I finished the Leviathan DLC a couple days ago. Personally, I'm a bit disappointed.
Sure, it provides additional insight on the origins of the Reapers that could only be hinted before. However, once again, it created a few more plot-holes.
Personally, I don't like the way they handled the "science lab" parts. Things there just moved far to fast, with little context or solid ground being provided. So suddenly, just because a scientists thinks "what could have killed a reaper?" he immediately jumps to the conclusion there is another extremely powerful race (which has left even less evidence of their existance than the reapers) called Leviathans. But worse conclusion of all, that they are still alive? Are we forgetting that Shepard most likely reported how he traveled to a dead reaper during the events of ME2? Why didn't they went to search if the races that killed said Reaper are alive? Hell, how could he even make that assumption when the Leviathan of Dis was dead for over a billion years?
In addition to this, events on the lab occurred in a somewhat disconnected way. You get there, get little to no explanation from the head scientist. He gets shot and you witness a Leviathan indoctrination. Fine so far. Then EDI appears. Why EDI? Correction, why JUST EDI? So she gets a danger warning involving Shepard and she doesn't inform anyone else in the crew, not even Joker? I imagined if someone were to appear, at least it would have been the LI of our Shepard. Later on, the other squad mate to appear is James, who convinently appears to do the job of a "muscle man". Seriously? He's the one interested? What about the asari scientist on the crew, Liara, who would have loved to see all that research? To me it seemed nothing more than they giving emphasis to their new characters, rather than try to be coherent.
Then you get a tremendous amount of information not from the dead scientist but from his reasearch. Ok, sounds a bit fine, but takes away most of the climax, as that knowledge should have been something you get to discover/experience during the course of the game, ending up with an explanation from the leviathans themselves to piece everything together. I mean, honestly, we are talking about a race that was even better at hiding their evidence than the Reapers (these at least left a few of their dead around). So how could have they gathered ALL that info? In addition, EDI's job was to give even more focus on the game-writters plans, always pointing out how the leviathans could be hidding and doing all that to try and stay hidden. That is something that should have been explained by the leviathans themselves.
Last, but not least, the lack of a soundtrack during the lab parts. Well, if there was one it was way too subtle, which took away part of the "movie-like" feeling you experience in the entire ME3.
As for the other parts of the DLC. Loved the action, better than some missions of the main quests. Loved how they could create new challenges (escort the drone, gather clues to avoid spending hours scanning different systems, charge the ship) though they could have made them a bit more difficult. Loved the scenarios, though I believe it is a huge consistency hole presenting a base that was still intact when there were over 50 reaper harvesters attacking it.
I liked how they could make the mine's environments a bit spooky, though it would have been even more if while in the lab it hadn't been explained the Leviathan's could control the mind of others.
And I'm glad we didn't had to fight a big stupid jellyfish or a mind-controlling cuttlefish like the ones found at the bottom of the ocean of that planet
In addition there are more banters between squad mates than there were in the
Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC or other DLCs, which is good.
This DLC, of course, created a major plot-hole left only to especulation: the leviathans say that only one reaper is created during every cycle. However, the catalyst says the most advanced sapient organics are harvested and each race created into a different reaper. Now it is impossible that all other cycles had just one major race, it is statistically impossible.
Then, the leviathans say reapers are made at the image of Harbinger, which is something that all fans have pointed out ever since ME2. But didn't we finished ME2 seeing the reapers creating a human-reaper? So which is it? They should have said "the reapers create one in the image of the race they harvest, with an outer-shell made on Harbinger's image. Our image". This would have made sense, not what they said.
Another plot-hole in terms of consistence: the type of indoctrination the leviathans use. From what they show us, that indoctrination leaves the organics look like toys whose strings are being pulled, toys who have even less communication skills than those being controlled by the reapers themselves. We see, in Arrival DLC, how the indoctrination can have one still act normally but secretly working for the reapers. The leviathan's indoctrination, however, makes that impossible. So, how were the lesser races able to create synthetics to help them, if the leviathan's indoctrination literaly takes away control?
And one thing is not left clear: were the leviathans controlling the miners for the past 10 years, or were the miner's memories of the last 10 years erased? Because if they were under control, how come no one noticed their strange behavior?
The last consistency plot-hole is: if they can use their special defense pulse to disable a reaper capitol ship, why bother taking control of a brute? Simply disable the reaper ground forces. But most important of all: why did they fear the reapers really? They were miles deep in the ocean, which saved them from any form of orbital bombardment. So in order to get the leviathans, the reapers had to enter atmosphere and dive. And then, they would have to be able to maneuver within those caves (not easy if you are 2 km long ship). All this would make them vulnerable for quite a long time. If you have a super weapon that disables your enemy, and if your enemy is actively seeking to destroy you, all you need to do is reveal your location and wait for the enemy to come to you, falling to your trap. Why can't this be done? Unknown, left only to speculation.
Another point I expected to see: when it was revealed the leviathan's used special spheres, why not connect that with the strange spherical artifacts found in ME1 and recovered in ME2? Ok sure, those could be prothean. But personally I think it would have been more interesting if they were leviathan tech.
In the end, it seemed the entire DLC was little more than another attempt to salvage and strengthen the crappy story introduced in the last 5 minutes of the game. I say this, it does provide a lot more insight into the reapers, yes, and if you had played it before you knew the ending, you wouldn't deslike it so much. But that was not the case.
Modifié par JPVS, 03 septembre 2012 - 11:18 .
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Cool to see EDI involved more 
