So because I am a terrible person I am considering going back and playing through mass effects 1-3 for what will be like my 6th time though total. But I have never bought any of the DLC because by the time any of it had come out I had already played though the game it relates to like 4 times. So with that in mind to get all the DLC its like $70 are there any of them that just straight out are not worth getting?

to be honest, the DLC of ME2 felt a lot like episodic content. Like your paying 7 to 10 dollars for one good story that lasts maybe 2 hours and then you end up getting a cool character who can join the party.

None of the weapon dlcs for 2 are worth it, and the Mass Effect 1 DLC that isn't Bring Down the Sky is garbage. The ones that have story are Bring Down the Sky for 1, Kasumi, Overlord, Shadow Broker and Arrival for 2, and From Ashes, Omega, Leviathan and Citadel for 3.

There's a nice list here of all the DLC and what each one includes: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Downloadable_Content

Only DLC worth getting to me is Shadow Broker, Overlord, and Citadel. Leviathan is debatable but not necessary and just depends on your level of enthusiasm for wanting to know where the reapers come from.

If you don't want to pay for all of them and only want to cherry pick the best ones from the bunch, I'd say that Shadow Broker and Citadel are the best DLCs from ME2 and ME3 respectively. Kasumi and From Ashes are also pretty good if you have the cash to spare. The rest are simply nice bonuses in my opinion.

As someone that has also played through every Mass Effect game countless times (but has also bought all the DLC), here are my recommendations as well as how long you can expect to get out of each.

Highly Recommend (In Order):

• Citadel (ME3) -The best piece of fan service you could ever want. Tons of awesome character moments with every living party member, a funny series of story missions that feature some fairly interesting changes to the standard format, and a surprisingly good combat simulator with a decent variety of maps and squad mates from past games available as party members. 5-8 hours

• Lair of The Shadow Broker (ME2)- Fantastic mission with great action, interesting new locations, and excellent character stuff with Liara. ~2 hours

• Overlord (ME2)- A very good side mission type piece of content, and while it's not very significant to the greater fiction it's got some good atmosphere and a compelling plot. ~90 minutes

• Bring Down The Sky (ME1)- Another side mission type DLC, but unique to most in that it features more of what made ME1 unique compared to the rest of the series with exploration and vehicle sequences. Serves as the only appearance of Batarians in ME1 and actually ties into some of the Batarian stuff in ME3 in an interesting way. ~2 hours

• Stolen Memory (ME2)- A cool mission that features as much talking and investigation as it does combat, which is a bit of a change of pace compared to what most ME2 missions consist of. Though the mission isn't the best of all the DLC, Kasumi is a great character, probably my favorite human character in the entire series, though unfortunately she's criminally underused in both ME2 and ME3 due to her DLC status. ~1 hour plus a character

• Leviathan (ME3)- As part of a complete series playthrough Leviathan is all but essential to have because it gives much greater context to the Reaper's origins, which, even as someone that feels the Reaper stuff is the weakest aspect of Mass Effect fiction I still found quite interesting. As far as the missions themselves, there's some good stuff here with hit and miss attempts to bring some new elements to Mass Effect 3 design. I consider the missions to be about middle of the road in terms of ME3 mission quality, but the story revelations alone more than make it worth playing. 2-3 hours

Somewhat Recommend:

• Arrival (ME2)- Arrival was originally pitched a bridge between ME2 and ME3, and that is exactly what it does. The story directly sets up the beginning of ME3, explaining how the Reapers are arriving and why Shepard is in custody. While the story of Arrival is a great lead in from ME2 to ME3 (especially if you play them back-to-back), the actually mission is pretty lackluster. Shepard is solo for the majority of it, which isn't what Mass Effect does best, and there are some poorly implemented stealth sequences. It's not terrible, but not particularly great either. ~90 minutes

• Omega (ME3)- Omega is probably the second best value of all the DLC (behind Citadel), but it's just a shame there isn't much to really make it stand out. The majority of the DLC consists of very standard-ass Mass Effect 3 levels with pretty much nothing to set it apart from the main game, Carrie-Anne Moss absolutely phones in her performance as Aria, and once again your squad mates are left to twiddle their thumbs on board the Normandy. Still, you get a little more insight into Aria's past, the new character introduced in this DLC is absolutely great, and even the villain is pretty interesting. Still, there isn't a ton of character stuff and the combat encounters don't really present anything different than you can get in the main game. 3-4 hours

Do Not Recommend:

• Weapon packs and character skins (all games)- Completely useless.
• Pinnacle Station (ME1)- Nothing but a combat simulator (with ME1 combat no less). No story, hardly any dialogue, not as good the combat simulator in Citadel DLC (and that was just a bonus to go along with an already great piece of content). Do Not Buy.

