A bit over a year ago one of my most long awaited RPGs was released. BioWare promised to make this “spiritual successor” to Baldur’s Gate since 2003. And after how pretty boring Neverwinter Nights was, it was something to wait for. Yet, years later and several releases from the studio that haven’t tried to be BG, there were no news on what was to become Dragon Age. Only about a year before release we finally got some new info. It was all exciting apart from the announcement about the change from being PC-exclusive, which made me worry that the game will get postponed again. And, of course, it was.
Yet, even with an extra year of development the game was pretty buggy when I played it the first time. Though, there was plenty to criticize the game for apart from the bugs too. I didn’t write a “proper” review in hopes that later patches and updates can turn the game into something far better than the game originally was. Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition is the most complete the game will ever be, so it’s time to talk about Origins, Awakening and a bunch of DLCs included in it.
Origins hasn’t really changed much with the updates. The setting is still extremely fun, not feeling like a very derivative fantasy thing invented as fast as possible but an actually thought out world with lots of interesting details and nuances that undoubtedly might become important in whatever later games will be released. The main story is also still pretty good. It’s a bit too “predictably BioWare”, yet lots of political and social story points were handled in a great way. And the whole “origins” concept was a brilliant idea, since it assumes that all possible character stories actually happen but only the one that you, the player, select can continue without an untimely death of the character simply due to one key character being in the right place at the right time to help you (and not the unlucky rest of the 6). Plus, it’s cool how your origin story does occasionally come into play during the story later on.
Though, at the same time, the story and the dialogue break at times. For example, the story implies that the game events take place during the course of about a year, yet some thing remain exactly as they were and none of the character reactions ever change. Some characters might occasionally treat you as if you’ve talked to them before or mention things that haven’t happened. Lots of the dialogue choices in the game are extremely limited in player expression, unlike the acts. For example, you never really get a chance to do something “because you felt like it” or because you were generous. If you give money for charity, it’s either because you believe in the Maker, or because you’re vain and want everyone to thank you, not because you wanted to give money to the charity. Which slowly but surely breaks the believability of the world and the characters. Especially since some of them might just jump between preset reactions that conflict each other.
These aren’t the only bugs of the game, of course. Or unbalanced parts. There are still insane difficulty spikes in several moments, still crashes when opening the inventory, still performance degradation the longer you play. The combat is still incredibly clunky. No, BioWare, top down view and RTS-like selection isn’t just what makes BG work. You also need free camera control to fly over the entire area with normal bird eye view, better mouse controls… And if you don’t want that and wish to stick with what you’ve been doing since NWN and KOTOR, at least give the companions AI smart enough to operate independently most of the time. Since switching between every party member is pretty annoying otherwise. Though, to be fair, they do work better if you’re a mage and they just need to hit things and mages are overpowered in this game anyway… But it’s a huge shame how bad lots of the UI experience in this game is. Lots of thing seem to be borrowed directly from NWN from years ago, despite not being good in NWN years ago.
It genuinely feels as if BioWare just tried to make way too much. Huge story with 6 origin stories, lots of reactivity, lots of big and small things that evolve and change as you play. And when they work it’s awesome. Yet, when they don’t the game just falls apart. You stop feeling like your choices mean anything while most characters act as if they really need to check on their mental health to be on the safe side. I’ve been seeing lots of complaints that Dragon Age 2 reportedly cut a lot of things out. And after replaying Origins I’m thinking that it might be a good thing and might make the sequel focused.
Now, unlike the Origins, I’ve played Awakening for the first time this time. I’ve seen the colder reception of the expansion, as it usually happens with sequels and expansions. And I feel like I know why this is happening this time. You see, Awakening is too short. No, no, I don’t think that “game length” is some objective stat that makes the game better or worse, I’m not talking about that. What I mean is – Awakening is way too short for all the things that it’s doing.
Not going too far into details, the expansion is simply so much more exciting and inventive than the main game ever was. It’s like playing KOTOR 2 compared to 1. Come to think of it, it does feel like BioWare outright copied lots of plot points from that game (probably as they’re working on The Old Republic). I mean, it’s literally a story about a “civil war” between the sith Darkspawn and a revival of the Jedi Order Grey Wardens. Though, sadly, since this is an expansion, it only borrows the basics, without going as deep in its own lore as KOTOR 2 ever did in SW lore.
Yet, despite this genuinely more exciting story, cool new mechanics and lots of interesting new features, there’s just not enough game for it all. Companions have lots of amazing stories to them, comment on events far better, add far more humour, yet their personal stories start and end in just a couple of hours. The whole “civil war” concept sounds more exciting than it actually is and the factions are never properly developed. And some of the stuff is just referencing obscure details that seems to have only been mentioned in related media and not in the main game, expansion or DLCs before, so I had to use the Dragon Age wiki to understand what’s going on.
