Platform: PC
Developer: BioWare
Release Year: 2009
Stephen's Rank: 5/10
Dragon Age: Origins was the long awaited RPG by BioWare.
Basic Plot
Firstly, it should be noted that Dragon Age is not set in the "D&D world" as was the case for their previous titles Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights. This game is set in an entirely new world.
The player takes on the role of an adventurer who joins an organisation called the Grey Wardens who are tasked with defending the realm. The joining ritual involves consuming Darkspawn blood which will either kill the initiate, or imbue them with power called the taint.
There is a "blight" which is ravaging the land of Ferelden and the story involves unravelling the cause and looking for a cure. The blight involves enemies called Darkspawn appearing all over the land and ravaging it.
During a battle near the beginning of the game the player is charged with lighting a signal fire so that Loghain knows when to attack the incoming Darkspawn. However, upon lighting the fire, Loghain betrays you by leaving the battle and leaving King Cailan and Duncan (your guardian) to die among countless others.
The goal of the player from then on is to unite the forces of Fereldon to strike down and defeat the Archdemon, ending the blight once and for all. Using a series of old treaties signed between various factions and the Grey Wardens the player must unite the Dalish Elves, the Dwarves, the Circle of Magi, and the Arl of Redcliffe. However, all of these factions are facing troubles of their own which the player must help solve.
Back in the capital Queen Anora takes over rulership from her husband by Loghain declares himself regent and effectively takes over the kingdom, starting a civil war between himself and the nobility.
When the player finally gets all the factions to unite they gather at the Landsmeet to discuss their strategy. There, the player confronts Loghain after gathering full support from the nobility. Loghain is either executed, or renounces his past behaviour and joins the Grey Wardens to make up for his wrong doing (depending on the player's choice).
It is also revealed that only a Grey Warden can kill the Archdemon, and whoever makes the final killing blow will also die.
The final confrontation can end multiple ways; either the player dies, Alistair or Loghain die (if they make the final killing blow), or Morrigon's unborn child becomes a demigod.
One of the companions, Morrigon, who sounds like chef Nigella Lawson.
Gameplay
Dragon Age is a third person role playing game with a similar feel the previous BioWare titles Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 as well as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The player creates a character with a race, gender, and also an "origin". This origin affects how the early stages of the game play out. For example; there are entirely different stories for a human noble, a human mage, and a dwarf commoner. The stories all merge together fairly early on, but it gives some replayability for that early section.
Each character had a "class" which defines their skills but also each class has a set of specializations which can be taken after advancing to a certain level:
- Mage
- Arcane Warrior
- Blood Mage
- Shapeshifter
- Spirtual Healer
- Rogue
- Assassin
- Bard
- Duelist
- Ranger
- Warrior
- Beserker
- Champion
- Reaver
- Templar
There is a favour mechanic with members of your party. You can bribe them, give them gifts, and they respond to how you behave in the game. Favour unlocks options for different companions, including romances.
The battle mechanic is that the action occurs in real time, but the combat can be paused at any time while commands such as spells or special moves can be issued. This is the same mechanic as many other previous BioWare games and has a nice balance between methodically planning a battle and also getting down to the action.
One nice mechanic was the interactivity between spells. For example; you could cast "grease" to lay down an oil slick and then set it alight with a fireball spell.
Quests could be tracked using a journal, but I found this quite unintuitive and I ended up writing a lot of stuff down on paper to keep track of it.
Positives
You can't deny it was a massive game with huge scope and a lot of detail. The combat mechanics work well and battles are pretty enjoyable. It also looked great.
Negatives
The game uses a tried and trusted formula, built up over many years - yet it just fell flat for me. I'm not sure if it was the lack of humour in the game, or the way the quests really felt like grinding, but I didn't enjoy playing this game - it felt like work. So I stopped after tasting the abilities of the Blood Mage.
I'm not even sure why, but I felt Neverwinter Nights 2 was infinitely more enjoyable. It could have been that it just didn't take itself as seriously as Dragon Age did. There was a lot of expectation on this game from players, especially naming itself the "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" and that didn't help.
I actually can't quite put my finger on what it was missing (or what there was too much of) but it just didn't work in my opinion.
No multiplayer! If I could have played the campaign co-operatively I think I'd have a completely different opinion of this game.
Memorable Moments
My character was a mage who I specialized as a Blood Mage. That was tricky because a mage uses mana to cast spells, whereas a blood mage uses their own life force (they take damage). So as a mage I had to put all my points into vitality which made me very weak until the specialization became available. I was godly powerful, but the game was so long and tedius I just gave up at the Landsmeet.
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