VideoGame The Crown Jewel of Bio Ware's Golden Age
When people ask what the best BioWare game is you'll generally hear three choices: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. As you can see from the title, my vote goes to the latter. In fact, it's my favorite video game period.
Let's get the flaws out of the way, the combat can be slow and the graphics aren't that great. I've also heard some people have problems with the game crashing on PC, but that's only ever happened to me a few times in the major hub city. As for the first two, while I acknowledge that these are legitimate critiques, they don't bother me much. The graphics are decent for 2009, even if they aren't as good as Mass Effect 1. The combat can be slow, but it's generally in the service of being more tactical than hack-and-slash. If you're looking for an action RPG, this one isn't going to be for you. But if you're looking for an updated take on Baldur's Gate 2, this will certainly fit the bill. I do agree that several segments of the game rely too much on combat encounters and could've been truncated, particularly the Deep Roads, but generally, the game works fairly well.
The biggest criticism I've seen of the game that I disagree with is the Fade section. I agree that it's not necessary for the plot, but it gives the player a good idea of what the Fade is like and why demons are so dangerous. And when it comes to its segmented and abstract nature, I personally appreciate those parts. I like abstract puzzle-solving and non-linear answers, so this was quite a treat for me. Perhaps that's a product of growing up with the Professor Layton series before playing this, but I've never minded Bio Ware's puzzles too much.
Anyways, onto the game's strengths. There's certainly a lot to cover, so let's start with the titular feature itself: the origins. The game features six different playable origins for your character, each uniquely contributing to the world-building and plot of the game. Most are around 1-2 hours in length, but they do a great job at setting up your character while still giving you room to play around with their personality. Your background may be fixed, but how your character responds to it and the rest of the world is up to you.
That brings us to another major strength, the level of choice in your character's voice and actions this game provides. This was the last Bio Ware game not to use the conversation wheel, and it makes a great case for why trees are better. There's a freedom here that no other game in Bio Ware's catalog has ever matched. This is enhanced by the lack of a morality system in the game. Your dialogue and actions are not arbitrarily deemed good or evil, they are instead judged by your companions. Certain ones will approve of more selfish or pragmatic options while others will be glad you played a stalwart hero. Ultimately, the final choice is up to you, even if the consequences aren't.
Admittedly, some of these choices are easier on replays when you know the best outcomes. The fate of Connor in the Redcliffe quest is a big example of having two bad choices and one obviously good one. Still, there are several sections where there really isn't a right choice, particularly involving the Dwarven succession crisis. It helps that generally, the obviously good choices are harder to achieve than the others. Most involve careful dialogue navigation and some extra exploration and fights, and several require a high persuasion ability.
One of the game's strongest assets is its cast of companions and supporting characters. Many are memorable, from the quirky but lovable smith Wade to the surprisingly complex Loghain. The companions are also one of the best casts that Bio Ware has ever put together. Except for the Dog, all of them are complex and layered characters who have much depth to plum. Some are certainly better than others, Oghren in particular losing a lot of his complexity once you finish the Deep Roads, but all of them are interesting to explore. The common theme between them all of being outcasts in some way does a lot to endear them to the player, especially since no matter your origin the PC will be one as well.
That leads us to the final major strength I want to touch on, the underdog nature of your character and party. At the outset of the game's main story, you essentially have nothing. Your order is dead, your country is divided, and there are no mentors to guide you. If Ferelden is to be saved, you're going to have to figure things out on your own. But over the course of the game, you do exactly that. With each quest, you grow a little stronger. With each companion conversation, you grow a little closer. You rebuild the country piece by piece, so that by the end when you've assembled your army, it dawns on you just how important you've become and how massive your impact has been. You were no one's first choice for a hero, but you overcame that and built yourself up to become one. And that experience is something no other game has ever really captured for me. It's one of the best examples of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits plot I've ever seen, and it's only reinforced by the fact that your choices are what guide them to victory. When you beat the game, you truly feel you earned it.
VideoGame Not the best, but highly enjoyable
Computer RPGs have a long and storied history, with many old and new entries in the genre, especially those of the fantasy variety. As such, Dragon Age Origins may seem familiar, but while it may not be the best of its kind, it inherits some of the best of the genre's aspects.
