-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mass Effect 3: Omega |OT| Fuck with Aria [Out now]
- Thread starter EatChildren
- Start date
Heck, just have a
guy there holding a quantum communicator and they wouldn't even have to record any new dialogue. FFS.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I look forward to Eatchildren's impressions tonight.
I look forward to Eatchildren's impressions of anything related to Mass Effect 3.
NightAntilli
Banned
In my opinion, if you play the game, you should play it the first time with Leviathan and the Extended Cut DLC. Only if you play it like this, you'll have a softer landing when you get the ending. The game itself is a great experience though, and I don't think you should miss it...
ThanksVision
Member
Thanks for the input. I'm going to pull the trigger!
NightAntilli
Banned
I don't think it's bad. I simply do not understand why it costs more than say Leviathan, when Omega is inferior to it in multiple ways. If I were to make a price/satisfaction list of ME2 and ME3 DLC, Omega would be at the bottom.
Sir Garbageman
Member
I'm afraid you weren't the first. This idea was discussed way back when ME3 was originally released.
Just finished it, didn't think it was bad but it wasn't great either, seemed pretty linear and there wasn't much to do in the hub areas. None of your dialogue options seems to make a difference to how the story plays out as well which is a bit disappointing.
If this is the team that is making Mass Effect 4 then I'd be pretty worried.
If this is the team that is making Mass Effect 4 then I'd be pretty worried.
How long did it take for you to finish?
About three hours I suppose.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Oh God I am a sucker for single player DLC in story heavy games like Mass Effect but even I'm regretting this one. Biggest issue right off of the bat, there is nothing in here that makes this worth $15, absolutely nothing! The Leviathan DLC had more creativity and thought put into it than this!
The DLC is just 3 hours worth of slogging through ME3's repetitive combat down linear corridors, that's basically all it is, and it's just boring!
The DLC is just 3 hours worth of slogging through ME3's repetitive combat down linear corridors, that's basically all it is, and it's just boring!
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
self-tag suggestion:
Eatchildren
Official Bioware Whore. But he did not have sex with that woman.
Even though i agree the DLC isn't worth the extra 5$(why??), i'm not sure what people were expecting by complaining about "lots of corridors and lots of shooting".
I mean, what were you expecting with a DLC about retaking an Omega fully occupied by Cerberus? Dancing competition with Cerberus in Afterlife and the winner keeps the station? This was also never a DLC about exploring alien planets. Even in ME2 missions, Omega was just a bunch of corridors with pretty backgrounds in the distance.
I fully expect the Citadel DLC to look similar to the Citadel missions in ME3. Corridors with the usual pretty Citadel background.
I mean, what were you expecting with a DLC about retaking an Omega fully occupied by Cerberus? Dancing competition with Cerberus in Afterlife and the winner keeps the station? This was also never a DLC about exploring alien planets. Even in ME2 missions, Omega was just a bunch of corridors with pretty backgrounds in the distance.
I fully expect the Citadel DLC to look similar to the Citadel missions in ME3. Corridors with the usual pretty Citadel background.
Tony Redgrave
Member
I'll never understand this complaint, even ME1 was for the most part shooting in corridors or otherwise, if the DLC description doesn't mention exploration (like Overlord did) I wouldn't expect anything but pew pew.
There is still so much more you can do with a set-piece like Omega. It's a shame that it's wasted in action sequences that could have been set in any random warehouse.
I guess I think that any ME content deserves more than an mindless action romp with chest-high walls. But I guess that's what we can expect from now (cue violins).
MotionBlue
Member
This was made by the "new" Mass Effect team, right? It shows.
Dialogue, choices, and lore integration(or lack there of) are bad.
Gameplay, levels, and new enemies/characters are pretty cool. I really liked Nyreen.
Edit.
They did add a few callbacks to ME2, but they felt last minute at best.
DLC spoilers below
Dialogue, choices, and lore integration(or lack there of) are bad.
Gameplay, levels, and new enemies/characters are pretty cool. I really liked Nyreen.
Edit.
They did add a few callbacks to ME2, but they felt last minute at best.
DLC spoilers below
Mad prophet returns, as does the Archangel bridge and Mordin's clinic. I didn't even realize the latter two, Shepard mentioned it "brought back memories".
Also, the subquests seem senseless. I found the converters, and the consoles. They didn't seem to have any effect on outcomes.
If you're an engineer, you can tell the Cerberus dude you're "not some dumb grunt" and disable some generators without trouble.
