Dragon Age - Witch Hunt Review @ GameShark

GameShark has slammed Witch Hunt, handing down a rating of 'D' in their review:

The truth is it felt like BioWare provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do. Given that there are no tangible character benefits for your character, no cool items, no new spells or powers, nothing at all to give you other than more experience if you need it and the promise of a resolution that never comes, one has to wonder why this was even developed. Yes, using a group of high level characters is always good for a little entertainment, but you can only kill so many Darkspawn before you start getting tired of the same enemies in every encounter and honesly, that time came about three content packs ago.

Maybe if Morrigan's ending had been a satisfying one I would have been fine with paying for a 45 minute side quest through places I've already been but it wasn't—so I'm not. What's even more oddly infuriating is that this is how Dragon Age: Origins ends, with a glimpse of your character blankly standing alone as companions walk away before the player is kicked to the menu. This is the ending we're supposed to accept? Perhaps more of Morrigan's story will be told in Dragon Age 2 but rest assured, I no longer care. The only trick this witch pulled off is making my interest in the franchise disappear.

More information.

"The truth is it felt like BioWare provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do."

Read that review yesterday. I found it to be rather spot on with my experience.

Going for awakenings next.
C

"The truth is it felt like BioWare provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do."

They'll be able to say the same thing about Dragon Age 2

At least as far as the actual development team goes…

I think that quote is way too apologetic. You do not end up with Witch Hunt simply by lack of will. It had an excellent premise and I can easily imagine plenty of ways that Witch Hunt could have added new landscapes and gameplay mechanics to Dragon Age, to be a complete product like Golems of Amgarrak was.

The event have lead me into pondering about conspiracy theories. Someone, somewhere, wasn't interested in spending the resources required to produce a quality product, but saw a business opportunity to sell the product at full price anyway. Are there problems within the Dragon Age team? Are there financial problems? Bad communication? Social issues? Conflicts? Did they hire someone who simply didn't know how to handle the task?

Witch Hunt have the production quality of a small module for Neverwinter Nights 2. I have seen fans produce better quality packages than this and released their product for free.

My own very jaded opinion, is that the better the DLC is - the closer it's related to the original development plans.

The state of this will change now that DLC is the absolute standard. Greed will drive everything, naturally, but they will also be able to produce better DLC - because they won't need to "slap it on", they'll be able to plan for it - with experience learned the past few years.

Lord of the Rings is a good demonstration of why you do everything at once, and only later break it up and polish the bits.

They'll actively create full games, and break them up later - so they can maximize profit. Mafia 2 is the first example where this is sufficiently evident to be certain.

People will buy it happily, because people don't care.

I can't wait to play "spot the original content that's in the DLC" with my favorite games

Thanks for supporting that new meta-game guys!

I take DLC's over DRM's.

Originally Posted by JemyM
I take DLC's over DRM's.

You'd rather have a broken up game, sold piece by piece - that you have to wait months for in a complete state, than the minor inconvenience of DRM?

Originally Posted by JemyM
The event have lead me into pondering about conspiracy theories.

I rather thought of something like a musician is bound to make x albums for a record company. It's a fixed number.

Maybe there was a fixed number of DLCs Bioware had to do in order to fill a contract with EA ? Perhaps this could have been negotiated still when Biowre / EA were 2 separate entities ?

I don't know but this "provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do" rather supoports my theory of a fixed number of DLCs they had to do - especially since the rumors of an "Ultimate" edition (probably containing *all* DLCs) are known for one or two months already. So - if my asumption is right, then they had to do this - a) to fulfill the supposed contract and b) to get it out BEFORE the Ultimate Edition is compiled.

By the way, can somebody please tell me how many DLCs are there, after all ? I think I've lost the overview.

"The truth is it felt like BioWare provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do."

Seeing as how the current Dragon Age 2 team seems to loath Dragon Age : Origins, I'm not surprised by this. To me, Bioware has shifted the last 9 months from a company intrested in quality, to a company that's solely intrested in quanitity.

Too many conspiracy theories for me. I think BioWare/EA simply decided on minimal resources for business purposes (=more profitability) coupled with Ferret Baudoin just isn't that great as a lead designer.

Originally Posted by Davion
"The truth is it felt like BioWare provided this pack as something they felt like they had to do rather than something they wanted to do."

Seeing as how the current Dragon Age 2 team seems to loath Dragon Age : Origins, I'm not surprised by this. To me, Bioware has shifted the last 9 months from a company intrested in quality, to a company that's solely intrested in quanitity.

90% of the DA2 team worked on DAO.

Originally Posted by DPB
90% of the DA2 team worked on DAO.

I didn't say that there were different people in each team