Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 25 March, 2008

Bring down the score.

Version tested: Xbox 360

There was justifiable excitement surrounding the arrival of BioWare's first salvo of additional content for the flawed-but-worthy Mass Effect. While it could still benefit from some serious tightening in the technical department, clearly there was enough scope and character to the galaxy that fans were itching for an excuse to dive back in.

The return of the exiled Batarian race, and a plot to crash a giant asteroid into Terra Nova, delivers just that excuse. Only available during the mid-section of the game, when you have the helm of the Normandy and can fly to the Asgard system, Commander Shepard and his crew have just four hours to prevent disaster and find out who is behind this Michael Bay-inspired terrorist attack. It's mildly annoying for those who have finished game to have to play through Eden Prime and the Citadel again to access what you've paid for, but it's hard to complain - you can see how this is the only way such add-ons can work.

We tend to measure the worth of our RPGs in terms of hours spent scouring them for every last experience point, so eyebrows were certainly raised at the fact that Bring Down The Sky lasts - at best - an hour and a half. Such brevity would be fine if it were crammed with unmissable storytelling and innovative action, but what's most disappointing is that not only does this new mini-story fail to deliver much in the way of narrative excitement during that time, but that most of the gameplay revolves around sluggish Mako tank combat, hopping and blasting the stupid amount of gun turrets surrounding the three thrusters being used to propel the asteroid. That disappointment deepens when you realise that the three outposts controlling the thrusters all use the same old base map you'll have grown sick of during the rest of the game. Of all the things I hoped would be changed for the downloadable content, the off-putting map repetition was top of the list. So, boo.

'Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky' Screenshot 1

The Batarians. They have some laughs.

Also inducing sighs and shrugs is the lack of any real narrative meat. There's minimal NPC interaction, and the motives behind the asteroid attack are vague at best. This is really just a medium-sized combat-heavy side-quest that, had it been squeezed into the main game, wouldn't have had many players rushing to check it out. Despite the compelling race-against-time concept, there's no game-clock running - probably because disaster looms in four hours in-game, but you can finish the mission in a quarter of that in real time. So instead of plot twists and role-playing, it's just blast, blast, blast, drive, drive, drive, blast, blast, blast. There are 50 Gamerpoints to be earned, but they just come at the end in one chunk, regardless of the options you choose. There's therefore no incentive to seek out the handful of smaller objectives in the mission, or investigate every corner of the map.

In fact, it's only at the end, as you confront the Batarian extremists in their HQ, that this mission really comes to life. The building is - gasp! - a new layout, and while there's a ton of combat in this section, you at least feel like you're taking part in something other than a shooting gallery. The story and action finally work in harmony, rather than as separate entities. The Batarians themselves are hardly the most riveting addition to the Mass Effect universe though - they look funny with their multiple facial features, but require no new tactics or weapons to defeat. It seems likely that their grievances against the Council will form the backbone of future DLC missions, so I'll trust that BioWare has something in mind for them beyond what we see here.

The price - 400 Microsoft Points, or GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80 - is certainly right for an experience this slender, but personally I'd rather have paid twice as much and got something with more substance. Maybe three missions that overlap, with a more balanced mix of action and intrigue? Something that at least requires visits to more than one location? Playing armchair developer is always a frustrating experience, but I had hoped that these optional missions might be used to serve up something new or at least delve into the background of the characters who got the short end of the story stick in the original game. What about Kaidan's tragic past? Or Tali's pilgrimage? Ashley's adorably sexy brand of militaristic racism? There's so much fertile narrative soil established by the main game that I'm honestly surprised, and a little saddened, that a company usually defined by great stories has opted not to explore it in Bring Down The Sky.

5 / 10

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • syphaa #1 4 years ago

    Rushed I would say.

  • anomagnus #2 4 years ago

    Harsh.

    But considering you only gave ME 8/10, its to be expected!

    I found it enjoyable enough. It was good, not great, and fitted in with the overall game. It shouldn't be judged on its own, bur rather as part of the full game.

