I'm glad I was never interested in Mass Effect's play style... because I don't have to deal with this nonsense.

My own thoughts merely echo those around me. What's the point of adding another chapter that does nothing to change the ending.

Yay! You have one more ally who's going to die with the rest of you or something.

Or maybe he'll be there on that planet they all crash on to betray your crewmates and turn them all into reapers.

Once a traitor always a traitor. If you recruit him, you're killing your crew! Think about it!

Riff Moonraker:

SirBryghtside:
Probably won't bother, never bought any DLC for this series before. I'll probably try Extended Cut, and buy the inevitable trilogy edition fully decked out with the DLC, but I just don't feel like ramming in another chapter after the game is finished makes any sense at all.

You should try it. Its free, and while not perfect, I personally liked it ALOT better.

Yeah, I'm downloading it now - I was actually referring to the DLC when I said 'ramming in another chapter' rather than the EC which just expands on them.

Though I'm one of the three people who actually liked the ending, so I'm not exactly sure what I hope to get out of it.

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

Freaking this. And someone else may have mentioned it, but if it's possible for Reapers to "defect," doesn't that sorta-kinda poke a(nother) hole in the blue ending?

Roboto:
It's about the journey, not the destination.

For me, it's about the destination. The journey might or might not be fun and worthwhile as well, but the destination is the reason you set out on the journey in the first place. In fact, it seems to me that a journey without a destination isn't a journey at all--it's just aimlessly farting around.

I'm interested (I might even pay for it), but doesn't this kind of add a plot hole?

...my Shepard still "dies" regardless. It won't matter D:

dreadedcandiru99:

For me, it's about the destination. The journey might or might not be fun and worthwhile as well, but the destination is the reason you set out on the journey in the first place. In fact, it seems to me that a journey without a destination isn't a journey at all--it's just aimlessly farting around.

Lair of the Shadow Broker didn't really have anything to do with the main plot either, but it was awesome. Same with Overlord. BW usually seems to be on point with their DLC. I think it could be great

I think this sums it up quite well.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9611-Wise-Counsel

Well i am looking forward to it, screw the naysayers.....if you think you will enjoy it then buy it, if you don't think you will then don't......but of course we will now get another round of OMFG they suck......yay!!

I have played through the extended cut and enjoyed the slightly more shiney endings more then before.....so roll on more single player DLC and enough with this multi-player rubbish!!

NinjaDeathSlap:

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

Erm, even with one Reaper on your side, it's still one against about 100,000, and when the entire combined might of the Galaxy was pretty clearly only enough to act as an effective diversion for one battle...

Yeah, even if you add one Reaper to that I'm still not liking those odds.

You can imagine I didn't mean that in terms of firepower.
Up 'till now we haven't even known why our main enemy wanted to kill us beyond what amounts to: "Just 'cause". And the very few (2) of them we even had a chance to "communicate" with demonstrated a 100% unshakeable resolve in their goal of our annihilation.

The mere fact that one of them could ever ally with us changes everything! Much like Legion alone turned our entire perspective on the Geth on its head...

Commander Shepard's adventures aren't over just yet.

No, his battles are over, now I can choose to go back and relive more moments before his agonizing decision at the end. No thank you, I've already played through Mass Effect 3, shoving more crap into its bloated corpse doesn't interest me. I'll only buy DLC that takes place after the war or is in someway completely separate from it. I've fought this war, I know what happens and I've ended it, why would I care about more assets? Why the hell would I want to back into the middle of it? If this DLC seriously does change the ending yet again, I'LL catch it on YouTube.

NinjaDeathSlap:

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

Erm, even with one Reaper on your side, it's still one against about 100,000, and when the entire combined might of the Galaxy was pretty clearly only enough to act as an effective diversion for one battle...

Yeah, even if you add one Reaper to that I'm still not liking those odds.

