Im planning on going trough the entire trilogy and wondering if I should bother getting any ME1 dlc aswell any recommendations?

The DLC at best can help you out in "experience" and more conversation options. Very minimal stuff.

Best DLC out of the bunch is Overlord for ME2

Pretty sure it would be Shadow Broker to go for.

The rest I think are just mission packs not much story.

*the massest effect. uhh.. none of them really change too much. kasumi - stolen memory gives you a new character that is supposed to return in ME3, but i'm 20+ hours in and have yet to see her. but overlord is awesome, and a couple characters in 3 are relevant to that backstory. but for the most part, the same things will happen whether or not you play the DLC.

Hm, I guess Overlord gives you the chance to save someone that appears in Mass Effect 3. When you come across him, he unlocks a door for you with loot inside, which is only accessible if that guy's there and I presume you had to have been nice to him before in Overlord. Eventually, you'll see his brother and he'll give you something on a datapad or something.

I would say to get Bring down the Sky for ME1. It is alright, and is only 80 MS points. Pinnacle Station, however, can really be ignored.

I enjoyed all of the ME2 DLC. As mentioned, there is no huge impact on anything, though. Doing the DLC will alter some dialogue and dialogue options, some of the people met during the DLC will reappear in ME3, and I think should contribute to your war assets in 3.

Shadow Broker would explain the most about a certain party member in ME3, but it's not really going to change anything. At the end of the day, kinda no decisions or DLC you play make a difference, so just.. play and enjoy it.

They barely change anything, but they do give an understanding into what's happened. If you don't do it, the game will say the events occured somehow else without you, but either way, just on pure quality of story and experience terms, you need to play overlord and shadow broker. The story just feels right with them in before 3.

@Smokay: Yes

Edit: Ok there's a bit of story, but not enough to make it worth buying.

@Tylea002 said:

They barely change anything, but they do give an understanding into what's happened. If you don't do it, the game will say the events occured somehow else without you, but either way, just on pure quality of story and experience terms, you need to play overlord and shadow broker. The story just feels right with them in before 3.

I agree. Not required or anything, but those two do add some good moments in ME3.

None of them really affect the game, but they will give you different dialog in ME3 and a better understanding of some events. I would say Shadow Broker is the most important, than Overlord and Stolen Memory.

Bring down the sky effects a side quest with batarians on the citadel

overlord ahas some story significane

For ME2 dlc I would consider Shadow Broker essential while Overlord also has some nice pay off.

In ME1, Bring Down the Sky has a bit of payoff in ME3 in one of the missions plus it gives you more back story on Batarians .

@Smokay:

The Shadow Broker and the last DLC (I don't remember what it was called) are referenced the most but, honestly, none of them actually impact the game in any real way besides dialogue that goes, "Hey! Remember me? Well, see ya!"

ME1 - Bring Down The Sky

ME2 - Overlord & Shadow Broker

@Smokay said:

@MetalBaofu: Is Pinnacle Station just a bunch of combat missions with no story in them whatsoever?

As, JeanLuc said, yeah. It's basically just these arena combat missions and no real story worth talking about. Only way I would suggest buying it, is if it was only 80 points like Bring down the Sky, but it's not. It's 400...which makes no sense to me considering the other is so cheap.

Well looks like Im gonna get shadow broker then thanks guys

@Smokay said:

Well looks like Im gonna get shadow broker then thanks guys

Yeah, I'd skip Overlord. I played the Mass Effect series for the story, and Overlord was the Pinnacle Station of the ME2 DLC, regardless of what other people are saying. It felt like it was artificially padded out by having to drive the Mako replacement around this hub area constantly. Even the plot points from it were pretty much completely ignored in ME3. I mean, not just ignored, but concepts are flipped on their heads. Sure, you run into the few dudes from it here and there, but it is just SO inconsequential. That said, it probably is #2 as far as amount of gameplay.

Shadow Broker is easily, easily the best DLC in the series. It takes place in multiple acts, introduces new and interesting characters, a new style of gameplay for the entire series, reunites you with a character you missed, and at the end of it, gives you access to a small book's worth of additional written content in the form of additional back story at terminals (There's even an achievement related to reading it). It even contains what's probably my favorite unexpected badass moment/speech in the entire series that's completely based off of your previous decisions. (You'll know it when you hear it.) I don't know if it's the longest, but it FEELS the longest, and that's a good thing. It takes you places you didn't expect to go when you hear "Lair of the Shadow Broker." As far as ME3 impact, a lot of elements in ME3 get explained, specifically about Liara, and there are a few quips here and there, (especially on Sur'Kesh) that refer to "Lair." I'm not sure about actual impact, to be honest, but it definitely feels the most consequential.

From ME1, BDtS and Pinnacle are fairly inconsequential, with BDtS resulting in one dialogue wheel choice in ME3 and super short cameo, along with war assets, and Pinnacle resulting in almost nothing at all -- the main character in it, Admiral Ahern, the guy running the station, doesn't show up at all (I'm assuming he's probably dead), and your "rival" (the DLC is super thin), this Turian security guard that posted the highest scores in the Pinnacle Station simulators before you beat them, is mentioned in the text of a war asset you may or may not get, depending on how thorough you are.

