so it was much fun to get an Irish bar, run by an Irish guy (the brother of a racehorse trainer), modeled after a pub in his hometown on the Emerald Isle. Everybody went for a flavor of Ireland. But, as is almost always the case in our wonderful free economy, the guy, to attract more people, started putting the vanilla into his quaint pub. As a friend of mine said, “when you put the Bud Lite taps in, you’re done”. The dude traded Harp and Guiness and locally-brewed suds for the mass appeal of the common.

I worried that you all would be forced to do the same.

Now, let me say please that what you all produce is still so far above anything else made (with the exception of Gears of War 2, which I thought was extraordinary and fun), that the Bioware Bar is probably unfairly high. But, I see a definite trend, and that trend is toward the blah in your work.

DAO was fantastic, but then there was “Awakening”, which I bought, but haven’t played, after reading purchaser reviews which more or less said the work was below par. Another inkling.
And then there was Mass Effect 2, for which I again preordered the CE. “Improved combat”? OK; though I think Seth Schiesell (sp) in the Times was correct when he wrote that, in ME1, you all rambunctiously wedged some shooting elements into an RPG, I didn’t mind. I just absolutely ate up the feeling I got driving that silly rover around a planet, not knowing what would lie beyond the next hill – there was a thrill of exploration – me and my crew exploring something no one had been to, or had they? What was that saurian-looking thing, what was that reflective globe, oh, there’s a story about early humans being observed by Protheans?! A long story! I’m in your world. Better combat was cool, but the hook was getting to know your galaxy and its people and non-people.

All that was gone from the second rendition in the series. It was still a very well done game, lots of interaction, the combat was more fun, but where did all my people go? Or why oh why, every time I asked “would you join me”, did I get a “no”. The new NPCs were fun to get to know, but they weren’t my people, and too many of them were associated with a fascist or possibly **** organization – I hated Cerberus in ME1, and now I had to work for its leader (I wanted to either pound him or shoot him in the head during each conversation).

I think ME2 suffered greatly from the Tragedy of the Trilogy, great first episode, great ideas for the last, but a muddled middle. As the headline for Schiesell’s review read, to paraphrase, “Limping Toward a Galaxy Rescue”. The nail in the coffin was the ridiculous Baby Reaper thing – TRON or Terminator, I’m not sure which.

Thing is, as good a ME2 was, you all are better than that – I got none of the hook in ME2 I had in ME1. I, indeed, limped to the finish.

You all won me back with Shadow Broker – there was development of the storyline in ME1 and I was emotionally engaged again.

And then there was Arrival. Guys, I can get a shooter anywhere. And, the shooting elements are quite fine, and I appreciate your efforts there but, in ME1, combat was a means to get to the next engaging part of the story. What you’ve done recently is combat for combat’s sake.
I know, that has mass appeal. It has very little for me. Arrival was so lacking in its engaging qualities that, as a poster wrote here, it makes me worried for ME3. Surely, surely, that won’t be a disappointment? My heart tells me it won’t, but there is that lingering suspicion and I’m old enough to trust those.

As A.O. Scott wrote in the Times of Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto”, after fairly criticizing that work, Mel Gibson “would be paid” because that’s what that movie was ultimately about.

So, you all will be paid for ME3. I will, despite my instincts, order early and do it for a CE. But, I gotta tell you I didn’t for DA2 and, after reading many reviews, won’t do it for that game at all – the reactions add to the pile of evidence that your company’s cutting-edge creative days are past it.

What may be a fiscally necessary commitment to broad appeal has started alienate the fans who built you up, I think. I’m one of them. I have to say you all have me looking for who the next Bioware is going to be. So, while you will get my money for the finishing act in this saga, I don’t know that you will get it again. Guys, you’re better than this. Please live up to your demonstrated potential as the creators of worlds we all wanted to live in for a good while.

I appreciate your consideration and the work you do.

[abigger]

I liked it a lot and can't wait for ME3.  It was refreshing to play this after DA2.

Modifié par abigger, 03 avril 2011 - 04:54 .

