Mass Effect 2 DLC Roundup
Spoiler-free views on The Price of Revenge and the other one.
Everyone is safe! If you've played Mass Effect 2 for more than a quarter of an hour (behaviour we recommend), nothing you read below will spoil anything. If you still haven't started playing, you might want to get that out of the way before you read page two, but you're quite safe until then.
If you bought Mass Effect 2 new, then you already have free access to The Cerberus Network - the vessel through which downloadable content for BioWare's latest universe-spanning RPG will apparently be conveyed.
Anyone who buys the game second-hand, however, is unlikely to find the redeemable code needed to unlock the Cerberus Network still inside (unless the original owner was a prize idiot, obviously), and will need to hand over 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20!) for the privilege, or the equivalent in BioWare Points.
You could be outraged by the price of the content, but that would rather miss the point. This isn't another example of a publisher hopelessly out of touch with the public perception of DLC value. In fact it's quite the opposite.
Yes, The Cerberus Network is meant to be off-puttingly expensive. The tenner it costs is probably more than the difference in price between new and second-hand copies of Mass Effect 2, and - EA and BioWare hope - punters who realise this will choose to buy a new copy of the game as a result.
That's the theory anyway, and it's a good theory - good enough that it would be slightly irrelevant to review the first two chunks of downloadable content that came out last week and whack scores on the end.
Furthermore, it's not entirely clear whether future downloadable content (including the Hammerhead hover tank) will be sold separately or provided free as another Cerberus Network bonus, so until that's cleared up it would be even sillier to review the content in the context of its misleading 1200 MSP price-tag.
With all that said, however, there's nothing to stop us telling you whether it's worth your time and valuable hard disk space to download the first two bundles of downloadable content for Mass Effect 2, so let's get on with it.
Zaeed - The Price of Revenge

Despite the implication, Zaeed is sadly not a romantic target.
Perhaps having learned the lessons of Bring Down The Sky - the first of two chunks of downloadable content for the original Mass Effect - once installed both The Price of Revenge and its fellow day-one DLC add-on for the sequel can be accessed at pretty much any point in the story after the initial scene-setting.
Should you reach the endgame and wish to continue rumbling around the universe, you can even see to them then, although it's better to deal with them sooner.
By far the more substantial of the two launch DLC packs, The Price of Revenge introduces a new companion with his own special ability, a new heavy weapon, a heavy weapon ammo boost and even some paladium and credits. Oh, and 15 more gamerpoints for Xbox 360 owners. Not that we care about that or anything.
With the pack downloaded, your outrageously flirtatious PA alerts you to a new message at your private terminal. It's another one of the Illusive Man's charmingly sinister emails, explaining that he has negotiated for a fearless human bounty hunter to join your party, and that you can recruit him by visiting Omega.
There you find Zaeed Massani, and discuss his terms while he busies himself subduing a batarian bounty. Unlike the other recruitment missions, which are quite elaborate (consider the length of Thane's intro, for example), this is straightforward stuff. To paraphrase: "Would you like to join my crew?" "Yes." "Do you promise to be more interesting than Jacob?" "Yes. Also, despite my facial scarring, I will attempt to look less like I have a dislocated jaw."
Without ruining anything for you, it does at least turn out that President Bartlett's deal with Zaeed involved more than monetary compensation: you've also been roped into helping him solve a bit of unfinished business with one of the game's big mercenary organisations, the Blue Suns.
Along the way toward resolving this and gaining his loyalty you learn a bit about why Zaeed looks so weird, and discover that he really isn't a hooker with a heart of gold, he's a cold-blooded killer who will kill anyone who gets between him and his prize.
Of course, there are a few moments in the main game (particularly in these circumstances of trying to gain the loyalty of your crewmates) that BioWare pushes the Mass Effect dichotomy of Paragons and Renegades further than at any point in any of its other RPGs, and implies greater ramifications - something it has the luxury of doing with a third game still to come.
But Zaeed still represents something different: whether you choose to accept his behaviour or question his methods, it feels like a test of your moral leadership as well as a risk to his loyalty. And when you finally resolve his problem, for better or worse, his code of honour is laid bare for scrutiny.
Combat in The Price of Revenge, meanwhile, is much as you will have come to expect, although it does benefit from a couple of interesting layouts and environmental hazards that you won't see elsewhere in the game.
The real bonus though is Zaeed's recruitment itself, conferring as it does another powerful ally, who apart from fairly standard disruptor ammo and concussive shot abilities also has his own tactical advantages. And, perhaps more importantly, along the way you pick up a fancy flamethrower, which has surprising range and impressive stopping power.

I originally thought Zaeed's face was an LOD error, but it turns out he's had a troubled past.