    But i am hoping for a lot more in the next DLC.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/08 @ 12:15

  • bad09 #3 4 years ago

    I was excited about DLC for ME until I heard what was in this first one. The cheap price is good admittedly but they really should have taken more time and offered more at a higher price.

    Shame, guess I'll wait for ME2 rather than waste money on the extra content.

  • BradMillette #4 4 years ago

    Mass Effect IS an 8/10. It's good, but falls just shy of greatness.

    I like the idea of what they're doing with the DLC, but I'd rather they release more substantive packs than little nuggets like this. The biggest failing of the game was the repetition of the uninspiring side missions, so it's a shame that they just tossed yet another one out there.

  • rhinoxious #5 4 years ago

    Doesn't sound like a promsing start, though Oblivion started with that horse armour pack didn't it?

    and some of the later oblivion stuff was good, I made the wizards tower my base of operations after finishing everything the mages guild had to offer.

  • Darren #6 4 years ago

    I really enjoyed Mass Effect but haven't downloaded this "mission" because it didn't sound like it added much new to the game and reading that it features the same old base map just makes me glad I didn't. Why is it that BioWare couldn't generate random bases or inject more variety into the game outside of the main story missions? Most of the planets felt the same, only with a different colour scheme/skin. Was it a space limitation of the game coming on a single DVD or something? If not, what then? :?

  • newt #7 4 years ago

    Michael-bay inspired?

    More like R.A.Heinlein-inspired..

  • DanWhitehead #8 4 years ago

    It shouldn't be judged on its own, bur rather as part of the full game.

    But...it's not part of the full game. That's sort of the point, surely?

  • gmmonkey #9 4 years ago

    Sounds pish. Mass efffect is one of my favourite games. Probably my favourite game of this gen, but I'm not downloading this crap. I hate all these little pissy dlc's. Horse armour for 3 quid or however much it cost? I mean ffs. You always get the feeling that alot of this dlc content is stuff that would of been in the full game.

  • itsfuzzy #10 4 years ago

    Shame the 1st DLC is getting slated. I was really looking forward to it.

  • BillyBrush #11 4 years ago

    fix the loading, fix the horrendous slowdown etc before making expansion packs pls...this seemed stuck in some awful technical doldrums for the 2 days i owned it, if they sorted out the fact the game is a buggy slowdown riddled mess i'd maybe buy it again,

    why make expansion packs when you've not delivered a technically sound title yet? this game is quite liderally the shod imo, and i find it hard to forgive it, just a smooth-ish framerate would be a start, not a bunch of things blurring their way towards you at 2fps

  • Xerx3s #12 4 years ago

    I see that all that new EA talent is being put to good use. This bodes well for the future.

  • DanWhitehead #13 4 years ago

    This DLC was already well underway before the EA buyout.

  • kangarootoo #14 4 years ago

    The description of this DLC didn't fill me with confidence. Pity to see my fears were founded.

    "The price - 400 Microsoft Points, or GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80 - is certainly right for an experience this slender"

    Whilst the price might be right for the number of gameplay hours available, I think the quality of those hours is important also.

    It sounds as though they have taken the worst part of the game (the tank driving nonsense) and squeezed an hour or so out of it, which in my book is unfortunately worth nothing at all.

    The tank bits were obvious filler in the main game, so I guess its not surprising to see them use the same mechanic as the basis for cheap DLC content.

  • DanWhitehead #15 4 years ago

    Whilst the price might be right for the number of gameplay hours available, I think the quality of those hours is important also.

    That's kind of what the rest of the review is about ;)

  • Peew971 #16 4 years ago

    I will just play all the DLC at the same time when they're all out. Shouldn't complain about length this way :)

  • AceMaCool #17 4 years ago

    It would have made more sense for this to have been available after you have finished the main story part of the game. I'm not going to slog through half the game again just to play this hour of DLC.

