Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 22 February, 2010

Back to hack.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Both gamers and industry alike are still fumbling around, circling each other, trying to figure out how the whole downloadable content situation should work. What's a reasonable price? How much should it add to the game? Shouldn't this content be in the game already? Or is it material that would otherwise never have seen the light of day?

It's unlikely that Return to Ostagar, the latest squirt from BioWare's busy digital udder, will offer any satisfying answers to these burning questions. It's a thin, forgettable little thing, cheap in price yet offering little more than 30 minutes of one-note gameplay for your virtual money. What you're really doing is forking out for another stat-boosting set of matching armour pieces and some rather tasty weaponry, dressed up in a rather half-baked narrative shell.

As the title prosaically suggests, you're headed back to Ostagar, the game-opening scene of King Cailan's grisly defeat, Loghain's betrayal and the fall of the Grey Wardens. A location loaded with importance for the world of Dragon Age, then, but its potential remains sadly untapped by the time you reach the end of this minor diversion.

The quest begins with an encounter in the forest near Lake Calenhad. One of Cailan's closest allies is being roughed up by the soldiers of a corrupt local lord. You arrive too late to save him, but he coughs up the location of a secret key in the ruins of Ostagar which will open the king's private chest. Inside are vital documents and the sacred sword of the Ferelden throne.

'Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar' Screenshot 1

Repeat 400 times and you've got Return to Ostagar in a blood-stained nutshell.

So off you go to Ostagar, where you traipse through locations already familiar from the start of the game, now buried in snow and populated by gibbering Darkspawn. Finding both key and chest is one of your aims, locating Cailan's armour is the other. Following his death, it was divided up between the Darkspawn generals and it's from their corpses the armour must be reclaimed.

For a game so driven by character and story, it's a depressingly uneventful journey though. The path through Ostagar is completely linear, with only a few inessential trinkets and locked chests to find along the way. There are no puzzles, no curious secrets and, apart from the ill-fated soldier who sends you on the quest, there's no NPC interaction. You march through the map, slaughter everything in your path and open every sparkling box, crate or sack you can find.

It took me about 45 minutes first time through, which included my usual OCD compulsion to check every corner for loot. Replaying again with a different character, it took about 25 minutes. If you're playing with a character who has finished the main quest line - and several months from Dragon Age's release that seems fairly likely - there's no challenge whatsoever. My Level 23 Arcane Warrior Mage carved his way through the enemies like a chainsaw through butter. Ditto for my Level 22 Rogue.

'Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar' Screenshot 2

Alistair's wearing a skirt. There's a surprise.

Even the boss at the end - the fearsome ogre that killed Cailan, now resurrected by a Darkspawn necromancer - was sliced and diced in less than 20 seconds. As the 25G Achievement popped up for avenging the monarch, it felt curiously unearned and I couldn't help be reminded of Bring Down The Sky, the flimsy DLC for the original Mass Effect. Return to Ostagar shares the same undernourished structure, rote situations and underwhelming conclusion.

What's most depressing is how this miniature semi-mission manages to completely avoid all that makes Dragon Age fun. The wonderful cast of characters is given nothing to do, and the brief conversational cut-scenes only carry any thematic weight if you have Alistair or a certain someone else in your party when you discover Cailan's body. Even then it's hard to swallow the portentous air that the game tries to impose on these otherwise mundane events. Interaction with Cailan in the game was limited to one conversation, and at best he came across as an ineffectual fool, so who cares what happens to his mortal remains?

By reusing old locations and enemies without offering anything exciting or new, Return to Ostagar does little to coax you back in. BioWare has proven itself adept at creating compelling worlds, now it just needs to show that it can convince us to keep exploring them. Suffice to say, feeble half-baked offerings like this are a step in the wrong direction. Hopefully Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening will do a much better job next month.

4 / 10

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Paperghost #1 2 years ago

    no enchantment here, then :(

  • karooo #2 2 years ago

    loooooool hope awakening gets a good score :(
    Edited by 1 at 22/02/10 @ 09:16

  • Shikasama #3 2 years ago

    Wow, If only this came when it was actually released.

