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Dragon Age: Origins - Warden's Keep and The Stone Prisoner Review
PC
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Review
by
Oli Welsh
Page 1 of 2.
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BioWare didn't just launch a single game when it released its RPG epic Dragon Age: Origins last week. It launched a new series, a new RPG system, a new fantasy universe, and a platform for what it hopes will be two years of continuous downloadable content. That content will either be created by the mod community using the game's tool set, or crafted by BioWare's own developers in what must be the most ambitious plans yet for DLC support of a single game.
You can find our reviews of the game itself on PC and console elsewhere. Below, we take a look at the first two major DLC packs for Dragon Age, available for all formats at the game's launch: The Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep. Anyone buying a legitimate, first-hand copy of Dragon Age will be able to download The Stone Prisoner for free, while purchasers of the digital version of the Collector's Edition also get Warden's Keep. Both, however, do have price points, and both serve as an interesting indication of where BioWare intends to take this endless RPG over the next two years.
Warden's Keep
It's appropriate that each of the two downloadable adventures begins with a tip-off from a merchant. In the case of Warden's Keep, one Levi Dryden shows up in your camp before you buy the pack; accept his invitation to adventure, and you'll be taken straight to the game's (or console network's) marketplace to buy it for 560 points (of either the BioWare or Microsoft variety), $7, or a little under £5. You won't get to access Levi's own in-game wares until you've finished this short dungeon romp. It's a good joke, but is it at our expense?
Warden's Keep itself, and the Warden Commander armour set it yields.
Levi's grandmother was a great Grey Warden captain who lost the titular Keep at Soldier's Peak in a dispute with a tyrant King many years previously, muddying his family's reputation. He wants you to go to the crumbling and haunted castle to clear her name, reclaiming it from undead Wardens and demons in the process. Once you're there, ghostly apparitions reveal the events of three decades ago and put the infestation of monsters in context.
What follows is akin to one of Dragon Age's campaign quests in miniature, and a considerable cut above the game's afterthought side-questing. The location, though small, is as handsome and atmospheric as any in the game proper, and there's a neat storyline that fills in a relatively interesting corner of the Dragon Age's voluminous lore and even offers multiple outcomes via a few of the trademark grey-area moral choices.
When I say miniature, though, I really do mean miniature. Having just a handful of rooms of monsters and, depending on your choices, between two and four boss battles, Warden's Keep is over in well under an hour. While it's great to enjoy the best of Dragon Age's combat and storytelling in more compact form, it's an unsatisfying meal for the money. But here's the thing with Dragon Age DLC - you get dessert.
In both these packs, the quest is only half the attraction. The other half is composed of rewards that will offer a lasting impact on your game. In the case of Warden's Keep, you unlock the location as a new base with two merchants - neither offering much of interest, it must be said - and party inventory storage. Considering the limited inventory you can carry around with you, the latter's hugely useful, but it does feel like a feature that should have been included in the basic game. Depending on who you decide to kill, you also get some vary tasty loot, for Warriors and Blood Mages especially; and, by drinking a potion in the Keep, a couple of darkly powerful new abilities.
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+4
I've been way to busy with the main quest in DA:O to check out The Stone Prisoner but it sounds like having that character adds to the main game too as well as gives you an extra party member to choose from so I'm going to take a look at it tonight.
And how ironic that the free DLC should receive a higher rating than the premium one... |
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cianchristopher
11/11/09 @ 14:34
0
I'd have thought that Rock Band had the most ambitious plans for DLC for a single game, no?
Anyway, bought Dragon Age on launch, but haven't yet had time to really play it! Looks good though, I just need a few days/weeks/months/years off! |
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+8
If the full game was released last week and we are getting these one week later, why not include them in the full game? Why not make the game itself the best it can be? I'm all for DLC, the Grand Theft Auto ones are some of the best examples but to release these one week after the game?!?
Just sounds to me like they are trying to squeeze the consumer for everything they can get their hands on. |
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hiddenranbir
11/11/09 @ 14:43
+1
No way can they retro fit something like Shale. No no way.
