Dragon Age - Return to Ostagar Review

Eurogamer offer their opinion on RtO calling it a 'feeble half-baked offering', and with a final score of 4/10 you can guess the vibe here.

It's unlikely that Return to Ostagar, the latest squirt from BioWare's busy digital udder, will offer any satisfying answers to these burning questions. It's a thin, forgettable little thing, cheap in price yet offering little more than 30 minutes of one-note gameplay for your virtual money. What you're really doing is forking out for another stat-boosting set of matching armour pieces and some rather tasty weaponry, dressed up in a rather half-baked narrative shell.
As the title prosaically suggests, you're headed back to Ostagar, the game-opening scene of King Cailan's grisly defeat, Loghain's betrayal and the fall of the Grey Wardens. A location loaded with importance for the world of Dragon Age, then, but its potential remains sadly untapped by the time you reach the end of this minor diversion.

More information.

… the latest squirt from BioWare's busy digital udder…

Ah, I had a good chuckle! What an excellent analogy…erm…idiom…woteva. Hey, I'm a scientist not a linguist ;-) I want a digital udder too - it would make a nice addition to the chthulhu figurine and the little pyramid already sitting there ;-) A digital udder - from lost Mu!

I'm not a fan of Eurogamer, but I'm glad some of the more popular sites are calling out this rubbish.

Some reviews flat out state that "it's not great, but hey you can get great loot so it's all worth it", which seems to really be scraping the barrel in terms of critical reviewing.

30 mins of content just isn't enough for something like this, unless you're still in the middle of a playthrough - even then it's dubious.

If it was something like Point Lookout, then I'd be lapping it up, but 30 mins of fighting genlocks and hurlocks just doesn't cut it, especially given that I'll get exactly no use out of the loot.

Personally I think Point Lookout should be the benchmark for paid RPG DLC. If I'm going to fork out the cash and load the game up all over again, I want something substantial.

Originally Posted by Badesumofu
30 mins of content just isn't enough for something like this, unless you're still in the middle of a playthrough - even then it's dubious.

Unfortunately, I think we might have to get used to it, because this is where DLC is taking us…

If people don't buy it (30 min DLC) then they won't make it!!

i played thru it a few days ago, and it was astonishingly easy at times. Granted, my rogue and party generally hovering around Lv17 - but still it should scale somewhat i'd think. Most things were generally one-hit wonders, even for Alistair. Also, at this level the loot was nothin really to write home about. It was good for filling in some story, and I dont regret the whole 5 dollars that I spent - it was just hilariously easy.

I say stay away unless youre of a fairly lower level, or you just want to fill in the story a little more.

Just for the record, it's not 30 min, it's more like 1h - 1h 30 min (if you're fairly thorough). It's 30 min for people who finish Origins in less than 50 hours.. But yeah, it sucks. If this kind of DL content keep getting negative reviews, I doubt it'll get really popular.