Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Reviews

Several more reviews for BioWare’s newly released Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening expansion hit the web earlier this evening, so I thought I’d go ahead and bring them to your attention.

IGN gives it an 8.5/10:

It should come as no surprise to fans of the original game that Dragon Age Origins Awakening is going to give you more of what you want. There’s an epic story with choices that really matter, fantasy combat with loads of amazing enemies, and a deep character system with lots of flexibility. It has a strong narrative connection to the original game, but the sense that your previous choices matter isn’t as strong as we’d have liked. I still miss the old companions, but the new characters are just as interesting once you get to know them.

GameSpot gives it an 8.0/10:

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening doesn’t reach the high standards set by its illustrious precursor, but it’s still a great game on its own terms. The combat and questing are as fun as they ever were and will keep you involved up until the very end, in spite of the uneven quality of the story and the characters that fill it. Oghren once said, “Misery, vomit, and malt liquor. Ah, reminds me of home.” You know you’ve missed such delights too, and now’s the time to head back.

GamesRadar gives it an 8/10:

That observation effectively sums up Awakening: its story, combat, choices, characters and dialogue are all almost as good as in the original campaign, but sometimes less successful emulations that lack depth. At about 23 hours long, it’s a substantial expansion – though for $40, it’s considerably less adventure-per-dollar than you got in the main game. Even if it doesn’t radically improve or evolve the original game like Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer or Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, it’s still an excellent adventure module that recaptures most of the parent game’s strengths.

G4 gives it a 4/5:

As with Dragon Age: Origins, however, Awakening’s technical limitations pale next to the entertainment value of the adventuresome content. If the core role-play is less dramatically gripping than in Origins, the density of combat and the new character customizations pick up the slack. Think of Awakening as the action-heavy semi-sequel to a great character-based story and you’ll be on the proper path to another couple dozen hours of enthralling play.

And Digital Chumps gives it an 8.6/10:

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening quenched my thirst for a sequel, though it was just an expansion pack. There’s plenty of improvement from Bioware here, but more importantly the story continues and it’s still a fun ride. If you liked the first then you’ll like the expansion pack.