In what may be an attempt to quell some of the negative PR generated by the controversy over Mass Effect 3's ending, Bioware released a free multiplayer content package on Tuesday called the Resurgence Pack. It's got three new guns, two new maps and a whole cast of new characters including Batarians, Geth, and a Krogan Vanguard.
Eager to check out the new levels, I brought my level 18 Human Vanguard to the new map Condor, located on one of the Turian homeworld's moons. Condor is a dark, dreary place with rock tunnels and walls segmenting the arena into many tiny chunks. Its circular design and narrow pathways make it one of those maps that's really great if you can get a team to group up and run routes together. It's big enough that there's always at least one part of the arena without enemies, so hit-and-run strategies work pretty well.
My upgraded Vanguard recharges his shields every time he successfully dashes, so in multiplayer I spend much of my time spinning in circles, wildly mashing the Y button in an attempt to target anything that moves. I implemented this "strategy" on Condor, and it turned out to be pretty effective in the level's narrow passages. Using the dash I could quickly warp to a teammate in distress, or boost my way out of a bad situation.
My group tried as hard as we could on Silver difficulty, but a Geth engineer and I were carrying some dead weight on the team. There's usually one guy who constantly needs reviving, and in this case it was the other Geth player. But hey, at least nobody dropped out right at the beginning of the match. (Seriously, Bioware, add drop-in/drop-out to the multiplayer. It's impossible to win with only three people.)
Unfortunately, we failed on wave 10, which is sort of like running 25 miles of a marathon and having a heart attack right before the finish line. I should've gone back to Bronze difficulty after that, but I didn't learn.
My team failed even more spectacularly on the other new map, Hydra. There, we found ourselves entrenched in a base located near the bottom of an enormous dam. The level is brightly lit, with a gorgeous surrounding environment and big, open spaces that'll make snipers very happy –– in other words, it's everything that Condor isn't. If players choose to turtle up in the little round turret near the starting point, it's possible to wipe out most enemies without ever having to change position.
We failed on the first round. Embarrassing, right? Naturally, I blame everyone but myself, but it probably didn't help that I was trying out my new level five Batarian Sentinel for the first time. As it turns out, I'm really bad at aiming with sniper rifles.
The Resurgence Pack is available, and can be downloaded for free from Mass Effect 3's built-in downloads screen.
