Mass Effect 2 DLC - Arrival

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#1

News of a new DLC pack was accidentally released with one of the patches a few weeks ago. It seems that we now have a release date, 29th March 2011. I really didn’t think it would be released quite so soon, considering that Dragon Age 2 is only a few weeks old. Personally I was expecting a summer release, to help advertise ME3. I’ll almost certainly pick it up, I have all the others. I wouldn’t mind another ME2 play through.

Here’s a description:

A deep cover agent is missing in Batarian space, after reporting evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Shepard must travel to the edge of the galaxy, rescue the agent, and discover the truth behind the Arrival. Uncover new research and 3 new achievements in this spectacular new adventure for Mass Effect 2

Apparently Admiral Hacket will make a return. I wonder if we’ll finally get to meet him.

#2

Admiral Hackett returning is the best selling point of this DLC for me. I plan on downloading for both my 360 and PS3 copies of ME2 but it will probably stay on the back burner until I get to the point where I can’t replay DA2 any more for a while.

#3

EEE!! So excited! This will have to be my ME fix until 3 comes out later this year :smiley:

#4

Downloading now. It’s a 780mb download, so on my pathetic internet connection it’s going to take a few hours. It’ll probably take a few days before I get to the new content. I want to do a complete run through, probably on insanity to get the last couple of achievements I need.

#5

Downloaded it this morning on my 360 but haven’t played it yet because I’m still too into DA2 but I’ll probably get to it over the next couple of days since the doctor has me out of work until Monday. I just need to remember to turn on the PS3 and download it on there too.

#6

Just read this review and now I’m worried…

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/29/mass-effect-2-arrival-dlc-review/

#7

That honestly doesn’t surprise me because it would be pretty hard to top Lair of the Shadow Broker which is widely considered one of the best DLC’s out there. I still think they should have done a DLC with the Virmire survivor because so many people romanced them and didn’t get a resolution to anything after the confrontation on Horizon. I’m still going to play it because it’s got be better than the last DLC they did for ME1 and it has Admiral Hackett.

It does appear that Bioware has a hard time with that final DLC between games because Witch Hunt wasn’t the best received either, but I would have expected this to be better than that one since it will tie in to the events of ME3 far better than Witch Hunt does to DA2 (Leliana’s Song ties in far better than Witch Hunt).

#8

While that review doesn’t fill me with confidence, I still don’t regret buying it. I’ll judge for myself when I get to the new content. It’s got to be better than Firewalker though.

On a semi-related note, insanity mode really sucks. Prehaps using a maxed out character was a mistake. Hopefully when I gather a few upgrades it will be a bit easier.

#9

I’m holding off on the DLC for now. I’m planning a massive, dual playthru (one paragon, one renegade) of both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 with all DLC (except that stupid arena one) to lead up to Mass Effect 3, so I’ll grab it when I get to that point.

#10

So nice to know I’m not the only one. However, I already did my renegade playthrough, so only have the paragon to go. The renegade is a chick, and I plan on making the paragon a duplicate of John Sheppard from Atlantis. It’ll be cool hearing people refer to him by his correct name.

I think I’m gonna skip this, though, as I really don’t see playing either game any more after I do this final run (I have played both MULTIPLE times already. Like… maybe… 7. Give or take) and the DLC I have (all the free DLC for 2, both of the ones for 1, and Shadow Broker)

#11

While its true there are no new gameplay mechanics and no companion interaction, I played it and thought it was totally worth my time. This DLC seem to me to be more about story, tying 2 & 3 together rather than being a crazy romp like Shadow Broker was. All in all I had a good time with it and the story was solid so don’t feel too discouraged by the review its still mass effect and its still fun :slight_smile:

#12

I saw a quicklook of the game over at giantbomb and they had a bit of “multipathing” so like you could sneak by guards or just fight them or what not. That’s new.

#13

I finished Arrival yesterday morning and even after Thinking on the story line for a day I’m still rather underwhelmed with the final ME2 DLC. It obviously ties in very well to ME3 but being force to play with only Shepard is not fun at all, especially during one part where waves of enemies come at you.

#14

I finished my complete run through yesterday. Insanity, gets much easier as you get upgrades. Once I got my Revenant with accuracy mod, everything was getting mowed down. The hardest fight was probably the other spectre in Lair of the Shadow Broker.

Arrival was a little underwhelming. Still it had its moments and it should be a nice tie in to ME3. I’m going to play twice more through ME2, to have complete save games for my other two characters as well.

#15

Soldier? boooooooooo

Infiltrator4Life.

As far as Arrival goes, I beat it got my S-rank (All achievements) for ME2 back. It was…alright. I liked the end dialogue. The combat was decent. I like the stealth section in the beginning, just the multiple paths through the area which they’ve said is gonna be part of ME3. Also I still love being a dick in Mass Effect.

#16

In every RPG I’ve played for the last several years I always play solider/warrior/guy whos combat involves hitting things with big sticks first. I’ve got an Adept and Engineer as well. I’ve never played any of the ‘hybrid classes’. Depending on how things go I might have time to play ME1 and 2 again with another character. I’ll have all six eventually. Plus the Revanant is really cool.

#17

Infiltrator is the best class in ME2 imo.

An oddball choice for ME1 that I found EXTREMELY enjoyable? Adapt with bonus Sniper Rifle powers.

#18

I play as an infiltrator as well. Love it!

I found this DLC under-whelming and over-priced. It is repetitive and limits the player’s choices. However, I enjoyed playing the old character again after so much time away from her. If you don’t mind paying a premium for a bit of fluff that will take under two hours to finish, then I do recommend it. Not as polished as the main game, but interesting enough. Don’t expect much and you won’t be disappointed. If you skip it, you won’t miss anything necessary to get into ME3. I can guess how this plays into ME3, but a quick read of a wiki will give you the background needed.

Did anyone think the doctor’s face looked and moved oddly?

#19

It did look weird. But it got weirder as it went on so I thot it was intentional. To get the acheevos and have it be done on insanity I’d say it took me 3-4 hours. Which reminds me how badly I need to go back and do Insanity in ME1, it’s the only mass effect achievement I don’t have at this point.

#20

I found it much easier to get the ME1 insanity achievement. I just done an uber-quick playthrough with a level 60 character, with all Spectre X weapons and skipped everything non-essential. I really miss my Specre X assault rifle, I had about 10 of them, surely one of them must have survived the Normandy crash. I’d trade every weapon I had in ME2, for one of those. Talk about a step backwards in weapon technology (yes, I know the real world reason, they wanted an ammo system and had to write their way out of trouble)