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[Venatio]

Note: Sorry if there are any typos I was working to get this out fast.

The Archdemon is dead, the blight is quelled, and peace is restored to Ferelden. For a Grey Warden who specializes in saving the world, what else could you possibly accomplish? As a full expansion to Dragon AGe: Origins, that the question Awakening is called upon to address. Unfortunately, the answer seems to be "not much".

I'd be the last person o complain about getting more Dragon Age; I stil love the core gameplay, so Awakening's additional quests, skills, and items are all the reason I need to start killing darkspawn again. However, as an expansion, Awakening doesn't contribute much beyond simply lengthening the time you can spend as a Grey Warden. It feels like a direct-to-video film sequel, shuffling the core components of the Dragon Age world to create a new story in a familiar skin.

With the major darkspawn threat neutralized in Origins, you're left with clean-up duty in Awakening. By importing your old character or creating a new one, you'll assume the position of Warden Commander in Amaranthine and deal with the aftermath of the Archdemon's death. The darkspawn that didn't retreat have begun fighting each other, and you need to get to the bottom of the conflict and restore order to the region. The premise is cool - especially since are essentially the feudal lord of the Amarenthine - but it doesn't evolves the basic formula.

All of the features where Awakening could have built on the Dragon Age foundation are sidelined, like the team at Bioware knew where to expand but didn't have the time to flesh them out. Building up your base at Vigil's Keep is just a handful of simple Upgrades. Governing the region is handled in a single sequence where you mete out justice. Unraveling a conspiracy against your rule is a breif sidequest. Maybe a 15-hour adventure isnt enough time to dig into these concepts, but they feel pretty hollow and unsatisfying as implemented.

despite some disappointments, Awakening is still worth playing for the devoted Dragon Age fan. The tactical combat hasn't gotten any less entertaining, and the story reveals an interesting twist on the world's compelling lore. Awakening enriches the universe with new revelations and characters(two of the new party members are particularly awesome), but only make half-hearted attempts to improve the basics.

Score 7.75 for the PC

Authors Opinions:

Concpet: More Dragon Age!
Graphics: Why cant I find a single piece of headgear that doesn't make my mages look absolutely ridiculous
Sound: Pretty much the same music and voice actors, all of which are good
Playability: Strategic pause-and-play battles are still the heart of the game, and controls as well as ever.
Entertainment: Provides the same brand of fun found in the origional. unchanged, but also unimproved.
Replay Value: Moderate

[TheRealIncarnal]

Kind of ignored all the new stuff didn't they?

[Venatio]

Also they had a footnote on the Orlesian Grey Warden:



The Warden Commander

The origins stories were a distinguishing feature of Dragon age, giving players a chance to learn their character's backstory and motivation. if you create a new character in Awakening, you dont get a new origins story, leaving the new Warden Commander a silent cipher. Vague references are made to your past in the neighboring nation of Orlais, but none of it is explored or explained.

[Venatio]

Personally im dissapointed that Bioware didnt up the ante in this game.

You have 2 sleeping Archdemons left (and one possibly uncorrupted one in Morrigns belly), the Darkspawn should still outnumber all other races of Thedas combined if you count every one in the deep roads (which span that very continent) and yet they just let the damn series fizzle just like that?

Well atleast I'm hoping not. I'll go to the other forums to hear what other people have to say about continuing it.

Modifié par Venatio, 09 mars 2010 - 11:43 .

[Spinnazie]

I'm pretty sure I read you'd get an "origin story" if you chose to play as an Orlaisian Warder.....too bad. =(

[TheRealIncarnal]

Umm... It's an EXPANSION. It doesn't matter if the expansion does well or not, the sales of the game determine Dragon Age's future, and that future is pretty secure at this point.

That said, I neve cared much for them when I had an free subscription, thus never fixing it. They have some odd standards for reviewing games. I'll make up my own mind when I play it.

Modifié par TheRealIncarnal, 09 mars 2010 - 11:42 .

[worksa8]

This review makes me nervous...I mean no new mage hats or anything? Did they ignore EVERYTHING people have been saying since this forum section opened up?

[TheRealIncarnal]

Are people really that upset about mages wearing the wrong funny hats?

[Zabaniya]

Venatio wrote...

Personally im dissapointed that Bioware didnt up the ante in this game.

You have 2 sleeping Archdemons left (and one possibly uncorrupted one in Morrigns belly), the Darkspawn should still outnumber all other races of Thedas combined if you count every one in the deep roads which span that very continent and yet they just let the damn series fizzle just like that?

Well atleast I'm hoping not. I'll go to the other forums to hear what other people have to say about continuing it.

Except it's not the last game/expansion in the series so there's hardly any fizzling.
Granted, I think the expansion would be better if there was more time to develop it but there's a lot more where this stuff comes from so I'm not too worried.

[Venatio]

worksa8 wrote...

This review makes me nervous...I mean no new mage hats or anything? Did they ignore EVERYTHING people have been saying since this forum section opened up?

Try getting the game for as cheap as possible, theres a forum here on that.

http://social.biowar...44716/1#1646723

I plan on the $27 deal, free delivery

Edit: Crap, thats just for the PC version. Still have to pay $40 for the console one.

Modifié par Venatio, 09 mars 2010 - 11:57 .

