I wrote a review for Dragon Age Origins not too long ago and as you can tell I really enjoyed that game and it was my favorite of of 2009. So I was looking for equal enjoyment with this expansion. I didn't get that same feeling I had with the original as I did with this one. The story is kind of bland, as well as the new party members. The only new character I liked was Anders,the others didn't really catch my attention like the old ones did. And why in the world did they choose Ogrhen as the returning character? I would have rather had anyone other than him. The game play is the same of course. New spells and skills are forgettable and I found myself using the old ones more often than the new. The story is worth playing the game, though it is not too great. There also seems to be some issues with previous DLC that have yet to be fixed. I really hope too see another expansion for DA:O, and with that expansion all the characters from the previous 2 available and a better story than this. This one would have been better as a new downloadable side quest to play through before you kill the Arch Demon in my opinion.

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Know what you get, and what you don't.

NO ROMANCE / NO DLC USAGE / NO REPLAYABILITY

To date, I've invested more than 150 hours in Dragon Age. I bought all the DLC. For me, all Bioware games are Must-Play. But I can't make the argument that Awakening is Must-Own. It all depends on what you care about. Bioware games work on four pillars. Story World. Level-up System. Romance. Replayability. Awakening has two of the four. By 25% more Dragon Age, I expect to get 35 hours out of Awakening. Three play throughs, about 12 hours each. Warrior, mage, thief. I don't count that at as full replayability. I expect to get 6-8 play throughs for a Bioware game. Awakening doesn't let you use any of your DLC. Awakening has no romance. No old romance. No new romance. With no romance and no dlc and no full replayability, I consider Awakening 50% of a Bioware experience.

5-STAR BIOWARE STORYTELLING / LEVEL-UP TO 35

The same writers, the same artists, the same level of excellence. If you understand what you're getting, Awakening is easy to love. New quests are fun. Meeting new characters are fun. It's bittersweet that you don't get to continue with your old companions, but that's part of the emotional experience. You have to imagine making leather-bikini love to Morigan in that secret part of your mind while you're splattering fresh darkspawn blood. Or you can treat this mission as optional, and never make the trip. It's your Fantasy. You don't have to play it. You don't have to buy it. You don't have to give Bioware your money.

FOR ME, IT'S A MUST-PLAY. FOR WHAT IT IS, IT'S AWESOME.

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I found this expansion pack to be well worth the money.

I do miss the Origins party members, especially Morrigan and Shale, but the rest of it makes up for it.

The new talents and leveling up skills are so fun and interesting.

I actually see a bit of Mass Effect 2 in some of the new things.

The new armor, new weapons, new runes system and whatnot are really great.

The areas are neat and the quests are plentiful and are fun.

I have played about 3/4 of it so far and have played for about 18 hours (but, I am a bit slow as I take my time, read some codex, etc...).

Oghren never fails to make me laugh so I am glad he is back.

The only thing I do not like about it, in my opinion, is the female elf mage tries to hard to be like Morrigan was but fails miserably. She evens has the same hairstyle so it did not sit well with me.

But, overall, for an expansion pack, I highly recommend it.

Just more fun to be had in the continuing story of the epic Dragon Age Origins.

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Dragon Age:Origins was the only game I've ever replayed(to play as a different character/class). I enjoyed it each time. The original add-ons, "Wardens' Keep" and "Return to Ostagar" added very little, but were worth the small cost.

"Awakenings" was fun - the characters interesting. The new skills and crafting can't be embraced with the game play available in this expansion - there isn't enough to fight to level up enough. That is more an observation that criticism, as "Awakenings" is a satisfying and fun experience. It retained the spirit of the original - the field conversations between the party characters were entertaining, and while Alistair was my favorite character

from the original game, Ohgren turned out to be the perfect one to carry forward into "Awakenings".

You could skip "Wardens Keep" & "Return to Ostagar" and miss little (one review alluded to the armor and weapons acquired in "Return to Ostagar", but much stronger ones are immediately available in "Awakenings".

It seems "The Stone Prisoner", while listed as an add on, has been a free download for the original game. If it wasn't free on your version of "...Origins"), it is the one "must have" DLC available.

There has been conflicting information as to what is needed to play. You do not need the "Dragon Age:Origins" disc to play if you are getting the disc version of Awakenings (Amazon is the disc); if you have saved game files from the original on your PS3, the new disc retrieves whatever information it needs from the saved game.

