"Dragon Age: Origins Return to Ostagar" DLC Review

Publisher:  Bioware

Genre:  RPG

Summary:  You return to Ostagar after the battle.

Gameplay:  There are a couple new types of darkspawn and undead, but nothing too unusual.

Style:  Ostagar was always well-designed, and it still looks good all strewn with snow.  Everything is unnecessarily labeled; I would have preferred to rely on my own memory to compare.  There are also some flashbacks to the battle to reinforce locations, which feel like cheats, especially since the character didn't have the viewpoint for some of them, and you just know Bioware wanted to milk those admittedly awesome sequences again.

Story:  It's a short, simple story of wandering through the remnants (Cailan's letters add some interesting knowledge to Fereldan's politics, but nothing game-changing.)  Only Alistair and Wynne have anything to say.  It makes sense because they were there for the battle, but it would have been nice if the other characters could have commented too.

Conclusion:  Return to Ostagar doesn't add much and isn't complex, but is nice for what it is, some good loot and a reminiscence on a momentous part of the story.

"Mass Effect 2 Overlord" DLC Review

Publisher:  EA/Bioware

Genre:  RPG

Summary:  Shepherd investigates a Cerberus project gone wrong involving the geth.

Gameplay:  Beyond the usual combat, there are several sequences involving combat and general movement challenges such as navigating lava and heights in the Hammerhead vehicle.  There is a clever variety of these.

Style:  The environments, both natural and interior, are pretty and eerie, featuring notable elements like a looming planet over a giant satellite, a smoky, red-lit power station, and angry green electronic communications.

Story:  The overall plot of yet another Cerberus project gone wrong isn't new, although the ending manages to be moving.  The biggest issue is that there's too little of it, meaning Overlord manages to feel both too short and too long.  Although the DLC doesn't take too much time, there are lots of locations and steps to complete the simple plot.

Conclusion:  Overlord has some neat design elements, but feels longer than it needs to be for a very standard story.

"The Winter Rose" Review

Publisher:  Hatters' Guild Productions

Genre:  Adventure

Summary:  To save the land, Rose sets out to defeat the ice dragon.

Gameplay:  The game is set up like a traditional Sierra-style adventure game with buttons across the top of the screen for walking, seeing, moving, inventory, saving, loading, and settings.  Puzzles are inventory-based and generally fairly straightforward.

Style:  The Winter Rose has lovely art of hand-made backgrounds and pixel characters.  The art isn't fantastic, but the homespun quality feels welcoming.  Given the plot, there's a lot of blue and white and ever-falling snow.  The Vivaldi soundtrack and occasional scavenged sound effect only adds to the charm.  Perhaps if the game were longer the lack of variety or polish would grate, but the game doesn't last long enough for it to do so.

Story:  There isn't too much story to The Winter Rose, but it manages to combine a dark set-up (there are few characters around due to the doom-like reign of the ice dragon, who has literally frozen most local life) with a surprising amount of humor that makes those characters fun and memorable.

Unfortunately, the ending is so disappointingly abrupt the game managed to make my five worst endings list.

Conclusion:  The Winter Rose truly shows the possible charms of a short, home-made adventure game.  It manages to create a coherent story and characters with lovely art.  Its main, great flaw is its abrupt ending.

"Arcade Spirits" Review

 Publisher:  Fiction Factory Games

Genre:  Visual Novel

Summary:  A new job at an arcade leads to friendships, difficulties, and perhaps a new dream for the future.

Gameplay:  Gameplay consists of choices, which are often designated by tone (unless you turn off the option to view them.)  Choices can also gain approval with characters.  Your character and tone ratings are tracked (with in-game explanation!), viewable at the end of each chapter, and lead to different options and endings.

Style:  The game has an overall video game aesthetic to its text to fit the topic.  The characters are styled well with lots of art and expressions.  The music is good as well.

Story:  Arcade Spirits shines in telling a long, thematic story about finding friendship and purpose while going through the anxieties and depressions of life.  It resonated especially strongly with me, but I imagine anyone who's had strong nostalgia, periods of melancholy, or struggles to find purpose would find something to appreciate.

The game is paced very well over eight chapters, with each chapter feeling like a satisfying chunk of story.  The characters are rich and memorable, even minor ones, and not one feels underused.  The variability offered by the customization for the main character (name, pronoun, and, to an extent, appearance), romance options, and tone choices makes for great replayability as well. 

Conclusion:  Arcade Spirits is a long, fun game with all the emotional highs and lows of a great story and all the variety of a great visual novel.

Quest Analysis: Find Liara T'Soni

This is going to be a friendly rant as much as it is ramble/analysis of the mission to find Liara T'Soni.  First, there's not giving you the exact location, forcing you to search the first time (or cheat.)  That's fine; there are a couple other interesting quests to pick up in the Artemus Tau Cluster.

But then you do land on Liara's world, and something's missing.  Every other core mission, you first land, talk to some folks to get a feel for the place and maybe pick up some side missions, then get in the Mako (Virmire does mix it up and do the Mako first, but it has all the main elements still.) 