The story involves you, a Gray Warden of one of six different backgrounds, fighting in order to stop a horde of Darkspawn from overrunning the kingdom of Ferelden. The story isn't especially original, but it's told well. Your choices are rarely clear-cut, and the player's respective origin story, along with the various choices, have various and often unexpected consequences.
Your companions are an interesting and diverse lot, and none of them are purely noble or ruthless. Their personalities were shaped by their backstories, and understanding them is important to gaining their trust and approval.
Combat is often challenging, pitting you against powerful and intelligent foes that will force you to play strategically to survive. Like with some other RPGs that involve coordinating several characters in real time, you can pause the game to issue orders, which will often prove helpful in keeping things under control.
The character creation system allows for a good amount of customization, even if the choice of specializations could have offered more than a stat boost and a few new talents, but unfortunately, it isn't very well balanced. Mages are significantly more powerful and useful than the other two classes, which not only means you're more likely to put mages into your party, but also are more likely to play the mage origin compared to the other five.
There's a good variety of quests in the game, both story-related and optional, although some of the "job board" quests can be little more than 20 Bear Asses. Said quests often have several solutions, and often involve you talking things out, rather than fighting. That helps keep things interesting, although it does behoove you to invest skill points into the Speech skill.
All in all, DA:O is a nice throwback to older CRPGs, even if it doesn't quite live up to some of the classics in that genre.
VideoGame I want to like this
I bought Dragon Age on release day, eagerly installed it and dove into one of the backstories.
And I basically haven't played it since.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently bad about the game, but I do find a certain set of the inevitable issues it does have to ruin the experience for me.
The combat is a slog. Most of the environments have way too much grey. The setting is basically keystone Medieval Europe fantasy, a setting I'm getting increasingly tired with.
I do however, love a lot of the party members. On the whole, they're well-written, interesting and have great voice acting. Also a fair few of the moral choices are at least interesting and have consequences that can catch you off guard.
But I just get really goddamn bored of the combat. And the combat is the main focus of the game.
I want to like this. I really do. But it just doesn't work for me.
VideoGame I enjoyed playing a genuine RPG
Awkward sex scenes aside, I would have never have guessed that this was a Bioware game. It plays like a pen + paper RPG, with a deep and complex but poorly explained combat system and a large focus on creating a setting and letting you wander around in it and react in natural ways. This is the first post Knights Of The Old Republic game that doesn't really tie everything to a two path good/evil story. Things happens and you respond to them. It almost never feels like the game expects you to go one way to be consistent with what you've done before.
I can't explain enough how much fun I had simply choosing the right ways to act and the right things to say for the character I created. I decided to be a gifted noble, who thought everyone was beneath her because nothing had ever disproven that, but with a strong sense of duty. She'd always choose to sacrifice herself instead of someone else, because she knew she could do it better than them. And the game had the flexibility to allow me to do that. Almost never was there a conversation where I didn't have the option I needed. Contrast that with Mass Effect where Shepard sounds schizophrenic if you try mixing top left and bottom right too often.
It doesn't necessarily allow you to change the world completely (although you can change a fair bit), but it lets you decide who you want to be in it. All the party members, bar two, are completely optional and the character customisation potential is immense. Race, class, and character background all change the experience. The game might not play very differently as a noble instead of a peasant, but when people refer to you by your title and mention connections with your family, it feels like the game is validating your character. The story isn't exceptionally exciting but it's appropriate and well thought out enough to carry the experience.
There are flaws, the companions are interesting but a lot of the banter (particularly with Morrigan and Alistair) is a little forced. Combat is stretching, but can drag. Easy mode improved pacing dramatically but removed all challenge. The game in general is too long, I want to get to the end and explore, yet it's a significant time investment. But ultimately as soon as I finished playing, I immediately wanted to play it again.
VideoGame Flawed but oh-so-engrossing.
Before I get into it, I have to add a disclaimer: I got my first new computer in seven years less than a year ago and had not upgraded my computer in that time. Since then I've gotten precisely four games. Dragon Age: Origins is one of them. The graphics shock has impressed me with these new games, but I'd like to think that New Toy Syndrome wore of relatively quickly.
