Leviathan DLC - Opinions

FIRST OFF - DO NOT BUY IT. COME ON, PEOPLE.

So, now that the Leviathan DLC is out. Watched the whole thing on YouTube.

I have to say, it's less suck than expected. Come back here once you watched it (DO NOT DOWNLOAD, IT'S ONLY AN HOUR AND A HALF LONG AND NOT WORTH THE MONEY).

*Here be spoilers*

Soooo... the leak was almost spot on, except the twist, amirite? The Leviathan is NOT a Reaper. Reapers are made to resemble the first Reaper, Harbinger, which was, you guessed it, harvested from the Leviathan's race, after they created the AI, which was supposed to keep all lesser races in order, so that they may continue to serve the master race of Leviathans.

This is now slightly mentioned in the ending.

And what's the opinion? Meh. The opinion is meh. The opinion is that the guy who said this is a game late is not only correct, it's actually an understatement - it's two games late. This plot point, the Reaper Origin,despite actually being well done and slightly awesome, is just WAY too late to this party... it should've been in ME2, and not released AFTER ME3.

What really sucks, except the ending, is how the ending was changed; and the answer is - not enough. Not only are the Leviathans supposedly STRONG ENOUGH TO WHIP THE REAPERS, and they don't, but the conversation often doesn't make sense - Shep knows about the Leviathan, but still asks who made you, then mentions Leviathan, then back to asking about the Starchild's origins.

But here's the REAL kicker - Shep knows Starchild betrayed his creators, and how he betrayed his purpose. The Leviathan clearly says - it doesn't serve its purpose of preserving life BECAUSE it built the Mass Relays to EXPEDITE cycles. THIS is what Shep should be calling him out ON! He betrayed his original programming, but then claims all he's doing is follow his original programming, so which is it? And in this light consider Shepard's actions in general - if before our uproar was WHY would MY Shepard listen to some axiom produced by some unknown mystic being, and post EC why would MY Shepard listen to some axiom produced by an AI despite fighting homicidal AIs for three games now and now... MY Shepard listened to some axiom produced by an AI that has not only broken off from its purpose and built relays for harvest and generally doesn't know what it's doing anymore, AND BETRAYED ITS CREATORS, and he's TRUSTING IT??

Good. God.

Generally though, the whole Leviathan business is not a terrible twist on its own, and overall despite being short, the DLC is pretty cool. It's the game that it plugs into, and how it alters the ending, that is infuriating.

Well thought out. So glad I got this basically for FREE, no not a B-Day gift but simply used $10 off coupon at GameStop.

I cant in good honesty recommend this for most of HTL. If anything if your really curious...see youtube...my somewhat erratic playthru and rambling review posted in my blog. The live playthru portion is in the Massive Levi Leak thread. Praise the sun. XD Im in emotional Blackmail territory now. I want more time...like Tali said to her Maleshep peeps. More time with a universe I still care about even if its logically bloody and broken by that infernal kid sized idgit.

I'm so glad I watched Finna's playthrough. I'm so glad that I watched it all first. I'm also glad that I didn't buy this contradiction. Sure, the music, gameplay, and story were great... minus the fact that it's all too late to do now because the game has been ruined since March 6th.

I've been so politically correct these last few months and holding my tongue because I wanted to be fair to Bioware and the story, but I am truly fed up now. I didn't want to be a flamer and bash the game outright because I still had faith (keyword: HAD) in the story and the series, but I needed to be convinced that the creators weren't just screwing me. I used to look down on people who gave up on Bioware when this disaster began. I even pitied them because I was sure that Bioware would bounce back and show us that they are still capable of competency.

Again, I'm glad that I didn't buy this. I'm heartbroken again because I still care about the story, but I'm done defending it. What's the point?

Yeah, I told Noelemahc yesterdaty. It's a shame that the ending Stigma ruins this DLC. Because the actual STORY behind this DLC is not bad at all, and certainly something I can see Bioware writing. The Problem is that it should've been done in ME2, which again, Gives another Notch to the Theory that were simply biding their time with ME2, and had no real direction on what to do with ANYTHING reaper related.

Uploading my full review now. Lordy....Trex is right....its that fraking kid shaped thingabob that is still one shotting ME3's foot repeatedly......Well....ill still play to the end again later this week. Still too emotional with this series....damnit.

Exactly. I can sort of see the It's the Journey Not the Destination working for THIS DLC.

The problem is, that we KNOW where the Journey is going to take us, and that's painful...very...very...painful. It doesn't help that people are automatically going to chalk it up as bad because of the Ending stigma. Which I don't think is fair to the DLC writer, who has to find a way to make up for the Casey and Mac Mess.

I go over that abit in my review. Getting part 2 up on tube. Man what the other writers had to work with in this dlc....I said they pulled off an emotional improbability even with Starkid involved and thats what makes this even sadder. Give the Bioware Geth Consensus its head from the first 90% of the game.....please!

What i really liked: Squad Dialogue. Finally my squad has something to say in a DLC. Also the Romance Dialogue. Loved how my LI (Liara) this time actually cared that i looked injured or was about to go diving.

What i liked: Story as well as finally a bit of Exploration.

What i didn't like: War Assets? For what...?