This mission, though?  Straight to the Mako.  What happened?  Checking around, it looks like exposition people and all that were planned initially, but it seems strange that of all things in this game this was the bit that was cut.  But what's even stranger is the lack of explanation.  Where are the people on this planet?

I think maybe lore later tries to cover by mentioning robotic mining, but that doesn't explain the clearly for-people mine entrances and lack of anything that looks like remote mining equipment.  And even if there's no miners, why is Liara completely alone?  Surely she wasn't the only one on this expedition?  The only one interested in this ruin?

Would it have been so hard to have a line about her killed team members, or how they fled and left her to the geth?  It would make so much more sense.  Of course, while I'm wishing, it would have been cool to fight mine equipment the geth had taken over, but clearly for some reason time ran out for a lot of things on this quest.

But the ruins look nice, and on the plus side the mission doesn't take too long.  And it's a really nice touch that the longer you take to get to Liara in-game the more delirious she is when you get there.

"Mission--It's Complicated" Review

Publisher:  Schnell Games LLC

Genre:  Visual Novel

Summary:  In order to save the world, you must start a superhero team and ensure two of the heroes form a strong bond.

Gameplay:  You select which missions your superheroes go on and you choose which heroes to pair up for these missions and how they solve them.  This affects both how successfully the mission goes and the strength of the connection between those heroes.  Depending upon their connection, the heroes also have dates which you influence by offering advice.

Style:  The game's cartoon-comic style is wonderfully pleasant and humorous.  Dialogue is handled text-message style, which fits well with the casual atmosphere the game projects.  The music is good and there are lots of fitting splash picture inserts.

Story:  The game has a fun, relaxed mood while still managing to create interesting, detailed characters in the six members of the superhero team.  They have a variety of powers, sexualities, and genders, which makes for good replay value seeing how the various pairings of romance and friendships go.

Conclusion:  "Mission--It's Complicated" is a fun game that goes quickly but offers good characters, great dialogue, and superhero romance.

"Dragon Age Origins Leliana's Song" DLC Review

Publisher:  Bioware

Genre:  RPG

Summary:  Leliana tells the story of how she left being a bard and became involved with the Chantry.

Gameplay:  There's nothing new to Dragon Age:  Origin's gameplay here.  There are usual opportunities to fight or sneak or find objects.

Style:  There are no new locations.  The loading screens and lore entries are told from Leliana's point of view, reinforcing her narration, a nice touch.  Characters are introduced with dramatic splash screens.  This looks cool, but I don't think it quite fits the tone of the rest of the DLC.  The music is excellent.

Story:  It's interesting to play this for the first time, as I have, after Dragon Age:  Inquisition.  It works well to enrich the complex character of Leliana and related aspects of Thedas.

As a character-driven story from Leliana's past, the main events can't change, but there are some choices in Leliana's responses and minor actions that add variety.  The other characters in the DLC are generally interesting.

There's a pleasant ambiguity to the whole DLC (always an issue when you have a rogue narrating in Thedas.)  When Leliana mentioned these events in the core game, for example, they did not take place in Denerim.  (Clearly it does so here so the location assets can be reused, but you can imagine Leliana has reasons.)  It's not even entirely clear to whom this tale is being told--presumably the Warden main character, but others are possible.

Leliana has to leave the ending vague so as not to spoil later plot (if you're playing it early) and because the player in a sense influences the outcome.  Indeed, in some senses the truest ending comes in Inquisition, and that ending also varies with the player's actions.  It's impressive to see a character-driven piece that still allows for player choices, especially considering those player choices are yet to come.

Conclusion:  "Leiliana's Song" is an interesting addition in character and lore to the Dragon Age universe.

"Reflections on the River" Review

Publisher:  Stardust Soda

Website:  https://stardust-soda.itch.io/reflections-on-the-river

Genre:  Visual Novel

Summary:  A witch kidnaps the king and queen's heir in an attempt to get back a magical jewel.

Gameplay:  Gameplay consists of making decisions.

Style:  The game contains excellent character designs that are colorful and memorable.  The settings are as well, and the music is pleasant if not plentiful.

Story:  There's an early fork when the witch decides which person to kidnap, and the game can easily end early after that due to bad decisions, but there are several interesting possible endings that follow thanks to the intriguing characters.

Conclusion:  Reflections on the River offers unexpected stories with good visuals.

"Dragon Age: Origins The Stone Prisoner" DLC Review

Publisher:  Bioware

Genre:  RPG

Summary:  The Warden finds a golem to join their group.

Gameplay:  Shale, the golem, does not equip weapons or armor, but uses special elemental crystals for those purposes.  The golem has its own special ability trees that are different modes geared towards offense or aiding the other characters.  This makes the character different but rather finicky to use in combat (not that it much matters on easy mode.)

Style:  The new areas added to the game are nice.  The Deep Roads section in particular is pretty, given the lackluster presentation of the area previously in the game.

Story:  Shale is a good character who talks with the other party members and comments on events and locations as much as any of the others.  The quest to get the golem is interesting and having the character adds more emotion to the game's golem elements.

Conclusion:  Shale doesn't add a lot to the party mechanically, but is a fun party member providing some neat extra missions and lore.