Of course, I'd love for Bioware to prove me wrong. |
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EarlBassett
11/11/09 @ 14:49
+5
If it fits like a glove so well into the main game, then you can bet it has been developed along with the retail game.
Then - obviously - cut out to sell on for more money. It's a disgrace and compounded further by their brazen disregard for what you think. by making it available at launch. As Stuz says, the only DLC I have any respect for is GTAIV stuff. Because they clearly started making that once the game had shipped, and truly gave you your monies worth. If you pay out for stuff like this then you are a prize turkey |
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GiarcYekrub
11/11/09 @ 15:02
0
I bought it all played the keep but not the shale one yet, I luv DLC I think its great idea to give it free to early buyers and make them cheap skate 2nd hand buyers pay
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+1
"If it fits like a glove so well into the main game, then you can bet it has been developed along with the retail game. "
The stone prisoner was planned to be in the retail version and was orginally cut due to time constraints. That decision, however, was taken when the PC release was going to be in March this year; once it was pushed back for a cross-platform release they finished the shale stuff as DLC. The high price point is supposedly to try and get a fraction of the pre-owned pie, as everyone who buys a first hand copy gets it free. Watcher's keep and its £5 lockbox is another issue I guess. |
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+4
I think the DLC is outrageous personally. It basically feels like they taken content away from the main game and stuck a price tag on it. At least if it had come a few weeks or months later, you'd at least have the illusion that the DLC was as a genuine add-on.
It's fucking smelly is what I'm saying in a roundabout way and I won't be buying. kthxEA. |
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+10
I get the feeling that Shale WAS developed for the main game, but was taken out in order to counter the second-hand market. Basically (I think I'm right in saying this), every full-priced retail copy of the game comes with a voucher code that activates the sub-quest/character. As I don't yet own this game I may have my wires-crossed, but I believe that is how it works. I am guessing the extortionate solo price for this DLC is simply a premium that EA figured out may be some way of recouping any lost costs they would suffer from the game being re-sold into the second hand market, as it is only second hand owners that are going to need (if they so choose) to actually pay for this.
Where EA will suffer though, is critically. If such entertaining segments of a game are removed in such a way, then they are missing from the review-build that the press cast their opinions on. Perhaps the game may have rated more highly if this entertaining character had been left on the disc from the start..? Not saying I agree with this practise of essentially removing parts of a finished game so that only full-priced purchasers get it included, but it does make business sense (at least until the inevitable backlash of disgruntled second-hand buyers). It does nothing, however, to counter piracy, as both the retail game and all DLC will inevitably be available (if they aren't already) on Torrent sites. It may in fact end up pushing potential (legal) second-hand purchasers into using file-sharing, rather than actually stopping piracy. It also feels like a rather unfair oversight on the rental market, forcing legitimate rental customers to pay full-whack for the DLC.
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 11/11/09 @ 15:33
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Shakey_Jake33
11/11/09 @ 15:24
+1
@Jozzy - The counter-argument would be that the content would probably have been included in the game if DLC didn't exist, thus Bioware would be displaying a cynical approach to DLC, rather than a positive approach of genuinely adding new content (such as Oblivion: Shivering Isles). I don't know about the Dragon Age situation though.
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groovychainsaw
11/11/09 @ 15:29
+2
The way i see it, the main game is huge anyway, and they are trying to make the second hand market less powerful for the game (it will remain to be seen how well this works) and to make money out of pirates, by getting them to cough up for addons (as the code for shale etc. is only with a boxed copy.) What worries me is the warden's keep expansion adds useful functionality that probably should have been somewhere in the main game, and sounds too short.
Bioware haven't released a single piece of DLC yet that didn't sound like poor value for money relative to their main game and I'm not sure they will have the time or the inclination to do it thoroughly. Luckily, modmakers will show them up on the PC if they don't have comprehensive expansions, so maybe the competition will help focus their minds... |
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+3
If there was no DLC, somewhere to stash your loot would certainly be in the game - it's an obvious omission that I didn't understand until I read this review.
