Overlord tried to tell an original side-story in Mass Effect's universe, but didn't ... try hard enough; really, none of Mass Effect 2's DLCs felt like they "put in the effort." Omega shows what happens when DLC does put in the effort. (It's good!)

Omega introduces a new supporting character, a new villain, and a couple new enemies, but the real star of this chapter is certified badass Aria. Throughout the multi-phased mission to retake the Omega station from a Thrawn-like Cerberus mastermind, Shepard and Aria get plenty of one-on-one time, and Carrie-Anne Moss delivers her character's cutthroat personality so well.

Aria was already a great "bad girl" archetype, but this DLC gives her a chance to really shine, like an animal backed into a corner; left with no choice but to claw her way out.

I wish the villain was a little more present throughout the story, and I wish that the mission was a little less linear -- or at least didn't trap me on Omega inbetween phases. But that's a small sacrifice for this DLC chapter's tightly-scripted, well-paced, satisfying narrative.

Better than: Batman: Arkham City - Harley Quinn's Revenge, Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty, Mass Effect 3: From Ashes
Not as good as: Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart, Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep
She may not be part of the Normandy crew: but this definitely feels like "Aria's loyalty mission."

Of Mass Effect 3's two "new" squadmates, only one of them (the annoying one) was included in the main package. The From Ashes DLC introduces Javik, a revived Prothean!, whose unexpectedly harsh personality makes for highly entertaining conversation.

Asshole business decision, putting "the interesting one" behind a $10 additional purchase. But now, after being thoroughly underwhelmed by one, two, three, four, five, six, seven Mass Effect DLCs in a row, I'm finally thankful for their inclusion in Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

The thing I loved about Mass Effect 2 was getting to know its diverse cast of insane characters, and Javik is the closest Mass Effect 3 comes to rekindling that magic. He reveals fascinating story details about the previous galactic cycle; he has a compellingly tragic backstory all his own; and Liara's reactions to his no-nonsense, imperialistic quips are priceless.

It's a shame that Mass Effect 3 doesn't have character loyalty missions, because Javik's probably would have been pretty great. But he's still fun to have a conversation with, much more so than Zaeed or Kasumi were.

Better than: Borderlands 2: How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day, Mass Effect 2: Overlord
Not as good as: Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax
For some really fun crew banter: bring Javik and Wrex along for the Citadel DLC. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Mass Effect 2 was better the second time around, because I knew what to expect and what I should focus on. Mass Effect 3, in my Legendary Edition revisit, ... was not. But it's still a fun adventure and (now more than ever) a satisfying conclusion to Shepard's story.

Some of Mass Effect's game systems have really improved in its third outing: snapping to cover is less error-prone, a "reputation" score allows you to benefit from mixing Paragon and Renegade decisions, and exploring the galaxy map is much less tedious (no resource scanning!). Some other improvements are more debatable: hacking minigames have been removed entirely, and - as an Infiltrator, again - moving the time-slow buff from a character stat to a weapon upgrade is just confusing.

But there are other changes in Mass Effect 3 that are irrefutably for the worse. Its plot structure is more linear, with more opportunities to miss content. Customization fatigue has unnecessarily regressed, with way too many weapon options and misleading stat sheets -- like, the fact that the harpoon gun's projectiles have travel time isn't even a statistic!

And, most notably, ME3's squadmate roster is a significant downgrade from ME2's. In pure numbers, we're down from 12 to a mere 7; and only two of those are "new" characters (and also, Vega is a shitty character). And there are no loyalty missions at all!, or in other words, even this reduced cast has less one-on-one character development than the last game's crew.

... well, EDI develops, not just physically but also emotionally, from her Mass Effect 2 state. But otherwise the most interesting characterization in Mass Effect 3 is when Shepard catches up with Grunt, Jack, Mordin, and Samara as NPCs in side-quests.

It feels great to finally bring the fight to the Reapers, and shooting alien monsters to death feels as good as it ever has. But Mass Effect 3 still feels like a step back from its predecessor's non-linear mission structure and character-centric storytelling.

Better than: Mass Effect, any of the second game's DLCs.
Not as good as: Mass Effect 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
And, as for this installment's DLC: fewer in quantity, greater in quality! But I'll talk more about those soon.

