This article was written by Elly Shepherd, one of our lovely contributors. For more information on this writer or if you’d like to get involved yourself, take a look at our Contributors page.
The Kingdom of Ferelden is about to be destroyed by the Blight. Orc-like creatures are rising out of the ground and guess what: it’s up to you to find yourself an army and defeat the archdemon. King of fantasy RPGs and the witty retort, BioWare‘s Dragon Age:Origins might just blow your socks off.
REVIEW-UP:
BioWare first announced this game in 2004 and we finally got our itchy fingers on it in 2009. It was explicitly described at the ‘spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate‘, the pioneering 90s RPG series from the developer, although it was always aimed to appeal to a broader audience and was developed for the console as well as the PC.
The moment I put DA:O in the tray of my PS3 I had no idea how much of my life I was about to invest. I cut my gaming teeth on Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights as a teenager so this was a familiar world and style of play for me; only, so much more accessible and so much less frustrating, and with many more romance options. (I’ll get to those shortly). Having now played it and its various DLCs multiple times on both PS3 and PC, and on various difficulty settings, I feel well qualified to say it’s a wonderful game that will keep giving you more on each playthrough. I would say, however, if you can: play it on PC as it suits the gameplay marginally better.
Here you are, about to enter a dungeon. Note: the doggy companion. Everyone likes a dog, right? And this one brings you cake (actually happens).
In Dragon Age: Origins, a darkspawn invasion threatens the kingdom so it’s up to you, Grey Warden, and your motley band of companions to gather your armies and this provides a great spine to hang numerous quests from. It also results in an epic end and beginning (the Ostagar sequence). I finished the game the first time at 04:00 in the morning, emotionally exhausted because I… just… couldn’t… stop.
It’s similar in structure to the plot of Mass Effect 3 and BioWare used it again because – well, it works. You get the overarching pull through and the opportunity for great richness and variance in side-quests. It’s also easier for an RPG that has so much player choice to have such a structured ‘foldback’ narrative (eg your choices have an impact but there are inevitable events that move the plot along regardless of these). As the characters are very well written and developed, the plot is all the more compelling and replayable.
On the PC you can use this aerial view. These bears are about to get owned!
Very much like previous (and subsequent) BioWare outings the emphasis is on party based combat; you have mages, warriors and rogues, and you are the tactical genius deciding how best to deploy all of their many and varied skills. This is much simpler and easy to use in Dragon Age: Origins and with far better AI – if you don’t want to, you don’t have to control the other characters on the lower difficulty settings as they’ll look after themselves. There are also a few puzzles and riddles as decoration on the ‘butt-kicking, for goodness’ cake.
The difficult levels mean that the most casual player won’t be frustrated and will be able to enjoy the game – equally even Sun Tzu would be challenged by the Nightmare setting. There are so many levels of planning and thought that you find more and more to consider in combat as you go along. On my first playthrough I just wanted to stay alive and complete the thing, but on the latest playthrough I managed a mix of ‘hard’ and ‘nightmare’ by thinking through each individual boss, judicious use of protection potions and spells and a fair bit of… dying and respawning. Many of the spells you can use interact with each other which can lead to some interesting surprises, not always to your favour. Try glyph of paralysis on glyph of repulsion – go on, I dare you.
Banging hot: my dwarven rogue romancing Morrigan, witch of the wilds.
The romance ‘achievements’ also add a lot to gameplay. When you are in dialogue with any of your party members or indeed, in your decisions during quests, you can impact on their approval or disapproval of you and, for four of the characters, you can have a romance complete with slushy music and cutscenes you probably wouldn’t want your mum seeing. It can be a delicate business, particularly if you are trying to double date (I left poor Zevran in a terrible logic loop by refusing to chose between him and Alistair). It is a very compelling mechanic and adds a new dynamic to choices you make throughout the game. Also, the characters are so well written (although I found Leliana a little less so) and with largely great dialogue which is reminiscient of Joss Whedon on his best game.
The graphics are of their time and so not wonderful, although if you have a high-spec PC you can get a nice look. I found too many of the characters looked and dressed alike which got a little dull. The big vistas – for example, the dwarven city of Orzammar or Ostagar – were great, but some of the detail wasn’t quite worked out which is understandable on a game of this size and vintage.
With DLC (like Awakening, pictured here) you can reach the dizzy heights of levels 30+.
The voice-acting in the game is fantastic and well directed – even with the less important characters. There are also some wonderful moments for sound design, especially the various areas of the Deep Roads where it really gives you a deep and unpleasant case of the creeps, Resident Evil style. At other points things get a bit repetitive and borderline annoying, especially in markets. The combat music still gets my heart racing so they are certainly doing a lot right.
Dragon Age: Origins sets a high watermark, certainly for BioWare, in replay value. The problem I had with making different player choices was that when I got to various decision points I didn’t want to make a different choice because I was emotionally attached to the decision I had made. However, I still enjoyed playing the game through again and getting every little bit of combat perfect, making sure I picked everything up. Making different choices (when I did…) does lead to a sufficiently worthwhile difference to validate replaying however – which is very often not the case in RPGs, including unfortunately the sequel Dragon Age II.
Here my high level mage converses with a corpse.
Different classes do offer a different experience, although if you play often with different party members this can be limited. Rogues have an advantage in that you will never come across a chest that you can’t open. For me, mages offer by far the most awesome experience in terms of the damage you can do, especially at higher levels; now I have gone mage I am never going back. I found warrior quite dull, for example, and spent the whole time playing as Morrigan.
All six origin stories are worth playing but, however, not all of the same standard. The Dwarf Noble Origin I think is brilliant but the Circle Mage story by comparison is a little dull. This can give players a poor impression and mean they don’t carry on to Ostagar where things get better. What is brilliant is how differently NPCs treat you throughout based on your Origin; certain endings for example, aren’t open to anyone but the Human Noble (hint, hint).
Get used to the inventory screen, you’re going to be seeing a lot of it.
What makes the game innovative and different from other titles: the innovation in Dragon Age: Origins is in the writing and in making fantasy RPGs accessible to a much broader spectrum of gamers. The investment in writing and character development really paid off – one testament to this is just how much Dragon Age fan fiction is out there – and the characters really struck a chord. It enriches the game. Even now, it remains a high watermark for dialogue and NPC character development.
This was also arguably the first AD&D rooted fantasy roleplay game to achieve mainstream(ish) break through, certainly in units sold. You didn’t need to understand or be interested in fantasy games to enjoy it or to play it well. It’s a fantastically rich title with a lot to offer, both to committed and casual RPG players. A word of warning though: you may not want to do anything else in your leisure time for some months. Get in the tinned goods, draw the curtains and welcome to Thedas.
RATING-UP:
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This article was written by Elly Shepherd, one of our lovely contributors. For more information on this writer or if you’d like to get involved yourself, take a look at our Contributors page.