Thanks for the advice, fun fact mass effect 1 has to be run in compatibility mode already, and at least on the PC people are still playing mass effect 3's multiplayer.

@ll_exile_ll: How is the story in bring down the sky? I wasn't really a fan of the vehicle stuff in ME1 so it's put me off getting it but ME1 is also the only Mass Effect game I don't have all the achievements in so I kinda want to get it.

It's pretty good. It doesn't feature an overabundance of dialogue and cutscenes, but as Mass Effect's version of the movie Armageddon featuring Batarian terrorists it's enjoyable.

Don't expect much from it. It's another one of those side missions where you drive around to several Ikea buildings while taking out turrets and enemies. Shouldn't it be free? I got mine for free on PC if I recall.

I think it came with all the PC versions originally but I could be wrong if memory serves the PC version of ME1 came out way after the fact

@ll_exile_ll: Good list, but you neglected to include From Ashes. Personally, I'd put it in the "Highly Recommended" category as it does feature a character who I believe enhances ME3's story significantly.

Get the character skin for Jack in ME2 so she can wear something other than her prison outfit. Absolutely worthwhile.

This game series really needs an HD collection with all the dlc included for PS4 and X1, make it happen EA! Im itching to play the games again but rumours of that new collection showing up are stopping me..

I bought everything that wasn't Pinnacle Station (It just sounded boring, and Bioware didn't actually make it if I remember right) over the years, I think all of it is fairly worthwhile. And while some people seem to think the weapons aren't worth anything, which is fair I suppose, I found they added quite a bit to replays. It helped the combat from feeling too "I've done this a lot before".

My bad, it always slips my mind that From Ashes was DLC because I got the Collector's Edition and it came with that. Yeah, I agree From Ashes is good, but it was pretty shitty that it was paid day one DLC.

And that is why I bought the PC versions, if anyone's interest you can get the PC versions (which all look amazing) for $30;

The only one I really enjoyed was Shadow Broker - that one was absolutely worth the price. The rest were pretty average or terrible.

Shadow Broker, Overlord and Citadel were the highlights for me, and I bought everything except the weapon and costume packs. I'd say skip all the ME1 stuff, ME2 ranges from awesome to average so I think you'll enjoy your time however many of them you buy. And as for ME3's DLC the only one I didn't like was Omega.

Fun to experience it all for the first time!

I just checked and it's about 65p on xbla, the other is around £4.

All of this Mass Effect talk is making me just want to play 2 again more than anything. But like kagato said, the only thing stopping me playing through the games again is the small chance I might be able to get them on PS4 at some point.

Both ME1 DLC's are part of the download on Origin but you have to jump through a few hoops if you want to get them on Steam. There's a small encounter in ME3 that ties up loose ends from Bring Down the Sky too.

Bring Down the sky , overloard are great but the one that you must not miss out is Lair Of the Shadow Broker.

If you buy one dlc make it from ashes, that was probably one of the only things I completely 100% enjoyed in me3

So fair warning for anyone else that is considering going back in and playing though with the DLC on the PC, you have to buy the ME2 DLC though the bioware social thing, and the ME3 DLC is buried somewhere on origin. I had to launch the game then click the DLC button to bring up an overlay of origin to get to it. This is a really dumb problem to be having in 2014.

@dudeglove: even though the ending was kinda nonsense I didnt really have a problem with the series at the time. Though having played threw ME1 recently MAN THAT GAME IS NOT FUN TO PLAY. the story and such is still really good even if the characters are a bit shallow by ME2 standards, but the shooting has not held up at all

So fair warning to anyone planing on playing through these games again with the DLC, lair of the shadow broker is broken as shit I cant get it to go past the car chase no matter what I do

None of the Mass Effect DLC ever felt worth the price tag for me, but I don't love the series as much as most other people seem to.