As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve started the time-consuming but rewarding task of playing through the enormity of Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition. Since I’ve already completed the main game and its associated DLC packs, this post will have me review the remaining standalone DLC campaigns. Back to murdering yet more Darkspawn!

Awakening

The crown jewel of this package, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is a substantial 15-20 hour campaign that more than justifies inclusion into the Dragon Age canon. If Origins was a throwback to 90s point and click computer RPGs, then Awakening evokes another PC trope from that era; the expansion pack. Expansions have often been where designers experimented with new ideas that riff on the mechanics of the main game. This often resulted in some of the most interesting content in a franchise, and Awakening seeks to do just that. As the Grey Warden from the base game, I have been given the arling of Amaranthine, the former home of the Howe clan that were deposed during the Landsmeet. Unfortunately, my arrival to the main Grey Warden keep of Vigil was interrupted by a devastating Darkspawn attack. As I hacked my way through the hordes I eventually discovered something quite out of the ordinary; a Darkspawn that can speak. With precious little to explain the assault so long after the Blight had been quelled, I began a quest to root out and eliminate the threat from my lands.

In addition to my character from Origins, a few other party members make a cameo appearance in Awakening. Alistair, now married to the Warden and King of Ferelden, briefly appears to make my claim on the land official and to provide a few excuses as to why he won’t stick around for the duration. Wynne also pops her head in as an NPC quest giver, but it’s not at all a substantial role. The only other returning character, Oghren, actually is a party member and has substantial dialog throughout the campaign. The remainder of my party is filled with some well thought out companions. Sigrun is a dwarven rogue whose obsession with killing Darkspawn dovetails nicely with the mission of the Grey Wardens. Velanna is a Dalish elf mage who innately distrusts humans but forges an uneasy alliance with the Wardens to save her sister. Nathaniel Howe is the last scion of the House of Howe whose lands I had taken over. He would have been a useful rogue but I had him executed for both being lame and also as revenge for my murdered family. Anders, the apostate human mage, is the quipper of the party and has some great banter with the Warden and other party members. Finally, there’s Justice, a spirit that becomes trapped in the body of a dead Grey Warden and must find his purpose in the unfamiliar physical realm. The party is for the most part quite memorable (even if the combination of Justice and Anders becomes a wet blanket in Dragon Age II), and it was a nice touch to be able to recruit all of them as Grey Wardens, Joining ritual and all. It really helped sell the fact that I was the new Warden-Commander who is responsible for leading my order.

Awakening distinguishes itself by pushing this concept of leadership in its story and gameplay. In addition to being the Warden-Commander, I was also the Arlessa of Amaranthine and so was tasked with ensuring the safety and livelihood of my subjects. To that end the game had me seeking out vendors to ensure that trade flowed through my lands, assisting builders so that my city walls could withstand another Darkspawn attack, and even dispensing justice to those accused of crimes. If this is starting to sound familiar, it’s because the structure of the campaign is similar to that of the latest Dragon Age game, Inquisition. Playing through Awakening I was struck by how many of its ideas were used and expanded upon in Bioware’s most recent game. In fact, significant chunks of Awakening’s campaign took place in large (by Origins standards) open environments with various quests to complete, not unlike the open areas of Inquisition. These ideas, along with the characters that would play a large role in Dragon Age II, serve to showcase how forward thinking Awakening is in its design.

At this point you can probably tell that I enjoyed my time with Awakening. I can definitively say that it’s my favorite piece of content outside of the main game. A big reason for this is its longer runtime than any of the other DLCs. The Dragon Age formula is at its best when it’s given time to breathe. There is some padding here and there, specifically the fetch and collection quests, but even that filler forced me to really explore the open environments and get a feel for their design and hidden lore. We often emphasize quality of quantity in game design, but sometimes quantity can itself be quality, and it’s nice to be reminded of that on occasion. Awakening demonstrates both a mastery of the Dragon Age: Origins formula as well as a willingness to experiment and sow the seeds for future franchise installments. I heartily recommend Awakening as essential playing for franchise fans.

