Rock, Paper, Shotgun

DL Sea: Mass Effect’s ‘Leviathan’ Mission Dives Deep

By Nathan Grayson on August 25th, 2012 at 3:00 pm.

Oh gosh, that looks cold. Maybe we could wait a bit before diving in? Or how about we wade in a little first - you know, to get used to it.

Really, if you think about it, the ocean is basically space, but more blue. I mean, both are sorely lacking in breathable air, give us the ability to defy basic physics while shouting “wheeeeee,” and are absolutely, positively, I-really-really-hope teeming with life. (What if fish aren’t real?! Wouldn’t that be a total bummer?) Also, Mass Effect 3‘s now claiming that both have Reapers, and I suppose it would know. So now the hunt for Leviathan is on, and you can watch a trailer of some strange bald man wearing Commander Shepard’s clothes take the fight to the ocean’s briniest depths in a trailer beneath the break’s, er, briniest depths.

The DLC takes place before Mass Effect 3′s oh-so-controversial ending and – if you play through it and then make a mad dash for the credits yet again – apparently even adds to it. Here’s BioWare’s official line:

“Mass Effect 3: Leviathan expands upon the events of Mass Effect 3, with gripping and emotional storytelling, compelling new characters, and powerful weapons and upgrades. Discover more about the origins of the Reapers as you race across the galaxy to find the Leviathan. Travel to new systems, wield the AT-12 Raider Shotgun and M-55 Argus Assault Rifle, and unravel the dark history of the Reaper Race before it is too late.”

It sounds interesting enough. And while I’m incredibly impressed with the amount of multiplayer support BioWare’s been throwing Mass Effect’s way, single-player’s still the main attraction. Plus, I actually really dig the idea of episodic Mass Effect content. I mean, Mass Effect 2 – which actually had my favorite story structure of the entire series – was basically a series of character-driven episodes. Given BioWare’s general style and focus on gradual character development, I thought it made for far more compelling, relatable characters and believable plots than the tried-and-tired “urgent quest to prevent the apocalypse” shtick.

But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m all alone in the universe.

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56 Comments »

  2. 25/08/2012 at 15:04 Stevostin says:

    Can I buy it on steam ?
    Sorry, it’s just the mandatory “I bought ME 1 & 2 at Steam sales, now what ?” comment. Please proceed ;-)

  3. 25/08/2012 at 15:15 Revolving Ocelot says:

    Has there been any word on how much this DLC will cost? (Hopefully nothing at all like the multiplayer DLC, although I highly doubt this’ll be the case)

  4. 25/08/2012 at 15:16 McDan says:

    As with all things mass effect I’ll get it, and I’m thinking there’s no point in playing the finale again with any of my ME3 characters now, may as well wait until all the DLC comes out. Maybe spoilers Though after finishing taking back earth it does just reset you to before doing the mission anyway.

  5. 25/08/2012 at 15:18 JoeGuy says:

    **Hypothetical Spoilers**

    I’m going to call it, the Leviathan is either the name of the Reapers creator or a Reaper who retained certain consciousness from the species it was created from and that’s why it went rogue. Either way, we’ll get info from the Leviathan and that bloody space child AI about the Leviathan and the Reapers origins and creation process.

    Or I could be guessing quite poorly and it’s a good Reaper who agrees to join the fight, but that doesn’t sound interesting at all :(

    • 25/08/2012 at 21:02 Rhalle says:

      Leviathan will be the consciousness (that somehow partly survived reaperization) of the species that created Starbrat. There will be a trip to the planet Klencory and a meeting with a Volus named Kuman Shol. Something representing that first species (probably other than Leviathan himself) will give us a big exposition about how they created Starbrat to solve the problem of synthetics vs. organics and how Starbrat came up with the solution of reaperizing them against their will. Once the big baddie is defeated (whoever that is– oh boy more Cerberus, maybe) Leviathan will join your War Assets in the form of a two-second cameo among the other ships during the ending. Ta da.

      That’s my guess, anyway.

    • 26/08/2012 at 10:12 MichaelPalin says:

      Summarizing, we have to pay even more to get an explanation of the ending.

  6. 25/08/2012 at 15:30 TsunamiWombat says:

    Why even bother playing after that ending? Why. Even. Bother?

