Leviathan is the fourth piece of single-player DLC to be released for
Mass Effect 3, and the first playable-mission DLC since the launch-day release of
From Ashes.
Leviathan includes ten playable missions across four distinct locations, and focuses on the search for a mythical ‘reaper-killer’ that could turn the tide in the war, save the galaxy, blah blah, you know the drill. Without giving too much away, the story is tied into the new ending material from
Mass Effect Extended Cut, so it’s worth having that DLC installed too.
BioWare have a nice tradition of adding new minor gameplay elements in single-player DLC – such as a car-chase
in
ME2’s
Lair of the Shadow Broker, and a hit-and-miss stealth section in
ME2’s
Arrival. In
Leviathan there’s some nifty ‘detective’ gameplay, where you can cut out a lot of boring scanning on the galaxy map by searching for clues to an objective’s location. It’s well-implemented, particularly in that you only have to do as much of it as you want. Get bored looking for clues? Then go search the hard way, system by system.
I found combat to be gruelling, even with my Level 60 Shepard with fully upgraded gear. However, I was playing
Mass Effect on the ‘Insanity’ maximum difficulty setting. I was also a little out of practice, having spent the last week playing
Sleeping Dogs instead. So, your difficulty curve may vary depending on your settings, skill level and Shep-specs. Personally, I recommend playing with a fairly high-level Shepard.
The DLC introduces two new weapons, though disappointingly, both were also pre-order/collectors-edition items. So, hardcore ME3 fans are likely to already have them – I personally had one, though not the other. More useful are the five new weapon mods, that complement a variety of play styles.
Altogether, I really enjoyed
Leviathan. It’s a fair length for the price: my ‘insanity’ playthrough took around four hours, though you could probably whip through it on an easier difficulty in half that.
Leviathan is available for 800 BioWare points through EA’s Origin platform on PC, 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live, and $15.95 on the PlayStation Network.