Dragon Age: Inquisition - DLC.

Original Release: Mar. 24 - Aug. 29, 2015. Jaws of Hakkon released for PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, XBox 360, XBox One. Descent and Trespasser released for PC, Playstation 4, XBox One. Version Reviewed: Playstation 4, 2015.


INTRODUCTION:

Like its predecessors, Dragon Age: Inquisition released multiple pieces of story DLC. Unlike them, however, only the first of the three was released for all platforms. Gamers who played on a Playstation 3 or an XBox 360 were denied the latter two expansions... which in Trespasser's case, arguably denied them the game's true ending. An odd choice, given that neither DLC seemed to have technical demands that outstripped those of the base game; if the rest of Inquisition could run, albeit with long load times, on an XBox 360, then surely those DLC packs could have.

In any case, as with the previous releases, I will break down the three expansions individually - though for best value, gamers would be advised to just pick up the Game of the Year edition that includes the base game along with a code to download all expansions.

A quest for the first Inquisitor leads to startling revelations.

JAWS OF HAKKON:
Release Date: March 24, 2015

A scholar uncovers clues in the Frostback Basin regarding the long-lost resting place of Ameridan, the first Inquisitor. The party arrives expecting a hunt for academic research. Instead, they find themselves caught between two groups of Avvar: the comparatively peaceful tribe at Stone-Bear Hold, and the "Jaws of Hakkon." At first, the Hakkonites seem to be just particularly aggressive bandits. Soon, however, the Inquisitor learns that the group plans to awaken an ancient evil in order to launch a full-scale invasion!

There's a lot that's good about The Jaws of Hakkon. The Frostback Basin is a well-designed area, with a terrific contrast of environments. The quests at Stone Bear-Hold are engaging, and the conflict with the Hakkonites makes for a reasonably interesting mini-campaign.

Unfortunately, it takes a long time to really get into that conflict, with about half of the DLC's 8 - 10 hours (too long, by the way) spent in the usual pursuit of collectibles and side quests. Engagement is further hampered by Bioware's decision to present almost all of the story only through the game engine. You would expect to get a cut scene when arriving in Stone Bear-Hold, or when first speaking with the chieftain there. You would be wrong - You are left to watch these interactions, no matter how long, from a distance. This design decision doesn't even carry throughout the expansion; in the final 1 - 2 hours, major dramatic scenes suddenly are represented by cutscenes, making it all the more bewildering that the rest of the story avoids them.

Ultimately, the good bits outweigh the bits that test gamer patience... But like Dragon Age: Inquisition itself, I'm left thinking that this would be better at half the length, with less pointless trudging and more emphasis on story content.

A journey into the heart of the Deep Roads,
and the unexplored depths beyond...

THE DESCENT:
Release Date: Aug. 11, 2015

The Deep Roads are experiencing persistent earthquakes, leading to collapsing mine shafts and renewed swarms of darkspawn. The Inquisition agrees to help, with the Inquisitor joining Renn, a Legion of the Dead lieutenant, and Valta, a dwarven Shaper. But as the group descends ever further, it becomes clear that these quakes are more than natural disasters, and that dwarven history is hiding some deadly secrets...

The Descent has been widely acknowledged as the weakest of Inquisition's expansion.  It's hard to argue, though it is at least more interesting than Origins' Deep Roads DLC, The Golems of Amgarrak. The Deep Roads are less repetitive than in earlier games, and there are even some eye-catching visual moments and a pretty good final boss battle (though that battle becomes very easy once you figure out its gimmick).

Even so, it never rises above the level of "modest diversion." Both the story and the guest characters are unmemorable; and even if you decide to be a completist with the collectibles quests (and there's really no reason to), the whole thing is over in less than four hours. If you have the Game of the Year edition, there's no reason not to play it... But if you somehow ended up with the vanilla release, then this expansion is not worth an additional purchase.

The Inquisition is summoned to a council that
will decide its future - if it even has one!

TRESPASSER:
Release Date: Sept. 8, 2015

It's been two years since Corypheus's defeat, and the Inquisition's influence has begun to wane. Neighboring kingdoms worry that they could become a threat, and even past good deeds are being reframed as potential staging grounds for invasion. An Exalted Council is called to decide the Inquisition's future - whether to disband it or to subject it to outside oversight.

