Dragon Age: Origins Review [PS3, X360, PC]

Posted November 16, 2009 by JGifford in Featured, Featured Home, Game Blog, PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360.

Reviewed on the Xbox 360

Baldur’s Gate was the first time I had ever heard of the Forgotten Realms. The level of detail in the world, the centuries of history, and the depth in the relationships between kingdoms and groups was astounding. It all made sense after I found out Faerûn had many different authors telling stories in this world to flesh it out in novels and as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting.

Playing Dragon Age: Origins brought me back to all of that. I was compelled to read every scroll, forced to peruse every book so that I could learn more about this world. Slowly, it wove many tales that combined to explain why Ferelden is unlike any other fantasy setting; elves are not fey creatures of the forest, mages are harshly controlled and regulated by the religious establishment, and priests cannot call down healing from the gods.

Though the typical clichés that can be found in a fantasy RPG exist, the big one starts and ends with the Grey Wardens — an ancient organization tasked with defending the world from an unyielding evil, the darkspawn. Naturally, after becoming a member of this brotherhood, it falls to you to defeat the impending Blight, which is a monstrous army of darkspawn led by a nearly unstoppable archdemon.

But not before playing through one of six unique origin stories that is determined by the race and class combination selected for your character. These not only tell completely different tales for the first act of the Dragon Age, but have tremendous influence on the relationships and options available later in the game. As a human noble, one of my major antagonists throughout the course of the story barely registers to an elven mage.

Options are an interesting thing in Dragon Age. They don’t filter down to a decision between helping a demon possess an orphan or sacrificing some magical item to protect said child. There are times when a good character will only have options that could be qualified as “less offensive.” It’s great to finally see some nuance, as opposed to the morality scale that games often employ. Perhaps the Grey Wardens were so named because of the nature of decisions they are forced to make — rarely are things black and white.

Extra effort, such as more time or money spent, can open up opportunities that would be considered close to ideal, though there is no great reward for this. And performing simple acts of kindness for a stranger doesn’t always mean there is a magical amulet or reputation gain of some kind in it. After giving the pilgrim a gold coin to make it back home, the knowledge of a good deed done will be your only perk.

That isn’t the case with party members, however. Throughout the game you’ll assemble the eccentric band of heroes that saving the world often requires. Courting their favor will not only keep them around, but actually improve their attributes. This can be done by giving gifts or performing actions they approve of. Again, it isn’t as simple as performing good acts to get the support of good characters. Instead, each character’s outlook is heavily colored by their past and personality. They weigh in on conversations often, letting you know which direction they want you to go.

Excellent voice acting and writing brings characters with depth and personality to life, though it does so with some more than others. Gaining their approval wasn’t some minigame that I was playing — it didn’t feel like just working through a conversation list to gain happiness points with an NPC. It genuinely felt like developing a friendship over the course of many battles and adventures, so much so that I once reloaded a saved game that cost me 45 minutes so that I could change a decision after the gut-wrenching monologue from one character who viewed it as the most terrible betrayal.

But 45 minutes is a small part of the 65 hours it took me to complete one playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins. The hours not spent reading the extensive history lessons and participating in lengthy conversations were spent cutting down all manner of foes in a unique, though flawed, combat system.

A specific mechanic, sustained abilities, creates some interesting tactical possibilities. There are spells or modes that can be turned on or off at will. These diminish the maximum stamina or mana pool available for special moves while active and decrease the rate at which those resources are regenerated. In game terms, that means if a warrior has Rally and Shield Wall modes on, he’ll be able to perform moves like Pommel Strike less often.

The control is quite unsatisfying, though that may only be the case on the console version of the game. Only controlling one party member at a time is fine until it’s necessary to perform some complicated maneuvers during difficult battles. There is no way to tell a character to move somewhere; it is necessary to manually move any party member that is out of position. That makes it take far too long to get out of the way of an incoming fireball. The tactics system, which is much like Final Fantasy XII’s gambit system, helps with this a bit, allowing you to set predefined actions for a character to use when in different situations.

There are a few more minor issues; the sometimes obtuse nature of the inventory and codex system when trying to find pieces of armor or new historical entries, event-resetting conversation bugs, and extreme graphical clipping and pop-in. But all that places a distant second to an epic adventure in a complex and detailed world. I played this game like a man possessed because it has the feel of old school RPGs, but the style and substance of the next generation. Baldur’s Gate must have wanted to be like Mass Effect when it grew up. It’s done everything right to achieve that, and the result is Dragon Age: Origins.

Tagged as Bioware, Dragon Age, Dragon Age Origins, EA, RPG