There’s one sequence, approximately 75% of the way through the DLC when you’ll have an opportunity to use your Charm or Intimidate to get out of a sticky situation, or go the Renegade route and just blast your way out. If you choose to fight, be prepared for what might be the hardest encounter in the entirety of the game. You’ll have to fight a half dozen varren, which are beasts that will charge in and do some serious melee damage if you don’t crowd control them, about a half dozen Batarian soldiers, and a Batarian sub-boss that loves to get in close to you. You’ll have to carefully use Biotic abilities like Stasis, Lift, and Throw all while keeping yourself in cover to keep too many enemies from beating on you at once. Choosing to fight will net you a whole bunch of experience, but many players might just give up on it and go the pacifist route. Maybe it’s because I had Tali in my party, who’s practically useless against non-synthetics, but I found this optional fight impossible on my level 14 Adept on Insanity. At that level you’re just too gear dependent because your abilities still aren’t all that powerful, and Asteroid X57 was the first place I went after leaving the Citadel. After almost 2 hours of trying to clear it, with some combat encounters lasting over 40 minutes (using all of my med-packs and grenades) I finally gave up. My fully-geared level 60 soldier had significantly less trouble with the encounter, but it was still very fun.

The final area of Bring Down the Sky takes place in a new underground bunker that is a blast to fight in with all of the enemies it throws at you. You’ll have to contend with snipers, drones, and even some more varren, depending on the decisions you make. The bunker itself is almost like a large arena, with multiple levels the descend towards the central area. Bring Down the Sky seems to understand how difficult its encounters can be, and you’ll find grenades and med-packs littered around the area accordingly, so don’t be afraid to use them.

Upon completing Bring Down the Sky, you’ll get an achievement that tacks on 50 points to your Gamerscore, and the opportunity to choose an item reward. I had hoped that Bioware would toss in some new gear for players that buy the downloadable content, but sadly that isn’t the case. My 60 Soldier ended up with an inferior piece of gear than he already had, but my 14 Adept was rewarded with a great piece of armor that should make the next 10 levels or so much easier. It’s also worth noting that by the end of the experience, my Adept had gained about 5 levels, so experience is quite bountiful. As long as you can survive the combat encounters, Asteroid X57 makes a great first stop after first leaving the Citadel, and should make Feros, Noveria, and rescuing Dr. T’Soni much easier.

Besides the experience, gear, and Gamerscore rewards, Bring Down the Sky does an intelligent job of further fleshing out the already extremely rich universe that Bioware has crafted. The introduction of the Batarians (assuming you haven’t read the Mass Effect: Revelation novel) will be a welcome sight for many gamers, and the plot that develops gives hints as to what further DLC content could focus on. You can’t really ask for much more from a $5 piece of content. While much of the experience feels very familiar, Bioware managed to tweak the formula just enough to make it fresh again. Most gamers should get about 90 minutes of enjoyment out of Bring Down the Sky, but I imagine most Mass Effect players will want to run through it at least twice. Of course, the experience can be made much longer by upping the difficulty and using a weaker character, as I did. Anyone that’s looking for a bit more Mass Effect during the post-holiday lull can’t go wrong with Bring Down the Sky.