The first of hopefully many downloadable content batches arrived this week for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Jaws of Hakkon is currently available for Xbox One and PC, with all other formats still awaiting a release date for the new content. Priced at £11.99, I was initially worried that the DLC was a little bit expensive, however, after playing through Jaws of Hakkon, I think the price was more or less correct. It possibly could have done with being a bit cheaper, but I definitely received more than I initially anticipated.

The DLC doesn’t just add a few more quests to the story line, it adds a whole new area that comes with its own quest line, side quests, war table operations, and sprawling landscape with new rifts to seal, shards to collect, and astariums to unlock. If you want to know what you’re getting yourself in for, just consider the amount of content available to you in any of the other Inquisition areas and that is essentially what you are buying here. To access the new content, you have to be at least level twenty and have eight power spare to unlock the new region.

Jaws of Hakkon sees the Inquisitor journey into Avvar territory in pursuit of the legend of the very first inquisitor, Inquisitor Ameridan. There, our friendly ensemble hope to discover exactly what fate befell Ameridan before he vanished without a trace. The new area is different from what we’ve seen already, it’s a bit more exotic than our previous settings and has plenty of parrots flying around to remind you of that. Additionally, there are new variants of creatures to fight, new tarot cards for your loading screens, and of course, a new dragon to fight.

The premise of Jaws of Hakkon was actually quite interesting, without wanting to give anything away, it tied in nicely with other side quests in the area that completed one larger picture by the end of the quest line. Additionally, there were a few more hints and questions raised to do with the ending of Inquisition, if you know what I mean.

The Avvar reminded me heavily of the wildlings from Game of Thrones, especially when scaling the wall to infiltrate the enemy camp. While the story and content wasn’t ground-breaking, nor did it feel entirely original, it was still really interesting and to be honest it was more than what I was expecting to receive in terms of substance.

There are a few things that I wish would have been included in the DLC. It would have been nice to have been given an Avvar companion, someone new to take into the field and possibly replace the character(s) you may have lost. Additionally, I wish more interaction had been added to Skyhold, such as more interactions with your various companions, or romance partner of choice.

When I first started playing Jaws of Hakkon, I couldn’t help but compare it to the DLC of Origins and Dragon Age II and assumed I would have it completed in a couple of hours. However, I was happily surprised to find that I spent a fair few hours playing this, bearing in mind that I am a completionist and so I chose to do all of the side quests/ shard gathering/ astariums etc. Of course, if you powered through the main quests only, it would take far less time.

Meg Pelliccio

Editor at Geeks Don't Lie

Meg appreciates gaming on all formats, but primarily spends her time achievement hunting to the extreme. Her passion for gaming began as a child, when first introduced to the Amstrad. A collector of gaming consoles past and present, Meg spends as much of her time rediscovering old classics as she does playing the latest releases.