A Flash audio recording with a concept art slide show narrating the story gap between DG: The Awakening and DG2.
This material is fine as long as you have your expectations set that it's basically additional audio that resembles the voice acting in DG1 and 2 that occurs before, during, and after the levels of the story mode. The negative comments were all about how they thought they were buying a game DLC, which—barring the description being misleading at the time of purchase—is user error. It's clear that this is like any extra edition of a game where they offer additional features like artwork, audio, and other digital files to supplement the game, not additional game content. It's a 30-minute Flash audio with concept art recapping the events that led to DG2.
The Positives:
-With proper expectations, you will like it as long as you like the audio and voice acting of the two games.
-The story recounts the events leading up to DG2, effectively reviewing how the new alien threat was identified, specifically scrutinizing how characters you interact with in the full game responded to the initial attack.
-The audio and voice acting is the same quality as the game; the concept art is nice, though don't expect it to be the quality of the game's graphics or anything.
The Negatives:
-This is not a game, so don't play it expecting gameplay and leave a negative review just for that. To me, that's like buying something on Amazon and giving a low rating for shipping issues. Rate the audio for what it is, not for the sole fact that it's not a game.
-Personally, I thought the DG2 story was a lot weaker than DG1, to the point where I'd read or listen to the script and not be able to retain any details regarding what was happening even five minutes later. Eventually, I figured it out...but only because they finally just tell you what is happening in the last few levels of the game. I revisited this Flash audio after playing the game, and it made more sense than the first time I listened. Basically, the support characters you use that give you your special ability in DG2 all recount how the alien presence was first identified and responded to, scrutinizing the action of the characters. It's cool that it allows you to show that you remember DG1 and that you were paying attention to the audio by giving you ~3 selections as to which map they're referring to or whether the individuals are guilty/not guilty. So, it eventually made sense, but I still didn't get as engaged as I did in DG1, which is why it took so long.
-I like the "deep cut" of them mentioning a planet and having you select which map was from it, but seeing as the game came out ~7 years after the original, I don't think anyone would remember that (I didn't, and I played every map 5-10 times for all of the modes in DG1 years ago).
Overall, whether you like this will be dependent on whether you like DG and whether you can tolerate the DG2 story long enough to become invested. Therefore, I recommend it for die-hard DG1 and 2 fans, suggesting you treat it like an audiobook and see if you like it. I would not recommend this to anyone else, but that's the same as any digital extras for any game: it's meant for people who love the series and want to show their support by purchasing the special edition; it's not meant for the average person. Because of that, I think it's very well done for the die-hard fans, so I recommend for them. I wouldn't suggest someone who mutes the voices and plays DG1 and 2 as straight tower-defense games, however.
