Dragon Age: Origins Review
PrintFantasy role-playing games, bow before your new king
Dragon Age: Origins is the first in a new franchise from role-playing powerhouse BioWare, and while its swords ‘n’ sorcery setting may, at first glance, appear to be the result of an especially fruitful attempt at robbing J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave, don’t let that fool you. Dragon Age may very well contain one of the finest, most compelling videogame worlds ever created.
But that on its own isn’t what makes Dragon Age great. Rather, the game’s heart lies smack-dab at the intersection between setting and character development. It’s a fine line that many sprawling RPGs attempt to walk, yet BioWare has managed to cross the proverbial tightrope with startling ease. Chalk it up to years of experience with similar games, but with Dragon Age, BioWare has truly perfected its craft.
This is more or less your default camera view--though, more often than not, giant lightning balls don't cloud your vision.
The story initially appears to be something of a straight line but quickly spins out into a complex web, with you at the center. It’s a surprisingly personal experience—especially when contrasted with other story-based RPGs—that begins with your choice of an origin story. Depending on your race/class combination, you’ll encounter any one of multiple, wildly different opening scenarios. Your origin, then, follows you through the rest of the game. Human, elf, or dwarf, male or female, rich or poor—the whole game changes in ways both big and small to reflect your humble (or not-so-humble) beginnings.
Dragon Age’s supporting cast is equally diverse and well developed. We won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say that you’ll be forced to make some incredibly difficult choices over the course of the game. At different times, it’s both tear-jerking and goofy grin–inducing, but regardless, you will feel something when you play Dragon Age. Through the overarching plot and endearingly humorous mini-conversations your party conducts while strolling around, characters take on lives of their own. We could spend countless pages discussing our interactions with the game’s cast. Needless to say, we loved it.
But what’s a fantasy epic without a healthy dose of sword-swinging and spell-slinging? Fortunately, Dragon Age gives turn-based action a much-needed kick in the pants, literally coating combat in blood with a multitude of techniques and hard-hitting magic. Don’t think, however, that battles are mindless affairs.
Battles are surprisingly action-packed for turn-based affairs.
In reality, Dragon Age’s battles can be taxingly tactical, and while the PC version’s exclusive pulled-back camera view makes the action much more manageable, Dragon Age is hard, but never unfairly so. Experiment with strategies and you’ll be rewarded. The game also alleviates some of your stress by allowing you to automate party members with customizable tactics. Meticulous micromanagement, however, wins the day more often than not, and if you’re not into that kind of thing, you’ll probably want to play on easy. For those whose brains have been starved by recent RPG offerings, though, Dragon Age’s combat system is just what the doctor ordered. Just bear in mind that between the game’s complex combat and meager tutorial, neophytes need not apply.
After nearly 50 hours with Dragon Age, we couldn’t bear the thought of finishing the game. To us, it was like some kind of amazing dream, and we simply despised the idea of waking up.
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragons
Well-written characters and story line; challenging but not frustrating tactical battles; hours of content.
Dungeons
A huge graphical leap backward from Mass Effect; unabashedly tailored toward experienced RPG players.
9
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eddiepetosaed
January 28, 2011 at 5:10am
You were right to call this one the new king of role playing games. I'm so impressed with the graphic and the character's movements. The music in the background is quite enjoyable and the fact that I get to travel and fight using Medieval swords simply makes this game fantastic! All I need now is enough time to finish it and a walkthrough for some parts of the game where I get stuck and waste too much time trying to figure things out.
wk
March 05, 2010 at 4:41am
i mainly play only RPG games and this game is really great.
beside fallout3, i consider this game is must have for every RPG player.
MPC is my home page
reutnes
March 04, 2010 at 2:55pm
This game is huge. You play through it once, and then realize that the game is twice as big as you thought and start up another character to see how other decisions work out. If you're a completionist when it comes to RPG games, you will spend hundreds of hours in this game.
I should also point out that this game is much much much better to play on a PC than it is on the 360. The tactical pullback camera is not available on the 360, which is a huge letdown if you invested in the console version.
Digital-Storm
March 04, 2010 at 1:23pm
I don't know what hardware your playing the game on, but those screenshots are nowhere near what the games graphics really are. The game actually has really good graphics. Those screenshots ya guys have look like the settings must be on minimum.
SEALBoy
March 04, 2010 at 1:57pm
I have to disagree. The game has well-modelled characters and character animations, but the environments vary from average to I-saw-better-textures-in-Half-Life-1.
highsidednb
March 04, 2010 at 3:26pm
Better textures in Half-Life 1? Do you know anything about graphics development for games? The programming for the textures, let alone the hardware for rendering them, weren't even a pipe-dream yet when the first Half-Life was made. Frankly, with the game maxed out (which isn't hard to do on standard hardware, probably a GTX260 will do fine) it looks beautiful...