None of the free DLC from the ME2 Cerberus Network has any consequence. The side mission where you run into Zaeed is incredibly lame, and then you gain him as a war asset. Kasumi's is much more amusing, but looking back on it, it's just a fetch quest. Her loyalty mission in ME2 is amusing, but you can easily just watch it on youtube and still get the most from it, since it's a poorly executed heist. Actually, the quicklook for Stolen Memory pretty much shows about 80% of it from a story perspective, and then there's just a touch of combat. I'd say the notable contribution to ME3 is mostly being able to meet another Spectre because of it.

The Arrival was a really hugely mixed bag. On the one hand, the lore and impact on ME3 can't be denied, it's referred to CONSTANTLY in ME3, but the DLC itself wasn't particularly good. It consisted of pretty much one new NPC character, a bad stealth sequence, a 5-wave mini horde mode thing you can't fail (except your squad doesn't get to come with you on the mission and solo Mass Effect 2 isn't nearly as fun), and then a short, straight, combat-heavy corridor crawl. Squadless Mass Effect just doesn't feel like Mass Effect.

I thought my ME2 dlc choices would have a considerable effect on ME3. They didn't really do anything apart from small dialogue scenes and changes to war assets.

Minerva's Den.

Wait, what?

@Sackmanjones said:

@Smokay I heard most of the me1 stuff was garbage so I recommend getting 2 pieces of me2 then. Id go with shadow broker and overlord. And to answer your question, I found overlord to have the most impact in me3

????? On what planet?

(No, really, what planet? Illium? Noveria?)

Overlord has zero impact on ME3. It's a throwaway mission that doesn't affect ME3 in the slightest. Not to give away the plot (it's an interesting, if contrived twist), but lore-wise, it's about a Cerberus Geth AI research base and if you play it, you'll realize in the first 20 minutes of ME3 that Cerberus completely discarded or forgot about all that research data. In ME3 you run into one or two NPCs from the ME2 DLC and have a short conversation where you say "Hey, how are things" and they're like, "oh, you know, same as everyone, terrible because of the Reapers."

Personally I was just really bored with it by the end. It's just a bunch of geth and driving your little kodiak car thing.

@Sackmanjones said:

@Smokay I heard most of the me1 stuff was garbage so I recommend getting 2 pieces of me2 then. Id go with shadow broker and overlord. And to answer your question, I found overlord to have the most impact in me3

????? On what planet?

(No, really, what planet? Illium? Noveria?)

Overlord has zero impact on ME3. It's a throwaway mission that doesn't affect ME3 in the slightest. Not to give away the plot (it's an interesting, if contrived twist), but lore-wise, it's about a Cerberus Geth AI research base and if you play it, you'll realize in the first 20 minutes of ME3 that Cerberus completely discarded or forgot about all that research data. In ME3 you run into one or two NPCs from the ME2 DLC and have a short conversation where you say "Hey, how are things" and they're like, "oh, you know, same as everyone, terrible because of the Reapers."

Personally I was just really bored with it by the end. It's just a bunch of geth and driving your little kodiak car thing.

@Sackmanjones said:

@onan

@Sackmanjones said:

@Smokay I heard most of the me1 stuff was garbage so I recommend getting 2 pieces of me2 then. Id go with shadow broker and overlord. And to answer your question, I found overlord to have the most impact in me3

????? On what planet?

(No, really, what planet? Illium? Noveria?)

Overlord has zero impact on ME3. It's a throwaway mission that doesn't affect ME3 in the slightest. Not to give away the plot (it's an interesting, if contrived twist), but lore-wise, it's about a Cerberus Geth AI research base and if you play it, you'll realize in the first 20 minutes of ME3 that Cerberus completely discarded or forgot about all that research data. In ME3 you run into one or two NPCs from the ME2 DLC and have a short conversation where you say "Hey, how are things" and they're like, "oh, you know, same as everyone, terrible because of the Reapers."

Personally I was just really bored with it by the end. It's just a bunch of geth and driving your little kodiak car thing.

I know it doesn't have much but that is literally the biggest impact any dlc has on ME 3. Shadow broker and arrival both have 1 or 2 lines talking about what happened. At least from overlord you see prior characters and talk to em.

Wha? Uh? I don't even...

I don't think we have very similar concepts of what "impact" means. By that logic, the Zaeed DLC has the most impact because not only does he add a side mission to ME3, he introduces a new NPC to the world that says random things every time you visit him.

Lair explains what happened to Liara and why her room is batshit crazy and why she can accomplish everything she's accomplished in ME3, and resolves a plot thread from ME1. The Arrival explains why Shepard is in jail at the beginning of the game, as well as while the Batarians have been all but wiped out by the Reapers in ME3. The Arrival effectively reshaped the Mass Effect galaxy.

But you're saying because you run into a jackass scientist on some random planet somewhere and are like "hey, I remember you, you suck," that's more impactful? What? If you're not the type of player to stop and talk to literally every single NPC in the game you can talk to, it would be very easy to miss him entirely.

