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[Kel Eligor]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm back on the forums after a long leave of absence since the launch of DA:I. I've clocked in 220 hours of game time, played through multiple characters and enjoyed the continuation of the Dragon Age story. I've just finished a playthrough of the Jaws of Hakkon DLC and thought I'd leave my thoughts on it here. 

 

Jaws of Hakkon opens up to the player after they've reached level 20 (suitable, considering the difficulty of the enemies) through a War Table operation. Same as any new area, you have to spend a few power points and your character will be sent to a brief introduction with Scout Harding. The premise is pretty simple; uncover the past in relation to the old Inquisitor Ameridian - who disappeared 800 years ago - and figure out while a cult of local Avaar - the Jaws of Hakkon - are attacking Inquisition forces. It all blends in seamlessly with the rest of the game, and is unfortunately very light on narrative content. In comparison to past DLC releases by Bioware both in the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, Hakkon possibly stands as the lightest on story-driven content and possibly content altogether. While some of the more exotic elements of the new area are gorgeous and well crafted, some assets are obviously borrowed from areas like Crestwood and/or the Hinterlands. 

 

There is very little interaction with NPCs, which really stretches the emotional connection to the quest a little thin. What should've been a great opportunity for Bioware to expand on the history of the Inquisition and early Andrastian religion instead feels superficial and lackluster. Even a particular encounter, which should have been pivotal in the grand scheme of the narrative, ends up feeling more like filler than an impactful moment within the Dragon Age universe. The absence of interesting new NPCs coupled with the fact there is only new banter with your party members and no new possible individual discussions, the DLC feels downright hollow in the story department. 

 

Gameplay wise, there is virtually no new content. I discovered a new neat Inquisitor-specific ability, but alas there is no skill-tree expansion to any of the existing classes, or a new class to speak of. The quests re-use the Shards and Astral mini-games, with a lot of "plant/press/activate this" in-between. Instead of being innovative, Hakkon merely offers more of the same.

 

The one redeeming quality of the DLC is the high-level crafting materials, which were sparse in the main game and come in abundance here. If you're a fan of crafting and maxing out your gear with the best possible stats, Hakkon will have something for you. 

 

At the steep price of 15$, which I usually accepted from Bioware in the past due to their amazing treatment of DLC content, I felt cheated by Jaws of Hakkon. 

 

Tl;dr; I do not recommend it. 

[katerinafm]

From what I read, this would have been good if only it wasn't so expensive. At that price you expect something much more substantial, story wise.

[Shaftell]

Interesting.. I'll still end up getting it because...You know....Dragon Age... I feel like you gave an unbiased opinion of it. I've heard JOH has nothing new to offer from many other sources.

[leaguer of one]

I would not say the story is light. More based on discovery and uncovering info then cinematic drama. It has it's own twist and turn and a lot of thing to add to the lore that added to the world story.

 

This doc story wise adds to the depth of what the inquisition was and what the world was like 800 years ago in thinking and how much things changed from that time and now.

[earymir]

I actually think this DLC has a lot more story than basically any other area in the game.  The lore/codex entries and NPCs were far more connected within this story/level, and there are actually more NPCs with their unique stories than most other levels as well.  It's very cohesive, and the level is well-designed. 

 

I thought the combat was more challenging as well, which was a nice change.  

 

Anyway I actually liked it quite a lot - assuming you aren't expecting a whole new game.  

[SporkFu]

I liked the DLC a lot. I mean, how can you not like something that has more Harding in it? That's gotta be worth five bucks alone  

[Kulyok]

I actually think this DLC has a lot more story than basically any other area in the game.  The lore/codex entries and NPCs were far more connected within this story/level, and there are actually more NPCs with their unique stories than most other levels as well.  It's very cohesive, and the level is well-designed. 

 

I think the problem with the DLC was not the lack of story, but the faults of the said story. Not quantity, but quality. I mean, Fallow Mire and Crestwood aren't exactly full of adventure, either, but many players liked those(myself included), because it makes sense, because it's organic, and while there's not a lot of the story, true, it all fits together and makes for an interesting tale. (That, and Fallow Mire is short).

 

With DLC, I never felt emotionally involved. You don't find out anything about the Bad Barbarians until the very end of the game, and only from codex entries/notes.

 

Good Barbarians get only one beautiful side-quest - "In Exile", and that's practically the only bit of significant lore for the Avvar. I felt emotionally involved, but that was one subquest for ten minutes.

 

The rest of it was plain hack and slash with generic dialogue, and frankly, I'm not happy with generic dialogue. Whoever was writing it wasn't at the top of their game.

[leaguer of one]

I think the problem with the DLC was not the lack of story, but the faults of the said story. Not quantity, but quality. I mean, Fallow Mire and Crestwood aren't exactly full of adventure, either, but many players liked those(myself included), because it makes sense, because it's organic, and while there's not a lot of the story, true, it all fits together and makes for an interesting tale. (That, and Fallow Mire is short).

 

With DLC, I never felt emotionally involved. You don't find out anything about the Bad Barbarians until the very end of the game, and only from codex entries/notes.

 

Good Barbarians get only one beautiful side-quest - "In Exile", and that's practically the only bit of significant lore for the Avvar. I felt emotionally involved, but that was one subquest for ten minutes.

 

The rest of it was plain hack and slash with generic dialogue, and frankly, I'm not happy with generic dialogue. Whoever was writing it wasn't at the top of their game.

