The space station appears to be composed of spare parts and junk. Omega can appear to the untrained eye as nothing more than walls, lights, people and congestion. But to others, the criminal-controlled space station has an aura of perplexity that must be explored.
At Omega's center is the club Afterlife. The building reeks with debauchery and criminal undertones. It is a heavily guarded fortress and throne to the leader of Omega's chaos.
The structure shivers with life; its intense music is barely muted by the walls and chatter of potential patrons. Inside, armed citizens of Omega flock to its decadent atmosphere and are entranced by its scantily clad Asari dancers.
Omega was one of the most exhilarating locales to visit in Mass Effect 2, but it seems to have lost its luster in the latest expansion for Mass Effect 3. The recently released Omega downloadable content is an intense, but slightly disappointing expansion to the Mass Effect 3. The add-on returns gamers to their favorite criminal locale, but they will be too busy shooting everything to enjoy the sights and sounds.
The Omega DLC delivers on most of its promises and does bring a few new experiences to the game. Omega introduces gamers to the first female Turian, return us to the fascinating space station Omega and lets us battle against an all-new Cerberus-manipulated Reaper monstrosity, the Adjutant. But overall, the add-on does very little to add to the overarching themes of the video game series. It is a mindless action blockbuster in the middle of an epic story.
The previously released Leviathan DLC added to the trilogy's mythos and also offered gamers the chance to control a new mech underwater. Omega fails to offer anything new in terms of gameplay and its narrative feels inconsequential compared to the overall story arch of Mass Effect 3, but its action oriented gameplay is fun and succeeds where the Leviathan DLC failed.
Omega lets gamers join the infamous Pirate Queen Aria T'Loak on a mission to retake Omega from Cerberus control. Cerberus agent, General Oleg Petrovsky, is holding the space station's citizens captive and using them for sinister reasons. The General is not your typical Illusive Man flunky and shows a great deal of intelligence and military skill.
The expansion gets going with a pretty cool cinematic that leads gamers to a crash landing on the space station. From there on gamers are hit with waves of enemy cannon fodder as they move from simple objective to simple objective. Along the way Aria and Shepard discover what has occurred on the space station since Cerberus took over and they meet the underground resistance. Shepard is basically a gun for hire in this DLC, so his squad mates are not available and unfortunately, Aria doesn't like to talk too much.
Shepard and Aria eventually meet up with female Turian, Nyreen Kandros, the valiant leader of the Talon mercenary group. Nyreen joins your squad here and there throughout the expansion. She is a worthy character to Mass Effect's roster and will likely become a fan favorite.
Her back-story is slightly explored through dialogue and is good enough to pique your interest. Nyreen and Aria have had past dealings with each other, which cause some tension between the two. They are also on the opposite sides of the morality meter, so expect to make some weighted choices.
Omega is still an enjoyable expansion to the game and its elevated difficulty makes it standout from some of the easier missions in the game. If you enjoy dodging, ducking and gunning, this is a great add-on. But if you are looking for some in-depth story telling, Omega falls short. Aria's mission is the most expensive add-on in Mass Effect history at its $14.99 price point. At Omega's current price tag, you should only purchases it if you really need more Commander Shepard. In full disclosure, I am one of those gamers and I enjoyed every expensive minute of the DLC. But for other gamers, I would wait till the DLC possibly get a price cut in the future. I give the Omega DLC a 7-out-of-10.
View more images from the Omega DLC by clicking here and read out our list of the five best squadmates here or our list of the five best Mass Effect missions here. Watch the official trailer below and comment on your expierence with the new DLC in the comment section.