[DocDVD]

 Well, finished Arrival on release date and it kept bugging me until I decided to post...
I loved Shadow Broker, THAT was something really great - but Arrival looks like something added to the end of a game lifecycle to squeeze some more money. Don't get me wrong, I had "fun" going through the level and meeting Hackett was nice but on the story side this comes so close to an epic fail I have to wonder what ME3 will be like.

The "story" of Arrival devaluates ME1 and ME2 on so many levels:

• Why to the Reapers go through all that trouble in ME1 and ME2 if all they need to do is spend two years in FTL flight to reach the galaxy?
• Alpha relay - don't even get me started. An "eternal" race would have no problem just flying to the next relay so blowing up this one (without even being able to make a real choice) is just dumb.

Many here came up with some explanation of the story for this DLC, but honestly, I think it is just a money-making DLC where some marketing guy said "put in some more awesome" with no regard to continuity (like the latest comic).

I'm really disappointed with Bioware for this DLC - if thats a sign on how ME3 will be... I'll wait before preordering before running into an Arrival-like blunder again.

[Mezoti]

You know what worries me?  The fact that they are re-using footage from parts of ME2 in this DLC. 

1- Scene when Shepard wakes up from 2 days of sedation - same scene exactly from when she wakes up in the Cerberus lab at the beginning of ME2.  Watch - she even grabs her side the same way.
2 - Scene when Shepard is excaping at the end, running into the cockpit of the Normandy yelling at Joker to get them out - that's taken exactly from the initial scene of ME2 when the original Normandy is blown up and Shepard runs in and tells Joker they have to get out of there now. 

I don't mean it's similar - I mean it is the same code, just from a different angle.  Is this what we have to look forward to?  More recycling? 
The fans deserve more than that. 

[RampantBeaver]

The whole DLC felt forced to me; it didn't seem as well formulated as previous content. Although I did enjoy parts of it, I'm not sure those who don't play it are particularly missing out.

It all seemed to boil down to the reaper confrontation at the end and everything before just seemed to have been forced into place to get us there. Then when the confrontation finally came, it felt rather anticlimactic. My first thought was "we've been here before" (refering of course to the unforgettable confrontation in ME1). Now that needn't have necessarily been a bad thing, but sadly it was far too much like the original, only far far less epic. Even the grandiloquent language used by the reaper seemed a meager attempt to match the first.

I think the best way forward from now is the dev team pumping every ounce of their human fibre into making ME3!

[sagefic]

Liked:
* combat - it twas tricky for me (insanity, adept, no squadmates w/ overload for shields the majority of the mission) and i liked that
* areas - twisty and confusing, fit the tone of the mission
* plot - interesting and with high impact on the story
* set up for ME3 - rock on. got the dress blues pressed and ready to see what comes next. dare I hope the VS will be there to stand by shepard in the political sh*tstorm to come?

disliked -
* for a forced decision, little was done to allow shepard to react to the necessary evil of her/his actions
* the dr.'s face design was very silly-looking and seemed like a bad trip through the CC
* buggy in many places. DLC crashed at LEAST 5 times while i was playing it. multiple crates, etc. went invisible. hackett and shep's entire last dialog was all silent - had to reply final piece of the mission to get it again and listen to it
* dialog at end debriefing was good, but could have been much better if more time had gone into giving shep more options. dearly wanted to say "YOU built that effing gun. I just made sure the trigger got pulled - like YOU planned!" rather than just standing by while blamed. pushing the renegade options more renegade and the paragon/regretful options more so would have been nice.

overall though, i really liked it. destructoid's review of 8.5 out of 10 seems about right to me.

[Mezoti]

Remembered the other recycled action - when you release Dr. Kenson from the shackles and she breaks the arm and neck piece and then leans over and shakes her head, directly lifted from when Jack comes out of cryo.  They just replaced the character.

Really, Bioware- 2 questions - did you think we wouldn't notice, and are you that lazy?
Again, we deserve better than recycled scenes.

[Faerlyte]

I was kind of disappointed with this. It's cool to try something different with the going solo idea, but it's not something I'd want to do frequently because it does start to feel more like a third person shooter instead of an RPG without your buddies there. For me a large part of what makes the ME universe so engaging are the characters you have with you all the time, their battle banter, and how they interact with each environment you encounter.

