Mass Effect 2: Overlord: Review

After a couple of weeks of flipflopping between wanting to and not wanting to, I finally decided against another runthrough of Mass Effect 2. However, I did download and play through the newly-released Overlord DLC. It lasted about two hours–fine for its price–and was nowhere near the quality of the rest of the game–which is pretty much what my entire experience with DLC has been. It was just okay. It killed some time but won’t change my life.

The story is pretty straightforward–a VI has been rampaging across a Cerberus base. You find out that it’s made from a human fused to a computer or something–and I’ve said this before but crossing technology with biology is a theme that almost always disturbs me. While the story is slight, it’s pretty serviceable nonetheless.

But the main problem is it’s all wandering and combat. I liked Mass Effect 2 as much as I did because the missions were extremely varied. The combat ones were some of the duller missions in the game, frankly–the memorable ones were more based on exploration, on a lonely ship in the snow, at a fancy party, on a craft perched on a canyon. Here it’s just a couple of bases, similar corridors and Geth. There’s also a few hovercraft missions–which is at least handleable this game, but the original pack of DLC levels for the Hammerhead were interesting and fun to play through. These are not.

Actually now that I’m thinking on it, Overlord reminds me a lot about the original Mass Effect. Interesting and compelling concept that’s maybe not explored in enough detail, repetitive shooting in bases, clumsy vehicle levels, no enemies beyond Geth? Now that I’m thinking of it in these terms I’m genuinely disappointed.

The game was touted to have connections to the next Mass Effect game. Obviously it does not take place after ME2′s ending (which, for those who haven’t played, I’ll simply say it’s an extreme cliffhanger and I can’t think of a single way they can begin Mass Effect 3 without beginning immediately after). Rogue VIs have popped up here and there in the series and are part of the major backstory of the Geth, so unless there are any direct consequences, it’s just another example of that motif. A place called Grissom Academy is mentioned at the end–was that where Jack was “trained”?–so maybe that’s the connection. It’s described as the sort of place where people with strange powers are treated and taught to control them, so I’ll be excited to visit it in the next one.

But all in all I wouldn’t go out of my way to play it if I had it to do over again It doesn’t have any of the ethical issues or tough choices that most of the missions have–it’s too straightforward and uninteresting to recommend. If you just want to kill a few hours or you’re that desperate for anything ME, well I won’t stop you.

Love,

Richard

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