Yeah but a Reaper would probably know how to fight, disable or outright destroy other Reapers. So one rogue Reaper could very well make it a turning point. PLus UI could see Bioware sneaking in a "Happy Everyone Wins" ending if you get like a perfect game with having the Reaper. So you'd have control, destroy, synthesis, obliteration and OMG we won!!

Mr.Tea:

NinjaDeathSlap:

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

Erm, even with one Reaper on your side, it's still one against about 100,000, and when the entire combined might of the Galaxy was pretty clearly only enough to act as an effective diversion for one battle...

Yeah, even if you add one Reaper to that I'm still not liking those odds.

You can imagine I didn't mean that in terms of firepower.
Up 'till now we haven't even known why our main enemy wanted to kill us beyond what amounts to: "Just 'cause". And the very few (2) of them we even had a chance to "communicate" with demonstrated a 100% unshakeable resolve in their goal of our annihilation.

The mere fact that one of them could ever ally with us changes everything! Much like Legion alone turned our entire perspective on the Geth on its head...

Ah, ok, I see what you mean now. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

I'm still looking forward to it, because in my post-EC jubilation my attitude to 'moar Mass Effect?' is very much "Yes please!", but you have a point. There would have been much greater potential for this story line had it been part of the game in the first place.

Unless it does expand on the ending, again. But I think that that's pretty unlikely.

Maybe this has been mentioned, maybe not. Don't care.

Bioware, why do you keep doing this to us? First there was the "From Ashes" debacle, putting the DLC content on the disc and charging the players for what they had quite literally already paid for, and now this.
Okay, this "Leviathan" DLC isn't nearly as bad, that much is clear. I might go so far as to say both the DLC itself as well as hiding snippets of it in the extended cut is actually a neat idea.
Nevertheless I still find myself asking why this is happening. Was this some kind of easter egg for the more diligent data miners? Could it be a very subtle middle finger from Bioware to EA?

Does that mean putting the "From Ashes" content on the disc was maybe also a subtle middle finger to EA, because said diligent data-miners can unlock the content without paying the extra cash. Theoretically, once the experts cracked the discs, it's possible for the rest of us to find the method online and do it on our own. I'm reaching now, but, is it possible Bioware was anticipating, even hoping for this?
Food for thought.

Ashannon Blackthorn:

NinjaDeathSlap:

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

Erm, even with one Reaper on your side, it's still one against about 100,000, and when the entire combined might of the Galaxy was pretty clearly only enough to act as an effective diversion for one battle...

Yeah, even if you add one Reaper to that I'm still not liking those odds.

Yeah but a Reaper would probably know how to fight, disable or outright destroy other Reapers. So one rogue Reaper could very well make it a turning point. PLus UI could see Bioware sneaking in a "Happy Everyone Wins" ending if you get like a perfect game with having the Reaper. So you'd have control, destroy, synthesis, obliteration and OMG we won!!

I still think that would be too far-fetched tbh. True, a Reaper might have a greater insight into weaknesses of the Reapers. However, being a Reaper itself means it would also have those same weaknesses, and there's no reason why the rest of the Reapers wouldn't be able to exploit its weaknesses just as well as it could exploit theirs.

I also think it's highly unlikely that Bioware would use it to add a new 'happy' ending. If you allow there to be an ending option where the Reapers can be beaten conventionally and without compromise, then that's the ending everyone will go for and it would negate the entire concept of having to face a complex moral dilemma concerning the future of the Galaxy. I think the added option of the EC to reject that choice, and in doing so accepting the consequences, was a good move. But allowing people an easy way out undermines everything they were going for in all versions of the ending.

I could see it working, but only if they made it so you had to do a perfect, and I mean perfect, play through of the entire series, so you enter the final battle with 100% of possible war assets, as well as a 100% Galactic Readiness bonus. I liked how in Mass Effect 2 you could get a perfect ending, but you really had to work at it. You had to do all the loyalty missions (as well as have enough Paragon/Renegade points to sustain the loyalty in some cases); you had to grind the planet scanning like a bitch, or at least pay very close attention to what you were upgrading in order to guess which upgrades would be necessary; and in the final battle you had to make all the right tactical decisions. I liked that. I liked how a 'happy' ending wasn't just given to you for nothing, but if you really worked at it then your work was rewarded, but to make it work against the odds of Mass Effect 3's final battle it would have to be even harder to achieve, much harder, or it just wouldn't be believable; and then you just know people would bitch about it being too hard, because their Commander Shepard punched a reporter once, and that totally qualifies him to be able to beat a horde of nigh-unstoppable death machines without any effort.