  • Poorandugly #4 2 years ago

    It's quite expensive for what it is, but it did take me atleast two hours to go through, and for what it's worth I found the scenes with Cailan atleast moderately interesting. And the weapons and armour you get are quite good, if a bit overpowered/fan service.

  • menage #5 2 years ago

    Excluding the obvious PC version I can't imagine anyone actually wanting more of this game. People will play anythjing if there aren't better genregames available I guess. Dull.

    Goes back to ME2

  • Inigo #6 2 years ago

    I bought this and the review is right, its a big fat waste of time. You don't even get the Kings two handed sword that he had at the beginning of the game.

  • DoKtoR #7 2 years ago

    DLC - stands for "Damn Little Content".

  • Gunzberg #8 2 years ago

    Talk about a late review.

  • DaemonSpawn #9 2 years ago

    2 menage
    I can't imagine anyone actually wanting more of this game. People will play anythjing if there aren't better genregames available I guess. Dull.
    You may haven't noticed the fact that Dragon Age is still the best RPG of 2009. Mass Effect 2's paragon/renegade scale is really outdated in comparison with DA's lack of such. Of course, fantasy setting is boring, combat system is from the stone age, but characters are cool, dialogs are plentiful and there are enough difficult choices to make.
    So yeah - I am the one who wants more of the same, just not $5 DLC but rather good old expansion pack...

  • space_ace #10 2 years ago

    "dragon age" looks like a diamond in the rough, something that can be truly great in part #2 - impressions from 2h with the original game

  • kinky_mong #11 2 years ago

    Stephen Baldwin doesn't look too happy on the front page picture.

  • Scimarad #12 2 years ago

    Hold on, did someone just Mass Effect 2 seems really dated compared to Dragon Age? Surely you've got that one totally the wrong way around...

  • Eisenstein #13 2 years ago

    "You may haven't noticed the fact that Dragon Age is still the best RPG of 2009. Mass Effect 2's paragon/renegade scale is really outdated in comparison with DA's lack of such. "

    Of course DA has the same scale - only it is not tied with your own character but tied with every single one of your party members. And if "I can't take Morrigan here else she will leave my party. And I can't take any good character here while I do this else they will leave my party" is more modern or an improvement is a bit questionable...

    Bring Down the Sky was longer, more elaborate (although quite a bit was content that was cut in the original game - the main station was originally supposed to be a Hub for the planet you find Liara on) and best of all: It was free (for the PC at least).

    The Awakening better be a 30-40h game on the same quality level as DA:o was - for nearly a full price (30 €) I expect nearly a full game after all.
    Edited by 2 at 22/02/10 @ 09:48

  • TheJuriel #14 2 years ago

    Goddamn cheap ploys to get some fast, easy money from people who don't research stuff beforehand.

  • Nephirion #15 2 years ago

    I would like to finish this game but as I failed to recruit the healer the last boss is impossible to survive, helpfully I cannot go back and recruit her because the game won't let me .... epic fail

  • anomagnus #16 2 years ago

    i bought it. 4/10 is probably harsh, but in fairness, this should have been part of the orginal story. A fun little add on, which made the full story seem a little more complete

  • menage #17 2 years ago

    "You may haven't noticed the fact that Dragon Age is still the best RPG of 2009"

    First off, that's Demon's Souls, but furthermore that just shows how bad 2009 was for RPG's in general.

    Like I said. People only love it because it's the only half decent thing out there. It's nowhere near the level it should have been. Looks fugly, plays like I'm playing rotate the wheel 50% of the game time. battles are a fucking mess, story is generic, world is generic, voice acting and chara's are boring, etc.

    And I really tried for 20 hours. I wanted to love it, but in the end I just had to admit it was a boring brown uninvolved mess of a talk simulator. I actually fell asleep during playing it.

  • ignatiusjreilly #18 2 years ago

    @Nephirion

    Can you respec Morrigan as a healer?

  • miiiguel #19 2 years ago

    You may haven't noticed the fact that Dragon Age is still the best RPG of 2009. Mass Effect 2's paragon/renegade scale is really outdated in comparison with DA's lack of such.

