Thanks for coming back for part two of my thoughts on the Mass Effect Legendary Edition‘s DLC. You can check out part one, but, in sum: I recently completed my first playthrough of the remaster, which while awesome, was made totally awesome thanks to its DLC, all of which was new to me. While the DLC varied greatly in content, some of these extra experiences helped fill in a number of plot gaps, which I always knew existed but never dwelled upon, while others took Shepard on grandiose, new adventures. Here’s the last half of the DLC list with my thoughts in tow, following by my own ranking of them.

With that, on with the rest of the list!

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Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker

So that’s how Liara became the Shadow Broker! Of all the available DLC, this was the one to which I was looking forward to most, and it paid off in droves. My only complaint is that I didn’t have that great a time navigating the exterior of the Shadow Broker’s ship, even though the visuals were pretty astounding. Other than that, this mission answered a lot of questions, allowed me to spend more time with Liara that I ever had before (never completed her romance; though I did complete Kaiden’s this time, finally!), and provided so much lore that I never knew before. It was all-around satisfying.

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Mass Effect 2: Arrival

Much like with never thinking about the Normandy after it crashed at the start of ME2, I never really considered the possible events between the second and third games. So, I guess Arrival answered questions I never new I had? While I intend to play through some DLC again, this is the one that’s a must, because, as the mission has s time limit (of sorts), I really rushed through it and ended up accidentally skipping over some dialogue. I recall the basics of what went down, and a choice was made that further split Shepard from the Batarian race, but many of the actual details of the mission are fuzzy.

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Mass Effect 3: From Ashes

If I had good times with new friends Zaeed and Kasumi in Mass Effect 2, I absolutely doted over the Prothean Javik in the third game.  As I just spoiled, it, From Ashes took Shepard back to the human colony of Eden Prime to retrieve a Prothean artifact, which turned out to be an actual Prothean. It was awesome learning about the Protheans and the battle with the Reapers in their galactic cycle. It was heartbreaking talking to Javik, a character out of time, the last of his kind. Once he joined the crew, he was a constant squadmate, one who offered warmongering views on pretty much anything and everything concerning the Reapers. With what he’d been through, you really couldn’t blame him, honestly.

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Mass Effect 3: Leviathan

What were the Reapers before they were the Reapers? Again, a question that never once crossed my mind. But in the DLC Leviathan, I surely found out. I was both very impressed and very disappointed with the outcome of this mission. Through it, Shepard received some very powerful allies, but they never actually showed up in the final battle. (Knowing what they are now, I guess they didn’t have to? But still, I was kind of hoping they’d show up.) I did learn whole bunches about the history of the Mass Effect universe, so that was very cool, at least.

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Mass Effect 3: Omega

While my overall impression of the Omega DLC was middling – it was fine but it overstayed its welcome a bit – spending time with its former leader Aria T’Loak, and her former cohort, Turian Nyreen Kandros, was a total blast. Revisiting the space station Omega through its, um…underbelly was something else, too. I could have done with less moving through tunnel after tunnel and more high-flying battles with Aria and Nyreen at my side.

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And finally…

Mass Effect 3: Citadel

Everyone said that Citadel was the best ME DLC of them all, and yep, everyone was right! If I had paid any actual attention to the contents of this DLC years ago, I never would have ignored it. (Plus, I finally now know from where folks had been getting all their awesome companion shots!) Set in a brand new, Citadel-based location, this DLC gave Shepard and her crew a space in which they could relax, unwind, and attempt to converse like normal people. This was, of course, after some intense battling to uncover some council secrets, so the reward of just chilling out with the crew felt even better. That said, I was doubly struck by the absence of people I had lost during this particular playthrough through ME2’s suicide run or other means – Tali, Miranda, Thane, Mordin, Kasumi, Wrex, and Samara. Someday, I’ll save them all! In the meantime, it was great to finally get my “happy crew altogether now” photo, and I can’t wait to collect so many more.

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I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite “Mass Effect DLC from ‘meh’ to ‘it’s great!'” list.

12. Firewalker
11. Normandy Crash Site
10. Bring Down the Sky
9. Leviathan
8. Zaeed – Price of Revenge
7. Omega
6. Kasumi – Stolen Memory
5. Arrival
4. From Ashes
3. Overlord
2. Lair of the Shadow Broker
1. Citadel