Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky

7.0
Average

Gameplay	9.0	"Ideal to get you back into Mass Effect."
Graphics	7.5
Sound	8.0
Value	6.0

By Emily Buxton

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the skies, the talented team at BioWare have released their first piece of game expansion content for Mass Effect. Available to download now from the Xbox Live store, Bring Down The Sky might just provide the push you need to jump back into BioWare’s latest RPG offering.

As Commander Shepard, you’ll be flying to the Asgard system to land on a hijacked asteroid and stop some angry, ugly, space-age terrorists (how do you like that Mr President?). With the help of a few large fusion torches, the huge piece of drifting rock is now hurtling towards the heavily populated planet of Terra Nova and it’s up to you to disarm the potentially catastrophic situation.

The idea itself is pretty cool (if not startlingly original), but the actual mission plays out in a very similar fashion to most of the others in Mass Effect. You’ll be driving the Mako vehicle around, running through some annoyingly spaced-apart buildings, and shooting or talking your way out of situations. When looked at by itself, Bring Down The Sky is a short, fairly playable piece of content. Slapped onto the original Mass Effect game, it adds yet another reason to the long list of reasons for why you should be playing this game.

At only 400 MS points, there’s really no excuse not to buy this content. Ideally, Bring Down The Sky will be perfect for gamers who may have overdosed on Mass Effect upon its release. With new content, now is a great time to start playing through the game once more, either to switch to Renegade/Paragon tactics or to inch your character towards that elusive Level 60, Extreme Power Gamer achievement.

Although it may verge on blasphemy to suggest, if you were only going to play this for the achievement points, Bring Down The Sky’s completion achievement will deliver. You can’t often do better than 50 points for an hour or two of your time.

If you didn’t like Mass Effect before, Bring Down The Sky won’t change your (clearly inferior) mind. For everyone else, scoop up your spare change, purchase Bring Down The Sky and get stuck in.

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