    Mass Effect is a 2010 title. And DA being the avant-guard of rpgs, is very debatable. Or maybe even not debatable at all.

  • abigsmurf #20 2 years ago

    Hopefully this one isn't sold to you by an immersion breaking NPC.

    Cailan: "*cough* I'm dying... but... before I pass away listen to my request. Please. Avenge me... By purchasing the exclusive Return to Ostagar add on! Only £4.99 it offers over 2 hours of fun! Like my armour? Get it only with Return to Ostagar! *cough* *cough* you are a failure as a grey warden if you don't avenge me! *cough*"

    *Cailan dies*

  • AC!D #21 2 years ago

    Still no word on the PS3 release for this or what form awakenings will take on PS3? Im starting to get really disgruntled buying western RPG's on PS3. The DLC is unplayable for point Lookout on Fallout 3 and continously crashes in a couple of the others. Complaining on the Fallout 3 boards doesnt do any good or even get you any response. Bethesda just dont seem to care. Now its the same case for Dragon Age on PS3 with shitty support. It doesnt even help selling my copies and starting over again because its just too much effort. Its a pity these guys announce these games as multi plat games and then screw you over. I wish they had just kept the game exclsuive to the other platforms then if they didnt care. Anyways it doesnt help to complain since in future i wont bother buying any Dragon Age DLC or think of getting Fallout Vegas. Western RPG devs just dont seem to care or have the same quality control as their Japanese counterparts on their RPG's :(

  • DaemonSpawn #22 2 years ago

    2 miiiguel
    Mass Effect is a 2010 title. And DA being the avant-guard of rpgs, is very debatable. Or maybe even not debatable at all.
    And what's the point of your post? Mass Effect 2 is RPG from the same developer and it was released several months after DA, so it's natural to compare them. ME2 is a future of RPGs or at least step in that direction, but paragon/renegade scale shouldn't be there! Many times on second playthrough I had to make decisions based on how it will affect my paragon/renegade meter, because on the first one I ended up with ~60% of both and some interesting dialog options greyed out.
    So next time I'll just use cheats to fill both meters and make decisions I want. That's not good for the game, that's ridiculous. It's not Star Wars with its Dark/Light side alignment, it's supposed to be life-like!

    Dragon Age doesn't link moral choices with deception/persuasion checks and leaves all choices to player's conscience alone.
    It would be great to have Mass Effect 3 with this system.

  • ChthonicEcho #23 2 years ago

    Repeat 400 times and you've got Return to Ostagar in a blood-stained nutshell.

    And that somehow doesn't apply to the original game? So much for consistency in reviews.

    Ironically, the one thing that annoys me most about Return to Ostagar is not its content, but its introduction. You stumble upon a dying man, valiantly fight off the vultures preying upon him, examine the about-to-die fellow, only to see: 1. Revive him. (DLC)
    Edited by 1 at 22/02/10 @ 11:29

  • miiiguel #24 2 years ago

    So next time I'll just use cheats to fill both meters and make decisions I want.

    You don't need that, there's an upgrade which opens all the dialog options. Quite diferent from ME1.
    Still DA is 2009 and ME2 is 2010, so they aren't from the same year. DA the best game from 2009 including Jan/2010 because it's so close to 2009? That can be, I guess. :)
    Edited by 1 at 22/02/10 @ 11:10

  • TheApologist #25 2 years ago

    Wow - some really bizarre DA:o revisionism happening here.

    ME2 and DA:o do very different things. ME2 is a third person shooter with RPG elements, and DA:o is a more tactical RPG. The thing about taking particular characters to handle particular quests in particular ways is about managing the politics of your party alongside your morality. Makes for a complex and immersive role in the game, and gives your decisions consequences. And it isn't simple good/evil choices for pretty much the first time ever in an RPG.

    RPG of the year for me without a doubt. Doesn't mean ME2 (or Demon Souls) are bad!

  • TheApologist #26 2 years ago

    @DaemonSpawn

    I pretty much agree - DA:o is a future-looking RPG to my mind as much as ME2 is for the reasons you discuss.