  • L42yB #18 4 years ago

    @BillyBrush - What game were you playing? I played ME through twice and didn't have any real problems with the framerate (apart from the occasional slow down - but nothing serious). Never experienced anything close to what you describe...

    Anyhoo, those "issues" will never be fixed for two reasons:

    1) Patching the engine now would not make sense. They are probably already polishing ME2 and working on ME3.
    2) Those problems you state are largely fictional, so there wouldn't be much point.

    ;)

  • Quine #19 4 years ago

    It was a shame to see the trusty old base map being wheeled out again, though the combat had some good frantic moments, mainly because my new Bioticist is way too low-level to cope with the enemy. Still there were a few nice touches- it (clumsily) forces you into some outdoors combat without using the Mako at one point, and combat in the new interior had lots of flanking and places to throw enemy off ledges.

    I'm hoping this is their embarrassing early attempts at ironing out the whole DLC process before giving us something with more substance. Getting the textures to disc would make all our lives easier also...

  • Benno #20 4 years ago

    what a load of shit

  • BrokenSymmetry #21 4 years ago

    Mass Effect's biggest disappointment was the poor quality of its side quests. Where in KOTOR we had very big and meaningful sidequests like the Underworld people in Taris, in Jade Empire we had very emotional sidequests like "The Drowned Orphans", Mass Effect didn't have any meaningful sidequests at all (with maybe the only exception being the "background" sidequest, such as when meeting with a fellow survivor from Shepard's past). This DLC seems to do nothing to remedy that.

  • BillyBrush #22 4 years ago

    @L42yB

    Erm they're not fictional issues, i found the framerate dips to be pretty obvious when i was trudging through Noveria tbh

    maybe see xbox.com, there are loads of complaints threads about loading and slowdown issues

  • muscleblade #23 4 years ago

    I pretty much enjoyed it. 1+ hour for 400 points is very good value in my book. I was very entertained the whole time too.
    Not better nor worse compared to the rest of the game.

  • Bloodloss #24 4 years ago

    I remember thinking the framerate issues were horrible, but then after I got out of Eden Prime it was fine. Maybe 3 different occasions after that where the framerate was bad. Plenty of moments with texture pop-in, which whilst slightly annoying, I don't consider a big deal.

    It shouldn't have any of these issues, but I just can't understand how someone could not play such a fantastic game because of them.

  • anomagnus #25 4 years ago

    @ bradmillette

    Obviously all game reviews are subjective, but i found mass effect to be my gaming highlight of 07, and i considered it a 9.5/10 game, i.e almost perfect

    @dan whitehead,

    I dont consider this to be a stand alone product. Its a side area that is inserted mid game. To out it in context, its not a short story that bridges two books, its more like a deleted chapter that has been reinserted into a book.

    The bridging story could be judged on its own, but to judge just a particular chapter of a book would be unfair

  • MBar #26 4 years ago

    It's just another side mission. It fits into the main game, but it certainly doesn't stand alone in any way.

    The new turret shields are cheap as fuck too.

  • slivir #27 4 years ago

    I wouldn't have bought this DLC had I known what it was going to be like.

  • The-Bodybuilder #28 4 years ago

    >"That disappointment deepens when you realise that the three outposts controlling the thrusters all use the same old base map you'll have grown sick of during the rest of the game"

    NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

  • dustrat #29 4 years ago

    I think we should be happy that we're getting any DLC at all since Bioware works on FIVE projects at once...

  • L42yB #30 4 years ago

    @BillyBrush & Bloodkult - I didn't mean to imply that there were no issues at all, I just meant that saying things like "the game is a buggy slowdown riddled mess" or that things in the game are "blurring their way towards you at 2fps" is completely fictional.

    Texture pop-in was annyoying, but I found it bearable. Loading times were not that bad IMO, considering what was being loaded. And the framerate was never at 2fps. I found that the majority of the time the framerate was fine (driving around, shooting at aliens, etc.) At anything close to 2fps it would really be impossible to aim a gun or drive a car...

