Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

At two-thirds the price of Origins with about two-fifths the content, a return trip to the land of Ferelden doesn’t feel like the deal it seemed it would be.

The gameplay systems have a similar "pretty good, but somewhat flawed" feel as the quest content.

There is plenty here to keep you occupied for at least 20 hours if you want to max everything out. Some may be a bit disappointed in the size by comparison, but for $40 this game is twice as long as most full-priced titles.

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.

If you enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, this is must have expansion.

Awakening reinvigorates the interest in Dragon Age: Origins. This expansion pack is what an add-on should be: long, exciting, stimulating and a great fuse of what that BioWare's masterpiece really is.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening serves as a good stopgap between major releases, but it doesn't fully satisfy the Dragon Age craving.

For those who want more content and new missions, Awakening will offer much more than desired. Everything has been treated as if it were a new title with an epic story where our choices do matter, with spectacular combats and terrifying enemies, deep and complex characters with brilliant dialogues. It's a rebirth for the franchise, which invites us to get involved into the exciting world of Dragon Age again. And this is just the beginning.

However, when it was all said and done, I felt completely entertained by the entire ‘Awakening’ package, and happy I made the journey into Amaranthine.

The best experience with this title will be had by someone who enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins until the very end.

Unpolished and unsure – too long for an epilogue, too short for a stand-alone title. Still, an enjoyable romp with an intriguing story can be found somewhere between the two, and you won’t have to be wide awake to see it.

Even though it doesn't address the original's faults or expand the gameplay to new heights, there's more than enough new content (talents, characters, terrain to explore) to keep you swinging your sword.

Although your character has no voice, this game is really good, especially because of its great story, the nice fights and the system of free choice.

Though there's not nearly as much content as the first go-round, there's still an awful lot to love.

Well worth the pricetag and, frankly, essential for fans of the original.

This is truly for hardcore Dragon Age fans only and even they may well feel that the whole game has been dumbed down way too much to be recognizable any more.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is mandatory for anyone who has played the original game with a smile on his or her face.

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.

The new content does its job of keeping the appeal factor high, but the bugs, lack of story depth and uninteresting characters don’t exactly invite in newcomers.

Awakening might feel rushed at times, but it tells an important story and allows the Commander of the Grey to kick tremendous ass, and there's little more satisfying than that.

While Awakening is mostly a worthy follow-up to Origins, it manages to touch greatness in several areas, only to quickly shrink away from it. The story is genuinely interesting, but the plot unfolds in such an uneven manner some folks may stop caring before the big reveal

All in all, Awakenings is a must-buy for any Dragon Age fan. It's packed full of new adventures, side quests, cameos from old favorites, and an engrossing original storyline that will keep players busy for hours.

It's fun, but I'm not sure it's forty bucks worth of fun.

Most will be happy with the 20-plus hours of entertainment they get from the expansion - it's more of the same and, for that, we're happy. [Issue#95, p.126]

If you've been dying to jump back into the world of Dragon Age, well, chances are that you've already played or are currently playing the expansion Awakening. It's a solid follow-up to the first adventure, and it contains enough new abilities, content, items, plot and spells that it's definitely worth a look for any fan of the original title.

Truncated but still truly impressive. [May 2010, p.95]

Spectacular. [Issue#58, p.86]

Expensive but expansive, this is a hefty and thoroughly enjoyable addition. Shame about the dwarf. [June 2010, p.120]

In the end, for those like myself who absolutely adored what Dragon Age: Origins had to offer, you have no reason not to pick up Awakenings and continue your Grey Warden’s epic adventure.