This game is so very, very flawed. There are a thousand little niggling things that irritate me about the game. It is far from a masterpiece, and like all armchair [insert profession here]s, I find myself wondering, "Well why didn't they do this?"
And yet I keep coming back to it. I've played four of the six origins from beginning to end, including multiple iterations of two of those origins. I have played the same character through Awakening. Having purchased the base game in September 2010, I seriously considered purchasing the Ultimate Edition just a couple of months later, at full price. The game has probably consumed weeks of my life. The only games that have caused me to lose track of time more than Origins have been Four X games like the Civilization series and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Even as I muttered how annoying certain elements of gameplay were as they weren't implemented well (inventory), and how the few noticable bugs in a fully-patched version were really basic shit that should have been caught (the chest in the first room in the Dwarf Commoner origin), and how certain story elements were rendered nonsensical due to gameplay limitations (cavalry and defenses), and the "mature" content that was pretty clearly an adolescent's attempt at being Darker And Edgier than other games in the same genre, and that goddamn memory leak...
Maybe it was me imagining what previous Bioware games with less-flexible engines could have done with the gameplay developments, or the endless little things you could do differently in subsequent playthroughs, or the mods that unofficially fixed the bugs Bioware didn't get to. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed this game. (Weirdly, I have a friend who really doesn't like the game, even as he admits it's not as flawed as even I make it out to be.)
A solid 7.5 out of 10 (Ultimate Edition is 8 out of 10 with the extra content and features).
VideoGame Shite
Shite, it's just shite. The combat system is a fluster cluck of chunky abilities. The tactics all amount to kill everything using as much damage as possible and the story is not worth it for anyone with any experience with fantasy. It's like an MMO writing team tried to make a cohesive story only to fall flat on their asses. The races are pointless granting no differences in play between character, the production quality is shite beta with a despicably limited equipment set, limited number of abilities bordering on a lack of care and the combat itself is stiff and filler like. Honestly glad I borrowed the game instead of paying money for it because if I had I would choke the developers for my money.
Too shallow, annoying characters, annoying limitations, guilty of selling DLC in game that should have come with the game(given its price tag). Brown stain in some white briefs.
VideoGame An excellent RPG
Dragon Age Origins is one of the best CRP Gs in recent years, not only having excellent gameplay, but also having a well-constructed fantasy world.
The overarching plot is the standard battle against the forces of evil- as a Gray Warden, you must fight the Darkspawn and defeat the Archdemon leading them- but the world in which it takes place has quite a bit of depth. In order to gain an army to stop the Blight, you must go to many places and solve their crises, such as a Dwarven city locked in a political power struggle.
The moral decisions you face are one of the more interesting parts of the game. There are times when it’s obvious what’s right and wrong, but in others, the morals may be more gray, or one choice may have unexpected consequences. The absence of a Karma Meter forces you to think about your choices. Is it truly the right thing? Will it help you achieve your goal of fighting the Darkspawn? Will your companions stand for it? These questions require critical thinking, a rare accomplishment for a video game, as charitable decisions can no longer be made for a karma boost, and selfish decisions are more tempting if no one can judge you.
The combat system is well-made and interesting. You have a wide selection of talents and spells to choose from, enabling you to choose from many different ways to fight your enemies, and while there are only three classes, each has the possibility for many different builds. The companions are well-developed and interesting, having diverse backstories, moral codes beyond a simple good and evil alignment, and interests. In order to earn their approval, as well as possibly their love, you must understand them as individuals.
There are some flaws to this game, though. The game sometimes crashes, and has many bugs in the endgame. Many of the side quests, particularly those on the job boards, are not particularly interesting, in contrast to the more exciting plot quests. The skill system is also not as well done as in other Bio Ware games; only Persuade and Survival are of vital necessity throughout the game. Mages are somewhat overpowered, which, in addition to the balance issues, also discourages players from playing through as other origins.
Despite them, Dragon Age is well worth purchasing if you're a fan of RP Gs.
VideoGame An Outsider's Perspective
Late to the curb as I may be, I figured there was no harm in reviewing. As of this, I've completed one playthrough of the main campaign all the DLC sans Awakening.
