The other characters aren’t anything to particularly write home about either. One of the more valued qualities of Origins was the ability to constantly converse with your party members. The characters would even present their personalities by talking idly beside you as you walk over to your next destination. This sort of character building was minuscule in Leliana’s Song.
Obviously, comparing an entire retail game to its much smaller counterpart is not wholly fair. I never expected the DLC to deliver as well as Origins did. However, what made this DLC stand out as so obviously disparate from Origins was the fact that you are stepping into another character. Instead of feeding off of the content from the original game, you are embarking on what is a separate storyline that does not fit with the main game as a DLC component should. The fact that the game feels so separate makes the 2 hour long length even more apparent.
This begs the question: what is the worth of this DLC? The storyline is minimal, the characters are a moot point, and with the addition of the length, it is altogether forgettable. Fortunately, the DLC’s aesthetics match that of Origins. The environment is convincingly dreary, and the new music compositions compliment the setting perfectly.
If there was a cue that this DLC
should have taken from Borderlands, it was that loot is awesome and gamers value the hell out of it. In Leliana’s Song, however, you can expect even more lackluster loot than Origins. Only higher level enemies will even drop loot to begin with. With what is ultimately a lower drop rate, this makes sorting through the many useless items even more so unfruitful. The weapons are fairly dull, and you can forget about health/lyrium potions. None of the loot gives any immediate use in battle, which is the main focus on Leliana’s Song given that it has been stripped of the quality of content I am used to from Origins.
If you’re really a sucker for Leliana and some lesbian romance, the DLC might prove worthwhile given the small price tag of roughly $7, but don’t expect the level of quality that you might be familiar with from Origins.
C+
Leliana’s Song is a tale of Leliana’s past, and her emergence into the Chantry. In two hours of gameplay, you’ll fight a few old and new creatures, but you won’t find the compelling content BioWare has become known for. Ultimately, the DLC to Dragon Age: Origins comes down to two more hours of battles playing under the role of a bard.
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company for review.
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