(Disclaimer: I will be referring to Commander Shepard as a
male in this analysis because that is the gender I chose for this playthrough)
Mass Effect 3 had a lot of DLC released for it, some good
(Leviathan) some bad (Omega) and the final piece of single-player DLC for the
game, and the last for the entire franchise was Citadel, released exactly one
year after the game on March 6th 2013. Like Left Behind, the story
can be split into two parts, but this time it’s a linear story, rather than
intercut between two different intervals. The story follows Commander Shepard and
his crew taking shore leave on the Citadel, where Shepard now has a fancy new
apartment courtesy of Captain Anderson, when he is attacked by an unknown
mercenary gang, who soon is revealed to be led by a clone of Commander Shepard,
initially made by Cerberus for spare parts. He seeks to replace the original
Shepard and take over as Commander. The original of course wins and the clone
is killed off, the second half of the game then focuses on Shepard throwing a
party for all of his crew and…that’s it, just the crew hanging out.
It’s no secret that Mass Effect has a lot of similarities
and homages to the popular franchise Star Trek and this story continues that
trend, sharing themes and plot points similar to that of Star Trek: Insurrection. The story shows what Shepard would be like
without his companions by his side, his clone has all of his abilities and intelligence,
and while he shares his memories, he doesn’t have that first-hand experience
that shapes a person’s life. It’s an interesting character study as well as
highlighting the importance of Shepard’s crew, the ensemble cast of characters
has always been Mass Effect’s greatest strength and this game expands on why
that is. Unlike previous Mass Effect instalments, the concept of actions and consequences
doesn’t play much of a role, most likely because it’s a short and
self-contained story so it plays out the same way no matter what you pick, your
clone will die, whether you kill him or he kills himself, it doesn’t really
change anything. But this game isn’t really about creating events to be paid
off in the future, as much as it is a celebration of what has been achieved so
far, speaking of celebration…
The second half of the game consists of Shepard throwing a
party in his fancy new apartment and inviting whichever crew members you would like,
of course if you don’t invite all of them then you’re kind of a prick. This
entire section of the game consists of nothing more than you walking around
your apartment and watching all these characters from three games interact with
each other. We have Grunt and Wrex debate who is strongest, Samantha and Joker
get embarrassed by EDI, people make fun of Shepard’s dancing and of course Tali
gets drunk. I can honestly say that this DLC is worth buying for this segment
alone, being a long dedicated fan of the franchise, it’s nice to see them all
play off each other and simply have fun. The best moments in any series when it
comes to characters is when they’re just sat around talking like normal people,
it’s the parts that humanize them and gives them more character by seeing what
they’re like when they don’t have to save the galaxy. Also seeing certain
characters who never meet in the main story get drunk together is always a
treat. Like I said, Mass Effect owes its success to the character roster for
having one of the greatest ensembles there is, so dedicating your entire DLC to
showing why they’re so important and why they work together so well seems like
an easy decision, especially for the final DLC where you want to show the best
your game has to offer.
The writing in Citadel is also much more focused on the
comedy, Mass Effect has always been a very funny series, especially in Mass
Effect 3, but they take it to a new level here, especially when it comes to
self-referential humour, making fun of Shepard always saying “I should go” or
the long elevator rides in Mass Effect 1, the game is chocked full of it, this
is a fanboy’s dream for how funny this game is and willing to mock its own
tropes and errors. But the funny thing is, even with the majority of the story
being treated like it’s the ice cream you get after a big meal, it still has
moments of seriousness that don’t feel forced or pointless. Depending on your
choice of romance, you get a scene of the two of them bonding and no matter the
pick, it always feels nice, my particular favourite is Liara’s scene which
shows why the two of them make such a good couple and how comfortable they are
around each other. Thane’s tribute is also very well handled, they show their
respects to a fallen comrade, also if you romances him as FemShep then it will
also be the only time you see Shepard cry in the whole series.
Though the game technically takes place before the end of
the game, I, like most gamers and even the developers treated this as a last
goodbye. Like I said, this was the very last piece of single player DLC so it
was also the last time we were ever going to see these characters, and Bioware
went out of their way to give our favourite heroes a proper send off. We get to
relive the glory of the original games while also getting the ending we wanted;
I don’t think it’s any secret that people were disappointed with the ending of
Mass Effect, we were all hoping (me especially) for a happy ending where the
crew is sat around celebrating and throwing a big ol’ party, and that is
exactly what we got here. A celebration of their success and mourn for what was
lost on the way, and it can all be summed up and put a lump in any fans throat
with the final exchange between Joker and Shepard “It was a good ride” “…the
best”. Thank you Bioware for giving us the ending we all wanted.
The gameplay in Citadel offers a fair amount of variety in its
levels, there are the typical cover shooter sections as there are in all of the
games, but this game adds some new variety to it by giving you new weapons and
allowing you to bring along all of your crew members (It changes very little of
the gameplay but it’s still a nice touch). There’s also new levels to it,
including an Ocean’s Eleven homage where you and a fellow crew member have to
break into a casino in the middle of a party. The game also lets you play with
all of your former crew members from the first two games in the Armax Arsenal
Arena, a battle simulator where you can fight with a variety of your crew
members from all three games. Strangely Wrex is the only former crew
member to be involved in the main story, my assumption is because he was the
only original crew member to not appear in at least two games as a squad
member.
Citadel works perfectly as a last goodbye to an amazing
franchise, capitalizing on its strengths as well as mocking its own weaknesses
with a lot of effort and fun gameplay to it. So which one do I prefer? Left
Behind or Citadel? Find out tomorrow…
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