This DLC was basically:
“You doin’ the dishes bitch?”

“Yes of course Aria.”
and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mass Effect series Review + Retrospective #3.4: Omega

The third story expansion for ME3, Omega brings us back to the titular asteroid colony and back into the more gritty, violent underbelly of the Mass Effect universe as we help Aria retake her throne.

Honestly, not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s about 2 to 3 hours of ME3 combat, which isn’t a bad thing, but that’s about it. There’s pretty minimal dialogue and only a couple of worthwhile choices to make. It is mostly action-focused, introducing two new enemy types that are only present on Omega, and they add a little more variety to the Cerberus forces. You can also get two new biotic bonus powers upon completion of the DLC, and Flare in particular is incredibly powerful and fun to use.

Omega is still one of the coolest locations in the ME universe, and it’s nice to see new parts of it. It’s also cool to get to use Aria as a squadmate finally, as well as the brand new gang leader Nyreen, who I believe was our first ever look at female Turians. I do wish you could bring along one of your own party members, for example, I think Garrus would have some interesting things to say about Omega, considering his storyline in ME2.

Oddly, Omega features, as far as I’m aware, the only Class-related check in the series? Engineer Shepards get a unique interrupt around the midway point of the DLC that allows their Class selection to actually have an impact on the game, which is really cool and something I wish was in more of the game.

If you like ME3’s combat, you’ll probably get a kick out of this one. On repeat playthroughs, it can kind of be a little bit long in the tooth, especially dragging by the end. Also, Bray should’ve been a party member, it’s a shame we go through the entire trilogy without a Batarian squaddie.

A really good dlc! Setting of it was very enjoyable, and it was nice to hang with Aria some more and meet a female turian. Overall its maybe a little too long (which I wouldn't of minded if there was more than just the main mission) but I dont have any complaints other than that. A fun little detour

Time Played - 3 hours (estimate)
Rating - 85/100
DLC Completion #4 of 2022

(Review originally written on April 26th, 2021. Currently reorganizing journal)

This is my least favorite DLC from Mass Effect 3, but even then it's still good. In this DLC, you cannot use any of your party members from the main game. Instead, you get to use two temporary party members within the DLC and it's a nice addition. You get to use Aria T'Loak, returning character from Mass Effect 2 and the other is the first ever female turian we see in the series, Nyreen Kandros. They're both very distinct in combat with very unique and fun abilities to play around with. Taking back Omega in Mass Effect 3 is a really fun story set up and choosing whether or not throughout the DLC whether or not you want to encourage Aria's cruel methods or conflict against them offers for an interesting dynamic that can influence Aria's actions in the ending.

One of the reasons why this is my least favorite DLC is how it relies too heavily on the gameplay to carry it since that's the bulk of the DLC. While it's obviously really fun and the context behind each firefight makes for a satisfying conclusion, it's a bit drawn out sometimes. Though I do like how the DLC introduced new enemy types to keep encounters fresh.

Nyreen Kandros is an interesting character and I honestly like her. Her past with Aria and how she represents the DLCs Paragon choices as apposed to Aria's more Renegade behavior is a very interesting dynamic that I honestly really like. However, Nyreen is unfortunately a wasted opportunity of a character. While I did enjoy her, the story made a poor decision with her that made me very disappointed. You'll probably know once you end up playing the DLC.

The main villain, Petrsovsky, was surprisingly decent. He does come across as very generic in the beginning when you meet him, but toward the end the DLC throws a bit of a curveball at you and shows an interesting side to him that you wouldn't have normally expected. It also ends up leaving an interesting final choice for the player, or depending on how you've been talking to Aria within the DLC, your dialogue toward her could influence her in different ways. The DLC even brings back class specific choices and opportunities which is something rare to the series in general, but it's a welcome addition.

Overall, the DLC is good. It does suffer from being pretty formulaic in terms of its level design, but it still manages to be relatively fun. Especially because of Aria and Nyreen which are fun to command in combat. The story is overall pretty good and the reward for doing the DLC is pretty great. Again, definitely the weakest out of the main story DLC, but still good and worth a play.

7/10

Playtime: 3 Hours
Score: 9/10

The first DLC for Mass Effect 3 wrapped up and I got to say its a good start! Omega is my favorite location in all of Mass Effect as I love that its the seedy underbelly of the ME universe. And Aria is one of my favorite ME characters so its cool to get a DLC focused on her. Content wise, its just like the ME2 DLC with a linear structure but I honestly don't mind it. Aria is just so cool to be with and having her as a companion is the highlight. Not much else to say other then I really enjoyed this and its now my new favorite ME DLC from the trilogy!

All DLCs I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-dlcs-i-have-played-and-reviewed/

ME3 Omega, much like Javik, was something being planned out during the initial draft. Unlike the latter however, Omega was never available in the game in the form of Day One DLC, it was absent entirely. Most you were getting is Aria T'Loak loathing Cerberus for taking her joint and a not-so-subtle lineread hinting about a potential expansion. Which happened near the end of November 2012, the same year the game released. Even then though. a lot of the original idea, such as returning as a hub status, never came into fruition - unless you use a mod for OG ME3 to get that hub treatment - instead serving as a somewhat compressed state of the narrative. Granted it's possible I got some of the details wrong, been a while since I looked into the development of the game, but I digress.

Like with LOTSB, this add-on's showcases how discrepancy between budgets between those and the base game were shortening a fair bit, albeit not to the same degree. The amount of events to do during and after the story isn't quite to the same degree, but even then Omega still shakes things up a fair bit in terms of how firefights are done with a few new enemies and arena spaces, the detail of the setting's sprawling landscape whereas before you were strictly limited to the top layer, as well as the delving into Aria herself with how she acts and is in this position in the first place, even either lowering the edge to be more soft you play a majority of it as a Paragon, or hardening even more and being in a more ruthless state if it was as a Renegade. It's all Pretty Dang Neat.

It also sports two standout moments: Firstly, it finally introduced a female Turian with Nyreen Kandros, which to me has always been odd considering how often the opposite gender gets brought up prior to this. She's interesting and cool, but it's also pretty bothersome that she doesn't get much development outside of the implied and semi-elaborated relationship fling she had with Aria years ago, especially considering the push-pull dynamic going on with the aforementioned delving. The second is the first, and only, class-exclusive choice in the whole trilogy. I forgot if the people with Dragon Age helped out (which wouldn't surprise me since that franchise utilizes this aspect way more), but I do know that a common belief fans have on why Engineer was chosen was cause it's consistently the least-picked class of the whole series, even 'winning' that again in the LE remaster. Speaking as someone that played as one on my fourth run, I actually do recommend it, surprisingly not as support-reliant as you'd think and it has some fun tools, especially once you hit the third game. Although you can uh, just use this mod for Legendary Edition to bypass it, either as one of the two other classes using tech - Infiltrator and Sentinel - or have it be available at all times if you feel like it. I won't judge, I'm guilty of doing this myself!

As a whole, Omega is, again, Neat. It won't knock your socks off, and is my least favorite of 3's add-ons, but considering the state of the others, as well as what the package itself offers, it's still fun enough. As for the timing of it... that's tricky to answer. Following a story-related mission as well as Aria's own sidequest on the Citadel, you have free reign as to when to start it... but it's also impractical to do it as early as possible since it doesn't "mesh" well narratively speaking, if you catch my drift. I'd say a little after the second act starts - i.e., finishing Citadel II but before completing Rannoch as a whole - is fine.