Awakening, the expansion to the stellar Dragon Age: Origins, suffers in many areas, but is still an overall good game.
Depending on what you choose and how well equipped your imported character was, determines how difficult the game will be. All of the original game's abilities are here in addition to many new ones along with new specializations. This time around you're going to be traveling with a new set of people save for Oghren who chooses to become a Grey Warden this time around.
The narrative for Awakenings is actually really good. It brings to light several answers about the Darkspawn and Archdemon that weren't touched on in Origins. Outside of that however, there are some glaring issues with Awakening.
First off, money is almost completely devalued as an import character. My Origins character had just about every great piece of gear that was available in that game. I was expecting Awakening to bring some strong pieces to test. While it does give tier 8 and 9 gear, most of them don't come close to the Juggernaut or Legion set. By the end of Awakening, I had nearly 300 sovereigns and nothing to spend it on, even after the very expensive quests. New characters might find this a bit better off.
Secondly, the new characters just don't have that same feel as Origins. Sure, they have back stories and unique characteristics, but because Awakening comes in at around a third of the time it took to beat Origins, they never develop. Unlike Origins, you can't engage these characters in casual conversation on the road and you can raise their approval ratings way too fast just by giving them gifts or a compliment.
Next, frame rate issues are almost worse in this game than they were in Origins. You figure after taking the time to work out problems from Origins, Awakening would go off without a hitch. Large numbers of enemies or spell effects cause the game to slow to a crawl.
Not all is bad, however. The new abilities are fun, new environments look great, there's quite a bit of things to see and do, and the prospect of being an Arl of your own territory is a nice touch. You even get a few cameos from Origins and your exploits transfer over.
Awakening lasts about 20 hours or so for a first time player, but an experienced player can beat that in half. It's not worth the $40 asking price in most places, but you can get it used most of the time for about $10 which I would say is worth it. Overall, it's not necessary to play in order to grasp Origins, but it does have some more things to say that I'm sure most people will find interesting.
The Good: Interesting story, new abilities are fun, ability to import your character over from Origins.
The Bad: Money is far too easy to come by, new characters don't have time to develop, still struggling with frame rate issues.