Dragon Age: Origins Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon Age: Origins takes place in a mature, and somewhat violent ,fantasy world named Thedas, but plays out in Ferelden. Its is a world inhabited by dwarfs, elves and humans as the main cliental. But is also home to monstrous creatures called The Darkspawn. Every fifth century they comes out of hiding and is lead by an Archdemon (a huge dragon) to attack Ferelden. What stands between them and total control of the lands, are the Grey Wardens - a legendary group of warriors in all shapes and sizes whose sole purpose is to battle The Darkspawn. You, whoever you chose to play, becomes a Grey Warden and it is up to you to put and end to the monsters murdering malice and send them back where they came from.   

 

 

Before you jump into the boots to be a Grey Warden, you need to create your main character first. And there is a large number of opportunities to create them - gender, hairstyles, skin tone, ect, ect. Like many other RPGS, you can either chose to be a warrior, mage or rogue, who posses unique talents to handle the enemies, you will encounter. You are given the choice to choose between six origins stories, all depending on your race and class. Depending on your origin, people will view you differently in the game. Humans are that race, who dominates Ferelden most, and elves are oppressed by the humans and many lives as slaves and servants to them. So, if you play as an elf, some humans will treat you with some hostilely and vice versa, if you are playing as a human. But, whatever origin story you choose, you will end up being recruited by the Grey Warden Duncan and ending up being one. From here, after a devastating loss of Fereldens king and army, you need to built one yourself to battle the Darkspawn horde. You will need to travel to different places around Ferelden to convince the dwarfs, elves, mages and humans factions to join your course - after you have helped them resolve a partially crisis for them.  

 

Along the way you will meet characters, who will join your party. They posses, like yourself, unique skills and you will need them to make it to the end. These characters will react differently to your actions chosen in conversations. Some respect good deeds and some likes then you are being a ruthless and coldhearted jerk. Through these actions, and gifts not to forget, you will change their opinion about you. Having high approval and they will like you, maybe even fall in love with you. Low approval and they will hate you or maybe leave the party for good. The reviewer didn't find any good reason on purpose to make the other party members hate the main character. If you agreed with them in their different ways, they will be given a stat bonus which can be very helpful in combat. The more they like you, the better the bonus becomes. As mentioned before, if your approval should be lower to much, you can give the characters gifts to boost their opinion about you. 

 

From time to time, you will come across Darkspawn or other people who will be needed to be fought. These battles takes place in real time, but you may consider, on the higher difficulty, to pause and think tactically. The game will, to some degree, beat the living crap out you, if you don't think smart. You can use talents as a warrior and rogue. With mages you can use spells. The combat contains a lot of blood, so take that into account, if you are of the faintest of heart.

 

Out in Ferelden, you will meet people who offers quest to any who will take them. The rewards will mostly be money, which can be used to buy new gear in stores or maybe pay the visit to the Denerim brothel. The quests isnt that exciting, and will often need you to go from point A to point B, deliver something or kill somebody and then return to the quest giver. Ferelden itself isn't very open for exploration, but the player is given varied locations to explore. Like caves in the elven Brecilian forrest or the impressive dwarven city Orzammar. 

 

If you take your time thorough the game, you will get around 70 hours or more of entertainment. There is a lot of replay-value. You can start a new game and choose another class, origin story and try siding with another factions. The big major difference between the console and pc version, is that in the pc version you play in a overhead view. The overhead view is not available in the console versions.   

 

 

The sound and music in Dragon Age Origins is very captivating and atmospheric. Bioware has done a good job in capturing the music of the various places you visit and the sound bits fits very well. While it doesn’t surpass other games in this department, its definitely able to slug it out with the best of them in this department.

 

 

Various people from other videogames, like Simon Templemen, who have been involved in video games like Legacy of Kain or Uncharted, assumes the role of one of the games main antagonists, Loghain. One other Uncharted-character, who is involved, is Steven Valentine, which give his voice as Harry Flynn in Uncharted 2. Valentine is voicing as the Grey Warden Alistair. And finale, but not least, there is Peter Renaday, who performed as Altairs master, Al-Mualim, in the first Assassins Creed videogame. In this game he performs as the Grey Warden leader Duncan. The main character you will create is the non-talking protagonists like in other bioware games. Many other famous voice actors like Star Treks Kate Mulgrew are in the game. The voice acting is well done and atmospheric, it makes the conversations seem real and natural.

 

 

The graphics may not be the most prettiest, but it gets the job done when it comes to create a bloody and mature fantasy world. The content of the world is quiet intriguing and makes the player become more immersed into the world. The character design is convincing and you will notice emotional expression, when you interact with the characters.   

 

 

Dragon Age Origins is to the core a bioware game, and have you played one bioware game, you know what you will get; A lot of conversations, morale choices and a major threat, that must be ended. If you don’t have the patience for long conversations and don’t like tactical thought, then I would not recommend this game. But, if you more like a action-orientated RPG, you should choose the Mass Effect games. But, if you loved previous bioware games, you wont be disappointed with this one. You will get plenty of hours of it, and you can get a new experience if you play with a different origin or class. In my time with Origins on the Xbox-version, the game two times froze and needed to be rebooted. But all in all, Dragon Age Origins is a game that can be recommended.  

 

 

Age Rating: 18+.

Genre: RPG.

Players: 1.

Multiplayer: No.

Co-op: No.

Publisher: EA.

Developer: Bioware.

Release: November 2009.