    I’ve bought every bioware DLC religiously for the past five years if not more. I have DA:O ultimate edition uninstalled on steam – AND a hard copy of original I bought on release. I’ve got all the ME and ME2 DLC. I bought the ultimate 79.99 preorder of ME3.

    But there’s NO POINT. THAT. ENDING!

    • 25/08/2012 at 16:04 povu says:

      Are you living in an alternate universe where the DLC that changed the ending from bad to okay didn’t arrive?

      • 25/08/2012 at 16:34 Askeladd says:

        Some may argue that a once broken thing can never be repaired to perfection, it wouldn’t be the same.
        I cannot forget. Can you?

      • 25/08/2012 at 16:38 Big Murray says:

        Some (and when I say some, I mean me) would say that the ending was much more poignoit and cinematically touching before they bastardised it to include narrative handholding scenes to appease people who couldn’t understand it the first time.

        Just sayin’.

        • 25/08/2012 at 19:03 Renfield says:

          Amen.

        • 25/08/2012 at 19:08 zerosociety says:

          You have come to this place to speak wisdom.

        • 25/08/2012 at 20:43 Iliya Moroumetz says:

          Hate to break it to you, but there’s a line between poignant and M. Knight Shamaylan level absurd.

          On an objective level, the original endings had no right to exist because they went against EVERYTHING that the entire game series showed by forcing a Deus Ex Machina upon you at the last minute.

        • 25/08/2012 at 20:57 Cam says:

          There’s nothing special in the original or extended ending to “understand.” The developers lied, that’s it. Employees publicly claimed that the game would have over a dozen different endings, all resulted from your accumulated choices throughout the series. Of course, they went back on this, and replaced it with a cookie-cutter ending that looked like it was made in a rush. There was no poetic hidden meaning, just a company going back on it’s word and churning out something quick and easy.

          And please, nobody mention something irrelevant like “artistic integrity”. They’re not some hipster with their art in a coffee shop; they’re a company who made claims about a PRODUCT they were selling, and those claims were false. Gamers have just as much reason to be mad as if someone sold them a car that didn’t meet the manufacturer’s stated specifications.

          • 26/08/2012 at 09:29 Jerakal says:

            Beep beep, here comes the “2 deep 4 u” squad. Biodrones! Assemble!

        • 26/08/2012 at 10:24 Jimbo says:

          “Some (and when I say some, I mean me) would say that the ending was much more poignoit and cinematically touching before they bastardised it to include narrative handholding scenes to appease people who couldn’t understand it the first time.”

          I refuse to believe you wrote that with a straight face.

          • 26/08/2012 at 12:20 Big Murray says:

            Ending music ruined by extending the sadness to some kind of triumphant fanfare type deal? Check. The pacing of the mad dash to the beam completely wrecked by a nonsensical sequence where the Normandy lands and you get to have a nice leisurely chat in the middle of a warzone with your love interest? Check. Waking up on the Citadel with deep threatening music completely replaced for no reason by Shepherd getting thrown out of the beam with generic background music? Check.

            The only people happier with the extended cut are the ones who value the narrative cohesion it brings, and nothing else. Cinematically the ending is now a complete and utter mess. So yes, I wrote it with a straight face, because it’s bloody true. And nobody seems to care because they got their happy ending at last.

      • 25/08/2012 at 16:41 TsunamiWombat says:

        The ending “DLC” didn’t change anything that was wrong about the ending, simply shored up irrelevant matters. The narrative flaws remain.

        • 25/08/2012 at 16:47 marbled says:

          If anything, the revised ending made things much worse for me – I liked the extra information about WTF the Starchild was on about, but I’d chosen the Control ending (couldn’t bring myself to wipe out EDI and the Geth, and Symbiosis just seemed like a nicer way of Harvesting everyone). In the original version you just saw them all leave, which I was okay with, but in the expanded version Sheppard has apparently become a sort of dictator using them to rebuild the galaxy, which I find really quite terrifying given the destructive power of the Reapers.

    • 25/08/2012 at 16:59 Iliya Moroumetz says:

      Pretty much.

      It’s not gonna get rid of the starbrat, so, whateva, Bioware. Whateva.

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  7. 25/08/2012 at 15:57 Coccyx says:

    ‘DL sea’ wins best RPS article title pun of the year. Where were you at the REZZED quiz, Nathan? That one would have made a real splash.

