Buying Darkspawn Chronicles DLC

A hack and slash fest with no dialogue whatsoever and recycled scenes from the original game?

I guess the answer would be no.

 

It's not a bad DLC, but they should have charged much less for it due to the fact that once you play it, there's really no reason to play it again because nothing changes. I see enough of the Denerim City Gates and inside the city itself, during the final siege, when I'm playing my Warden. Granted, even with your warden, it's the same thing every time, but depending on how you played your warden, the epilogue of the game changes each time.

I've bought it, enjoyed it the two times I played it, but doubt I'll play it again, to be quite honest.

 

I will probably buy it if it comes down in price. I enjoyed the orginal game but no way am I spending the money they want.

 

Nakia - are you referring to the $5 price they're asking for, for the download content of Darkspawn Chronicles, or the $40 or so they're asking for, for the expansion of Awakening?

 

I won`t be buying this one. I can`t see how this dlc will add to the story. The other DLCs have been ok though. Abit on the short side, but deffinatly playable.

 

Bear in mind that this DLC doesn't bring anything to the regular game so it stands on its own. It only offers a short distraction and an extra goody item. I hate the idea that you can get extra free items by buying different editions of the game and stuff, it makes me feel as if they're treating players (I should really say customers) like a bunch of kids gathering collectible cards and boasting about achievements -really silly when they market it as a "mature" game but that is probably just a marketing ploy to boost sales by making the game more attractive to kids.

Celtic Dream has been quite fair in her review and she stressed the lack of replayability.

What does this DLC bring to the original campaign? Nothing except a Darkspawn sword and some very unpalatable realization that your character is not needed in the DAO world as the basic premise of Darkspawn Chronicles (what chronicles are they referring to by the way? According to what I've read there is no dialogue and the codex entries refer to NPCs getting along without you). This DLC actually makes Alistair the hero of the game and that is quite a stretch when you've played DAO and know that he would be completely lost without your Grey Warden to point him in the right direction.

I believe we can vote with our money. If we don't buy this DLC then Bioware will have to start making good DLCs instead of trying to cash in on the success of the game by making mod like DLCs that don't bring anything to the OC (I say mod like but in all fairness the best modders can make adventures with rather decent voice acting and interesting choices like the Alley of Murders mod).

Warden's Keep had a major flaw (and probably the worst in game advertisement in the history of CRPGs) as it didn't offer what it promised, i.e. a stronghold for the player. But despite being short it had some value as it featured an interesting story and made you choose a path. The idea of such a choice is certainly something that helps getting a better understanding of your character and is badly needed to flesh out a PC in a CRPG. Is your character a power hungry Grey Warden who stops at nothing to achieve his/her goal or is he/she an honourable soul? That was a question the Warden's Keep DLC brought forward.

Return to Ostagar may be a linear hack and slash DLC, it stills ties a few loose ends together. Bringing to a close the fate of the ones who fell at Ostagar and adding some codex entries that may be of interest to the players who are interested in such things. RTO fails IMO because it didn't bring much in the way of moral ambiguity nor does it have much relevance in the larger picture. It isn't a challenging experience either as we could have expected it to be (and I would have liked a really hard fight instead of facing a few stragglers). But still, even RTO has moments that you can appreciate if you've been drawn into the story and relate to the events that have occured at Ostagar.

What Darkspawn Chronicles teaches us is that the Grey Warden we've played for countless hours is not necessary for the Blight to be defeated or the Treaties to be found. The Grey Warden is not needed and we all know that there is only one fate awaiting heroes who are not needed and that is to sink into oblivion.

 

DA:O is the biggest cash cow game I've ever seen. All the DLC created so far was made before the game was even released, and should have just been part of the game. Instead they sell half a game then expect you to pay extra for the bits they didn't include. I've so far refused to get Awakening for this very reason, it was released just too conveniently quickly after the original release for me. Everything they've released so far, which comes to about what, $70? Sould have all been released as one, complete game. I've still yet to see anything impressive, or worth the money.

I bought all the available DLC at once, and regret each purchase equally.

 

Awakening is very good. It might not be worth the $40 price tag that they put on it, just because it's not too incredibly long compared to the original game, but then again it is an expansion. The quests are good, the new party members are fun (though there is one who I'd love to just punch through a wall because of her attitude), and the new skills you can learn? OMG, epic win! The DLC content I can somewhat understand your PoV on, though some weren't too incredibly bad, and one of them came free with the game (at least when I bought it). I would highly suggest taking a chance on Awakening, Uri. While there are some differences between game play in Origins and Awakening, it still holds up pretty well and there are definitely times where you're scratching your head and wondering what might be the best way to handle this or that situation without being too light or heavy handed... some definitely good moral type questions and decisions.

 

It's probably the most boring hack n slash I've ever played. Frustrating too because you have to spend time changing the tactics of everything you take over or remove their tactics altogether. To top that off, it's really easy for the thralls to die, especially if you forgot to turn off your ogre's tactics and since you have to rely on your own saving, I find myself making a small mistake and back tracking 20-30 minutes of the same boring hack'n'slash.

Big thumbs down for this one, glad I didn't really pay for it...