So DLC characters? Am I right? I mean ME2 has Zaeed, a totally pointless character without any real characterization...but Kasumi redeemed Bioware's character DLC for all, so has DA2 gone down this new, enlightened path? Has it transcended all other DLC that has come before it?
No....no it hasn't....if you thought it might have, go to your kitchen table, roll up the newspaper sitting on it, and smack yourself in the nose many times...it might make you learn never to trust Bioware and DLC.
Ok, so this DLC focuses on Sabastian Vale, a prince who was exiled (see what they did there?) from his home of Starkhaven, and sent to the chantry to become a monk. You first see him arguing with an old lady of relatively high importance within the chantry, the Revered Mother, telling her, in the worst Scottish accent impersonation known to man, that "what happened to my family, was murder!" So when you take a look at the chanters board, you see hes looking for someone to go and kill the people who killed his family. All well and good, easy enough to do right? Kill a few clones, get back to him, get paid, end of story....wait....end of story? Oh yes, that's right, you have to wait for a while to get Vale, for he is a hormonal bastard and won't come along until you help him hunt down....his parent's murderers? Again? Didn't I just?....Ok...
So that's pretty much the story, find the killers, then make nice with this prince, who on top of wielding mass political and military power, is also a religious zealot...so nothing can go wrong there. When he joins your party, you'll find hes an Archer, but not like Varric, oh no, hes an old school, bow and arrow type of guy, who you can romance, so ladies, please, stop pushing for this insult to the scottish people, who is a religious nutbag, and has a bit of a murdery side to him...also he looks like hes having a mid-life crisis...receding hairline and all that....what woman wouldn't want him? Oh and, in classic Bioware form, he has Daddy issues!
He plays exactly like Varric, except not as fast, useful, or tolerable...and once you go Varric, there's no going back. He becomes more and more obsolete as the game goes on, as Varric is the logical choice in his place. This is especially true if you are a mage or a rouge because you won't need another long-range fighter.
Though his mission set could be viewed as interesting, I merely viewed them as what they really were, extra XP. Other than that, this DLC isn't really with the money you pay for it. Some extra items come up, but they aren't really anything special.
Let's just put it this way. Either you want him, and can't live without the complete set, or don't, in which case, you're making the right choice.
Pros:
- Some easy XP missions
- Some funny cutscenes
- Sabastian's accent
Cons:
- Sabastian is a character you'll never use.
- Missions are too spread out throughout the game
- Other than a few minor easter eggs, this DLC doesn't really have a point to it
- Not worth 560 MS points
Final Verdict:
1/5
Not terrible, but not good enough to warrant the asking price. The character is unlikeable and will never be used, the missions are mostly of the same structure: Go here, Kill people, Talk Prince, Get money. It really has no reason for existing, and could have been made so much better. A missed opportunity.
WTF? Moment: Walking in on another prince getting his horn blown, if you know what I mean, by a servant elf.
And this DLC actually gets a new section that I like to call: The Honourable Mention, a big shout out to something so absurd and hilarious that it must be shared with the world!
The Honourable Mention: Most, if not all, of the DLC achievements were glitched upon release. They wouldn't unlock for most, if not all people. A recent patch has fixed the issue, but that doesn't mean that a the time of the game's release, that it wasn't side-splittingly hilarious. Well done Bioware, keep up the....'work'!