The council is soon interrupted. Qunari are using eluvians to attack the Inquisition as a prelude to a holy war. The Inquisitor's party must pursue the assassins through the magical paths. It's a pursuit that brings the group ever closer to an unexpected reunion - and it won't be a happy one!

Though Trespasser is not the largest of the game's expansions, it is by far the most substantial. Your choices determine whether the Inquisition ends or whether it continues in a weakened state; either way, the status quo left at the end of the main game is toppled. The Qunari are advanced as a genuine threat to Thedas's stability, their attitude recalling the Arishok from Dragon Age II as they move closer to an official decision to impose the Qun across Thedas. Finally, a new threat is introduced, presumably paving the way for Dragon Age 4.

I'll admit to wishing this expansion did more with the political situation, an intriguing thread that is left frustratingly underdeveloped. That's more than made up for, however, by all the things this expansion does right: the sense of catching up with old friends and learning a bit about how they've moved on in the intervening years; the engagingly surreal fantasy element of traveling through the mirrors; the strong emotion of the final scenes.

In the end, Trespasser provides Inquisition with the one thing the main game lacked: a genuinely satisfying ending.


OVERALL:

The Dragon Age: Inquisition story expansions are a bit of a mixed bag. Trespasser is essential, in my opinion, to the point that I'd say the game feels actively incomplete without it. The other two DLC packs are basically filler. Jaws of Hakkon offers a good story, but questionable presentation choices and a fair bit of needless bloat make it less than it should have been, while The Descent is utterly expendable for any but Deep Roads enthusiasts.

All of the expansions are at least enjoyable. But given the excellent DLC that was prepared for Dragon Age II (DLC that was in some respects better than the main game), I couldn't help but be disappointed in just how "extra" the first two of Inquisition's expansions ended up seeming.

If you have the Game of the Year Edition, you should obviously play all three. But if you have to buy the DLC packs separately, the only one that is truly worth an extra purchase is Trespasser... though Trespasser absolutely should not be missed.


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Dragon Age II.

Original Release: Mar. 8, 2011 for PC, Playstation 3, XBox 360. Version Reviewed: XBox 360, 2011.


THE PLOT:

Varric, a Dwarven storyteller, has been captured by Chantry forces. A Seeker named Cassandra demands to know the whereabouts of "The Champion," the one person who might be able to fix an unspecified crisis - and who it's strongly implied might have caused the crisis in the first place. Varric protests that he has no idea where The Champion has gone, but he agrees to do the next best thing. He tells Cassandra the story of the rise of The Champion of Kirkwall.

During the Blight, Hawke (the player character) escapes from the Darkspawn invasion of Lothering with the family: mother; brother Carver, a veteran of the Battle of Ostagar; and sister Bethany, an apostate mage. Though one of Hawke's siblings falls to the Darkspawn, the rest are saved by a chance encounter with Flemeth, the Witch of the Wilds, who transports them to safety in exchange for delivering a message to the clan of Dalish elves camped near the port city of Kirkwall.

Kirkwall is overrun with refugees fleeing the Blight, which has led to rising crime that has spilled over from the slums of Lowtown to even the expensive residences of Hightown. The city is nominally ruled by a weak viscount, but his already-limited energies are consumed in dealing with a shipwrecked Qunari Arishok and his people, who have all but taken over the docks. Meanwhile, the real power in Kirkwall rests with Templar Knight Commander Meredith, whose increasingly harsh treatment of the city's Circle of Magi is resulting in runaways, leading to rampant incidents of forbidden Blood Magic throughout the city.

With extremists on every side, confrontation is inevitable - and Hawke has arrived just in time to end up at the center of all of it!

The approach to Kirkwall: Not the most welcoming sight.

HAWKE:

The game does something interesting with the character of Hawke. Most dialogue choices allow Hawke three approaches to a situation or question: a diplomatic/heroic one; a humorous/sarcastic one; or an aggressive one. The game will track your choices to determine a default personality based on one of those three, which will impact some of Hawke's dialogue and deliveries during scripted scenes. In effect, you get to craft Hawke's core persona, even though your choices don't end up having too great an impact on the plot.


