Okay Geek Farm
PC Review - Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Alex Tretrop
More of the same is used quite a bit in a series like Dragon Age, and Awakening is no exception. Bioware returns to their roots with the release of this expansion pack - the kind of thing you usually see in MMO’s these days. While it’s a much shorter and condensed experience, Bioware has taken the road of, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, making the expansion pack still enjoyable but nothing out of this world.
Story
As many are aware of Bioware focuses a lot on story in their games, and while Awakening isn’t as interesting as many of their other titles it’s still a very interesting tale that succeeds at fleshing out the already excellent universe of the Dragon Age franchise.
The story picks up right after the first game, with your character traveling to the lands of Amaranthine, (which is north of Ferelden - where Origins took place) and finding that although you stopped the Blight from occurring, the darkspawn are getting stronger and are somehow learning to talk and prepare organized raids, even after their monumental defeat. You are tasked with rebuilding the Grey Wardens and discovering what’s happening to the Darkspawn.
While the plot wasn’t as much of a standout as the first game, Awakening still does a pretty good job at expanding the storyline and preparing the series for its next full instalment. As an expansion pack, I didn’t really expect any more from the game and it gave me exactly what I wanted: an “expansion” of what Origins had already laid down as a foundation.
Gameplay
The “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality is brought over to the gameplay as well; But somehow Bioware has found a way to make it a bit more fun instantly bumping your character up to level 18 at the start of the experience. This allows you to customize your character exactly the way you want him/her for the long and fun road ahead.
The only thing that seems to have changed is the combat. With your character and party members at such high levels it makes room for some interesting fights against some very tough and challenging enemies. Two particular fights stand out to me in particular, with them both forcing you to be on your toes on any difficulty.
Exploration remains largely unchanged with the exception of it being a brand new, albeit smaller, land to explore. The exploration is still fun and rewarding even with much smaller areas. Absolutely nothing has changed and I’m not really complaining.
Unsurprisingly, as this is an expansion, it’s nowhere near as long as the original game and this is probably going to be your make or break decision for getting the game. The game costs 40 dollars for around 15 hours of content. If you just do the main story you can beat it in around 8 to 10, provided you’re good at the game. It’s very short but it’s a mostly fun experience right up to the end.
Another big factor that I found interesting was that the party members aren’t as interesting or as memorable as in the first game. What if I told you you couldn’t have a conversation with a member of your party until only certain controlled times? Yeah, I didn’t think you’d like that - and it gets pretty noticeable too, with many characters starting to feel like Zaeed in Mass Effect 2: uninteresting and emotionless.
But here’s the strange part, while the game suffers in its uninteresting party members, the system where they have conversations with each somehow feels better than ever. Bioware tries to pump in many more party member conversations and I still haven’t heard the same one twice. Some of the best conversations between characters I’ve seen yet have appeared in this expansion, which makes it even more baffling that you can’t have a conversation with them very often, and that when you do have one they feel boring and uninteresting.
Visuals/Audio
Again not much change in either category. The visuals have always been very appealing and Awakening is no exception. It’s hihgly detailed in certain areas with the sense of scale that Origins had; The character models, especially on the new enemies, always look appropriate and menacing while your party members all have a generally good look, even if the models for the races haven’t changed one bit.
Something that’s immediately apparent to you in Awakening, which didn’t really happen until near the end in Origins, is that you know your going to be powerful and all the armor and weapons make you feel, right from the very start, like you really are the commander of the Grey Wardens.
Audio is, as usual, top notch but Bioware cripples themselves by not having nearly as much of it as it should. You only converse with party members at very controlled times, making some of the magic of Bioware’s dialogue sound forced and minimal. During those times topics never kept my attention as much as some of Origins’s characters. The music is, also, astounding with some old tracks coming back and some new ones too. Environments themselves always sound good with tons of moody atmosphere and great sound design accompanying it.
Final Thoughts
It’s impressive that Bioware has made an expansion in just 4 months to their critically acclaimed RPG Dragon Age: Origins, and Awakening kept me interested enough with engaging combat and development of the original game’s story that fans of the series will definitely enjoy the game. But as this is only an expansion pack many elements from Origins and even Mass Effect 2, to some extent, are reused. Couple that with much less meaningful dialogue between yourself and party members and you have something that feels like Dragon Age at its core, but it something weird on the outside.
Is it still a good experience? Absolutely. The game does a good job of setting up more questions, while giving you a few more answers at the same time. It keeps you intrigued and interested right up into the end, while making you excited for another installment in the series. While, there are some reuses of old plotpoints and the occasional bland character that bring down the experience, Awakening’s story is very enticing, especially if you like Dragon Age’s world .
While the conversations suffer and it’s a bit repetitive, better gameplay and a whole new land to explore make it worth heading back and experiencing Awakening. But I know many people will be missing out on Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening and I really don’t blame them - the price tag is high for quite a small amount of content, but I personally think that it’s still Dragon Age at its core. For people who are skeptical, I’d wait until the price goes down and then pick it up!
