New Mass Effect DLC: Worries and Relief

If you've been worrying about whether or not Bioware would be sending gamers downloadable content with the amount of work they have (almost 5 games), worry no more. They have revealed their new DLC for Mass Effect. However, even with the revelation of a new race and planet, are we really getting anything new?

On one hand, it is possible the environment behind the picture they give out is just a placeholder. Or even better, a small part of the content. Bioware doesn't seem to be the type to rehash environments for entirely new content. On the other hand, they did rehash content for almost all of their side quests and a large part of the planets you could visit. There is nothing here that proves they will or will not continue this tradition and not make the game content completely unique or incredibly mundane. The side quests in Mass Effect lead to the latter, but the main quests lead to the former.

None of this means that anyone should be sad to hear about the news of DLC. Why? For a couple of reasons. One, this is a entirely new race. Two, the events of the new content (An asteroid colliding with a colony), seem epic enough to justify belief that it will be treated as a mission planet. The only sad thing to hear is that it doesn't happen after the game. Although we know the Batarian will have some sort of impact, it would have been nice to see it happen after the game ends. It sort of dilutes the impact when you already have Saren to worry about, making it feel just like a side planet. Although, a large side planet.

So in this situation where two outcomes are equally likely, it is best to wait and have faith. It may be argued that Bioware is not creating as unique a game experience as Baldur's Gate 2 anymore. But they haven't yet made a game that is a complete disappointment either (Jade Empire was quite good if you ignored the obvious faults.) So have faith in Bioware before you rush to make any judgments on them.