  8. 25/08/2012 at 16:16 Bobtree says:

    RPS news on Saturday?

  9. 25/08/2012 at 16:41 Discopanda says:

    Fish? Not real? You just blew my MIND, Nathan.

  10. 25/08/2012 at 16:50 bodydomelight says:

    You’re not alone. I thought playing Mass Effect 2 was like playing a part in a well-written sci-fi series that focused on a different character for two episodes at a time – one to recruit them, one to make them loyal. Awesome arc-style pacing.

  11. 25/08/2012 at 17:34 Sayori says:

    Just NO!
    Enough of this crap, BiowarEA!

  12. 25/08/2012 at 18:07 atticus says:

    Well I got ME3 pretty late, so I’ve managed to put the ending on hold for now… Waiting for all of the DLC to be released. Hopefully this will be the last one before the final DLC, which is the grand “Retake Omega”-mission.

    Because there will be a “Retake Omega”-mission, right? Of course.

  13. 25/08/2012 at 18:20 Wooly says:

    Looks great! Still, I can’t shake the sinking feeling it’s giving me…

  14. 25/08/2012 at 18:35 Iskariot says:

    How does this work?
    My Sheperd already saved the universe.
    All is done. And he does not remember anything about this. It never happened.
    -
    Will he now, after paying 800 MS/BioWare points, acquire the ability to travel back in time or to a parallel Mass Effect universe to suddenly experience a disconnected fragment of his own past?
    -
    I really hate how DLC like this fragment my gaming experience.

    • 25/08/2012 at 19:10 zerosociety says:

      This x1000. DLC should be stuff that happens next, not “hey now you can go back and experience blah out of order blah who cares blah”. And if nothing happens next? Then find a different way to structure the DLC.

    • 25/08/2012 at 21:05 Vinraith says:

      Somebody didn’t pay attention at the end of the game. “Tell me another story about Shepard” was a very deliberate, very overt setup for this.

    • 26/08/2012 at 04:58 The Random One says:

      Save points, man. How do they work?

  15. 25/08/2012 at 19:11 zerosociety says:

    I think New Vegas did DLC the best. If you beat the game first? The DLC still makes sense. Finish the DLC before beating it? That works, too.

  16. 25/08/2012 at 21:06 Vinraith says:

    I’m pleased to finally see some single player DLC coming down the pike for ME3.

    • 26/08/2012 at 00:01 jaheira says:

      I’ve always wondered what the origins of “coming down the pike” were, and your comment made me finally bother to find out. Turns out “pike” is short for turnpike or road. OK.
      I am also glad we have some single player ME3 DLC, because ME3 is easily the best game released this year so far. I’m annoyed that Bioware wasted time changing a perfectly good ending when they could have been making more DLC, but whatever, looks like they’re back on track.

  17. 25/08/2012 at 21:36 PsychoWedge says:

    I don’t really know why but this trailer does not excite me in any way at all. And that is a trend I noticed with Biowares trailers for quite some time now (basically all ME3 and SWToR-Trailers). I remember watching the ME2 trailer back in whatever 20 times in a loop. I couldn’t even watch these 90 seconds without starting Freecell… :D

    Whaddafug happened to Bios trailer division? Or is it something with me I wonder…

  18. 26/08/2012 at 01:36 Hulk Handsome says:

    (What if fish aren’t real?! Wouldn’t that be a total bummer?)

    According to a man who studied fish all his life, fish don’t actually exist:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNEN4rUOTA

  19. 26/08/2012 at 04:59 The Random One says:

    If you buy all DLC and then finish the game, you discover Shepard was knocked out in the first planet you visit back in the first game and everything since is a dream.

  21. 26/08/2012 at 21:24 Megakoresh says:

    I have a dilemma:
    I want to play this DLC, but I don’t to play that awful single player again and get all depressed at how much failure it all is. I am not exactly sure I should be giving my money to those who spat in my and every fan’s face so much. Not even counting EA, all they deserve is to get cyanide of potassium for breakfast.

  23. 27/08/2012 at 06:10 nFec says:

    I have just no interest in returning to this story at all. Knowing the ending makes everything before pointless. Can’t un-play it though. Also won’t let them milk me more.

  25. 28/08/2012 at 16:51 damnseg says:

    It is simple.
    EA = don’t buy it.

    I learn my lessons.

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