OK, I could not buy the game - this is the obvious solution apparently - but I love the game and certainly want it. I just want somewhere to put my trophies without paying £10 for the privilege. |
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EarlBassett
11/11/09 @ 15:44
+4
"OK, I could not buy the game - this is the obvious solution apparently - but I love the game and certainly want it. "
Which is what people who keep posting here saying "Well don't buy it then" don't understand. We want it. We are the ones supporting the games and we are the ones who get punished |
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TheSnotGoblin
11/11/09 @ 15:45
+2
Just an FYI: There's a free mod available from the Social site made by one of the Bioware guys that adds a party loot chest to your camp.
EDIT: Also as it stands currently the only people who don't access to Shale are either a) pirates (who will just download a cracked copy anyway) or b) folks who buy the game 2nd hand. He's basically incentive to buy the game new.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 11/11/09 @ 15:51
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-7
The good thing about DLC is that you can completely ignore it, if you dont like the game in general, just dont buy it! To me, Dragon Age stands out as an absolutely fantastic adventure, which I just cant get enough of. Feed me with all the DLCs you can make for this marvelous game, I'll easily pay $1000 per year if they released enough - quality - DLC stuff totalling that price.
Such a shame that DLCs wasnt "invented" when BG2 was out... |
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+1
As hibee said, Bioware stated that Stone Prisoner got cut from the PC version in March and then put back in because of the extra time, you can find it buried in their forums somewhere. I therefore don't treat it as proper DLC in the truest sense, its a special case.
I know its profitable and here to stay, but I can't understand this DLC phenomenon, the vast majority of it is irrelevant inferior content released at a premium compared to the value of the original product, at a time when I no longer have an interest in playing the game as I've usually completed it. The talk of 2 years of DLC for Dragon Age is all very well but once people complete the 60 hour main quest its going to take a very compelling case to get us to reload the game. They are basically going to need to do an expansion like you got for Baldur's gate (Throne of Bhaal etc) with full voice acting to continue with your main quest party for the same relative length per pound to make it viable in my eyes. So given the £25 cost of the game I'd expect a £10 DLC slice to give me 20 hours of content! The only DLC of any value so far is the GTA expansions, which were bankrolled by Microsoft to ensure exclusivity, and have ended up as a standalone package anyway, so I'm not sure they count either. |
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WinterSnowblind
11/11/09 @ 16:25
0
1200 points for Shale seems insane, I do really love how integrated he is into the main game, but that only raises the question of why he wasn't there to begin with. I know Bioware have said the content wasn't supposed to be available at launch, but I'm not sure I buy that excuse..
He's clearly been planned to be there from the begining, and considering all the other characters can even interact and have special dialogue with him, I can't believe this was something that was thrown together after the main game was done. Wardens Keep isn't a particularly long quest, but it seems to add in a lot more and costs a fraction of the price. Maybe the price of the Stone Prisoner is just because of how much work had to go into Shale but I can't understand the price difference there. |
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WinterSnowblind
11/11/09 @ 16:36
0
@MilkybKid1985
Rewarding people who buy the game new at launch is one thing, but 1200 just seems far too much for it and the codes expire in April. Feels just a bit too opportunistic, anybody who waits to buy the game slightly cheaper is just going to have to shell out another £15 just to get one of the party members. |
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0
I'm a little annoyed by the stone prisoner brought the collector's edition, states on the back of the box that it's part of it, the piece of flimsy paper with the code wasn't in it. Still, i get the useless collector's edition items. Surely as i ented a valid code for the main game, should be a way of getting it.
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WinterSnowblind
11/11/09 @ 16:48
0
The back of the collectors edition is flat out lies.
