Downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins, a role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, was announced prior to the game's release in late 2009 along with a commitment from BioWare to support two years of content. Up to seven major content packs were released: The Stone Prisoner, Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar, The Darkspawn Chronicles, Leliana's Song, The Golems of Amgarrak, and Witch Hunt. The downloadable content (DLC) packs were distributed via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and BioWare's website for the PC platform.
Both The Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep were released on the launch date of the base game. The Stone Prisoner adds Shale as a fully voice acted companion character, along with a new location, items and quests. Warden's Keep adds the fortress of Soldier's Peak as a potential base of operations for the player, and explores the history behind the exile of the Grey Wardens from the kingdom of Ferelden generations ago. Return to Ostagar, released on various platforms between January and March 2010, features a return to the ruined fortress of Ostagar to recover the personal effects of the recently deceased king of Ferelden. The Darkspawn Chronicles, released on May 18, 2010, explores an alternate "what-if" scenario to the base game's narrative where Ferelden falls to the monstrous Darkspawn hordes. Leliana's Song, released on July 6, 2010, explores the backstory of Leliana, a companion character from the base game. The Golems of Amgarrak, released on August 10, 2010, follows the investigation of a missing dwarven expedition in search for the lost secret behind the construction of golems within the subterranean network of the Deep Roads. Witch Hunt, released on September 7, 2010, provides some closure to the storyline of the witch Morrigan, another companion character from the base game. All download packs offered unlocks of achievements and rewards upon their completion.
A version containing the aforementioned DLC along with Origins and its expansion pack Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition, was released on October 27, 2010. Many smaller content items in Origins were given away for promotional purposes as pre-order bonuses, platform exclusives and as rewards from special events.
The Stone Prisoner The Stone Prisoner, released on November 3, 2009, adds the golem Shale, voiced by Geraldine Blecker, as a recruitable companion character to the game. The Stone Prisoner was intended to be complimentary for players who purchase a new copy of any edition of Origins, though it is available as a standalone purchase.
To access its contents, players must interact with a merchant who offers a control rod for a rogue golem, which is found as a solitary statue in the middle of a village which have been overrun with Darkspawn. To recruit Shale, players will need to assist the surviving villagers against the Darkspawn, solve a tile-puzzle, and deal with the level's main antagonist, a demon-possessed cat. Like other companion characters, Shale is a fully voice-acted character with unique interactions, an approval rating system, and a personal quest that ties in with the main plot. As a golem, Shale has a distinct set of abilities as well as a unique customization system with attendant loot drops added across the game.
Originally planned for the base game, Shale was initially cut due to technical constraints of the game engine, as her character model was too large to fit into doorways, and the camera would not display the character properly when the team raised the conversation system as a lot of it was procedural in nature. When the release date of Origins was delayed from early 2009 to November 2009, the development team had the time and opportunity to rework Shale, along with her backstory and personal quest as launch day DLC for the base game. To resolve the technical issues surrounding Shale, the team reduced the size of her model, and as a result she is smaller compared to other golem characters in Origins.
Reception Oli Welsh from Eurogamer praised The Stone Prisoner as an "amazingly well-integrated" DLC pack with the base game, with its location and scripting superior in quality to the base game's side quests. Welsh found that in this instance, the developer succeeded in creating DLC that can meaningfully enrich the entire game players buy it for. For Welsh, Shale's humorous edge and sarcasm helps balance the game's "stuffy tone".
Warden's Keep Warden's Keep, released on November 3, 2009, adds the fortress of Soldier's Peak to the game world and an associated quest which could be completed in under an hour. The pack adds a variety of equipment and weapons encountered in Soldier's Peak which are superior in quality to items that can be purchased, as well as powerful new abilities and spells for player characters who consume a specific potion in the keep. Following the completion of the quest, the player can set up a base of operations in Soldier's Peak with two merchants and an area to store the surplus equipment of party members.
The story of Warden's Keep explores why the Grey Wardens were exiled from Ferelden a few generations prior to their return on the invitation of King Maric as depicted in the 2009 novel Dragon Age: The Calling. To access its contents, the player must interact with the merchant Levi Dryden, whose grandmother Sophia Dryden was a Grey Warden commander who lost the order's base in Soldier's Peak over a dispute with a tyrannical ancestor of King Maric. His family disgraced as a result of her actions, Dryden asks the Wardens to reclaim the fortress and clear her name. In Soldier's Peak, the player's party encounter ghostly apparitions which recount past events from three decades ago and put the infestation of monsters within the keep in context. At the story's conclusion, players are presented with multiple options to deal with Sophia, who is now a demon-possessed version of her former self, and Avernus, a blood mage who devise new ways to counter the Darkspawn Blight through often unethical means.
