I think my own biggest complaint was technical. If they ever fixed many well-documented, campaign breaking or even game breaking bugs the average player could easily run into by accident (source: me, an average player, running into them by accident), it wasn’t years after the sequel was already out.
It is a good time, and while the seeds are there I was offended on many characters’ behalf when I saw what the sequels did with them. But the first thing I remember isn’t the story or gameplay but having to restart multiple chapters because of technical issues.
Awakening is very good, but weird. It could certainly be called rough around the edges, and the plot and characters are great (though somewhat underdeveloped, especially in Velanna\'s case). Plus, the gameplay additions are great. Architect is a great, if underused, villain.
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A Worthwhile Expansion
I'm doing Awakening separately from the rest of the rest of the DLC because it really demands its own review. This is a true and proper expansion to Origins rather than just a mission pack. Plus, Origins already has a LOT of DLC to cover, so I'm happy to section this one off.
Awakening introduces a new roughly fifteen-hour campaign to play through. You can either import a character who's beaten the main game, or you can start with a new one. Whatever you choose, you'll be tasked with saving the region of Amaranthine from an army of Darkspawn that doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that the Blight is over. As you uncover why you'll meet several new companions (and Oghren), make choices on how best to run your land, and unlock new specialization classes, skills, and talents/spells. The level cap also increases from Origins' 25 to 35, and gear has two new tiers that upgrade an item's stats beyond the heights of the best equipment from the base game. Awakening is almost its own game entirely, and I'd say it earned its launch price of $40. These days it's impossible to buy Origins without Awakening on the PC, but if you’re an Xbox player it’s gone down to $10, which is a pretty good deal all things considered. Play Station players sadly cannot purchase the game digitally anymore.
With the technical aspects out of the way, let’s dive into the meat of things. Obviously, the story and characters aren’t going to be as robust here as in a full game, but there’s quite a bit here all the same. Most of the cast are interesting and have good arcs, and the story has some good twists. The Architect is an interesting figure as a quasi-antagonist, and I hope he makes a return someday. My biggest criticism of the characters lies with Oghren. I think it was a good idea to bring him back considering most players wouldn’t get a lot of time with him, but he felt like a major victim of Flanderization. Almost every line he has is either about alcohol, women, or both. He had already started to slip into this trap after the end of the Deep Roads in the base game, but Awakening cements his fall into cartoonishness.
My other qualm with the story is that it feels like the ending comes too quickly. Once you defeat the final boss it launches immediately into the epilogue slides, with no cutscenes or anything. It’s underwhelming and feels like it wasn’t fully finished.
On the gameplay side, Awakening’s additions are mostly positive. The new specializations are generally good but not game-breaking, Battlemage aside, and it’s great to see Archers get some support after being an underpowered build in the base game. I love being able to craft runes for weapons myself rather than finding them in the wild, and the potion to restore the martial classes’ equivalent of mana is something that probably should’ve been in the base game to begin with. The core gameplay is mostly the same, it just has some new tricks you can try.
Overall, I recommend Awakening to any fans of Origins. It doesn’t have quite the same level of replay value, but it is an enjoyable time that does a good job of building on the events and setting.