Once he's on the crew, you can also visit Zaeed down on the maintenance level, where his quarters are piled up with the spoils of battle, and he's happy to ramble through the odd war story. BioWare may be running out of space on the ship for new crew members, but Zaeed arguably deserves his bunk, and represents a worthy download.
Normandy Crash Site
It's a bit of a shame that anyone who gleefully unwrapped their copy of Mass Effect 2, redeemed the Cerberus Network code and set about downloading the free add-ons before they began the game had to read the three words above in the process, as it does rather spoil the opening.
Oh well, hopefully you were spared that fate. Either way, once installed you receive an email from the Alliance encouraging you to visit the last resting place of the Normandy SR1 and find out what happened to the people who perished in the crash, and perhaps honour them while you're there.
It's a sombre occasion, despite my original hope that Navigator Pressly would have survived, tattooed leopard spots over 90 per cent of his body and gone feral, feeding off the scraps left behind and establishing a colony of elite wild men who you would have to bravely and compassionately loose the mortal coil with your particle beam and repeated use of Heavy Slam.
Unfortunately they haven't even turned into husks. All that remains is the broken, bony remains of the shattered Normandy and a lot of memories.
The ship has been split into pieces, half-buried in the snow, and visiting each one triggers a particular memory - the sight of Pressly grimly considering some calculations, for instance - and perhaps reveals a half-working data-pad, still home to touching snippets of entries reflecting on the shifting multicultural views of the former crew who, as mentioned, are sadly not around to go all Lord of the Flies.
In fact, there's no combat at all - just a bit of wandering around, placing a memorial, and then collecting 20 dogtags. In a sense, then, it's a dull fetch-quest with a few haunting images. But another way to look at it is this: what better way to salute the memory of the original Mass Effect, than by roaming around a lifeless plateau searching for a large number of meaningless items?
Turian Insignia. Never forget.
Plus, you can finally say a loving goodbye to the Mako, and that's surely enough to merit a few bytes of your disk.
Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network comes free with the game and is also sold separately for people who bought ME2 second hand.
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Comments (62) Latest comment 2 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Too bad he won't be around for MY third game :/ Because due to poor choices I managed to get him killed, which is NOT a spoiler since Bioware said anyone can die. Jeez.
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Some people just can't help themselves, can they?
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Hopefully his mission will be interesting, because the Normandy crash site was a total waste of 30 minutes of my life.
Nice idea, EA, but my advice to anyone worried about losing this additional content would be: don't.
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The Nomandy Crash Site mission was a bit dull in comparison since you just collected 20 dog tags and the blurry, low-res images that were meant to be memories looked a bit poor. Still it was free and the scenery was pretty-ish.
As for the Mako, I don't see why BioWare couldn't keep it in the game and offer players two types of missions when discovering missions from scanning planets. We could have had the odd exploratory one in the Mako with most being shuttle ones. The only thing wrong with the Mako in the last game wasn't the Mako itself anyway, it was the fact that the planets themselves were so blatantly cut-and-paste with repetitive base layouts that all looked the same. ME2 has certainly fixed the lack of variety but it could have also been applied to the Mako missions too.
ME2's DLC on the basis of the Zaeed mission looks very promising and if BioWare can keep them coming in the form of decent sized quests then I'll certainly buy them.
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Zaeed reminds me of a cross between Sean Pertwee & the blonde motorcycle cop from Mad Max. He's come in quite handy so far.
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There are a few candidates for game of the year coming in 2010 off the top of my head (GoW3, Starcraft 2), but they are going to have to be pretty damn special to topple Mass Effect 2 - finally they have toppled their own sublime KotOR.
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Not a deal breaker at all, but it was a bitt "oh okay, so that's what's going to happen when I start to play...damn".
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As for Baranga's point up there, technically it's not a spoiler, it's just his poor character choice in the endgame. It's quite possible for him to be alive and kicking after the main game (in fact I assume you can wait until the main plot is over before even looking for him).
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cos i'm waiting for the classic re-release if you do.
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For anyone out there who wants to plan ahead - and this is essentially common sense anyway - make sure you have ALL upgrades you possibly can before the loyalty mission for your last ally, and don't hang about or pursue any side missions after you complete that loyalty mission or you start losing people (offscreen) even BEFORE you hit the Omega 4 relay.
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Heh. Yeah. I want a mod that swaps Miranda's and Kelly's models around.
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Mild Kelly spoilers; after you finish the game...
<a href="http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=1Ja3EjKOqTU">Jumpt to 1:20
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Press A to piss on the burned out husk of the Mako
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It's the same logic behind the popularity of 12-month XBox Live subscriptions vs 1 month ones. Better value for money means more people spend money, meaning your profits go up.
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As for me, I thought Zaeed was a prick and gleefully told him to shove it at every decision-making event during his mission.
