Most people that come to Aeropause know that I am the Mass Effect junkie of the site.  I have bought it on both the 360 and PC, and have played through it multiple times on each platform.  Every playthrough has been a great experience, bringing new little nuiances and items that I have missed.  Have you ever looked out at the crater that Sovereign leaves on Eden Prime.  I had not either until my third time playing Mass Effect.

After its release we were touted with the idea of multiple DLC packs, expanding the universe that the Doctors over at Bioware had created.  Bring Down the Sky was a great start adding a new race of bad guys that we had only heard about in name and giving us the chance to take them on.  It had its flaws, but it added a couple of hours of gameplay, and it came in at a nice price.  Now comes Pinnacle Station, another DLC pack, but unlike the first addition, this one is a complete phoned in by the Bioware team.

Upon arrival at Pinnacle Station, I was expecting a little more than the normal derelict station that I had run into on several side missions.  However, this was not the case.  Beyond a few new items in the environment, and a couple of undeveloped characters, the DLC essentially boils down to a shooting gallery pack.  You have a simulator that gives you four types of missions: Time Trial, Hunt, Survival and Capture and three missions for each of these variants.

At first I played around with my crew, trying different combinations, but at the end of the day, this was an “Ashley and Wrex” mission pack.  If you use them, you will get through all the objectives without much of a fight.  There is no real depth to be had with this DLC pack, and at the end of the day, I feel like someone has come into my Xbox and lifted 400 Microsoft Loonies from my wallet.  It is a similar feeling to the Versus DLC in Resident Evil 5:  Uninspired at best, and flat out robbery at worst.  I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone at the 400 point price.  Free would have been a better deal, as it really adds nothing to the universe in any way.

Bioware, please take note: we want to get solid DLC that expands on the universe and builds on the great work of science fiction that you have created.  Gamers would be happy to pay for solid DLC that bridges the gap between the first and second Mass Effect titles.  Maybe this is something you are working on, but this DLC will probably spread a heap of bad feeling in gamers that went out and bought it.  Hopefully, a small portion of the gaming populace buy this, so a message can be sent to Electronic Arts and Bioware – more substance next time.