Progress: Finished on Normal.

Arrival starts small, with an innocent-sounding mission to rescue a covert operative, and takes a little too long building toward its major reveal: a plot to slow down the Reaper invasion by fucking exploding a mass relay.

Which threatens to be a really compelling side-story -- but is immediately interrupted by space madness indoctrination and a rushed-feeling series of fights before Shepard presses the "blow it up" button and calls it a day.

Arrival's ambitious plot is underserved by how little storytelling time it actually gets. And while it's fun to observe the effects of this mission in Mass Effect 3, re: pissing off the batarians, I can't help but be disappointed that the angles of understanding and interfering with Reaper tactics are glossed over so quickly.

Better than: Mass Effect 2: Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
Not as good as: Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
All in all, despite a handful of cool ideas: Mass Effect 2's DLCs feel ... unnecessary, neither as compelling nor satisfying as the main game's character-centric missions.

Unlike Overlord, the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC story sticks closely to existing Mass Effect lore.

In fact, it's part of the setup for Mass Effect 3, showing how Liara went from investigating the Shadow Broker to being the Shadow Broker. And that's about it.

The mission starts with some intrigue, Liara going dark and Shepard following her trail ... but it isn't long before you're just mowing down wave after wave of goons on your way to the Shadow Broker's, uh, lair.

Ultimately this DLC's story feels like a two minute cutscene stretched into two hours of gameplay. While that gameplay isn't "bad," per se, it's unremarkable; more of the same stuff you're already doing in Mass Effect 2.

And since "Liara is the Shadow Broker" is such a minor plot point in the third game, this DLC's narrative payoff doesn't end up feeling very meaningful.

Better than: Mass Effect 2: Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
Not as good as: Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory
Meeting a Yahg was pretty neat: now I'm disappointed that they didn't play a bigger part in the series.

Mass Effect 2: Overlord is a strangely ambitious DLC pack, and while it makes admirable attempts at several mold-breaking innovations, I wouldn't really say that they paid off.

It's got a mostly self-contained story, for one thing, a story which ultimately reaches a pretty fascinating conclusion without leaning on Shepard or the Reapers or other established lore. ... however, up until that conclusion, plot development is scant and slow. The premise is genuinely good, but it just isn't well-integrated with Overlord's early and middle missions.

Partly because - and here's another surprise - those missions can be tackled in any order, across a free-roaming planet map. Like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy's Western Ghats level, Overlord feels like an experimental taste of non-linear sandbox world design, using the new Hammerhead hover-tank to physically travel between missions at your own discretion.

This new approach is definitely promising, and probably helped inspire Mass Effect: Andromeda, for whatever that's worth. But here, it's very prototype-y and under-done: secondary objectives and interesting scenery are both sparse, and so the illusion of openness breaks down pretty quickly. Plus, the Hammerhead kinda sucks.

And then there are the missions themselves, which you can tell are really trying to do new things that Mass Effect players haven't seen before; but when those things are a tile-sliding puzzle that's almost solved already, or a draw-the-enemy's-fire encounter that can kill you in one shot, they just ... aren't very whelming. One could even call them underwhelming.

Overlord gets some credit for bold new ideas, but it doesn't take any of those ideas far enough to compete with the main game's excellent content.

Better than: Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory
Not as good as: Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart
Spoiler alert, there is a satisfying throwback to Overlord: in Mass Effect 3, but ... I'll have more to say about "throwbacks in ME3" later.

Mass Effect's Mako tank sections were so bad, that Mass Effect 2's launch-day content didn't have any driving sections. I'd argue that it should have stayed that way. Alas...

The Firewalker Pack adds a small handful of missions where you pilot the Hammerhead hover-tank, and if you think the word "hover" makes that sound cool, just, simmer down and remember the Mako for a moment.

Conceptual coolness aside, the Hammerhead is not fun to use. It hovers about as well as a tumbleweed, getting stuck on terrain almost as often as a non-hovering tank would; its mission objectives are limited to remedial strafe-around-stationary-targets combat, and tediously flying through nav markers; and the narrative backing for these missions is a lazy throwaway side-plot about researchers finding a wholly-unremarkable Prothean ruin.