Nyreen's death was sudden, leaving what development was occurring pointless.
Only had three paragon interrupts, none did anything noteworthy.
Paragon play: Aria doesn't kill Petrovosky, Alliance arrest him and gives him Asylum, dude is real smug about it too. One of the few times I've ever made a renegade interrupt, was to smack him.
Also, the subquests seem senseless. I found the converters, and the consoles. They didn't seem to have any effect on outcomes.
If you're an engineer, you can tell the Cerberus dude you're "not some dumb grunt" and disable some generators without trouble.
Nyreen's death was sudden, leaving what development was occurring pointless.
Only had three paragon interrupts, none did anything noteworthy.
Paragon play: Aria doesn't kill Petrovosky, Alliance arrest him and gives him Asylum, dude is real smug about it too. One of the few times I've ever made a renegade interrupt, was to smack him.
I guess I'm going to pass on this one. Personally I think a fitting place to leave Aria's character was sitting around in a bar worried about getting her power back while the rest of the galaxy is being killed off.
Maybe they should have made this post ending and let you play as Aria trying to relcaim Omega as a spinoff and test out some new gameplay mechanics or something.
Maybe they should have made this post ending and let you play as Aria trying to relcaim Omega as a spinoff and test out some new gameplay mechanics or something.
I hope she still says the same thing she said before this mission. That'd be the cream of the crop.
Jinjo
Member
Shadow Broker's gameplay was mostly corridor shooting as well, that's not the real complaint. It's how the whole deal is presented. As a self-contained story Omega is incredibly boring. There's nothing that will really make you care about what happens to either Omega or its citizens. The whole dialogue "gameplay" (a big part of ME imo) is really nonconsequential. Endingspoiler:
Even the death of that Turian chick is totally forgettable. There's is no real aftermath, you just walk the fuck out of Omega that's it.
And to make matters worse you don't even get to hatefuck Aria.
(Real) Worst part is that I have to finish it again to it to get my 100% back, cause I missed the damn sidequest achievement (the one guy that wants you to find some random thing to fix his whatever).
I missed that too, which is strange because throughout the DLC, I looked around a lot.
I don't really want to replay
Man, that sounds terrible. LOTSB had a ton of stuff after you finished it. You could read the squad members dossier(which were hilarious), there was a "mission" system and a bunch of cameras to look at.
I guess Montreal needs to relearn everything from Edmonton now. fuuuuccck
Not only do ME1 have several more dialogue options than ME3 and presumably this DLC (fact), but you also have to take into account that context matters when conveying a game experience to the player. Mass Effect 1 successfully established a proper context through long moments in between combat scenarios: The Citadel consists mostly of quests and dialogue, Noveria has one large segment of dialogue and characters before entering combat, Feros even forces the player to have dialogue with your enemy both before and after combat. As such, dialogue was used to let the player breathe and soak in the 70's sci-fi atmosphere, while also ensuring that the gameworld, its characters, and its values were properly established. This aspect seems to be neglected in Bioware's current design philosophy.
Mass Effect 1 was like an ambient shooter RPG. Mass Effect 3 (and Bioware Montreal's approach to game design based on Arrival and Omega) is a corridor shootbang fest with excessive sexual pandering. Bioware simply do not know any longer how to take advantage of the moments in between combat like they did in ME1. Maybe they assume that their players suffer from ADHD and cannot relax through one single moment of breath and contemplation.
TacticalFox88
Banned
Shame about Aria. Easily the most attractive Asari.
I think this DLC reaffirms my own opinion that Mass Effect 2 is a fundamentally a better playing game and a better shooter. I cannot fucking stand Mass Effect 3's combat and endless waves of annoying enemies. I want to go in cover, ok, nevermind, I'll roll instead. Everything feels clunky and frustrating. That FOV doesn't help either.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Finished. Overall, liked it, but the price hike really isn't justified. Thoughts:
- Talk of too much action bla bla bla is total nonsense. The direction of the series has been set in stone, time to move on and get over it. It was no less or more action heavy than most missions in both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Don't like that? Fine, but what did you expect from Mass Effect 3 downloadable content. Shape your expectations so they're reasonable and logical, please.
- Similar for the writing. For better or worse, there's no way it's of lower quality than the series has been so far. It was consistent, simple, though fairly predictable. You know how the series is written. Surprise, Omega is exactly the same cheesy sci fi slosh, in a simple little self contained story.
