Where the original game was sort of an R-rated Star Trek throwback piece, Redemption goes a decade later, drawing directly from the likes of Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, both in aesthetic and tone. This all pays off brilliantly thanks to Redemption going for a daringly different take on Mass Effect. Walters explained in an interview with IGN, “The idea is that we’re both expanding on characters that we didn’t really explore in Mass Effect 1 and also looking at opportunities to expand on them even further in the DLC.” Redemption would be the first step in this initiative. Mass Effect: Redemption was also in the cards well in advance. With a direct link to the main development team, any adjustments to Mass Effect 2 could be easily accounted for. Art would be primarily led by Omar Francia, cover art by Daryl Mandryk, coloring by Michael Atiyeh, and lettering by Michael Heisler. Though John Jackson Miller was brought back due to his work on the Knights of the Old Republic comics, his role was to adapt Mass Effect 2’s co-narrative lead Mac Walters’ story to a comic script.
Like the Normandy SR-2, everyone had a role to play and knew what needed to be done. How did they pull this off? Coordination. Plus, on the off-chance you haven’t played Mass Effect 2 yet, Redemption serves as a primer for one of the game’s new primary locations - the sprawling criminal underworld station of Omega. You’re free to engage with Mass Effect at whatever level you’re most interested, with payoff for those who delve deepest. If you neither read the comic nor play the DLC, Mass Effect 3 pivots to account for this. If you don’t read it, it’s not impossible to follow the DLC’s plot, but it is that much less emotionally engaging. Redemption is not only key to understanding the greater story of Mass Effect, particularly the second entry, but also Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker, one of the best-received DLC expansions in BioWare’s history. It delivers worthwhile storytelling that knows how to build a universe. The four-issue comic Mass Effect: Redemption, on the other hand, is arguably the strongest franchise tie-in. Reading Deception doesn’t bring you closer to its world. It had lore inconsistencies, weird narrative decisions, and barely achieved actually tying itself into the greater story. Last time on The Stuff of Legends, we explored the worst Mass Effect tie-in novel, Mass Effect: Deception.
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