The good news about Leliana's Song is that it tells an excellent story that provides a deeper appreciation of the character and her background. The bad news is, that's really the most it has to offer. Leliana's story starts in Denerim, where she's hired by clients to spread the "Orlesian Game" into Fereldan. This includes taking care of a few tasks such as eliminating a snitch, humiliating a local noble, and causing chaos at the local markets through theft. She's allowed a certain degree of freedom to do things her own way or pursue one or two side quests, but this sort of freedom is only found in the opening scene. Before long, she's set up and caught up in political conspiracy that might get her hanged as a traitor.

Dragon Age players should be very familiar with most of the locations shown in this story, including the Arl Rendon Howe's dungeon. Apart for one or two areas, players will be spending the majority of their time inside narrow hallways where there aren't many places to run or take cover during a fight. Things become a especially sticky when you consider the game's AI, which is prone to certain quirks (like running straight into a fire to pursue an enemy) unless players take the time to constantly pause and issue commands. However, players should already come to expect these issues.

The fundamental problem with the DLC expansion is that although it's great for those who are truly interested in learning about Leliana and her path to redemption, it's not so great for those looking for the deep gameplay that's key to the Dragon Age experience. For starters, players control up to three characters in a party (which includes Leliana) instead of the maximum four. Then there's the fact that the skill tree is lifted straight from Dragon Age: Origins, which makes perfect sense, but we would have still liked to see at least one signature skill that she could only pull off as an Orlesian spy and gave up when she joined the Chantry. Additionally, half of her skills don't have much use. Stealing is almost maxed out at the start of the game, but there's hardly anyone to pickpocket. Similarly, there's no sense in putting more than one point into Herbalism, Poison-Making or Trap-Making, since there are no side areas to collect raw materials.

We were hoping to make a lot of use out of Coercion, since we expected to do a lot of sweet talking as on Orlesian bard, but were very disappointed to find no speech opportunities at all. Many conversations are limited to two responses, few dialogue options significantly change the dynamic of the conversation, and practically none of them have any impact on how party members feel about you. There are one or two gifts to give, but approval exists only for the skill perks, not for any sort of side quest. Leliana's Song focuses solely on cutting through an army of soldiers instead of finding different solutions to problems.

Characters don't gain many levels during the course of this campaign, so players need to get by with a limited number of skills. Even so, it only took us about an hour or so to beat the campaign on hard difficulty. Also, the story doesn't have a lot of closure. We already knew that Leliana joined the Chantry to get away from life as a spy, but what happened to her allies after the adventure? They disappear from her life without even an epilogue. However, it should be noted that the enemy levels now scale to match the player's, making the boss fights (especially the final one) very challenging. The DLC also comes with a some powerful new items for the Origins and Awakening campaigns, including a special Rogue armor that has to be unlocked while playing Leliana's Song.

The items and story make the campaign worth picking up, but Dragon Age fans may be a bit put off by the limited gameplay and brevity. It certainly doesn't hurt to buy it now, considering it costs less than $10, but it's just as worthwhile to wait and see if it's ever bundled together with other expansions in a complete DLC pack.