I just don't see the point in any more single player DLC given the endings. Unless they changed it so the story continued or at least wasn't ending wish shepard dead and so on in this DLC it just seems to be pointless...

NinjaDeathSlap:

I still think that would be too far-fetched tbh. True, a Reaper might have a greater insight into weaknesses of the Reapers. However, being a Reaper itself means it would also have those same weaknesses, and there's no reason why the rest of the Reapers wouldn't be able to exploit its weaknesses just as well as it could exploit theirs.

True, but think of it this way. Reaper Traitor says "Hey, if you do x and y and follow it with z, you can disable a reaper from miles away."

Sure the other reapers could x,y and z away the traitor but then the damage is done. and there are a lot more of the other species than reapers. So if every ship now conceivable has some Dummies Guide to Killing Reapers, not a far fetched thing.

But I do agree, if they put in something like this, you have to have a perfect game. I mean perfect from all 3 games.

dreadedcandiru99:

Roboto:
It's about the journey, not the destination.

For me, it's about the destination. The journey might or might not be fun and worthwhile as well, but the destination is the reason you set out on the journey in the first place. In fact, it seems to me that a journey without a destination isn't a journey at all--it's just aimlessly farting around.

Normally I feel the same way. But if the game releases and someone on the dev team says "hey, wouldn't it be cool if..." and they want to retroactively insert new story or a new adventure. Instead of farting around doing little that the consumer can see, they develop this. To me this is the proper and most fair use of DLC in the industry, as opposed to day one on disc stuff. So they toss a nugget of single player goodness my way. If the price is right I may just pick it up and skip a cheeseburger somewhere.

Why? Why do they keep the goods things apart.

Oh yes. The Developer that used to be great (EA) is now the Publisher who never left Douchbag University's Frat House "The Investors".

Ubisoft looks promising.

Great, another war asset that doesn't change anything.

Riff Moonraker:

Kungfu_Teddybear:
On one hand, this sounds really cool.

On the other hand, who cares if we get him in the final battle? It's not going to change the endings.

Or.... what if it did? What if it was planned to put another ending in the game all along? Far fetched, yes... but its not an unreasonable line of thought, either.

It wouldn't surprise me! However they really wouldn't be doing themseves much favour by crating another ending or changing the one at the end of the game (not going to say original as the actual original ending got changed), and then charging us to find out what it is! The only thing that could make it slighty appealing is the chance to see a Reaper in another light! But then surely that would make more sense to keep it in th game! Same with From Ashes! That needed to be in the game or at least free if you bought it new! It made such a difference story wise.

Also people shouldn't be too surprised about single player DLC as it was advertised once you 'completed' the game!

Roboto:

Mr.Tea:
You know, this would've brought up the question of "with an actual Reaper on our side, maybe there's a small chance we can win this war"

...if we didn't already know how it all ends.

So unless this adds another ending possibility, what's the bloody point??

It's about the journey, not the destination.

Anything that adds more lore and backstory is fine by me. They left plenty up to the imagination.

Despite popular reviewer opinion, I think the journey was pretty shit too. I was not impressed by the writing or repeated plot contrivances all throughout ME3.

Leviathan, a living starship? Caugh... Farscape, caugh... but then again I have never been one to accuse bioware of an original thought... why would this be any different.

Maybe in the DLC after that you can find black smoke - space goo and unlock the mysteries of "space magic"... nahh... probably get sued by Ridley Scott.

The script revolves around a rogue Reaper called Leviathan, which has betrayed the Reapers by killing one of its own and now acts as a defector from the invading army

Really? Really?

