Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening Reviewed

Since its November release, Dragon Age: Origins has received a healthy amount of supplemental content. Woefully, the majority of this ancillary material has been less than essential. Return to Ostagar attempted to interpret impetuous King Calian as a tragic figure, offering players an anemic portion of new loot. Warden’s Keep was painfully abbreviated, giving players less than an hour but tendering a party storage system that ought to have been implemented in the main game. While The Stone Prisoner was also regrettably truncated in length, its main character was rendered with enough personality to make the episode a vital part of the franchise experience. 

The twin colons in Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening signify something special- a fully realized expansion available via download or disk. Players may commence the adventure with their preexisting character, equipped with all the gear salvaged from Origins’ archdemon-slaying expedition or start as a level 18 Grey Warden.  Immediately, players will notice the nefarious Darkspawn have returned- this time possessing a perplexing linguistic competence. Although the creatures have the ability to talk, Awakening isn’t burdened with futile attempts at negotiation, unless gamers consider a sharpened blade a tool of arbitration.

Before long, players will be recruiting an assorted band of new party members. Each new addition is skillfully rendered, echoing the depth and creativity illustrated by Origin’s squad of heroes. The sole familiar face is Oghren the drawf, whose lotharian conduct offers a bit of comic relief to the series otherwise straitlaced approach.  While combat hasn’t changed, and remains as remarkably gratifying as ever, Awakening’s perspective has. Instead of being ordered around, now players issue commands, as maintaining a city-state is now one of the chief responsibilities of the player.

Buried within the disk/data is a plethora of new content. Ferelden’s domain receives a respectably sized expansion teeming with new monsters types. Players who discerned Origins reliance on dank dungeons, will be happy to know that Awaking focuses on more sweeping environments. Characters receive a host of upgrades; most noticeable in the elevation in the title’s level cap. Along with that advancement comes a mass of new skills, talents and specializations certain to please Dragon Age fanatics. Gear gleaners may delight over Awakening’s assortment of over 500 new items- including armor and weapons forged new tier eight and nine materials.

Players can now partake in runecrafting, which allows qualified party members to embed weaponry and armor with stat-increasing inscriptions. Vitality allows characters to perfect their physical condition, increasing the resilience and overall health, while clarity allows magic users to focus their mental facilities, permitting mana and stamina bonuses. Each new skill chain only becomes available once players cross the level twenty threshold.

Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening arrives just four months after many players devoted an unhealthy amount of time trekking through the original game’s extensive adventure. For some, the expansion may seem a bit premature, as if a sense of eager anticipation hasn’t had time to properly ferment. Yet with a proper sequel less than a year away, this twenty hour epilogue is certain to become an important component in Dragon Age lore, making it an near-obligatory purchase for franchise aficionados.