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My thoughts on 'from ashes' dlc *some spoilers*


superdupergizmo
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first of all, my biggest beef with this dlc is the price tag. it's at 800 mp so about 10 bucks. to give you an idea, this isn't a shadow broker length dlc, think more zaeed masani dlc. it'll last you about half an hour to an hour. that, in itself, is entirely outrageous. the zaeed dlc was by no stretch of the imagination the best dlc, or even a good dlc, but it made up for it by being free (at least if you bought the game new). this time, ea have congratulated us on purchasing their game new by giving us an online pass à la fifa/nfs (don't we feel special?) now if this is bioware or ea's fault, i'm not too sure and truthfully it's kind of irrelevant because it won't change much: if you want all achievements you'll have to dish out 800mp for a terrible and short dlc.

to top it off there's about two 'major' combat sections that you can finish in very little time. hardly any challenge involved.

as you probably know, this is the dlc where you recruit a prothean. very little is actually explained. you get a few flashbacks to 50.000 years ago but some major questions go unanswered (eg: why doesn't he look like the protheans on ilos? he does give an explanation but it's too convenient and raises so many more questions, i get the impression the script was sketched it out in a day by the intern that chews on glue and smells his farts).

the character himself i find to be sort of lukewarm. i know many are divided on him. some love his turian/jamaican accent, some hate it but there doesn't seem to be much middle ground. however, the character is no where near deep enough as it should be for a mass effect game; especially for the first prothean encountered. he's a soldier so he obviously has to be rude, condescending and just plain uninteresting. i'm half expecting him to crack dick jokes, straight outta bulletstorm. he makes vega look like well... vega off the lyra constellation. he makes jacob look like, nevermind, he's just as boring as jacob.

to top it off, he gets the same treatment as kasumi and zaeed in the two, if ever you're feeling exceptionally chatty, there's no way for you to talk to him. i'm more enthralled by prothean culture than liara, so to me this dlc was a slap across the face.

instead of having a potentially amazing and genuinely interesting character, the likes of thane or legion (imo), we get this half assed effort. so much more could have been done story wise, especially by incorporating him to the main plotline, but he's underworked, underdeveloped and underwhelming.

now there may be an extra mission dedicated to him at some point but seeing as how i got both achievements, i doubt so. to anyone wondering, the first one you get by looking around for data pads, i think there's three or four and the second for finishing the dlc.

really just an underwhelming dlc. i haven't been this disappointed since EDI. unless you absolutely want every single achievement, i suggest you give it a miss. it's actually got me depressed. it's in my opinion the worst dlc available for the entire mass effect series.

i know everyone's complaining about day 1 dlc, and please don't take this as a raging fanboy review because truthfully i understand why some games do it. but if you do plan on making as much money as you can, at least don't do it while betraying the fans. if i were to rate it honestly, i'd give it a 2/10

Edited by superdupergizmo
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to top it off, he gets the same treatment as kasumi and zaeed in the two, if ever you're feeling exceptionally chatty, there's no way for you to talk to him. i'm more enthralled by prothean culture than liara, so to me this dlc was a slap across the face.

I missed being able to actually talk to them too, but you have to wonder how much work that would be, and Kasumi almost always had interesting stuff to say regardless.

 

How is he in combat? That's the main thing you're paying for, I'd say (I'm not saying there shouldn't be interaction at all btw).

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While obviously annoyed that it cost me $10, I liked the mission and like the squadmate. Although the quest wasn't long enough and was basically a two-part fetch quest, now that I use Jarick most of the time as a squadmate, I like his pre-mission shuttle dialogue and his powers. His accent makes me laugh. I pre-ordered the game from Amazon, so I got a free $10 giftcard that I used to buy MSpoints, which basically made it free, so i'm not too disappointed.

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How is he in combat? That's the main thing you're paying for, I'd say (I'm not saying there shouldn't be interaction at all btw).

 

he's alright in combat. he's part biotic and part soldier. the biotic field he uses is green (although not always for me for some reason). he's got pull, slam which are alright strength wise. he's got lift grenades (what it sounds like) which i thought would be awesome but i don't end up using all that often. he's also got this power called dark channel or something. sounds like something out of pokemon. i still haven't figured it out completely. it a biotic field that does damage over time. so over all he's not awful, he doesn't have overpowered moves for the harder difficulties like overload however. he isn't my first pick from a strategic standpoint.

on the other hand, he does interact in the cutscenes. i half expected him to not open his mouth again for the rest of the game but he does have one or two lines left in him about his cycles. (bring him to an asari tittybar maybe then he'll shut up about his cycles). however, bear in mind i haven't finished the game, he might come into play later on although i highly doubt it.

 

So he is like Kasumi and zaeed? no talk aboard the normandy?

 

and yeah, still no conversation option in the normandy. a few times when you go into his room he'll either say a sentence or something, or speak with liara. tbh, i find that stupid, it limits the character development to virtually inexistant levels.and yeah it would be extra work but considering you're dishing out 800mp for a mission that's shorter than the crappier side missions in me1, they could at least have made him a little more interesting to interact with. i'm not asking for a homo sex scene as god knows how much time that would take, but maybe a little character development. i'm not asking for a han solo story ark either, but maybe a little something to make him the least bit interesting. which would be feasible if you at least had dialogue options.

