Dragon Age: Origins Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on November 18th, 2009

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BioWare's newest is one of their best. While not for everyone, Dragon Age: Origins is absolute bliss for fans of the genre. Some issues along the way keep it from achieving perfection, but there's absolutely no question that the developer has, once again, created a franchise to call their own, and developed something to be extremely proud of. Hopefully future installments improve on the foundation laid with this first game, since there's plenty more of Ferelden left to explore, and I, personally, can't wait for the next Blight.

Dragon Age: Origins blurs the fine line drawn by most morality games. The immersive, addictive gameplay is a true testament to the hard work put in by Bioware. Every RPG fan should at least give it a shot.

After a four-day marathon of couch-indenting focus playing Dragon Age: Origins for at least fifty hours, I can safely say that there was not one moment of regret. It shows why BioWare is one of the leading developers of our time. Even with its graphical hitches and proverbial chinks in its armor, and though the story may not move you by virtue of its resemblance to The Lord of the Rings, Dragon Age: Origins creates a comprehensive story-world that lives and breathes with the best that epic video games have to offer.

If you are looking for a game that will keep your attention for days and months at a time, envelop you in a story that is all based around you, provide you with an amazing soundtrack and sound effects, and ultimately give you a gaming experience you will never forget.... pick up Dragon Age Origins.

Dragon Age is a game that surprised me. As an old school RPG elitist and self-professed hard to please gaming grognard, I never thought this game would last more than a few days on my hard drive. Like Mass Effect, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 before it I assumed it would be another (one week and you're done) RPG that would be forgotten soon after I finished it. In what was an unexpected turn of events, halfway through my first trip I had already rolled up a second and third character. Then halfway through my second trip I rolled up a fourth character. After almost two complete trips I can honestly say that no game has caught my imagination more or caused me to become as addicted to it as Dragon Age has. Not since Baldur's Gate 2 have I been so excited to come home and plop myself down in front of my PC for a marathon session of a game. As the hours stretch by and midnight comes closer and closer, I realize that I have finally found (my Game.) The perfect game where deep storytelling meets high levels of party micro-management and disturbingly difficult combat. The wonderful (have everything) RPG that meets my every need and lets me lose myself in its world.

The characters exude life and soul despite the game's clunky animations and less than stellar voice acting that's the power of Bioware's effective writing. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the environments: all the rote forests, castles and dungeons tend to blur into a single indistinguishable mess. It's also too bloody hard in places, with a wonky difficulty curve comparable to a diagonal line drawn by a Parkinson's sufferer sitting on a moving bus. Though that's not nearly enough to undo the game's stellar tapestry: Dragon Age throws a player into an epic trek of good, evil, politics, levelling up and great big bloody swords, creeping into your psyche and consuming countless hours. Repetition and a lack of imagination tar the landscape, but lately the first thing I've thought about after waking up in the morning is playing some more Dragon Age.

Overall, Dragon Age is another excellent role-playing game from Bioware, and fans of the developer or dark fantasy will find much to enjoy. With a deep, rich story that pulls you in by forcing you to make those tough and many times, critical decisions, the player will find themselves consumed in the world. Due to the effort put forth on story-telling, voice acting and character development, it is easy to forgive the graphical shortcomings. Be prepared to spend hours upon hours with this game if you want to squeeze every drop out of the lore. There are multiple endings, romances and plenty of side quests to keep you coming back for more and will hold you over until the inevitable sequel.

Dragon Age: Origins has been dubbed by Bioware to be the spiritual successor to their previous cult success, Baulder's Gate. In fact, it borrows more heavily from the LOTR trilogy in terms of overall story arc than it does from the BG franchise. This is a darker and grittier narrative and overall it is quite compelling. Fantasy fiction buffs should like this but you may need blink a couple of times if you think you're seeing Urakai!

With all that said, do I recommend Dragon Age: Origins? Absolutely, if you think you're into Western RPGs. I don't love it as much as I do Mass Effect, but when I'm not playing it, I want to be playing it, despite the difficulty spikes. When I complete a run through, as long as it takes, I'm ready and raring to start again with a new character to see how differently the game plays out. Far from faultless, but this is a very enjoyable, engrossing and addictive game.

Gamers can expect at least 60-80 hours of gaming. I would recommend setting aside more than 80 hours though. The beauty of DAO is really the sum of its parts and a large part of this is the detail BioWare has offered to the gamers. If you find the story interesting at all you can easily learn more on just about any subject through the huge codex. Diving deeper into the land of Ferelden is almost addicting with all the side quests and BioWare is setting Dragon Age to be more than just this single game, but the game is the best part of the universe so far. On the game's release date there was already downloadable content, so expect the journey to continue well past the initial game.

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