So the players most likely to want to play more Dragon Age are the same players that will be more likely to find the cost unpalatable.īut for me, 'Leliana's Song' was a great opportunity to get to know one of the characters that I didn't spend much time with on my own. So, here's the bitter gamer calculus: If you're the sort that spent 300 hours in Dragon Age: Origins, finishing every permutation of every quest, $3.50 per hour is going to seem pretty brutal. As you might expect, things go sour at some point there's backstabbing (literally!), espionage, the Chantry, torture and, if you choose, some revenge. This is all performed under the impish direction of Marjolaine, a familiar name for those of you who played Origins with Leliana. Leliana's Song begins with the Orlesian game of intrigue, a mischievous series of quests that has you stealing here, planting there, and even swapping some naughty underwear in an attempt to humiliate the local guard. It feels like an accelerated, Cliff's Notes-esque rendition of an epic RPG. Throughout the 2+ hour adventure, you'll actually improve your skills and armor far more frequently than you would in the actual game.

In fact, since you're being dropped into the role of Leliana (there was no sign of Sneakblayde, my rogue elf, anywhere) with no chance of really grinding, you begin this standalone DLC with points to level your characters up. Depending on what you're hoping to extract from 'Leliana's Song,' there's either a wealth of content (new dialogue! new music!) or a dearth of it (old locations!).Īt over two hours in length, it felt comprehensive enough for a larger Dragon Age: Origins quest. Instead, you'll spend time in the oft-recycled Denerim Market and you'll sneak through the Arl's castle familiar environments, to be sure. A particular disappointment: despite Leliana's Orlesian (read: French) lineage, and despite this being her origin story, you won't see a single Orlesian blade of grass in this adventure. Let's cover that new content first: 'Leliana's Song' is a fully-voiced expansion featuring several new characters (like your companions Sketch the mage and Tug the dwarf), some new music, and some new (albeit dull) locations. How much new content is there? How long is it? How does that compare to the retail version? And, of course, how much does it cost? While our reviews aim to be more experiential and less commercial, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't applying that same calculus to the latest Dragon Age: Origins DLC, ' Leliana's Song,' while I played it.

iPhone games, XBLA and PSN releases, etc., divorced from the usual MSRP for retail products, all suffer the same fate: intense pricing scrutiny. There's a strange calculus that we all apply to digitally-distributed gaming content.

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