The premise is that Aria T’Loak, once queen/dictator/gang leader of the asteroid city, Omega, has enlisted the support of Commander Shepard to oust the Cerberus occupiers and reclaim her throne. While this gels nicely with conversations Shepard can have with Aria in the base game, it also feels like these missions were cut from the original release and sold separately just to make money.

Saving Omega from the clutches of Cerberus would be a noble goal, except for the fact that Aria is just a different kind of tyrant. While the Cerberus leader imposes control and imprisonment, Aria spreads chaos under the banner of “freedom." Anyone and everyone is expendable if it means she gets to call this chunk of rock her own.

And let’s not forget that Omega itself is hardly Vatican City. This happy place is almost exclusively filled with the worst criminals, mercenaries and other assorted scum in the galaxy. Picture the science fiction equivalent of Tortuga (from Pirates of the Caribbean) and ask yourself, “Would I really care what happens to this place?" When it comes down to it, Shepard is just helping a bad person save some other bad people from some really bad people.

All this evil needs some balance to bring it back down to earth, and for that we have the idealist Nyreen. A former “friend" of Aria’s, Nyreen puts the people first and serves as the voice of reason and morality. This creates some basic conflict between her and Aria, enough to keep things interesting and make you wonder if one is going to have you kill the other. As Shepard, however, you have only very limited moral choice options, and no persuasion opportunities at all. For a series that has always offered several solutions to every problem, this is a little disappointing.

I’ve noticed, through writing this review, that every adjective I can apply to Omega comes with a qualifier. The story is pretty interesting. The missions are rather fun. The new enemies are quite good. It’s all so very halfway there, and ultimately forgettable.

7/10

Owen Atkinson