Hey guys!

Finally. FINALLY. I've managed to play through Mass Effect 1. After so many years and so many attempts I finished it. It is still a fantastic game and now I look forward playing through 2.

Is there any DLC that I should get beforehand that could potentially increase my enjoyment of 2?

So long GiantBomb.

Um, I think I accidentally deleted my post. Kasumi's Stolen Memory and Lair of the Shadow Broker are musts. Zaeed used to be free, no idea if he's paid content now, but his DLC might be worth looking at. Overlord is a great piece of DLC, but very self-contained, so it's not a must (but I do recommend it). Arrival leads into Mass Effect 3, but I don't remember it being too hot.

Zaeed was part of the "Cerberus Network," which came with the game if you bought it new. I think they mad it free for everyone with EA's getting rid of season passes thing.

What system you on, @enuff? I don't know if all the DLC got to PC (one of the reasons I don't like Origin is it's lack of legacy DLC support) and a lot of the best ones came with ME2 on PS3. Whichever one, I can vouch for the quality of Overlord, Kasumi, and Shadow Broker.

Edit: Oh good, all the DLC seems to be available of PC. So no need to worry about that.

Thank you both for your answers, they are very useful :)

Wolfbert Shepard is ready for action again!

You might as well just get the lot. Shadow Broker, Overlord and Kasumi really are fantastic, and while Arrival's actually a bit poo, it does set things up for ME3... (Which, even excepting all that fuss over the ending, is also a bit poo so far as I'm concerned, but it's not like you're going to play the first two games in a trilogy and then skip the third.)

I went out of my way to avoid EVERY spoiler for the mass effect series. But it was impossible not to hear that the end of ME3 is a bit crappy. I am very curious how everything plays out!

@enuff: Don't listen to those people. The original ending to Mass Effect 3 was great, until they went back and changed it and made it crappy.

As for the DLC, I'm hard-pressed to think of any game that has ever had better DLC content than Mass Effect 2 had. Even Arrival is just okay, it's not terrible or anything.

Shadow Broker is the second best mission in the game, right behind the Collector Base.

Stolen Memories is pretty fun but Kasumi isn't a particularly powerful or entertaining character.

Arrival sets up 3 and explains why at the beginning of ME3 everyone is mad at Shepard.

The rest are just alright and you should only get them if you need more.

I'd recommend you get them all as well - it's probably the best collection of DLC ever, Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker especially. Some might even say ME2 and all its DLC is the Game of the Generation.

And don't listen to the haters, the ME3 ending is pretty alright. Not great, but not world-endingly terrible either. And the characterization in ME3 is easily the best of the series, especially in Citadel (the best DLC in the whole series). ME3 gets more hate than it deserves, probably because it's the sequel to what some might call the Game of the Generation.

I don't disagree with you but I still feel this is a little harsh. His comment is pretty inocuous really. "Haters" isn't that crazy a word. I assume it's early in the morning where you are FL, because this reads as cranky fo sho.

Anyway, I'd say get them all if you can. Remember enjoying all the DLC more or less.

I did think the ME3 ending was awful, but it didn't ruin the game or series for me. Edit: in fact I hated the ME2 ending *way* more and I still love that game.

Don't read this part if you haven't beat ME2: giant baby.

@enuff: Boy, I can't remember which DLC is worth playing for ME2, but currently EA is having a big sale on all of it on the 360 so get it while it's hot. I remember "From Ashes" being kinda neat. I think it's just a few bucks now during the sale.

@geraltitude: Come on! He wrote game of the generation, bolding the entire thing and capitalising g twice!

But for the sake of staying on-topic, get Lair of the Shadow Broker and leave it at that unless you want to play ME2 more in which case get Overlord and Kasumi. Arrival isn't great and Zaeed involves getting the Cerberus Network.

@bonorbitz: From Ashes is ME3

lol yes, but the game he bolded as GoG is ME2. The game he is saying "don't listen to the haters about" and the ending is "pretty alright" is ME3.

I know Zaeed isn't really a "true blue character" but I really like him anyways. Cool guy. Maybe really typical, but still cool.

Game's perfectly competent without DLC, though at this point it's entirely possible you could get a version that has the DLC for like 2 bucks more or something.

For the record, I was one of the "haters" when I first played ME3, but after a couple years and another playthrough I've actually come to appreciate the fact that the rest of the game kind of redeems the extremely mediocre ending.

And the Game of the Generation thing was a riff on the conversation that was coming up around this year's GOTY stuff. I apologize if I wasn't clear enough - it's clearly Mass Effect 2.

Also Zaeed's voice more than makes up for his lack of character development.

@corevi: Thanks. Can you tell that it's been awhile since I've played those games?