A fun if bug ridden return to Ferelden for those who crave more.
Being an expansion, the game starts off following the end of Dragon Age. Your character, (either imported from your Dragon Age game save or started anew just for Awakenings) is the new Grey Warden Commander in Ferelden. Immediately upon arriving in your new keep however you find the Darkspawn already attacking despite the Archdemon having been defeated. The rest of the game involves your character trying to find out why as well as rebuild the Grey Warden strength lost in that initial assault. The storyline is pretty interesting revealing more about the Darkspawn though is extra rewarding if you have read the novel Dragon Age The calling, which relates to what is happening though isn't a necessary requirement to enjoy.
If you played the original Dragon Age (and I assume you have to be here) then you know what is coming gameplay wise. As you might expect from an expansion though there are of course higher levels to reach, new armour and weapons as well as four new expanded abilities for every class, these abilities tie in well often making previous class skills more effective. Lastly when leveling up there are three more skill slots to pumps points into, the first two simply increase health and mana by varying amounts where as the last gives an entirely new skill in Runecrafting. Each level gives access to creating higher level runes to equip to weapons, and new to Awakenings armour which is a fantastic new addition. to make Runes though, tracings of them must be either found or bought then the materials needed gathered before crafting them, though the effort is worth the result for the combat bonus gained.
The available party members are always what makes Bioware games shine and they are somewhat mixed here. The only returning character that isn't a cameo comes in the form of Oghren the Dwarven drunk, like him or not, he is here to stay. The new characters were a lot more interesting though Anders comes across as a carbon copy of Alistair, even his voice sounds the same though he does have some quirks that make him stand out. The others are a lot more varied with some great voice acting and have some great back stories really helping bring the world to life.
There is no camp anymore. Often to get characters back stories or conversations certain items can be searched while wandering around which might make one of the characters currently in party start a conversation regarding it which was quite a nice change. Random party dialogue does still occur between characters and is still genuinely funny at times though can often be missed if scenes kick in or if they start just as the main character initiates a conversation which is still an annoyance though a minor one.
Like in Dragon Age there is still a map highlighting dungeons and cities in which to visit. Though only located in Amaranthine so the rest of Ferelden can't be visited at least every area is completely new and quests can still be done in pretty much any order you choose. Each area is brilliantly designed artistically if a little brown but still has the same flaw still as in Dragon Age in that the visuals are still really sub par. This is expected as the expansion runs on the same engine but is no less disappointing. Textures are really bland and often blurry and the game really struggles to keep a steady frame rate with constant frame skipping.
Awakenings technical issues don't stop there sadly as it is incredibly glitchy. The first two hours of the game had no sound effects for me. No spell noises, explosions or sword clashes despite music and voice acting working fine and things only got worse from there. One of the side quests glitched making it impossible to complete, during one dialogue a character had two of her standing in the same place performing different animations and a cutscene repeated itself immediately after finishing for no reason etc. These constant bugs really hurt the experience.
Dragon Age: Awakenings is pretty good value lasting for a solid 25 hours with plenty of quests to complete along the way. In the UK however Awakenings was released on disc only on the 360 and the PSN price for Awakenings was £32 which is simply too much for what was offered as full games can be bought cheaper then that in most instances.
In conclusion if you're a fan of Dragon Age then despite the glitches and sub par visuals Awakenings will still bring you hours of entertainment. New characters, equipment, skills and areas keep things interesting and is overall a rewarding continuation of the Dragon Age universe.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- New skills and equipment.
- Some great new characters and quests.
- Intricate and detailed Fantasy World just grew a little.
- Full of bugs and glitches.
- Visuals are still sub par and full of frame skips.
- No PlayStation 3 disc version, too expensive on PSN.