Review – Dragon Age II: Legacy
Reviewed by Russian Renegade
Hawk’s blood is the key…to more repitition.
Price for DLC: 800 Microsoft points ($10 on PSN)
Available for both Xbox 360 and PS3
There is not much to say about the newest piece of downloadable content for Dragon Age II. Legacy is a side mission that has Hawke and company traveling out of Kirkwall to put an end to the recent efforts to end Hawke’s life. As you delve deeper into the story behind the assassination attempts you learn more about the Hawke family’s sordid past. This mission can be started from any point in the Dragon Age II storyline.
My first issue that I feel I have to voice are the blatant plot holes that this side mission presents. Your entire career as Hawke has you constantly fighting with those who seek to paint the walls with your blood. Why would Varric choose to investigate particularly into this group as oppose to others? Aside from that, if you choose to have Bethany or Carver in your party as you venture into the mountains there is no explanation how they got there. In my playthrough I had Bethany join the Grey Wardens in which she constantly writes home saying she’s thousands of miles away and she will most likely never see you again. Miraculously, the Wardens have allowed Bethany some vacation time to run home and smash some face with her sibling. I played Dragon Age II multiple times through and saw all conclusion but the fact that the plot holes stretch wider than Isabella’s legs still bothers me.
My incessant, school girl nitpicking about bad writing aside (I’m almost as annoying as Anders aren’t I?) Legacy is…mediocre at best. Little variety is found here as well as creativity. The enemies you will encounter are Darkspawn and Dwarves, most you’ve seen before with a few “new” Darkspawn. I stress the emphasis on “new” due to the fact that the Darkspawn are genlocks and such from the first Dragon Age just with new character models. The story has the cliché “Your family has a dark past” concept which never had me wanting more and there are no true twists that I expected to come from it. The environment had me more than excited to be out of Kirkwall at first but as I spent time in the new areas I felt that they weren’t too much of a stretch from the dungeons we’ve traversed before. My companions had very little to say other than Bethany (I did not have Varric as part of my party but I do believe he has more to add to the story). That brings me to one of the few redeeming qualities of Dragon Age II: Legacy, your sibling. This side mission gives the ability to have your sibling join on your quest (If he/she is alive at this portion of the story of course). Regardless, if Bethany or Carver joined the Wardens or went into the Circle or Templars, the story makes some convoluted excuse to allow them to come along. The interesting thing I noticed is they come back insanely powerful. Their armor is fully maxed out and they come with a weapon that far exceeded anything I had within my arsenal. I was upset in my playthrough when Bethany didn’t have anything critical to say or do aside from some comments about Malcolm Hawke (their father) which most of the story has to revolve around. After some mindless killing and running around the story changes over to the fact that there is a all powerful Darkspawn that is trapped in a prison constructed by the Grey Wardens and of course you have to defeat him. Leading up to the climatic battles there are small side quests to undertake which mostly consist of hitting levers, the same monotony we’ve seen before. You will be given a unique weapon in which you can upgrade three times throughout your journey (adding elemental damage and status affects) to be completely honest this is the only reason, if any, to buy this add-on. Adding a chance-to-stun to my weapon yielded surprising results, even during boss battles.
All-in-all, the mission ends with no real pivotal choices like most other main story missions and one of the most annoying boss battles to date. The incredibly idiotic A.I. of your companions truly shines during this fight that resulted in more instant deaths that I could count. I felt as though most of my party had been replaced with Adderall abusing teenagers. The ending had me feeling that I just wasted three hours of my life eradicating an ancient evil and all I got was this lousy weapon. I say lousy because it’s cool factor was replaced when a better weapon came along twenty minutes later in the main storyline. Oh and this entire mission? It just happened to be part of the main story that Varric conveniently forgot to tell the Cassandra the Chantry Seeker. This add-on could coin the phrase “M. Night Shyamalan-ing” when it comes to DLC.
Rating: 4/10
Verdict Explanation: When it comes to DLC I’ll just be giving it a final verdict because the breakdown is established in the game’s initial review…that and this DLC doesn’t even warrant me wasting time on a breakdown.
Final Verdict: Only buy if you MUST get the most out of the Dragon Age II experience and want a weapon for your early game to stomp around with. Storyline wise it’s a pass and it’s just more of headache. Your ten dollars is better spend elsewhere…I wish I had my 10$ for the Aspirin needed to get rid of the headache I got from playing this.
