Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Mass Effect 2

    Game » consists of 21 releases. Released Jan 26, 2010

    After a violent death by an unknown force and a timely reanimation by the human supremacist organization Cerberus, Commander Shepard must assemble a new squad in the seedier side of the galaxy for a suicide mission in the second installment of the "Mass Effect" trilogy.

    Is Arrival worth it?

    Avatar image for venatio
    Venatio

    4757

    Forum Posts

    288

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 6

    #1  Edited By Venatio

    Huge fan of this game, it was my GOTY 2010, played through it abou 3 times and I've played all the DLC and I'm desperate for more, even read the books and comics

    So bearing all that in mind, should I buy this DLC? I loved all the other ones

    UPDATED

    Avatar image for swoxx
    swoxx

    3050

    Forum Posts

    468

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 4

    #2  Edited By swoxx

    Was on sale not too long ago. Probably should've picked it up then. I have it but haven't played it yet but from what I've heard it's worth it

    Avatar image for dylabaloo
    Dylabaloo

    1573

    Forum Posts

    7

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 5

    #3  Edited By Dylabaloo

    @Venatiosaid:

    Huge fan of this game, it was my GOTY 2010, played through it abou 3 times and I've played all the DLC and I'm desperate for more, even read the books and comics

    So bearing all that in mind, should I buy this DLC? I loved all the other ones

    Definitely someone like you that's even read the books will get more out of it then others. I bought recently, and even though it was way too combat focused for my liking, i'm still glad I played it.

    Avatar image for tourgen
    tourgen

    4568

    Forum Posts

    645

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 11

    #4  Edited By tourgen

    I'm a huge fan too, read the books, comics and all that. played thru the game multiple times on PC and Xbox. speed run attempts with my vanguard build on insane.

    Arrival is alright. It's a pretty decent multi-stage mission with some story tie-ins to help explain a few things. You don't get your AI team. They try a really primitive sneak/alternate path thing at the beginning which might get expanded to something more substantial in ME3?

    Is it worth the cash under normal circumstances? No. Certainly not. But to a fan like you and I, yup. Definitely worth it. It's just short.

    Avatar image for re_player1
    RE_Player1

    8074

    Forum Posts

    1047

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #5  Edited By RE_Player1

    I bought it but never played it.

    Avatar image for venatio
    Venatio

    4757

    Forum Posts

    288

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 6

    #6  Edited By Venatio

    @Swoxx said:

    Was on sale not too long ago. Probably should've picked it up then. I have it but haven't played it yet but from what I've heard it's worth it

    Yeah I think I skipped that because a Gold account is needed for sale offers and the difference wasn't that huge

    Avatar image for ramone
    Ramone

    3210

    Forum Posts

    364

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 5

    #7  Edited By Ramone

    No. It's pretty poor really. However it does set-up ME3 in a pretty major way

    Avatar image for tylea002
    Tylea002

    2382

    Forum Posts

    776

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 6

    #8  Edited By Tylea002

    No, no, no, no, no.

    No.

    Avatar image for mr_skeleton
    Mr_Skeleton

    5195

    Forum Posts

    7918

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 15

    #9  Edited By Mr_Skeleton

    You should probably wait for a sale. It will tie to beginning of Mass Effect 3 but you can't really make any choices in it and it's more combat focused which never been ME2 strong part. So you should play it just for the story but it's probably not worth the full price.

    Avatar image for probablytuna
    probablytuna

    5010

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #10  Edited By probablytuna

    If you want more Mass Effect 2, go right ahead and get Arrival. It sort of sets up the events leading up to Mass Effect 3 which is pretty cool.

    Avatar image for yummylee
    Yummylee

    24646

    Forum Posts

    193025

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 88

    User Lists: 24

    #11  Edited By Yummylee

    Do you still enjoy the combat? If so then yeah, because that's close to all there is. The story is lacking, Shepard's on his own this time around with no party members, you have very little bearing on how the story will pan out, it's only around an hour long and there's quite literally nothing new introduced - minus Admiral Hacket's aged-Zaeed-face. I too really enjoyed ME2 btw; completed it 5 times, though I haven't read any of the novels/comics, and I thought it was a waste of money. But that was because, alongside everything else, I was completely exhausted with the combat by that point, so hence I'd say why it all strongly depends on whether or not you still enjoy fighting against the same enemies with the weapons and powers in more of the same environments.

