Dragon Age: Origins is regarded as the spiritual successor to the iconic classic RPG Baldur’s Gate.
It marks Bioware’s return to dark-fantasy, and the studio has clearly applied lessons learned from Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This has resulted in a game that while being deep and complex, is also accessible enough to hook gamers early on.
Origins
The game kicks off in one of six different ways, depending on which class and race the player chooses.
Each of the six introductory stories offers a few hours of gameplay, and allows the player to get to grips with the basic control scheme and leveling system. All the stories tie into the main campaign, at which point players will begin taking on additional party members at their discretion.
Party time
Mage’s may be inclined to build a solid tanking character to compliment their spell casting, with two additional slots available for a variety of configurations. Players can build a melee combat heavy group, or focus on magic with three mages for example. The choices are limited to the characters that players meet, but there is enough customization to make second playthroughs feel unique and fresh.
Not only will the players’ main character level up, but so will their party members. Players will therefore have to choose the attribute points, skills and spells for all their party members as they grow in power and experience. Players will also be able to customize each character’s items, weapons and armour, as well as control them in combat.
Naturally, different attributes will be useful in different ways; for example, it is always handy having a rogue on board for identifying and disarming traps, or picking locks, while having a character with the ability to intimidate NPCs can yield easy gains.
Characters in the player’s party will react to the player’s actions. For example, you will lose points (literally) with the cynical witch Morrigan for performing unnecessary good deeds, while the religious Bard Leliana will praise such actions.
Each character has a barometer which represents their feelings toward the player’s character. Points will be awarded or taken away, depending on the player’s actions and the personality of the character.
When a character’s approval rating increases enough they gain bonuses depending on their specialty. Players can also increase their standing with various party members by giving them gifts. Different characters will react differently to different gifts however, depending on their personality.
A good approval rating can lead to possible romantic interest, while a poor approval rating may lead to a character leaving the player’s party.
Combat
Players can at anytime pause the game using the space key. While paused, it is possible to issue different commands to different party members. Shrewd tacticians will employ strategists such as allowing the tank to build “agro” with the enemy creeps, before swooping in with the damage per second (DPS) characters to wipe out enemies quickly. Of course there are limitless possibilities here, a fact which lends the game a healthy degree of variation and replayability.
It is also possible for players to bring up a tactics menu, which allows them to condition each character to perform certain actions in specific situations.
On anything harder than easy, combat requires a healthy degree of micro management. Players will either need to perfect a party balance within their tactics menu, or pause every few seconds in combat to issue commands such as heal, ‘shield bash’, ‘fireball’ or the dozens of other possibilities. Simply clicking on enemies “Diablo Style” will not get players far, and to play the game this way would be missing the point of Dragon Age.
While it is deep, complex and rewarding, the combat system requires patience, and for this reason it will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Indeed, many casual gamers will scoff at the precision and tactical micro management required to advance in Dragon Age on even medium difficulty.
When a party member’s health bar runs out in a combat sequence, they collapse to the ground. As long as there is at least one party member standing at the end of combat, all fallen members will get back up. When this happens they will take on injuries which are varied and will have some sort of negative impact on the character, such as decreased hit point regeneration. These ailments can be remedied with injury kits or rest.
Thoroughbred RPG
One expects nothing less than a classic RPG from Bioware. This means limited inventory slots, detailed attribute point distribution, item requisites and so on. Players can learn how to make traps, potions or poisons by gathering resources around them, or purchasing items. Recipes for a plethora of items are available at different stores, but invariably have skill requirements in order to learn.
Enemies will drop items which will range from worthless junk to valuable weapons and treasures. Knowing what to leave and what to keep becomes an art in itself, and staying solvent is important in Dragon Age.
Like most classic exploration-based, story-driven RPGs, Dragon Age has an open world which players can explore using a map. Traveling from place to place is sometimes disrupted by enemy encounters, but the auto-travel system saves players having to physically traverse endless terrain; a much bemoaned feature of the like of the Elder Scrolls series.
Players can perform side quests for cash, items and experience, and of course there is a meaty story progression which involves numerous requisite quests.
Technically speaking
Visually, Dragon Age is just what we expect from a AAA current generation RPG. While there have been muffled complaints around the textures on the console version, the PC version looks great. High-res textures, vivid colours, jaw dropping lighting effects and intricately woven landscapes make it one of the most visually pleasing games of the year.
Characters have weight and feel firmly attached to the ground, while their animations are suitably detailed.
One of our pet gripes with previous Bioware games is the invisible barrier problem. Players will often run to a point map where they will get stuck and run on the spot. The inability to run over a 2 foot high mound in the terrain is silly, and makes an otherwise open game world feel constrained and limited. It rarely comes to light, but still remains a pet peeve that Bioware seems intent on perpetuating.
The sound in Dragon Age is top notch, and bar the occasional misplaced line, or badly delivered phrase, the voice acting is enjoyable. This is dependent on the characters in the player’s party, and we particularly enjoyed the voice and character of Morrigan who was voiced by Claudia Black (Chloe Frazer – Uncharted 2, Vala Mal Doran – Stargate, Helena – Crysis).
A number of additional touches round the experience off nicely. The game boots exceptionally quickly, and the interface feels light and responsive. Loads times are rarely longer than one would expect from levels as big as those in Dragon Age, and we did not experience any bugs or crashes.
Should you buy it?
In terms of value, one cannot fault the 60-80 hour average play-though time. This will vary depending on a number of factors, but it is safe to say it is a huge game, and if it bites then players are unlikely to feel shortchanged.
The only reason one should think hard before buying Dragon Age, is that it will not appeal to all gamers.
It is an elegant and rewarding title, but it requires patience and dedication. The fairly steep learning curve will put off instant gratification junkies, but gamers looking for a deep, compelling and epic fantasy RPG need look no further.
Reviewed on PC
AMD Phenom II 955BE, HD 5870, 8GB Ram, Win 7 64x
Second Opinion
Dragon Age Origins is one of those games that pulls you in. It is one of those games that you continue to play at 2 am even though you know you are tired and should get some rest. It is very reminiscent of the classic black isle/bioware rpg’s, and if you played any of the baldur’s gate,planescape torment,ect you will feel right at home. The game makes no apologies about being old school, this is not an action RPG as most of the modern RPG tend to be. For me this is BioWare’s best game since baldur’s gate, while all the other games that followed like Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire and Mass Effect are all good games they don’t measure up to Baldur’s Gate, while Dragon Age does.
The key thing about Dragon Age: Origins is how your decisions impact the game. Certain NPC’s you won’t even have access to unless you make certain decisions. The best part of the game is probably the characters and the story. Yes the whole concept/formula has been used before but Bioware still manages to pull it through some brilliant writing and character development added with some brilliant voice actors. Very few games have the ability to get you upset at the actions that NPC’s take but this game does.
As far as length goes the game has loads of replayability. With the six origins it has at least the potential for 6 playthroughs. On top of that, certain quests have different ways to solve them depending on your background and different options. You will want to play the game a few times to experience all the different options.
I am currently busy with my third playthrough having put in about 160 hours and I have only completed about 70% of the game in total.
Overall if I were to give the game a rating it would be 95%. If you are an rpg gamer this is a game you must get. While it is very difficult to say if it is better than Baldur’s Gate or the other classic RPGs, it is certainly in the same bracket. At about R325 it is worth every cent. Bioware certainly delivered on what they promised. Dragon Age: Origins is my goty of the year and should at least be picking up lots of RPG of the year awards.
Stefan9
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