Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

Less than five months have passed since the appearance of the great and warmly received cRPG - Dragon Age: Origins . Many of us were then simply sucked for several dozen hours into the dark, brutal realities of the fantastic land of Ferelden. For those who still do not have enough and would like to paraphrase the words of the hero of another legendary BioWare work: "kick the Spawns' asses for a good cause", the first full-fledged expansion - Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening .

Before the expansion of the add-on, players on internet forums were constantly discussing its length, something that was largely avoided by the creators themselves. At last, it can be said openly that Awakening takes about 20 hours. Of course, this is only an average value, because by playing fast and focusing on the main plot, you can finish the game 5 hours earlier, and if you want to get everything it offers and have some fun with crafting, you can extend the game up to 30 hours. For my taste, these several or several dozen hours are enough. Many games "break" in a shorter time, and yet we are talking about an add-on, which is by definition smaller.

Before the adventure begins, we need to decide if we want to play the character we have completed Dragon Age or if we prefer to create a new level 18 Gray Warden coming from Orlais. If we use our "old" hero, several times in the game we will find references to previously made choices or actions. However, there are very few such situations. From the characters that took part in the previous adventure, you can meet Alistair and Wynne, but these are only short and insignificant episodes. Oghren plays the greatest role of the old companions, who is also part of the team in Awakening, but he only refers to the past when he doesn't drink - hardly at all.

Regardless of who we choose to play, we take our first steps in the Vigil's Keep - the headquarters that fell to the Gray Wardens after their victory over the Archdemon. We arrive there as the new commandant, but instead of fanfare, applause and smiling faces of beautiful women, we are greeted by the hideous mouths of Spawns who are just conquering the fortress. Well, it's time to roll up your sleeves again, draw your sword and start your standard superhero job - save the world (or at least part of it) from destruction.

Driving the evil from the fortress is just the beginning, of course. Later, it turns out that the situation is much more confusing, and the attack on the Guardians' headquarters is only the beginning of further events. Some Spawns show signs of intelligence and can talk. After Archdemon's death, they did not scatter and flee underground as previous Scourge stories have described. It seems that someone is in charge of them, someone dangerous, with extraordinary intelligence. The main thread focuses precisely on discovering the causes of this unusual situation.

What disappointed me a bit about Dragon Age was the storyline. I was expecting something unique, epic like other BioWare erpegs. I got a decent story, very interesting at times, but there was no revelation. I also didn't like the idea of splitting the main storyline into several separate, virtually unrelated quests that could be completed in any order (quests with treatises).

The add-on looks almost identical in this respect. Here, too, the main storyline is based on three tasks that do not relate too much to each other and create separate stories. As in the base, the story is as good as - and only - good. We have a few unexpected twists, gradual discovering the secrets of Spawns and, above all, moral choices that have a significant impact on the course of the game. Making difficult decisions has been more exposed. The creators managed to serve several situations in which you can only choose the lesser evil. It is a pity that there are no more such solutions. From the game with the age category 18, I expect as many moments as possible that are not contrasting black and white, but in different shades of gray. Awakening made it difficult at times to choose the most sensible and most sensible dialogue option, and believe that such moments while playing are extremely rare for me.

Compared to the basic version of the game, we are now moving a bit to the northeast - to the Arlat of Amaranth. There is the Vigil's Fortress and the city of Amaranth, where we spend the most time. Amaranth is the only city available in the game, something like the Denerim from the base, only smaller. It was made our shopping center and a place to go to if we want to receive new side quests. We will find a few merchants inside, a board with the tasks of the merchant's guild and a cantor's board. In the inn, you can get quests from Plague Orphans, and I must highlight this element.

Orphanage quests are a nice escape from standard missions. Their goal is primarily to entertain the player and they do very well. The description of the quests is great. It resembles some internet forums - infantile sentences full of "blunders". Once the children want us to get moonshine for them, other times they ask for the Reverend Mother's bed to be sprinkled with suspiciously fragrant herbs that are supposed to make her sleep more pleasant. You can laugh a little or at least smile.

We also receive additional tasks in the Vigil's Fortress. Among other things, we meet there the master of blacksmithing known from Dragon Age - Wade, who creates wonderful items for us after collecting the components needed to forge them. The Vigil's Fortress is, above all, a place that we are supposed to take care of as the new commander. It reminds me of Fortress na Rozdrożach from Neverwinter Nights 2, only in a less extensive version. We have to settle several disputes between our subjects, take care of materials for the reconstruction of fortifications and the raw materials needed to forge armor for soldiers, etc.

In addition, we visit three extensive locations related to the main quests. Again, very similar to the basic version, because like there, we explore the forest of elves, the dwarven residence and the human village (also its version in the Void). The locations are therefore not original, but they should be distinguished for one thing - artistic performance. Most of all, I liked the beautiful, drawn backgrounds. Compliments to the creators also for the attention to detail and the choice of colors. The whole thing looks nicer than the basic version and the authors deserve applause.

During the journey, we meet several characters who join our team. This time the relationship between them is only purely friendly. Full professionalism, no missions romances. Each of the companions has a distinct character and I like it very much. I like three outfits the most: Oghren - a dwarf known from his stand, who relaxes the atmosphere with his vulgar humor and drunken antics; Anders - an apostate magician who systematically slips out of the hands of the pursuing Templars and is a master of sarcasm, and Justinian - a spirit of justice who accidentally enters a dead human body and takes control over it. He tries to understand people and force the guilty to make amends.

The conversations between them are great. They are full of cutting jokes, making up each other and fighting for their reasons. Traveling around the arlat, I just waited for one of them to start a discussion, providing me with additional entertainment.

Awakening allows you to develop your hero even to levels higher than 30. For this reason, 3 new skills have been added: Runesmaking, Vitality (increases vitality), Clarity (increases stamina / mana), 56 new talents and spells, and 2 new specializations for each of the classes. There are many possibilities of shaping heroes, but the pleasure is spoiled by one fact - the game is simpler than the base. While in Dragon Age many fights required constant combining, pressing a pause every few seconds, using all available talents and spells, in Awakening my team was simply too strong. I didn't have to use any sophisticated tactics because the effective one was "fly and hit", which was to throw everyone into the largest crowd of opponents who were crushed by my superheroes. Part of my guess is the shortage of stronger monsters. Of course, a few new creatures have been added - such as the Fire Golem, but there are far too few of them. We fight the most battles with known enemies, and for them we are unbeatable.

As for the fight, it should be mentioned that the balance between it and the dialogues kept in the base game has been slightly disturbed and this time the fight is dominant. In my opinion, the creators exaggerated a bit, especially considering the above-mentioned issue of simplifying the clashes.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is a version of the mini base. Mechanisms and solutions have been copied. There are few novelties and there are no revolutionary changes among them. The plot is an extension of the previous story and uses similar patterns.

The expansion pack is a creation that is specially created to allow fans to experience the next in-game adventure they have come to love. Awakening works just like this. He extends the same fun by 20 hours, telling about what happened after the death of Archdemon. So if you liked Dragon Age, you will also have fun with the expansion. In turn, for those who have failed something in Dragon Age and counted on a number of novelties, maybe some unusual story or a different world, I must warn you that they will not find it here.

For me, Awakening was quite a tasty starter before the main course, which is Dragon Age 2, announced for 2011. It made the waiting time more pleasant, but you will probably forget about it quite quickly. It is not a must have in your collection, but it is worth playing and I guarantee that you will have a nice time with it.

Karol "Karolus" Wilczek

PROS:

MINUSES: