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| WARDEN'S KEEP |
INFO: A downloadable quest pack for Dragon Age: Origins, available for free to those who purchased the Digital Collector's Edition of the game. A young man back at the Warden's campsite would like the Warden and his companions to look into his grandmother's dark past as a Warden and possibly clear his tainted family name, by investigating an isolated fortress known to the Grey Wardens as Soldier's Peak.
REVIEW: I enjoyed this quest. The download's reasonably priced, seeing that it comes complete with two new low-level Trophies/Achievements, fabulous new equipment for the game, and new - albeit unholy - talents for all three classes. It's short, yet moderately challenging in terms of combat, which means it's a quite gratifying hour of level farming. 8.5 / 10
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| THE STONE PRISONER |
INFO: A downloadable quest pack for Dragon Age: Origins, available for free to all who purchased a new retail copy of the game. A merchant presents the Warden with a control rod for a seemingly disfunctional golem. The captive villagers know the secret behind freeing the potentially dangerous stone prisoner, but the Warden and his/her companions need to help them with their predicament in order to learn it.
REVIEW: The most essential downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins, bar none. Easy for a buyer of a new copy of the game to say, of course, since otherwise it costs 15 dollars/euros - but I'd say I'd pay that sum if I knew all of what The Stone Prisoner is about. Once again, there are two new low-level Trophies/Achievements and some fabulous new equipment to be collected, a new (not to mention extremely essential and humorous) companion and a whole new type of equipment for her, and on the top of it all, a total of two entertaining sidequests to be conquered. Excellent stuff that set the bar a little too high for Dragon Age DLC from day one. 9.3 / 10
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| RETURN TO OSTAGAR |
INFO: The final downloadable quest pack for Dragon Age: Origins. The Warden and his companions meet a member of King Cailan's personal guard, who tells them of a chest Cailan left back at Ostagar to be inherited by the Grey Wardens at the event of his death. The party returns to the field of its most memorable battle to find the chest and kill the darkspawn that have taken the place for their own.
REVIEW: This one was a bit "meh". Sure, it has some new equipment - that's the purpose of the whole quest - but there's only one new Trophy/Achievement, it's an easy run in an already familiar setting, and there are no new tricks to be exploited. It's as good of a download as any for true fanatics, but unlike the two quest packs that came before it, Return to Ostagar can easily be left ignored by casual players. 6.5 / 10
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| THE DARKSPAWN CHRONICLES |
INFO: An add-on for Dragon Age: Origins. In a wholly alternative timeline, your Warden died in the Joining and therefore, never took part in the final battle in Denerim. Alistair is the last surviving Grey Warden, and you're now a Hurlock Vanguard, given the task of killing him and his companions.
REVIEW: Say the name. "The Darkspawn Chronicles." One more time. "The Darkspawn Chronicles." Needs more feeling! Come on! "The Darkspawn Chronicles!" OK, you definitely want to buy it since it sounds so cool, so now: play it. Sucks, huh? The story's quite silly but that's easily expected, once you get to play it you'll see there's none of that Dragon Age magic here. It feels like you're playing a demo with the sole focus in fighting. They could've easily made this an interesting, intricate quest, in which you would've controlled one of the intelligent darkspawn from Awakening, but no, they decided to base this linear, hour-long stroll around a simple-minded Hurlock on a Denerim-sized killing spree, jumping from "quest" to "quest". He can possess other monsters, that's kind of cool. But can you customize your darkspawn? Can you assign abilities? Can you do anything that you've grown accustomed to playing any previous Dragon Age product? No. Sort of. Yes. You can kill. A lot of folk. Too much folk. I don't know about you, but I felt really, really awkward about chopping Oghren's head off. 'Twas a waste of time. Suitable for a completist who wants his hands on three new Trophies and a new weapon for Origins and Awakening. 5.0 / 10
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| LELIANA'S SONG |
INFO: An add-on prequel to Dragon Age: Origins. The Orlesian bard Leliana recounts her story of doing all sorts of dirty work for a woman named Marjolaine, and how she was betrayed by her.
