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Post by Knightfall on Sept 10, 2010 23:06:42 GMT 1
Nice review! I'm glad that BioWare went out of their way to actually make this good. But, I agree, I think this should have been in one of the games.
I should check this out though; I think Gamestop sells DLC now. =O
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methodicalmute
Serviceman 3rd Class
"Something's up...I'm feeling kinda...funky!"
Posts: 26
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Post by methodicalmute on Sept 11, 2010 0:11:01 GMT 1
Just played it. I really enjoyed it too. I share some of the gripes raised: the flashbangs seemed overused, the car chase felt too gimmicky, the firefights seemed protracted and frequent, getting in the way of more story. I also had an issue with some of the characterisation - having spent all that time thinking Feron was dead, Liara was happy to let him limp out the room when rescued, just to give her and Shepard five minutes.
But for me the positives far outweighed the negatives:
- well-realised locations like Liara's apartment, the other places seen on illium, and in particular the shadow broker's ship (I'm tinkering with UDK at the moment, and I can only marvel at what BioWare's artists and designers have built with it).
- humorous, self-referential dialogue, with some lol moments.
- Liara comes alive at last in ME2, and as was said, some moving dialogue, and genuinely nice down-time with her. Like with Buch though, maybe this is cos I like the character, and spent much time with her in ME1. That said, though less has been more for me in some of the sex scenes, like Shepard and Garrus touching heads, I was expecting more 'angles' with Liara. A slight let down, but the entire niceness of the cabin dialogue makes up for that, and arguably warrants some privacy for the pair. Liara has a nice smile.
- lots of nice extra content: dossiers (though I seem to have different dossiers to everyone else - there was nothing about Miranda online dating or Legion playing MMOs - EDIT: oh now I see, you have to click on a character to read all the details *cough*), CCTV vids, a new system to chart, interesting 'investment opportunities' (wonder if they'll affect anything long-term), and just plenty of good banter all round, including with Feron.
- the broker boss fight was not over-taxing (I like) and extremely well choreographed. Felt epic. Shadow Broker genuinely weird and scary.
All in all the DLC left with me with a warm feeling inside. I have to say, having downloaded all the ME2 DLC, I've been very impressed, contrary to many of you. The DLC weapons and armours are minor, granted, but the DLC missions have all offered something cool and unique to me, with some stunning visual design. The only ME DLC I haven't enjoyed is Pinnacle Station from ME1, which was simply too difficult to succeed at.
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Post by Mister Buch on Sept 11, 2010 12:20:12 GMT 1
Very nice reviews, Trav and Mute.
I must have missed the line about the Mako! Damnit.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Sept 11, 2010 15:16:25 GMT 1
Don't feel bad, I missed it too
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Post by Crifiris on Sept 11, 2010 17:04:06 GMT 1
This DLC was well done. My favorite part was definitely the boss battles. The Asari Spectre moving like a bullet was awesome (considering I'm a Vanguard and can do the same) It was very intense having two vanguard spectres fighting one another. The Shadow Broker himself was an interesting boss battle as well with all the right elements. Well done Bioware
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Post by lieden on Sept 13, 2010 7:48:53 GMT 1
I also played LotSB and liked it very much! I found it very immersive: usually I play a bit on the cautious side and with a tactical disposition, but on this one I role-played in full. I was even worried with the explosion at the Trade Centre, and had my Shepard running frantically inside to get to Liara. The skycab stint was hilarious (I was really clumsy with it at the beginning, bumping on EVERYTHING and then flooring it like mad; intensely reminiscent of mountain-climbing Mako craziness), and so was the banter during battle outside the SB base. When I first got to the base I was kinda suspicious it would be a bit of a sloppy job, because the ship exterior reminded me a lot of the large ship wreck you come across while exploring planets (the one that falls down a cliff at some point). I was wrong! I'd compare it more to the run along the Citadel tower. Very juicy. Overall I found the combat very satisfying, with the greatest highlight being Vasir: finally, an enemy Vanguard that uses their charge power! I also liked the hand-to-hand take in the fight against the SB. Not too keen on the choice of race, though. It didn't quite fit, but I suppose they wanted the final battle to be against something big and scary. Oh well! I now want to try it on Hardcore (played Veteran so far) to evaluate its difficulty better. Liara becoming the Shadow Broker was something I had speculated on before. I think that her personality change from meek in ME1 to, well, inexorable and even ruthless in ME2, paves the way sufficiently so that it doesn't look out of place. The dossiers on the crew members were a great touch and one of my favourite aspects of the game. I felt a little bad for spying on them, but the info made me like each one of them more. And finally I got the chance to retrain my squad mates' powers. I had made a few mistakes with these in my latest playthrough! Overall, I liked this DLC a lot. As for it being either part of ME2 or ME3: I'm not so sure. I find the idea of paying extra for DLC's very annoying, but LotSB had its own mini story arc and I can't quite see it as part of either game without disrupting the flow of the plot. Now I'm going to rewrite some parts of my ME fic. The new info in the dossiers is pulling me to sad directions.