The powerful godlike killing machines that have killed and harvested civilizations for thousands upon thousands of years.....Can have feelings and second thoughts now?

Sounds like Bioware wants a mulligan on their garbage endings are hitting the panic/reset/redo/remake button. If they flesh it out and make the little things that mattered to us, matter, then I will love them all over again.

mad825:

the traitorous Reaper may end up as an ally in the final battle for Earth.

Talk about stepping on a nail only to end up stepping on a landmine. The Reapers are more or less done with the ending ME3 had and applying diversity among the enemy is kind of generic and overused.

In ME1&2, the reapers had an unstoppable notation attached to them now in ME3 it just seems like any other race that requires magic to remove.

They're clearly taking the Final Fantasy approach to story writing: as soon as you think the enemy is dead it unveils ITS TRUE FORM or it was a fake all along or some other contrived bull they're using to stretch this shit out.

hmmm. sounds like i will spend my money on something, after telling my self i will not. since bioware did managed to make me happy enough with the EC dlc, i keep playing ME3 again.

Lovely Mixture:

The script revolves around a rogue Reaper called Leviathan, which has betrayed the Reapers by killing one of its own and now acts as a defector from the invading army

Really? Really?

The powerful godlike killing machines that have killed and harvested civilizations for thousands upon thousands of years.....Can have feelings and second thoughts now?

HEY! ELDRITCH ABOMINATIONS FROM BEYOND THE VOID HAVE FEELINGS TOO!!!

yeah the writing department is in the shitter.

rawrnosaurous:
By get in the final battle I assume that just means he's added to our war score. Other wise their going back to fiddle with the ending of Mass Effect 3, after their pissing match with the internet over artistic integrity.

Also if a Reaper can go rogue than what is the importance of the star child? Didn't he control the Reapers and by extension make them do his bidding? Does that mean that the control option ending is bullshit if the Reapers can go rogue and ignore Shephards commands?

Does no one at Bioware look at the shit that they write?

Or they have an explanation. Don't shit down someone's throat before they have the chance to speak.

If this Leviathan is in fact the before-mentioned "inactive" Reaper, it's possible it could have been damaged to such an extent that it was forced to remain in a sort of comatose state in order to survive. In that, it could have had time to develop an individual intelligence. One spiteful, questioning, and rebellious to the force that drove it to sentence its self to near-destruction. In that, the machine chooses to defect. The "star child" was explained to be an AI construct made to control the Reapers, but this doesn't mean its control is indefinitely binding to all of the machines. This was what I was elaborating to myself as I read those last few lines of the article, and it seems perfectly feasible. Maybe it won't be the explanation, but as long as they do provide an explanation and it makes sense, it's perfectly fine.

And it has to be pre-ending DLC, since [spoiler]Shepard dies[/i] in the endings. They just changed the endings further, they won't pull that shit twice after they just fixed it to everyone's liking. Even if it is "just to boost your Galactic Readiness", the mission could still be enjoyable. Isn't that the purpose? To play more of the game? Every other mission in the game did the same thing.

However if you're going to attack them before it's even released, you're being unfair to them. In spite of your opinion of Bioware, their deserve the chance for proper review before you assault them with that.

Excellent. Another useless batch of EMS points for when I shoot the s***caked hologram in the face.

If I ever get around to a second playthrough. Or paying any more for BioWare products.

As a mostly uncomplicated Bioware fan freshly wooed and indoctrinated by the properly handled endings... SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

Seriously though, I'm unironically jacked about this. I loved the Leviathan of Dis subplot in Mass Effect and when it was mentioned in 3 by the infamous asshole turned humbled leader of a homeless species Balak... it was pretty damn cool that they would remember such a little detail. Same with the investigation of the Klendegan Rift revealing the Derelict Reaper in 2. Plus, I'm a total tool of a Biodrone and I'll lap up any bullshit they release no matter how insipid.

They had almost lost me there with the end of 3 back in March, but I'm back now.