I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins immensely, as indicated in this review.  What I didn’t mention in the review is that we downloaded and played all of the DLC currently available as well.  Well, to be fair, The Stone Prisoner DLC was included with the game, but we did purchase the Warden’s Keep and Return to Ostagar DLCs.

The Stone Prisoner DLC provides a fantastic new character, Shale (who is WONDERFUL to have in your party when fighting extremely high level enemies), as well as new quests, locations, items, dialog, and story.  The Stone Prisoner is an excellent addition to Dragon Age: Origins.  It adds an additional 2-4 hours of unique gameplay that would otherwise be unavailable.

The Warden’s Keep DLC opens up a side-story with 1-2 hours of unique gameplay, new items, locations, NPCs, and an excellent Party Chest for storage.  New interactions and plot items become useful once the Warden’s Keep DLC is downloaded that provide a lot of backstory that helps you understand the world of Dragon Age: Origins a little better.

The Return to Ostagar DLC that was released yesterday afternoon directly ties in to the story, returning you to an earlier stage of the game where a great tragedy, and the starting point of the game’s major story, occurred.  The DLC provides new items, and unlocks a locked location, but proved disappointingly short.  The entire DLC lasted approximately 30-45 minutes.  While it did provide more insight into the main story, provided you with new armor and weapons, and did allow you to tie up a loose end or two, the length makes this DLC fall short of the others.  It’s also not particularly difficult compared to the game and to the other DLCs.

-[insert revolutionary thinking here]