Review: Return to Ostagar
Jan 30
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View all posts by Illiani (39 Articles)
Self confessed Geek since 1996. Joined the Grey Wardens, as News Editor, in early 2010. Has ended up being the general dogsbody around here, so if an article is updated, or magically altered post-publication, then chances are Illiani is behind it. Illiani's cage can be found at illiani@greywardens.com Warning: Illiani has been known to bite.
A nice little DLC, let down by the small things
Costing 400 Microsoft/BioWare points, Return to Ostagar is the first non-release day Downloadable Content for BioWare’s award winning roleplaying game, Dragon Age: Origins. Return to Ostagar allows the Grey Warden and his companions to travel back to the ruins of Ostagar and retrieve the armour of the late King Cailan.
What some Wardens may not know, is that RtO was originally scheduled for release during the Christmas holiday season. Unfortunately, BioWare had a slew of bad luck and has only recently managed to release the product.
With two missed launches, an accidentally released copy, and with RtO being available via illegal download, nearly a month before it’s official release, the Warden seeks to answer the golden question: “Was RtO worth the wait?”
Return to Ostagar is not about the deep emotional development of characters, nor is it about beautiful environments. It is about a tradition as old as roleplaying games themselves. It is about booting down the door, killing the monsters, and nicking their stuff. It is about loot, levels and being the biggest bad-ass you can be.
Combat is where this DLC’s excels. From the moment you enter Ostagar to the moment you leave, you are essentially in one big punch-up. Your foes are laid out in tactically advantageous positions and will often attack in waves to challenge not just your skills as a warrior, but also your resource management. While this is something so simple, it is executed in such a fashion as to avoid the constant melée becoming tedious. Be warned, however, go into some of RtO’s battles half-cocked and you may find yourself hanging with the King in a most literal sense.
When you are not fighting, you are either preparing for the next battle, or deciding whether item x is better than item y. The loot in Return to Ostagar is nicely varied and there is something for every class. While the bulk of the loot (King Cailan’s Armour) is very warrior-centric, a very tasty Staff and Duncan’s arms supply Rogues and Magi with the choices they deserve.
All this variety means that you are going be to walking away with at least one item that makes the trip worthwhile: I fought through Ostagar with my Epilogue character and still managed to find equipment worth using.
Return to Ostagar is not just a gory slog through a field of glory, however. This is not Keep on the Borderlands, this is BioWare so, even in a DLC centred around looting a dead King, there is certainly enough to keep the lore-hungry speculating for the weeks to come–and kudos to the five people who actually get that joke.
From its Kill-Loot routine, to the messenger who lives just long enough to give you a quest, Return to Ostagar is very old school in its execution, but it manages all of that without falling into cliché. The joy of seeing these roleplaying traditions honoured so well makes this DLC easily worth it’s 400-point cost. Yet Return to Ostagar is far from flawless, and in many cases what it does well, is far less noticeable than what it does not.
With combat being the main focus of Return to Ostagar, more attention should have been paid to it’s final boss encounter. If played normally, this encounter is climatic and fun, but if played smartly it can be ended in a matter of seconds.
By ‘played smartly’ I do not refer to abusing the system, rather I speak of a feature that was actually scripted into the encounter. While it is impressive that said feature was included, its exploitation makes the whole battle far too easy.
As a veteran roleplayer I love to see the old ‘traditions’ upheld. The NPC who lives only long enough to give the brave hero a message is one of the most prevalent, but also the hardest to pull off successfully. When it comes to this tradition, BioWare shows us how it is not meant to be done: Dying men should definately not wax poetic about “that one dark night at Ostagar“.
Out of all the games I have played in recent years, this scene is one of the most unintentionally funny I can recall seeing.
It is often the small things that can make, or break a game and nothing proves this better than Dragon Age. In Origins, we were treated to some lovely little touches that really helped bring the game to life.
Such is the opposite in Return to Ostagar. From ‘examine’ points placed in positions that are hard to access, to a Fireball trap that it is nearly impossible to disable (again, due to bad positioning), it is the little things that really hold Return to Ostagar back.
Finally, with the Darkspawn at Ostagar defeated and the King’s armour retrieved it is time to make the ‘hard’ choices. It is here that Return to Ostagar really lets itself down and in a big way. Throughout the promotional hype surrounding Dragon Age, one of the things that was repeatedly mentioned, was how choices would be moralistically ‘grey’. We were promised a game where the lines between good and evil were blurred.
For once the hype proved correct and in Origins we found a game that, for the first time in many years, provided us with real morale dilemmas. So why did this get abandoned in Return to Ostagar? At the end of this DLC we are presented with a choice that amounts to little more than choosing between ‘Baby Eating’ and ‘Mother Teresa’. In the case of Moralistic Gaming, Return to Ostagar is a step backwards.
Return to Ostagar is not a terrible DLC, but it could have been better. The lore supplied is interesting and hints at things to come. The battles are fun and for the most part challenging. Even the loot is varied, supplying a Warden with a nice new selection of Darkspawn killing tools.
In the eyes of this End User nothing has changed between this version and that which was leaked a few weeks back. That, coupled with the multiple delays, will no doubt reflect badly on this DLC.
Viewed on its own merit, Return to Ostagar is a good old school hack & slash adventure. So it is a real shame that Return to Ostagar is only likely to be remembered for it’s delays.
I give Return to Ostagar seven, out of ten, Darkspawn Emissaries.
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12 comments
Comment by grammar nazi on January 30, 2010 at 5:28 pm
"its", not "it's". "Its" is a possessive pronoun, whereas "it's" is a verb, namely the contraction of "it is".
