Through the entire expansion, I kept wondering when my group mates would become interesting enough to care about.
However, it IS a lot more of the same with a few additions. The fights are generally the same (if easier), the enemies are the same (with a few exceptions), you will still stumble into predictable traps, you will be stripped of your equipment (again, /sigh), you will travel to new locations (but can't return to ferelden!? why??!) and you will meet new compatriots who are far less interesting and engaging.
It's the last that really brings the expansion down in my opinion. I understand that there wasn't too much more they could do with the characters from the expansion and bringing them back may have made the expansion feel flat. By the end of Origins, if you took the time to do so, you really got to know your traveling companions. But it was that connection with the characters and the fact that you knew them so well, that made having them around actually feel like you were a cohesive group.
The new characters are just disparate place holders that do their job (and do it well) but there is no connection between them and your character. Yes, Bioware had Oghren return, but that wasn't all that meaningful to me as I didn't particularly like him relative to the rest of the original crew to begin with. It would have been nice if some of the characters would at least have made an appearance. After all the expansion took place within 6 months of Origins. What happened to the group? Did they fall off the face of Ferelden?
Depending on how you finish Origins you do get some interaction with previous characters near the beginning of the game and that for me was one of the best moments of the game. Seeing Alistair as King and his interaction with my character as if with an old friend was meaningful. I just didn't get that with my new crew. Even the banter between the characters felt flat and had no spontaneity.
The new tier equipment (armor and weapons) is unbelievable and Awakenings has the best armor set in the game -- in both stats and appearance. My warrior looked as powerful as his sword could hit. That did make the expansion easier than Origins, but that isn't altogether a bad thing as some of Origins' fights were over the top in their difficulty. Hello, High Dragon, I'm looking at you.
I wasn't a fan of the new rune crafting ability as it takes a ridiculous number of runes to create anything meaningful and given the sheer number of armor sets and weapons that are now socketable, I simply stopped trying and really only equipped my character with runes. It would have been nice if there had been a merchant where some of the upper tier runes could have been purchased.
The new talents however, were outstanding ... speaking from a warriors perspective. My sword/shield and two-handed specialist could dish out and withstand serious damage. It really made my character feel epic. As if he really was the Hero of Ferelden and a force to be reckoned with. The Gift of the Mother is just a bad ass weapon, both in appearance and it's ability to mow down enemies.
All-in-all this is a worthwhile expansion with some great fights, but the lack of a direct emotional connection between your character (an by extension, you) and his followers brings the game down and makes the game just feel like another standard RPG.