    ME2 is one way RPGs could go, but hopefully we will have diversity. I prefer the DA:o combat systems personally.

  • metalangel #27 2 years ago

    No surprise here, this turned out pretty much as I expected it would from the moment it was announced. A cynical cash-in that just recycles an old location and old enemies to cheat idiots out of their money (Original game, 50 hours, £40. DLC, 1 hour, £4. A fiftieth of the content for a tenth of the price, how the hell does that work out??) 400 points is half a PB Winterbottom, you know.

    Bring Down The Sky, for its flaws, at least presented us with a pretty spectacular location and a new enemy that you really did hate. I must admit, I gained more hatred for the Batarians (and indeed, enjoyed the 'cruel' ending) in that two or so hours than I did for Saren and his cronies in the entirety of then main game.

    Roll on The Awakening.

  • ParanoidZombie #28 2 years ago

    @theapologist: don't forget that most console gamers played DA on normal difficulty, which means no friendly fire. It completely altered the game's combat system, removes much of the tactical managament: block your foes with 2 warriors, get 2 mages and just cast the most powerful spells with total abandon.

    I played 99% of the x360 version on hard, but had to switch to easy against the final boss because my 2 most powerful allies left my party right before the final quest. Friendly fire + bad camera + less powerful allies = I was fucked. I know the PC version is better, but the game sold a lot of copies on consoles too, and the x360/ps3 versions are simply vastly inferior compared to ME2 (presentation, gameplay, controls, interface).

  • Mkwone #29 2 years ago

    Is this one of those DLC's that is free if your buy the game new and then have to pay extra if it's second hand?

  • MightyMouse #30 2 years ago

    @Nephirion

    Just get herbalism and make a load of health potions. They're far better than healing spells anyway and you can substitute in another dps class.

  • sarcasmoidosis #31 2 years ago

    " Is this one of those DLC's that is free if your buy the game new and then have to pay extra if it's second hand? "

    Nope, this had to be payed by everyone.

    I bought it and completed it in 40-ish minutes. Since I was playing it with the character that already completed the game, the loot was really not important. The scene where you find Cailan is nice, but nothing else. I can't really say it was a waste of money, because it was cheap, but the 4/10 is pretty accurate.

  • UberFrog #32 2 years ago

    Hopefully they'll make a great Awakening expansion, thats all I really want: Big chunks of deeper stories & adventures. It's annoying to play a (short) RPG DLC, because it's hard to "commit" when you know its a bit "light" and "ad-hoc stylish".

  • vx-chemical #33 2 years ago

    #16

    why should the game, help you because you made a bad decision? you failed to get the healer, if you want her, then reload an old save game, if you didnt save regularly thats your fail as well.

    Could you please mister bad dragon, dont destroy the city, i have to go get a healer.

  • Shrike #34 2 years ago

    A little harsh, I think, as I thought it was a fun mini-episode and nicely written, and the surprise of fighting the ogre at the end was pretty cool. A surprise which this review doesn't seem overly concerned about spoiling, it seems.

  • Wolverfrog #35 2 years ago

    Is it just me, or does Eurogamer seem to rate every DLC lowly?

  • poopmonster #36 2 years ago

    I found Dragon Age: Origins to be rather boring. Morrowind graphics wrapped around a shitty "you can't walk there" Neverwinter Nights engine. Even Neverwinter Nights was more fun.

  • anomagnus #37 2 years ago

    just in addition to my first point, i do feel that eurogamer didn't really 'get' DA:o. DAO was very much a 'traditional RPG', very much in the vein of D&D, despite the ditch of the rule set. It was incredibly story driven, and wasnt about leveling up and getting shiney new armour. The history of the game, and the codex were as important to the game as the characters. As such, if you didn't like the story or care about the setting, this game wouldn't appeal to you.

    I loved, LOVED the game. As a fantasy world, if felt very grounded, if that makes sense. Things could have been improved, but its easy to say that about any RPG, you have to draw a line somewhere. These little DLC modules add to the flavour of the overall game, and i honestly think that rating Return to Ostogar as a standalone product wasnt fair. Taken in the context of the story, it did make sense, and was fun.