- I do feel enjoyment will be hinged heavily on how interested you are in Omega, Aria, and the series combat. If you're after one big walk-a-thon chat party, hate Omega, and show no interest in area, maybe don't get this DLC.
- Combat encounters were really great in my opinion, and some of the best in the series. Montreal headed Mass Effect 3's combat and this shows that, to me, they have a better understanding of fun, fast moving encounters and interesting combat environments than Edmonton does. The new enemies were fun to fight, and encounters threw a lot stuff at you, though I was disappointed to see the Reaper unit's original teleportation ability didn't return, and I could have sworn BioWare said Dragoons would be making an appearance.
- Looked great. Some great visual set pieces. Would have liked to have a proper street battle rather than the industrial stuff, but I'm not fussed. Had a good sense of scale too. A lot of large vistas and progression through long areas. Lots of assets at work and good visual identity for each area.
- Side missions were identical to Mass Effect 2/3. There's three, and like Mass Effect 2 it's simply a fetch errand to discover some shit in an existing mission. They're forgettable and bland just like they were in the last two games. And the reward is usually credits, which are relatively useless. There's a lot of credits actually. Kinda dumb. HUB was two rooms, then one. Not really a HUB so much as a little brief down time between bang bang.
- Some decent cameos:
- Aria > Nyreen. I liked Nyreen as a character but you spend majority of the DLC with Aria, and flair is infinitely more useful than any of Nyreen's abilities. Nyreen's biotic bubble...thing is so small (bugged?) that it really serves no purpose at all, making her more of a tech class.
- Speaking of Nyreen, major spoilers:
- Very little interactive dialogue, but it's on par with all of Mass Effect 3. Quite a few cutscenes, all seemed pretty well shot. I have presentation bugs. The ending sequence seemed to be missing ambient sound effects, or they were never included, and so falls a bit flat. And the mid-DLC Aria speech had her animation set glitch out every now and then, which was hilariously silly looking.
- Took me ~3 hours to finish and do everything on Insanity. Would have been damn close to exactly three hours actually. I'm a slooow Mass Effect player (or any game I like for that matter), and tend to dawdle, take in the scenery, and so on. So you'll struggle to get more than three hours out of it.
Conclusion: It's more Mass Effect. As a stand alone mission I thought it was a lot of fun, decently written/driven in the narrative, looked great, and was fun to play. Aria was a solid squadmate, Nyreen was pretty good too, and I'm glad they finally introduced a female Turian. Production wise Montreal did seem to put a lot of effort in making it look good, lots of custom assets, decently directed cinematics, and a fast pacing that had you moving through varied combat zones. Glad they introduced two new enemies too.
If you don't like Mass Effect 2 and 3. If you don't like the current direction of the series. If you don't like the shoot bang and can't stop moaning about how amazing Mass Effect 1 was, then skip it. This should have been pretty damn obvious though and anybody gambling on thoughts of otherwise have only themselves to blame. It's another Mass Effect 2/3 style mission. And it plays exactly like one, with similar ratios of cutscenes/talking to combat, and similar (if a little faster) pacing.
But I don't think it's worth 1200 points/$15 though. A lot of work went into it from a production standpoint, but the price hike really doesn't feel justified. Especially since you don't spend a lot of time with Nyreen as a squadmate. Had Nyreen been available as a squaddy post-Omega then yeah, okay, maybe 1200/$15 would be justifiable. But as it stands the price hike seems to be BioWare/EA trying to cover the hike in production costs without really offering anything substantially different from a consumer/player point of view.
So yeah. Do you like Mass Effect 2 and 3, do you like Aria/Omega, and do you want to go on another mission regardless of the cost? Then yes, buy Omega, because I think it's a fun ride. Do you have grievances about the series direction, a disinterest in Aria/Omega, and want a mission that's substantially different and/or longer than what we've seen in ME2/3? Then no, do not buy Omega.
- Talk of too much action bla bla bla is total nonsense. The direction of the series has been set in stone, time to move on and get over it. It was no less or more action heavy than most missions in both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Don't like that? Fine, but what did you expect from Mass Effect 3 downloadable content. Shape your expectations so they're reasonable and logical, please.
- Similar for the writing. For better or worse, there's no way it's of lower quality than the series has been so far. It was consistent, simple, though fairly predictable. You know how the series is written. Surprise, Omega is exactly the same cheesy sci fi slosh, in a simple little self contained story.
