DLC Review: Mass Effect - Pinnacle Station

Almost two years after the initial release of Mass Effect, Bioware has finally released the second bit of downloadable content for its epic space roleplaying game. The package promises a secret alliance space station where the best of the best compete in combat challenges for glory, and possibly some new armor and weapons along the way. Is Pinnacle Station worth the $5 price tag to add extra content to a fantastic game, or should you save your money for Mass Effect 2?



When reaching Pinnacle Station, Shepherd is greeted with a bunch of gruff looking soldiers, and an even gruffer commander who takes charge of the station. Without wasting any time, you find yourself directed to the combat simulator, and are thrust into the missions. Eventually, you’ll be challenged by some of the soldiers to beat their times, making bets for prizes along the way. This is the entire story of Pinnacle Station, if you want to call it that. The characters and setting, along with what little motivation there is (my Commander Shepherd would never place bets, but for some reason there is no option to not come off as an arrogant bastard), provide a flimsy excuse to add a few combat missions to the game.



Pinnacle Station adds 13 simulated combat scenarios, in four different types. There is hunt, capture, combat, and survival. Basically all amounting to how quickly can you kill as many enemies as possible. They have various settings borrowed from the core game, and aside from the missions themselves, there isn’t actually anything added here. You’ll blow through the missions in at most two hours, and they aren’t more thrilling than fighting wave after wave of enemy. You can access Pinnacle Station after a certain point in the game, but not before reaching the end game, so make sure you have a save file that useful to play it, or start a new game if you want to go that route. Overall, the missions themselves are boring and repetitive, and without given any motivation to complete them, there is no real point.

Pinnacle Station doesn’t add any new art elements, textures, or sound. There is some new voice acting, which is on par with Mass Effect’s standard, but its only very little to flush out the “story.” Visually and audibly, Pinnacle Station adds nothing new.

Overall, Pinnacle Station is simply an addition of an arena style setting in Mass Effect. There is no story or no added elements, just simply 13 new fights to the game, fighting the same enemies you’ll fight everywhere else. The missions are all essentially the same, and wind up being boring and repetitive. If you are really itching for some new Mass Effect combat to tide you over until Mass Effect 2 ships, then by all means check out Pinnacle Station. But in my opinion, this add-on should be skipped, and is most definitely not worth the $5 price tag.

Final Score: 3/10