    It just occurs to me that this is the equivlent of a novel, and the closest i've yet gotten to that level of detail in world.

  • EmiliasHorse #38 2 years ago

    @Poopmonster

    You say that like Neverwinter Nights was rubbish but still better than Dragon Age. Are you sure RPG's are your thing?

  • darc #39 2 years ago

    @nephirion, I second ignatius' recommendation. The healer left my party early on because I took part in some blood magic ritual and then never even bothered using the class it unlocked so I made Morrigan my party healer. I don't think I could ever have gotten through the end game without her party heals. (Though I tried several times, for plot-related reasons.)

  • darc #40 2 years ago

    "First off, that's Demon's Souls, but furthermore that just shows how bad 2009 was for RPG's in general."

    Wow. We must have been living in alternate 2009's, because I can't remember being a happier RPG'er ever, between Demon's Souls, Dragon Age, and Risen. And I think I'm even forgetting a couple more. It might have helped that I played DA and Risen on PC rather than XBox360.

    "...And I really tried for 20 hours. I wanted to love [Dragon Age], but in the end I just had to admit it was a boring brown uninvolved mess of a talk simulator. I actually fell asleep during playing it. "

    Actually, there was a long period in the middle of DA where I felt the same way. I started out very impressed, and then the game began to seem extremely predictable, repetetive, and tedious. Once I stopped micromanaging *every* battle and let the minor ones just kind of play out, and instead sat back, took in the story, managed default behaviours, and paid my closest attention only to the more critical battles, the pace of the game seemed to work a little better. By the time I'd completed it, I loved it again.

    I just finished Mass Effect 1 and started Mass Effect 2, and I think these are great games too. ME, DA, Demon's Souls, Risen... all RPG's, and all fantastic games, but also totally distinct from one another. (But for the record, Risen is the 2009 GOTY. :)
    Edited by 3 at 22/02/10 @ 17:54

  • Moribundman #41 2 years ago

    Sorry, I haven't bothered reading the feedback so far (only do that at work). My unbiased take on this is its more a 5 or 6 than a 4... Not good but not REALLY bad. I guess there's a need to say "oi, no - FUCK OFF" to Bioware when they put out more Bring Down the Sky stuff (a damn good analogy) but fucking hell... At least its not Testicle Station...

    This is cheap but enjoyable. After the feast that was ME2, it made me revisit DA as my "main" character and it charmed me all over again (even on the 360!) YES its basic and not especially adventurous, but so's a kebab. Messy, unhealthy but a guilty pleasure. That's what ths was. The only negative things I can totally say was that by submitting C- work like this and gaining approval (or sales) Bioware will think they can get away with making ALL their DLC like this, and that Shale and ESPECIALLY the day 1 DLC for ME2 were a damn sight better.

    I just hope that Bioware can maintain the standards set by SOME of their DLC and not continue to profit on this. I'll happily hoover up all this shit, but they aren't going to make any new friends by doing so. Fortunately Awakenings looks chin-strokingly meaty and the stuff they have in store for ME2 will hopefully keep me going until the assured ME3 and surely inevitable DA2...

    GO BIOWARE. Buuuut... Maybe go a little harder. Tsk tsk.

  • Moribundman #42 2 years ago

    I think EA could change from being the Borg to being benevolent benefactors of gaming by using their "project sucky sucky" to FORCE devs to make quality DLC to encourage sales - a win:win situation. This ain't it, but Shale/Zaeed bode well and we should all encourage that and appreciate yet kinda dscourage this.

  • darkmorgado #43 2 years ago

    Still no word on the PS3 release for this or what form awakenings will take on PS3?

    Low rez textures, worse camera angles, etc?

    I still find it odd that this was eve released on console, as it was so clearly designed with PC in mind. But hey, I guess PC is dead now isnt it, so all games have to be fucking hobbled to try and get extra sales on consoles, even if those platforms are not designed to deal with the original creative vision?

    If you disagree, I refer you to comparisons of PC vs console versions of the game... there really is a MASSIVE difference in how they play, mainly caused by the problems caused by trying to instill full keyboard and mouse control onto limited joypad input.