Comment by Lalaith on January 30, 2010 at 5:55 pm
You know, I actually felt that the emotional aspect and story-telling equaled the awesome loot here.
I mean, the letters you find raise a question or two that we've been debating in the Swooping is Bad group, and finding Cailan himself is… well, it struck a chord with me, at least. I had expected to find him, sure, and hanging probably, but not like /that/. Though for some people, I'm sure that those two little details weren't enough, so to each their own.
And that ridiculous trap? You can't disable it, no, but large piles of snow have their uses. You can walk right over it, along the side, and never set it off. Sometimes you don't need a pair of scissors to avoid tripwires.
Comment by TheDukester on January 30, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Ah, Keep on the Borderlands. I got it.
Yeah, 7 out of 10 sounds about right to me, too. I actually was emotionally invested in finding Cailan, but the rest of it was pretty much an A-to-B sack-and-hasher.
Comment by Smy on January 31, 2010 at 11:33 am
Needless to say, -=< POSSIBLE SPOILERS >=-
It was over so quickly. I just hate to see $5 for a thirty minute nostalgia trip. If there had been more character based voice acting involved, a bit more depth, and certainly even a hint of non-linear plot (let alone actual movement), I could possibly justify the costs. They had a great deal of the art and structure for Ostagar already developed, most of the changes were cosmetic. The new areas introduced were certainly sparse.
The whole idea seems to have been for BioWare to use the trap making skill and create a level 4 lure trap… oooh armor and weapons, shiny! =-p
I very much agree that there was next to no real world or moral ramifications for the few choices the player gets to make. Overall, I have to give this a 6 based on content, but an overall 5 for the entire situation leading up to the release.
**Time for some conjecture! Do not read this if it will affect your enjoyment of the upcoming Dragon Age Awakening.
The body of Duncan, which was not even MENTIONED (I thought Alistair was all close and broken up about Duncan, who knew his affection for Cailan would cause him to fully ignore the significance of being at the place Duncan, too, had died), obviously was nowhere to be found. This Leads me to again believe that the smart darkspawn that can speak in the expansion will be Duncan. There was no killing blow shown at Ostagar, his body was not found, the brood mother event explains how living humanoids are reborn into darkspawn… it seems to fit so very nicely.
Your turn!
Comment by Smy on January 31, 2010 at 11:37 am
Oh, and I forgot to mention the part about the fact that Wardens already have the taint inside them could be an easy storytelling mechanism to explain the higher level of retained sentience.
Comment by cndblank on January 31, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I agree with 90% of this review.
The review was well done to the point.
RTO could have used a little some thing extra but was fun.
I will say that "At the end of this DLC we are presented with a choice that amounts to little more than choosing between ‘Baby Eating’ and ‘Mother Teresa’. In the case of Moralistic Gaming, Return to Ostagar is a step backwards." did not seem like a fair issue to bring up.
Not every adventure has the opportunity for serious "Moralistic Gaming".
Some times, no matter how morally challenged you are, the issue is pretty cut and dried when every thing around you is so much worse that you look good in comparison.
After all even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Perhaps if there was an opportunity to save some prisoners. Or at least prevent any new brood mothers being created.
But you would have had to really stretch to create that type of situation considering the time frame and the nature of Darkspawn.
More "realistic" to acknowledge that some times things are pretty black and white every once in a while.
Besides, it sounds so much better to say, "We found the Kings body and gave him a proper funeral pyre. We also recovered his arms and armor as proof." than "We looted the battle field and found the royal arms and armor."
Comment by Snark Master on February 1, 2010 at 12:07 am
I believe the correct response to being the first commenter is, "F1R5T!!11!"
Comment by Lalaith on February 1, 2010 at 6:54 am
Well, as far as the "smart, talking darkspawn", if you read The Calling it sets up and explains everything rather stunningly. Gaider is definitely a true story-teller, and I wouldn't put it past him to have Duncan's mystery disappearance be significant, either.
Comment by Clifford Dutka on February 1, 2010 at 4:50 pm
<Possible Spoilers!!!>
This review is a good explanation of some of the good components; however with all the emotional tie to Duncan and this battle by Allistair you would think that would be more greatly explored. The end cut scene really tweaked my nerves, actually most of them did. This was one of the most glorious scenes in all of the original games, while I agree a good old classic RPG is nice; however it was the wrong place to put so little lore.
Also, big disagreement with the battles, they were not difficult. I came through with my level 19 mage on hard with Allistar, Zevran and Wynne. Most battles were over before I new it even the waved fights didn't seem that difficult. Both Wynne and I are spirit healers / blood mages. My character is designed for utility & DPS and Wynne is designed around healing with minor DPS.
Personally I would give this a 2-3 points lower, I have to put it into context where in the game it was place, what was involved and the previous DLC content released and if they had of taken there time in my opinion and spent more time on development they would have had a much better product that I would of spent double to triple on and been much more happy.
Comment by Smy on February 1, 2010 at 7:07 pm
I was totally unaware there had been books based on the Dragon Age material. Now I will have to hunt them down on Amazon…
Comment by Illiani on February 1, 2010 at 7:21 pm
The Stolen Throne & The Calling. Both by David Gaider.
Comment by spirit-dog on February 10, 2010 at 8:29 am
I really did wonder why Alistair would not be more upset about Duncan's death at Ostergar, except that maybe it is because he had time to properly mourn and move on. He never really mourned Calian or seemed to really care about him other then as a king, perhaps until confronted with it in a fairly nasty way.