Seeing as Mass Effect 3 is (as defined by BioWare) the end of the ME story in its current format, and given that the entire length of the quest itself is about tying up loose-ends and building up a galactic force for an end-game against the Reapers, any piece of DLC concerning the single-player campaign will be judged (at least partly) on how it affects the game’s controversial ending.

So in that respect, Leviathan is an odd beast. While the plot of the mission itself is definitely interesting, the gameplay is fairly standard ME fare. The DLC lasts around three hours and does not seem to significantly alter the conclusion of the game, despite the seemingly huge discoveries you will make over the course of playing it.

Without wishing to spoil things too badly, the mission, in a broad sense, runs thusly; Shepard receives a message instructing him to visit an expert in alien lore and legends named Bryson, who proceeds to discuss with the Commander what he knows about a race of beings which apparently created the Reapers. If you have played the Extended Cut DLC endings to ME3, this will not be an entirely new concept to you.

This leads to you visiting an isolated space research station in order to find one of Bryson’s assistants and, wouldn’t you know it, everyone on the station is acting kinda funny. Maybe it has something to do with all those strange, mysterious orbs of rainbow-coloured metal they have been digging up and spending so much time around. Hmm. So far, so ‘Arrival’! I am being facetious, but BioWare legitimately does a good job at this point of building up an atmosphere of creepiness as the scientists intently watch you and your team wander around their facility, muttering in foreboding tones that you “shouldn’t be there”. As an aside, this atmosphere is helped no-end by the subtle musical touches that Leviathan delivers.

By now you are probably wondering whether Leviathan is it worth the price tag? Well, yes and no. The dialogue and voice-acting are almost impossible to fault, as usual. This has always been the strength of the ME series. The music, as mentioned above, is excellent in this reviewer’s humble opinion.

The quest also takes a slightly different format to most other missions in ME3 in that it involves investigating the whereabouts of the various people/things you need to find using clues from Bryson’s lab on the Citadel. While it is an interesting twist, ME3 simply is not built for this type of gameplay, so outside the always-excellent dialogue, all you are really doing is walking around Bryson’s relatively small lab and apartment, looking for things that are highlighted with a button prompt. The ensuing dialogue is always interesting, but in terms of gameplay, it is just not all that hot. Likewise, the rest of the mission retreads familiar territory. You will fly to some systems you have never visited before, but you can only do anything significant on the planets that pertain directly to the DLC’s plot. There is a funky part where Shepard gets inside a deep-sea diving robot, but that is basically just like piloting an Atlas mech. If you are going to get Leviathan, you will be getting it for the plot and dialogue, not the gameplay.

As I touched on at the beginning, while this DLC does add a hugely significant and interesting angle to the lore of ME, such a major addition to the overall story arc definitely merits more time and elaboration than it gets in this download. Leviathan does not alter the game’s ending, only tangibly rewarding you with those slightly soulless ‘war assets’ that ME3 is based around. Which, given how huge a discovery the Leviathan is, is kind of mystifying.

If I had to place this on the ladder of ME series DLCs, I would put it above Arrival, but below the insanely cool Lair of the Shadow Broker. If you are a ME devotee like me, you will probably get this DLC regardless because, let’s face it, it is more single-player goodness. From a neutral perspective though, it is hard to recommend it wholeheartedly at the price of 800 MS points.

 

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