Nerd Rating

Tag: Leviathan

  • Next Mass Effect Will Be Shepard-less

    Series Producer Says Commander Shepard’s Tour Of Duty Is Over.

     
    While this is what most people have thought would happen with the series this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a higher up at Bioware has actually confirmed that the next Mass Effect will feature a new hero…or heroine.

    Fabrice Condominas, a producer at Bioware Montreal, had this to say:

    “There is one thing we are absolutely sure of – there will be no more Shepard, and the trilogy is over. This is really our starting point. Now the Mass Effect universe is vast, and very, very rich. So at this point in time, we don’t even know what kind of time frame we’re going to be in. All we’re doing is more gathering ideas from the teams, gathering feedback to see several things.”

    It will be interesting to see how the Mass Effect universe will continue on after the whole fiasco about the game’s original ending (which I had no problem with) that may have led to the departure of Bioware co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk from the company earlier this year.

    EA and Bioware are still releasing multiplayer content for Mass Effect 3 on a regular basis and a new single player mission named Omega will release on Xbox 360 on November 27th. You can find my review of the previous Mass Effect 3 single player DLC, Leviathan, here

  • Review: Mass Effect 3: Leviathan

    Does Commander Shepard’s New Mission Deliver?

    Leviathan is an interesting piece of DLC. If you are like me then you finished Mass Effect 3 months ago and have the ending to your Commander Shepard story firmly entrenched in your head. Now whether you liked the ending or not is up for grabs considering all the fan outcry when the game released but you have an ending nevertheless. So now Bioware has given us this add on mission which, while it would appear to not have a huge impact on a game finished for months on end, does manage to give some vital information into the Reaper’s history. Even if it is a little slow getting there.

    The mission starts as every piece of Mass Effect DLC does, by checking your email. There you receive a message asking Commander Shepard to go speak to a Dr. Bryson on the Citadel about the possibility of a creature powerful enough to kill a Reaper. After you arrive at the doctor’s lab he is killed by his assistant who seems to be under control by some outside force and now it is up to you to piece together the doctor’s research and find the being called Leviathan. And this is where the mission slows to a halt.

    The great office search is on.

    Yeah that title sums up a good portion of the mission. I love Mass Effect. Every one of them but this part of the DLC just seemed stuck into the game to give the content more of a playtime. You will run around Dr. Bryson’s office and bedroom a lot. And the searching isn’t even skillful. Just run around and click on everything you see and go to the galaxy map and get told where to go. Now if it had just been a one time trip before getting back to the action then it could be more forgivable but you will do this multiple times. Search the doctor’s things, head out for a bit of space flight, scanning planets, a bit of shooting and then head back to Bryson’s. I am not meaning this to sound as harsh as it does but this is over half the mission.

    Once you have located the whereabouts of Leviathan is where, to me anyway, this began feeling more like Mass Effect. Taking the drop ship down to the water based planet you are hit with a pulse of energy that crashes you and your team on a rig surrounded by nothing but ocean and what looks like thousands of years worth of decimated ships. As Reaper forces drop down the battle gets hot and heavy and you get to really get back into the combat. It had been a few months since I played Mass Effect 3 so by the time this section of the DLC came I was just getting used to the controls again. But like an old pro I was popping off biotics and melees no problem.

    Mech Effect 3

    After you get through the first waves of husks, brutes and banshees, Cortez tells you that there is a mech suit that you can use to dive down into the ocean to check out what your probe has found. You must first charge the battery pack while more enemies assault your position then you get to take your new mechanical friend out for a walk. There is a short burst of combat inside the mech but once you are in the ocean it is strictly exploration. While the mech section doesn’t last long it is a fun change of course and the underwater walk around has a slight (very slight, but still cool) Bioshock feel to it.

    Without getting too spoiler happy, once you find Leviathan is where the real meat of the story is. You find out the beginnings of the Reapers and why they look as they do. Leviathan reveals a good deal of important back story that should be known by all Mass Effect fans and adds more depth to the universe that you have been trying to save since 2007.

    While a good chunk of the DLC left me a bit numb mentally, the end battle and subsequent revelations about the Reapers history makes this a must download for Mass Effect lovers.

    Nerd Rating- 7.5/10

     

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  • Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC Gets A Trailer

    Mass Effect’s latest single player DLC is about to hit on August 28 and has Commander Shepard searching for a mysterious being known as Leviathan that may be strong enough to destroy a Reaper. The trailer look gives us a glimpse of what looks like some underwater mech action.

    Being a Mass Effect nut I am looking forward to diving back into the universe but I am wondering how fans who were critical of the game or it’s ending(s) will feel about playing what can only be called a prequel to a known ending.

    Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC releases on August 28 on PSN for $10 and Xbox LIVE for 800 MS Points.