Dragon Age: Awakening.

[Tawmis]

Since some people are still playing Dragon Age: Origins, I figured I'd open a thread for Awakening since it's been released now.

[AndreaDraco]

Let me start right away!

The scene where we meet Oghren for the first time is absolutely hilarious! The way he waves and smiles, and than chops down the darkspawn! Awesome!

I have played for an hour or so, and so far I'm really liking it.

The Joining was shocking. I liked Mhairi already!

[Tawmis]

Argh...

Okay, some trivial rants...

1. I already knew this was coming, where it doesn't consider your ending. Which is fine. I sacrificed myself in Origins at the end, because I felt that was the character thing to do how I had played it. So it disregards that and I am alive. Which is fine, really. But Alistair's alive too. So does that mean the game assumes you let Loghain become a Grey Warden, and he's the one who died at the end? It's the only ending, I know of, that I have not yet seen.

2. Some weapons and armor don't carry over. On my Warrior, a lot of things didn't carry over - my big complaint - my Star Sword did not carry over! I had that thing almost from the beginning of the game! It meant a lot to me! And it didn't carry over? I think because it has to do with Soldier's Peak DLC. Which, leads me to my second point - my Mage who is in the Warden's Armor from Soldier's Keep (such beautiful armor, my favorite in appearance) - carries over into AWAKENINGS - COMPLETELY NAKED! He's in his Skivvies! His Birthday Suit! Just him and his staff! And I mean his magical staff. Not the other naked skivvies staff. Though I think he has that too! I hope!

Other than that, so far pretty interesting.

Anders (sp?) seems like a pretty solid character. Although ironically some of his dialogue reminds me of Quinn (from my fanfic).

[AndreaDraco]

Are you playing this on the PC, Tawmis? Because over at the Nexus there is already a mod that allows you to import every DLC item!

As for the Origins ending,

No, it assumes that no one died at the end, which is perfectly fine by me since I took Morrigan's offer with my Mage. It remains to be seen - I haven't imported that character yet - what happens if you commanded Alistair to sacrifice himself.

[Tawmis]

Are you playing this on the PC, Tawmis? Because over at the Nexus there is already a mod that allows you to import every DLC item!

As for the Origins ending,

No, it assumes that no one died at the end, which is perfectly fine by me since I took Morrigan's offer with my Mage. It remains to be seen - I haven't imported that character yet - what happens if you commanded Alistair to sacrifice himself.

I saw that on the PC - this is X360. I couldn't afford Awakenings for both PC and X360 (at 40 bucks a pop, no way). And since my preference is on X360, I went with that first.

And since you have played for an hour, you know that Alistair is alive... so even if you had him sacrifice himself - it seems to assume that you made Loghain a Grey Warden and it was Loghain who sacrificed himself.

[AndreaDraco]

[
And since you have played for an hour, you know that Alistair is alive... so even if you had him sacrifice himself - it seems to assume that you made Loghain a Grey Warden and it was Loghain who sacrificed himself.

Actually, it depends on the character you choose to import.

[Tawmis]

[
And since you have played for an hour, you know that Alistair is alive... so even if you had him sacrifice himself - it seems to assume that you made Loghain a Grey Warden and it was Loghain who sacrificed himself.

Actually, it depends on the character you choose to import.

How so?

If you sacrificed yourself at the end... it clearly disregards that. I'd imagine it'd also disregard it if Alistar sacrificed himself, because he marches up in the beginning.

[AndreaDraco]

No.

The Ultimate Sacrifice is the only finale that Awakening doesn't take in consideration -- the devs explained that it was way too difficult to import a 'world state' (what happened based on the PC's choices) without a main character. All the other finales, though, are represented and every choice you made leading to that finale is aknowledged as well

[Tawmis]

No.

The Ultimate Sacrifice is the only finale that Awakening doesn't take in consideration -- the devs explained that it was way too difficult to import a 'world state' (what happened based on the PC's choices) without a main character. All the other finales, though, are represented and every choice you made leading to that finale is aknowledged as well

I call B.S.

If they really wanted to - when you import your character who did the ultimate sacrifice - you have it open with a scene like "One year later" and they're all standing around your grave seen at the end of Origins if you did the ultimate sacrifice... then it has you just create a new character, and have Alistair say, "These belonged to him/her. Take them. He/She was new to the Grey Wardens and went on to do great things. Perhaps you will do the same."