I've had little experience with this type of game. The only WRPGs I've ever played are Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and two MMORPGs when I was much younger. As far as Bioware goes, I've only played the Mass Effect series other than this (though as the saying goes, they don't get points for good writing anymore, so I won't discuss it). Being a console gamer as I am, I certainly wasn't expecting auto-attack, but it works well enough.
I must say, I appreciate the lack of an open world. Nah, this game elects to pad itself through sidequests instead, which is good, as it feels more rewarding, though many feel impersonal. This makes sense when you're doing "Favor for Certain Interested Parties", but otherwise, you may as well be talking to a money maker machine.
Speaking of money, you'll be short most of the game, even with the DLC. Towards the end, I did eventually gain enough to were I had pretty much all I needed, but it would have been nice earlier. But hell, I appreciate a game that makes me work for every bit of power I get, though the fact that I was only playing on Normal difficulty stymies me, especially considering how much harder it would have been without all the DLC gear.
The game offers you quite a number of talent trees, and which are the most useful quickly becomes apparent. Anything that can be used to stun must be, as well as those ever useful anti-mage abilities. As with money, you'll never be leveled enough, so you have to plan out carefully what abilities you want. It's almost as if the game forces you to play like a Munchkin. To be fair, I didn't take much advantage of traps or poisons and my team strategy was never any more thoughtful than "kill the mages, have someone tank the strongest thing left and keep my healbot alive".
Finally, this game has quite a bit of Lost Forever you don't expect. Like selling otherwise useless gems and then finding out the dwarf army needs them. Gah.
Audio and visual quality is standard Bioware fare, though some levels seem a bit bland (the Fade).
Bottom Line: A nice way to waste tens of hours. I had lots of fun, and take no shame in multiple playthroughs. You shouldn't either.
VideoGame Not Perfect, but still Good
This game is certainly not flawless. Especially when it comes to combat - there's just too much of it, and having to clear your way through crowds of monsters in every location is a very tedious task. If you play on easy mode, it's simply boring, but crank it up to nightmare difficulty, and soon you'll be hating all of your party members and yourself. The combat system is not bad in itself though, with different classes and specialties, and learning to build your charcater properly is certainly a nice part of the experience with this game. Some spells, like Cone of Cold, are ridiculously overpowered and work on almost everything including the Big Bosses, but this was fixed in the sequel.
But the best thing in Dragon age are its plot and its characters. Even those who do not play a major part in the story are quite memorable, like Wade and Herren, and "the queen of Antiva" near the lake Calenhad. The setting has a magical, yet very realistic feel to it, and a dark fantasy atmosphere is a part of the game's charm. There's plenty of small details that make Thedas believable - for example, such expressions as "Andraste's holy knickers!" and so on. The use of different accents is also a very nice touch. Basically, it's very hard not to fall in love with Thedas, it's mythology and its inhabitants. Each of eight (or nine with DLC) recruitable NPC has his own unique personalty, his backstory for you to uncover and a sidequest. Did I also mention that your behavior has consequences? Be nice to someone, and they'll be your friends (or even lovers). Be a jerk, and they'll leave forever, or simply betray you.
This game is full of tropes to the brim, but Tropes Are Not Bad. The developers sure had a field day playing with tropes, and the result is a very entertaining game, with a nice gameplay and high replayability (with six possible orgins and sidequests that are easy to miss during your first playthrough). It's really, really good, memorable, and well worth the money.
VideoGame Great, but with problems.
I recently picked it up in the Steam Sale and have been playing through since. At first I found the controls a little clunky but that went away with more playing. There are a number of other issues, too, including:
- Difficulty curve like a rollercoaster. Some rooms will be ridiculously easy and the next room full of mooks will kill you the moment you walk in.
- Combat system is a bit annoying at times, especially the AI and getting a good view on the action.
- Each area drags on a bit too long. While I usually don't rag on a game for being too *long* - I think that certain areas could've done with being cut down a bit. They're brilliant, but they start to lose impact after too long.
- People in your camp selling you DLC is the most immersion breaking, money-grabbing idea ever. I'm not opposed to DLC (Infact, I'm for it so long as it's good value for money and not taking pre-release development time away from the game) but... but... In my camp? Talk about breaking character.
