izigame.me

This DLC feels like a solid 7.5 out of 10. Mechanically the addition of shields, the new arbites origin, and the overseer archetype are great, but the rest leaves a lot to be desired.
The first real notable setpiece you encounter from this dlc is at the tail end of act 1 with a refigured battle before the boss. Then you see neither hide nor hair of Solomorne till well after you've done everything on footfall and arrived on dargonus. His recruitment mission is excellent, the finest setpiece encounter you can have in the game. Theserra is also a great departure from the norm with great opportunities for roleplay. But the little things that underlie all this is that solomorne has no interactions with colony management when you consult your advisors, no interactions for a lot of very big things in the game. The man is practically mute for most of act 2's big setpieces with very, very few interjections like Kibellah from Void Shadows had. It feels as if he isn't there at all. His personal quest also feels undercooked where I had to consult online resources only to find out that I'd already completed it in total while I had fully expected there to be more after that final part.
I also was not a fan of the rewards from your decisions in the act 2 recruitment mission only being available in act 4 when there's not very much game left to play. As well the final part of the dlc only being available after the completion of Quetza Tamer and Footfall's mission in act 4 means you aren't given much time to play with the new toys, and they're great toys, but by that point I'm already done with the game for the most part. Between companion quests and the new rumored encounters in act 4 you have maybe a dozen encounters total to do so it feels like they're all too little too late. I also was not a fan of the new shotguns as very few new ones had any kind of notable mechanical differences. I encountered a total of 3 that had interesting unique effects. They felt like a very underbaked weapon category given that they've made a whole new origin with a sub-origin designed specifically around them.
Otherwise overseer is fun, the new pets are fun except for the servo skull swarm feeling kinda pointless since it doesn't feel as transformative as using the cyber dog, the eagle or the raven. The latter 3 pets all feel really good to use and like they make a huge difference. That servo skull swarm though, I love the idea of it, but it's just not great to use. I will also say the new arbites origin should be the new gold standard for origins and I hope we'll see revamp for other origins to be in line with it.
As is I would say if you're a fan of the game then buy it. You're getting a grab bag of items, missions and setpieces that all are quite high quality, but they lack the narrative throughline that Void Shadows had in both kibellah's personal quests and the main quest of that dlc. The main quest for this dlc and the personal quest of solomorne leave a lot to be desired.
Oh and for most of the game I had to constantly swap characters in and out because solomorne kept turning into a copy of glaito on the inventory and character stats screens, so this was the only way to fix it. Dog of the empire indeed.