    If you're mostly in it for the story, I'd recommend you just watch it all on youtube since again it's not like there's anything noteworthy you can import from Arrival into ME3; the story stuff that occurs in ME3 related to Arrival will happen whether you've played through it or not.

    Avatar image for euandewar
    EuanDewar

    5159

    Forum Posts

    136

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 0

    #12  Edited By EuanDewar

    No, its really not.

    Avatar image for shinigami420
    shinigami420

    647

    Forum Posts

    22

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #13  Edited By shinigami420

    NO

    Avatar image for pyromagnestir
    pyromagnestir

    4507

    Forum Posts

    103

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 23

    #14  Edited By pyromagnestir

    I thought it was good. Don't remember it having any good paragon/renegade choices so it doesn't encourage 2 playthroughs, and the early stealth part might be annoying if you want the achievement but don't have an infiltrator with cloak, which I had so it was nothing. But it was on par with the quality of mass effect 2 I'd say.

    Avatar image for cloudenvy
    Cloudenvy

    5896

    Forum Posts

    8

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #15  Edited By Cloudenvy

    I really dislike Arrival.

    Avatar image for mike76x
    Mike76x

    559

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #16  Edited By Mike76x

    @pyromagnestir said:

    I thought it was good. Don't remember it having any good paragon/renegade choices so it doesn't encourage 2 playthroughs, and the early stealth part might be annoying if you want the achievement but don't have an infiltrator with cloak, which I had so it was nothing. But it was on par with the quality of mass effect 2 I'd say.

    There wasn't any need for "stealth" because the AI is really stupid.

    As much as I love Mass Effect, Arrival was really disappointing.

    Avatar image for ghostiet
    Ghostiet

    5832

    Forum Posts

    160

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 3

    #17  Edited By Ghostiet

    Not really. It's 2 hours of solo combat mixed in with an unnecessary appearance by Admiral Hackett (who suddenly has a face for no damn reason) and a decision that sets up Shepard's arrival on Earth at the beginning of Mass Effect 3. I'd say you get it anyway, but look for a sale or something.

    Avatar image for xxwindoverxx
    xXwindoverXx

    297

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 2

    User Lists: 0

    #18  Edited By xXwindoverXx

    If you want to know why you're on trial on Mass Effect 3 and have a choice for your counterargument then yes.

    Avatar image for mweiss
    MWeiss

    2

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #19  Edited By MWeiss

    Arrival is probably the worst DLC and one of the worst parts of the game. Just play Shadow Broker again.

    Avatar image for tennmuerti
    Tennmuerti

    9465

    Forum Posts

    1

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 7

    #20  Edited By Tennmuerti

    no

    Avatar image for deactivated-5e49e9175da37
    deactivated-5e49e9175da37

    10812

    Forum Posts

    782

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 14

    Only if you really like NE2, or money is no object for you. It's a decent bit of story in the Mass Effect universe, but it's not as good as the rest of ME2. If I read a short story about Arrival, I'd be about as excited.

    Avatar image for kiro
    Kiro

    286

    Forum Posts

    6

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 3

    #22  Edited By Kiro

    Arrival is far better then any of the books, so if you liked those then just get arrival dude, you won't regret it.

    Avatar image for cptbedlam
    CptBedlam

    4612

    Forum Posts

    7

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #23  Edited By CptBedlam

    No. Worst one of the DLCs by far.

    Avatar image for supercycle
    SuperCycle

    354

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #24  Edited By SuperCycle

    The motivations of the characters made no sense to me, but apparently like shadow broker it's supposed to connect to the third game. If you want all your save games to connect to the third, then yes you should pick it up. If your looking for high quality DLC then you should probably pass. It's short and combat heavy.

    Avatar image for donpixel
    DonPixel

    2867

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #25  Edited By DonPixel

    I think so yes, not the best or the longest DLC if you a ME fan it's allright. 

