Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC

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runudownquick

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So I picked this up as soon as the Bioware social site had it available for download hoping it could be close to or as good as the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC but alas it has failed. Without giving away any big spoilers, Arrival doesn't bring anything new to the table and doesn't perfect anything good about ME 2.
No new weapons, vehicles, powers etc and what seems to be below par dialogue places this one as my least favorite DLC for the series. I got it because it was supposed to "bridge" ME 2 ---> ME 3 but it did not excite me at all, I think I should have gotten the Garrus costume to fix up the bullet wound instead.
Anyone else have thoughts on it?
 
I've been waiting to hear whether it was good enough to get. I'm a huge ME2 fan and I'll be sad if it is a let down.
 
Ehh.. it's short, there is very little dialog, there is a fake-choice involved which is lame. That said it does have one big plus to it. It feels a lot more like the first game, which I appreciate. The story fits in with the theme of the first game (as opposed to the big diversion that was ME2)... the music is a lot more atmospheric like in the first game and has some cues taken directly from ME1.

Basically, if you must have more ME, or you want a trip down memory lane to the style of ME1, go ahead and pick it up. Otherwise save your money, because there's not a lot there.
 
Tsk tsk Bioware. Da2 and now this? 3 strikes and yerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr out!! :D
 
Meh. It's $7. Plus I still haven't played through kasumi stolen memories, overlord, or lair of the shadow broker so I guess I'll have plenty of content for summer.

I'm starting to get afraid though. After watching a walkthrough of arrival on youtube and some DA2 playthrough, bioware has really been going downhill lately (both are an obvious case of either laziness or rushed unrealistic time constraints, probably the second). I'm really starting to worry since they only gave themselves 1.5 years to work on mass effect 3, which is half the time they spent on mass effect 2, and they have to do this while having most of their people working on swtor. I think EA might be overtaxing bioware, and I have a bad feeling it's going to affect the quality of me3. I pray I'm wrong.
 
Took them too long to come out with this, IMO. I finished Mass Effect 2 and uninstalled a long time ago.
 
Good, but short and a nice setup for part 3. Overlord and Shadow Broker are the best DLCs, though.
 
Thirded- Overlord is great, and I have a save on the Shadow Broker's ship exterior just to show the graphics...
 
Not terribly good, but it was nice to be back in the Mass Effect world again. They clearly set up the way ME3 will begin, so that should be cool to see.

God please, please, PLEASE make sure Bioware doesn't fuck up ME3.
 
I downloaded it on 360 but haven't played it yet. All the other DLC has been decent, especially Lair of the Shadow Broker.
 
People seem to think Bioware is a single studio under a single building ..

You do realize that there are branches of Bioware with different offices that handle development of different games. The studio thats been doing ME series will do a good job with ME3 , that studio has a good track record.

Personally the only Bioware sub studio / group that worries me is the one that handled the development of DA2. Honestly that game was probably one of the biggest letdowns I can remember in recent memory.
 
Godmachine said:
You do realize that there are branches of Bioware with different offices that handle development of different games. The studio thats been doing ME series will do a good job with ME3 , that studio has a good track record.
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That's the thing with this DLC though, I believe it was made by Bioware Montreal. I'm not sure if it was their first time working on the Mass Effect universe but I hope their next try turns out better.
I believe Bioware Edmonton are the group responsible for ME 1, 2, 3 and DLC's up until now.
 
runudownquick said:
That's the thing with this DLC though, I believe it was made by Bioware Montreal. I'm not sure if it was their first time working on the Mass Effect universe but I hope their next try turns out better.
I believe Bioware Edmonton are the group responsible for ME 1, 2, 3 and DLC's up until now.
Click to expand...

Then if so the next ME content (3) will be from that group which has proven its-self as a quality developer. So confusing to keep up with all these internal development teams.
 
New DLC? Hmm, havent played since Overlord.... F it, im reinstalling Mass Effect and ME2, and replaying it all....this time at 2560x1600! Should be a sweet summer!
 
i've got kasumi and lair of the shadow broker DLC and both are pretty fun. helluvalot better than Bring down the sky...i might end up getting overlord too, not sure. I need to finish a few more playthroughs of mass effect 2 though, only 2 or 3 at the moment
 
Overlord was really enjoyable. I liked it quite a bit more than Kasumi, though it doesn't touch LotSB.
 
To be honest, I think this is meant for the PS3/360 people...no worries about uninstalling :)

I'll probably nab it, but I suspected it was going to be a joke in the end given they were saying they wouldn't release it unless enough people "liked" it on facebook. The Bioware marketing team has fallen PRETTY far as of late.
 
Damn, from the reviews, this looks like garbage..... but I have to install and play it on order to re-attain my 100% achievement progress. Woe is me. :(
 
It's not garbage, it's just not as good as some of the other DLC that's come out before. I'd say wait until it goes on sale, but DLC (at least for the PC version) generally doesn't.
 
It isn't garbage, but you won't have any epiphanies while playing it either.
 
Yeah, just played through this last night and have to agree that, even with my lowered expectations having read this thread, this DLC is hardly worth the download.


There are some good ideas in there, but the gameplay is insanely repetitive. Infact the entire campaign just consists of ever so slightly varying ways that 3 'mercs' can come at you. Very tedious and a chore to finish. I almost laughed out loud in places when yet another 'action sequence' broke out and I had to gun down another run of those guys.

Did get the 'survived all waves' achievement on my first go though (Insanity difficulty), so that was kinda fun I guess.


Easily the worst DLC though. Here's how I rank 'em IMHO...

1. Lair of the Shadow Broker (easily the best by far, so good with such detail that I suspect this was originally meant to ship on release).
2. Kasumi (smaller, shorter, but cute and original).
3. Overlord (interesting, but a little bland, Geth are boring).
4. The Arrival (highly repetitive consolified 'action'. Clearly aimed at the kids).
 
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I've been playing my second playthrough of ME2 and I downloaded Kasumi last night, the first DLC I've gotten for the game, but I'm gonna be picking up Overlord and Shadow Broker, too many good reviews to pass them up, especially since I love the ME franchise.
 
Carv said:
I've been playing my second playthrough of ME2 and I downloaded Kasumi last night, the first DLC I've gotten for the game, but I'm gonna be picking up Overlord and Shadow Broker, too many good reviews to pass them up, especially since I love the ME franchise.
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These are the two worth getting the most.
 
Honestly Shadow Broker was better than any of the stock missions IMO. I enjoyed both boss fights a lot more than the ridiculous ME2 boss (I hated that ending so much. This is ME, not fricken Terminator).
 
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