The opening of the story is nowhere near as exciting as Lair of the Shadow Broker. Here you basically have to go to the library to do some research. I expected to be travelling all across Ferelden in search of Morrigan, but ended up looking in books for information about a magic mirror. At which point you have to go and pick up a couple of artifacts that lead you to the mirror where Morrigan appears to have been waiting for you. It's not really much of a hunt! On top of the most of the locations and creatures were recycled. Other than the story itself there was actually very little new content here. It was all about revisiting places you'd been before a year later but non of them were really iconic.
"I've been to the Dragonbone Wastes before, I didn't see a mirror"
"Maybe it's hidden?"
No really!? You couldn't have put the climax somewhere new?
The one thing that was good were the new companions who join you on your travels. They were well written & voiced and I got to like them pretty quickly, which is important in a short DLC quest. Unlike when Tug died in Leliana's Song, I didn't care enough yet to be all that bothered. No-one died in this one but I would have been more upset if they had done this time I think. There were also lots of nice little nods to previous events and characters but on its own that wasn't enough.
The biggest problem was with the ending. We were promised a conclusion to the Warden's storyline as this will be the last DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. However for me this seemed to raise more questions than it answered and it ended rather abruptly with the credits popping up at a point when I still thought there was more to come. I know in my mind how my warden's story ends, but it's seems odd that the official end was basically a cliffhanger when we already know that Dragon Age 2 will have a brand new protagonist.
There has been quite a few reports of bugs, especially if you'd romanced Morrigan in the base game. I didn't experience anything odd myself but the Warden I was playing hadn't done the romance plot with Morrigan, although he did undergo the dark ritual.
It's a real shame, as the base game was so good, that they've not been able to keep that level up with the expansions and DLC. I was glad to see Morrigan my dog again, however briefly and I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not known it was the last one or Lair of the Shadow Broker hadn't been so good. Bioware should never have released these together.
Oh, what a shame, when the characters were so good, that the ending and the storyline should have been such a let-down. Unless they've changed their minds about the brand new protagonist? This will put people off buying Dragon Age 2 if they're not careful.
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