Review by: Brandon "FemShep" Cackowski-Schnell

Lair of the Shadow Broker seems to be created for a very specific group of Commander Shepards, namely players that had a romance with Liara in Mass Effect and then a romance with another squad member during the events of Mass Effect 2. Obviously you can play the game without that background, and enjoy it too, however the full emotional weight of BioWare's space opera trappings comes through with that particular background. Is the DLC as enjoyable without all that emotion? Possibly, but honestly, I'm not sure I care. This is the reunion I wanted with Liara in Mass Effect 2 proper and while I wish it had come a little earlier, I'm glad I got to see it.

As we know from the story in the main game, Liara has been spending the past two years tracking down the location of the elusive Shadow Broker. What we did not know is that the Shadow Broker was responsible for securing Commander Shepard's body and is now holding one of Liara's friends hostage. When the Illusive Man comes up with information on the Shadow Broker's whereabouts you and your squad set off to help Liara rescue her friend. It's a well told story however too much of it, including the ending, is easily seen from way off in the distance.

As this is Mass Effect you'll be undertaking lots and lots of frantic firefights in corridors of varying sizes and scopes although, to be honest, these are some seriously impressive corridors. From the tight confines of a bombed out building to the hull of a ship cruising through a permanent lightning storm, the environments are all equally impressive, a good thing given that the limited skill set in Mass Effect only gets more and more limited as time with a high level Commander Shepard wears on without any additional leveling.

By the time the game ends, after two very satisfying boss fights, you'll get to the payoff of the story, namely how to reconcile with the woman you loved but was spurned by when it was apparent that your goals weren't leading to the right place. The various dialog points between Shepard and Liara are all well written, punctuated with Paragon actions that allow you to continue to show Liara just how much you love her.

As a mechanic in the main game, I always felt that the Renegade/Paragon trigger options were a bit gimmicky, but they're put to good use here, signifying a fleeting moment when we have the chance to say something to someone we care about before the moment is gone and courses are irrevocably set. Liara's painful recriminations about my inter-squad activities stung as much as they should and placed an emotional weight to the "romance" in Mass Effect that had, up until this point, seemed more of an excuse to show alien rear ends than anything else. As Mass Effect isn't the type of game where players go bounding off into a field of rainbows and unicorns, it's not much of a spoiler to say that this is a bittersweet ending however it is an ending, complete with a resolution and everything, something the Mass Effect writers would do well to share with their Witch Hunt co-workers down the hall.