Dragon Age: Origins

When Dragon Age: Origins was first released last fall, the sassy and sardonic witch companion Morrigan quickly became a fan favorite.  Her biting comments at the expense of other characters was a constant source of humor in the game, and the fact that you could get her to put out didn't hurt, either.  By the end of the game, Morrigan was still as mysterious as she was in the beginning, leaving many players with a lot of questions.  Unfortunately, those looking for answers in this final bit of DLC for Origins are likely to be disappointed.
 
Witch Hunt tasks the Grey Warden (who can be imported form either Origins and Awakening or created from scratch) with investigating the whereabouts of Morrigan and gathering information about her and what she knows.  Very early on, the Warden assembles a party consisting of their loyal Mabari War Hound, a naive and impetuous young Dalish elf named Ariane, and the prim and proper bookish mage, Finn.  Perhaps it's due to the short length of the content, but I found these new companions to be the highlight of this campaign.  Their lighthearted banter is pretty refreshing, and they are revealed to be fairly deep characters if you take the time to investigate them and their possessions.  It's actually disappointing that there isn't much to do with these characters.  Hopefully Witch Hunt is merely an introduction to them, and we'll meet them again in the sequel.  The DLC also manages to sneak in a few references to companions, places and events from both Origins and Awakening to reward attentive players.  It's nice to get subtle updates on what's new with people and places a year after the main game has ended, or revealing a bit more of the rich back story that Bioware has crafted for this series.  
 

Unfortunately, in terms of gameplay, Witch Hunt doesn't really add anything new.  To begin with, the DLC does nothing to change the generally buggy nature of Dragon Age as a whole. You'll still come across glitches in terms of missing equipment, the game being unable to remember which choices you made, and characters behaving oddly.  The game will at times contradict itself when referring to what your character has done in previous adventures, like it can't decide which choices you made and instead just throws them together into some weird amalgamation.  In your search for Morrigan, you'll visit a handful of familiar locations, but there are no new environments to explore.  You're in familiar locales with familiar enemies with very mild puzzles that do little to engage the player.  The whole thing just gives a sense of familiarity and repetition that's hard to shake.  
 
There are a fair amount of enemies considering the limited number of areas and the smaller scale that they're presented in, but the combat is generally easy compared to previous DLC and the endgame opposition from Origins, and health poultices are readily available.  There's nothing notable in terms of new items or abilities to mix things up a bit, either.  Those looking for some challenging battles would be better served by last month's DLC, Golems of Amgarrak.  It's pretty clear that the developer's focus was on plot for this content, which makes the lackluster story all the more disappointing.     
 

Prior to the release of Witch Hunt, the promotional teasers and the basic concept seemed to suggest that this was the "true ending" to Dragon Age: Origins.  It was implied that this was meant to be a plot-heavy epilogue to Morrigan's story, clearing things up and answering some questions.  In reality, the majority of the DLC is taken up with following Morrigan's trail, and the much-publicized confrontation is sadly stunted and disappointing.  There are no real revelations or answers given, just a bunch of half-truths and implications.  None of the questions you had before this Witch Hunt will be resolved by its completion.  Just when you think they are about to reveal something, the plot ends anticlimactically, and after the confrontation, the game just stops.  I thought there was a glitch or that my game froze for a moment before the credits popped up and began to roll.
 
All of the buildup claiming this DLC would be a "concluding epilogue" was ultimately a lie.  Witch Hunt is less closure for Origins as it is a precursor for Dragon Age II.  The game practically ends with a pop-up screen saying "Look for the sequel next Spring!" While I keep mentioning that Witch Hunt teases the sequel, I feel obligated to say that it's not even a proper cliffhanger, it's just a lukewarm "We'll get to the answers next time, we promise."  It all just seems very cheap and tacked on.  In the end, it's about 1.5 hours of gameplay for  560 MSP ($7) which seems even more insulting after the recently released Dead Rising: Case Zero provided so much more for less.  For someone who can't get enough Dragon Age, nothing I say will keep you from picking this up, but for everyone else, it's definitely a disappointing piece of content that doesn't fulfill it's potential.  Let's just hope that the DLC is a bit more even-handed when the sequel finally comes around.