Review: Mass Effect 3 Leviathan
Written by Team Brannen
When BioWare announced that they were working on content regarding the mysterious “Leviathan of Dis” I could not suppress my inner nerd. The observant Mass Effect fan will recognize the name from a description of planet Jatar in the first ME, the potential of a powerful starship that suddenly disappeared seemed like somewhere the story would naturally flow but two whole games passed without so much as a mention of this mysterious living starship until the DLC was announced.
The core of this DLC focuses around the strengths of ME3 which is to say that it involves combat and beautiful environments. I’d even go as far to say that this DLC includes some of the most impressive environments in the entire series, the cutscenes where Shepard and Co. are moving in-between planets include new transitions to highlight these new areas and are a welcome sight from the Kodiak exterior. In order to get to the bottom of the mystery of these Reaper-destroying starships it is necessary for Shepard to galavant around systems both new and existing to gather clues and put the pieces together. There are no new enemy types with this DLC but two weapons that were only available via retailer pre-order bonus are included for the player to find throughout the journey and a vehicle section is also included and once again allows Shepard to dish out some pain on previously overwhelming enemy forces. Unfortunately there isn’t a crushing moral situation that Shepard must choose a side for and only a few paragon/renegade choices are around to make the players feel involved, it feels like this is a linear story progression without a consequences for either paragon/renegade decisions.
Without spoiling the contents the decisions made in Leviathan don’t have an enormous effect on the ongoing war with the Reapers aside from the addition of war assets upon completion. Where it does have a significant effect is in the lore of the Mass Effect universe and the origins of a previously unknown faction. It seems like this was a fan-service DLC that put some depth into the established universe and to a hardcore Mass Effect fan like me, it was a worthy purchase.
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