Hello and welcome back to the Dragon Age Retrospective. Now, Dragon Age Origins has a ton of DLC.  So much so, in fact, I’ve decided to make the DLC its own article.  I’m not going to be talking about item DLC’s or the gifts DLC, but I am going to opine on any DLC that has an actual story behind it.

The Stone Prisoner

The stone prisoner was an additional companion in the form of the golem Shale. Now Shale was originally going to be in the base game but due to to time and budget constraints it was pushed back into a separate DLC. Or at least that’s what we were told at launch.  Since then, due to interviews from former Bioware CEO’s, we know that it was pulled back as a way to earn a little extra money from people who bought the game second hand.

Now that is a little shady, I’ll admit, but given what would happen in the future I think we can let it pass. To play devil’s advocate, the DLC was free if you bought the game new with a code you could redeem.

The story of Shale is one of the more interesting stories to be told in the DLC’s, as Shale is connected to the Dwarven quest pretty heavily. I don’t want to give much away about this one as the journey with Shale is best discovered by the player, and any detail I give here will give take away from the DLC itself.

I’ll sum it up like this: Shale is a well rounded companion on par with the vanilla party. It’s well written and well voiced. Personally as far as the short DLC’s, it is my second favorite.

Now I won’t go into the story, but let’s talk about the game play with this character. It plays a lot like the character dog in a way as it can’t be grabbed or over run by enemies making it a good choice for tougher sections. However, let’s move on.

The Darkspawn Chronicles

This is an alternate universe DLC which sees you leading the final battle against the player party actually playing as the villains. However, with pretty much no story, it’s basically just a long combat section. As combat is one of the things this game is only average at, this is ultimately a disappointing DLC because it could have been so much more. It could have been a full campaign, sure maybe not as long as the main game, but a full campaign playing as the bad guys, which is something you don’t see often in this genre.

But over all it’s a pass for me if you already have it sure play it to unlock the items in the main game but other wise if you don’t own it don’t buy it.

Leliana’s Song

This serves as a prequel to the game proper giving a detailed backstory on one of your companions. It takes us back to before Leliana ended up in the little local church you find her in at the beginning of Origins.

Much like Shale’s story, it is well written and is a very fun DLC, if a bit dark at times. Now even with it being a prequel, I would advise that if you are going to play it, do so after finishing her quest in game as this will absolutely spoil that mission and it’s a really good one so you don’t want to spoil it.

That said, it’s a fantastic DLC and if your going to play Origins, I would say it’s a must own.

Soldier’s Peak

One of the main DLC’s that takes place during the base games, this story sees the Warden and their party fighting to retake a Grey Warden Fortress which fell many years earlier.

The DLC begins with a man coming to your warden hoping for aid that the Grey Warden Duncan promised him. That promise was to reveal the history of his great great grandmother, the former Warden Commander of Ferelden and to retake Soldiers keep, making a fitting home base for the Warden.

In fact that’s the only disappointment of this DLC is that other than a few shops and a super weapon, there isn’t really any impact to the main game.

It would have been nice to have seen this possibly retake the place of the party camp. Now I’m not a programmer so that may have been impossible. That said it’s a fun DLC and gives you incredible weapons and armors for your party, so it not only is a good story but helps you out in the base campaign.

Return to Ostagar

The final DLC were looking at today, Return to Ostagar, sees you returning to the the opening battle ground looking for a lost chest from the fallen king. Like Soldier’s Peak, this dlc is short but to the point, and a good story overall.  Alistair and Wynne are a must for this mission as the party banter is at least half the fun of this one. Much like Soldier’s Peak you are rewarded with very powerful items at the end of it that helps boost you for the battle ahead and really come in handy on higher difficulty.

Overall the DLC for Dragon Age: Origins was really good and enjoyabl,e and we still have two more to cover next week.

Thank you for your time and until next time:

When life’s got you down throw it into god mode and keep kicking ass.

Goose