🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:51:04 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 07 Jan 2017 09:42:12 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>Spalls Hurgenson wrote: 


>>Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
>>a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
>>iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
>>the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
>>included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
>>the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
>>The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
>>controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
>>multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
>>without the DLC. 

>Actually, my freebie came with the following DLC:

>Cerberus Network
>Normandy Crash Site
>Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
>Cerberus Arc Projector
>Cerberus Weapon and Armor
>Firewalker Pack
>Soundtrack, Art books, and Documentary

>Did they miss any?

Indeed, quite a few are missing. Mostly the ones included with the
free version were just extra weapons or armor (although Zaeed adds
another party member and his loyalty quest, and the Normandy Crash
site is a combat encounter you can discover if you scan the right
plan). Most of the ones with actual story content aren't included. The
missing DLCs include:

- Overlord (a fairly hefty DLC with the vehicle sections mentioned in
other posts)

- Lair of the Shadow Broker (reintroduces a major character from ME1
that was otherwise missing from the main story of ME2)

- Arrival (an epilogue to the main story which sets the stage for the
start of ME3)

 - Kasumi: Stolen Memory (adds a new party member and her loyalty
quests)


Also missing are a number of less interesting "horse armor" DLCs that
just add new weapons and armor that don't really affect the game much
Aegis Pack
Equalizer Pack
Alternate Appearance Pack #2
Alternate Appearance Pack #2
Terminus Weapons and Armor
Recon Operations Pack
Mass Effect Genesis (a comic book of ME1)

(There were also a number of other DLC packs that were only available
under certain situations, like if you owned Dragon Age Origins or
redeemed a special Dr. Pepper soda promo, but these also only added
largely cosmetic items)

EA/Bioware gouged players pretty deeply if they wanted to get the full
Mass Effect 2 experience, although at least the core game was solid
enough without the extra DLC (although, as I stated elsewhere, the
"Overlord" DLC really, really helped make the game feel suitably
expansive for a space-opera game. 

Mass Effect 3, on the other hand, was noticably lessened if you played
it without the DLC. The "Leviathan" DLC added vital backstory to the
game (such as who the Reapers really were), the "Citadel" DLC added
fleshed out your party members so you gave a damn about their
sacrifices, "Omega" added a necessary bit of side-questing that filled
out the game and made it feel less linear, and "From the Ashes" added
a new character in a game that otherwise felt too much like a rehash
of the second. The rest of the ME3 DLC was basically pointless "horse
armor" trash but those four really transformed the game from an
missable title to one that - while still not great - at least was a
more enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy. But you had to pay twice the
price (game + all that DLC) to experience it.