Despite all this, Dragon Age is still fantastic and certainly worth picking up, even at full price. The story is brilliant and keeps you interested throughout, the characters are compelling and the world detailed. Still holding my interest after ~30 hours of play and I can even see some replay value. If you like RP Gs - pick it up. It may be a bit frustrating at times, sure and it could be improved - but still one of the best games I've played.
VideoGame Only Bioware could make a game this good feel like a disappointment.
Dragon Age is the story of a band of heroes journey to save the land of Ferelden from orcs the Darkspawn, by uniting a country divided by civil war and xenophobia. Mass Effect and Jade Empire much?
Okay, so Dragon Age is quite similar to Bioware's other games, but that doesn't matter? After all, the game is really fun!
Well... mostly.
DA has some wonderful moments—the main story quests are well fleshed out, but even then there are long periods boredom or backtracking involved. Sidequests boil down to Fed-Exing letters or killing "X". Unfortunate, but not surprising.
Combat has problems. On my PC copy of the game, the controlled character sometimes forgets to target the enemy I want him to, instead choosing to stand and stare as he is perforated by arrows or blasted with a fireball. Compounding that, The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard whenever it wants to be (which is often), and enemies level as you do, forcing your warriors to purchase ever more expensive weapons and armors to stay competitive. This only applies to warriors and rogues though—as usual for Bioware, mage users can take advantage of enough exploits so as to make NPC party members afterthoughts.
Speaking of NPC party members, the characters in DA can be somewhat bland. A good-natured warrior grieving for his friends, a darkly beautiful witch, a besotted dwarf, and so on. That's not to say that they're boring—the dwarf is a berserker who drinks in part to block his pain over the loss of his wife, the witch has was raised by a woman out of one of Grimms a fairy tales and so on.
The biggest problem I had with DA was the hype. Before release, we saw wonderful trailers and listings of the games highlights. What those of us looking forward to the game didn't see was the hours of aimless wandering and boredom inducing fights.
Final verdict: Give the game a chance—it's a fine example of what WRP Gs do well, that suffers from the usual WRPG problems. In particular, where DA stumbles is in trying to remake the RPG genre while using the same set-pieces that Bioware used to do it the first time.
VideoGame Oblivion was better
7/10
The Good:
-The Graphics are gorgeous. Then again, what would you expect from a game released in 2009?
-Being able to interact with party members and even pursue a romantic relationship with them was pretty neat.
-The characters are interesting and well written.
The Bad:
-The trailers were misleading, making this game look far more epic and awesome than it actually was.
-It was short. Took me a little over a week to finish. The reason I said Oblivion was better was because you could ignore the main quest completely and just go off exploring. Not so in Dragon Age. You have to follow the main quest, or you won't have anything else to do. There are sidequests, but they're so numerous and pointless, that it feels like they were tacked on as an afterthought. To make matters worse, the main quests are long and tedious, which subtracts a shitload of points from the game's replay value.
-"But it's story driven!" fans tell me in response to the above. Honeys, if I played games for their plot, I'd be reading books instead. And no way in hell would I pick up something as cliche as this.
-Speaking of cliches, why does it seem like heroic fantasy writers don't have a creative bone in their bodies? Why must the story take place in some ersatz European setting? Why must the main religion be a ripoff of Christianity? Sure, Oblivion was like this as well, but because of the numerous other things the game provided, it was tolerable.
-Dear God, the loading screens.What is this, The Sims 2? And why hasn't Bio Ware fixed that memory leak?
The Meh:
-This game is pretty much Neverwinter Nights with fancier graphics. I'm not a fan of party-based games, but it's not enough to turn me off of the game completely.
-They could have been a lot more subtle with that Sequel Hook.
- Arl Redcliffe: Say, don't you think my son has been acting strange lately?Warden: Well, I haven't seen the boy since I finished your quest, so I can't really say. Why do you ask?Arl Redliffe: Oh nothing. I'm certainly not dropping hints of any plotlines that will be explored in the impending sequel. Nope, not at all.
VideoGame Witch Hunt - A Must-Play
There are some DLC that I could do without. All those item packs, maybe the Warden's Keep and the Darkspawn Chronicles. But there is now one that you must play after finishing the original game, and that is the Witch Hunt.