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I must have missed a piece of data while I was doing the mission even though I went in every building and swear I got 3 of them. I ended the mission thinking I could scan the system for one. So, am I totally screwed out of getting that on this playthrough?

 

you might be. to anyone wondering there's a few datapads around the place. i would've specified where they are but i hadn't thought of doing a guide while playing. i thought for sure someone else would have done it already.

i doubt you can return. worst comes to worst, when you're done with your playthrough, start a new game. it'll take you an hour or an hour and a half to get to a point where you can trigger the mission.

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Here you are guys:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGexQIM5skM]Mass Effect 3 - Freedom Fighter Achievement Guide - YouTube[/ame]

 

@ topic:

 

I think it was a cool DLC. Finally you have some real insight of INFAMOUS PROTHEANS (video footage). Also the new team-mate/character is great. Not to mention the third outfit option for all your crew members. Nice!

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and yeah, still no conversation option in the normandy. a few times when you go into his room he'll either say a sentence or something,.

 

i'm very confused because he talks to me after every mission just like every other member of the crew, after first meeting up with Legion he very sternly suggested i throw him out the air lock as machines aren't to be trusted and has had mission specific dilouge after every important encounter, he moves around the normandy and interacts with other people, i've found him swapping war stories with Garrus and listening to Vega make bad jokes in the mess hall. hell he even has mission specific sayings which really impressed me, he just interacted with an asari during one of the main story missions and convinced her to hold the line by doing his protehan read you by touching your arm thing. so like i said very confused as to why yours won't talk to you.

 

take him on the mission with liara to the asari home world, he adds a LOT to it

 

now i agree with your main point he's too expensive especilly since after going over what i just said it's obvious he was already built into the game from the start so he shouldn't have been extra

Edited by Mr Yac
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http://www.destructoid.com/did-bioware-lie-about-mass-effect-3-s-day-one-dlc--223448.phtml

 

crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/03/bioware-day-one-dlc-developed.html

 

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4538848922894491&id=5c775954b0382df87b5a58e9b06e06bb&index=newexp&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnoobwarlock.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2Fdaffy-duck-pic-2.jpg

 

EA is greedy as hell

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I've had two conversations with him on the Normandy, and one scene where he met me in the Citadel because he said he couldn't believe that several species could share power, as he'd heard.

 

He's very well-integrated into the game in terms of having unique dialogue, and I like that Liara actually does react significantly to his presence. What he says of the Proteans, that they were pretty much tyrants, is very interesting to me; it defies the expectation that others had of them.

 

Truth be told, though, I might be satisfied mostly because I got it with the CE. For $10, the content seems pretty limited.

 

When you consider how much time it must have taken to record unique reactions and conversation options, the writing involved, the amount of time it took to integrate him into the game, etc., it makes sense that they'd want it to cost something, but I can't speak to the fairness of a price tag I never had to pay.

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I've had two conversations with him on the Normandy, and one scene where he met me in the Citadel because he said he couldn't believe that several species could share power, as he'd heard.

 

He's very well-integrated into the game in terms of having unique dialogue, and I like that Liara actually does react significantly to his presence. What he says of the Proteans, that they were pretty much tyrants, is very interesting to me; it defies the expectation that others had of them.

 

Truth be told, though, I might be satisfied mostly because I got it with the CE. For $10, the content seems pretty limited.

 

When you consider how much time it must have taken to record unique reactions and conversation options, the writing involved, the amount of time it took to integrate him into the game, etc., it makes sense that they'd want it to cost something, but I can't speak to the fairness of a price tag I never had to pay.

 

I couldn't agree more. While my opinion, too, on this DLC may be clouded because I got the CE, it's very well integrated and well thought out. The mission itself could've been a little longer and maybe more intricate, but the Prothean's unique dialogue, interactions and general contribution to the lore is what stands out to me. Although he's a little weaker in combat than I would've preferred, I do recommend taking him with you on as many missions as possible due to his opinion on most things in the galaxy.

 

Oh, and just his, uh, "outlook" alone on the Salarian race is pretty much worth it.

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i'm very confused because he talks to me after every mission just like every other member of the crew

 

don't know what to say, i use him quite often and after every mission i go to see him and he won't open his mouth. he does talk a bit during the actual missions but aboard the normandy he just won't move.

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Javik is a badass. Dark charge is a constant damage one an enemy and when that enemy dies, it jumps to another close enemy and starts ripping him apart. In addition, the power makes it easy to get biotic combos since it'll jump after detenating. I personally found the added insight into the protheans amazing. I have him from the CE however.

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i'm a fan of it. i got it in the CE though.

 

about the price though, you have to consider that its day one DLC. Where the other dlc (cerberus network aside) in me2 was post launch and for most people, played after beating the game. this mission can be done right away and you basically have a brand new character along for the entire game, not just bits & pieces at the end.

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