Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Image
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82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews What's this?

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8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 548 Ratings

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  • Summary: Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn - and their true motivations!Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn - and their true motivations! Players face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age: Origins, or begin with a brand new character. [BioWare] Expand
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Dragon Age: Origins - Golems of Amgarrak - Official Trailer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 38
  2. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. It admirably accomplishes what an expansion is supposed to do, and doesn't in any way diminish what made the great one of the best RPGs ever made.
  2. Awakening is a superb expansion to Bioware's role-playing epic and delivers 20+ hours of exciting adventures in Ferelden. The gameplay changes compared to the main game are minimal.
  3. New enemies and ordeals, a bunch of killer abilities, fat loot and a couple of well-fed dragons – what else can a level 20 character wish for?
  4. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    80
    The way every add-on should be made. Great story, improved game mechanics, new characters and a long enough lifespan – great adventure for everyone regardless whether or not you have played the original Dragon Age. [Issue#190]
  5. If Dragon Age didn't float your boat, neither will Awakening. Dragon Age enthusiasts, however, should consider it an essential purchase. It offers more of the same - no bad thing - in a great value package.
  6. Awakening is a great expansion. It delivers around 20 hours of role-playing goodness, which flows better and is more varied than what we got in the original game. We also get new and interesting characters and a bunch of new abilities and items to play with.
  7. For your money you get about 15 hours worth of gameplay in a single playthrough, and while that seems a little light in comparison to Origins, it's a decent price for a stand alone expansion pack on a console.

See all 38 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 53
  2. Negative: 5 out of 53
  1. Nov 18, 2011
    10
    it more like a direct sequel than DLC. the skills and specializations have increased in amount and there is so much to do that one could getit more like a direct sequel than DLC. the skills and specializations have increased in amount and there is so much to do that one could get sucked in all over again. definitely worth the money and then some. Expand
  2. Mar 8, 2019
    10
    Тот самый случай, когда дополнение вполне может конкурировать с основной игрой, хоть и не во всем.
    Как дополнению - 10/10.
    - «Можно
    Тот самый случай, когда дополнение вполне может конкурировать с основной игрой, хоть и не во всем.
    Как дополнению - 10/10.
    -
    «Можно убежать, но нельзя спрятаться» — где-то я это уже слышал. (c)
    Expand
  3. Feb 7, 2020
    9
    Decent sequel of genius game. It was very atmospheric, story was great (sane darkspawns ftw!), skill system became slightly better, idea aboutDecent sequel of genius game. It was very atmospheric, story was great (sane darkspawns ftw!), skill system became slightly better, idea about manage your own keep and making decisions as a ruler is great one (and this decisions affects some of your quests). Companions didn't have enough dialogues for my taste, and game was a little bit short. Expand
  4. May 18, 2013
    8
    I liked it
    Good sized expansion for its cost
    This should be the standard for all future DLC from EA/Bioware but this was a gem never to be
    I liked it
    Good sized expansion for its cost
    This should be the standard for all future DLC from EA/Bioware but this was a gem never to be repeated

    Thumbs up from me
    Expand
  5. rpm
    Apr 26, 2011
    7
    I played DA:O and then started Awakening right after that. I think Origins is an excellent game, and the fact that it was so involving isI played DA:O and then started Awakening right after that. I think Origins is an excellent game, and the fact that it was so involving is perhaps why I struggled at first to get into the expansion. I spent dozens of hours developing my character, establishing relationships with NPCs (yes, even romantic), and making hundreds of seemingly significant decisions.

    Then, whether you import your Origins character or begin a new one, Awakening seems to pay only cursory notice to what you did in the main game. The only returning NPC companion was the last one I'd have chosen (but I guess that is personal preference), and the new companions may have been interesting but I only got to spend a couple of days with them so they were not very fleshed out.

    The expansion asks more questions than it answers. Very few, if any, of the unresolved plot elements from Origins are answered here, so don't play the expansion expecting closure. I suppose that will be for DA3.

    While it did take me a while to start enjoying this expansion, once I got out and away from the opening location I did find the story to be intriguing, and if it had lasted more than the approximately 15 hrs. of gameplay I am sure I would have enjoyed getting to know the new companions.

    The new skills/talents/spells and other new elements also seem to be logical "expansions" of the original.

    On a negative side, Awakening did have a few "no u-turn" areas where you can play through and follow one path, miss other areas that you can't revisit. Once you "finish" and area you cannot go back and explore to see if you missed anything. One of those areas is the Fade. If you go through a certain area you cannot benefit from full exploration of the previous area.

    Al in all, I'd say it is an odd expansion that was fun to play but seemed more like a separate game unaffected by the original. It is fun though.
    Expand
  6. JonesM
    Mar 25, 2010
    6
    DAO Awakening is very well done, top Bioware quality as usual, and new companions with great "personalities" for a great follow-up to the DAO Awakening is very well done, top Bioware quality as usual, and new companions with great "personalities" for a great follow-up to the original game. However, $40 is kind of a lot of money for an extra 15-20 hours of game play, it's very linear and there's no world exploration like in the first game; it feels like a big DLC rather than a proper expansion, and probably should've been available for $20 tops. Expand
  7. Sep 8, 2011
    0
    I LOVED origins. Loved it. I loved it so much as soon as I finished it I made a new character and played it again as something different. ThenI LOVED origins. Loved it. I loved it so much as soon as I finished it I made a new character and played it again as something different. Then I got to Awakenings....wow, really? It took me three tries to get into it because of the BUGS ( OH MY GOD, SO MANY) and the HUGE story hole right in the beginning. I won't spoil too much, but....suddenly the secret Warden ceremony, remember that? Well it's not so secret anymore and what a joke. I lost all faith in the story from that point and it does get worse. On my third attempt to get through this xpac during the quest in the forest there is a bug where you can lose all of your gear. It is deleted. I'm serious. In fact, now I'm angry about that again and gonna lower this score to 0, it was 3 because the graphics and new spells are good. But, the bugs, oh god the bugs. Expand

See all 53 User Reviews