COMPANIONS:

Dragon Age II is a divisive game in many areas, one of the biggest of which is the companion characters. Your party is made up of seriously flawed individuals. Fenris, the former slave of a Tevinter mage, has such a knee-jerk hatred of all magic users that I found myself quickly disliking him despite his backstory. Merrill, a Dalish elf (who had a cameo in the Dalish origin story in the first game), is an unrepentant blood mage who cheerfully deals with demons and grows surly anytime you so much as suggest that this might be a bad idea. DLC companion Sebastian is so fanatical in his support for the Chantry that he cannot even entertain the existence of flaws. Guard Captain Aveline is honorable, but also largely humorless. Isabella, a pirate who briefly appeared in Origins, is one of the more intrinsically likeable of the bunch... and she's a self-confessed thief who spends much of the game directly lying to you!

The most significant holdover from the previous game is Anders, whom we learn left the Grey Wardens and merged with the spirit Justice sometime after the events of Awakening. He agreed to the merging in an attempt to save his friend, but his feelings about the Chantry's repression of mages infected the spirit. Now he is permanently possessed by a spirit of Vengeance... and as the game goes along, we see Anders become consumed by that. In the first Act, he is still very recognizable as the jokey (if not entirely lighthearted) individual from Awakening; in Act Two, "Vengeance" is coming out at inopportune moments, even at one point threatening to kill one of the mages he wants to protect for daring to be afraid of him; by Act Three, he's become sullen and withdrawn, something even the other party members will comment on in the background banter.

The Qunari Arishok grows dangerously
frustrated with the corruption in Kirkwall.

THE ARISHOK

The Qunari Arishok, who is introduced in the first Act and dominates the Second Act, is probably the most effective antagonist of the entire Dragon Age series.

Despite adhering to the strictest of honor codes, he is unquestionably a threat both to the city of Kirkwall and to Hawke. But he's no cardboard baddie. He is disgusted with Kirkwall, and for good reason: The city is every bit the cesspool of crime and corruption that he perceives it to be, with abuses continuing even after Aveline becomes Guard Captain in Act Two. Only the Qun stays his hand, its demands refusing to let him attack until he receives direct provocation... which radical elements within the city seem determined to provide.

The Arishok is also an extremist. He sees the Qun as the solution to every problem. It is evident that it has its limits, as demonstrated by the increasing numbers of his men who desert and become "Tal-Vashoth."  The Arishok dismisses this, however; those who desert are no longer Qunari, and he therefore cannot lose anyone of value no matter how many end up defecting. With such a worldview, reason is impossible.

Over the course of the first two Acts, we see him growing more and more disgusted with Kirkwall. The Qun's inflexibility leaves him stuck in a personal hell. He cannot leave until his task is done, and he cannot act to clean up the filth he sees himself surrounded with. By the middle of Act Two, it's obvious that he is an inch away from snapping... and inevitably, he finally receives a provocation that allows him to rationalize the demands of the Qun with the action he craves. At that point, his response cannot be stopped - not even when the object of his mission is literally delivered into his hands.

The Arishok's arc is by far the best part of the game, leading to the most effectively-executed boss battle in the game. The problem is, once his story has run its course, there's still a full Act to go...

Knight-Commander Meredith:
The only law in Kirkwall that matters.

KNIGHT COMMANDER MEREDITH

On paper, Knight Commander Meredith should be a strong villain. Like the Arishok, she has correctly identified a problem plaguing Kirkwall; simply put, she isn't wrong that dangerous and forbidden blood magic poses a threat to the city's safety and stability. Like the Arishok, she sees only one solution to the problem: Templar discipline. Like the Arishok, she can initially be reasoned with (note that she firmly refuses a Templar proposal to just make all mages Tranquil), but gradually descends to the edge of madness. She even has a reasonably compelling backstory - though unless you delve into the Codex, you're unlikely to ever know it.

The problem is that as brilliantly-realized as the Arishok was, that's about as ineptly as Meredith's arc is handled. We hear about her in Acts One and Two, but we don't actually meet her until the very end of Act Two. As such, we never directly observe the harsh-but-reasonable Meredith who (probably) existed at the start of the game; we only ever see the near-insane version at the game's end. This leaves a potentially interesting character in the role of two-dimensional martinet, a witch just waiting to be burned.

Anders teeters on the edge of losing control...