    So what I'm really trying to say is, the game is far from perfect, but it's not that bad and no where near as bad as people like Billy describe it. Still one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences last year...

  • Thalanos #31 4 years ago

    @BrokenSymmetry - I totally agree with what you say.

    I will not be paying to drive the Mako around another proceedurally generated landscape and blast through the same rooms, even if it ends with something more interesting than the usual three-minute conversation. Give me anything from the rest of the game and I would be interested.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/08 @ 14:18

  • Madder-Max #32 4 years ago

    I refuse to play through the game again just to access what should be a freebie side mission. You can tell there was a change of management with the shitty idea of releasing this.

    Credit crunch affecting Games companies too?

  • Razorus #33 4 years ago

    To be honest, I don't think Bioware thought things through with the Endgame of the main quest. They promised us DLC that would bridge the gap between each installment but the last few moments in the game are retarded. Basically, you reach a point where you can no longer use the Normandy. That makes Bring Down the Sky a major disappointment for me as I was hoping the story would progress rather than branch.

  • MangoBen #34 4 years ago

    As someone who has bought and completed this I agree with the review and the score.

    That said I don't feel ripped off at all - perhaps down to the low price. I've still gone away not exactly "excited" at future DLC but more "looking out for" and will probably get the next one or two :)

  • Moribundman #35 4 years ago

    I have a sneaking suspicion that the lack of delving deeper into character backgrounds (which is a f***ing good idea) can be blamed on the same issue that led to some random woman's voice telling me to turn back from the edge of the map instead of Joker...

    Bioware don't seem to be able to use the "celebrity" voices in the dlc. I can understand this in terms of logistics (it'd cost them money to get Keith David, Seth Green or Lance Hendriksen in again) but I think if they spent a bit of money getting the cast to provide some juicy extras then they'd have a much more positive response.

    I agree with the review. I'm still happy I downloaded BDTS but I'll think a lot harder before the next download. At the very least they should have something that actually changes the way you play the game (new weapons/armour, or a premium class enhancer similar to the one you get on the Moon in the main game). A little epilogue to the main game hinting at what's in store for ME2 or building on your allies sidequests, romances and deaths would be very exciting too. Another extra Mako mission with some guys that can be easily blasted by a high level character would not.

    I think the Oblivion comparison is a good one; Bethesda released specialist content for specific characters which complimented the main game and tailored it to your play style - if you're a Wizard, the tower (hell even the spell tome download) is teriffic, but if you're an outright fighter then that's not so much use. These downloads are not all going to be downloaded by all gamers but they are a great addition to the audience they are targeted to.

    Maybe a biotic academy with a couple of sidequests that boost your L3's stats? Or a set of commando/sniping missions for an infiltrator? I'd have loved to see something more substantial emerge from the Cerberus sideplot. After accruing all the info you can on them, building a great big conspiracy, you just end up with "blam blam" and it's over!
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/08 @ 16:17

  • dryden555 #36 4 years ago

    I am not surprised how short and pointless this download is. Mass Effect felt rushed in general with cookie-cutter 2ndary missions and a 7 hour main story-line.

  • Cannibal #37 4 years ago

    I think I'll wait for them to release a "Mass Effect Gold" with all the expansions, probably a few months before the release of the sequel, will give me an excuse to play through it again.

  • pinhead #38 4 years ago

    Meh, the DLC was OK but I wanted something more substantial. I loved the game and gained many a *tut* from the missus due to my time investment with it. 5/10 prob a bit harsh I reckon.

  • Scimarad #39 4 years ago

    "...Commander Shepard and his crew have just four hours to prevent disaster..."

    Surely that should read her crew:-)

  • Walshicus #40 4 years ago

    Disagree; I found the content to be pretty fun and well worth the price. An 8/10 easily, but then Mass Effect was my joint Game of the Year.

  • Inigo #41 4 years ago

    Bioware said on there forums that the DLC wouldnt be more horse armor but more like the NWN premium modules that they made. Its a shame to see that they where so bad because it has so much potential.

