Dragon Age II

Reviewer's Note: Some aspects of Dragon Age II's overall story (Act I's ending particularly) will be touched upon in this review, so spoilers beware!
 
With Dragon Age II's first piece of Story DLC, Bioware set out to address some of the issues many disappointed fans had with the core game - mainly issues concerning the lack of variety in the vistas in and around the main location of the game, Kirkwall. Legacy manages to certainly hit a few of these issues and deal with them admirably, and whilst its value will still boil down to your personal enjoyment of Dragon Age II, it's a piece of DLC that is highly recommended. 
 
Playable anywhere during the game's 3 Act story (although personally I would recommend it played in Act III, mainly because of the overall toughness of the encounters throughout Legacy), this particular Quest takes Hawke and his companions (If played after Act I, your surviving Sibling can come along for the story, even if they became a Grey Warden. The explaination for their presence is surprisingly addressed head on if you do choose to take them as well, a nice change for those who were angered by some of the main game's choice to flaunt with Dragon Age's overall canon) to the Vimmark Mountains, in search of the Dwarven Carta, who are seeking the blood of members of the Hawke Family. Being Dragon Age, this all leads to an ancient evil hiding away, and Darkspawn, as well as some backstory for Hawke's parents - the main quest touches upon some interesting parts of the overall lore in the Dragon Age universe, as well as aspects previously touched upon in the series of tie-in Novels. It's a thoroughly enjoyable quest line, despite the lack of 'major' decisions that could carry over into future titles, but the writing particularly is first class - Dragon Age II's party banter was one of its finest accomplishments, and once again the new dialogue here for your party members is brilliant written: Playing through with both Isabela and Aveline gave some stellar arguements and catty comments every once in a while, and was a solid reminder of just how good Bioware's characters can be. If played after the second Act's completion, the story ends on a truly touching note that ties up Hawke's character and his overall family story very nicely - at its core, Legacy is a story of much more personal scale than most of the game's overarching storyline, and is better for it.
  

Whilst the gameplay is expectantly more of Dragon Age II's 'visceral' fast paced Combat, overall the encounters you face along Legacy's 3 hour questline are remarkably tougher than the majority of the main game's skirmishes. Each fight feels decidedly less 'wave based' than much of Dragon Age II's battles, offering a challenge rather through the amount of enemies and your own cunning, rather than simply surviving wave after wave of teleporting minions. The dungeon layouts also offer much needed variety to the main game's 'cut and paste' approach to dungeons, which, whilst still fairly linear, offer more open spaces and interesting scenery than the ones featured throughout Dragon Age II. Several new enemies - such as returning Darkspawn from Origins, like the Genlocks - also add a splash of variety to these encounters, changing up the often typical flow of DAII's combat in a satisfying manner. Whilst combat offers a great challenge, the final boss encounter of the story is incredibly disappointing - rather than being a challenge through serious difficulty, Bioware unfortunately fall back on cheap tricks to end the gameplay of Legacy on a sour note, but it hardly tarnishes the overall solid package.  
 

As mentioned earlier, the Vimmark Mountains offer a completely new vista to explore in Dragon Age II, and it definitely shows that Bioware spent time putting some gorgeous detail in your surroundings. Despite distant echoes of aesthetics from Kirkwall's Docks and Lowtowns in early segments, the Warden Prison Tower at the heart of Legacy's quests in a fresh change of pace to the games usual surroundings. Once again, the overall presentation is lifted to higher levels by the writing team, who are firing on all cylinders for Legacy - there's much more interaction in dialogue from your Party members this time around, allowing their characters to shine through, and they definitely do.  
 

 Overall, Dragon Age II: Legacy is an enjoyable piece of Downloadable Content. If you're invested in Dragon Age II already, it's definitely an essential pickup, but if you grew weary of some of the repetitive scenery and combat scenarios in the game, Legacy addresses these issues with a much needed breath of fresh air for the title - at its core, just like the main game, are its characters and story, and once again these are at their finest throughout.