Reception Oli Welsh from Eurogamer found Warden's Keep to be "an encouraging start for Dragon Age DLC in quality terms - but not quantity", and while the pack represented the best of Dragon Age's combat and storytelling in a more compact form, its main quest is "an unsatisfying meal for the money" which is best played as early as possible for an optimal gameplay experience.
Return to Ostagar
Return to Ostagar features a return to the ruined fortress of Ostagar, where the Grey Wardens were nearly wiped out by the Darkspawn invasion early in Origins. The player character is allowed the opportunity to further explore the backstory for King Cailan Theirin and Teryn Loghain Mac Tir, recover the arms and armor of the fallen king as well as the last Commander of the Grey, Duncan, and recruit a Mabari War Hound as a party member. Noted for its troubled release schedule, Return to Ostagar received mixed or average reviews following its release.
The Darkspawn Chronicles The Darkspawn Chronicles, released on May 18, 2010, is a standalone module which allows players to experience an alternate history scenario for the final battle at the Ferelden capital city of Denerim. In this version of the game's plot, the player's Grey Warden did not survive the Joining, and the Ferelden army is led by Alistair who rules as king. The player assumes the role of a hurlock vanguard, who is tasked by the Archdemon, the leader of the Darkspawn hordes, to capture the Ferelden capital city of Denerim and eliminate the remaining Grey Wardens. Players advance through straightforward combat encounters throughout the city's districts, and occasionally undertake quest objectives such as killing a fixed number of opponents, setting fire to landmarks, or sneaking a unit past an enemy checkpoint. Players have the ability to recruit other Darkspawn creatures by selecting and enthralling any allied units they encounter. Once a Darkspawn thrall is brought into the party and under the player's command, they will have the opportunity to improve the thrall's approving rating, which enhances their combat abilities and unlock status-boosting effects. Players may clear up a spot in the party at any time by targeting the desired thrall unit to be executed and discarded. Unlike the base game, playable characters do not gain experience or level up. Darkspawn Chronicles includes several achievements and trophies for players to unlock. One achievement will unlock a sword called Blightblood which could be transferred into the campaigns of the base game as well as Awakening.
Rob Bartel, lead designer of Darkspawn Chronicles, described it as "a story of loss and of absence" which turns "history on its head". He believed that putting the player into the role of a Darkspawn unit and showing the capture and fall of Denerim from the Darkspawn's perspective is "an interesting thread that players would want to experience". Bartel positioned the Darkspawn Chronicles as a powerful visceral experience which is light on dialogue and predominantly revolves around its distinct combat mechanics.
Reception
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 versions of The Darkspawn Chronicles received "mixed or average reviews" from video game publications.
Charles Onyett from IGN assessed The Darkspawn Chronicles with a passable rating, citing a lack of satisfaction in spite of its novel concept and inexpensive pricing. While he liked the idea of roleplaying as the villain, in particular an Ogre or a Shriek who massacre familiar characters from the main Origins story, he found the overall experience too straightforward to be especially memorable, and cited its "short length, lack of customization options, and absence of any real character interaction" as the pack's major weaknesses.
Dan Whitehead from Eurogamer gave a negative review and found the overall experience to be disappointing. To Whitehead, the title of The Darkspawn Chronicles is a misnomer, as it "offers the bare minimum of gaming" which lasts for about an hour as opposed to an epic, ongoing saga its name might suggest. Whitehead concurred that the idea of a "Dragon Age monster squad is appealing" on a conceptual level as the initial stages of the DLC was competently executed as a "bloodthirsty evil simulator". However, he criticized the pack's later stages as a "deathly grind" which lacked meaningful dialogue, character interaction and room for sophisticated combat tactics, elements which he considered were the base game's best aspects and which he had expected from a "narrative powerhouse like BioWare". Other criticisms included the story's thoughtless treatment of familiar characters, as well as numerous technical glitches and bugs which Whitehead considered to be unforgivable as the pack clearly recycled existing assets from the base game which had been updated by multiple patches.
Leliana's Song Leliana's Song, released on July 6, 2010, is a standalone module set several years before the events of the base game. Players assume the role of Leliana when she was an agent working for the Orlesian bard Marjolaine, and experience the events that led her to settle down in Ferelden and join the Chantry. Leliana is joined by three companions for the module: Sketch, an apostate city elven mage; Tug, a surface dwarven warrior; and Silas Corthwaite, A Ferelden warrior. All playable characters may gain experience, level up, and are customizable to a degree. The pack adds a set of armor called Battledress of the Provocateur which could be transferred into Origins and Awakening campaigns upon completion of the DLC.
French actress Corinne Kempa reprised her role as Leliana, which she described in a 2010 interview as her biggest role to date.
Reception