Single-player expansions were an amazing part of the original Mass Effect trilogy, as Bioware consistently released strong downloadable content like Overlord and Omega. Yet, if you ask any Mass Effect fan what was the best expansion they’d answer with either Mass Effect 2’s Lair of the Shadow Broker or Mass Effect 3’s Citadel.
Both expansions are fantastic additions to their respective games and they showcase what people like about Mass Effect in the first place, as they include well-thought-out stories and great characters. This list looks at what’s excellent about each of them, which might help you decide whether Lair of the Shadow Broker or the Citadel is the finer expansion.
10 Lair Of The Shadow Broker Puts Liara Front And Center
When Mass Effect 2 was released, Liara fans were disappointed to find that their favorite blue alien was barely in the game. Thankfully, Lair of the Shadow Broker brought Liara back as a squadmate and revolved the whole story around her.
Liara’s pivotal role in the expansion allowed players to see more of her development from the young unassured Asari in the first game to the confident badass that she’d become. Additionally, if you romanced her in the original Mass Effect then you’re treated to some wonderfully heartfelt scenes between her and Shepard.
9 Citadel Includes Most Of The Characters From The Series
Aside from Liara, Shepard, and the antagonists, not many characters are featured in Lair of the Shadow Broker. Whereas in the Citadel expansion, almost everyone makes an appearance.
Your appreciation of this depends on how many characters survived the first two games on your own save. If you managed to keep a lot of your squadmates alive then some of them will be involved in the Citadel’s main story, others have their own side missions, and a few will just turn up for the celebrations. One of the best parts of the DLC is witnessing how all of the characters interact with each other during the climactic party.
8 Lair Of The Shadow Broker Features Great Boss Fights
Mass Effect games might not be known for their boss battles, but there have been some notable ones throughout the series with two of them happening in Lair of the Shadow Broker.
Firstly there’s a battle against Asari Spectre Tela Vasir, who uses all of her biotic powers (especially charge) to make it a fast-paced and challenging fight. Then there’s the brawl against the Shadow Broker, which is more cinematic yet equally challenging and has the cool visual of Shepard punching a giant Yahg in the face. The Citadel does feature a strong fight between Shepard and his clone, but it can’t match up to both of the other two.
7 Citadel Has A Better Hub Area
Both expansions included a new hub area, but the Citadel’s Silversun Strip is bigger and much more visually appealing than the Shadow Broker’s base. Also, Citadel gets bonus points for its uniqueness, as a Vegas-like strip hadn’t been seen in a Mass Effect game before.
The Strip’s substantial size isn’t just for show, as it’s filled with things to do. There’s playable games in the arcade and casino as well as a combat simulator where you can battle waves of enemies. None of the activities in the area are particularly groundbreaking, but they can still be fun distractions.
6 Lair Of The Shadow Broker Adds Interesting Dossiers On Existing Characters
The Shadow Broker’s base might be the inferior hub area, yet it does contain an entertaining set of dossiers that the Shadow Broker had been keeping on the franchises’ characters.
Anyone who likes to read the codex that’s featured in every Mass Effect game should take a look at these dossiers. They are filled with extra information about things that have happened in the games, such as what Miranda’s sister has been doing since you rescued her from her father. There’s also plenty of easter eggs and jokes included, such as Jack’s extranet difficulties and Miranda’s dating site interactions.
5 Citadel Includes Way More Content
As previously mentioned the Silversun Strip has numerous things to do, add to that all the 17 missions (both main and side ones) included in the expansion, and the Citadel will take you roughly around twice as long to do everything as it would in the more linear Lair of the Shadow Broker.
It’s not just the missions and activities that show how much content the Citadel has either. As the expansion includes new enemy types with the CAT6 units, new guns including the insanely powerful M-11 suppressor, and some unlockable Cerberus armor. Lair of the Shadow Broker can’t match the Citadel in terms of the sheer amount of content.
4 Lair Of The Shadow Broker Provides More Dynamic Gameplay Sections
Lair of the Shadow Broker involves a playable car chase!! You get to chase down Tela Vasir in a taxi that luckily handles far better than the derided Mako from the first game, making this a fun little sequence.
Although gameplay in Lair of the Shadow Broker really excels during the battle on the exterior of the Shadow Broker’s ship. Using biotic powers to fling the Shadow Broker’s agents into the air before they drift off into space or shooting capacitors filled with lighting to shock them never gets old. Additionally, Liara and Shepard’s banter and the great visuals of the storm further contribute to this exciting experience.
3 Citadel Has A Lighter Tone
Despite the constant threat of eradication, Mass Effect has always contained some humor and in the Citadel expansion Bioware doubled down on it. There’s a constant stream of jokes throughout the DLC with some of the best being self-referential, such as Shepard’s realization that he/she repeatedly says “I should go” when finishing a conversation.
Even the main quest in the expansion isn’t as serious as usual, with the whole second half of it being about planning and hosting a party. It makes for a nice change of pace from the main Mass Effect 3 game where the Reaper invasion has unsurprisingly put a downer on things.
2 Lair Of The Shadow Broker Has Narrative Importance
The first two Mass Effect games spent time building the Shadow Broker up as some mysterious and powerful being that knew everything. Two major characters in Tali and Wrex were brought into the first game’s story by the Broker yet if you’d not played Lair of the Shadow Broker you wouldn’t have known who it was before Liara took the mantle.
Also, with Liara having a big role in the third game, Lair of the Shadow Broker is vital in showing how she went from a simple information broker on Illium to having her hands on most of the information in the galaxy. The Citadel, on the other hand, is a self-contained adventure that doesn’t affect the main plot at all.
1 Citadel Is A Love Letter To Fans
A party, lots of humor, and a host of old squadmates returning may scream ‘fan service’, but that’s exactly what Mass Effect 3 needed after frustrating their entire fanbase with the game’s original ending.
In many ways, the Citadel is a must-have for any fans of the series, as it gives them a chance to say a real goodbye to all the characters that they’ve fallen in love with over the years. It is a love letter filled with feel-good moments that celebrate the trilogy as a whole and helps ease the anger that was created by the ending of the Reaper threat. Even the most disillusioned fan would struggle to not crack a smile at some point during this delightful expansion.
NEXT: The 10 Most Difficult Decisions You Have To Make In Mass Effect