    Avatar image for mordukai
    mordukai

    8516

    Forum Posts

    398

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #26  Edited By mordukai

    @Ramone said:

    No. It's pretty poor really. However it does set-up ME3 in a pretty major way

    Pretty much that.

    Avatar image for astonish
    astonish

    234

    Forum Posts

    1859

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 3

    User Lists: 6

    #27  Edited By astonish

    I was just going to write "only if you are a huge fan" I too have read all the books, comics, etc and loved the other DLC. This DLC isn't *bad* as much as it is just really short and really doesn't give you anything new. The plot rundown works like this: "Don't forget the reapers are coming!" as if we could forget. I'd say do it just for completionists sake, but don't expect anything nearly as good as LOTSB or overlord

    Avatar image for lind_l_taylor
    Lind_L_Taylor

    4125

    Forum Posts

    6

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 5

    #28  Edited By Lind_L_Taylor

    Lance Henricksen = YES!

    Avatar image for selbie
    selbie

    2602

    Forum Posts

    6468

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #29  Edited By selbie

    No.

    Basic summary: "Yo dawg, we're coming for you!"

    Avatar image for loose
    Loose

    417

    Forum Posts

    21

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #30  Edited By Loose

    It's nowhere near the quality of LotSB or Overlord (although I found Overlord rather tedious, especially on multiple playthroughs). I don't regret my purchase though; buy it if you really love yourself some ME and/or are at all concerned about missing out on content that might tie-in to ME3.

    Avatar image for ashgooner
    AshGooner

    7

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #31  Edited By AshGooner

    The worst Mass Effect 2 DLC by far. Even the Alternative Appearance Pack has more going for it.

    Lacks polish - "They've seen us" - Commander Shepard. You're own your own, dude." - Me

    Also removes a major decision from your hands, which for a Mass Effect game is like taking a big dump on my chest; and I'm just not into that sort of thing.

    Avatar image for cornman89
    Cornman89

    1600

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 0

    #32  Edited By Cornman89

    No.

    Avatar image for phantomzxro
    phantomzxro

    1613

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #33  Edited By phantomzxro

    It was ok i liked it for what it was. The problem is i don't know how much it will play into mass effect 3. It does get you excited to jump into mass effect 3, but if you don't have to have everything unlike me you can pass or at the very least wait for a sell because i'm sure they will have one  before  mass effect 3 comes out.
    Avatar image for dougquaid
    DougQuaid

    1273

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #34  Edited By DougQuaid

    As others have stated above, steer clear. Remember the Quick Look Brad and Ryan (I think) did of it? Few do. They unknowingly played through pretty much the entire thing and I'm guessing EA and/or Bioware told them to take it down because of it.

    If it's still going for full price, you're basically paying seven or eight bucks to have Bioware tell you "Hey guy, Mass Effect 3 is coming!" 'Damn shame considering how good Shadow Broker was..

    Avatar image for nywt
    nywt

    455

    Forum Posts

    220

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 8

    #35  Edited By nywt

    It does a really good job of tying Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3 but in terms of actual game-play, it's pretty sub-par.

    Avatar image for bawlzinmotion
    BawlZINmotion

    704

    Forum Posts

    2025

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 9

    User Lists: 1

    #36  Edited By BawlZINmotion

    @Ramone said:

    No. It's pretty poor really. However it does set-up ME3 in a pretty major way

    One could just watch the ME3 trailers and save themselves $10.

    Avatar image for fenris82
    Fenris82

    40

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #37  Edited By Fenris82

    I think it's a pretty big letdown compared to Lair of the Shadow Broker.

    On the other hand I'm glad I played it simply for the small snippet it covers that links ME2 and ME3 together.