    I love my consoles, I really do, but DA:o was always designed as PC first and foremost. Console was obv only a concession demanded by a publisher looking at sales stats.

  • Averice #44 2 years ago

    DA was an incredible RPG, but yes, many people weren't happy with it. Mainly the control scheme. I would have hated it I played it on console, but the branding was also a little bit of a problem. Some of my friends thought that it would be like the other Bioware console games... the single player no one but you in the party hack and slash. Lol they were disappointed. Though I too was disappointed because I assumed it was going to play just like the pc versions of baldur's gate : ( It ended up being an okay combat scheme, but it was easy to get frustrated with the feeling of limitations on what classes to mix and match together in your party. Hopefully Awakening can fix this problem... though I get the feeling it's going to "fix" it by only letting you have 4 people to choose from in the first place. Also, the whole thing about "hey, if you mix magic and certain physical attacks you can do awesome things!" was stupid. Mobs died way faster than any of that mattered, and it sure didn't matter on bosses because it just didn't work on them. Thanks Shatter, you saved me a whole 1 second.

    I thought the writing was the best part of the game though, and if that's not RPG awesome then IDK what is. I drew my character up, fell in love with it, and then had an amazing ending. DA:o won't be a good game for a lot of people, but for me it's one of the best games I've ever played. And because of that, I have no plan to ever play it again or play any expansions related to it. It was too perfect to mess up. Playing it again would only diminish the impact I had completing it the first time.

  • UncleLou #45 2 years ago

    Loved DA to bits, but I am not returning to a game like this for bite-sized DLC.

    I love ME2 just as much, but I am surprised people confuse the more cinematic presentation of ME2 with "modern" mechanics. It's just a different style of RPG. Love it for the cinematic presentation, but I vastly preferred DA:o's battle system (and miss the party banter in ME2).

    What a poor gaming world we'd live in if there was only room for one of the two styles.

  • poopmonster #46 2 years ago

    @Emilia'sHorse

    I'm an RPG man, big time. I didn't say I didn't like Neverwinter Nights - I loved it, many years ago, which is my point: Dragon Age is trying to be something else, a game without borders, but the borders are everywhere, and the false clothes get in the way of enjoying the game. Look, I'd probably enjoy it more if it was a book or a text adventure, even. Story, lore, characters, the twists and turns of a good plot - these are all things I look out for, and if you can chuck in a good RPG rules system all the better... but if getting the jinn out of the bottle is cumbersome, boredom will ultimately set it and interest will wane.

    As it stands, DA:o's writing is stiff, the characters are lifeless, and the story elements are rote and by the book. There's more innovation and character to Indy RPG freeware.
    Hence the NW reference. It was what it said on the tin. Much better.

  • UncleLou #47 2 years ago

    Neverwinter Nights 1 was absolutely abysmal in single-player, probably the worst RPG I ever bought. And I also own Two Worlds.

  • darc #48 2 years ago

    That's funny, UncleLou, that's exactly how I feel about Neverwinter Nights *2*. NW1 struck me as sort of a "My First RPG", cartoonish and simplified, very repetetive, but fun and effective for what it was. NW2 was literally unplayable for me, between the bizarro-world system requirements and wonky cameras.

  • immateriaux #49 2 years ago

    I never finished the orignal game, just far too boring for me on the one hand and crap on the other: the complete lack of genuine tactical options in a game that was supposedly about tactics, the archaic clumsiness of the implementation with a complete lack of any sense of real immersion in the place (eg a "bar" in a capital city with no clientèle, people who stand on the same street corners forever, no day/night cycle - there's iPhone games that give a better sense of immersion). And all attempted to be smeared over by practically endless movies to connect those underwhelming dots. Biggest disappointment of 2009 for me.

    So no thanks, no desire for more of that.

  • ExplodingClown #50 2 years ago

    Is anyone noticing the Emperor was actually naked all along? Feeble and uninspired pretty much sum up DA for me as a whole. The whole cross-marketing thing felt desperate (that ridiculous armour in Mass Effect 2 for instance).