COMBAT:

Combat has been streamlined from Dragon Age: Origins, though it's more similar than it initially appears. You can still pause in mid-battle using radial menus to issue specific commands, and you can still switch between party members. Save for a few boss battles, however, you're unlikely to need to do that unless you're playing on "Hard." Most enemies are hordes of weak cannon fodder, and most battles follow the same template: Wipe out one wave; when most are down, a second wave will appear - either dropping from rooftops or (in caves and dungeons) just materializing out of nowhere. That structure gets rather tedious, but I don't think the changes to the combat system are to blame.  The game's DLC expansions replace the hordes with more challenging and tactical battles that are vastly more satisfying, even though the direct mechanics are identical.  As with other issues with this title, I suspect the unimaginative battles in the main game are more a result of the rushed schedule than any inherent technical weakness.


FRIENDSHIP AND RIVALRY:

In a neat twist on the first game's approval system, when your companions react to your choices, you will earn either "Friendship" or "Rivalry" points with them. "Friendship" basically means supporting them and agreeing with them no matter what; "Rivalry" is earned by pushing back against their prejudices or arguing with rash choices... and achieving full rivalry may result in a teammate becoming as loyal to you as if you achieved full friendship. This is well-implemented and delivers some strong character scenes, and I consider it a pity that Bioware abandoned the "Rivalry" idea after this game.

A (brief) visit from one of the original game's companions.

THOUGHTS:

Dragon Age II is almost certainly my favorite Dragon Age game. It is also far and away the most flawed game in the series.

The main problem, I suspect, is that this game was hopelessly rushed. EA wanted a Dragon Age sequel delivered in the gap between the second and third Mass Effect games - an edict which left the creative team a mere nine months to create a full, 40 - 50 hour RPG. Hence the game being confined largely to a single city. A city with a singularly unimaginative architect, as every mansion is laid out identically. As well as every cave and tunnel.  I got particularly weary of the default "cave map" long before the story was over with... and I'm in the camp that really liked the game!

The story and its themes are genuinely intriguing. While I know many disagree, I found myself more attached to this flawed, often squabbling group of misfits (some of whom outright dislike each other) than I did to the characters of the original game. Given another six months, and particularly knowing some of the plans for the story that had to be dropped to meet EA's deadline, I think this might have been genuinely great.

I also think a lot of fans would still dislike it.

Yes, the game still features dragons...
Though they feel a little tacked-on.

A STORY ABOUT FAILURE:

Video games are usually power fantasies. You assume the role of a Chosen One, on a quest to save the world (or even universe). Even if your character's origins are humble, as the game progresses it will become clear that you are Very Special. The Hero of Ferelden definitely fits this template; so does The Inquisitor; so does Mass Effect's Commander Shepard. Heck, even the Chosen Undead from Dark Souls fits the template.

Hawke is "The Champion of Kirkwall," a suitably grandiose title. Hawke quickly and firmly assumes leadership of Dragon Age II's group of companions. Hawke is trusted by the city's Viscount, and by the end even the Knight Commander and the First Enchanter turn to Hawke for help, however reluctantly.

Far from being a Chosen One, however, Hawke... is a failure. Hawke wants three things over the course of the game, with all actions ultimately relating to one or more of these goals. Hawke wants: (a) to keep his/her family safe and advance their interests; (b) to keep the city from erupting into violence; and (c) to keep the Templar/mage resentments from boiling over into open warfare.

In all three areas, Hawke fails. Spectacularly. Nor is this some accident of rushed writing. The game follows a clear three Act structure, and each Act sees Hawke losing in some significant way, until by the end all Hawke has managed to do is survive - very possibly over the dead bodies of former friends who chose the other side in the final conflict!

I found this an interesting change from the usual video game power fantasy. But even if Bioware had been given a little more time to better develop the Third Act, to better show the progression of time, and to make your final choice genuinely impact the outcome, I still suspect that a lot of people would have found this story of frustration and failure to be the opposite of what they wanted from an action role-playing game.


OVERALL:

With smaller overall stakes and a tighter focus, Dragon Age II presents basically the opposite of the grand epics of Origins and Inquisition.

I think that's one reason why I found myself more connected to this game than the others. For all of Dragon Age II's faults, it's the game in the series that drew me the most completely into its story.  It's flawed enough that I probably should rate it at least a point lower than my final score.

Even so, reviews are inherently subjective.  I love the ideas Dragon Age II engages, and it hits the mark often enough to keep me engaged and even gripped.  For all of its flaws, it's a game I thoroughly enjoy, and I'm giving its score a slight boost because of that.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Dragon Age II - DLC

Previous Game: Dragon Age Origins - The Awakening
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