As for the Memorial, I put mine by the star map, where pressley died. I would have rather taken my rocket launcher and blown the mako up for good measure.
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So that Zaeed DLC is well worth it for the flamethrower and got some fun comments from him, but pity re not getting real conversation with him as DLC.
SO that would mean any future NPC via DLC would be just as limited? Kasumi NPC rumour? But I m sure I heard that name somewhere before and likely a character from other game/film/book?
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Better than planet scanning.
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[link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=84qk-XfS5OA
]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=84qk-XfS5OA
[/link]
Lookee lookee 2:08.
Looks pretty damn certain from this. Also Christina Norman closed down a thread on the ME forums effectively saying "discussing this character is a spoiler whether this turns out to be true or not". In my book that looks pretty true, as you can't exactly call idle speculation a spoiler
Re Kelly Chambers, make damn sure you keep advancing to the next mission immediately AS SOON as you've completed the last loyalty mission. This would definitely be in your best interests.
Just ask myself and anyone else who took the opportunity to polish off a few side quests before the endgame...
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I presume that the introduction of the Hammerhead will ensure a whole bunch of new side missions combining the best of the Mako missions and the tailored, rich N7 missions from ME2.
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Hey! I liked the Mako, better than bloody planet scanning, shit's giving me rsi lol
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Since you apparently listen to fan feedback, a quick suggestion . . .
Next DLC? Two words: Mako Racing. Just let that slosh about in your cranium for a bit, and you're welcome.
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Looks like they still haven't sorted out all the graphics issues as there is still some texture popin (though nowhere near as extreme), but graphics overall are improved (texture resolution on character models remains an issue too). Not sure about planet scanning, and I agree that the RPG elements have been more stripped down making it lean more towards a 3rd person shooter than a true RPG, but so far I am loving it. Not missing the Mako - one of the things I hated about the first game - but, oddly, I actually DO miss the elevator rides and it's nice to see how all my decisions in the first game have had effects on the second (even the minor ones - Ambassador, council, wrex, etc).
Personally, I think they are well within their rights to charge for the Cerberus network for second hand players - from a dev point of view, second hand sales are no better than piracy in that people are playing their game and they are getting no compensation for it, so I am all in favour of any measure they come up with to try and chip away at the largely self-regulated second-hand industry that is often used just to rip off the consumer for the retailer's gain. And as long as DLC is up to the standard of what I have experienced so far, I have no problem paying for it.
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Mako Mountain Climbing Team forever.
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Preferred Mako over scanning but hated the mountain climbings and time expedited for next to nothing at end of each trip!!
Calling all ME fans, the graphic novel of ME is out today and FREE only for today on 3rd Feb on iPhone/iTouch Store. Search Dark Horse Comics.
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Without any spoilers I have to ask what you're talking about. I did all the loyalty missions, then mopped up any stray side quests and didn't loose anyone at any point. The end game can easily be done with a full crew without loosing anyone too. I'm not going to tell you how but, you really need to do every mission you can and stick with the resource mining.
The omega 4 relay mission can be delayed indefinitely so don't listen to Moribundman's strange misleading comment.
Edit: My character was a paragon so maybe if you are renegade some crap happens (did in the first one as in crew members killing each other). I'm assuming some muppets hit the renegade option when crew members were fighting or some such nonsense[/spolier]
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Doh! And I missed the flamethrower - where was that?
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I don't remember seeing it mentioned in the blurb for the bog standard copies, just the CE (which I luckily got).
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You CAN delay the actual breginning of the Omega 4 mission, but once your crew is abducted by the Collectors the longer you delay the mission the more of them die.
If you immediately attack the Collector base after your crew is abducted, when you get to their "human melrting" pods you watch a random colonist get melted down. However, if you piss about for a bit between the crew abductions and the attack, you'll watch Yeoman Kelly get melted down.
When you spring the crew from the pods, Dr. Chakwas comments about they had to watch the colonists get melted and she doesn't want to think what would have happened next. If you delay, she berates you bitterly for her having been forced to watch some/most/all of your crew melter before her eyes . . . and then she starts naming them.
I suppose its possible if you delayed long enough, they would all be dead. Never tried. But if you feel for your imaginary crew once they've been abducted you gotta go right after them or some of them aren't coming back, and then you'd miss out on Yeoman Kelly dressed like an Asari stripper shaking her moneymaker in your cabin. And that would be a shame.
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Hmmm... because watching a target spin around a globe is far more exciting!!! No offense Tom, but you're an idiot! Believe it or not the driving was far more interesting and not as mind-numbingly boring as the new planet spinning radar mini-game.
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I still love the game but really now, is this any kind of way to behave?
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Also, I love this game, they created a great galaxy of colourful characters.