They give developers more space to express themselves

Mar 26, 2015 22:26 GMT  ·  By

The first downloadable content for Dragon Age: Inquisition, called Jaws of Hakkon, was teased, detailed by a leak, officially announced, and then actually launched in the course of three days, which must be a record for the modern video game industry.

And the whole process, as well as the content included in the actual DLC, serves as a good reason for the gaming industry to re-evaluate their love for the current model of post-launch support and to consider a return to the days when we got access to full expansions for those titles that performed well and got a solid fan base.

At the moment, almost all commercial releases, except some indie ones, have a plan for extra content prepared even before they are actually offered in stores, be it physical or digital.

Developers are often accused of taking content out of their title before launch in order to package it as DLC and create more revenue than they would if they included it in the initial release.

And even when the paid packages manage to deliver interesting experiences for the community, teams get criticized for the fact that they are not focused enough on free patches or updates.

Jaws of Hakkon for Dragon Age: Inquisition is a good content package

None of the above mentioned criticism can be applied to Jaws of Hakkon for Dragon Age: Inquisition, a DLC package that delivers a solid gameplay experience and was launched after a relatively long development cycle.

Gamers who buy and download it will be able to explore a new region which is equivalent to the largest ones featured in the core game, and there are plenty of new quests for gamers to deal with, as well as some big battles against powerful enemies.

BioWare has also brought back the voice cast to deliver new lines for Jaws of Hakkon and the banter alone is reason enough to change party members a few times.

Even Scout Harding gets new conversation options, although the option to actually start a romance with her will probably have to wait for another DLC delivery.

The biggest criticism that can be leveled at the new adventure is that it stays too close to the mechanics and structure of the original campaign.

But from many points of view, Jaws of Hakkon for Dragon Age: Inquisition manages to be an almost perfect example of downloadable content done right.

Expansions are better suited for most games

Despite the fact that BioWare did a good job on Jaws of Hakkon, I could not be fully satisfied while playing it because I knew its innate limitations would make it unable to compete with the expansions for classic role-playing titles, like Throne of Bhaal for Baldur's Gate II.

Yes, players have to wait for a longer period of time to get access to one and there were expansions that probably disappointed the fan base because the team did not have clear feedback on which to structure the new experience. But for a title like Dragon Age: Inquisition, DLCs always feel too small and the limited size of the story means that the developers do not have the space to create something meaningful.

I would like to see BioWare take one full year in order to allow its fantasy-focused team to think up and then develop a bigger narrative for a full expansion for the game, which can rival in scope the story told in the core game (with a better villain, if possible).

The pressure of the market will force the studio to deliver at least another DLC in 2015, but this is a case where the progress of the industry does not translate into a better overall experience for gamers.