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But Awakening deserves its time allocation if you are into RPGs and if you enjoyed the first 'Origins'. This one sneaked into our gaming universe while I was looking the other way - playing Demon's Souls, actually :). It was the first thing my big son asked for after earning a number of academic awards from his school so... PSN's quick downloads offered instant gratification. It's he who is the bigger Dragon Age fan but I played the sequel myself for a dozen hours or so already so these are my observations, enhanced by his better informed views.

Dragon Age Origins: Awakening continues where the first game left off. Having played the previous chapter, I'm not sure how this would appeal to someone who'd begin their quest here but I suspect that would not be as good an experience. There is an option to transfer your previous character depending on the ending you unlocked on the first game or you can make a totally new character in the beginning of the game.

In the story, you are a commander of the Grey Wardens and you literally own (true) the new land you are traveling. This gives you more power and more discretion than you had in the previous game. There is also a new set of characters you can invite into your team like Justice, a Fade spirit, and Anders, a rogue mage who escaped from the controlling mage tower.

Occasionally, you'll bump into a few of the original characters and people whose lives you affected in the other game. New features in the game include new materials, like dragon wing, which is more powerful than the old materials ones like red steel. There are also new monsters, new classes and new ablates for the old ones. For extra abilities, you can now craft runes and enchant armor.

The game is enjoyable, quite addicting, and lives up to the excitement and humor of its predecessor. I found the sequel quite enjoyable myself and, according to my son, there wasn't anything he didn't like about it except for the loading time. We both hope for more.

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Dragon Age Origins Awakening's biggest obstacle to success is most likely Dragon Age: Origins.

Compare this expansion to any other RPG on the market and it's bristling with exciting, complex combat, top notch storytelling, peerless dialogue and characterisation and a very decent 25-30 hours of great gaming.

Compare it to the main game, and it doesn't quite hit the same level of character involvement. Origins, on this level, was sublime. The player formed associations and fondness for NPC's that trumps any other role playing experience. This appears to be the biggest gripe with the game - no long term relationships with the characters, the plot isn't quite epic enough.

But remember, this is an expansion, and in my experience, one of the best.

The characters are actually wonderful, cleverly designed, witty and they do develop as intriguingly as those in the first game. They are largely misfits and reluctant heroes, one even derives from the spirit world, one - a mage on the run from the templars, another the son of a major villain from the original game, grappling with his conscience. Most of the players of the game are not seeing the new characters because of how attached they were to Morrigan, Wynn, Leliana and Alistair. If you miss them so much, then start again from the beginning. Awakening, much like life, moves on. New adventures and new people. Bioware could've softened the blow by reprising one of the more popular characters from the first game, but that may have run the risk of overshadowing the new characters, or risking a similar complaint that it's just 'more of the same'.

The combat is better than before, many more options, all of them seamlessly integrated. The battles are uber-cool in Awakenings and can be, at times very challenging.

Don't be fooled by big-noting fan-boys telling you this game is super-easy. There are some corker boss fights. Unless you set to easy, don't worry, you'll die and have to re-strategise quite a few times, but not enough to turn you off either. It's well balanced.

Graphics have been subtly improved to the point where many of original criticisms wouldn't even occur now. I actually like the graphics in DA:O, despite the easy complaints that have been made about it's engine. Yes, Uncharted has better graphics, but it's also 100% linear and a much smaller game. In Dragon Age, you're dealing with characters that change with your behavior, indeed entire plot threads that change with your behaviour. Unlike most FPS's, there are literally thousands of different approaches to winning a battle, starting first with the personnel you've chosen to attack the problem. Given the open ended nature, the backgrounds, spell effects and combat animations are extremely impressive and cool to play too.

Games like Awakening and of course DO:A have vastly more re-playability than non RPG's - this already makes them great value, if they're you're type of thing. If you like things simpler, leaner and less involved, then don't take on Dragon Age. It's about immersion and complex game play.

Awakening has all of the complexity and great storytelling that you could want from an expansion. I would happily play it through half a dozen more times.

Can't wait for DA2!

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I have to say enjoyed this expansion and personally feel it was worth the money. I am a self-professed Dragon Age obsessee. The new spells and abilities are fun to play around with, and I like the new characters.

I imported my old character (a female human noble) and was happy to see Alistair's reaction to her, as she married him at the end of DA:O. Seeing old characters again was also fun, and I love the one they chose to return as a companion/follower.

Also, since I didn't have her equipped with anything from the DLC, she had all of her armor and everything, including some odds and ends she'd still had in her inventory I hadn't bothered to sell before the final battle. [I've read that armor loss is a problem for those with DLC armor equipped at the end of the game, but I am hopeful there will eventually be a free patch for this.]

