The Player: Dragon Age: Origins – “Return to Ostagar” DLC

Being an unashamed Dragon Age nerd, when I heard that the slightly delayed “Return to Ostagar” downloadable content pack had popped onto Xbox Live available for purchase yesterday, I was pretty damn excited to say the least. I made a promise to myself that the first thing I did when I got home was to crank up the Xbox and buy it. Promise achieved.

And soon after, I started playing it. And soon after that, I finished it.

That’s what you do with DLC, right? You download ‘em, you play ‘em and – soon after – you finish ‘em. No biggie. So what?

Well, when I got into work today I noticed there was a total clusterfuck ensuing surrounding the DLC. There was a bug. They pulled it from Xbox Live. Etc. and etc.

I guess I’m in a weird position as someone who’s played it, so I’ll offer up a review of sorts.

For starters, the bug didn’t give me any problems, and I was able to finish the pack and get the achievement. Apparently, the glitch messes around with characters’ specializations but I didn’t encounter anything like that. Things seemed to be running normally, so, yeah, there you have it.

Possible spoilers ahead:

For those who don’t know, “Return to Ostagar” follows The Warden back to the tragic battlefield where King Cailan and the Grey Wardens were sold out by Loghain to a Darkspawn horde – who slaughtered them all to a man. Or so you were led to believe. Turns out, there were other survivors of the Battle at Ostagar besides you, Alistair and Wynne. After coming across one of the King’s honor guard – a man who should be dead – you learn that King Cailan’s body, his armor, his sword and other important artifacts are still at the battle site and must be retrieved.

And that’s basically it. You head back to Ostagar. You kill a bunch of Darkspawn. You retrieve the artifacts. You are a hero. (I’m leaving out a few details, of course.)

What struck me soon after arriving at Ostagar was how eerie it was to be back. Dragon Age nerds will totally see what I mean when they play this. A nice slice of the original game was set here – but back before it was spoiled by the Darkspawn. Now, it is a broken ruin (well, it was a ruin before, technically, but now it’s extra ruined) and it creeps you out a little, especially because you remember your way around and see what’s been done to the place.

Outside of that, the DLC is pretty much a straight grind. No real twists. No new revelations, really (there is one, I guess, but it’s nothing mind-blowing.) But there is a lot of gear, even when you don’t count the King’s armor, sword and shield. Some surprise booty, too, which is always good (LOL! ** eye roll **)

I would recommend bringing Alistair and Wynne, most definitely, because they have a lot of DLC-motivated dialogue. I had Leliana with me and she didn’t say a peep that related to the Ostagar trip. I can’t really think of any other party members that might have dialogue that would have any sort of emotional stake here outside of being your friend, so definitely take those two and add whoever.

Now on to the bug question: Is it worth the 400 points?

In short: yes. If you love the game, get the DLC (uh, when it’s available again, of course.) It’s nothing insane but it’s a fun bit of closure. It buttons up the overall story arc nicely and would fit in well just before you head into Denerim for the buildup to the Landsmeet.

I’m hoping future DLC will be a little beefier, though.