Mass Effect 2 was my favorite game of last year. Given any chance to dive back in, I would do so without hesitation. The previous releases have all offered some great additional content that really helped craft Mass Effect 2 into one of the most addicting games on the market. Bioware has decided to give one last offering to the legions of fans with one final adventure to start teasing the game into Mass Effect 3. Now, Arrival has ‘ahem’ arrived and along with it the last mission before we begin the slow countdown to the Reaper invasion.
Arrival begins with a personal request from Admiral Hackett for Commander Shepard to rescue a scientist captured by Batarian forces. Apparently the scientist was caught while doing research into the Reapers and has uncovered a terrible secret about them. Now, it is up to Shepard to single-handedly break into the prison, rescue the prisoner, and find out the truth about the imminent Reaper invasion.
Arrival is a very combat centric quest with little diversions. No vehicle segments, not even any large dialogue sections. It could best be described as the most run and gun of the game’s missions. It is also a short affair, taking just a few hours before Shepard steps back on the Normandy. What keeps the section fresh is the fact that this is a one man/woman mission, Shepard is stripped of his allies and forced to go it alone. It was an odd feeling to be on my own, naked of the characters that I had grown to love. I have to admit that it didn’t sit well with me; I greatly missed Mordin’s and Grunt’s quips. While overall it was a change of pace for such a squad based shooter, I don’t know if it was worth losing the opportunity to get even closer to my gang of misfits.
Being alone, however, does change up the game a bit. I noticed myself forced to rethink many situations and play the game quite differently. In fact there is an achievement for managing to be stealthy through an entire section of the level. It is the most action oriented of all the missions with very little to interrupt the flow of the combat, but with nothing new thrown into the mix, it never gets compelling besides a few truly amazing set pieces. This just feels like a missed opportunity to throw in one last mix up to the tried and true formula.
Overall, one of my biggest complaints with this content is that Shepard gets confronted with a gigantic decision. Instead of forcing the player to make a truly earth shattering decision though, the game took it completely out of my hands. This is something this game should have lived for, giving the player such a momentous choice to make with billions of lives at stake. Making it a story point is a tremendous loss.
Arrival is a difficult game to recommend to anyone but the most die hard fans of this franchise. It offers nothing new to the core game with no weapons, armor, characters; all it really adds is an epilogue to a game that didn’t really need it. That’s the main problem with Arrival, it never fully justifies its existence beyond being just a reason to play more Mass Effect. I did have fun playing through the mission, but I think that is just because I truly love this game. It’s hard for anyone to not walk away from this feeling let down. I truly believe this content should be marked for the diehard fans only.
