I remember really really wanting this when I was a kid, but my small games budget was spent on sims 2 dlc instead. Which is fine enough, because I think I would've been pretty disappointed by this.

It's short and a little dull. The larger darkspawn get stuck on eachother, or on decorative elements.

The name Barkspawn was pretty cute for the doggie though. Also, I guess I gained a minimal amount of respect for Howe for actually being on the very frontlines of the defence.

Darkspawn Chronicles boldly asks the question of what if the Hero of Ferelden had died during the Joining? What if Alistair had journeyed throughout Ferelden gathering allies by himself? What if you, the player, were in control not a Grey Warden, but a darkspawn commander, taking the field in the name of the Archdemon in the final fight for control of Denerim? And what if Dragon Age: Origins was actually a terrible videogame?

You take on the role of a Hurlock Vanguard, who leads the darkspawn armies into Denerim in what would be the final section of the main game's campaign. The Vanguard can enthrall others of its race to assemble a party of four, however, resurrecting allies is not possible, with the death of any thralls resulting in their permanent removal from the party and need for a subsequent replacement. Combined with a reputation system that strengthens creatures that are enthralled for longer, it's imperative that the most valuable unit types are kept alive. Boy, oh boy, does Darkspawn Chronicles make this a pain.

The usual DA:O DLC issues with reused locations and abridged quests is here, and the romp through the streets of Denerim is confusing and filled with the most random of occurrences. This time, however, there's an evident lack of planning and playtesting throughout the campaign, which along with an unhealthy dose of glitches, makes the DLC fall apart minutes after it boots up. Battles are complete chaos; quests occur haphazardly and, on the few occasions where there is a clear intended design for a scenario, it's possible and likely that the player will ignore it entirely due to their contrived design not accounting for many possibilities.

Many prominent characters from the campaign are in Denerim in the form of highly overpowered elite enemies, and they'll jump the Vanguard and its platoon at the most random of times. Far worse than the Oghren and Sten jumpscares, however, is how buggy fights usually are: multiple groups of enemies respawn infinitely, and others can even spawn from thin air, right on top of the party. In the last few sections, some groups do both. Needless to say, Nightmare runs are close to impossible without abusing just about every trick in the book, and even then, it takes some heavy turtling to get to the end of the DLC.

And then it's the final battle, and what a final battle it is. It's impossible to beat without the correct party composition since it requires more than just a beefy party. The fight is on a timer in the form of the Archdemon's health, which is being chipped away at by some very tanky units. Preserving the dragon's life requires a perfect party composition combined with a solid understanding of the game's mechanics. Even lower difficulty players often drop Darkspawn Chronicles at this point due to its perceived impossibility.

Should the player succeed, however, the intense fight gives way to a gut-wrenching ending that wraps up the DLC. It's the one shining moment in all of the DLC, but even then, the amount of hoops that must be jumped through to get to it is unacceptable. Darkspawn Chronicles, much like some of the other DA:O DLC packs, is a fascinating idea that's so underdeveloped and janky that it's easily skippable for anyone who's not among the hardest of DA:O fans.

If nothing else, this add-on is worth experiencing once purely for the concept. "What if the MC had never existed or died during the prologue, and it was up to the second-in-command to take up arms for the plot's events" is a rather uncommon structure the gaming medium has subjected participants onto, and it takes full advantage of that. Seeing Denerim on the side of Darkspawn is pretty entertaining, controlling each of the units as the Vanguard and playing around with their kits for a change, with the ability to mow down all the (un)named NPCs and party members when you reach them - Oghren at the bar, Wynne with the Circle and Templars, Zevran with the Elves, etc etc, all with their own altered codices for comedic effects. Not to mention, seeing the choices Alistair, or perhaps Morrigan being the puppeteer (makes more sense and is reinforced to be the former though), had made to get this far makes things super funny. Sure, I can see them being able to round up Wynne with Greagoir thanks to Alistair's Templar ties, but Cauthrien being here must meant some next level diplomacy was involved to convince her to drop Loghain's side, and I feel like they should know better than to trust Howe the weasel. Plus, golems? Werewolves?! Seems like someone's just a bit too gung-ho about ends justifying the means...

Unfortunately, this has a fatal flaw: the combat. I'm saving all my critiques and complaints for the raw meat and mechanics for the main game, but suffice to say that as someone who finds it overall adequate, this unfortunately doubles down on troublesome AI, dull encounter designs, awkward and obnoxious pathfinding, and all the meticulous micromanagement of the base game, so if you didn't like that - ESPECIALLY on console where it was more tedious with all the controller hotswaps - you're definitely not gonna like this. In fact, I'd say the friendly AI here is even worse, cause I've had more instances of them standing there doing nothing despite my tactics lineup giving them optimal commands and there being no obstructions for the pathfinding part, therefore forcing me to stop what I was doing and direct them myself. Also, if you're gonna play this on a higher difficulty, turn off the Ogre's Hurl ability and control it yourself, or else you'll have them use it often in a huddle and take friendly fire from it, which sucks - actually, you're better off putting it on Easy and cruising through it, this has a bit of a rep for being a ballbuster even with all the prep time you have, and it's well earned! I only ever beat it on Hard because I'm a stubborn bastard. This tries to spice it up by having a sort of "if x, then y" puzzle gimmick; Shrieks are your stealthy Rogues to sneak past ballista barrages and disrupt them, Genlocks and Hurlocks are your standard Warriors/Archers, Ogres are your tough Berserker Tanks to destroy obstacles, Emissaries are your Mages, and Blight Wolves are the Mabari. Thing is though, there isn't enough to spice up the monotony of what is, essentially, a 2-hour combat gauntlet round, without any of the positives and brief respites the base campaign offers.

Also, it just feels... cheap. Like yea it's expected as such cause it's a short DLC, and of course there'd be reused assets since we're in the Denerim battle, but there isn't even a proper ending here - once you kill Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan, and Barkspawn (more cases of Bioware acknowledging online communities), the Archdemon swoops by and then... kicked back to the main menu. Stuff like that just permeates the feeling of a quick buck, which is likely the case since it came out about two months after the Awakening expansion. As stated, it's worth playing once for the quasi-unique experience and the weapon unlock Blightblood, itself a pretty good sword for one-handed users, for the two full-sized stories. Beyond that? Not worth it.