Mass Effect Main Mission vs Arrival

[Rad]

Mass Effect 2 Main Mission vs Arrival

When the ME2 DLC "Arrival" was announced, I thought it was a really good idea and I looked forward to seeing what how it's story progressed. Unfortunately, when it was released, I was more than a little disappointed. The story had many holes, or perhaps under explained sections, and in general it felt rushed and awkward. My first reaction was "This stinks!", but, like I usually do when I have a strong emotional reaction to something, I stepped back and tried to understand why I had the feeling.

I've spent some time thinking, listening to other opinions (both good and bad) about Arrival and ME2 in general, and I've come to the following conclusion: My opinion about Arrival's story and ME2's story are linked. A more exact wording would be that they have the opposite problem.

To begin, I have to talk about ME2's main story. I've always felt ME2's story felt "small", too small for what it wanted to be. I've also always felt ME2 had ten companions (without DLC) for padding, to make the game last longer. To get more specific, ME2's main story was more like the entire Feros sequence from ME1, all the way down to the very similar final boss, with the Human Reaper battle just a simpler version of the battle to destroy the Thorian.

Once I stepped back and thought about it, I realized that Arrival's story was too big for a one or two hour (give or take) DLC. It was an idea that was bigger that the ME2 main story. Arrival advanced the core Mass Effect story. ME2's main story didn't really do that, it was more of a step sideways, a side story.

Once I realized that the Arrival story was too big for it's context, and contrasted it to my opinion of ME2's story, I came to the conclusion that they both work better if you swap them. ME2 could have started with taking on the Collectors, but progressed into stopping "the Arrival". Defeating the Collectors would have pointed you to the Reapers plans for the Alpha Relay. Of course, I haven't explained the Human Reaper, or anything else that I feel was wrong with ME2 from a story standpoint, and I'm not going to. I'm not trying to write how Arrival's plot could have been ME2's plot, I just wanted to point out how it could have been.

Granted, you could say that's how it was done, with the Arrival DLC coming out and adding on to the ME2 story. My point is that it shouldn't have been a short DLC, it should have been at least half of the game.

I realize that my idea is similar to a rather over done idea someone posted on YouTube, and I will admit my thoughts were influenced by it. However, I think he goes too far, like most fan-fiction where most stories are just too much, full of good ideas taken too far.

[GoldDragon]

I agree. Arrival seems a bit rushed. And too big for what it was.