Awakenings-Spoiler
 

Okies, I'm the biggest moron on the planet. I've completed the 3 main quests; but of course I went to the marsh before Knotwood Hills , so I didn't face any Brood Mothers. How the heck do you finish the game?? What is Forelone Cove for
??

From what I know, you need to do three things:
- Go to the Marsh and defeat the big demon + get Justice as an NPC.
- Go to the forest and recruit the elf mage + explore the cave where you get captured.
- Go to the place where you find the dwarf rogue + explore the cave where you kill a few brood mothers.

After that, you talk to the guy who runs your castle, and he'll tell you what to do next.

Forlorn thingy is just a sidequest.

Thanks for replying.

I did exactly those 3 things previously, thats why I was sooooo cornfuzed. I started over.

I am sort of disapointed with awakening, it is not even near as good as the original one. Extremely short story. Ending was lame, didn't really have an ending. The last part where you fight the mother, so lame final strike. Plus it just ends right there with man.

Yes the game is too short that breaks a lot of thing. The other failure is the level difficulty, too low for players who have finished DAO.

But on another points I enjoyed some points quite more than in DAO:

• I admit DAO deep and long dialogs with companions can increase interest in the game if you bother take care and dig this. But it's a game design I don't like at all because the merging with the gemaplay is awful, like a second game you get in parallel. Not have them anymore was a good point for me.
• DAO has some dungeons (probably not all) that are bellow the average quality, repetitive graphics, almost only fights in some, puppets companions, exploration that lets a taste of linearity. DAA improved a lot this point, no more graphics repetition, high level of story stuff merged to the action, companions that are much more living in dungeons and area you explored, some area are fun to explore and enough well done to break partially a feeling of linearity, I also enjoyed the well done and intensive use of heights making them much more 3D.

There's a third deep gameplay change with DAA, the intensity of story evolution. In DAO you have much more pauses, also many dungeon are mainly some exploration with series of (fun) fights this letting you breeze and take your time. In DAA there's no pause, many events catch you and don't let you the time, you have a lot of responsibilities and need fulfill them in hurry, even dungeons with a high density of story stuff ends in not letting much pauses.

I enjoyed the density involved in DAA but I clearly prefer a more cool approach like DAO does on this point.

That said, DAA is short enough to damage its more global game design quality.

Just finished awakening - after a long break. I thought it was OK, if somewhat shallower (as Dasale mentioned above). For the most part, a lot easier - I had tons of balms etc that I never used. I managed most fights on auto-pilot… The one thing that really annoyed me was the way you're forced (a long Bioware tradition!!) to test your players loyalty before the last encounter…in my case Justice turned on me and I had to kill him - why Justice? I gave you the best years of my life!? hehe - (Oghren made short work of him ;-) - but then I was left without a properly balanced party and forced to bring in another NPC I did not want - my entire party mechanic was screwed up after that point, since the new character was not kitted out properly (I left stuff at the base) and I hadn't really had a chabxce to try combos with him. Besides screwing with my strategy…how the hell did the NPC teleport into the middle of the enemy lair? What rubbish! Justice may be 'blind', but its not stupid - maybe someone should explain that distinction to the writers.

I think a lot of the "ease" compared to DA:O simply has to do with being battle tested at that point. I really knew how to utilize my characters talents in Awakenings. DA:O had a learning curve for first time players, and I'm pretty sure I'll find it a lot easier if I ever replay it.

I really like the NPCs in Awakening though, especially Anders, Velanna, and Sigrun. I also felt the party banter was significantly improved over DA:O.

How did you manage to turn Justice against you? I never had problem with him Oo

As JDR mentioned, I liked companions in Awakening a lot more than companions in Origins. Anders, Justice, Nathaniel and Oghren being my favourites (yes, I hate girls). Oghren was a real surprise, turning from my least favourite NPC to one of the funniest in Awakening.