Dragon Age--spending my hard earned money

[cyrano]

There will be updatey updateyness eventually, once I've slowed my roll (or whatever the kids these days are calling it), but in the meantime I am lacking in Premium Content for Dragon Age and want other gamers to tell me their experiences; what has your experience been, and what would you recommend acquiring?

Comments

DLCs potentially involving your PC Warden (Part 1 of 2)

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with roisnoir for the most part, but just because this is how my brain is working today...you get my opinions anyway. :)

Soldier's Peak - I don't know if this following is a mod for this DLC or a standalone, but I found out last week there is a PC mod for the Storage Chest that puts one in your Camp.

If it is a standalone and all you want to do Soldier's Peak for is the Storage Chest, I would run out and get the Camp one and call it good.

However, about the DLC itself: I think it has interesting story (actually, history) in it almost entirely unrelated to the Origins plotline. The major story explains why there were no Grey Wardens in Ferelden for hundreds of years (they only recently were allowed back in, during Maric's reign). But there's a related B-story that I've grown to realize is just as interesting...but I don't feel like I can really explain why without possibly spoiling stuff.

Return to Ostagar - Have to admit, +++ on the armor and weapons. However, I also like it for the story reasons in my head: I think it gives Alistair a bit of closure, and depending on the PC Warden, maybe them as well.

The Stone Prisoner - I know you've already got this, and I do like Shale, but I find the story so poorly constructed and aspects of it piss me off so much (from a storytelling POV) I haven't played it again since the first time.

Awakening - Like I mentioned in the previous comment, the latest patch supposedly fixed a lot of the more annoying bugs with it, so it should be better for you when you're ready to play it. :)

It really does need to be approached as a DLC rather than a game in and of itself (although it can be played as such), because they really took a minimalistic approach to the storyline: no romances (although that hasn't stopped a lot of fic writers from writing their own), narrower storyline, but still more to it than any of the other DLCs.

Now that I've finished the novels, I like it even more. It ties in directly with events of The Calling, and I think does really do a decent job of continuing the character growth of your PC Warden from Origins, if you choose to import her.

Plus, I really really really really really wanna know how the decisions you make during this DLC/the consequences are going to carry forward into the world.

There's also an option to instead play an Orlesian PC, rather than your Origins PC. I still wanna play this myself (S-- did back in May) because I want to see how the NPCs react differently to the furrin former occupier nation person coming in.

The Golems of Amgarrak - This is the new one roisnoir was referring to that is being released this week (I think Thursday).

I've been reading teasers posted by BioWare and a hands-on vague'ish review from someone who got to play the demo at Comic-Con, and the impression I've taken away from it so far is that you will be able to import either an Origins or an Awakening character (hence why I had to edit), which suggests that the events of this take place after the latter.

I've also read that it's a slashfest, and a very difficult one at that. I think it was designed to be a challenge for the hardcore gamers--the reviewer at SDCC said that people were dying all over the place even on Easy mode.

I'm a sucker for this game, so I'll probably be buying it. When I actually get a chance to play it, I'll be posting a review. :)

(One thing I'm really looking forward to with this, though, is going back and playing my original character again. She's the only one who I've finished Awakening with, and I want to use her as the import since she's my highest level character.)

Re: DLCs potentially involving your PC Warden (Part 1 of 2)

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Hey, look, finding your original post asking about DLCs was fairly simple thanks to your tags, and I can put my non-spoilery feedback for "The Golems of Amgarrak" for you here. :)

It is a slashfest, but not annoyingly so the way Darkspawn Chronicles were (IMO). There was some modicum of story, it just wasn't very great and didn't seem to tie in very strongly to anything else(*). There were some puzzles, very little RP or story, but they did the 'creepy' thing well again (they're very, very good at that.)

Oh, and it does take place after Origins or Awakening, but some unspecified amount of time. You can either import your Warden PC or play with a new character.

Also? Not nearly as difficult as I was led to believe after the SDCC reviews. I played most of the DLC on 'Normal' difficulty (which has become my default) and almost was able to make it through the final boss fight on that level. Changing down to 'Casual' made it almost ridiculously easy (for me).

Worth your money? Not in my opinion(^). I'm holding out great hopes for the next (and last) Origins DLC, "Witch Hunt", which is coming out tomorrow (!!), I think, and involves some Origins end game stuff I can't discuss because it's spoilery but is making me ~FLAIL~ like a flaily thing because of its potential to do some AWESOME story stuff with one of my characters. I'll again come back and give feedback for it once I've played it. :)

(*) - I realized after finishing up an Origins runthrough right after playing this DLC that there is a chance that the DLC does, in fact, tie-in with something from Origins. But the fact that I only realized it after playing Origins means, to me, they did a poor job of tying it in if that's the case.

(^) - There was something during the final cut-scene of the game that suggests foreshadowing for future games/DLCs. If that's the case, then I may change my opinion about whether or not it's worth picking up and playing.