The reason for that is quite simple: the original game was incomplete. Not in the sense that it was lacking, mind you. But the original story had one deliberately missing piece that kept bothering me ever since: the fate of Morrigan. Even if I've never considered romancing her, she is a good girl (well, you know what I mean) despite walking strange a path. And I sure wasn't ready to let her go with an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude.
Call me possessive, but I like to know what my party members are going to do when they leave. And with the blank spot that was Morrigan, I at least wanted to know that she is alright, that she'll do fine without me watching her back. And Witch Hunt delivered just that. The DLC consists of five locations, new monsters, items, whatever, but for me, the only part that mattered was that final dialogue with Morrigan that should have taken place long ago.
That one piece of dialogue truly concludes the Origins storyline (Awakening notwithstanding), and only after it is experienced is the game truly complete.
VideoGame Felt watered down.
I am not going to bemoan the death of RPG's with complex learning curves and advanced skill trees, but compared to the rest of Bioware's RP Gs, such as Baldur's gate, Planescape, and Neverwinter Nights, The mechanics and rules seemed way too simple. There did not appear to be a lot of diversity. Besides that, the plot, feel, and overall richness of the game felt very up to par.
VideoGame Made of Win
Having not played Oblivion, Jade Empire, or most of the other games others are talking about, I'm just going to have to add what I know about this.
This game rocks.
While people might complain it's a Cliche Storm to beat all storms, the game itself is pretty much an affectionate parody of those cliches, and manages to do a good job deconstructing them as well, a la A Song Of Ice And Fire. The politics are brutal, the characters are very frequently snarky, and the tone is somewhere around Grey And Black Morality. As a troper that really, really liked A So Ia F, this was absolute gold compared to other games that don't spend as much time on character development.
The opening was pretty standard for any high fantasy sort of setting- go beat the orcs, save the kingdom, and put a new king in power. However, as the plot moves on, a lot of time is spent fleshing out the characters and the setting, which really makes up for some of its shortcomings. The script writers were channeling something awesome when writing party dialogue. Compared to most other games I've played, this is another little slice of awesome that Dragon Age has. It's a real credit to the game when you're able to actually like the crazy religious rogue, the bitchy mage, and the emo templar, who would be easy to hate if it weren't for how they were handled in development.
However, the quests can be very, very long. One thing I wish they had spent more time on was adding more sidequests and other non-main plot stuff to help expand the environment more. Tackling the Deep Roads can be awesome, but sometimes there needs to be a bit more variation to keep it interesting.
VideoGame Beyond awesome
The best fantasy game I've ever played. I know it has the whole traditional Bio Ware "A Jedi/Spectre/Grey Warden is You" set up, but that's not a bad thing. I've found that this is actually a very good framing device for the kind of games Bioware makes, after all it worked very well in Mass Effect, and KTOR, so why not re-use it? It's also the place you go to see High Fantasy tropes deconstructed, every origin story is a deconstruction except the Human Noble origin which is such a Cliche Storm it borders on Affectionate Parody. In short very good. At times it feels like it's actually medieval Europe, at others you feel like you've walked into something else entirely. The massive battle of Ostragar feels like Lord of the Rings, The Dead Trenches feel like Dante's Inferno, even the Urn of Sacred Ashes and Anvil of The Void quests are so very like Indiana Jones it's Amazing. Very fun, very engrossing, very well put together, Bioware at it's best as always.
VideoGame Swooping Is Bad.
This game is simply brilliant.
Cheap thing to say, but I can certainly back it up. Firstly, the introduction, you start off with a choice of six very well-written (if slightly predictable. This means you, Human Noble) origin stories. In these, you will typically be introduced to some rounded, three-dimensional characters, and either get to stick them with the razor-sharp witty comments the Bioware writers came up with or treat them nicely.
You'll also get to participate in a bit of fighting, and the combat system is mostly incredibly well-handled, you can choose between the standard Fighter/Mage/Rogue classes, and as a Rogue/Fighter you get a variety of cool ways to wave your sword/axe/dagger around and kill people (Occasionally, for some bosses and rarely a Mook, you get an amazing death animation when you kill them. Something the mage is sadly deprived of). As a Mage you usually pick up a staff and blast your enemies with your slightly weak spells (This is remedied later on, where depending on your spell choices when you level up, you can literally annihilate your enemies with only two moves. Can be reduced to one if you have sufficient breathing room to cast it). Occasionally the difficulty level is misleading. You can be playing on the easiest level, but don't expect that boss character to not require two attempts after a Total Party Kill.
