It's a shame that the finality of Mass Effect 3's ending has made the DLC feel weirdly pointless, but the stand-alone setup of Omega makes the futility easier to forget. Returning to Omega - one of Mass Effect's most iconic locations - this expansion sees you trying to help Aria T'loak reclaim her hive of scum and villainy from a bolshy Cerberus commander.
The entire adventure takes just over three hours, which feels a little short for 1200MP - but the quality makes up for the lack of quantity. The production values in Omega are superb, and easily on par with the full game. The few characters you'll meet are well fleshed-out, and the areas you'll travel through are fresh and very detailed.
In many senses Omega feels like a return to form. Mass Effect 3's blinkered focus on the Reaper invasion was a big change from the nature of the first two games, in which the stories you unearthed on each new planet felt more self-contained. The outcome is still loosely tied in to the story of your struggle against the Reapers, but Omega is generally a welcome break from the themes of the main game. As much as we love the Illusive Man, it's nice to see someone new in the spotlight.
If you've already completed Mass Effect 3 then going back to play more can feel a bit weird, but the fact that you're taking on an entirely new villain without the help of the Normandy crew makes it easier to enjoy Omega on its own merits. It's a bit like rewatching an episode of Star Trek.
Completing Omega gives you two new biotic abilities to unlock on the Normandy after you're done. The Lash ability pulls foes towards you with tremendous strength, whilst Flare causes a psychic explosion that's huge and purple and fantastic fun. You'll also find new upgrades for each of the game's weapon types, including a heat-sensor scope for sniper rifles and an omni-blade attachment for shotgun bayonet fun.
A handful of new guns pop up, too, but it wasn't collectable fluff like this that made Mass Effect great. Back when the combat was entirely dire, we loved BioWare's game for the stories - the almost episodic chunks of mystery and adventure. Omega's contained plot and strong sense of place gives it the air of a comforting throwback. It's a reminder of the time when the Mass Effect universe was a place to be savoured and explored, rather than fought over.
29 comments so far...
DOGOFWAR on 29 Nov '12 said:
I agree, 1200 mp is rather steep for 3 hours worth of content. I'll save mine for Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC I think
FishyGinger on 29 Nov '12 said:
Bioware completely burned us with the ending of mass effect 3. The story had so many plot holes it's just so unbelievable and I'll never touch anything Bioware makes ever again. But I'll be buying this.
Decent review, I'll probably get this. Does seem quite expensive but I want to use up the last of my points before I move.
msbhvn on 29 Nov '12 said:
You doing fake YoungTobias quotes again, Fish?
I'll get Omega and the rest of the ME3 SP DLC when I'm ready to play ME3 again, or if it gets reduced before then.
Clanger67 on 29 Nov '12 said:
It is a lot for three hours though.Skyrim's is only four hundred more and i can see it being a lot longer than three hours.OH but then it isn't EA is it.
CunningSmile on 29 Nov '12 said:
FishyGinger on 29 Nov '12 said:
I didn't use quotes, so legally not obliged to apologise to anyone...how could you tell though
OXM JamSponge on 29 Nov '12 said:
Defo worth playing, this, but I'd wait for a sale if I were you. 800MP would have been a no-brainer.
Bezza89 on 29 Nov '12 said:
Worth 800 you say, though I am interested in the advertising as 'the biggest dlc ever!' for the series... is it longer/as enjoyable as lair of the shadow broker, or are they just actually lying about the length, as I thought LotSB and Overlord were very much worth the entry fee, same too, perhaps to a lesser extent, for the leviathon add on.
Alaric14 on 29 Nov '12 said:
Sorry to crush the bubble of love over this new content, but I didn't enjoy it all that much compared to other DLC. Poor audio balancing and cutscene slip-ups, plus a lack of capitalisation on the source material hamper player immersion. They went to the trouble of adding Collectors to the multiplayer modes, but they're nowhere to be found here. Same goes for the Cerberus Dragoon unit. And what the hell is happening beyond the Omega-4 relay? Shouldn't we go and stop Cerberus from doing whatever it is they're doing there to come up with these hellish technologies? Apparently not. To top it all off, once Omega is finished you're unable to go to the station again.
Leviathan was excellent, better than I was expecting, but this DLC presented itself very poorly by comparison in terms of cutscene quality and overall level design. I paid full price for it, but that's not a factor. If it had been 800 points I'd expect it to measure up to previous work and the simple fact is that it doesn't, which is a pity really when you think about how much BioWare had to work with on this episode. I checked my beginning and end times, too, and Omega took about three and a half hours on Insanity for me.
Still, you get a good slice of intel on Aria, great dialogue, fantastic battle scenes (at the beginning anyway) and some interesting new character dynamics. The Cerberus General does his best to make an interesting antagonist, but the Illusive Man is leagues ahead. The suit alone makes him worthier.
In the Mass Effect DLC universe, the Lair of the Shadow Broker is still king.
