Review: Leliana’s Song DLC

We are living in an experimental downloadable content world, where developers are testing the DLC waters as they continue to figure out content, timing, and pricing. One issue developers are confronting is the paradox of post-launch DLC; For a large RPG like Dragon Age: Origins (or Mass Effect 2, and Fallout 3 not too long ago) the primary audience is going to be your biggest fans who bought the game around launch but who probably have also completed the game by the time some or all of your DLC is released.

The problem this reveals is that playing the DLC on its own can mute its impact. The experience outside of the main game is usually short and never gives you the opportunity for a good, sustained, and meaty bit of gaming. To address these shortcomings, Bioware has been trying out a number of ideas with the previous Dragon Age: Origins DLC, most notably “Awakenings,” which added on a large and new story to the end of the original game (and priced accordingly), and the small taste of role-reversal/what-if in “Darkspawn Chronicles.”

Bioware has continued their experimentation with “Leliana’s Song,” which has turned out to be a well-crafted, compact experience that is well-suited to being played after completing the main story. Any player of the main game will remember Leliana, whose past life of passions and intrigue in Orlais ended spectacularly badly, and her current sentimental and religious inclinations that tend to bring her into conflict with other party members. Leliana’s Song sketches out the old Leliana, living for the moment with scant consideration for others, and the disastrous last mission with her mentor, Marjolaine, that set her on the path of conversion.

This is not an experience which introduces you to new areas, instead mining some familiar locations within Denerim, the capital city of Ferelden. Leliana’s Song does a decent job in a short period of time in introducing new allies (a dwarf fighter with a weakness for linens and a bashful elf apostate mage), giving you a mission that explains how Leliana got into trouble (and the motivation for revenge that gets her out of it), and in showing you part of how Leliana changed the course of her life. In a positive change from the main game, here the main character is fully voiced instead of awkwardly mute.

The main criticism I have for this DLC is that a only part of the story and character is evident from the dialogue and cutscenes, and to get the full flavor you need to pay attention to the codex entries that you can fly right by if you are not searching every nook and cranny looking for loot (as I am prone to do!). It is also short, as you might expect from DLC priced at $7. I went everywhere, looked in every chest and picked every lock, and it was just short of three hours when I finished. My only other issues were technical and minor, such as having to delete a bunch of saved games (because my past obsession with Dragon Age had created a lot of characters), and a couple of cutscene loops at the end (in one instance making me kill a character a second time before he stayed dead).

In the end, I think that “Awakenings,” with its size and scope, is best suited to scratching the itch of a player looking for a quality dose of Dragon Age: Origins RPG goodness, but “Leliana’s Song” is a very close second and deserving of your consideration.

Dragon Age: Origins
“Leliana’s Song” DLC
Bioware
Reviewed for Xbox 360 (also on Playstation 3 and PC)
$7