@Sackmanjones said:

@onan

@Sackmanjones said:

@Smokay I heard most of the me1 stuff was garbage so I recommend getting 2 pieces of me2 then. Id go with shadow broker and overlord. And to answer your question, I found overlord to have the most impact in me3

????? On what planet?

(No, really, what planet? Illium? Noveria?)

Overlord has zero impact on ME3. It's a throwaway mission that doesn't affect ME3 in the slightest. Not to give away the plot (it's an interesting, if contrived twist), but lore-wise, it's about a Cerberus Geth AI research base and if you play it, you'll realize in the first 20 minutes of ME3 that Cerberus completely discarded or forgot about all that research data. In ME3 you run into one or two NPCs from the ME2 DLC and have a short conversation where you say "Hey, how are things" and they're like, "oh, you know, same as everyone, terrible because of the Reapers."

Personally I was just really bored with it by the end. It's just a bunch of geth and driving your little kodiak car thing.

I know it doesn't have much but that is literally the biggest impact any dlc has on ME 3. Shadow broker and arrival both have 1 or 2 lines talking about what happened. At least from overlord you see prior characters and talk to em.

Wha? Uh? I don't even...

I don't think we have very similar concepts of what "impact" means. By that logic, the Zaeed DLC has the most impact because not only does he add a side mission to ME3, he introduces a new NPC to the world that says random things every time you visit him.

Lair explains what happened to Liara and why her room is batshit crazy and why she can accomplish everything she's accomplished in ME3, and resolves a plot thread from ME1. The Arrival explains why Shepard is in jail at the beginning of the game, as well as while the Batarians have been all but wiped out by the Reapers in ME3. The Arrival effectively reshaped the Mass Effect galaxy.

But you're saying because you run into a jackass scientist on some random planet somewhere and are like "hey, I remember you, you suck," that's more impactful? What? If you're not the type of player to stop and talk to literally every single NPC in the game you can talk to, it would be very easy to miss him entirely.

@Sackmanjones said:

You realize I'm simply telling him what dlc changes game up.I am not a dumbass I know it's the least important of the main arc in mass effect. However whether you played shadow broker or not liara will have all her gear from being the shadow broker. Whether you play arrival or not Shepard will always have been revoked of his rank. Same with kasumi and zaeed, they will be in the game whether you played their missions or not. I'm saying if you don't play overlord you don't see those characters. He asked what has the most effect on ME3 and gameplay wise it's overlord

Wow, that is really splitting hairs. The question was "which DLC has the most effect on ME3?"

You're saying Overlord has the most impact for the exact reason I'm saying it doesn't. You're saying if you don't play it, you won't encounter characters in the third game you would run into otherwise. Thing is, that makes them disposable characters. You could skip the DLC entirely and not have it affect anything about your experience with the third game at all. (To a lesser extent, the Zaeed and Kasumi DLCs are also fairly inconsequential.)

Recommending that DLC over the other DLC to someone who is specifically interested in going into ME3 as informed as possible about the state of the universe makes no sense. By your own admission, Shadow Broker and Arrival happen regardless and are considered canon. You're recommending that people skip major parts of the story in favor of a throwaway sidemission. Yes, they could totally do that, I mean, plenty of people skipped ME1 entirely on PS3 and all of those events happened, but it doesn't mean playing through ME1 didn't have an impact on the sequels.

@Sackmanjones said:

You realize I'm simply telling him what dlc changes game up.I am not a dumbass I know it's the least important of the main arc in mass effect. However whether you played shadow broker or not liara will have all her gear from being the shadow broker. Whether you play arrival or not Shepard will always have been revoked of his rank. Same with kasumi and zaeed, they will be in the game whether you played their missions or not. I'm saying if you don't play overlord you don't see those characters. He asked what has the most effect on ME3 and gameplay wise it's overlord

Wow, that is really splitting hairs. The question was "which DLC has the most effect on ME3?"

You're saying Overlord has the most impact for the exact reason I'm saying it doesn't. You're saying if you don't play it, you won't encounter characters in the third game you would run into otherwise. Thing is, that makes them disposable characters. You could skip the DLC entirely and not have it affect anything about your experience with the third game at all. (To a lesser extent, the Zaeed and Kasumi DLCs are also fairly inconsequential.)

Recommending that DLC over the other DLC to someone who is specifically interested in going into ME3 as informed as possible about the state of the universe makes no sense. By your own admission, Shadow Broker and Arrival happen regardless and are considered canon. You're recommending that people skip major parts of the story in favor of a throwaway sidemission. Yes, they could totally do that, I mean, plenty of people skipped ME1 entirely on PS3 and all of those events happened, but it doesn't mean playing through ME1 didn't have an impact on the sequels.

Arrival, while weaker than both Shadow Broker and Overload, sets up the beginning of Mass Effect 3 and therefore is the ME2 DLC that has the most effect on ME3.

Play shadow broker, and if you want more, play Overlord too.

Kasumi's mission in ME2 is really fun for the strong James Bond vibe. And it's worth it for seeing Kasumi return in ME3.