- I do feel enjoyment will be hinged heavily on how interested you are in Omega, Aria, and the series combat. If you're after one big walk-a-thon chat party, hate Omega, and show no interest in area, maybe don't get this DLC.
- Combat encounters were really great in my opinion, and some of the best in the series. Montreal headed Mass Effect 3's combat and this shows that, to me, they have a better understanding of fun, fast moving encounters and interesting combat environments than Edmonton does. The new enemies were fun to fight, and encounters threw a lot stuff at you, though I was disappointed to see the Reaper unit's original teleportation ability didn't return, and I could have sworn BioWare said Dragoons would be making an appearance.
- Looked great. Some great visual set pieces. Would have liked to have a proper street battle rather than the industrial stuff, but I'm not fussed. Had a good sense of scale too. A lot of large vistas and progression through long areas. Lots of assets at work and good visual identity for each area.
- Side missions were identical to Mass Effect 2/3. There's three, and like Mass Effect 2 it's simply a fetch errand to discover some shit in an existing mission. They're forgettable and bland just like they were in the last two games. And the reward is usually credits, which are relatively useless. There's a lot of credits actually. Kinda dumb. HUB was two rooms, then one. Not really a HUB so much as a little brief down time between bang bang.
- Some decent cameos:
Ranting "humanity is a blight" Batarian, and the Elcor store owner from ME2. This is the first, new 'upated' Elcor model I think, so it was good to see Montreal put some effort in there.
- Aria > Nyreen. I liked Nyreen as a character but you spend majority of the DLC with Aria, and flair is infinitely more useful than any of Nyreen's abilities. Nyreen's biotic bubble...thing is so small (bugged?) that it really serves no purpose at all, making her more of a tech class.
- Speaking of Nyreen, major spoilers:
killing her off was fucking stupid and the worst part of the narrative. It didn't really make any sense other than to add drama, which it failed at, because her character had only been introduced ~3 hours prior. It was unnecessary and contextually silly.
- Very little interactive dialogue, but it's on par with all of Mass Effect 3. Quite a few cutscenes, all seemed pretty well shot. I have presentation bugs. The ending sequence seemed to be missing ambient sound effects, or they were never included, and so falls a bit flat. And the mid-DLC Aria speech had her animation set glitch out every now and then, which was hilariously silly looking.
- Took me ~3 hours to finish and do everything on Insanity. Would have been damn close to exactly three hours actually. I'm a slooow Mass Effect player (or any game I like for that matter), and tend to dawdle, take in the scenery, and so on. So you'll struggle to get more than three hours out of it.
Conclusion: It's more Mass Effect. As a stand alone mission I thought it was a lot of fun, decently written/driven in the narrative, looked great, and was fun to play. Aria was a solid squadmate, Nyreen was pretty good too, and I'm glad they finally introduced a female Turian. Production wise Montreal did seem to put a lot of effort in making it look good, lots of custom assets, decently directed cinematics, and a fast pacing that had you moving through varied combat zones. Glad they introduced two new enemies too.
If you don't like Mass Effect 2 and 3. If you don't like the current direction of the series. If you don't like the shoot bang and can't stop moaning about how amazing Mass Effect 1 was, then skip it. This should have been pretty damn obvious though and anybody gambling on thoughts of otherwise have only themselves to blame. It's another Mass Effect 2/3 style mission. And it plays exactly like one, with similar ratios of cutscenes/talking to combat, and similar (if a little faster) pacing.
But I don't think it's worth 1200 points/$15 though. A lot of work went into it from a production standpoint, but the price hike really doesn't feel justified. Especially since you don't spend a lot of time with Nyreen as a squadmate. Had Nyreen been available as a squaddy post-Omega then yeah, okay, maybe 1200/$15 would be justifiable. But as it stands the price hike seems to be BioWare/EA trying to cover the hike in production costs without really offering anything substantially different from a consumer/player point of view.
So yeah. Do you like Mass Effect 2 and 3, do you like Aria/Omega, and do you want to go on another mission regardless of the cost? Then yes, buy Omega, because I think it's a fun ride. Do you have grievances about the series direction, a disinterest in Aria/Omega, and want a mission that's substantially different and/or longer than what we've seen in ME2/3? Then no, do not buy Omega.
If they had gotten it right, then there would be no bitching.
I have no idea if it went on to GAF, but him and I were discussing BioWare seeing their ultimate direction as something more akin to Rockstar, where their games are story heavy, but not necessarily RPGs.
