Lair of the Shadow Broker vs Witch Hunt

If you’re a fan of RPG’s, chances are you’ve played either or both of Bioware’s epic RPG’s, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins.  Both games are very good games that are very different.  And both games have been heavily supported with post release DLC.  In fact, both games received new DLC packs on the same day yesterday.  “Lair of the Shadow Broker” came out for Mass Effect 2 for roughly $10, and Witch Hunt came out for Dragon Age: Origins for $7.  We’ve had a chance to play both of them, and we thought we’d give you a rundown of what to expect from both of these DLC packs and give you a side by side comparison of the two to help you decide if you should take the plunge on either or both of these packs.

Don't tick off an Asari

Lair of the Shadow Broker

When players first load up Mass Effect 2, they’ll be made aware of a new message waiting for them in their personal computer.  This results in a trip to Illium to visit an old friend, Liara T’Soni.  Liara was one of the crew members from the original Mass Effect, and has spent the last 2 years hunting a person known as the Shadow Broker.  To go into “why” would detail some plot points from the full game, so we’ll gloss over that for now to avoid spoilers for those that haven’t played the game.

While Illium is a planet you travel to in Mass Effect 2, there’s very little in this expansion pack that is old scenery.  While roughly half of the DLC takes place on Illium, it’s all newly rendered areas, with some new gameplay elements not seen before in the series.  While there’s still your standard 3rd person tactical combat, there’s also the inclusion of a speeder chase scene that’s highly reminiscent of the speeder chase through Coruscant from Star Wars: Episode 2.  For a series that has not always done a good job with vehicles, this sequence is extremely satisfying.  The second part of the DLC takes part on on the Shadow Broker’s ship.  This is mostly your standard 3rd person tactical shooter combat, with some interesting elements thrown in.  This all leads to an ultimate showdown with the Shadow Broker.

This pack has two new and very difficult boss battles for players to take on.  The first of the two might be the most difficult boss fight in the entire game up to this point.  The story arc for this DLC is very solid and does a nice job of giving some closure to one of the more beloved characters from the first game.  At the end of it all, players get some interesting goodies to play around with as well, which could come in very handy in a full playthrough of Mass Effect 2.  All told, this is an extremely satisfying DLC pack that fans of the Mass Effect series would do well to pick up.

Overall Score: 9/10

Morrigan, Witch of the Wild

Witch Hunt

As with previous DLC packs for Dragon Age: Origins, Witch Hunt can be accessed from the main menu.  Players have the option of importing any character from either the Full Dragon Age, or the Awakening expansion.  The pack starts out with the player and their Mabari War Hound returning to Flemmeth’s hut to search for their former comrade Morrigan.  Instead they find an elven fighter named Ariane who is also looking for the witch.  Apparently Morrigan had stolen an important and ancient book from the elves, and Ariane has been tasked with retrieving it.  This leads the player to accepting her into the party, and sends the player off to the Mage’s Circle to learn more about this book.  There players will meet Finn, a circle mage who also joins the quest due to his fascination with the old Tevinter mirrors that players got a glimpse of if they played the Dalish Elf background in Dragon Age: Origins.

From here players have two locations to head to, but they can be done in any order.  After both of these locations are finished, players head to the final confrontation with Morrigan, which can go in any number of ways depending on how the player wants to handle the situation.

Here’s the thing about this DLC: There’s really nothing new here.  Sure there’s two new characters who will have a little bit of witty banter between each other.  But because you only get 3 characters whose classes and skills are more or less locked in from the outset, it’s hard to get a good party balance.  For all purposes, Dog (or whatever you named him) takes the place of the party tank.  Ariane fights in a two weapon style best utilized by the off-tank.  And Finn is defaulted to to healer with but a few ranged attack spells.  As such, players are really pigeon holed into the ranged attack character, either as the attack mage or bow wielding fighter/rogue.  We would have liked to have seen one more party member to choose from (preferably a rogue), which would allow players to choose their own party balance.

Also, all of the locations are rehashes from the full game.  The one exception to this is the final location, which is actually a rehash from the Awakening expansion.  And at the end of it all, there’s just not very much that’s gained from tracking down Morrigan either in terms of plot or goodies to use in game.  All in all, this pack feels like a loose end that could have been tied up tighter.

Overall Score: 6/10