Blam! Ultimate Sacrifice acknowledged. And ALL done with a simple cut scene.

[AndreaDraco]

I finished Awakening. I actually finished yesterday, but then I replayed the last portion of the game to get a more satisfying epilogue. Not that the first one I got was bad, but a character I liked got a less-than-stellar ending, and I tried to correct that.

I'm really satisfied with the expansion, which I found is a wonderful addition to the setting, both from a lore perspective and from a story one. Even if the actual plot development was somehow diminished in comparison to Origins - given the smaller scope of the expansion - the story was great, pehaps even better than the first one, and the characters were interesting and likeable (but, yes, I missed my old Origins companions). More importantly, the choices presented were harder and even more challening, and, as such, incredibly rewarding, particularly toward the ending.

Here's my epilogue in short:

I chose to defend Amaranthine - I couldn't sacrifice all those civilians, while the Keep was manned by soldiers and Wardens - with Justice, Nathaniel and Velanna.
- Anders survived the siege of Vigil's Keep and remained with the Grey Wardens to train the Order's next generation of mages.
- Justice served with the Order for many years, keeping in touch with Kristoff's wife, Aura, during his stay. Eventually, however, Aura informed him that she could no longer tolerate her husband's rotting body, and that she finally wanted to mourn him. Justice bid her goodbye, wished luck to his comrades and then Kristoff's body slumped to the ground. What happened to the spirit, though, no one knew.
- Nathaniel cleared the blemishes on his family's name. After saving Teyrn Fergus Cousland from a bandit attack, a portion of Amaranthine was returned to the Howes. Nathaniel passed the holding to his sister Delihah's son. When a new castle was built there, a statue of Nathaniel was erected in its courtyard.
- Oghren stayed with the Order and told stories of his prowess in both battle and bed to the new recruits. His drinking games prompted at least one recruit to declare that she'd rather reattempt the Joining than lift another mug. Felsi visited him frequently with their child, but, fed up with his immature attitude, eventually stopped visiting altogether.
- Sigrun was the one to lead the battle against the darkspawn during the attack on Vigil's Keep, with another army at her back but still against the same old foe. This time she did not flee.
- Velanna remained with the Orders for many years, never loosing her sassy attitude and her biting tongue. One day, she simply disappeared. Some say that she went to the Deep Roads, to search for Seranni, her lost sister.

In the first epilogue I got, on the other hand,

Velanna died - or, better, disappeared - while defending the Keep. On the other hand, bringing her at Drake's Fall is much more satisfying, since she met Seranni another time and Seranni explains why she's staying with the Architect

In this regard...

I obviously sided with the Architect. He got me when he told that darkspawn always behaved in a certain way because they never knew freedom of choice. But what if they could knew this choice? My Libertarian Mage strongly resonated with this reasoning, and agree to ally himself with the Architect and Utha.

[AndreaDraco]

Just one more thing. A thing I really liked about Awakening epilogue is that even for the morally better choices a Warden could make there's always some sort of ethically ambiguous backdrop.

For example, while I tried to get Oghren's approval high enough to trigger his personal quest, isn't it better to have his ending more nuanced? Surely, Felsi stops visiting him, but nothing impede that one day he will come to his senses and go back to her. And what about Velanna? She simply disappears, and this opens up many story possibilities. And the same can be said about Justice: I would have liked to get the "smile" ending, but this way is better - my character and Justice disagreed on a lot of things, and it's fair that his ending doesn't exactly shines positivity from every pore... He was a spirit of Justice trapped inside a rotting body, for crying out loud! On the other hand, I'm glad that the game recognized that Anders and Nathaniel were the characters that got along better with my character, giving them the most positive ending possible, especially for Nathaniel.

The same can be said for The Messenger - aiding peasants like Robin Hood with contagious leper/Blight Taint - or for the conspiracy amongst the nobility, that still lingers even if you eliminate the leader, or the farmholders who transformed a gesture of social justice into an escamotage for future privileges.

Really great stuff

[Tawmis]

I am taking my time. But last night, after a very long weekend in Vegas, I dumped 6 hours of play and only got a few hours of sleep before dragging off to work! I definitely like AWAKENING a lot. I dare say I like the NPC/Party members MUCH more...