At that point something that's a third person shooter like Uncharted or a first person shooter like Halo would fit with the goal, but be even more accessible as per Casey Hudson's original mission statement with the series.
That said at this point I think they're going to do something a bit more... open-ish.
I'll need more job postings before I can really tell though.
The fucked up art is that Mass Effect DLC has NEVER been on sale on PC. If I ever decide to get this it will be $15 no matter when because of those bullshit BioWare points that they decided to retain in ME3 despite the game already requiring Origin.
Anyway, I for one enjoyed ME3's combat more than the other aspects of that game (and even probably more than ME2's combat), for what it was, so combat-heaviness isn't really a bad thing for me in this game's case.
Anyway, I for one enjoyed ME3's combat more than the other aspects of that game (and even probably more than ME2's combat), for what it was, so combat-heaviness isn't really a bad thing for me in this game's case.
Jinjo
Member
Yeah, that was really cool. They are hinting at this interplay between the Turian chick (forgot her name already) and Aria as a "good" vs "evil" thing were you have to side with one of them (which would have hopefully had possible consequences), but it never, ever goes there. Which it totally should have.
Near ending spoiler:
I supposedly killed 1000's of civilians to save both Aria's and that Turian girl's life. There is no aftermath of this supposed decision. The Turian girl doesn't get mad for me betraying her trust, there's no scene showing the civilians dying or something. Now I don't know what happens if you don't do the renegade interrupt and do supposedly save the civilians, but I imagine it's just as lacking in consequence as the renegade interrupt.
If the other thing happens it's called predictable.
This is every Mass Effect thread ever.
I really didn't see much difference between Omega and the Mass Effect 1 hotlabs.
EC's review is spot on. It's definitely not worth $15. I only kicked in because of how much I have enjoyed the free MP content.
Tony Redgrave
Member
No kidding, I agree 100% with this. That's one of the reasons why ME1 remains the best of the series even with the lackluster combat and cloned side missions. ME1's pace was perfect , and it also allowed to take breaths often from the Normandy as well, it was all so integrated and fluid, playing just the main story and the quintessential side missions made for a nearly flawless experience.
Seems pretty par for the course then, just, again, not worth $15, and I don't think I'm ever gonna get relief from that since I'd be buying it on PC where they NEVER put it on sale.
Thing is, I actually liked ME3's combat a lot for what it was - an action shooter with RPG elements. I thought they nailed the shooter part better with ME3 and to me the controls felt a lot smoother than ME2. That said, the last time I played through ME1 I started to really appreciate how it tried to be a tactical BioWare-style RPG just with guns instead of swords. We'll never see that shit again from BioWare or EA though.
How can you be more accessible than Halo or Uncharted? The mind boggles.
MotionBlue
Member
It was jarring, how fast the moment came and went.
We were talking about making the last push. Then "oh Nyreen is scouting"
"Oh wait, she's trying to save civilians"
"Now she's dead"
All within 2 minutes.
"Oh wait, she's trying to save civilians"
"Now she's dead"
All within 2 minutes.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Oh, outside of covering production costs, the only other reason I can think of EA hiking the price of the DLC is that Leviathan's sales were below expectations, and they're trying to make it up by charging the limited DLC fanbase more for subsequent DLC.
Tony Redgrave
Member
Don't know. Chris Priestly said on the BSN that Leviathan was their best ever selling DLC. Maybe he was lying or maybe not. My bets are that the extra money went either to Carrie-Ann Moss' paycheck or they were just testing the waters and seeing how much we are willing to pay, since the next DLC seems big, being the last with a couple of main VA's confirmed etc...
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Oh really? Didn't know Priestly said that. That's pretty interesting. Wouldn't have expected Leviathan to sell all that well. Figured something like Lair of the Shadow Broker would be at the top.
But yeah, covering Moss' paycheck would be lumped under production costs, and makes sense.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Thanks for the impressions, everyone. I think I'll wait for this to be on sale. Most likely when the next DLC hits.
Tony Redgrave
Member
Since PS3 users got most DLC free it makes sense for Leviathan to be their best selling across all platforms, still, I would have expected something extra for the price hike.
Should it have been a 5 minute action scene? Should there have been a 10 minute embrace exchanging sweet nothings like a certain VA's other famous role?
The primary reason it was there was to grant a little credibility to a certain someone falling into an obvious trap. I actually give them a solid video-game 'C' for effort on that one.
It had to be the best selling ME3 DLC right?
By default.