Now, there are some of the repeating issues, but they’re far more minor and, more importantly, far less annoying just due to how much more fun the expansions is overall. I mean, sure, some things are still annoying and the Arcane Warrior class is still ridiculously overpowered, but with the game being this short yet packed with cool stuff, you forget about being disappointed with this. Origin got really boring by the end, feeling like it should just be over instead of dragging on. Awakening borrowed ideas from Obsidian, made stuff less slow-paced and added more interesting things that compliment their setting and we got a far more enjoyable game. I’m actually curious what would’ve happened if this was the main game instead of an expansion and if the it would’ve been better or worse.
My biggest complaint with Awakening, really, is with the bizarre decision to suddenly make your previously canonical decision to sacrifice your character at the end of the main game non-canon… except it’s can still be canon too. You see, if you import your character, they’re alive, even if they were sacrificed. Story just defaults to some other event flag about who died but keeps the rest of your main game choices. And yet, if you start a new character, which you can do, the story is handled as if you are a new character, specifically assigned for the mission because the main character of Origins sacrificed themselves. Yet, due to you starting a new game, all the rest of the story choices are set to default. This seems like such a bizarre and specific limitation that I find it hard to believe that it wasn’t possible to actually let players import just the choices when starting a new game. Heck, even in NWN expansions you were not the same character (even if you imported the same character) for the story purposes. I can only hope DA II has some sort of double-import or a way to get around this ridiculous restriction. But I doubt it, making one of the most interesting BioWare story decisions ever to be wasted with this limitation.
But enough about interesting, Let’s talk about the pointless – the DLCs that are included with the Ultimate Edition. As they are mostly completely pointless.
The Stone Prisoner and Warden’s Keep, for example, don’t even feel like DLCs and more like “content cut from the main game and sold separately”. Selling the main game without these is of the dirtiest things EA have done lately. I mean, The Stone Prisoner companion was at least free with new copies of the game, but Warden’s Keep, aka the only place that let’s you store items, just should not be sold as a separate item.
Return to Ostagar is essentially a paid version of the free ME2 DLC about returning to Normandy crash site. Sure, it has far more gameplay than the ME2 DLC, but that gameplay involves the same section as from the start of the game and additionally actually break the internal story logic even more. I mean, you return there about a year later to find all the dead bodies as fresh and untouched as they were when they died, come on! But sure, you get cool items there and all :/
Feastday gifts and pranks would be a nice joke (they were released on April 1st), if not for the fact that they allow you to completely ruin the social standing with companions, It’s completely unnecessary, though at least occasionally funny.
Darkspawn Chronicles is a cool idea to let you experience the final arc of the game story from the perspective of Darkspawn. But it’s horrible. And Archdemon, whom you need to protect, is completely helpless as a partner, somehow. While enemies target only you, ignoring the rest of the exactly same looking Darkspawn around you.
Leliana’s Song is an another cool idea done badly. It’s another take on Leliana’s backstory that conflicts with what she tells you in the main game (the game explains it by saying that Leliana changes the details every time she tells the story to someone new). Can’t say I liked this particular variation of the tale, but it was a rather okay DLC with relatively fun gameplay.
The Golems of Amgarrak… Well, if you want to attempt playing it, play it only after Awakening. But be prepared that it won’t go farther than “attempt”. The DLC is described as being very challenging and intended for high level characters, but I’d say it’s less “challenging” and more “bullshit hard” and “unbalanced”, especially since the biggest issues I personally had with the game weren’t as much due to fairness of the challenge and more due to how your companions just constantly refuse to perform actions and get stuck in walls.
And finally, Witch Hunt. The only DLC of the bunch that tries to be part of the main story and tries to progress as a natural Epilogue to the game and the expansion. Though, try as it might, it doesn’t do it that well. The story is pretty pointless, especially if you don’t care about Morrigan much (I never did), though even if you do, she appears just for about 3 minutes in the very end and that’s about it. It also sets up, seemingly, several story hooks for Dragon Age 2, but I can’t say I know what it’s all about now before that game is released. It might be “the best DLC” in the collection, though it’s doesn’t make it a “good DLC”. An okay ending for the Grey Warden story that I wouldn’t suggest buying separately.
So there we go. I do think the main game is pretty good, but way too flawed to be enjoyed on the same level as any of my favorite RPG titles. I do think that Awakening is superior in many ways, but is simply too short and underdeveloped for its own good. And I do feel like the DLCs are pointless and can ruin your experience more than add to it. Though, looking at the DA II announcements, seems like the sequel will have a similar issue. And I thought that 5$ horse armor was the worst thing that could happen to this downloadable content concept…
Overall, even ignoring the DLCs, the Ultimate Edition is, perhaps, the best way to enjoy this title. And you might enjoy it far more than I did, because there is a lot of cool stuff to be found in both Origins and Awakening. But I’m hoping that the series will only improve as they go on.