Dragon Age: Origins

Yes, its that good i wrote the title in capital letters.

Im not one for RPG's usually, i get bored of the story, and sometimes so many side quests just get me confused at where i should go next. Dragon Age is something different however, something unique, something amazing!

You play one of 3 races, each with different upbringings and a selection of 3 different classes, warrior, rogue, mage. Each combination has its own individual storyline before throwing you into the vast world of Fereldan.

You are recruited into a society known as the "Grey Wardens" where you find it is your responsibility to gather the races of Fereldan against a common enemy, the Darkspawn. A vast horde of Darkspawn, known as a blight, is approaching, and it is ultimately up to you to unite and save Fereldan.

You are, however, not alone in this feat. Characters you meet throughout the world may want to join you, they may even fall in-love with you, betray you or simply leave you. From Drunk Dwarven warriors to elf assassins, the variety available is incredible.

The game itself is huge, i've clocked well over 30 hours and only completed main campaign once, constantly questioning the choices Ive made and wondering how I could have changed my fate. Should I have executed that general? Should I have let that assassin live? Should I have had a child with my rather sexy mage friend? Who knows? Your decisions really do affect you gameplay, and they do so throughout the entire game.

Another very important thing to mention is this, it has an 18 age rating. The game has some very dark moments which won't be for the easily upset, rape, murder and slavery are but a few things rife in the land of Feralden. However, you do also get to sleep with you companions if they like you enough. Every cloud, etc.

Anyway, to the bare bones. The graphics, if you have the computer to run it, are very beautiful. The spells look great and the blood-spatter realistic. Textures and character animation are of very high quality, and the game is, as a result, very pretty to look at.

As i mentioned earlier, the game is long. Very long. A good portion of side quests gives the player the opportunity to really explore the world, whilst the main questline is epic from start to finish, the writing of the story is top quality, its immersive and addictive. You won't want to stop playing.

The gameplay itself isnt just long, but exiciting. The player gets to level each of his party members serperately, putting points into stats and choosing certain skills (a la classic RPG system). Also, players get the opportunity to personalise the class they took, by unlocking/learning certain specializations in the game, for example a warrior can become a champion/beserker (each class has 4 dfferent specializations) etc. The fighting is brutal and really doesnt pull any punches, this game is an 18 rating, and it doesn't forget it. Decapition is always a good way to end a fight.

Finally with the bonus of optional DLC (Downloadable Content) players can extend the game. I got two promotion codes for DLC free in my gamebox.

Overall

Gameplay 5/5 - Amazing Story, Fighting is great, Huge world....did i mention the great story?
Graphics 5/5 - This really is a very pretty and detailed world, a lot of effort has been put into making such a huge world so beautiful.
Sound 4/5 - On ocassion, the voice acting could be better. Very rare ocassions however.
Replayability 5/5 - This game can easily be replayed 4+ times. That many different choices and character combinations must be explored.
Value 5/5 - This game is brilliant, its imersive, long, addictive and plays like a dream. Definately one all PC gamers should add to their collection.

Well, here it is, finally torn myself away from Dragon Age to attempt to persuade everyone who hasnt bought this yet, to BUY IT!

I think theres quite a lot of deluded gamers out there at the moment i think, and i dont blame them. Theres a strange idea at the moment of what an RPG is. What it is not, is a game where you play through a bunch of quests and have persistant scoring and stats. Borderlands (yeah ok i know it was labeled a 'Role playing shooter') falls into this category, and (you'll hate me for this...) so does Fallout 3.

Personally i dont think collecting things, progressing through quests and talking to people makes up an RPG. I argue that these games are first person shooters with some depth!

My point is, you are bound to get kids who spend their time playing these games, and other intense, bubblegum shooters like Call of Duty, then when it comes to something like Dragon Age: Origins, become bored, unsatisfied and demanding some run and gun gameplay! (dont get me wrong, im guilty too!)

All of this brings me to suggest that this game is a TRUE RPG!

This personifies through the whole game, as you'll find out as you play through its vast content (and i mean vast). A great example to demonstrate what i mean is, combat usually consists of pausing the game before you begin, assessing the room you've just walked into, working out the enemies you have to tackle, the possibilty of triggering a trap sending shards of metal into your mates!

This thoughtful proccess that occurs for combat to be successful admittedly is not for some, and if your feeling tired, or possibly had a bit to drink, you might tend to find it too much hard work - but see that as a posotive aspect, rather than negative.

