(trying not to spoil the story, but I will be mentioning some general points about people you meet and such)
Dragon Age Origins was supposed to have one more origin - Avvar barbarians. Having never seen any of it, I was still relieved we never got that stuff in the first Dragon Age game, because something told me that whatever it would be, it wouldn't be good.
Aaand now that we've got it in Jaws of Hakkon, I hope to honestly never, ever, EVER see it again.
I am no big expert on Scandinavian/Norse/Yakut/Sakha mythology, but I'm fairly certain there got to be more to barbarians than "Hi! We're good barbarians! Here, have a fetch quest!" and "Raaaaagh! We be BAD, BAD barbarians! We be killing you!" and obligatory mentions of goat ****. Seriously, what gives?
(Even Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter wasn't That Bad. There, I said it.)
In short, both Avvar factions you're meeting, Good Barbarians and Bad Barbarians, are as shallow and cliche as you going to get.
You think I'm exaggerating? Well, look at the dialogue:
- Hello, I'm the local scald, when I finally think of a great song, I'll get a great name!
- Hello, I'm the local shaman, I'm appeasing local spirits, because we treat spirits like gods! Hint, hint, hint, hint, hint, HINT - repeat the line about spirits and gods four or five times in the dialogue until Solas finally interjects.
- Hello, I'm the local huntmaster, and whatever you are going to say, I'm going to be offended, because Barbarian Tradition! And then I'll wish you good luck and send you on a fetch quest.
Seriously, folks? I never thought I was going to miss that Dalish clan in the Exalted Plains. (I don't. I think the Dalish clan in Origins was much more interesting. But compared to those barbarians, I'd take anything).
I'm unpleasantly reminded of the worst parts of the Heart of Winter. The parts where you endlessly trudge along paths and corridors to meet Yet Another Quest Giver from the club of Nobody Cares.
GOOD NEWS: you're going to get splendid vistas.
BAD NEWS: you're not going to get story there. Not "enough story"(well, obviously, seeing how you get an area with 26 regions and plenty of empty space), and not "good story".
Because here's what you're going to get as "story/dialogue/fun stuff":
- First of all, we meet Scout Harding. Yay! And she gets lots of new dialogue! Yay? Well.. yay and nay. She gets a lovely bit of dialogue about treehouses, but in truth, you might be very disappointed, since the majority of Harding's new dialogue is going to be about "how's your father and mother, where did you study to shoot your bow, what do you think of our main quest progress".
It's not going to be interesting like Dagna's relationship to her father, or Solas learning about spirits, or Cassandra talking to you about the future of the chantry. Mostly, Scout Harding's dialogue is generic and makes you want to tear your hair out at the thought that all this word budget was spent for boring, boring, boring lines.
- Now, the more important part: the quest-giver, the guy who gives you quests, and provides interesting information. BAD NEWS: he looks like your average Requisition Officer, only male; his dialogue is hardly better that that of Professor Frederic of Serault from the Western Approach, and he keeps dreaming about "Lady Harding" all the time.
Honestly, I was really sad about that, because quest-givers could be great people - Enchanter Orsino, Commander Cullen(in DA2), Zathrian, King Bhelen, Duncan and Morrigan(in DAI) were all great quest-givers. I think it would've been great to get someone interesting, or maybe even an old face, given that many non-party members from Origins and DA2 are still alive. We could even get Leliana or Cullen or Josephine overseeing the operation. Or Cassandra! The Seekers are her thing, after all.
But no, instead we get a Generic Guy telling us Generic Lines that, yeah, the University of Orlais is okay, the weather's fine, and it's Very Important To Find Out whether The First Inquisitor preferred his toast done on one side or both... sorry, I meant to say, whether he was a loyal servant to Orlais or not.
(Why was it meant to be important? I'm afraid I do not care either way. I care about what sort of person the First Inquisitor was, what he was doing there, what he wanted from the Inquisition and the Seekers, I care about the woman he loved. But Orlais? Nah.)
You do get a promise of a very beautiful love story between the First Inquisitor and his love. And I was immediately jumping at it, hoping I'd get a few lines with my love interest/party members about it, and maybe that his love was a goddess and the story of DAI would be mirrored in the past, or maybe there would be a beautiful tale of star-crossed lovers...
Ha. No.
What you get is a side-quest when you get to a small island and get one short conversation with a spirit in the very beginning of the DLC, so you aren't even kept hanging in suspense. And that's it, the love story ends. Honestly, the Cloakwood side-quest with a Spirit of Command was better.
I love Dragon Age games, and I'm happy to get new DLC, but one thing I'm very disappointed and sad about is bad story. You can live with empty spaces, but you can't live without interesting adventures.
As for party members, you get one or two obligatory interjections "Hey, we're approaching the village the quest-giver told us about", and "Oh, yes, spirits, Solas, please interject here", but I'm afraid that's it.
My advice would be waiting until it's on sale - I'm not sure it's worth the same amount as Citadel DLC. Far from it.
Ah, and completely forgot to mention: that Level 20 requirement? Don't pay attention to it. My level 11 Knight-Enchanter killed everything but the rift monsters and Fade-touched beasts, and advanced to level 15 very quickly. Also, there's plenty of Silverite, Everite and such. You will also get new schematics - if you're content to pay 16k for each, of course.
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