Crest wood and Mire are more direct and to the point. And the story is put together and discovered via dark souls with the dlc. The point is you uncovering what happened. And the personal involvement is when you find out how similar the first inquisitors group is to yours. And the "Losing a friend " quest was pretty emotionally involving as well.

[Kel Eligor]

I actually think this DLC has a lot more story than basically any other area in the game.  The lore/codex entries and NPCs were far more connected within this story/level, and there are actually more NPCs with their unique stories than most other levels as well.  It's very cohesive, and the level is well-designed. 

 

I thought the combat was more challenging as well, which was a nice change.  

 

Anyway I actually liked it quite a lot - assuming you aren't expecting a whole new game.  

 

Bioware managed to condense a lot of narrative material in DLCs in the past; regardless of your opinion, Mark of the Assassin, Legacy, Lair of the Shadow Broker, Leviathan & Citadel added a lot more than cool codex entries and had deeply enriching or fun stories to bring to the table. They were cinematic and - well - meaningful. The only vestige of significance I drew from my time in JoH was uncovering the origins of the First Inquisitor and Bioware could have easily written more on the matter. The Avaar culture had the premise to be interesting, but again we as the player only experience it through a few quests which are easily solved, with thin narrative in-between. Overall Harding's quest to find one of her soldiers proved more tense and interesting than anything the Avaar presented. 

 

Hakkon itself was incredibly underwhelming in presence and gameplay - some of the vanilla Dragon fights were equally if not more interesting to fight. 

 

Expecting a whole new game and expecting a solid DLC are two things, but a DLC without substance is a DLC without substance - which is my honest take on JoH. Glad you enjoyed it though! 

[leaguer of one]

Bioware managed to condense a lot of narrative material in DLCs in the past; regardless of your opinion, Mark of the Assassin, Legacy, Lair of the Shadow Broker, Leviathan & Citadel added a lot more than cool codex entries and had deeply enriching or fun stories to bring to the table. They were cinematic and - well - meaningful. The only vestige of significance I drew from my time in JoH was uncovering the origins of the First Inquisitor and Bioware could have easily written more on the matter. The Avaar culture had the premise to be interesting, but again we as the player only experience it through a few quests which are easily solved, with thin narrative in-between. Overall Harding's quest to find one of her soldiers proved more tense and interesting than anything the Avaar presented. 

 

Hakkon itself was incredibly underwhelming in presence and gameplay - some of the vanilla Dragon fights were equally if not more interesting to fight. 

 

Expecting a whole new game and expecting a solid DLC are two things, but a DLC without substance is a DLC without substance - which is my honest take on JoH. Glad you enjoyed it though! 

There's alot more the just the First Inquisitor. Their's the very on what Drakon the first empire of Orlias was thinking and his goals. Added his friendships.  We see backwards look into the connection of spirit and man with the Avvar and the fact there ways to deal with and control Abominations. Also,with the dlc we get more answer to what a "god" in da really is with how Avvar deal with spirit and what Hakkon is.

 

We get alot of insight in this dlc.

[Laughing_Man]

There is very little interaction with NPCs, which really stretches the emotional connection to the quest a little thin.

 

Gameplay wise, there is virtually no new content. I discovered a new neat Inquisitor-specific ability, but alas there is no skill-tree expansion to any of the existing classes, or a new class to speak of. The quests re-use the Shards and Astral mini-games, with a lot of "plant/press/activate this" in-between. Instead of being innovative, Hakkon merely offers more of the same.

 

...one (of the) redeeming quality of the DLC is the high-level crafting materials, which were sparse in the main game and come in abundance here. If you're a fan of crafting and maxing out your gear with the best possible stats, Hakkon will have something for you. 

 

I agree only with the short quote above.

 

While I agree that JoH is "more of the same", I enjoyed reading and discovering the new lore about spirits and "abominations",

and enjoyed the challenge of playing it on Insanity.

 

Even with especially crafted OP gear, my rogue and support mage died every third fight, and in the first boss-fight, my KE Inquisitor had to finish the fight on his own (barely), because even Cassandra went down.

 

Keep in mind, I had low expectations to begin with.

 

Unfortunately, the 8 ability restriction was made even more annoying by this DLC and the Inquisitor-only new talent.

 

I wish they would make a separate bar for focus & Inquisitor abilities, if not outright abolish this stupid MMO restriction. It's just not fun as it is.

(And yes, fun may be a neurological trick, but so is love, happiness, and many other wonderful things.)

[earymir]

I think this was one of the few areas where I felt like I was an actual Inquisitor, trying to find out the answers to something (kind of like Leviathan DLC in ME3), as opposed to just saving some random people. It may be that I just really enjoyed the academic nature of this DLC. It was like being on an archaeology expedition and running into a new tribe.

[silksieve]

I finished the major quests in Hakkon last night.  It was a little slow in the beginning, and I was intimidated by the idea of another large area, but I really ended up enjoying it.  Once the main area quest kicks into high gear, everything got a lot more interesting. (And the tree camps were awesome!) I wouldn't say this DLC was story-lite; I felt like I got a lot out of it.  The lore and NPCs were pretty great, and everything tied together fairly well.  I appreciated that there was new party banter/comments, etc.  I wish that the story was more directly related to MY Inquisitor, but I did have fun.  Doing mostly everything, I spent about 15 hours in the area.