Not as good as hoped
The Arrival is the last piece of Downloadable content for Bioware’s superb sci-fi epic Mass Effect 2. This DLC is second of the two that supposedly bridge the gap between ME2 and ME3, with the first being Lair of the Shadow Broker. Because this is essentially the last taste of Mass Effect most people will get until the final game is released, The Arrival has built up a fairly large amount of hype amongst dedicated fans. Does it live up to our high expectations? Eh, kinda.
Because most people will want to buy this expansion for the story content, I’ll keep the plot summary brief and limit spoilers. The Arrival opens with Commander Shepard being contacted by Admiral Hackett, a member of the human alliance played by Lance Henriksen. Hackett informs you that a scientist by the name of Amanda Kenson has found evidence of the impending invasion of the galaxy by the Reapers, the race of sentient machines that has been driving a cycle of extinction of all the races in the Milky Way Galaxy for what may be millions of years, and the antagonists of the Mass Effect series.
Kenson has been captured and imprisoned by Batarians, and Shepard is sent to rescue her and review her evidence of the incoming Reaper invasion. What follows is a moderately interesting series of events, the full significance of which will hopefully be addressed in Mass Effect 3. The strongest aspect of this DLC is a conversation that takes place at the end, in which what may be an important aspect of the plot in ME3 is introduced, and actually develops Shepard himself as a character. It’s not a lot of personal development, but it was enough to make me really excited to see what will become of Shepard in the final game.
Unfortunately, The Arrival is not particularly strong as a standalone piece. The gameplay is standard Mass Effect 2 cover based shooting, minus squad tactics. You have a single ally early on in the DLC, and afterwards you’re on your own. The best action sequences are in the beginning as well. There is one semi-stealth sequence in the beginning where it is possible to avoid any conflict (there is an achievement for not alerting any enemies during this sequence). However, very little strategy is required for this segment. Still, sneaking by enemies is a new thing for the Mass Effect series. Also, there is one extended battle against multiple waves of enemies in the first half of the DLC that is actually pretty intense. However, the rest of the gameplay is the normal corridor crawl shootouts that ME2 players should be used to by now.
Graphically, Mass Effect 2 still looks perfectly fine. From an artistic perspective, Arrival is not all that impressive. You see the inside of an old, decaying Batarian prison that does not look that much different than environments from Tuchunka. You’ll also see the inside of a human research center (think Overlord). The only interesting venue is on the surface of an asteroid. There is a mass relay featured prominently in the sky, and there is no atmosphere in the asteroid, so everything is completely silent. It isn’t as cool as the surface of the Shadow Broker’s ship from the previous DLC, but it still looks pretty cool. Unfortunately, this venue comes and goes extremely quickly…
…much like the rest of the DLC. Playing on normal, I completed The Arrival in an hour. The length is fairly disappointing, considering the fact that Shadow Broker was a good three hours long. Still, Arrival is only seven dollars, so I suppose the short length is to be expected.
Overall, The Arrival is a solid piece of downloadable content, but it is nothing that amazing. Regardless, because of the relatively low price of entry and events that may hold importance in Mass Effect 3, I would recommend giving it a go if you still really care about Commander Shepard’s ongoing struggle against the Reapers.
