Mass Effect 3 Omega DLC Review

With the recent release of the Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3 ,Shepard returns once again to save the galaxy, at least a small part of it. The game keeps the same excitement and charm that the rest of the series has become known for while adding a few small elements that keep it relatively fresh to play through. Of course this review won't be able to call for anything too substantial due to the somewhat poor length of the content, although it is still the heftiest piece released for the game so far in terms of the campaign


Gameplay - 9/10

The game play remains largely unchanged from the rest of the game but due to some additions of new enemy types there may have to be some combat tweaks players not completely upgraded and able to blast through every known enemy in less than a clip will have to make. One of these is an old friend from the Omega comic series released side by side with the game, The Adjutants. There is one other enemy type that I believe is completely new to the universe and just mentioning their name would somewhat ruin the surprise so I will leave it at that. Unfortunately that is all that they have added 2 new enemy types, not a substantial amount but the two will provide a decent challenge to any player.

One thing that has been done well with the layouts of the map is most of them are no longer just one flat ground with crates and debris everywhere. There will be multilevelled battles and some where you need to constantly move around and jump gaps. Overall they added a lot more traversing to the game while you're moving around the area, instead of just running in a straight line and up some stairs you will need to climb a lot of ladders and jump a lot of gaps even with a small bit of puzzle solving thrown in if you wish to collect all of the weapon upgrades and finish all of the hub side missions.

One of the heavy selling points of the DLC was being able to play along with some new squad members, including the infamous Aria T'Loak. Barely noticeable, typical Asari Biotic. If no one had told me I could have easily assumed it was just Liara in a different costume with some new skills. I'm not saying it was a bad choice it just wasn't stand out to me, but I wasn't expecting much to begin with. Just to set the record, Aria is not the only party member available in the DLC and Aria is the only one I would describe as bland.

Overall the gameplay is very pleasing and they have even added a fair number of moral choices, something which the Leviathan DLC lacked heavily.

Presentation & Sound - 7/10
I cannot think of a whole lot to say about the sound of the DLC, the soundtrack stays on the same overall theme of the rest of the game and whether or not Jasper Kyd worked on the DLC music, it fits in well with the rest of his soundtrack. The new enemy noises are fantastic however those who have seen the Adjutants from the comics will be quite pleased with their sounds, it is truly creepy and at least on par with the Banshees screams.

The character voicing is fantastic as always, I don't think anyone would expect anything else, especially seeing as we're on Omega, you're going to be running to a lot less Humans and a lot more Batarians and Vorcha.

Presentation is where the DLC had slightly let me down, while everything looked fantastic, the environments were stunning as per usual, they experimented with some lighting in a few sections and it definitely played off. Although! In 3 separate cut scenes I noticed character models suddenly turning on the spot as they were not facing the right way, it is not game breaking or all that annoying, if you blinked you would miss it, but it just wasn't expected when the rest of the game, at least in my experience, was completely bug free.


Overall Conclusion

Overall, I'd say this DLC was well worth the purchase, it is a fantastic, action packed and fun addition to the rest of the game and fits in well as far as I'm concerned. Any fan of the game would be happy with the DLC as far as I'm concerned.

Just to tack this on to the end as it had been asked in the official game thread. There is no extra hubs, squad members or armour pieces after you are done. Although you don't come away empty handed. You are able to unlocked several weapon mods, 4 new skills for Shepard and a new decoration for the Captains Cabin.

This game deserves a 8/10