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Omega is the latest Mass Effect 3 DLC to come out from Bioware. If you played the game upon its release (before the DLC releases), you find out from Aria, the iron fisted ruler of Omega, that she has been ousted by Cerberus. Before Shepard leaves Aria to lick her wounds, she vows to take back Omega. And take it back she does with a vengeance. Aria enlists Shepard’s help to infiltrate Omega and to enact her revenge on Cerberus, specifically on the person responsible for ousting her in the first place––General Oleg Petrovsky, a top-ranking Cerberus agent.

This particular DLC has Shepard going solo in this mission without taking the usual available squad mates on board the Normandy. Instead, Shepard gets backup through two new squad mates who are none other than Aria herself and a turian female named Nyreen Kandros. You heard right. Shepard temporarily gets new squad members to take back Omega.

Aria comes equipped with some pretty cool biotic powers, and Nyreen also proves to be useful in battle as well. I like to think you get a super powered femme fatale trio in this DLC (if you play as female Shepard that is). If you want a chance to take a break from the usual squad your Shepard has been traveling with throughout the game, Omega offers the chance to get to know Aria better and to interact with the only female turian ever introduced in the game.

The Omega mission feels particularly long in my opinion. I think I finished it within 3 hours of play time. The process of getting into Omega and then to the final showdown with Petrovsky at Afterlife is broken up into parts or maybe the better term would be in “acts.” There is even a point in the game where Shepard is faced with a moral dilemma that requires a decision to be made. Will this effect the story of Mass Effect 3 in some way? I’m not really sure. It would require another playthrough of Mass Effect 3 from the very beginning to see if there is any significant difference or change in the story. Most likely the changes would be additional dialogue that references the things Shepard has done to help Aria get Omega back.

While I did enjoy having new squad members in this mission, I somehow couldn’t get into the new mission all that much. I actually found myself wishing the mission would end already. I think it might have something to do with not being too much of an Aria fan. Although she undergoes a slight change by the end of Omega, there just wasn’t anything appealing about her. Had I played this game when all the DLC came out, I’m pretty sure the only thing I would care about is getting Aria’s precious Omega back just so I can get the war assets I need to prepare for the fight against the Reapers.

The Omega DLC is a nice addition if you want another mission to take Shepard out on, and to try on a different squad for a little while. Is it worth the Xbox points? I would have to say yes and no. It’s great to find out if Aria ever gets Omega back, but I kind of feel as if the mission is some of the same things you get in any of the in-game missions already on the discs themselves. The only difference is you get more face time with Aria. In my opinion, it depends on how much you enjoy Aria and how much you really want to see her make good on her promise to take back what was stolen from her.

Reviewer Rating: 8/10