Stone Prisoner and the Blood Dragon armour comes with ALL versions of the game, it's not part of the collectors edition DLC pack. It should have been on a seperate little piece of paper in the box though, if you didn't get it, I'd assume you'll have to contact Bioware or wherever you bought the game from. |
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eisenhorn666
11/11/09 @ 17:51
0
Shale was meant to be in the game, but was cut as some have noticed when they could not get him to work. The model was to big and they didn't have the time to fix him. They found the time when they delayed the game so that the pc and console versions could be released at the same time. shale even mentions he was to big to fit through doors in some of his speech which I found funny :) I believe the game was locked, and the console porting began leaving time for them to get shale to fit
I loved all the dlc, if you don't want to pay for it no one is putting a gun to your head forcing you to buy it.... just your loss |
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CosmicGypsy
11/11/09 @ 18:16
0
@mingster
"Nothing annoys pirates its all designed to piss off legitimate consumers" This clearly sounds like the kind of thing large multinationals like to do. The heads of companies like EA are essentially business-trolls, searching for most ingenious way to piss off their customer base. Logic is overrated anyway mingester. I think you took the best approach when you decided to make your decisions based on blind rage and ignorant conjecture. |
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+1
I know this kinda goes against convention, but only in software does having to pay for content come with so many unrealistic expectations. It's not like code just propagates itself magically into existence, art assets divinely etch themselves into stone slabs for use, sound effects arrive fortuitously upon the desk of the designer. Working for a software company myself, it is amazing how people actually view our products. Hundreds of people put effort into creating what may seem a simple thing, and customers seem to just expect a ridiculously low price, or no price at all. It doesn't really make sense to me that a company shouldn't get paid for a product that they've created, any company, not just software.
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+1
Are games really that ridiculously cheap? Dragon Age is a bit of an exception but most other games have had a similar amount of effort put into them in comparison to movies, and offer a similar value of entertainment yet cost 5 or 6 times as much.
It's a weird way Bioware went about the DLC, Shale is a very clever and maybe even rather consumer friendly move, but Wardens Keep is outrageously priced. If we were to buy the game at this rate it would cost something in the region of £1000. I suppose if you think that's fair then even the crappiest cash in sequel is outrageously cheap. Taken as a whole I'd have had no objection paying a fiver more for Dragon Age than most other games as it's clearly worth it, but this mix of advertising and holding back core features is rather annoying. Worse still is the likelihood that if I don't buy another 5 hours of content for £100 then coming back to the game I won't be able to move for dozens of people hawking in game DLC at outrageous prices. |
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0
Oh yeah, and a big reason why it's only in software consumers have so many unrealistic expectations is that it's only in software that not being subjected to vast amounts of blatant product sabotage an unrealistic expectation. Yeah Razors are designed to blunt quickly and cameras get features yanked out of them but at least they have the decency to do it sneakily behind our backs and in unison. With software one company will expect you to buy their game 2 or 3 times, another will take out core features to help them sell overpriced addons while others will stick obnoxious advertising right in your face.
With game publishers so dedicated to making enemies of their customers it's little wonder they begin to resent it. |
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+1
I have to be honest and say its quite clear that the reviewer and vast majority of the forum posters have never dealt with DLC for Bioware games before.
Shale is not that special as far as DLC is concerned, if you look at the WeiDu content ( a fan made toolset) they were making voiced characters with origin stories, new quests, new npcs, new dialogue options, rejigged dialogue options so it fitted in with existing content and even existing mods, new weapons, game balancing, new AI routines for monsters, etc. Shale I've seen plenty of times before. Now regarding Day One DLC. Penny Arcade brought up a good point and that for RPGs anything that comes out after the player has finished the game is worthless. Look at Fallout 3, Oblivion and Fable. A lot of the DLC added nothing to the gaming experience, they extended it but most people had already played and finished the game, they weren't willing to replay again for the sake of a single mission and a new weapon. Say the Stone Prisoner was released in January for half the price, how many of you would buy it and replay the entire game just for a single NPC? A lot less than the number of people whinging about first day dlc thats for sure. |
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0
Broken Steel was a good example of how to do RPG DLC, especially seeing as it made the other content packs worth playing again too.
My two main problems with this DLC is firstly, Shale was probably supposed to be in the game all along and was simply cut out to irritate pirates and to recoup some of the losses from second-hand sales. Secondly, it ruins the atmosphere somewhat when a quest that seems fully built into the game is locked off requiring a real-world purchase. It's just plain irritating to have it sitting in your quest log, as if the game is requiring another purchase for you to actually finish it. What'll it be like when they release more DLC that you don't purchase? Will there be a horde of NPCs around your camp clamouring for cash? |
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