Dragon Age: Origins IMO

Before I dive into reviewing a game, I first look at the context in which the game was made. Often developers make a game to compete with another similar game being made. In this case you end up with games like Prototype and Infamous. Sometimes developers are just trying to make money off of a recent fad. After Halo proved how popular a space marine multiplayer FPS could be we saw games such as Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears of War come out. This doesn't mean all these games are bad, but it can be said that the motivation behind them certainly isn't creative. Still, some developers make games that are mostly unrelated to anything else except for previous games that they themselves have produced. Dragon Age is the most recent title from the incredibly brilliant BioWare. Electronic Arts purchased BioWare and Pandemic Studios in October of 2007 from the holding company VG Holding. They paid a pretty penny for it too. In an article on Kotaku it was disclosed that "EA paid up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding to get their hands on the companies." This little change hasn't stopped BioWare from creating some of the most amazing story-driven video games of the last 15 years. With a resume that includes NeverWinter Nights, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect games, and a few more it's safe to say that when I picked up Dragon Age I had a good sense of what to expect. Since BioWare started making their RPGs in a third person perspective they've all had the same general feel about them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because they've proven that they can handle this genre well. After all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  

Dragon Age is a classic Role Playing Game based in a fantasy world. When I started the game I was slightly disappointed by the lack of creative races that I could make my character. The choices were stereotypical: Human, Elf, or Dwarf. I read up on these and discovered that the humans were the dominant race in the game and seemed to be a dime a dozen. The dwarves were near extinction at the hand of the Darkspawn, the main evil force in the game. Lastly the elves were either forest elves or city elves. These city elves are the servant class for the humans. Elves are discriminated against by being made slaves, forced to live in alienage's, and general maltreatment. Now that's creative and interesting. After choosing a race you must choose a class for your character. There was a small selection of classes to chose from, warrior, mage, and rogue. I quickly selected a male city elf, made him a warrior, named him "Boot" and began my adventure. I was presented with a quick background of who my character was and what the current situation in my life was like. Now here is where I started getting disappointed. In your average RPG you're given a much more in depth background for your character. The idea is to understand who you are role playing. Make decisions how you think your character would make them. Dragon Age doesn't do that. We are given a bit of a summary of our lives and left to figure out who our character really is. At first I did not like this, I felt a bit lost and disconnected from Boot. After a short time I decided to play the game as though it was actually me as the character. Once I made this decision I found myself really enjoying the game.  

After creating your character you must play through a small section of the game that is unique to the race and origin you selected. These are all quite creative and give a great sense of depth to the game once you've completed it. I played a few of the unique intro sections just to see something other than the one I chose. My favourite story has to be the city elf campaign, the one I originally selected. It's quite redemptive and forces your character to grow at quick pace. Despite having fun and different introductions, the game still has a slow start. Even being an experienced video game player I still needed to learn the basic game mechanics. I found the combat to be relatively easy to pick up but the radial menu, which is used to provide more options during game play, is awkward to control and feels quite slow when in combat. Dragon Age certainly takes its time walking you through its mechanics and gives a healthy history to the world which takes up a fair bit of time at the beginning.  

Dragon Age has a very well written story arc. I found myself desiring to play more just to progress through the plot. It's also not a sandbox style game which is really nice for a change. This allows for great direction and purpose. When a user has purpose they are never left wandering. Despite the game having a slow start, there's a great sense of urgency throughout the game that almost made me never want to put down my controller. There's plenty of "literature" in the game that provides more depth in the form of history and lore. I never read any of it. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't have the game very long and wanted to get as far as I could before I wrote my review. BioWare has created some of the most interesting worlds for their games and it would be well worth the time to read the extra content.  

Now there's a trend in the video game industry to make games that present the player with morally challenging problems. It's a cool concept and has been used for many years, but it's been poorly done. Most games that have these morally challenging issues present them in a very black-and-white way. Fable was the worst for this. It was painfully easy to chose the right or wrong paths. Dragon Age, on the other hand, puts your character through a gauntlet of morally ambiguous situations that can leave you with some very tough decisions.  

This leads me to my favourite part of Dragon Age. The Non Player Characters (NPCs). Along my journey I met many of interesting characters that could join my group. Each one of them has a deep, well-written past that affects they way talk to you and how they deal with situations. Many of them have pasts that are dark and filled with deeds that they are currently seeking redemption for. You learn more about their motives and desires as you talk to them. I spent quite a bit of time building a relationship with each of them. Part of why I liked this so much is that I am pretty tired of followers who are just fodder for my enemies. One particular moment I enjoyed occurred just after I had made some decisions on how to save a boy from being possessed by a demon. As I entered my camp site to get some rest and repair my gear, Alistair, a noble and religious knight, grabbed my arm and lost it on me. He berated me for letting the boy's mother sacrifice her life to save her son and using dark magic to do it. I enjoyed being held accountable for the actions I made in the game. It brings a whole new dynamic to your average adventure RPG. Interesting NPCs made it fun to play the game while trying to keep them together and work as a team. Now, as you can imagine in a game that relies heavily on communication, the dialog between characters needs to be well written. For the most part it is, there were some dialog options that were awkward and didn't really fit. Nothing to get hung up on for too long though. BioWare has done a great job again.  

A few friends of mine asked shortly after I received the game my thoughts on Dragon Age. I told them of my wariness. I wish I had told them that a wise man takes time to truly observe something before making a decision but alas I was quick to judge and told them I was not very impressed with it. Dragon Age has a great story arc, fun dialog, and phenomenal NPCs. I put about 20 hours into it before this review and was captivated. I will say that the beginning is somewhat slow but it can be ignored as you learn more and become invested in the story. The graphics are not the greatest I have ever seen but this can be forgiven since, overall, the game is good (you all remember The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). This is my final thought on Dragon Age. If you find yourself sitting at home doing some menial task when you suddenly feel in your heart a strong desire for adventure. Look not to travel nor romance, my friends. Dragon Age will replace your boring, average life with one filled with battle, intrigue, romance, and magic.  

Thank you for your time my friends.