Been playing the Mass Effect series last week. Had the itch to do so. I completed my forth playthough of ME2 yesterday.
I was on the ship that the Shadow Broker is on (part of the DLC which I must say is the best DLC that I played for ME2, due to the hovercar chase through Illium).
In Steam, I noticed news of another DLC coming. And it’s coming tomorrow. Great timing since I completed another playthough and got freeplay.
Today, they released said DLC; named “Arrival”. The final DLC for Mass Effect 2. And I just completed it as well. It’s to fill in what’s left of the gap between Mass Effect 2 and the future Mass Effect 3 (the Reaper invasion). You can get it for 560 Bioware points, which is roughly $7.00. Cheap, yet well worth it.
Basically, it’s a “soloable” mission. You don’t go with your squad this time. It starts off of going to a system at the edge of the galaxy and rescuing an agent in a Batarian Prison, who has proof of a Reaper invasion. And this one will happen in two solar days if Shepard doesn’t stop it.
*WARNING. Spoilers below. If you haven’t played the DLC yet, don’t read this. Also contains what I feel might happen in the beginning of Mass Effect 3*
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You have been warned…
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It starts off as Admiral Hackett asking you to rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson from the prison I mentioned before. Reason is because she has proof of a Reaper invasion, but, wants Shepard to go solo on this mission. It’s better off since the Batarians are always looking to start a war against Humanity.
I notice the three new achievements. One being to keep a low profile in the prison and rescue the operative without being seen by prison guards.
That was hard, since I didn’t know where to go or what to do. But I like the fact the game allowed you to save your current location incase you screw up.
I only messed up once, but got to the operative and the achievement.
Soon I have to defend her with my life. Since I couldn’t have my squad with me, and know nothing about where enemies spawn or where to go to dodge their fire, and even what to do), it was quite hard to stay alive. Died twice, but managed.
Then you two get to an escape shuttle, and the agent tells you about the Reaper invasion. I too, like Shepard, wondered how in the hell she found out about the Reapers since no one believes him (especially the Citadel Council).
She mentions that the Reapers are going to come through in two solar days and head for Earth, but there’s a way to stop them. Send an asteroid to destroy this ‘Alpha Relay’ (which happens to be the oldest relay in the galaxy), but it would end alot of lives since the relay when destroyed becomes a supernova, wiping out the system its in.
You convince her to show you ‘Object Rho’, a Reaper artifact, and claims it showed her the threat. When you see it, you soon find out this woman and her entire team are under Reaper control; aka indoctrinated, and they don’t want you to start The Project. I had a feeling she would turn on me when she showed me it, and Shepard was all “this is wrong”.
I had to fight for my life, and even had to kill two heavy mechs. Not an easy task since I’m used to working as a team against them. Plus I had other people shooting at me with shield-ripping slugs.
If I had knew I would be having to deal with mechs, I would’ve used the downloadable Arc Projector weapon against them (three pulls of the trigger kills one of them). But I used my Collector Particle Beam instead, forcing to expose myself to enemy fire.
When I finally killed them all, I got another achievement for surviving the battle (five waves), but was knocked out by the Reaper device and was captured. I have read that if you “died” by becoming overwhelmed by everyone attacking you, the same thing happens but you don’t get the achievement.
During the battle, you hear Object Rho actually talking to you, and sounds just like Harbinger.
To make my escape, I had to take control of a LOKI Mech, kill enemy mechs, and then blow up the generator to get out. That was pretty cool, yet pretty stupid of them to allow me to take control of one.
Once I was free, I had to start The Project. Had to fight off waves of guards who were using the same Flashbang grenades from the Shadow Broker DLC.
Then it went on with the indoctrinated bitch telling me she’s going to overload the reactor to stop me. I’m not going to let that happen. This is where me dying started to pile up. Mostly due to Pyros getting lucky and roasting me alive. But I always corrected my mistakes and killed them from a distance.
As I said before, when I know the fight, I do my best not to screw up.
So I stopped the reactor from blowing up, and then she committed suicide by blowing herself up, which knocks me out. Awoken by “Warning! Collision imminent!” sirens, I’m forced to get the fuck off the asteroid before it slams into the Alpha Relay.
