When Mass Effect was first announced the general expectation (as is with any Bioware RPG) was that in addition to an epic main quest there would be substantial side missions that extended and progressed the game and its universe. Unfortunately, flying to wildly different planets, vast sci-fi cities and interesting subplots turned out to be a series of barren planets with hunks of minerals and sparse outposts, cloned and thrown throughout the wasteland – the levels could have been easily mistaken as randomly generated. What resulted was essentially generic dungeon crawls, save the few that had a mild, albeit weak form of a plot. Today Mass Effect’s first foray in a series of downloadable content packs comes out in the form of “Bringing Down the Sky”, available through Xbox Live for 400 Microsoft points and is looking to wash that bad side-quest taste from your mouth.

If you are a big Mass Effect geek, you have already read the prequel novel ‘Revelation’ months ago and know all about the new race introduced in this content, the Batarians. For those that don’t, they are an angry four eyed race (no, that doesn’t mean they wear glasses) that hate us humans and our expansionist nature, big surprise. Because of this uncontrollable hate a Batarian terrorist group have hijacked a giant mobile asteroid and set a collision course for a vastly populated colonial planet called Terra Nova. This is where you, Commander Sheppard, come in to beat down some evil aliens and save another population of helpless humans.

The hijacked asteroid hurtling towards Terra Nova

For the most part, the level design is carried over from the other side missions from the game, but unlike the majority of the missions found on the disc the battles here provide a challenge even for a level 50-plus character. A new interior locale, never seen before is beautifully crafted, well designed and features one of the best gun battles Mass Effect has to offer. Traversing in the Mako, your rover-tank, takes up a big chunk of time and for those that couldn’t stand its floaty physics and awkward aiming, things are no different here.

The story is quite fleshed out for an experience that lasts roughly 90 minutes and the Batarians, a race sorely missing from the main game, are a fantastic addition to the Mass Effect universe. The most successful moments in the main game came from missions that were absolutely massive in scope and provided meaningful and morally challenging situations. Bioware obviously took note of what worked in the main quest and applied it here – while traversing the asteroid, you can see Terra Nova looming ever larger and closer and the urgency of the mission is apparent. The choices made in the later parts are engaging and epic and it amounts to “Bringing Down the Sky” shedding the generic dungeon crawl feel experienced far too many times in other side-quests.

The Batarians are a great addition to the Mass Effect universe and achieve the amazing feat of being the ugliest damn aliens in the galaxy

“Bringing Down the Sky” still has some baggage it needs to shed – the repetitive level design is not welcome and considering the Mako is one of the weaker elements of the game why focus on it? But as a first outing into the DLC realm it generally succeeds, the scope of this quick adventure is akin to what is found in Mass Effect’s main quest and should please anyone who dreaded landing on another generic planet that had a mere veil of a plot. In a marketplace where other publishers are charging for content already on the disc, gamer pictures that should be free and countless map packs, Bioware has done DLC right: meaningful content that fits perfectly within the game universe and expands it to boot.

Verdict: Buy

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