However, I do have a few tiny issues. You can't talk to your companions to have actual dialogues with them, just a pop-up sentence or two when you select them, and your returning companion loses all of his affection for you so you have to win it all over again.

And...the new spells and abilities weren't terribly useful to me. They're great. I mean, who doesn't want to raise the dead? But I could do just as well in the battles, it seems, without them and just using the ability boosts. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't trade them, but I am slightly disappointed.

I love Dragon Age, and for me, this expansion was worth the money. I don't know that every Dragon Age player would agree, however. It isn't an epic adventure, being only an expansion, and it doesn't cost much less than the original.

I can recommend it for those who really love the game and want more of it, in any form. If that isn't you, I think you should look into this expansion before buying it, particularly if you don't have $40 to burn.

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Much too easy, beyond much, crazy easy, same good gameplay but you blow thru it wipe'n everything

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I can understand many of the "less than positive" comments by other reviewers...but Awakening was still a lot of fun. Yes, you can blast right through it...especially if you import a really strong character from DAO.

On the other hand, if you really dig in and go through all the side quests, there's quite a bit of game there. I've played through it a few times with a couple of different imports, making different dialogue choices, and it still kept my interest.

I sincerely do hope, however, that "they're" working on an equal to Origins...I've played a LOT of RPGs, and that is my all time favorite. The development of story line and the interplay of the characters...especially in camp, and then the "background chatter" of the secondary characters...kept me replaying it many times.

Awakening can be fun, if you just accept it for what it is...a quick "fix" for us DAO addicts...but I'll continue to pray that a true sequel to Origins will be out in the near future...and PLEASE bring back Morrigan...and my "old god" baby...

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I loved Dragon Age Origin and looked forward to this expansion, though I waited some time to actually buy it. What I found is a great expansion, but one not as polished or with the wonderful character development of the first. Also considering the price for what is about 15 hours or so of extra game play it seemed kind of expensive to me. That said I very much enjoyed it.

You have to have Dragon Age Origin to play this game, so it is an expansion, not a stand alone game. So the gameplay is of course very similar. Origin was fantastic when it came to gameplay already and Awakening is slightly polished in some areas. Combat seemed better scaled and much more enjoyable this time around. The managed to strike a decent balance of keeping it challenging while letting you use a character that starts out very powerful. You have the ability to port your character from the first game or start a new one (A very good thing Bioware did was include a book in game that allows you to totally relevel your character and/or NPCs of your party). There are several small parts from the first game that play into some dialogue in Awakening, but it does not have nearly the impact I wished it had. If you have played through any of the DLC for Origins you are also opening a can of worms when it comes to glitches in Awakening with an important character. I had no issues with anything 'game breaking' but there was some annoying glitches at time, more so with certain quests and equipment.

The story is very good, almost better than the first, though not as epic feeling. But the characters are not nearly developed as Origins and I felt very little attachment to any of them. That is a big deal considering how important NPC development, romance and the like was in Origins.

The new equipment, enemies, spells and abilities are all very good and very fun. That said I didn't feel like I had to have or use any of them. I think I could have played through the entire expansion with just original equipment from Origins and not had too much trouble.

If you loved Origins and have been putting off picking this up I'd recommend it. If you played through it and thought it was okay, you'd be paying almost the price of a new game for as expansions that could be called 'just more of the same'. Since I enjoyed Origins so much I am quite happy with just more of the same. I am also glad to see support for the game after it has been released and while there are still a number of glitches Bioware has released several patches which has helped clean it up slightly.

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The story line and the voice are still excellent, but the main plot is toooooo short. it just costs me 10 hours to finish in the normal level(however there are still plenty of side missions and a number of special armors and weapons I have not covered).

some new specializations and skills are added but what I hope is they can add some new races and their 'origin' story (something like diablo and dungeon siege)

and they only keep Ogren from the original game (somehow I hope to see Morrigan again)