The main story follows Bioware's usual formula, big event happens at the beginning. You are given a couple of companions and three or so things to do that you may accomplish in any order to advance the plot. Just as it was in Mass Effect and both Kot O Rs.
The companions are what make the game though. You get a total of 9 from all the races in Ferelden, most of them are optional, although I highly recommend getting them all just to hear them chatting with each other. Almost all of the conversations are Crowning Moment Of Funny material. Those that aren't (And there are only about...2?) could be TearJerkers.
The romance subplots are things of beauty. Perhaps the best written one being between a female PC and Alistair. With emotionally moving moments throughout, along with the occasional bit of humour. Rather than spoil, find out for yourself.
Anyway, I have few words left. Damn word count, I bet it'll cut me off mid-sentence. To conclude, th
VideoGame Return of the Classic Tactics, Loot, & Storyline RPG
As a disclaimer, I should mention that I played all of the Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment games back in the day. To me, Bioware wasn't lying when they said that Dragon Age: Origins is the spiritual successor to those games, it's a raucous throwback to the Infinity Engine games where you led a party of unusual and powerful characters through an epic tale of amazing battles against interesting villains.
In the case of Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware has built on its tradition of accomidating multiple play styles and player motivations to a degree largely unknown in the gaming industry: the game has six seperate origin stories for a player character (multiple origins being something that Bioware forum-posters have been requesting for at least a decade), and each origin has subtle, but near-perfectly implemented differences in the main game: your best friend from the origin will probably show up again at some point. Also in the same vein, it's possible to play the game with in multiple ways: Magnificent Bastard, Good Is Not Nice, Deadpan Snarker... actually, the game is so Troperiffic that one imagines that the writers frequent this site...
Speaking of the writers, the lead writer, David Gaider, who worked as a hotel manager before being hired by Bioware, has been impressing me with his fantastic dialogue and complex characters since Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. This game, however, is his epic, and the natural extension of what a skilled writer can do when given the time, resources, and respect necessary to indulge a true love for roleplaying in the video game medium.
The plot, characters, and setting of this game appear, at first glance, to be lifted from any number of popular sources; anyone familiar with the King Arthur myths will immediately note his parallel in the King Calenhad myths of Ferelden, and their Crystal Dragon Jesus equivilent, Andraste, takes inspiration from Joan Of Arc, the New Testement, the struggles of Mohammed, and even Gnostic thought. From there, though, they made the story their own by giving more subversions, aversions, and lampshades than you can shake a starmetal 2-handed sword at.
The game has some flaws, but damned if I have any interest in dwelling on them, 1/3 of the way through my second playthrough.
VideoGame DLC Mini-review and Ranking
Leaving aside Awakening, Origins had a massive amount of DLC support. Not counting gear items, there were 7 pieces of DLC for the game that either expanded the main game's story or added new mini-campaigns to play through from the main menu. I'll be ranking all of them and briefly reviewing them.
7: The Darkspawn Chronicles
This module sees you play from the point of view of the Darkspawn in an alternate timeline where the PC died at Ostagar. You recruit various types of Darkspawn to attack the capital city and fight the heroes of the main game. It's a neat novelty, but there isn't any story or character to speak of, and the gameplay is only standard DAO combat. It’s not worthless, but it’s definitely not worth playing more than once.
6: Golems of Amgarrak
Golems improves Darkspawn Chronicles, but not as much as one would hope. The premise is that you’re looking for a lost Dwarven outpost that was attempting to recreate Carradin’s Golems using flesh rather than rock or steel. It combines a horror atmosphere with some of the most difficult fights in the game. Thankfully there is an actual story this time, and its events weren’t completely irrelevant to the future of the series. Still, I can’t justify saying it’s any better than just okay.
