Dragon Age Origins: Awakening Expansion - Impressions

[brickiemart]

Everyone was in line at the local Gamestop last at midnight for God of War 3. I was the only dude there for the Dragon Age expansion. So far I am three hours in and feel compelled to post some thoughts. No major plot spoilers below.

First impression: the game is buggy like its predecessor. I am playing on the 360 and the previous game was notorious for little quirks and screw-ups. I finished the game with my character wearing the First Wardens armor which you get through download-able content. It must not have ported through, because I began the game naked minus a sword and shield. Luckily I had my second favorite armor set still in reserve.

I haven't tried creating a character from scratch, but importing is easy. I didn't notice any stat changes, all my stuff is there from potions to cash. A guy at the Gamestop thought you needed the first disk still to play the expansion, you don't. There are minor tutorials for beginners, but mostly they thrust you in. Most of the items I have found are top-notch by end-game standards of the last title, so no messing around with rusted daggers and peasant-grade tunics so far.

There new classes available at the start, you need to be level 20 to access them plus find some way to unlock them. The one that looks most interesting to me is Battlemage. One of my party members from the last game is in my party again, I think it may be different for each player depending on how the previous game ending, regardless my returning character was
Click the link for the spoiler
Also, I have run into one other character from the first game, only as an NPC though. My buddy playing through killed this character in the first game, so I get the impression that the expansion imports major plot points from your previous game. I look forward to knowing more when other people play through it and post their findings.

At three hours in I feel bombarded with stuff to do. And this is a good thing. I have piled the quests up in my quest log and most of them do not even deal with the major story point yet. The first game has a 20 level cap, this adds 15 more, so I am hoping for a game 3/4 the size of the first.

All the new characters I have found so far seem interesting. Hopefully I'll have a rogue this time that won't backstab me, leaving me without a thief (Zevran was the only rogue I had in the first title). This is only a first impression, but if you liked the first, definitely check out the expansion.

[jfe2]

I got this in the mail from Amazon today, and I can't wait to play it! I finished up Dragon Age: Origins last week and moved right into Mass Effect 2. Once I finish that, I'll start Awakening and let you know what I think.

BTW, that really sucks about the DLC not working. Hopefully they patch that soon.

[dsheinem]

I was in line for God of War 3 AND this last night (PS3 version for me). I'll be playing it a good deal when I finish up GOW3 (in a few days, most likely). Maybe they'll have the first patch out by then to fix these bugs.

[MrPopo]

So items from the DLC just won't port; Bioware stated this as much. Also, the character that returns is the same for everyone (and was revealed on the website if you're curious). I'm going to miss having Liliana hanging on my every word, but I still can't wait for tonight to play.

[brickiemart]

Yeah, it's buggy. I am close to the end and during a major battle a Darkspawn emissary summoned an animated corpse and twice this thing would come into existence and freeze. The problem is that it existed, froze, and would not take damage. My whole party was distracted trying to kill it while I went off and killed the rest of the badies. Without this thing dead the next cut-scene wouldn't trigger and I was stuck in limbo. Finally, I killed the emissary before he could summon it. I love Bio-ware, but I wish they'd hire a few more testers.