Legacy | Through the Shattered Lens

Dragon Age: Legacy is the first post-release DLC available for BioWare’s hit dark fantasy epic. Available for 800 MS Points (or $10), this DLC is launched from your in-game home (whether this is Gamlen’s House or the Hawke Estate, depending on when you launch the DLC) by interacting with a creepy statue that you’ve apparently kept as a memento. Depending on your difficulty settings, level, and party make-up, the DLC will take about 2 hours to complete. It is not noticeably more or less difficult than the primary game, but it does introduce a number of new adversary types that were not present in Dragon Age II (more on that later).

This DLC is visually impressive, using all new set pieces (including a set of desert ruins, a Carta base, and the interior of a Grey Warden fortress) and a location outside of Kirkwall or its immediate vicinity. Hawke and a chosen party of three head into the Vinmark Mountains in pursuit of a group of dwarven Carta members who have made an assassination attempt against Hawke. I have not completed the DLC with all of the different party members available, but I can safely say that there are significant (and pleasant) tie-ins for Varric, Anders, and Bethany (presumably Carver as well) as you proceed through the DLC. Although it is told largely through the prism of combat, as you would expect, there is a fairly hefty dose of story in Legacy. Several smaller stories are told through side quests, and the main plot thread takes us some place unexpected in the climactic scene as you confront the DLC’s final boss. The encounters in this DLC are a little more thought out than many of the ones in the original game, with scenarios such as enemy archers attacking from raised positions, and areas you are herded into that have been deliberately trapped (complete with activation levers! Try turning some of these traps on their owners instead!) New enemies include brontos (the large dwarven pack animals) which make charge attacks that will bowl members of the party over and have tough hides, the re-designed genlocks (who are now quite distinct from the hurlocks; especially their alphas!) and the Alpha darkspawn that were absent from Hawke’s foray into the Deep Roads in the original game. Also returning are the deep stalkers, who are in large-scale battles with spiders at several points during the DLC.

Legacy also features no fewer than three boss encounters that have some unique elements to them. The final boss uses a lot of impressive visual effects and set pieces, but quickly grows repetitive. You’ll see what I mean.

One of the selling points of this DLC will no doubt be the large amount of gold and gear that can be obtained by playing it. You should note before launching the DLC that you will find a goodly number of useful green items scattered throughout it, and the relative power of these items is determined by Hawke’s level when you enter the DLC. None of the new items improve as you level, so if you visit Legacy very early in the game (when you’re still leveling frequently and replacing gear often) you may not get the best bang for your buck. In addition, only Hawke’s new weapon is truly awesome; the other items may not be as useful later in the game when you have access to many powerful items. I personally attempted Legacy a few quests before proceeding into the Deep Roads, and then in a post-game save. Hawke’s new weapon (typed appropriately for you based on your weapon group, i.e. a dagger or a longsword) is pretty dang awesome. It will begin with a high damage for your level and add a little to a key attribute for your class. As you make your way through the Grey Warden fortress, it will gain three upgrades that you’ll select from a total pool of twelve, including an elemental damage upgrade.

Even before the sale of junk items from Legacy, you’ll have easily made 40 gold or more. In addition, your party will gain a large amount of experience in the play-through (for example, I leveled from 11-14 just through playing the DLC); especially if you complete all of the available side quests.

I genuinely enjoyed this one. It’s easily worth the $10 in my estimation, and shows the care that I thought was typical of DLC in the original

After joining this site smack dab in the middle of a two month internship followed by my final semester at college I have not had much time to make a post. Luckily for me things have slowed a bit and I have found time to do things other than study…like blog, as I’m about to do now.

I caught this bit of news on a few websites and I couldn’t help but voice my opinion on the matter, which has to do with the casting of the lead for “Bourne Legacy”, which is in essence a spin-off of the original Bourne trilogy. It is being directed by Tony Gilroy who previously directed Oscar nominated “Michael Clayton”, and the quirky rom-com-spy-thriller…thingy, “Duplicity”. However; he is most notably known by fans of the Bourne franchise for working on the screenplays of the first three.

Little is known about “Bourne Legacy” as far as the plot is concerned other than it takes place in the same universe, at roughly the same time (most likely following the events of Ultimatum), and is not a reboot/remake, will not contain Jason Bourne’s character, but his presence in the world will be known by characters within “Legacy”…hence why I consider this to basically just be a spin-off…just one not containing any previously known characters.

I’ve always been skeptical about “Bourne Legacy” and the closer and closer this project gets to actually being made the more and more I wish they would just not make another film tied into that universe, or wait for Greengrass and Damon to come back for a fourth. But this being Hollywood, where studios love to milk popular franchises dry, it is going to be made whether fans or non-fans like it or not. So, the best I can hope for is that they don’t totally mess it up.

I think what has many worried, including myself, is the actor who will be cast in the lead role. More recently speculation as to who the studio might go for has increased with many names being thrown around and at one point Shia LaBeouf’s name was mentioned and I had almost lost just about all faith that they could pull of anything comparable to the original trilogy. (I think it is pretty obvious that I’m not a fan of LaBeouf…) Luckily it seems that he will not test for the film. Within the last few days it seems that the list of possible actors has gotten shorter and below are four guys who the studio want for testing:

(Garrett Hedlund, Joel Edgerton, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans)

Personally, as a big fan of the first three, the only guy on that list that I can even remotely see playing a character similar to Bourne is Edgerton. He has an edge to him, and doesn’t have the “pretty boy” looks of the other three, a characteristic that I do not associate with Jason Bourne. Not to mention that from what I have seen from these four, Edgerton is the better actor, but of course that is just my opinion and I really haven’t seen enough from any of them to draw any strong conclusions.

Anyway, they will be testing for the role in the first week of April, not sure when we will get an official announcement as to who they pick but it is a decision I eagerly await. I’m trying to keep some faith in this project, hoping they keep the franchise alive long enough for possibly Damon and Greengrass to team up once again.

Personally, I would love for them to cast Edgar Ramirez who was phenomenal in Carlos, and continue the story with his character, who played Paz, a fellow spy tracking Bourne down in the third film where he got little screen time and just about zero lines. I think the best route to take with the story of “Bourne Legacy” would be to start up right after his interactions with Bourne’s character in Ultimatum and have him investigate a bit about the conspiracies below the surface, which eventually leads to him being chased down as he tries to figure it all out, focusing on what happened with Bourne and other Treadstone/Blackbriar agents. This way they could actually set up the return of Matt Damon as Bourne because of course it would all eventually lead back to him.

But who knows. Tony Gilroy is a competent director and great writer, so “Bourne Legacy” does have a chance, it is just that my love of the original Trilogy that has me worried. Still I’ll probably be there opening day…having watched the first three the night before.

What are your thoughts on the short list/”Bourne Legacy”? Who, out of the four, would you choose? Which actor would you choose who isn’t on that list?