Random brain farts on tech, games and gunpla: Dragon age: Awakening Review

Overall-7/10

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Gameplay-7/10
Win
-decent storyline but isnt executed as perfectly
-Higher level cap with more customisation
-ability to import all character or start a new one
-ability to respec without using 3rd party mod
Fail
-story feels disconnected from original
-some buggy chat dialogues
-most new enemies feels recycled

Visuals-6/10
Win
-some new interesting environments and enemy design
-pretty much similar with the original
Fail
-awkward animation during dialogue
-human character still look as uninspiring

I love Dragon age. I love it so much i played through the original game twice. I didnt give a shit about those lame DLC but hearing a full expansion coming out, i just couldnt wait to get my mitts on it. So is this expansion up to the high standard set by its predecessor
This expansion picks up where you left off from the first game where grey wardens have a nice new keep given by your joker call alister. Of course nothing went well in a RPG so the moment the game commence, you are thrown into the thick of battle with your imported character from origins or a newly created warden. And guess what, the FIRST dialogue have a repeat loop bug. What a great start isnt it.
This expansion promise an equally epic storyline about how darkspawns gain intelligence and you, the unlucky warden, is there to fix things up. That would be great if you get to repair the world with your old comrades but you will only be given the irritating dwarf warrior, ohgren. Some characters does appear in the world for some chit chat, which really very disappointing. All your previous decisions made in origins doesnt affect awakening in any way which makes this expansion feels very disconnected. This time round, you are a warden commander and also a warhero so NPC will interact with you in a different aspect, which could get sometime to get use too.
Combat is similar with origins, which is great. However, the level cap have been increased with additional spell, sub class, skills and profession, adding more variety on ways to pound your enemies. As of the norm of an expansion, loads of new weapons and armors to loot from the game to keep you happy. To try make you even happier, you get to unleash your new toys on new enemies but they generally dont do anything special from origins. So it feels like bioware is recycling old enemies with new skins. Something worth mentioning is the addition of respec options in game. But theres a bug or maybe intentional decision from the developer where special characters recruited with unique class would lose their class permanently after respec.
This is a great game with some flaws. But with high bar set by origins, awakening looks like a half baked effort. I can ignore some of its flaws to enjoy the game as it is, but would you?

I m really flemmeth with a new skin...