XBox 360 News

Mass Effect DLC requires player investment

By Stevie Smith Feb 11, 2008, 9:36 GMT

Fans of award-winning sci-fi RPG spectacular Mass Effect were doubtless left ecstatic last week when developer BioWare announced the first of the game’s promised episodic downloads. Will access to Bring Down the Sky require somewhat of a re-trawl through Mass Effect first? Credit: BioWare.

Will access to Bring Down the Sky require somewhat of a re-trawl through Mass Effect first? Credit: BioWare.However, it has come to light today that the arrival of ‘Bring Down the Sky’ will not simply be a case of pick-up-and-play for those who’ve finished the game and are now looking forward to a fresh mini-adventure with galaxy-saving Commander Shepard.The MTV multiplayerblog has revealed that Mass Effect players will be required to complete the opening Eden Prime and Citadel portions of the game before then gaining access to the 90 minutes of new action and 50 Achievement points set to be delivered by Bring Down the Sky.The reason for the re-trawl, which will likely take a couple of hours of gameplay, is that Bring Down the Sky will introduce a previously unexplored planet to Mass Effect’s galaxy map and that systems and planets on that map are only opened to the player after Shepard has acquired the prototype Normandy spacecraft in the Citadel.For those who’ve already finished - and rightly adored - Mass Effect, the expectation of guiding Shepard through a brand new mission is hardly likely to be viewed as a gameplay chore, while those who’ve finished but weren’t overly impressed probably won’t be downloading the expansion anyway. So, no big deal?And, for those still immersed in Mass Effect’s compelling narrative (or able to access multiple save files), access to Bring Down the Sky hopefully won’t be any more difficult than travelling to the host system and getting stuck into the action right away.Bring Down the Sky sees a group of Batarian extremists in the Asgard system attack and hijack an asteroid station, directing it on a collision course to strike the nearby world of Terra Nova. By way of response, Shepard is tasked with preventing a planetary catastrophe that could lead to the loss of millions of innocent colonists.Bring Down the Sky will be released to the Xbox Live Marketplace on March 10.

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