What i hated: Far to late... (should have been in me2, not after me3 trying to fill in Exposition after this disaster). Also Bioware... stop promoting Synthesis... (because of the leviathans history and foreseeable future actions, control and destroy become less satisfactory)

Oh well... why do we keep bothering. I was far to eager to play this DLC. Just thanks to the Squad Dialogue i enjoyed it. Still i keep hoping there is a Project X

As others have stated here, this DLC was a waste of time. The story ended. We already knew a lot of crap thanks to ths EC. Also, introducing the Leviathans in a DLC after the main story ended just proves what I amd many others stated years ago: Mass Effect 2 was just biding time because BioWare had no frelling idea on what to do with the Reapers until the last second! It's just another reminder that this was and isva poorly thought out trilogy.

BioWare had no idea what they were doing!

I meant to watch it last night and I forgot (which says a lot about where I stand on ME these days)! From what I've heard so far though, its just more useless effort spent trying to make the current ending digestible.

The Squaddie dialogue sounds awesome but nothing short of a different ending will get me to buy a Mass Effect product again.

I don't know if I will even youtube it to be honest. I have a feeling it will just reopen old wounds and make me sad over what used to be my favorite fictional universe.

At least I have Telltales "The Walking Dead: Episode 3," to keep me occupied and happy tonight.

WAIT! THATS OUT TONIGHT??? OMG!! WALKING DEDS!!

Here is my thought - selling something which should be already included in game isn´t very artistic

YO DAWG is all over this DLC.

Taken on its own merits, I enjoyed Leviathan. The asteroid mission was genuinely creepy and recaptured some of that ME1 unknown horror. The combat was good as always and well-paced. Actual squadmate dialogue in a DLC was nice for once, and there were some lines I enjoyed (Shepard: Sovereign, vanguard of our destruction. How's that working out for you, big guy? or EDI: I don't really appreciate it as "art."). It still doesn't touch Lair of the Shadow Broker as far as I'm concerned, but it is a solid second place.

Put back into context of the game as a whole, I really don't know what BioWare is trying to do. I keep hearing people say that synthesis is getting propped up by Leviathan, but I don't see it. If anything, I trust Starbrat even less because Leviathan makes it even clearer that he has a hard-on for synthesis with the whole "he's searching for something" part of the conversation. The whole "but the Leviathans will conquer the galaxy if we don't synthesize!" argument is illogical and short-sighted. Under the assumption that the Leviathans are such a threat to the galaxy, wouldn't making everything part organic--and thus vulnerable to their control--HELP them conquer the galaxy? Leviathans have no problem controlling organic-tech hybrid husks and shutting off Sovereign-Class Reapers with minimal effort, so why would they have difficulty controlling any other hybrids? The Leviathans would already have an army of husks to begin with because of the artifacts. If you pick destroy, you get rid of that army. I would say destroy looks better than ever and synthesis looks worse than ever.

I can't help but get the feeling that the Leviathans are getting set up to be either the next villains or the "REAL" villains. Considering that BioWare has totally screwed up the Reapers, perhaps replacing them with something more Lovecraftian would be a good step to getting things back on track. Little things like the odd pause and sideways glance Leviathan gives when asked about the Crucible seem to hint that BioWare has SOMETHING planned.

Whether the plan totally sucks is another story, one that only time will tell. I came into the series relatively late, so I still have a great deal of patience left.

Some of these few easter eggs look more like mocking from fanbase... like that joke with gamers complaning about Basilisk - it´s remind me all those discusion on the BSN which were tearing apart that nonsense that Reapers are unbeatable...

Otherwise about Crucible - well it´s obvious that they are up to something again because both Leviathan and Catalyst in fact have refused the question about Crucible - whatever is it.

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DLC is not too bad,I expected it to be much worse,given the bad ending we got they appear to have tried to make it more palatable by giving more explanation about the creators of the Catalyst,in an obvious attempt to give the much hated ending more substance and consistency.What I liked about the DLC is the creepy feeling,the "hunt",occassional humor,design of the Leviathans,the aquatic descent in the deep to meet the Leviathan was a nice touch too,even though it was probably ripped off from the movie Abyss.It is by no means spectacular but it is decent compared to the most missions we got in ME3.However they didnt not give proper explanation about what will happen with the Leviathans after Control and Destroy endings.Synthesis is obvious enough,they will become incorporated in the new hybrid life.

This is entirely possible,with the new Mass Effect games supposedly planned,Leviathans would make for perfect enemies,however that would require Destroy to be the canon in order for making it work,Control is not viable because with Shepard controlling Reaper fleets it would be unbalanced,and Synthesis makes Leviathans synthesized too and that removes the possibility of a conflict with them.And guess what,with Destroy as canon Shepard can be alive for Mass Effect 4 since they said that in Destroy Shepard survives.

Would somebody with a good imagintion indulge me the question, What did the leviathans as a race get from the lesser races, their thralls? What could the lessers provide them with that they needed and couldnt get themselves? The fact that they survived this long proves that they didnt need anything. And they have actual intelligence (yeah i know, creating catalyst disproves that but bear with me), so they didnt make thralls as some kind of an instinct or natural reaction, since intelligent beings are above that.

I know its nitpicking, but i cant imagine that with all the effort that goes into mind-controlling an entire galaxy, there is no clear reason to do so.