Dragon Age II

Hot on the heels of the last piece of Dragon Age II DLC, Legacy, Mark of the Assassin has had a lot of hype around it given its attachment to 'Geek Icon' and actress Felicia Day (who is also starring in a Live action Dragon Age Webseries, Redemption, to tie into this DLC). Day's character, an Elven rogue named Tallis, sits at the heart of Mark of the Assassin, and whilst your enjoyment for Day's usual cheery acting may ultimately impact your feelings for the character, the story she is involved in with Hawke is definitely an exciting  and enjoyable one. 
 
Mark of the Assassin opens with Hawke meeting Tallis over an ambush one night in Kirkwall, where she asks for his help in stealing a valuable Jewel from an Orlesian Duke's impenetrable Castle. Although the initial premise smacks somewhat of Mass Effect 2's DLC mission, Kasumi's Stolen Memory, Mark of the Assassin goes a step above emulating the 'heist' plotline you think it would and tails off into an unexpected but interesting insight into the Qunari religion and its followers. The story moves along at a measured pace, and serves the 4-5 hours of content well enough, but as with Legacy and the main game, the strength comes in characterisation. As ever, Party banter is top notch (Aveline and Hawke in particular have a fantastic little dialouge about Aveline's Orlesian heritage), eliciting many laughs, but the star of the show is naturally Tallis. Day instills the character with a quirky cheerfulness that instills the whole story with a sense of brevity despite the apparent seriousness of her mission - although at some points she does tread a fine line between creating a lovable rogue character in the mold of Isabela or Zevran, and her trademark 'awkward geekiness' that can be a little jarring.  
  

Although Legacy delivered some improvements on Dragon Age II's wave based combat, it suffered from a lack of variety that Mark of the Assassin has countered with variety in spades. Alongside the typical combat (there are some interesting encounters to shake up Dragon Age II's reliance on humanoid opponents too, and unlike Legacy's admittedly cheap end Boss fight, the denouement to Mark of The Assassin is a much improved one)  and dialogue scenes of the main game, Mark of the Assassin shakes things up by introducing Stealth mechanics as Hawke and Tallis sneak around Chateau Haine. For their first foray with stealth gameplay in the Dragon Age series, Bioware have done reasonably well integrating it in a natural and enjoyable way, adding some much needed variety into the usual mix. Alongside the stealth gameplay are some puzzle elements too, which come together in making Mark of the Assassin's a constant enjoyable mix, and definitely one of the most varied pieces of DLC Bioware has ever done. 
  

Presentation has seemingly received a boost as well for Mark of the Assassin - there are a lot more cinematic moments across the story that give the DLC a great look, thanks to the motion capture work used for Tallis, which gives the animation a much smoother feel compared to the relative stiffness typical of Bioware's RPGs. Tallis herself however, is a mixed bag. Using MoCap to capture Felicia Day's likeness was an interesting move for Bioware, undone in their previous games before, and whilst on the whole it works, in some shots it makes Tallis look almost dead, with a strange stiffness to it that can be very jarring given the rest of the characters great facial animations. Once again Kirkwall has been ignored in this DLC (although there are a few jabs amongst the characters in your party about how good it is to get out of the City for once) in favour of the Chateau Haine and its surroundings in Orlais. There is a welcome variety in the setting, full of lush greenery rarely found in the main game that gives Mark of the Assassin a freshness that ties the package together nicely. Alongside more stellar character writing, Dragon Age II has never been better on the presentation front.  

 Fun, varied and fresh throughout, Mark of the Assassin continues Bioware's solid run of DLC for Dragon Age II. Despite any real consequences to carry over, this DLC is a must for fans still itching for more Dragon Age II - all the tweaks to the game's core gameplay style and solid presentation make for a thoroughly enjoyable package well worth the 800 MSP asking price.