    Hopefully this was developed before the game came out and any new mods will take into account what worked in the main game. I would love a whole new planet to explore.

  • TheNinkyNonk #42 4 years ago

    "Playing armchair developer is always a frustrating experience"

    Funny, I've always thought PAYING armchair developers was!

  • superdelphinus #43 4 years ago

    I just bought mass effect the other day. I really like it but agree it is 'only' an 8. It almost has a sort of beta feel to it really. There's annoying things like problems with the volume of speech during cut scenes so that you can barely hear what one of the characters is saying even though the volume is cranked up, textures popping up mid cut-scene, and the fighting is pretty easy (so far). Still the story is good (although completely bewildering for the first couple of hours) and it is very dramatic and some of the graphics are great.
    oops i've just written a mini-review
    kthnxbai

  • Velios #44 4 years ago

    Bought it, Played it, Enjoyed it

    Sure, it could have been bigger, better and deeper with more voice content and a wider variety of new scenery but ho hum, you get what you pay for I guess.

    Still, I hope that they take note of this review and really push the boat out for future additional content... that is if they decide to make more after what may be less than satisfactory sales results of this DLC.

    Let's hope so!

  • DjFlex52 #45 4 years ago

    This sort of thing is exactly why one would not be promoting the extra content for GTA IV on the 360 a q major advantage. It might turn out to be pish.

    @headbog

    Do you ever STFU about your dislike of anything Xbox360?
    I assume you'd rather play no new original rpg games (as you are doing) than play an 8/10 Mass Effect on 360.
    You're such a troll...stay in your PS3 threads please...though I very much doubt you will.
    You're the type of troll that makes others want to go in PS3 threads and trash your favorite console just for spite.

  • evild_edd #46 4 years ago

    Personally I'd rate the expansion a 7/10.

    Positives: cheap; cool enemies; some great gun-play in the final shoot-out; a decent little story (it is standalone, pretty much).

    Negatives: short; THOSE SAME F*CKIN' BUILDING LAYOUTS (except the large hall for the final battle - which was ace!!!).

    ME is still my GotY 2007. BRILLIANT!!!

  • ardamillo #47 4 years ago

    I was pretty pleased with the DLC - but then again I wasn't expecting much for 400 points.

    Only disappointments for me: well new types of gun turret wasn't top of my wish list, and the minefield was pretty annoying.

    But I think the review undersells the story, which fits into the ME universe quite neatly and does a good job of introducing the Batarians and their history.

    The building layouts were slightly different to those in the main game, although I probably only noticed this because I've spent so much time in ME. At least they were different enough that I needed to find new paths and cover positions as I moved through them. Another small but nice addition was the Batarian engineer: enemies with powerful Tech skills were rare in the main game and these guys will bite you if you're not careful. As well as the achievement, you get a choice of rare loot at the end, too.

    I think that if this was in the main game it would have been by far the best side quest, and I like it better than Therum (the mission where you collect Liara) in terms of story and variety.

  • kangarootoo #48 4 years ago

    @DanWhitehead

    I know. I'm just thinking out loud... quietly in text.

  • stoopidgreg #49 4 years ago

    they have two faces squashed into one! hah

  • dryden555 #50 4 years ago

    this really should have been free given the brevity of it and the use of pre-existing game art.

  • sirtacos #51 4 years ago

    Mass Effect certainly ISN'T an 8. 'Harsh' would be a euphemism. Given the caliber of games that get 8s here, I'd say Mass Effect is about a notch above that. It certainly has its flaws - generic exploration planets and pop-in textures come to mind - but the Good outweighs the Bad to such an extent that it's petty to mention both in the same breath.
    There's room to improve - but the sheer artistry, charm, depth and epic nature of the game makes me feel that it deserves much more than an 8, if only to serve as an encouragement that games should be inspired and lovingly crafted pieces of art, not cynical one-trick ponies or blatant cash cows.