Mass Effect 3: Citadel

Citadel is fan service at its worst, but Mass Effect at its best. Clever dialogue, heart-warming callbacks, and enough content to make it worth the $15 price tag make Mass Effect: Citadel a worthy goodbye to a cast of characters that forever shaped gaming history.

It's a real shame that Mass Effect's legacy feels doomed to be That Ending, when this DLC far more appropriately sums up why the series meant so much to so many. Citadel doesn't change the destination, but it does offer a fantastic second chance to celebrate the journey and remember why it was worth taking.

It’s astonishing just how much content is packed in here.

Seriously, the only way this could be any better were if it ended on a freeze-frame of Shepard punching the air, accompanied by Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’.

If you are longing for a final goodbye with some of your favourite characters of this series, you won't get a better chance than this... Citadel is Mass Effect 3's 'Lair of the Shadow Broker'.

Although the ending of Mass Effect 3 is still set in stone, this DLC allows gamers to close the book on this amazing series. At times it is bittersweet as you know what is waiting for Shepard and crew, however it does this quite successfully as it finishes our journey.

I strongly believe that anyone who has been hesitant to buy DLC for Mass Effect 3 should consider giving this add-on a chance.

The developer has clearly had a lot of fun creating a send-off to its characters that's worthy of the series' history and reminiscent of some of the saga's finest moments.

It isn't the most serious affair, but if shooting the breeze in the bowels of the Normandy provided you with some of your fondest Mass Effect moments, you'll absolutely love this one last chance to bond with your crew.

Yes, the game and thus, the series, still is fundamentally wrecked by poor decisions, yes, the mission itself contains incredibly tin-eared dialogue and setting when you consider the context, and yes, we are still looking at Mass Effect being a mere brand name for future shooters and action games. But perhaps for the first time since the original Mass Effect, the people involved in making Mass Effect content really got what it means to play this thing, to spend so much time with it, and what you can do to tell a story within a video game.

It’s these sneaky moments of sweetness across Citadel’s five-hour journey that make it a pricey but wholly affecting excuse to linger just a little longer under Mass Effect’s spell.

Unlike the previous downloadable content, though, Citadel seems designed very much as a send-off for the Mass Effect crew, a final chapter that shoots mainly for the heart with some collateral damage to the funnybone.

Citadel feels fresh compared to the tired 'haunted house' missions of recent DLC packs, and deserves to be filed alongside Kasumi's Stolen Memory and Lair of the Shadow Broker as one of the best expansions to the Mass Effect universe, as well as a fitting full stop for the trilogy.

It’s not a perfect finale, but it’s one that highlights the best we’ve seen from the series so far, and it’s not without its own set of endearing idiosyncrasies.

BioWare really has saved the best till last with a downloadable expansion that not only justifies the expense but your faith in the Mass Effect franchise.

There's no denying the sheer amount of joy and mirth to be had in Mass Effect 3: Citadel, even if knowing what led to its creation and how the story ends afterwards casts it in a strange, sad light.

A not essential but good DLC, especially designed for the hardcore fans of the Mass Effect Universe.