SEALBoy
March 04, 2010 at 8:11pm
highsidednb:
Take a look at this screenshot: http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/PC/Role-Playing/Fantasy/dragon_age_origins_profilelarge.jpg
Like I said, the character models are pretty decent. But look at the wheel of the wagon in the upper left corner. That's horrendous graphics for a late 2009 game, no matter how you look at it.
snapple00
March 04, 2010 at 5:49pm
I don't know anything about graphics development for games but I can use these things called "eyes" and tell that the graphics look dated.
There are many games that came out way before Dragon Age that look a ton better.
highsidednb
March 05, 2010 at 8:23am
Who cares about graphics being the state of the art when the story is good? If you want graphics, go play a game that was developed with graphics as the #1 priority. Chances are the story will suck. And who cares about how good a wagon looks? It's a wagon. Is that wagon in my party? Is the wagon a major part of the plot that I'll be encountering in a climactic battle?
There's also the business issue with playability on the largest number of systems. I don't think Bioware wanted Dragon Age to be some kind of new benchmark program like Crysis became. That game was mediocre yet it's primary function is now as a benchmark tool for hardware enthusiasts...
Digital-Storm
March 05, 2010 at 8:37am
I care when someoen reviews a game and subtracts points because it is a different genre from Mass Effect, and has supposubly "lower graphics"
"A huge graphical leap backward from Mass Effect; unabashedly tailored
toward experienced RPG players."It is not tailored to experienced RPG players either.
DBsantos77
March 04, 2010 at 6:07pm
I think Fallout 3 deserves the best texture award.
-Santos
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Thumkus
March 05, 2010 at 6:42am
Fallout 3's textures looked like garbage. Fallout 3 looked great with hi-res texture mods, but vanilla Fallout 3 textures on max settings looked like Xbox graphics.
Baer
March 04, 2010 at 12:49pm
I have to add one more Kudo for Bioware. There is no restrictive DRM. You buy the game, you load it and you play. If I have no net connection I can still play, there is no SecuRom trashing access to my optical drives. Bioware has earned my money and I have already pre ordered the expansion. I hope they are making a profit on what I pay because they diserve it.
stradric
March 04, 2010 at 12:40pm
This game has been out for a few months now. Prices have gone down making it all that much more of a bargain. Like you, I spent a good 50 hours with this game (to hold me over until Mass Effect 2). I would describe it as a combination between Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect with a little bit of unique Dragon Age sauce on the side. Bioware definitely ranks up there in my top 5 developers. After this and Mass Effect 2, probably top 3.
I actually started a second playthrough of this game to make the opposite decisions of my first playthrough. It's impressive how much variation there is with different decisions. Bioware's tree of possibilities for this game must have been disgustingly complicated. All in all, this was a supremely satisfying RPG experience. I agree whole-heartedly with your rating of a 9. It's not a perfect game, but damn is it fun and engaging.
SPOILER WARNING:
As an example of the variation... For the elven quest, you can choose to kill the leader yourself and have the werewolves take over the elven town. You can choose to kill the werewolves and preserve the life of the leader. Or you can convince the leader to sacrifice himself and return the werewolves back to human (the most noble option). Choosing to kill all the elves means you get werewolves to help you in the final battle instead of elves. Sure it doesn't affect the story dramatically, but not having an elven town for example means your unlimited supply of Elfroot (ingredient for healing agents) is gone and you're forced to scrounge around for it -- making the game considerably harder. But in the end the werewolves will be a more powerful ally than the elves so a more difficult game has an easier final battle.
The game is loaded with significant choices like this.
Baer
March 04, 2010 at 12:17pm
I have loved C RPG's since the first Ultima's in the 80's and the last ten years have seen very few true RPG's with few exceptions (Oblivion for example, which was quite good) what we have had are console level action RPG's whuch were weak on story and were loaded with mindless hack and bash.
Dragon Age is a trure RPG, it has very good graphics but not anything that goes to the next level. It looks far better on a PC than a console but I would love to see a DX-10 or DX-11 add in or expansion for P C. Let's face it, console graphics are getting a little long in the tooth.
The story is ourstanding and your choices in dialog and the decisions you make are not only not easy but have a significent bearing on the game. You keep on thinking about what is happening in the game world even after you return to real life.
Dragon Age absolutly deserves a Kick Ass award, it is the best RPG in years and the story sets a new standard.
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