Xbox 360 Game Review Mass Effect Expansion: Bring Down the Sky

SINGAPORE: Mass Effect was my favourite role-playing game (RPG) on the Xbox 360 platform last year. So, when the expansion Bring Down the Sky (BDTS) was announced, I was really eager to try it out.

Available through Xbox Live Marketplace as the first in a series of downloadable content for Mass Effect, BDTS introduces the infamous exiled alien race of Batarians.

The Batarians blame the humans for the misfortunes of its race and a Batarian terrorist group has taken upon itself to seek vengeance, hijacking a mobile asteroid station and setting it on a collision course with the human colony world of Terra Nova.

It is up to you, Commander Shepard, to save millions of innocent civilians from imminent armageddon.

But I had a bad feeling upon downloading the game. All my saved games are periods leading up to the final confrontation. As one can only assess the BDTS expansion from the Star Map in the spacecraft SSV Normandy, I am forced to start a new game and play until I gain control of the spacecraft.

Upon landing on the captured asteroid X57, I get an immediate sense of deja vu, as the environment looks uncannily familiar. Yes, the terrain of X57 is rendered authentically — you can see pieces of small rocks shooting into the sky with the beautiful Earth-like planet Terra Nova in the far horizon. Still, I can’t help but feel that I have been here before.

The main mission is to disable the three touches that are powering the asteroid using the awkward and hard-to-control infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) to explore X57. Controlling and fighting with the IFV has always been my major complaint with Mass Effect.

In BDTS, the new turrets defending the touches exacerbate this. The turrets have a shield that only drops when the IFV is within range. I have to resort to fire-and-dodge tactics instead. Thankfully, destroying the turrets is the difficult part; flushing out the Batarian troops in the touches is relatively easy.

There are some side quests but they don’t provide a new environment or interaction with non-player characters, nor do they advance the storyline significantly.

VERDICT

Bring Down the Sky is not a significant improvement to Mass Effect and you might wonder why you are paying 400 MS points for only 90 minutes of gameplay and 50 Gamerscore points. That said, it’s still a fun game and it certainly assuages the thirst of Mass Effect fans worldwide. So, until Mass Effect 2, please bring more on! - TODAY/fa