    If you're a big ME fan then yes. Otherwise you can live without it, I'd say

    Avatar image for deactivated-6041dd7056393
    deactivated-6041dd7056393

    691

    Forum Posts

    53

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    (spoilers ahead)

    I just watched a play-through of this DLC on Youtube and I have to say its pretty damn awful. The bulk of it is repetitive solo combat against generic military dudes in boring old corridors. But the worst part is that the story aspect is just downright terrible. Not only are there no real choices to be made here, but the plot makes no goddamn sense at all:

    Firstly, you get contacted by Admiral whatshisface of the Alliance. After all this fucking time, he just shows up saying that some random scientist lady somewhere has evidence of the Reaper invasion and they want you to go in alone to rescue her from a Batarian prison. Firstly its never made very clear how the fuck she got captured in the first place, since she (somehow) has an entire army of military dudes at her disposal back at their base.

    So once rescued, the scientist lady explains that her people have prepared this 'project' to stop the Reaper invasion by blowing up a mass relay. Ok, fair enough. And predictably within minutes she turns on you and reveals that she is actually working for the Reapers. Oook.. So why did she tell you about the project in the first place? Or an even better question is, why on earth didn't she just take down the whole project once she went over to the Reapers?

    Anyway no time to think about that nonsense, cause you get knocked unconscious and held prisoner for two whole days; during which no one from the Normandy bothers to come looking for you, and none of the bad guys at the project base think to maybe tie you up or throw away your equipment. So of course you wake up, grab your shit and pick up where you left off by shooting more waves of dudes. Eventually you come across a control station for the whole project thing. Its so ridiculous that this thing is just there and left open to access by anyone; it might as well be a giant red button saying 'DO NOT PRESS OR YOU WILL RUIN ALL OUR EVIL PLANS'.

    Anyway, you activate the project and do some more shooting, until eventually you manage to get out of there with the Normandy and the mass relay blows up. But not before you have a dumb conversation with a floating image of Harbinger (the Reaper from ME2) that just inexplicably shows up out of nowhere. Its dumb in the sense that the Reapers (the all powerful race of ancient machine-beings who have destroyed and harvested the entire galaxy many times over) are now getting really pouty with Shepard because she helped destroy one and a half Reapers, which should be nothing considering the supposed near-infinite number of these things! And now all of a sudden the focus is all up on Earth and humans, even though they are just a tiny matter compared to THE ENTIRETY OF THE GALAXY!

    The whole thing just seems clumsily thrown together quickly to (poorly) explain the opening of ME3, which apparently involves Shepard going back to Earth to stand trial. Even (the usually excellent) Jennifer Hale sounded really bored and disinterested the whole time throughout this DLC. Glad I didn't buy it and I recommend you don't either. I really hope they don't carry this shoddy work into ME3.

    Avatar image for pinworm45
    Pinworm45

    4069

    Forum Posts

    350

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #39  Edited By Pinworm45

    Well jesus, seems like a lot of people hated it. I thought it was pretty decent.. It wasn't Shadow Broker, but I enjoyed playing through it. I'd say go for it.

    Avatar image for mideonnviscera
    MideonNViscera

    2269

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #40  Edited By MideonNViscera

    If you're obsessed with ME like you appear to be, then it's worth it. I wouldn't tell anyone who doesn't love ME to buy it though. It's fairly short and insubstantial.

    Avatar image for colonel_fury
    Colonel_Fury

    462

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 2

    #41  Edited By Colonel_Fury
    Avatar image for om1kron
    137

    487

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #42  Edited By 137

    @EuanDewar said:

    No, its really not.

    It's suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper short.

    Avatar image for venatio
    Venatio

    4757

    Forum Posts

    288

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 6

    #43  Edited By Venatio

    Here is an update on my playthrough, I just replayed all of Mass Effect 2, literally every single mission, on PC and did all of the DLC to have the save I want into Mass Effect 3 and just minutes ago finished The Arrival

    It was alittle short and the beginning was weak but man that ending was awesome.

    I just commited genocide against the batarians by crashing a giant asteroid into a mass relay and wiping out an entire star system and I finally got to meet Admiral Hackett, a.k.a Lance Henriksen. It was fucking awesome, Oh yeah and I got to have a Sovereign style conversation with Harbinger

    Oh yeah I replayed it because I thought the PC version was better, played it on 360 before

    Avatar image for n7joker
    N7Joker

    16

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #44  Edited By N7Joker

    You're a ME nut like me so you will enjoy it. You may find it's not quite worth the price but you will have fun none the less.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.