Dragon Age: Origins - expansion details

[kalniel]

Gamestop have listed details of a very probable future expansion for Dragon Age: Origins, called 'Awakening'

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Prod...oduct_id=76824

From the Makers of the Best RPG of 2009, Dragon Age: Origins, comes the first official expansion pack. For centuries, the Grey Wardens—the ancient order of guardians, sworn to unite and defend the lands—have been battling the darkspawn forces. Legend spoke that slaying the Archdemon would have put an end to the darkspawn threat for centuries to come, but somehow they remain. You are the Grey Warden Commander and have been entrusted with the duty of rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to remain. How you choose to rebuild your order, how you resolve the conflict with “The Architect”, and how you determine the fate of the darkspawn will be but some of the many complex choices that await and shape your journey as you venture to the new land of Amaranthine.

* A Stunning World Expanded: BioWare’s deepest universe to date just got bigger with an all new area of the world to explore, Amaranthine
o Unlock the secrets of the Darkspawn and their true motivations
o Rebuild the Grey Warden order and establish their base of operations at Vigil’s Keep
* All-new Complex Moral Choices: Embark on an epic story that is completely defined and reactive to your play style
o Shape your entire experience based on the choices you make and how your handle complex situations
* New Ways to Customize your Hero: Experience additional spells, abilities, specializations, and items to further personalize and customize your hero and party
o Import your character from Dragon Age: Origins or start anew as a Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais
o Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins
* Even more Bone-Crushing, Visceral Combat: Battle against a new range of horrific and terrifying creatures
o Put your skills to the test against an evolved, intelligent breed of Darkspawn and other menacing creatures including the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon!

[kalniel]

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv81oPzccW0

(Spoilers if you've not finished DA:O yet).

[roorooroo]

Look forward to this one..hope it's a long expansion.

[chuckskull]

Looking good.

Am I the only one who prefers talking bad guys? I almost start to feel sorry to slaughtering them by the thousand if they aren't at least a bit gobby.

[sjdrew]

I'm too soft to go killing people endlessly.

Can't wait for the expansion, there goes another 60 hours if it's anything like it's original.

[rox0r]

After having played DAO through, twice, and loved every minute of it I eagerly plonked Awakenings on my PC.

Brief version if you can't be arse to read through; utter letdown.

Everything about DAO:Awakenings feels very rushed and half-arsed from the outset. The storyline has no subtlety like the first, no real depth and the characters are very lacklustre. In DAO your companions all had backstories that you could interact with them about and make various choices through conversation at any time. In DAO:A your new companions have very little to say and cannot be engaged in conversation unless it's scripted or back at the Vigil (kind of a home base) This means you end up with little to no 'connection' with your battle buddies like in DAO and you end up more attached to the equipment they're carrying than the characters themselves.

There are a handful of new spells for each class and DAO:A also introduces a new 'crafting' talent, runecrafting. This is an utter waste of time tbh but then so were the crafting skills in DAO. There are also a couple of new talents that simply boost mana/health which can serve to fill some gaps in your talent build overall. Some of the new spells are fairly impressive and do serve to make certain classes more versatile. The top level 28 spells/skills are almost slightly too powerful but are a lot of fun to wade into battle with.

As far as new gear goes, there's plenty of new toys to be had raising the bar up to Tier 9 equipment. Unfortunately you may find that if you imported a DAO character with all the very best toys, you might not find much of the new loot very useful making your experience a bit bland.

There's very little content compared to the original and I managed to finish it entirely in a weekend and that wasn't even hammering it. There's not much in the way of side stories and sub plots like DAO so don't expect anything but a straight plod from A to B.

They've tried to impliment a more 'strategic' approach by way of making you choose whether to defend the main city or the Warden's Vigil Keep near the end. You are also tasked with upgrading the keep so that it can survive an assault if you choose to protect the city. Myself, I chose to waste the city and protect the keep. My choice was made simply because I didn't care about the city, the story/characters hadn't engaged me enough to make me care about saving it/the citizens. I'd spent time and money upgrading my keep and wanted to do battle there.

But the ultimate kick in the teeth after a flacid storyline with little content is the shameful ending. If you've ever played KOTOR2 then you're in for a similar epic letdown. It feels like the project was rushed, under funded and ultimately not properly finished because the final outcome is just abismal. One of those games that leaves you shouting at the screen, "Is that IT?!!"

Overall, I was satisfied with a moderately decent dollop of DAO to crack on with but ultimately unimpressed and sorely disappointed.

6/10

[Lorcan]

Sad to hear that Rox0r

Waiting on new comp before trying awakenings, completed the first and started the 2nd , didnt get too far in but must say continuety wasnt there much . not like Mass Effect - ME 2

[liquidmetal]

Yeah sounds like a major letdown. Might have to get it anyway and see how it is