The final piece of single-player DLC for BioWare's Mass Effect 3, entitled Citadel, launches tomorrow, and BioWare have furnished us with a launch trailer for the add-on (which can be found further down in this article). As lessons in fan service go, this trailer earns top marks, but it also manages to be a fitting send-off for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy in turn.
Here's the basic gist of Citadel, based on what the trailer reveals. Be warned; there are some minor spoilers ahead.
At some point in Mass Effect 3's narrative -- or, rather, at several points in its narrative, as Citadel unlocks its content gradually -- Commander Shepard will be furnished with a luxury apartment on the Citadel, the massive space station that forms the seat of government in the Mass Effect universe, and also serves as a key component in the plot of the Reapers to return every 50,000 years so as to wipe out all galactic civilizations. While enjoying some R&R with old friends (and, apparently, old lovers), he or she will end up the target of (surprise, surprise!) an assassination attempt and terrorist plot, which naturally will have to be thwarted.
And it looks very much as though pretty much every former squadmate from the previous games -- or, at least, those left alive after said previous games -- will be putting in an appearance, giving Shepard and players alike one last chance to say fond farewells and/or re-kindle old romances.
The Citadel DLC is also, I gather, nothing short of massive; Xbox players will have to obtain it in two separate downloads (although PC and PlayStation players will get it as one cohesive piece). It was written and built by the BioWare Edmonton team, instead of the Montreal team, and will add new enemies, soundtrack pieces, dialogue, locations, and more to the game. It will not (not that this should have to be said) alter the game's ending.
And yes, it sounds like nothing short of pure fan service. But equally...so what? It has all the elements that people gravitate toward Mass Effect for, and helps leave the Montreal team with a clean slate -- thematically and plot-wise -- from which to launch Mass Effect 4 (which, no, will not be called that).
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