The Awakening expansion to Dragon Age is a bit…abrupt. It’s not that the game is too short — 10 to 15 hours is average for a $60 game, and this downloadable expansion (also available on a retail disc) is just $40. But just as our Grey Warden commander was hitting her stride, the climax erupted, and from that point on, there’s no looking back. Before we knew it, the game’s gut-wrenching decisions, awesome plot twists, and biggest battles had all come and gone and the credits were rolling. That said, the finale is appropriately epic, to the point that it’s up there as one of our favorite events in the Dragon Age universe.

Awakening makes up for its sudden slide to the end with an absurd amount of wonderful new stuff. Most notably, you can play through the adventure as an Orlesian Grey Warden, and gaining the trust of everyone who hates your foreign guts is an interesting uphill battle. You can also opt to import your original character and continue his or her story. Either way, the plot is BioWare at its best, and the original enemies — like a breed of speaking darkspawn and the creepy-crawly “Children” — give the world a fresher feel.

The oodles of new unlockable armor, new skills, and new attributes for your roster of lovable new recruits further add to the massive stockpile of as-of-yet unseen stuff. We’d have liked more chit-chat with our crew: Awakening totally skips out on the incredible character development we adored in Origins. If you take your time to savor everything else, though, you’ll be satisfied with this ace expansion.

OXM Score: BUY