I was shocked I wasn’t seeing a time limit. That is until I stepped outside to get to an escape shuttle and saw this bar slowly increasing and visually seeing the Alpha Relay getting closer and closer, while fighting more guards. Had to deal with another damn heavy mech. But I made it.
Once done, I called for the Normandy to get me outa here. Then a Reaper halo, like the one used by Sovereign, shows up. It’s Harbinger. It says that nomatter what I do, I will fail to stop the Reapers.
Shepard is forced to agree with it, but says that we will fight to the death if need be. I wanted to congratulate him for having the human spirit of never giving up. Then it said to “prepare for the arrival”, curled up, and disappeared.
Then the Normandy showed up, I got off the asteroid, we used the relay to (somehow made it back to our local system, Sol) and the relay was destroyed.
It also killed alot of Batarians. With this, I was told by Hackett himself with me in Normandy’s sickbay that it’s only a matter of time before I have to go to Earth to stand trial for blowing up the relay, but he stands by me 100%, knowing I did the right thing.
Shepard asks him about how he felt aboard a Cerberus ship, but said something about this isn’t really a ship owned by Cerberus.
The Batarians are going to want answers and revenge, and I don’t blame them, even though I tried to warn them but was cut off.
What’s serious is once the Reapers invade, the entire galaxy must be united to stop them. With this, we’re not ready… we have to get the Batarians to fight for us.
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Since I completed the DLC, it’s time to piece together what I’ve seen that should show what will happen in Mass Effect 3.
First, due to the fact at the end of ME2, you can freeplay, I assume that Shepard at the beginning of the game will be told to go to Earth and forced to go there (this I feel will all be done by the game, not by the player) where he will stand trial.
I then assume that he will be placed under arrest for what he did (even though he’s innocent), the Reapers will invade later on while he’s in his cell, and they’ll be all “SHEPARD!! HELP US!!”
Yet this generates questions. Will his crew also be involved in this? I say, probably not (since they weren’t involved in the Arrival DLC) but they might help Shepard out of his predicament (depending on their loyalty status, and who survived the Suicide Mission).
Answering about working with Cerberus, too (can feel this might come up in the court), is going to be ‘fun’.
Another question. Will your team split up of the timeline of ME2 and ME3? Surely the start of ME3 isn’t going to start off right after when you completed the Arrival DLC, or after completing ME2.
Zaeed, I’m sure will continue to hunt down that guy in his DLC. Thane probably will die due to his illness. Joker, has always been loyal to Shepard and should remain on his side (“We were your team, Commander.”) Kinda puts a tear in my eye when I remember the original Normandy (somewhat reminds me of the start of Descent 3 (“We’ll get you a new ship”)). But I got vengeance when I destroyed the Collectors.
Mordin.. not sure about him. Salarians do have a short life span, but I think he will still be alive (IF he survived the Suicide Mission).
Tali might stay with Shepard, along with battle-ready Garrus. Pretty sure Garrus will be right there to defend Shepard.
Kasumi will probably leave the team to continue what she does best. Grunt will probably go back to the Krogan homeworld; Tuchanka. The Krogan there told Shepard to bring him back after his “stupid mission”, yet at the end of ME2 when the mission is over and the Collectors are dead, Grunt stays with you.
The Justicar, Samara, might leave to right more wrongs.
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I wonder if destroying the relay was the right thing to do. The whole “Reapers coming through it” could had been a lie, since it’s obvious they will find another way through, as Harbinger said to the Collectors at the end of ME2.
The Reapers apparently know their way through our galaxy, since they’re the ones that built the Citadel and the Mass Relays. Hell.. they may’ve been the ones that created the galaxy. Trying to access the Citadel Relay by using Saren and the Geth was just one of them.
Yet, near the end of ME1 when you’re on Ilos, he tells you that the Protheans stopped the Reapers by changing the code the Keepers receive from Sovereign to enter the Mu Relay. Did the Protheans too didn’t know the Reapers will find other ways in?
It’s possible this ‘Harbinger’, Mister “THIS HURTS YOU”, is the leader of the Reapers; even more powerful than Sovereign.
If so… Earth is doomed.
We’ll have to wait ’till Christmas 2011 to know how the Reapers get through this time.