Dragon Age discussion

[Spider]

So I bit the bullet and got Return to Ostagar. And played it. Here are my thoughts on it:

 

(some spoilerish things, but vague enough to not warrant tags I think)

 

There is a lot of combat. It's basically only combat. And some codes entries that give some clues as to what Cailan was thinking. And some loot. Cailan's armor (which is so, so, there are definitely better high tier armors in the game), and a couple of nice weapons (3 or 4 depending on where you are in the game I guess).

 

The premise for going back is a bit stupid. But I guess it works.

 

Then there was fighting. Lots of fighting. Unfortunately, most of it grindy fighting. There are a few yellows here and there, but nothing really difficult. And the archers didn't seem to have scattershot (the stunning one). So while there are many archers, they aren't really scary (this is for a level 23 character).

 

Some fights are staged in an interesting way, but most are just bumrushes.

 

There is a stretch at the end where you get the kind of cannon fodder that is in the endgame of the original campaign. It's fairly short though, so I not that annoying (although I didn't mind it that much in the original campaign, where the fodder made a little more sense thematically).

 

Then there is the end fight vs an orange monster. Which was laughably easy.

 

Most of the scenery is reused, of course. There are a couple of new areas, but they aren't long. As far as playtime is concerned, I think it was a little longer than Warden's Keep, but nowhere near as nicely designed. Other than at the start of the quest and the very end, there is no dialogue. None. Although there is some amusing banter between Alistair and Wynne if you bring both.

 

For a level 23 character, the DLC has about 4,000 and change worth of XP for those who care). Enough to push me over to level 24 (at least with some donations to my troops).

 

If you like the battles of DAO, Return to Ostagar could be worth getting. It's not terribly expensive and has a few interesting moments. But it's a little borderline, to be honest. I think it's probably more interesting to have if you go there a lot earlier in the game. maybe around level 15 or so. I didn't think it was a waste of money but that is because I love the game and the combat in it. If you don't like the combat, stay away.

[Gorth]

Thread running away a bit there...

 

Spiders post and thread continued here