[KnightofPhoenix]

That's all the review? That's it? Meeh, I would say this is a half hearted attempt to review an expansion.

I am not nervous. If what the review says about the political missions being short is true, then I will be mildly dissapointed, but it won't ruin it for me.

[Venatio]

And whats worse is that these people will likely give the console version an even smaller score, just like last time!

[Cuthlan]

I really don't care. I know what I like, and don't give a patoot if someone else likes the same thing. I'll buy it and make my own judgement.

[EmperorSahlertz]

I've never really listened to critics anyway. Few are the critics I've ever agreed with and their scores are useless. I'll make up my own mind about the expansion once I've played through it myself.

[ArcanistLibram]

Venatio wrote...

Building up your base at Vigil's Keep is just a handful of simple Upgrades. Governing the region is handled in a single sequence where you mete out justice. Unraveling a conspiracy against your rule is a breif sidequest. Maybe a 15-hour adventure isnt enough time to dig into these concepts, but they feel pretty hollow and unsatisfying as implemented.

This is about the only part that makes Awakening look really lame. The whole point of having a fief is that you get to rule it. Do developers not know what's cool anymore? 

[KnightofPhoenix]

ArcanistLibram wrote...

Venatio wrote...

Building up your base at Vigil's Keep is just a handful of simple Upgrades. Governing the region is handled in a single sequence where you mete out justice. Unraveling a conspiracy against your rule is a breif sidequest. Maybe a 15-hour adventure isnt enough time to dig into these concepts, but they feel pretty hollow and unsatisfying as implemented.

This is about the only part that makes Awakening look really lame. The whole point of having a fief is that you get to rule it. Do developers not know what's cool anymore? 

Unfortunately the majority prefer to go out and kill rather than act like a ruler and deal with politics. I would have loved if I could have acted like a real Arl and commander, but I didn't expect to find that in Awakening.

About the upgrades. Well what did he expect? ME2 had a "handful of simple upgrades" and yet it was good. 
It's a castle, what does he want to do with it other than upgrades? 

[Spitz6860]

it sounds like this guy is reviewing awakening like a sequel, generally expansions packs are where you do more of the same, not trying a bunch new things. but still, 8.0 sounds about right, expansions usually score 0.5 to 1.0 lower than the original game. and well, he said there is a twist, i probably won't be reading this forum for 2 weeks after the game comes out then.

[Marik333]

"Unchanged" from Dragon Age: Origins? Sounds great to me. I swear, I've played the last 3 weeks as the same character, 3 or 4 times, because I keep missing stuff, and I'm getting REALLY sick of the Circle Tower.



A new-ish setting to play the exact same game sounds absolutely wonderful to me.

[Spitz6860]

Marik333 wrote...

"Unchanged" from Dragon Age: Origins? Sounds great to me. I swear, I've played the last 3 weeks as the same character, 3 or 4 times, because I keep missing stuff, and I'm getting REALLY sick of the Circle Tower.

A new-ish setting to play the exact same game sounds absolutely wonderful to me.

if you are playing on the PC, hold Tab to show all the items on the map, you should know that already, but in case you don't. my roomate missed tons of stuff because of that.

[Vicious]

Also if you're on PC, there's a mod that skips the fade section of the circle of tower and gives your character all the stat buffs they'd otherwise get.

[Bryy_Miller]

Venatio wrote...

Personally im dissapointed that Bioware didnt up the ante in this game.

You have 2 sleeping Archdemons left (and one possibly uncorrupted one in Morrigns belly), the Darkspawn should still outnumber all other races of Thedas combined if you count every one in the deep roads (which span that very continent) and yet they just let the damn series fizzle just like that?

It's an expansion, what did you expect? Honestly.

[TheLastAwakening]

This doesn't sound good, I was so amped before after reading about the keep upgrades and stuff. However, moderate replay value and 7 days away... I need another source's review now .

[J-Reyno]

I'm curious as to who the two characters they refer to are. I'm betting on Anders and... Nathaniel, maybe Mhairi. But I'm biased because I already dislike Velanna's attitude and care little for dwarves.

As for the review.. ehh.. hrmm.. I guess. It doesn't really sway me one way or another. I did look forward to dealing with political situations, but before being an Arl the PC was a Warden, and there are darkspawn to kill. Now let's just hope that it doesn't become mundane and the story leading us is compelling. Given Origins' awesomeness I'm willing to take that leap of faith.

Also, I'm SO glad the Orlesian Warden doesn't have too much backstory revealed. Now I can make this character look and act however I want without feeling like I'm destroying the immersion.

[EpicSweeper]

I don't really get all worked up about other peoples opinions. Some people HATE Assassin's Creed and I loved both of them. Some poeple hate MMO's and I love MMO's. Some people love MW2, I personally think it's one of the most unbalanced games I've ever played.



Same for the time played during the game. People say we'll beat it in 15 - 20 hours. Bah I take my time and try to do EVERYTHING. So I'll probably make it last 60. Plus the two other playe throughs on my rouge and mage.



Really I wont know what I think about the expansion until I beat it. That being said Dragon Age is stil my favorite game, followed by Mass Effect 2, and KoTOR I. Yeah call me a Bioware fan boy (I'm not really I just love their stories and the way their games play) I don't care Bioware makes GREAT games. However everything will probably be moved down a slot when The Old Republic comes out taking over first place for a few years =D.