The Darkspawn Chronicles

This campaign starts out with an intriguing premise; what if the Grey Wardens, due to the death of the main game’s player character, fail to stop the Blight and as a result the Darkspawn run roughshod through Ferelden? And what if the player gets to control the Darkspawn as they sow chaos? Video games that let you play as the actual antagonist(s) are few and far between, so I was really excited to try out The Darkspawn Chronicles. Unfortunately, Bioware completely whiffed on the execution and made thoroughly boring piece of content. The campaign begins with me in control of a Hurlock Vanguard, a type of elite Darkspawn soldier that has the ability to recruit other Darkspawn to follow me and do my bidding. As a gameplay mechanic this is actually fairly interesting, as I was able to mix and match my party with a variety of abilities based on who I recruited. The entire scenario takes place during the main game’s final battle at Denerim so there was plenty of combat for me to experiment with the various Darkspawn at my disposal. It’s also pretty neat, in a twisted sort of way, to fight and slaughter the party members from Origins and to get lore on what happened to them in this alternate reality where the main character died early on. What really drags the campaign down, however, is the limited scope and shoddy production. There is almost no voice acting throughout the content’s 1.5 hour runtime and all cut scenes and environments are directly cribbed from the main game. The intriguing premise saves The Darkspawn Chronicles from being the worst piece of DLC in this package, but it’s still pretty bad. Feel free to skip this one.

Leliana's Song

One of my favorite aspects of Bioware games is how well they write companion characters. From the self-assured yet repentant Mordin Solus to the delightfully grumpy Jolee Bindo, you can pretty much guarantee a memorable performance from at least a couple of your companions in each game. Leliana, the Chantry sister seeking to atone for her sins as an Orlesian spy, may not be one of my all-time favorite Bioware characters but that isn’t to say that she’s uninteresting. Her introduction in Origins is ok, but she is necessarily kind of boring as a straight-laced and guilt-wracked version of her former self. I actually didn’t care all that much for Leliana until she reappeared in Dragon Age: Inquisition as my spymaster. In that role we can see a morally flexible version of the former bard that is more willing to use her considerable talents in order to complete her goals than she was in Origins. In Leliana’s Song, a prequel chronicling Leliana’s shady past with the Orlesian power broker Marjolaine, we see a Leliana unchained by guilt and fully capable of sowing chaos and subterfuge. The entirety of the campaign takes place in Denerim, but while the setting is recycled, the story is fully voiced and there are even a few new cut scenes. The presentation is also more brash with Tarantino-like character introductions and some neat action sequences. Gameplay-wise there isn’t much new here, but the story more than makes up for it. After a break-in goes awry, Leliana realizes that she may be on the hook for more than simple bourgeoisie intrigue. Betrayed by Marjolaine, she embarks on a quest to make things right. There’s great character development here for Leliana as we see the pieces move into place for her to become the person she is at the start of the main game. Unfortunately, being that this is a prequel the player is not given as much freedom to affect the direction of the story as they would in the other Bioware campaigns. In addition, given the short 1-2 hour runtime of the campaign, certain emotional beats feel unearned due to rushed development of certain side characters. But on the whole the campaign is decent and worth checking out.

The Golems of Amgarrak

Despite my dislike for the Orzammar sections in the base game, I do enjoy the lore surrounding the dwarves of Dragon Age. The idea of an enormous underground civilization all but lost to the Darkspawn is endlessly fascinating and so I was looking forward to The Golems of Amgarrak. In this campaign my player character from Origins, the Warden, is called down to investigate a lost expedition in the dwarven thaig of Amgarrak. Amgarrak apparently contained old research on golems which would be a valuable find for any explorer, but something powerful protects its secrets. The story is well told through dialog as well as voiced journal entries. As I explored the thaig the sinister truth of Amgarrak began to reveal itself, resulting in a satisfying climax. There are a few puzzles here and there that are better designed than one would expect and the combat was challenging enough to encourage more strategic play. Instead of the usual companions, I was accompanied by two dwarven brothers, one of which was able to summon a helpful bronto, and a golem that plays not unlike Shale. Despite not being able to pick my party members, the group provided was well rounded and I was able to get through the combat with little frustration. One annoying thing to note was that my Blood Dragon armor from the base game did not carry over and I was forced to start the campaign naked. Luckily I had some extra armor lying in my inventory, but this bug could definitely screw over players who like to travel with their backpacks empty. Overall, The Golems of Amgarrak is a decent piece of standalone content that highlights some of the best parts of Dragon Age’s gameplay.

Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt is an approximately 2 hour long module that has Origins’ player character on the trail of the elusive Morrigan, who at the end of the base game had absconded with her and Alistair’s archdemon ensouled child. The story had me traveling to various parts of Ferelden, including the Circle Tower and the Deep Roads, in order to determine the location of an eluvian, an ancient elven artifact. Eluvians look like mirrors but can act as teleportation devices and it becomes clear that Morrigan is seeking one for some unknown purpose. Since eluvians become important plot points in both Dragon Age II and Inquisition it was pretty neat to see them included here, which speaks to the larger theme of looking toward the future of the Dragon Age franchise. In fact, this DLC is almost exclusively concerned with teasing the future such that the story becomes secondary. The new companions that travelled with me in my search were thoroughly forgettable, with only the returning Mabari hound companion doing anything remotely interesting. In addition to the bland story it appears that Bioware yet again phoned-in the level design, as there are plenty of recycled environments with only Morrigan’s final meeting occurring in a new area. That final meeting turned out to be something of a disappointment as well. With the campaign entirely focused on finding Morrigan and getting answers for her actions, it’s a shame that the conversation with her lands with a dull thud. All of her answers to my questions were met with vague allusions and very little substance, likely owing to the fact that Bioware was still hammering down the details of future stories at the time of the DLC’s development. Of course with the release of later games we’ve seen how the story of Morrigan and Flemeth played out, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Witch Hunt is light on new answers. But while this campaign is not that great overall, it still is a decent coda to Dragon Age: Origins and worth checking out if you’re craving a small bite of some CRPG content.

Nice write up. Loved Awakening so much, and I still remember some people saying it was short for an expansion. Oh how DLC has changed in so few years...

Goddamn, did they actually make this much DLC for that game? I remember finishing up Origins after something like 80 hours of playtime and while I loved it, I also didn't want to touch it again for a while. I've been tempted to play through it again sometime soon, but I don't think I could do that in good conscience while Pillars of Eternity is still in the unfinished column.

Sure, DLC is more ubiquitous and can be a lot of different things, but the 20+ hour RPG expansion still very much exists. Skyrim had two expansions over 20 hours, the first expansion for the Witcher 3 was like 15 and the upcoming one is said to be significantly bigger. Far Harbor for Fallout 4 is also supposed to the biggest expansion Bethesda has ever done, and Shivering Isles was like 40 hours.

Wow man, you're getting pretty damn good at this write-up lark! You should consider sending your stuff off freelance to some publishers/websites. (Or we can split off from this GB crowd and set up our own write up site! :-p)

I've never personally found Dragon Age all that interesting, but that is down to my own low-threshold for fantasy more than any objective failings in the series (there may be some, but I wouldn't know!). Is Origins the latest one, or was this one of the 360/PS3 era titles?

You know, one of the reasons that I have trouble with Dragon Age is the way cut-scenes or story-stuff is enacted in-game. I've grown increasingly frustrated at points where I have control taken away from me and I am forced into watching animated scenes or static conversation. I loved all that in the PS1/PS2 era because the spectacle was one of the main points of attraction, but nowadays it just takes me out of the experience and I find myself switching off. I could mostly forgive all that with the Mass Effect series because the setting was at least interesting to me, but by the third game I definitely felt a bit of a disconnect when it happened.

Saying all that though... Uncharted and The Last of us both have cut-scenes and I loved them so I'm probably just talking out my arse again!

It's odd to specifically mention Dragon Age and Mass Effect in relation to not liking getting pulled out of the action because of cutscenes, since both those games have dialogue systems. Even when it's just characters talking, you still have some input and you're still playing the game because you're making dialogue choices. That is not even remotely the case in Uncharted and The Last of Us.

@ll_exile_ll: Yeah I considered that after I posted, but then I was too lazy to edit. But yeah, you're right.

@kmfrob: Thanks for the support! So far this blog has been a great way to deal with boredom at work but I'm always open to the possibility of freelancing. I'd be happy to collaborate on a venture with you but I don't think I'd want to completely abandon writing here at GB as the community is so supportive. Message me and we can talk.

Like @ll_exile_ll mentioned, the thing I love about Bioware games is the inherent interactivity of the story and "cut-scenes". It appeals to me in the same way that I would prefer running around towns than crawling through dungeons in Final Fantasy. I do get your point about getting frustrated with agency being taken away from you in cut scenes, but in recent years I've grown more fond of that practice. Part of it stems from the fact that AAA and AA development has really slowed down in recent years, so it's become more of a treat to see a lavishly produced adventure get released when lower budget indie titles are becoming the new normal. That's not to say I dislike the indie space. In fact, I think gaming is better than it has ever been thanks to the unprecedented diversity in game development talent. But sometimes I like the ostentatious display of technology that you can only get from an Uncharted or a Bioshock.

@rorie:I know what you mean. On one hand I'm loving this bounty of new CRPGs, but on the other hand having a new 40+ hour campaign released several times a year is daunting. Even with Pillars of Eternity, I've barely gotten into that game and now I'm staring down the possibility of also playing two 20+ hour expansion campaigns! It's all too much of a good thing. Hopefully I can make time to play Torment because that is looking really sweet.