Dragon Age Origins

This might just be my first ever triple post. Meh. Anyway, there's a new DLC now on XBL and PSN, and the gist of it seems to be spending time in Orzammar, or more specifically the lost Thaigs. It also gives a warning of being ' extremely challenging'. Should be good, though if the enemies can do much more than get a hit against either my Arcane Warrior or my Rogue then I'll be impressed. Besides, my Rogue is Queen of Ferelden; it wouldn't be fitting if she didn't lead by example. Well, Alistair's not going to do it, is he? The big jessie.

Oh, and this gives me another excuse to ogle the real life Leliana pictured above, whose name escapes me temporarily. I'll say it again. Hot. Damn.

The final DLC for DA:O has been announced, and I've mixed feelings. Titled 'Witch Hunt', it centres itself around your Warden going after Morrigan. Therein lies the problem; I loved the abiguity of her exit in DA:O, it was done so perfectly and I'm concerned that to tie up her story in a piece of two hour will see things rushed.

I had hoped to leave such things to DA2, if ever, but it seems demand was such that Bioware have decided we needed this now.

On the flip side, I'm very excited. Over my various playthroughs, I've always thought she was by far the most interesting character, and the chance to wrap up her tale (if indeed that is what this will bring; afterall, Flemeth is confirmed for DA2 so why not Morrigan?) is most welcome. I just hope Bioware can do her justice. God, please, please, please, don't screw this up.

On a vaguely related note, this will almost directly coincide with ME2s latest (and apparently greatest) big DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker, which seems like an odd busines choice on Bioware's part. Given that thus far I've bought everything ME2 related bar the costume pack and I'm still missing Darkspawn Chronicles, Leliana's Song and the Golems of Angawhateverthehellitwascalled, I'm going to struggle justifying buying them both and ME2 is probably going to come first.

Witch Hunt and Lair of the Shadow Broker are now out.

Oh dammit, that's not fair. Couldn't justify both this month, so one will have to wait.

I went for ME2s Shadow Broker package first off. Sue me. WItch Hunt will have to be next months treat.

Just as well. I've heard that Witch Hunt is currently bugged, Morrigan implying that you both had and refused the Dark Ritual. Apparently the bug doesn't occur if you import straight from Origins, but if you imported from Awakening or the Golems of Aggramak (sp?), it happens. Bioware is apparently working on a fix.

A Bioware game with a bug? Surely you jest, sir!

In all honesty, I'm happy to wait a month, give them time to iron out any kinks. Lair of the Shadow Broker was ridiculously polished, probably the best overall piece of DLC I've ever played, and while I'm not expecting quite the same level from Witch Hunt, I'd be disappointed if it was less than it could be.

Finally got round to playing Witch Hunt tonight. It took all of an hour ten minutes to beat, consisting basically of navigating four areas already encountered in DA:O and Awakening, with a couple of fights and ten minutes of very dull research in the Circle Tower library. A bit disappointing, all told, especially for allegedly 'premium DLC' at 560 MS points.

I didn't encounter any bugs, but the ending... oh boy, the ending...

Spoiler:

So, no closure at all, only more ambiguity and more questions. In some ways, I'm glad they didn't close Morrigan's tale here. She's one of the most interesting characters in any video game ever made and I'd like to see her story given much more time to play out. Dragon Age 3 should do it... incidentally, there were a few things she said that made me wonder...

Spoiler:

No, Simian. Hawke isn't the god baby. The game starts out with Hawke and his/her family fleeing the destruction of Lothering.

Could be an adopted family? Either way, the particular story thread is still wide open.

In all honesty, I can imagine that playing through WH with a new character or an imported one who refused the Dark Ritual would have made the whole thing feel utterly pointless. The only real redeeming quality of the DLC was the last five minutes, that being the reunion with Morrigan. Given that this was released at nearly the same time as ME2s LotSB, the difference between them couldn't be more marked. One was utterly essential, the other was a slog to see a three minute cut scene.

That being the case, my advice for those considering buying WH; don't. Youtube the ending, save yourself a few quid.

...But I already got it last month. D:

But yeah, I'm loving the Sorrow of Arlathan & The Vestments of The Seer. =D

Rockstar_Jagi wrote:

...But I already got it last month. D:

Then you could have forewarned me and saved me a fiver!

Okay so I've decided to get back into this as despite dropping 30 hours into it when it came out I never finished it and apparently I bought the Ultimate Edition on sale at some point.

Considering that I have every possible DLC aside from pre-order stuff is there any order I should play through for the best experience? I know that at least Witch Hunt is set post Origins and Awakening but I don't have a clue about any of the other stuff.

Witch Hunt was kinda crappy. Canonically it makes sense to do it last, but it'll leave a slightly bitter taste in your mouth if you finish off with it.

Golems of Athingyrock is meant for high level characters, so best for post Origins but pre Awakening. Leliana's DLC can be done at any point.

And the Darkspawn one is for shits n' giggles.

Never tried the Darkspawn one.

Okay so I used mods and console commands to completely respec all my party members and now my current team of MC Arcane Warrior Tank/DPS, Dual Wield Berserker Alistair, Duelist Leliana and Spirit Healer/Secondary Nuker Morrigan is wrecking shit. It's almost too easy already and I don't have very many talents unlocked so god knows what it'll be like later, I'm considering bumping up the difficulty to Nightmare to compensate.

Played through Leliana's Song which was alright, it's quite short so I doubt it's worth whatever it would cost by itself but it was fun while it lasted.

Also changed her to an archer for my Origins party making it Me AW Tank, Alistair DW Warrior, Leliana Archer and Morrigan Mage. I had to change the difficulty from Hard to Nightmare earlier because it was too easy but I still managed to beat the High Dragon with no deaths on my first try. I'm thinking either whatever builds I used my first time round really sucked or this game is nowhere near as hard as I remember it being.

I don't think I'm going to play Darkspawn Chronicles unless there's something really worth seeing in it. I hate playing SnS characters in this game to the point where I used mods to completely reset Alistair and none of the thralls you can get are particularly interesting.

Any reason I should push through it or just move on to Golems?

Inigo Montoya wrote:

I don't think I'm going to play Darkspawn Chronicles unless there's something really worth seeing in it. I hate playing SnS characters in this game to the point where I used mods to completely reset Alistair and none of the thralls you can get are particularly interesting.

Any reason I should push through it or just move on to Golems?

The only reason to play it is the spiffy sword that you get for beating it. (Which has Poison as a constant stat.) ...A nice sword to have at the start, Trouble is that whenever I finally level up enough to be able to use it, I end up already having a sword I already like. (Topsider's Honor, etc.)