The digital delights of Sony’s scrumptious PlayStation Network service know no bounds. Aside from letting punters compete in online gaming, stream films, browse the Internet and more, its premier attraction rests in the copious supply of downloadable games ripe for the picking. From PSN exclusives to PSOne Classics, minis and plain old add-on content, Sony’s online space is chock full of goodies battling it out for your hard-earned digital dollars.
Welcome back to another installment of Inside PlayStation Network, where every Monday – Friday we’ll pluck a PSN release—be it new or old—and put it in the spotlight for a thorough dissection. Fancy getting a new PSN game but don’t know what one to plump for? Perhaps this feature will help. Didn’t realize that a game was available in your region until now? We’ve got you covered. Or, perhaps you were musing over what those lucky Japanese folk were tucking into over in the Land of the Rising Sun? You can be sure our coverage will extend to those rare regional exclusives as much as those firmly embedded on the public consciousness.
Today, we focus on Mass Effect 2’s final piece of DLC, Arrival.
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Developer: BioWare
Region(s) available: North America, Europe
Players: 1
The final, action-oriented chunk of DLC for BioWare’s celebrated sci-fi sequel is essentially a means of bridging the gap between Mass Effect 2 and 2012’s hotly-anticipated trilogy conclusion. Story-wise Arrival presents us with a lass named Dr. Kenson, a researcher who claims to possess unequivocal proof that the Reapers are on the verge of invading. Unfortunately, she’s banged up in Batarian space, and it’s up to a lone Shepard to extricate her before it’s too late and deliver news of the impending Reaper invasion.
What follows is a bite-sized action fest that leaves you gagging for Mass Effect 3, making the game’s recent delay all that much more difficult to bear. Arrival has Shepard traversing some fresh environments, including a claustrophobic shuttle hanger while capping off legions of baddies. And, while our hero is devoid of his trademark squad during the mission, you won’t be on your lonesome for the entirety of Arrival; Shepard will have to project a key character at certain intervals, giving him some much-needed company. Of course, this also affords your enemies another potential target to harass, so you’ll have to keep on your toes.
Arrival packs some meaty set-pieces too, which is just as well seeing as how the bread-and-butter ME experience of engaging in branching Paragon/Renegade pathways is conspicuously absent here. Nonetheless, Shepard will still get a chance to have a quick chinwag now and then, affording you the opportunity to net a few extra points throughout Arrival’s 90-minute blast fest. Overall, in comparison to its predecessors, ME2’s swansong DLC is a decidedly linear affair that may raise eyebrows among RPG purists.
Join us again tomorrow for another butcher’s Inside PlayStation Network.