Review: Mass Effect 2 - Lair of the Shadow Broker (X360)

Lair of the Shadow Broker is the latest piece of DLC for Mass Effect 2 -- on the disc for PS3 owners -- and, probably due to all the extra time, Shadow Broker is far and away the best DLC for Mass Effect 2. There lies a major fault in all of this -- something that is surely subjective -- and the fault is that I believe Mass Effect 2 is an incomplete experience without Shadow Broker.

Would I have said this before playing Shadow Broker? No. But, I had no details to go on and the lack of story with a specific character [Liara] was not as big of a deal. After playing said DLC, I do not why/how they chose to leave this storyline out of the retail game. You can say it is an attempt to make a little extra cash off a fantastic game, but I have a hard time believing that. I would simply guess that the storyline/content wasn't complete and it wouldn't be viable to delay the game just for a few extra hours of contend. I will say this: I would rather have Shadow Broker and only Shadow Broker as the freebie of the Cerberus Network than everything else included. Now, onto the actual review.

The Shadow Broker's impressive ship. Please don't cry that this is a spoiler...

Shadow Broker starts with a message to your private computer, which leads to a bit of brief dialogue and moves quickly to a crime scene. It's hard to mention much without spoiling -- something I could care less about, but I will censor myself due to the recent PS3 release -- but just know that the story flows along nicely, is overly obvious at times, and ends with a bang. There is a final boss fight that doesn't do anything special, but the outcome as far as the story goes is a very interesting twist; a twist that has to have some kind of effect (see what I did there) in Mass Effect 3.

The story is expectedly great, but don't expect anything new from a gameplay standpoint; you won't play around with any new weapons, but there are some nice set pieces. The gameplay is actually my biggest issue with Shadow Broker. While Mass Effect 2 was definitely an improvement over the original game, coming back to Mass Effect 2 after a year of other games has really shown that regardless of improvements, gameplay is still not Mass Effect's strong point. The gameplay isn't terrible and you shouldn't pick this up if that is what you're looking for, but I highly doubt anyone plays Mass Effect for the gameplay.

Lair of the Shadow Broker is a must-play for anyone invested in Mass Effect's story. Will there be consequences from this DLC that shows up in Mass Effect 3? I would like to think so, but the fact is everyone who played Mass Effect 2 did not play Shadow Broker. Regardless of whether we see this storyline continue significantly into the future, Shadow Broker is one of the best add-ons I've played and will be especially important for those who romanced Liara in Mass Effect 1.