Review: Fragments of Ferelden

Fragments of Ferelden is set in a bizarre and twisted perversion of the world of the original Dragon Age. Parts of Thedas have been pulled into a strange dimension called the Labyrinth where the survivors’ ancestors now dwell. You play a Templar, guided by some bizarre visions and (in my case) the predisposition to behead anything you come across. Anyway, things are awry and it is for the good of the people that you shall go forth and defeat “the alpha”. You know the drill: “bad guys there: you go kill”.

Let me get one thing straight before I begin: I enjoyed this module and I hope to see more released by this guy. If you have dragon age and a spare few hours then pick it up. That said, be aware that for very obvious reasons this is hardly going to be remembered as the shining example of what the dragon age toolset is capable of.

The story is weird and clearly in dire need of a sequel to explain the largest plot points. Herein lies my biggest problem with this module: it simply brings no real closure. Whilst you do, admittedly, defeat a comparative evil there is no good explanation of the world around you (a world which, despite a schizophrenic cast that includes a drow, somehow just about retains coherency). Quite clearly, the storytelling needs a lot of refining to make it palatable.

The second problem is the total lack of ambient noise: all you hear as you explore the big caverns is the annoying music. There is nothing else, which lends this eerie and slightly unnerving air. Unfortunately, whilst this might have made sense in a tight horror game, this module should have been trumpeted with the full auditory works, even if that was just an echo effect as your footsteps run bounce off majestic walls. The lack of voice acting only serves, in this case, to amplify the silence.

On that note, however, I must confess that I am glad that no voice-actors were brought in. Whilst the initial effect of no voice actors is very bizarre, after my having just finished the fully voice-acted vanilla game, the dialogue needs considerable work for it to seem anything short of jarring or hammy if spoken aloud. A little more appreciation of the nuances that mark out the best writing would not have gone amiss here. In particular, the head dwarf deshyr, who was portrayed as playing subtle political games, had lines that seemed to hit as hard and bluntly as a hammer upon an anvil.

To be honest, however, any further criticism that I can make (such as the pacing of the combat which can at times seem a little off, or the flaws with how quests work) is probably best reserved for a follow up review on the hopefully in production second part of the story. This module, as it stands, is a remarkable achievement. It brings a few hours of new content to dragon age, and did so remarkably soon after the toolset was released. I’d recommend that you pick it up and try it, if only to get a sense of what people will be releasing in a few months. It is highly flawed, but enjoyable and (hopefully) the beginning of a learning curve for the community.

Get Fragments of Ferelden here.