Weekend Reading: Dragon Age - The Awakening Needs a Bit of Polish

I really like what BioWare is trying to do with Dragon Age. It's a pretty classic fantasy with streamlined but not dumb party combat mechanics, featuring a new world to develop, explore, see, change, and a clear long term plan for the series, complete with novels and possibly other tie-ins. But I don't like how the developers handled The Awakening expansion despite being blown way by the initial Origins launch.

Frankly, the expansion (and I appreciate the idea of delivering a true expansion in this age of downloadable content) seems very, very rushed. It's not just that it's shorter than Origins and than originally promised by BioWare in spite of its price tag. The problem is that the good ideas and even the promising storyline involving The Architect and The Mother don't seem to have the power to grab the player and keep their mind occupied while they progress through waves of darkspawn towards their final goal.

On the one hand, it's too easy, with not enough new tougher enemies to test the fresh skills and abilities that all classes get. Even the last fight, something similar to the Broodmother encounter in Origins, feels significantly shorter and cheaper, only a challenge if the gamer purposely brings in a less than ideal party (I chose Oghren, who hated me, Sigrun, who was indifferent, Anders, cause I needed a mage, and my dual wielding elven thief). The new weapons and moves are mostly very interesting from a tactical standpoint but they just feel a bit useless when the normal skills can take out the enemies.

On the other hand, it does not concentrate enough on the world itself. The Warden Commander comes off as an aloof character who only takes on menial quests from the Chantry and the merchants to make a quick buck while not really understanding the events taking place between The Mother and The Architect. The actual narrative veers too quickly from investigating to destroying a big threat and the impact of the new breed of darkspawn is not clearly explained.

Dragon Age: Origins – The Awakening would have needed a month or two of polishing, adding dialog, some soul and plot before being released to gamers. I'm thankful for its existence but it could have been so much more than this.