Millions of weapon and skill variants help keep Dragon Ages' combat consistently entertaining, forcing you to use your imagination when a plan isnt working - perhaps you need to mix up a few poisness bombs to dispel the line of archers ahead, or just send in your two knights with your crossbow weilding rogue providing covering fire.... you get the idea!

In terms of the story, i cant emphasise enough how perfectly its put together, and would make a good book its so well done! Admittedly its a bit of a spin off at times from Lord Of The Rings, but not enough for it to be a problem. I was overjoyed to find that the storyline is so shapeable to your choices during conversation, possibly the best factor of this game for my tastes.

The cutscenes are fantastic, some are even breathtaking, battlescenes fit for one of the LOTR movies, truly epic stuff. The same can be said for conversations you have with people, the same engine as Mass Effect used to expect nothing but brilliance in this area.

I really cant cover all the bases in this review, this game truly is sheer brilliance, and expeirience you can only benefit from through playing it yourself.

I ought to mention graphics, even though with gameplay this good, graphics take a serious back seat. However the developers have polished this aspect of the game off brilliantly, similar graphics to Mass Effect, but higher quality textures and no film grain, also a bigger variant of areas to see.

So, to conclude...

Graphics - 9/10
Storyline - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Characters - 10/10
Dialogue - 10/10

Overall - 10/10 A proper RPG for proper RPG lovers!

Ran perfectly, no issues whatsoever on the following:

Quad Core 3.8GHz
4GB RAM
Win7 64
8800GT

Thanks for reading!

These type of games I can find profundly fun depending on the story and gameplay that orientates around it. Now if I put this and perhaps Fable 2 next to each other I find myself liking Fable more.

My Reasons:

Backstory:
- Somehow you are just chosen to fight against the dark, no real reason, just your picked because you can fight off a few easy enemies and some rats. (human storyline)
- Why is it always three races vs...!!! Human-Elven-Dwarf vs what basically look like a messed up Ork race.

Gameplay:
- Your basically point and clicking the right mouse button all through this game.
- The friendly group AI sometimes wanders off and dies (although I like having AI with me this is annoying)
- You seem rediculously inferior compared to the first set of proper enemy.
- The path can be rediculously linear. Point-Click-Fight-Point-Click-Fight, you can not work a way around enemy.

Graphics:
- All be it pleasing to see the up close graphics are impressive, the blood splatter all over the body is just beyond stupidity. (especially when you fight rats at the start haha!)
- The camera is very jittery! Not framerate, the camera.

I was a little sceptical about Dragon Age: Origins when I first started reading previews in PC Gamer / Zone etc. To me it sounded like just another NWN rehash after Obsidian took over the licence for NWN2. I wont disagree there are certainly many similarities but that's where it ends. I'll compare the games to cakes as it's always a good place to start!

Bioware's game has polish. You can feel the quality when you first start playing it. The lore and backstories are so well written that you can spend ages perusing old texts. The locations are just oozing with rich detail that makes you stop and go "Cool" a lot of the time even when you are being smacked about by a rather large Dragon.

Now all this is just sugar coating if Bioware had not delved deeper into the cake itself. The characters and plot are just superb. The first time I heard Alistair and Morrigan arguind whilst I was exploring shocked me. After that the Banter had me in stitches. Voice acting on games is usually fairly poor but having drafted it many unknowns as well as some more familiar names (Tim Curry) you realise that this is not just a point and click game but a world that is breathing life where characters are intereacting outside of your control. I am especially pleased Bioware did away with the alignment system and a much easier Like / dislike system is in place that can benefit or hinder your progress depending on how you react to your team. Help a blind old begger and Leliana will approve. Nick the money out of his pot and Morrigan will want to make your dinner. Morrigan and Leliana are not the best of friends but provide some very interesting comedy moments...along with Alistair. These aren't the only members of your party as there are a good few more you can befriend on your way and each one has his / her own history and backstory that can make a replay of the game feel like an entirely new experience.

I cannot praise Bioware enough for bringing back not just some glossy graphics, decent mages (yes they were naff in NWN but here they are superb) but also characters I felt a genuine empathy for. I knew each ones story and where they fitted in the world and fighting together was as a team and not just as a point and click session.

So if NWN was a sponge cake then this is a fruit cake with a double helping of cream on the side. DA:O has loads of flavour beneath the icing and many surprises too.

If you don't like fruit cake then may I suggest you stick with a simple iced bun!

Not going to go into a full review, but if you've played fallout 3 and were annoyed by the ending then you'll find a similar deal here where once you've completed the main quest line the game ends. This is the only problem i had with the game and it did provide many hours of fun gameplay. But beware the ending can leave a bitter taste.