Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Buried: Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC


It's possible that BioWare and EA were going for some kind of meta experience with the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3 -- not entirely sure; this the first piece of additional content for Mass Effect 3 I've played -- because it's so difficult to find.

The basic starting point for the Leviathan story is that there's this mysterious Reaper killer something out in deep space. It's up to Shepherd to find it. And it's up to the player to figure out where the hell the story arc is buried.

Granted I haven't played Mass Effect 3 in a while, but I was expecting a flashing light, a big button somewhere that said, "Leviathan, GO!" to kick off the story.

No.

So, I check Shepherd's email. Nothing obvious there. I wandered the Normandy and Citadel expecting a flashing arrow or other obvious indication of a starting point.

No.

What the hell? I went online to track this down. Surely, it can't be that difficult to start playing this thing that people have plunked down money to purchase.

Paydirt on EA's site under "Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC FAQ:
When the player has completed the main game mission Priority: Palaven and returns to the Normandy, or when the player loads a save made after this point, a journal entry (“Citadel: Dr. Bryson”) will be added to the player’s journal, and an email will be delivered to Shepard’s private terminal with the title “Urgent message from Admiral Hackett”. Reading this email will cause the quest marker for Leviathan to appear at the Citadel and the option to travel to Dr. Bryson’s lab will be available when docking.
Also, it must be a full moon. And forget it if you get the disc wet after midnight.

I understand the necessity of placing the DLC after a certain part of the main story -- that makes sense to me -- but utterly burying the damn thing? Not as bad as the proverbial needle in a haystack but close enough to make me wonder why there hasn't been more of an outcry over the implementation of the DLC.

This is like telling someone there's this great restaurant nearby but neglecting to tell them the type of food they serve, the name of the place, or the address. "Just get out there and start exploring! It's there somewhere!" They'd wind up hating you.

I'll have a full review of Leviathan a little later this week if my schedule holds. Resident Evil 6 arrived so I'm trying to get that one completed before the review embargo expires on October 1, 2012.

No comments:

Post a Comment