A game centered on a group of heroes joining an ancient order to defeat an evil force that threatens the typical fantasy realm hardly sounded original, but Dragon Age: Origins pulled it off beautifully. It was a hardcore role-playing game that hailed back to the CRPG's of yesteryear, namely BioWare's own Baldur's Gate, and one of the best games of last year. Given all that, it's not surprising that like Dragon Age: Origins Awakening. Although it might not be as awesome as the core title, it improves on Origins' formula, and offers a memorable new campaign.
The story in Dragon Age: Origins Awakening comes very close to one-upping its predecessor. The campaign is much more tightly wound this time around, as pretty much no time is wasted setting up your quest; you're pretty much thrown into the thick of things as soon as the game begins.
You can either import your Warden from the first title, or start up a brand-new Orlesian Warden Commander. Neither choice, however, changes the game in any meaningful way. You will see the effects of very few of your decisions on an imported Warden, and the Orlesian Commander origin doesn't have the same unique opening quest as the characters have in the core game. Either way, it's disappointing, but it's kind of hard to expect every decision you made in Origins to work its way into Awakening in a meaningful way, even with a company like BioWare at the helm.
There are five new characters and one returning one, and the cast is mostly hit or miss. Characters like Nathaniel Howe, son of the conniving Rendon Howe from Origins, or the tough-as-nails Dwarven scout Sigrun are really memorable, and are up there with the best of the first game's cast. However others, such as Anders, and the returning "favorite" Ogrhen, are more annoying than anything else.
As mentioned before, the story is a lot tighter. You start out traveling to a land in north Ferelden known as Amaranthine, where Darkspawn still lurk even after the death of the Archdemon. What unfolds is a story that's halfway about investigating the Darkspawn beyond what little you learned of them in Origins, and dealing with governing the land, as your Warden Commander also becomes a very important player in Amaranthine politics. For the most part, the tale is great, but there are some instances of very poor writing which come around often when using two of the aforementioned party members, who can best be described as gag characters. Still, the story is gripping, and is most certainly not your typical fantasy plot.
In terms of gameplay, it's more of the same good stuff. Time is split between killing, and chatting, and both are just as fun as before.
The same real-time/cooldown-based combat (similar to something you'd find in an MMO) returns, and there are plenty of challenging encounters. Luckily the level cap has been bumped up, and as such there are tons of new abilities, and two new specializations for each c.lass Each of these new specializations offer some awesome new abilities, and are definitely a great way to train your characters as they advance beyond level twenty.
The conversations in the game are just as great as ever. Most characters are genuinely interesting, and there is plenty of room for role-playing (especially as the Orlesian Commander), although the previously mentioned problems of the occasionally questionable bits of dialogue, and lack of decision carry-overs do hurt the conversation system somewhat.
Dragon Age: Origins was pretty mediocre in the graphics department, and Awakening is no different. There are some great new designs in terms of characters, but the environments, particularly interiors are just like what you'd find in Origins, which is sort of a shame. Still, any true RPG fan will easily be able to look passed the graphical shortcomings.
The sound department is pretty great. The voice-overs and sound effects are all excellent, and the music is mostly good, featuring your usual slew of epic fantasy songs, although there are a few new tracks which I've noticed popping up during combat sequences which really seem out of place.
Awakening will last you about 20 hours going through the story, only occasionally dabbling in side quests, although there's certainly room for a higher play time depending on how deep you delve into the bevy of side quests.
Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is a hard game to deliver my judgment on, as it is indeed markedly worse than its predecessor, but I can easily look through it because of how much I love the series. Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is a good expansion pack, but it really can't keep up with Origins because of a lot of mistakes that could have been easily avoided. If you liked Origins, you should without a doubt pick up Awakening, but just know it's not the endearing epic that Origins was.