I honestly don’t know how this got past me, being the huge Dragon Age fan that I am, but apparently yesterday BioWare announced that some new DLC is coming our way on September 7th. Titled “Witch Hunt,” fans of the game will FINALLY get closure to Morrigans story.
Not wanting to spoil too much for those who haven’t finished Origins yet (although you really should get on it people), but Morrigan leaves. Depending on choices you make, Morrigan will either leave before you go to fight the Archdemon, or after it’s slain. Now this DLC takes place exactly one year after the Archdemon bit the dust, and players can either use their Grey Warden from Origins, or they can use whatever character they created in Awakening. Should you not wish to use any of those characters, you are given the option of creating a brand spanking new one, and he or she will be a high level.
On the BioWare website it already lists one new party member, Ariane, and the other two slots are ‘locked’ for now. Obviously this means that, yet again, we can’t use anybody from Origins or Awakening. I want Shale again, damnit! Hear me now BioWare! Anyways, Ariane looks to be pretty cool. She’s a Dalish warrior, and her story so far is that she is tasked with finding an ancient artifact that has gone missing. Originally kept safe by the clan’s Keeper, the artifact is incredibly important as it contains history going all the way back to the beginning of the elven people. During her quest, Ariane runs into the Warden who is on the search for Morrigan, and that is how she joins you.
At the end of Origins, during the epilogue, it says that rumors were swirling that Morrigan fled to Orlais, the home of Leliana. Well apparently she has decided to return to her old stomping grounds, as Morrigan has supposedly been sighted in the same Ferelden forest you originally encountered her in. Upon receiving this little tidbit of information, the Warden sets off to go see what’s up and finally confront her about her abrupt disappearance.
There’s currently no word on whether there are any achievements for this, but for right now I’ll just assume there are at least 3. I could be wrong though. Like all other DLC, you can earn powerful rewards that transfer to your Origins or Awakening character, but it’s not clear on whether those rewards are items or an increase to your overall level. It should be mentioned that on the description for Witch Hunt, this DLC is supposed to be the “dramatic conclusion to the Origins storyline”. I don’t know if this means that we aren’t getting anymore DLC regarding Origin characters, or if this is the end of DLC until Dragon Age 2 comes out. I also don’t know if this means that all future DLC will be about random things we have no emotional tie to. I simply just don’t know.
Fans have been clamoring for months about having closure to Morrigans story, and while we were led to believe that Dragon Age 2 would lead to that, it obviously won’t seeing that the main character is somebody completely different than your Grey Warden. While I will say that it’s nice that BioWare is listening to the fans, and giving us an ending, I just hope that it’s not only an hour of gameplay because some people will be pretty peeved, namely myself. For BioWare to do this right, it needs to be a longer DLC, longer than anything they’ve put out because there is so much to tell, and an hour or an hour and a half just isn’t going to cut it.
Witch Hunt releases on September 7th for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 so be sure to download it and check back for my review!