I will give it 3.8* if I could

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Well after all the hype and excitement fizzled down after getting this game I can say that it was really not too bad. I was a little disappointed about not being able to get all the downloaded items and certain goodies aquired from some of the fights from the Origins title, but it was OK. The game makes up for what it took away by offering you really cool gear and weapons plus the ability to add rune stones to armor. I did in fact transfer my lead person from the original game and I unequipped all the gear and had a ton of other kick-ass equipment from the original...which all transfered to include the money, gifts,gems,quest items like silver bars...etc. I would reccomend selling you Dragon armor, warden commander armor from the dragons keep, and any other downloaded items cause they wont transfer(the ostigar stuff did transfer). Trust me when i say that you will be able to get better stuff when you start this game. THe only advice I could give if you are going to transfer an individual is to save as much money as you can...(ie. any gold tricks like the potent lythium potion trick) and you will have good items to equip if you have them in your inventory like I said to do before. The story is not too bad, though I was expecting to get some of the old guys back. There are a bunch of new ablilities and the coolest thing is an item in the beginning which lets you reset you players entire stats. The fights are just as good as the original with some new twists, and the story keeps to the original in terms of the people knowing you or having things to say in regards to what you did in the past. This game is a must buy if you own the original, and it only makes wonder when or if there will be another. THere are so many replay advantages here because you can either import a player or start a new one. If you own the Origins game...then go buy this ASAP! THis game is worth the money, even with its minor flaws.

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I love DAO and was very excited when I saw this come out. I like the game play and the additional specialties but for the money the game wasn't long enough. $25-29 is the sweet spot for this game. If you can wait until the price drops, do so.

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If you read my review for Dragon Age: Origins, you'll know that I loved it. If you didn't, well I guess I just told you. That being said, this expansion does have some disappointments.

If you haven't heard, there's no romance(that was sarcastic). While romance does not make a game for me, there are other people I know who ONLY played this game BECAUSE you could treat it like a Harlequin Romance novel. I realize there are different types of gamers out there and if romance was a huge draw for you, you'll probably want to skip or wait for a price drop. Similarly though, I do not like the fact that you can't even initiate conversation in your party. All dialogue takes place on the NPC's terms. When it does happen, it's still great and well written, I just wish the same time and energy went in to the dialogue in Awakenings that it had in Origins.

There ARE a LOT of additional items and tweaks. Might almost be enough to justify a good chunk of the cost. Everything from changing your shield's look to being able to enchant your armor to crafting your own runes are pretty fantastic. The DLC problem has been addressed by other reviewers and that sucks, but I had a pretty solid group using minimal DLC items and had no issues.

The writing is the same quality as the original. While not long by any stretch, the story is enjoyable and I will probably get several playthroughs with my various characters. The first time through, though, is by far the best as you start seeing the old characters cameo and there is some retention from your past. Case in point(possible mild spoiler): My bad-boy mage desicrated the Urn and caused Wynne to leave his group. Their reunion in here was NOT pleasant and the animosity was obvious. It's the small touches that remind you how much this game's universe is well conceived and it is never made more clear than in characterizations.

I don't know what happened, but I HAVE noticed some heftier frame rate drops in some battles in Awakenings. Origins didn't have many frame rate drops for me, and what DID happen was few and far between. Awakenings seems to drop quite a bit more. Otherwise, graphics are still great and everything looks just as good as Origins.

As a lover of the game, I loved this expansion. However, the cost DOES seem to be a bit high for what essentially pans out "Dragon Age Lite." How ravenous are you for more Dragon Age? I was foaming and loved every minute just enjoying new storylines and characters. If you felt lukewarm toward DA......this expansion will not woo you over. This is an expansion only real diehard fans of DA will love. Everyone else will feel, justifiably so, ripped off.

On one last note......02-01-11? They better have an army working on it or I am scared.

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If Dragon Age Origins had never existed and this came out, I would probably give it 4 stars and be tempted to go 5. But having played through Origins about 6 times and then loading this up after months of anticipation, I was disappointed. I was going into it knowing that there would be a bit less content but we had been told it would be about 30 hrs and (at least for me) it was around 20. I could live with that I suppose....if that were the only letdown and it wasn't.

Cons: The game only somewhat seems to be a continuation of the previous game. It uses your character that you load but you are called "Warden Commander" no matter how you finished the last game. I was King of Ferelden in some of the games I loaded and other than a brief encounter with Anora, you would never have known I was anything other than a warden commander. There is VERY little involvement of your party members from Origins.

The Boss fights are nothing too special, no arch-demon or even Flemeth equivalent in this one.

The character development of your party members is downright weak when compared to Origins, I can't really elaborate without giving too much of the plot away...which by the way is also pretty weak when compared to Origins.

Pros: Same good graphics, same fighting system so if you liked Origins then you'll like this, more spells/skills and a few more level ups.

Conclusion: I would liken this to The Burning Crusade for World of Warcraft in that if you like the game and your character then you have to get this for the extra levels in case you get to keep your character in the next installment. It's pretty good, it just doesn't live up to Dragon Age Origins in any way.

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