Review: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
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Review: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

Would you like some more Dragon Age? Yes. Yes, you would.

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Kmadden2004

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Feb 13, 2010
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I'd really love to play this game, but I just can't justify spending £32 on it. Perhaps if it goes down in price, I'll download it.

Damn you BioWare for releasing the PS3 version only as dlc in the UK, and damn you SCEE for forcing them to make the choice!
 

Woem

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May 28, 2009
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I think when it comes to size and feel it can compare to Tales of the Sword Coast as an add-on to the first Baldur's Gate. Not quite as epic, but just more of the same good old formula.
 

Spitfire175

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Jul 1, 2009
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I wonder if anyone has told Pitts that Dragon Age: Origins plays best on the PC. A console version is a bit like a lobotomised cripple in comparison.

Anyhow, I will buy Awakening based on this review.
 

Baby Tea

Just Ask Frankie
Sep 18, 2008
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Well put.
I picked this up on day one, and was very happy with how it was.
As a bit of a completionist, though, I was annoyed that some quests were left undone by the end.
And some areas just bombard you with quests. Took me some time to organize them.

But those are nitpicks. Overall, the game is great! It's caused me to start Dragon Age all over again!

I will add, though, for those interested in purchasing it for the Xbox 360: Keep in mind that the Disc version and the downloadable version are a bit different in their execution. The Disc version requires you to play with the Awakening disc in. It doesn't install it to the 360 drive or anything. So if you want to go from Origins to Awakening, you have to take out the Origins Disc, and put in the Awakening disc.

The downloadable version makes everything accessible from Origins.

I wish I knew this before hand, because I bought the disc version and I would much rather have to only use one disc. But, if you're hard-up for drive space, then the disc version is actually really great that way.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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It's not gonna dethrone Shivering Isles and Bloodmoon as the best expansions ever, then?

I'll get it. When I finally beat Dragon Age. Gotta finish FF13, than ME2, and then I can move onto DA.
 

Beldaros

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Jan 24, 2009
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It's shorter? Well not biuying it yet then as the expansion costs more then I payed for the original, stupid PS3 not releasing a disk in the UK.
 

Virgil

#virgil { display:none; }
Legacy
Jun 13, 2002
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That pretty much sums up my feelings on it. It was more Dragon Age, which was good, though I'd have preferred to see it a bit longer.

I have a feeling that creating new characters is generally a lot of work for relatively low payoff, content-wise. There's a lot of art, dialogue, voice acting, and scripting involved in creating all the supporting content for one of these characters - which is represented in Shale, Zaeed, and the new ME2 character all being their own (large) DLC releases. But I don't think that all that work adds the same value, to me, as more 'world' does.

I'm not sure exactly which character I'd remove though, given the option, because they really were all excellent (even Oghren).

Baby Tea said:
I wish I knew this before hand, because I bought the disc version and I would much rather have to only use one disc. But, if you're hard-up for drive space, then the disc version is actually really great that way.
One thing I'm curious about - does the disc version function entirely as a standalone game as well? I can't recall seeing a purely disc-based console expansion before.
 

Baby Tea

Just Ask Frankie
Sep 18, 2008
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Virgil said:
Baby Tea said:
I wish I knew this before hand, because I bought the disc version and I would much rather have to only use one disc. But, if you're hard-up for drive space, then the disc version is actually really great that way.
One thing I'm curious about - does the disc version function entirely as a standalone game as well? I can't recall seeing a purely disc-based console expansion before.
I was honestly wondering that myself.
The box says 'Requires Dragon Age: Origins to play', so I'm curious if it checks for save-games.
However I have piles of saved games, so I can't really test this myself.
Weird.
 

Mokuren

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Feb 19, 2009
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I'm probably never going to get it. But then, I'm not even halfway through the original game in spite it's several months I have it.

I don't have that much time to play anymore.
 

RidleyValiant

White Knight
Nov 12, 2007
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I aboslutely loved Dragon Age Origins and yet felt a little let down by Awakening if I'm completely honest. I detested the lack of character interaction and the chance to get to know who I was really travelling with. One character was certainly written alot better in one of the books that have been done on the series.

I thought some of the locations were a little half assed and that they didn't fill them up as much as they really could have done.

Not wanting to put any spoilers in here I was also disappointed by how the story carried along and how it ended.

I know it's been said, but as much as I liked Oghren, charming fellow that he is, I'd hardly consider him a fan favourite and I'd have liked to see some of the others, even briefly.
 

Eleima

Keeper of the GWJ Holocron
Feb 21, 2010
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Thanks for the review, and extremely timely it is, since my copy just arrived in the mail, about an hour ago.
I'm surprised that the review seems pretty positive, as I'd heard reports all over the net that the expansion seemed pretty buggy and crashed a lot, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I've been told there seem to be glaring inconsistencies between DA:O & Awakening (don't want to spoil anyone, but apparently, import a character from DA:O and you won't necessarily see your choices reflected in the Awakenings. Just hearsay, however, I can't voice my own opinion yet.

Also... You used too many colons in your review. ;)
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Looks intresting. I didnt know if I wanted to get this or not given the price but I might give it a look in near future.

Cetainly sold me on certain elements. New character is nice at least ^^
 

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
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Virgil said:
One thing I'm curious about - does the disc version function entirely as a standalone game as well? I can't recall seeing a purely disc-based console expansion before.
I'll try the Awakening disc on my second Xbox later one to see what happens, but it was "aware" of my Dragon Age save games, so I'm assuming you have to have created a DA profile on your console before the Awakening disc will work.

Functionally it plays as a standalone game, though. You ahve to insert the DA disc to go back and play DA content.
 

Chipperz

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Apr 27, 2009
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Hmm, nothing new - I really want to see someone rip this apart before I commit cash, seeing as I could buy a whole new game for the same price.

Did love the character names, though - Bubbar and Doosh yours, Russ? Or do they come with the game?
 

mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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Good review, and Justice is quite good. I really want to know what that date on the card that came in the box means, I hope it's not an announcement date.
 

bjj hero

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Feb 4, 2009
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Thats it, im downloading it tonight. I knew there was a reason I didn'tdelete my Han Soloesque human Noble Rogue.
 

CK76

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Sep 25, 2009
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I've put off buying this expensive expansion for one reason, it seems the characters from the first game are largely ignored.

Leliana said to my character at end of Origins "I'll follow you wherever you go"
Apparently in expansion she says "eh, or not, bye"

Whaaa? This could have been so much fun seeing consequences of various play throughs come to fruition, but from what I've read, you don't get that in this expansion.
 

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
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Chipperz said:
Did love the character names, though - Bubbar and Doosh yours, Russ? Or do they come with the game?
Bubbar is my main character. My characters in most games are named some variation of "Bubba". I created Ser Doosh for the review, just to see the opening of Awakening for new characters.
 

Frenger

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May 31, 2009
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Ser Pounce-alot!

Anyway, to be perfectly honest, there are a bit to many problems with Awakening to warrant such a score. Too many bugs(some gamebreaking even), too many questions that doesn't add up. The characters are good but not nearly as good as the original. Just to mention a few things.

Awakening get 3 nugs from me.