YoungTobias on 29 Nov '12 said:
If it makes you feel more secure to believe that I'm the only person who still feels angered by BioWare's complete and utter betrayal of promises made to its customers, and by a majority of those same customers' refusal to acknowledge any criticism of the product (thus enabling them to do it again), then by all means sustain that delusion. It doesn't correspond with reality as the massive backlash should have already shown you, but at least you can continue to kid yourself that BioWare and EA give two shits what you want.
OXM ETboy on 29 Nov '12 said:
Now now, chaps. YoungTobias has strong views but that doesn't make it OK to belittle him when he's not around/without provocation. Let's be awesome to each other, everybody.
YT: you are an articulate fellow, and it would be splendid if you posted more about things besides Mass Effect
Bezza89 on 29 Nov '12 said:
Yeah I read your review of it in... the marketplace update or omega dlc announcement thread, that's why I was asking, this review was very nice to it and I was wondering why based on it not being as clearly good as shadsB. 1200 is steep, too steep for me tbh.
That's all well and good, but I think the fish and mbs are quite right to take the piss out of someone whose 90% of posts are the same thing, it's a joke - the forum rules clearly state we should not get upset over these jokes, and it is very, very clear that it's not to be taken serious.
msbhvn on 29 Nov '12 said:
Wow. Just wow. Disagreeing with your opinion =/= "sustained abuse". Don't let the door hit you on the way out, you big crybaby.
schwepterbrowser on 29 Nov '12 said:
Is there any news on a complete/GotY/whatever edition? Yet to get it after the abomination of a demo and ending controversy, but don't fancy picking the game up (even for a tenner) to then be faced with a heap of DLC.
SidTheSloth on 29 Nov '12 said:
Obviously i expect to be immediately proved wrong but i think you'll be waiting a long time dude if you're after a GotY edition - don't recall ever seeing one for the other ME's, in fact i don't recall seeing many EA games get a GotY edition. DA: Origins did but think that's the exception rather than the rule. They're bringing a trilogy box set out for ME and the dlc isn't even included in that i understand so not exactly a good omen?
Bezza89 on 30 Nov '12 said:
Battlefield got one too, well, all dlc included. They definitely want you to buy the game and dlc separate to make more money, so I'm doubtful you'd be seeing a full dlc one, there wasn't a ME2 one, there was one with the BDtSky mission for ME1 though, pinnacle station was released mere months before ME2, there was no point in it.
cyclekarl on 30 Nov '12 said:
Well I am surprised by OXM giving this a less than perfect review,they are improving themselves I am impressed,but about this DLC it was clearly cut from the main game to make more money later on which is bad enough,but apart from the Multi-player element ME3 is a dead game and I can't see anyone who's already played it going back and playing through this repetitive tedious game again even if this DLC looks good which it does,but like OXM have said it's not worth the asking price and especially after Bioware and EA crapped on their fans,I personally don't want to give them anymore money.
FishyGinger on 30 Nov '12 said:
Apologies Ed, just taking the widdle because he let 5-10 minutes out of 120 odd hours rile him quite so much, uses strong terms such as 'utter betrayel' then claims he'll buy them anyways. If that isn't defeating his own point I don't know what is.
Still, I'll see his point of view when George Lucas buys bioware.
This does seem to get contrasting views. Eurogamer and Alaric didn't like, Matt and kotaku did like. 1200 does sound too much though.
msbhvn on 30 Nov '12 said:
Well I'm not sorry. I have no respect for someone who joins a forum, makes twenty posts that are virtually identical, ridiculous rants about the same months-old subject and then claims people are abusing him because they aren't lining up to agree with him. He never joined in with any discussion, or even replied directly to anyone's posts other than to accuse them of being corporate puppets. Good riddance, I say.
SidTheSloth on 30 Nov '12 said:
MSB - Not cool dude, not cool at all, glad you changed your post last night too...
I hope for his own sake Mr YT discovers there is more in the world than video games and channels his apparent intellect towards a more worthwhile cause in the future - there's plenty out there!
Whilst i agree he should chill the f*ck out and learn to take a joke, i don't think he was doing anything wrong other than voicing his opinion (repeatedly). His dignity (cheapened by the sig) in responding to those knocking him shone through far better than the self control apparently lacking from those who could quite easily have ignored him if an irritation. Maybe he needs thicker skin as a lot of it was just banter, but some of it (and i'm talking the other threads too) wasn't & i wonder how many others would have shrugged the criticism off in the same situation?
The forum is quiet enough a lot of the time without chasing people away, now we have the unfortunate situation where we've basically had someone leave because he 'didn't conform' to a supposed ideal? Thought this place was better than that...
Bezza89 on 30 Nov '12 said:
As I gather, the man repeatedly moans about the ending of the game in topics which are not relevant to it, like dlc announcements, and then adding 'It should have been on the disc', they're murdering babies making this dlc, why couldn't they have made shepard jizz on a koala like I had in my mind! Is that someone we need around here?
I love MGS, and people are always saying 'oh I bet Bezzas jizzing on a koala right about now' before I've finished jizzing on a koala to reply to the topic thread whilst everyone else arrived. But do you see me taking it personally?
