Dragon Age: Origins Review

To be honest, I finished Dragon Age a few weeks ago, but I am one of those gamers who: A)Likes to sit and think about a game they have just finished for a little while, before touching it again. B) Doesn't typically play games a second time.

Now I think I am ready to tell the imaginary readers of our blog what they need to know about Dragon Age: Origins. For a start, Dragon Age is a game I will be playing again. It is an excellent video game that I would definitely recommend for christmas if you're a fan of RPGs. The lore and history of the world is in depth, the writing is mature and complex and the combat most tactical and enjoyable I've seen in an RPG to date.

Let's start with the combat. It is not a particularly new idea to have 4 party members working together to take down waves of enemies, but Dragon Age is certainly the most engaging tactical experience I can remember from an RPG point of view. It is not at all uncommon to fight 10 enemies at once, with this spiralling up to 20 now and then, not counting massive battles. For this reason you will need to use the four members of your party (who can be a warrior, rogue or mage) in tandem with one another to defeat a wide variety of reasonably intelligent enemies. Because you will be pausing a lot, I would recommend getting the game on PC, as the console versions don't really allow for the tactical top-down view that can be useful in massive fights. There are a wide range of spells and abilities as well as class customizations which means there's lots of room for replayability (I'd like to know if that's really a word).

Speaking of replayability, let's have a look at the replayability value of this game. You can choose from 6 different origin stories which define your character's position in the world. Each origin gets a 2 hour starting story before branching off into the main quest and does not only affect the opening hours of the game. I for one am aware of several quests I missed because of my origin choice, and one very cool ending to the game which requires you to have a specific origin story. Long story short, this is quite possibly the best game in terms of value for money I have seen for a long, long time (it's only $60 dollars or so on steam). I racked up 60 hours on this game before finishing it and I didn't even get the achievement for finishing 75% of the side quests.

The music in Dragon Age also deserves a mention, it contains an excellent score by the world reknowned composer Inon Zur, who has done the soundtrack for many Triple A titles. The music is used well by the game to create some very cinematic moments that you'd struggle to find in most modern day films. The graphics also deserve a mention, they're not top notch, but you should be able to run them on high settings if you have a modern PC, and you will probably only see lag during some of the extremely large battles.

Let's move on to my favourite part of this game, the story and the writing. BioWare is well known for its writing and Dragon Age is no different. The story is engaging and interesting from the beginning of the tale and the choices you make in this game are so interesting you'll want to replay it just to see what happens when you do one thing instead of the other. On top of that, the characters in this game are very well done. The party members at the beginning of the story all give interesting impressions, but once you go beyond the surface you'll find that none of them are exactly as you thought they were. They all are complex people with very complex opinions and feelings. The plot feels the same way, in that not all of the choices are black and white, and there really aren't good or bad choices in the game, as opposed to what you think is the best option.

Summing up, there aren't enough games out there like Dragon Age: Origins. Great storyline with interesting party members and dialogue, coupled with an interesting new world and fun combat is not something you see everyday. There's only so much about it I can repeat before you need to see the game for yourself. If you like RPGs, especially BioWare RPGs, this game is a must. Christmas isn't that far away, so if you don't have a copy already and then go grab one or guilt trip a relative into it!

Dragon Age: Origins Goes Gold!

Big news for fans of Dragon Age: Origins today, the game has finally gone gold after 5 years of development time. Dragon Age: Origins is an in-depth high fantasy RPG from BioWare, that has been continously hailed by BioWare developers as "A spiritual successor to Baulder's Gate". BioWare's strong writing and excellent plot development are sure to stand out again, with developers telling us that we won't see the typical "Good, neutral and bad choices" but rather choices in the world that are shades of grey. This new, dark and realistic world, combined with intense tactical party based combat similar to the RPGs of old promise to bring an excellent game which is rumoured to be 80 to 90 hours for an average player. Dragon Age: Origins will be released on November 3rd for the U.S and November 5th for the rest of the world on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

For those interested, the reuters article on the release can be found here.