[Maiandra]

DPX got me Awakening for my birthday and I've been playing it for the last couple weeks. I actually ended up redoing the last bit of Origins to get a happier ending, but so far it doesn't seem to have made any difference. I have yet to see Allistair anywhere, since I chose Anora as queen. I'm beginning to wish that I'd just stuck with my first ending, which feels more legitimate (if more diappointing).

I really like the inter-party banter so far. Some of it has had me laughing out-loud! I really like Sigrun's comments, but maybe I'm biased since I tend to have a dry sense of humour like that too. Her banter with Oghren was hilarious, as was his with Anders.

I'm not sure I like the new party dialogue system, though. There were certain times where I felt that I should be able to talk to them in the keep about things that had happened and there were no options for that. I really don't see why they got rid of the "in-camp" dialogue options.

I do like how the party members comment on the surroundings. That is a little more immersive.

So far the story is interesting, but I don't think I'm that far into it so far. We'll see...

[Maiandra]

So I finally finished Awakenings. I found the ending a bit abrupt, but overall, it was good. I chose Sigrun, Justice, and Anders to go with me to the end.

I also chose to save Amaranthine. I figured: what good was putting all that money into fortifying Vigil's Keep if it didn't make a difference.?

I also sided with the Architect, since his reasoning seemed sound and that seemed like a far better way to end future blights. Even if he's unsuccessful in his aspirations, we would be no worse off than before.

All in all, I liked the results of my actions (except for the peasants revolting too often). The only party member that I didn't like the ending for was Sigrun, since she seemed kind of sad and aimless. I liked her and I wished that she'd stayed longer.

At the end of the main campaign, I had also redone the ending to get a happier one, where we took Morrigan's offer and Allistair lived. It didn't mention Allistair in Awakenings at all (since Anora was queen) until the epilogue. Thankfully, it gave me a happier ending because of that, so it was worth it to redo the ending of the original game. Basically, it says that my character oversaw the rebuilding of the Grey Wardens for a few years, then took off to parts unknown with her true love. They mentioned various rumours of what the two of them did after that, but I liked that it left it ambiguous.

[AndreaDraco]

I noticed that what I wrote about my epilogue isn't correct anymore. Unsatisfied with Oghren's ending, I replayed almost the entire expansion with my first character, Alqua, and this is what I got:

Anders remained with the Grey Wardens to train the Order's next generation of mages. When he was called by the Circle of Magi to deliver a lecture on the nature of the Architect - much to the templars' dismay -, he told the Commander of the Grey that his time with the Order was over. However, not two months later, he returned and the Wardens remained his home and lasting companions.
Justice fought valiantly, but, before the victory horn was sounded, a darkspawn sword removed Kristoff's head. It was unknown whether the spirit perished or simply departed. At the least, Kristoff's wife, Aura, was finally able to claim her husband's ashes.
Nathaniel dedicated himself to the Order and to clearing the blemishes on his family's name. After saving Teyrn Fergus Cousland from a bandit attack, a portion of Amaranthine was returned to the Howes. Nathaniel passed the holding to his sister Delihah's son. When a new castle was built there, a statue of Nathaniel was erected in its courtyard.
Oghren stayed with the Order and told stories of his prowess in both battle and bed to the new recruits. His drinking games prompted at least one recruit to declare that she'd rather reattempt the Joining than lift another mug. At the urging of the Alqa, Oghren continued to play a role in his child's life, visiting Felsi and his child every so often and writing them letters (which the Warden Commander generously proofread) almost weekly.
Sigrun was the one to lead the battle against the darkspawn during the attack on Vigil's Keep, with another army at her back but still against the same old foe. This time she did not flee.
Velanna remained with the Orders for many years, never loosing her sassy attitude and her sharp tongue. Thanks to her friendship with Alqua and her Warden comrades, she eventually changed her views on humankind. In the wake of the defeat of the Mother, when darkspawn stragglers attempted to attack a human village, Velanna, who was the only Warden near enough, single-handedly defended the village. She did not sneer once. Years later, on an expedition in the Deep Roads, Velanna took off on her own after saying she had seen Seranni in the shadows. The other Wardens searched for her, but she was truly gone.

Of course, after defending Amaranthine, I brought Velanna, Oghren and Nathaniel with me. And of course, every single time I play through the expansion I side with the Architect. He makes a lot of sense and - as a side note - I really like his appearance, albeit being very different from what is described in the novel.