Mass Effect: Leviathan DLC

The thought of it, the very THOUGHT of it was enough to have me perspiring lightly in anticipation…

I was going to have more Mass Effect time! Oh the joy, the unfettered joy of it all!

The Leviathan DLC represents a good two to three hours of game-play if, like me, you choose to explore every nook and cranny of the new locations and speak to everyone who’ll listen. The problem with DLC is that it’s difficult to review without being spoilery, but Leviathan brings you a new mission line. Starting from your last save point prior to attacking the Illusive Man’s base, you spin back to the Citadel and go to a new location there – Oh, Rapid Transit makes a return too! Now then, I may have missed this in ME3, but it seems the way to get around the Citadel was via the elevator system between the five or six levels. The Rapid Transit system of earlier games didn’t seem to be around, or at least I didn’t notice the ability to use it. I like those little pods, whizzing you around the place, and getting from the Normandy to the new location uses on of those, but I digress…

The overall storyline has you chasing down clues to find out what killed a Reaper over in Batarian space (they hushed it up which is why we haven’t heard of it ’til now) because anything that can kill a Reaper has to be of use in the war right? The story tells of an entity know as the Leviathan of Dis which can kick Reaper ass but hasn’t actually been seen and as you go through the locations you find out that lots of strange things have been happening and there seems to be something amiss on a much larger scale; something which involves people doing things out of character or during blackouts.

The Reapers themselves are also interested in finding Leviathan and as a result you’ll run into the usual crop of deranged nasties along the way, including at one point a glut of Brutes who take some big gunning to get rid of!

Now then, if you’re a Mass Effect fan, you’ll know that the whole “Indoctrination” thing has been kicked about and poo-pooed, dismissed, derided, questioned and otherwise worried at. Let me tell you this, Leviathan puts some solid ground under that particular story element and does it very well indeed!

What IS Leviathan? Is there only one? How can anything kill a Reaper? Will it help Shepard? These and other questions are answered in an expansion which not only adds more story to the overall arc, but also a very nice set of well put together missions and locations into which you can pour your soul. That might just be me, though!