REVIEW: Let's face the facts. Leliana is one sexy broad - although her accent is horrible - and my favourite rogue companion to use, but does she really have any true purpose in Dragon Age: Origins when it comes to the story? No, and Leliana's Song proves it. It's no Dragon Age, instead it's a slightly humorous, linear action game of general rogue-like mischief that runs on the Infinity engine. There's no mention of darkspawn, Blights, Grey Wardens or anything fantasy-related. Even the music's very different from the retail - quite repetitive, folk-oriented stuff. There are a couple of new funny, yet stale characters, easter eggs, new equipment and three new Trophies to be enjoyed; all in all, Leliana's Song is decent one-time fun, but might turn some Dragon Age fanatics off. There's also a weird glitch of repeating cutscenes and dialogues. 6.7 / 10
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| THE GOLEMS OF AMGARRAK |
INFO: An add-on sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. The Grey Warden returns to Orzammar to accompany a dwarf in search of his brother, who went missing on an expedition for ancient secrets of golem construction in the Deep Roads.
REVIEW: In spite of a huge glitch that might turn up and coldly disrupt your progress in the seemingly unpatched PS3 version, The Golems of Amgarrak is a keeper. It was the least promoted DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, and to my huge surprise, I really enjoyed it a lot more than The Darkspawn Chronicles or Leliana's Song. The three Trophies don't come cheap. The Golems of Amgarrak is HARD as it is, and you have to beat the final boss on Hard or Nightmare to score all three Trophies. The boss isn't really that hard, but he has a ton of annoying buffs. What's cool is that you can either create a new character - not recommendable - or import your Grey Warden from the retail, OR the Warden-Commander from Awakening. Doesn't make things a whole lot easier, since your party is still a quite weak bunch of chumps, but it helps out a great deal anyway. A challenging and fairly entertaining quest, three new Trophies, new efficient equipment for the retail and Awakening as usual... yep, I'd buy it. And I did. 8.0 / 10
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| WITCH HUNT |
INFO: The final add-on for Dragon Age: Origins, and a sequel to the events in both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. It has been two years since the Blight ended and Morrigan disappeared. The Warden-Commander sets out to find the Witch of the Wilds and settle the score with her, in better or worse. This witch hunt leads the Warden and his new companions on the trail of an ancient elven secret.
REVIEW: It's no secret that I'm a Morrigan fanboy down to my heart and soul, and the main reason I wanted to see through the rest of the downloadable content was so that I could take on Witch Hunt last, like it was meant to be. It offers true closure to the Origins storyline - more threads of it than one would think - and, naturally, it marks the long-anticipated, though only brief return of the best character in the Dragon Age universe. Witch Hunt ends the storyline and the series of Origins DLC with a high note. Your decisions in Origins and Awakening affect the storyline, although the ending you got in Origins seems to make no difference at all. In case you refused Morrigan's offer, she even goes as far as to mention that - but you still live, there's still no explanation to it! As far as gameplay goes, I enjoyed this quest very much despite its easiness, the emptiness of the Ariane character and the pure nuisance that is the mage Finn. There are four Trophies to be had here, one of which requires you to once again slay the final boss on Hard or Nightmare, but he's not nearly as hard as the one in Golems, actually quite easy. Oh yeah, and some new equipment, of course. All things considered, Witch Hunt is well worth its price of seven! 8.9 / 10
I haven't played the last three on the list yet, but my opinion of the others as as follows.
VastaaPoistaWarden's Keep - It's worth it for the abilities and the armor, but otherwise it's a bit meh. It had the seeds of a good story arc, but they didn't take full advantage of it.
The Stone Prisoner - The "story" was very meh, and the fighting was not even that difficult or of a significant length. Let's face it though, you do this to get Shale. Shale is way worth the DLC.
Return to Ostagar - You said "It's as good of a download as any for true fanatics, but unlike the two quest packs that came before it, Return to Ostagar can easily be left ignored by casual players." and I think you are right. As a stand alone there is not much there. Sure there is the armor, but by the time you are strong enough to face the darkspawn in Ostagar, you already have stronger armor. For me though, it really helped tie up loose ends and provided a sense of emotional closure for my characters.
Leliana's song - I haven't played this yet but I can see how someone would want to play it if their character was going to be romantically involved with Leliana. It would give a bit of depth to that relationship I think b/c you would know more about Leliana herself.
Darkspawn Chronicles - I'm sad to read that you were unhappy with it. I haven't played it yet, but the concept is quite unique. But you know, it's DLC. DLC are for making more money and not necessarily for actually telling a good story.
Witch Hunt - I would like to play this with Perra if she survives the final battle. I refuse to break story continuity and play it (or Awakening)with her if she dies.