5: Warden’s Keep
Unlike the last two DLC packs, Warden’s Keep was integrated into the main campaign of the game rather than separate from it. In fact, the base game actually has an NPC in your camp who essentially tries to sell you this DLC. I’ll admit that I hate the idea of that, but I’ve never actually had the problem of having to buy it because I’ve always played the Ultimate Edition that comes with this pack pre-installed. Anyway, the mission itself is good. It reveals the truth of why the Grey Wardens were kicked out of Fereldan several centuries ago and lets you reclaim their old fortress. Once you do that it also has a chest where you can deposit equipment you want to keep but don’t have room for in your inventory, and you can forge a sword that winds up being the best weapon in the base game. Neat stuff all around.
4: Leliana’s Song
This is the oddball of the bunch, which probably explains why I like it. Rather than exploring the future of Thedas or how things might have gone, this is a prequel that explores your companion Leliana’s past. Leliana had proved to be a popular character with both the fanbase and the internal staff, so it makes sense that they added more content that you could do with her. That said, it does make some odd choices. To save time and money, the DLC retcons her description of these events from the base game to happen in pre-existing Ferelden maps rather than in her home country of Orlais. It was an odd choice, but considering the direction Bio Ware wanted to take her character I think there was more to it than just the financial aspect, even if I’m sure that was the deciding factor. Whatever the case, it was a good story. The opening sequence is a fun bit of rogueish mischief and the meat of the story does a good job of capturing the tragic parts of Leliana’s backstory. Getting to see how she started the path to the woman she would become when she met your Warden is interesting, and I’m glad we got the chance to explore it.
3: Return to Ostagar
Like Warden’s Keep this DLC takes place in the main game, which wound up being a minor issue for Bio Ware at the time. Once you complete the main story of the game it ends. There’s no way to explore Fereldan after you’ve saved it, partly because Bio Ware never expected this game to become the massive success it did. If you want to play this DLC you’ll have to either create a new character or load a save from before you beat the game. Whatever the case, it’s a solid DLC that has you returning to Ostagar (insert Pikachu face here) to reclaim some important political documents and lay King Cailan to rest. You can also pick up his armor and weapons, along with Duncan’s weapons (though sadly not his armor). The documents reveal some interesting information about Cailan and Fereldan’s relationship with Orlais, and you can get some interesting interactions between your companions depending on whether you brought Alistair or the Secret Companion along. The Secret Companion benefits the most from this DLC as their reactions let you dive more deeply into their motivations than the base game allowed. Overall, I recommend this one.
2: Witch Hunt
I’ll admit that my love of Morrigan and Claudia Black might be biasing my judgment here, but I do still think Witch Hunt is fun. It’s the only DLC where your dog is back (yay doggos!), and the quest to find Morrigan takes you through a fun bit of the game’s greatest hits. The new companions who travel with you are fine, but they admittedly don’t get much chance to stand out. This mission is mostly focused on finding Morrigan and setting up some plot hooks for future installments. It’s a fun time ultimately, and thankfully later games would bring back some of the ideas it started.
1: The Stone Prisoner
A part of me feels uncomfortable putting this at number 1 because I don’t think it should have been DLC in the first place, or at least not paid DLC. The Stone Prisoner introduces a unique companion, Shale, who is a golem. Most golems in the game are 1-2 stories tall though, so Bio Ware had to figure out how to shrink Shale down so that it could fit through doors and come up with unique abilities and equipment for it. Unfortunately, this meant that Shale wasn’t going to be ready in time for the base game’s release, so it was sectioned off into a Day 1 DLC pack. While I do appreciate that there was a code for a free copy of this DLC with new copies of DAO, I still don’t think Shale should’ve been locked to other players behind a paywall. If something was intended to be a part of the main game, and is as significant to its story as Shale would turn out to be, then I don’t think making it paid DLC is right. It was eventually made free several years later, but by that point it was irrelevant. Most people either had it or weren’t likely to pick up DAO anymore.
Despite all of this, I can’t deny that it’s the best DLC simply on the strength of what it adds to the game. The companions are one of the best parts of DAO, and Shale is no exception. It’s true that Shale is basically HK-47 with a character arc, but it’s a well-told arc and HK’s archetype is a fun one to have around. It also contributes a great deal to the main game’s golem plotline when you actually have a golem with you as a character. Overall Shale is just too great a contribution to the game to ignore.