My biggest problem though, is that the mission feels really...out of place - I understand the concept, but to me the impact a mission like this should have just isn't there as a DLC content. What I'm left feeling is that I just bought DLC in order to murder 300,000 batarians so that I can inherit an annoying problem in ME3 that will have to be dealt with - and I can't say that I blame the Batarians - not that I just had to make a difficult choice to save the Universe from an immanent Reaper invasion at the sacrifice of 300,000 lives.

Another words, I feel slightly cheated. I'd rather not have bought the DLC if all it meant was killing 300,000 people because some indoctrinated person said that the reapers were coming in 2 days. It feels like, you know...'Eh, yeah, I can just snuff those poor bastards out - I'll explain it later and everyone will understand!' The sense of urgency that you need for a mission like this to feel authentic really isn't there.

Here's the crux of the matter - if you didn't buy this particular DLC, are the Reapers going to have invaded in 2 days via that relay and destroy everything by ME3? How does that work?

[Mezoti]

Faerlyte wrote...

Here's the crux of the matter - if you didn't buy this particular DLC, are the Reapers going to have invaded in 2 days via that relay and destroy everything by ME3? How does that work?

True - hadn't thought of that.  I think it's a set up for Shepard being in disgrace in ME3.  Previous to that, everyone's attitude has pretty much been admiration to hero worship. 

[Nathan Redgrave]

DocDVD wrote...


Why to the Reapers go through all that trouble in ME1 and ME2 if all they need to do is spend two years in FTL flight to reach the galaxy?[/list]

First off, "all that trouble" in ME2 isn't even necessarily related to them reaching the galaxy, people just assume it is. Fact of the matter is, it's never actually confirmed that the Reaper-human plays any role in getting the Reapers into the galaxy, it's just one of a couple likely theories that fans came up with.

Second, because the method they attempted in ME1 was both more convenient and had more strategic value, allowing them to enter more quickly--directly from a relay out in dark space, even--and to conquer galactic society more efficiently. Reapers are powerful, but not invulnerable, so if they had the time to spare, why wouldn't they wait a bit? The galaxy isn't going anywhere, is it?

With that option out of the way, they have to manually drive into the galaxy. That they had a backup plan in place for such an occasion doesn't negate the advantages of the original plan, nor the inconvenience of said plan being thrwarted.

An "eternal" race would have no problem just flying to the next relay so blowing up this one (without even being able to make a real choice) is just dumb.

As Dr. Kenson specifically says, reaching the next relay would take months or years. And that's not a cheap excuse, that's space-flight. If the Reapers didn't have the fictional convenience of FTL-speed, they'd take a lot longer than that. Why do you think the Mass Relays are necessary in the first place? By destroying the Alpha Relay, not only did Shepard deprive them of its unique multi-exit capabilities, he delayed their invasion by a significant amount of time. As with Mass Effect 1, they lost both the strategic advantage of the Alpha Relay, and the convenience of a speedy entrance. They're still coming, but they won't be as effective. It may not be much in the grand scheme of things, and the Reapers may view it as more of an annoyance than a hindrance, but it's something.

[Nathan Redgrave]

Faerlyte wrote...

Here's the crux of the matter - if you didn't buy this particular DLC, are the Reapers going to have invaded in 2 days via that relay and destroy everything by ME3? How does that work?

More likely they just reference it as an off-screen event.

[Faerlyte]

Nathan Redgrave wrote...

Faerlyte wrote...

Here's the crux of the matter - if you didn't buy this particular DLC, are the Reapers going to have invaded in 2 days via that relay and destroy everything by ME3? How does that work?

More likely they just reference it as an off-screen event.

Yeah, that occurred to me after I posted. It would make the most sense to do that. 

 It still doesn't sit well with me though, perhaps even less so because of that. If this eventually is going to happen regardless, the mission itself really doesn't stand on its own as engaging enough for me to want to spend the time and money. Sure, you get to see the event first hand and shoot some people, but for DLC that you have to purchase I believe there has to be a little something more to make it worth the price. I don't feel like I gained anything significant from it, unlike in LotSB, which was a fantastic DLC I thought.