It speaks volumes that Mass Effect 3 never got driving sections.

Better than: Fallout 4: Automatron
Not as good as: Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky (which, honestly, had more interesting mechanics in one mission than Firewalker had in five)
The Hammerhead also features in: Mass Effect 2: Overlord, and isn't great there, either; but at least something interesting happens in that story.

Like Zaeed, DLC character Kasumi really doesn't measure up to Mass Effect 2's other party members.

Her backstory is a little more nuanced, although it doesn't really bear fruit until the next game. And her loyalty mission is a little more engaging, although still not as exciting as a "rich party heist" feels like it could've been.

But crucially, Kasumi's conversations with Shepard are mostly one-sided, and her story includes only a couple minutes' worth of character development.

For a "master thief," Kasumi is pretty boring.

Better than: Mass Effect 2: Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
Not as good as: Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart
I'd still push Zaeed out the airlock first: but if I had to sacrifice two crew members...

When, mere minutes ago, I effused about the quality of Mass Effect 2's character-centric storytelling, there was an implied asterisk. The Legendary Edition package was my first run with DLC character Zaeed, and he sucks.

Not in gameplay terms - I mean, as a soldier, he seems fine I guess? - but his "grizzled old mercenary" personality never evolves past a flat stereotype; his backstory-revealing mission is narratively and mechanically uninteresting; and his conversations with Shepard aren't really complete.

I should be clear: when Shepard talks with other crew members, they often both talk, to each other. In contrast, Zaeed mostly talks at you. (Spoiler alert, so does Kasumi.)

Mass Effect 2 is at its best when you're learning more about its characters and probing them for fun reactions. Zaeed is ... not Mass Effect 2 at its best.

It's not that he or his loyalty mission are "bad" -- they're just bland.

Better than: Borderlands 2: How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day, Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky
Not as good as: Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax
If the Collectors had forced me to sacrifice a crew member: it definitely would have been Zaeed.

Yes, this is the best one.

Mass Effect 2 fixes most of the first game's shortcomings - combat is streamlined, character and inventory management is a breeze, the Citadel is mercifully dotted with fast-travel points - and brilliantly iterates on its predecessor's excellent world-building, by populating that world with exciting and compelling characters.

Shepard's new squadmates make the returning cast seem dull in comparison: Mordin and Jack are easy favorites, but even the monotoned Samara gradually unfurls a truly fascinating backstory. Every member of this main cast is charming and memorable in their own distinctive ways. (Well, maybe not "every" member, I actually forgot all about Jacob -- but, uh, everyone else is memorable.)

And the hub-and-spoke narrative design, with squadmate recruitment and optional loyalty missions all branching out from the "main" plot, puts the player mostly in charge of the game's pacing. It's a great approach to player agency and makes jetting around the galaxy - to pursue your own agenda, in your own way - feel really fulfilling.

... of course, taking full advantage of that agency requires some reading ahead. I'd definitely call it a "design flaw" that Mass Effect 2's quasi-point-of-no-return is totally un-telegraphed, and knowing about it beforehand is critical for exploring as much of the game's content as possible.

I also consider it critical to take a technical approach to Paragon and Renegade responses. I've done no small amount of complaining about Mass Effect's dialog options, and have given up on the idea of "playing a role" through them; but when you consider the Paragon and Renegade statistics to be just that - statistics - then dialog becomes just another game system, and achieving good outcomes (like making Tali and Legion get along) requires optimizing that system.

That change in my perspective is probably the biggest reason why I'm increasing my rating of Mass Effect 2 from the "Good" score I gave it ten years ago. Not because the Legendary Edition makeover has fixed its imperfections - notably, planet scanning and hacking minigames are still tedious as hell - but because, this time, I played the game "right" and spent more gameplay time focusing on its strengths.

When you treat Mass Effect 2 like the "dysfunctional crew management" game that it really is, it's easier to appreciate and have fun with Shepard's interstellar crew of misfits.

In fact, it's so easy that I had to go ahead and finish the entire! third game before taking a break for Glog posts. How's that for an endorsement?

Better than: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 3, Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition
Not as good as: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Now, as for this installment's DLC: eh, they're better than the last one, but still don't feel vital to the experience.

Progress: Finished on Normal.