Keep it together! 
I've forgot what my point was.
msbhvn on 30 Nov '12 said:
The poor koalas.
I'm still quite angry about that sig, there was only one reply to a post of his that could be construed as abusive and that was so silly as to not be taken seriously. There's a word for repeatedly posting negative comments in the hope of getting a reaction and that is trolling, no matter how articulate he was about it. The few posts he made that weren't ME related, were all negative too.
Please Sid, teach me your art of zen so that I myself may learn to be so serene.
Plamsa wing on 30 Nov '12 said:
I still don't see the point in the Wii U version, they'll only just release the trilogy pack in a few months for it.
Well I've learned more about Bezza than I wanted to do. You dirty boy!
Clanger67 on 30 Nov '12 said:
schwepterbrowser on 30 Nov '12 said:
I heard he actually lives in a cardboard box as an homage to the series...
FishyGinger on 30 Nov '12 said:
I had no idea he had a koala. It would make sense if he was australian, they all have them.
SidTheSloth on 30 Nov '12 said:
I'm not going to sit and debate with you the nature of every one of his posts, i tend to avoid serious chats on here at all costs as life is just too goddam short - if i want sensible I'll read the Telegraph! From what i saw though, yes the dude had an opinion on the ME ending that seems to have crossed over into obsession, and in all truth is probably playing hopscotch on the borderline of vendetta - but is it still not just his opinion - negative or otherwise? I haven't really spent too much time reading the guys posts in all honesty but i don't recall him ever going as far as babies or koalas, just the same inoffensive diatribe about EA & Bioware. At the end of the day, if it gets the guy hot under the collar let him vent - it's not like he told you that your face reminded him of a Rhino's vulva is it - so why take offence?
Regarding the negativity, unfortunately, take a look around - the world is full of miserable, cynical gits nowadays, can't imagine shouting at them will make them any happier though?
I make light of it all yeah, but it should never have got to this stage, I find Mr Fish quite funny, i found what he wrote quite funny and it's a shame in that sense the dude couldn't laugh it off, but he also didn't resort to shouting & screaming like i would ha... erm, like a 6 year old would have...
So would you prefer we have another 50 in place of him that all conform to the normal and contribute 20 weekly posts saying "i can't wait for this to come out"? I don't agree with what the guy wrote, i don't agree with the fact he wrote it in as many places as possible, but he was honest, literate and was at least saying something. If we're going to start judging who we want around based on what/how much they contribute etc then i'll call it a day now myself as that's beyond a few simple rules and regs.
Ha! I assume you joke? Bezza's ears are no doubt still ringing from the last time we played FIFA. He's obviously no stranger to crude and vulgar words but playing alongside me with the ultra helpful AI i think enabled me to teach him a few new ones! Serene i most certainly was not!!
Alaric14 on 30 Nov '12 said:
Sorry Bezza, just thought I would add a bit more in the way of non-spoiler context to my posts on Omega on other topic threads! OXM's in-depth review pretty much warranted a fuller response.
On the subject of YoungTobias, assuming he has had enough of the forums and left for good, it's a pity he felt obligated to leave. That said, I think he allowed his passion for one particular subject to cloud his judgement on other topics, such as other games' DLC, changes in industry practices, and EA's activity in general.
I despised the original endings for ME3, too, and I joined in the heavy discussion about them - and the subsequent Extended Cut DLC - here on OXM. I posted some lengthy comments, making as many reasonable points as I could about my opinions, responded to a couple of people who disagreed (without being too much of a dick, I hope) and after the dust settled I let the matter rest. I'd said what I felt had to be said and the future for Mass Effect was something new to hopefully look forward to.
I've posted comments on other topics, managing to avoid the issue of ME3's endings where I can...sort of.
Mister Tobias has been unrelenting in his criticisms of EA, Mass Effect 3's development, and the industry in general, all because of his feelings towards the Mass Effect 3 endings. I'll endorse a valid opinion, no problem, but one person banging on about the same goddamned thing all the time can get more than a little tiresome. YoungTobias is an articulate fellow, he argues his points well when he isn't fuelled by anger towards EA or BioWare. By the same token you could have a great piece of music, ruined by one constant note being blared out all the way through. Notes are good things in music, but if they go on for too long they become meaningless noise.
Bezza89 on 30 Nov '12 said:
My quote is out of context there (it's not included) - please add the preceding, I've edited this post now because I thought it was a bit ranty but I'm pretty sure I was on about murdering babies.
I'd like someone who is like that but has more than one opinion, having never read his posts I assumed it was all just 'the ending is shit'. If he explained it and took on other peoples opinions and didn't just flat out ignore ours like wishface then they're good, but at least wishface hated more than one thing. I've only commented that that is a silly thing to do leaving after what the fish wrote. He can come back for all I care, but should he expect to not have his opinion challenged? Mocking him is a little harsh, but I bet he only left because he was just about to write that word for word