GB Feature: Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Review

Hopefully we can convince you to put down Dragon Age: Origins’ Feastday DLC for a few minutes in order to check out our brand new review of the game’s Awakening expansion pack. A snip:

Besides the new campaign, BioWare also added in some other new features, mostly to support the increase of the level cap from 25 to 35. There are six new specializations (two for each class), three new skills (including (skills) to improve health and mana/stamina), 48 new talents, and two new tiers for equipment and runes. That means there are lots of new ways to customize and equip your characters, which is always a good thing. But sadly, these additions only work in Awakening; you can’t use them in Origins.

Probably the most interesting addition is the runecrafting skill. As its name implies, this skill allows you to craft runes, which you can then insert into melee weapons and (new in Awakening) armor. All of the weapon runes from Origins are craftable, and BioWare also created several armor runes (including (immunity) runes to improve resistances and (barrier) runes to increase armor), plus a few new weapon runes (including the (intensifying) rune, which increases your crit chance).