Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC review

I don't think I really ever spoke at length about the past addons for Mass Effect 2. They were fun times all around. The Stolen Memories pack in which you got the ninja-esque character Kasumi was pretty short, but it gave you a very different type of mission setup that was extremely enjoyable. Also to boot, you got a permanent character who fights very differently than anyone else in the game. Cloaking and backstabbing is certainly a different way too approach cover shooters. At the very least she is leaps and bounds ahead of Zaeed, who is just a Garrus clone with an awesome voice.

Overlord was more of a typical mission in Shepard's life. Run, take cover, shoot shoot shoot, move onto the next room of chest-high walls. What made Overlord worth it though was the different tone the missions carried. It was supposed to feel somewhat creepy, with all the dead rooms and fucked up experiments going on. However the tone I got from this DLC was one that made my ears bleed. That damn rogue VI voice screaming, my god I hated that. I think it was supposed to be startling, which it was maybe once or twice, but really what it did was take me out of the eerie set-pieces and just make me annoyed. Oh yeah this DLC also heavily featured the Hammerhead Hovertank...whatever. Platforming is fun on the thing, but heavy duty combat is annoying as it seems a can of soda has more durability then this piece of military hardware. Now I am gonna start talking about the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Now note at the end of this review I have the tiniest hint of a spoiler. You were warned.

Now don't get me wrong, both pieces of DLC were good and definitely worth their price points. However, Lair of the Shadow Broker makes these two past ventures look like practice. The mission starts like every extra in Mass Effect 2, you get an e-mail about it. Cerberus apparently has some intel for Mass Effect 1 character turned information broker Liara T'Soni. From there you're (this is gonna sound so fucking trite) literally taken into the underground world of information sales. You quickly realize that this is a seedy business, as well as a dangerous one when things go to shit pretty soon after you start. The DLC is mostly the standard run and gun affair that Mass Effect 2 is used to, but the main difference is that unlike the other missions in the game, you get to once again team up with Liara, in all of her Asari Biotic glory. She is extremely fun to use, complete with extra banter recorded by her voice actor and Shepards, really hammering home that familiarity. Plus, while not hard (what boss battle in Mass Effect 2 is?) on normal, the final fight in the DLC is extremely well thought out and varied. Put it this way: You need to use your melee attack at one point. When else in Mass Effect do you need to do that?

Aside from the normal Shepard ventilates the galaxy's population gameplay, this scenario also offers an interesting chase sequence in which you actually drive one of those cool hover-cars through the streets of Illium. The place feels like chasing someone through the Star wars planet of Couriscant, and I honestly hope to see this sort of gameplay make some sort of return in Mass Effect 3. The last thing I really say about the Mission Pack is that after you beat it, it creates a very real and lasting set of benefits for your character, no matter your play-style. On top of that the story is actually thrust forward, with a new set of circumstances presented to you, as well as the chance to either continue, or start up a relationship with Liara. So while the other mission packs were fun side stories that gave me more of what I wanted in Mass Effect, the effects of these trysts were not far reaching. However, with the Shadow Broker DLC, the underbelly of the galaxy gets turned on its head.

Now for my complaints of this DLC pack. First of all, flash-bang grenades are not something the AI should have access to. These stupid fucking grenades never made my job of murdering an entire office building harder, it just made me wait in cover longer so that stupid light gleam thing would go the fuck away. Maybe if the enemy ever made an attempt to flank me, or use my blindness to their advantage I could get behind their inclusion. But due to my general rule of playing games on normal, I will not find the answer to that question anytime soon. As it stands on normal, they have no business being there. I am not even sure if they effect my AI partners at all, as I couldn't see. Also, while the chase was a nice break from things, the core gameplay is not changed in any meaningful way. Not that I really expect much, but the halls and rooms I had to shoot through were the standard fare of Mass Effect 2, that's it. Even fighting on the hull of an enormous ship does not add much, if anything to the run and gun gameplay. The background was just that, background. While it is nice to have variety in setting, if every setting plays exactly the same the background is just that, something to look at between headshots, nothing truly meaningful. Lastly, unlike Stolen Memories, you do not get to keep the fucking character you are given. They took all the trouble in updating Liara for Mass Effect 2, only so you can use her for this one small scenario. This would have been nice for a few reasons, as not only is she is an amazing character with fun abilities, she can be a romantic interest for either male or female Shepards, like in Mass Effect 1, and lastly, there are no fucking Asari on the Normandy in Mass Effect 2. This would have rounded out the galaxy race jamboree quite nicely. Although what lasting goodies you do get are awesome, I honestly would have traded them all to have Liara stay on the Normandy. Oh well though, cannot have it all I guess. Although in terms of what I was allowed to have, I was given a lot by this DLC. It is by far the best extra Bioware has put out for a game, in both story and tight gameplay. Minor gripes and dumb grenades aside, I feel like I totally got my 10 dollars worth in this.

Oh, before I go, I decided Sunday will be the day I make sure I have something new and somewhat lengthy up. I will probably put up whatever sometime Sunday evening with smaller stuff like this review going up during the week as I feel like writing. But yeah, till Sunday, that's about it.

-Kesith