Played and completed. Awakenings was like a digest version of the main game; same general overview (forest area, deep road area, fade area, big battle area, etc) but more condensed and in some ways better for it. It felt like there was less filler; fewer repetitive battles, less slogging around desolate areas to fill in blanks on the map. I won't attempt to play through it a second time as I know I'd enjoy it a lot less.
It took me around 16 hours to do the main quest with nearly all of the side quests. I went back to an earlier save to try the other side of the big choice you make, so that’s some additional play time. Not bad.
Anders=Alistair with a different name, class and model. It's even the same voice actor, right? Or if not he sounds remarkably similar.
Lots more good banter dialogues. The characters I acquired early on were an interesting bunch. Nate and Anders were a golden pairing, both in terms of what they gave me in battle and in terms of banter. Sigrun was nice. Ogren managed to be mostly tolerable. Justice would have been more interesting if I'd had more time with him, as the game didn't give him much chance to talk to me. I couldn't stand that magic elf chick; constant vocal attitude and whining about everything, and she was an inferior mage compared to Anders anyway.
I started out with a newly built warrior/archer as planned, hit level 20 and decided it was not suited to me at all so I imported my rogue/dual wielder. Deadly in Origins, he became death incarnate in Awakenings. 36% of the total party damage belonged to him according to the heroic stats ... and everyone else had 7% or under. I walked all over everything the game threw at me; sky high dex plus all of the evasion boosting skills meant little could hit me, solid armour and a tonne of health meant the hits which did get through barely made me blink, and dual wielding a pair of ubered up weapons with massive bonuses to critical chance and damage and backstab damage meant I dealt good damage with my basic attack, meaning skills and modes could be saved for when they were most needed.
Awakenings feels like it should be the end of this particular entry into the Dragon Age universe. The story is tied up, the characters have been assigned detailed fates, and the game mechanics can't offer much more without some heavier tweaking. I've played as all 3 major character types, seen all 4 main endings for the basic game and both for Awakenings, got all of the achievements, and definitely feel like I am done. Time for a true sequel, not more DLC or expansions.
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