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Post by Mister Buch on Sept 13, 2010 13:10:21 GMT 1
Crifiris, I enjoyed that vanguard-charging thing too. My Shep was also a vanguard, so that was a lot of fun for me - a charging match xD
Nice review, lieden. I agree fully. And I was really worried, too, outside the trade centre. When Shepard yelled, 'Liara's in there!' I was nodding furiously.
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Post by lieden on Sept 13, 2010 14:13:22 GMT 1
There ought to have been more enemy vanguards in the game!
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Post by Clint Johnston on Sept 13, 2010 14:48:33 GMT 1
To be honest, I expected a usual suspects switch-around, with Feron turning out to be the real shadow broker.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Sept 13, 2010 15:50:56 GMT 1
And another thing, I didn't read BioWare's little comic, am I supposed to know, or even care who that Drell guy is?
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Post by Mister Buch on Sept 13, 2010 16:08:02 GMT 1
And another thing, I didn't read BioWare's little comic, am I supposed to know, or even care who that Drell guy is? Nah. If they'd wanted that, they'd have drawn him a face.
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Post by jklinders on Sept 17, 2010 4:00:52 GMT 1
Well those of you who were able to play this without trouble I envy you. Since installing LotSB on my machine I have been getting consistent crashes. There are half a dozen threads in the Bioware forums and no response. That's just swell. I got as far as the Shadow Broker's ship before I finally lost patience. But what I have been able to play was pretty sweet. Hopefully a patch or some kind of community fix will come out soon. Spectre was a pest but went down easy enough after her barrier was removed. Don't use an infiltrator against her unless you like a challenge
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Post by Clint Johnston on Sept 17, 2010 19:16:13 GMT 1
Did you re-download it?
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Post by jklinders on Sept 17, 2010 21:18:19 GMT 1
My understanding of the crap version that was released was that a fixed version was posted later on. DO I really have to download and install it twice even though I just got it last night?
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Post by jklinders on Sept 18, 2010 19:39:53 GMT 1
I've been blessed with just enough stability to complete the main quest in LotSB. Overall I felt the content was well done. Boss fight was a little lame but I was never a fan of the wash rinse repeat sequence that is so popular among game designers.
Was I the only one that felt that Garrus got just a little cooler in reading his dossier. My opinion of both Jacob and to a lesser extent Miranda dropped after reading theirs. Someone should really tell Miranda that a dating site is not the same as a job interview. Car chase would have been better as a cutscene. Pretty sloppy IMHO. I would have expected the creature comforts available to the extremely wealthy would have been more apparent in the SB ship. It was a half wrecked slum from what I saw. Ah well.
I liked the Illium level design but the SB's ship was pretty blah, just a small number of dank grey corridors. Too much grey in sci-fi, there are other colors dammit.
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