The Return to Ostagar mission is very short, and is generally just a little longer than the Warden's Keep and Stone Prisoner quests. Also, players will spend most of their time retreading the same ground from the beginning of the main campaign, except now the war camp has been completely overrun with Darkspawn. It's also nice to revisit the site where your character was initiated into the Grey Wardens, but there's not much new to see except a couple brief areas near the end.

As expected, there will be plenty of Darkspawn to fight, and while there are a couple of bands that are standing in plain sight, there are plenty of ambushes to watch out for. A Darkspawn necromancer also provides some worthy resistance. However, the general difficulty of the quest becomes a little uneven at some points. After fighting off ambushes and avoiding traps, getting back into the Tower of Ishal is practically a letdown, since most of the creatures died with one hit. Even the finale turns out to be a little underwhelming, since all it takes are a few high-powered spells or backstabs to kill the necromancer while more heavily armored characters deal with the rampaging ogre. Players with top level characters should have little problem getting through the quest, depending on the difficulty setting.

Despite its brevity, the Return to Ostagar quest is well worth having since Cailan's weapons and armor are very useful and powerful. It's also very good for fans that appreciate having closure, like finding out what happened to Cailan's body. However, we were a little disappointed that we were unable to find Duncan body anywhere. Also, this quest seems best geared toward melee characters, since we didn't find any loot that suited mages, even in the remains of the area where the Circle of Magi camped out. When all taken together, Return to Ostagar provides an excellent reason to play load up Dragon Age again, if only for a little while, or perhaps start a new character. If nothing else, it helps prepare for the full expansion that will release in March.