Dragon Age: Origins is a reviewer’s worst nightmare. Not because it’s a terrible game to play, it’s great in fact, but because there’s so much content to play through to reach any conclusion as to the game’s quality. In such a fast industry as this it’s a distinctly unnerving experience to be given a 100hrs plus RPG and told that your review is expected within a week’s time. Fortunately as someone who’s always preferred epic RPGs to sleep, all is well. With great certainty I can say that if you’re an RPG fan you’ll also see no reason to sleep when you could be playing this instead.
To get it out of the way now, Dragon Age: Origins isn’t perfect. Far from it at times in fact. The graphics will look distinctly dated when compared to the likes of recent hits such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, and even Bioware’s last console RPG Mass Effect. Despite not usually being bothered by poor graphics, even I was slightly unsure of just how dated Dragon Age: Origins looked. Luckily it really doesn’t matter and you’ll quickly learn to look past such flaws, even if this might not be a game to show off the beauty of your Xbox 360. Dragon Age: Origins also suffers slightly from being mostly Mass Effect with a Dungeons and Dragons style skin put on it. Even the inventory system is extremely similar, right down to the fact you can collect Codex entries which give more background to the world of Ferelden, just like you could in Bioware’s last console RPG. But again it really doesn’t matter once you’ve got into the storyline and realise that it is significantly different to be called unique, yet comfortably familiar so that you know you’re playing a game of class.
So why is it so great you cry? Well it’s down to a mixture of the enthralling storyline and the compelling gameplay. Right from the start you get the impression that this is going to be rather epic. At the start of the game you choose from one of six origin storylines covering a variety of classes and backgrounds. The first time round I chose to be a noble human warrior. My origin story involved watching my family be wiped out by a traitorous lord, and well I won’t go too much further so as not to spoil too much. It took around an hour and a half to complete the Origin story without even touching the main plotline, so I assumed that my second Origin story would be very similar for the sake of cutting down development time. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. The second playthrough I chose to be a city Elf and experienced an entirely different story. It was as dark as the previous tale with my having to rescue women from an evil human lord intent on raping them, and again it took just as long to complete. Not that it felt like a slog at all, I was enthralled all over again. When I did reach the main storyline thread, it was nice to see completely different lines of dialogue come up because I was a different race. This wasn’t in a ‘thrown in for the sake of it’ sort of way; this was in a way that made the game feel like an entirely new game all over again.
Covering just the Origins stories will take you about 9hrs for all of them if you so wish, that’s before you even look at the main plot which took me around 30hrs to complete. It’s certainly one of the more epic RPGs available on the 360 when you bear in mind the additional many, many sidequests on offer. The storyline is a tricky one to accurately describe without spoiling. Comprising of a somewhat typical RPG style story, it also provides a sufficient amount of twists and turns to keep you suitably entertained. Bioware have evidently learnt from previous titles as many of the moral dilemmas within these quests are also more shades of grey than simple black or white decisions. I’ve been a big fan of Bioware titles for years, so it’s nice to see that the developers have acknowledged that many decisions are not as black and white as they may initially appear. One particularly memorable quest consisted of having to choose between sacrificing a mother through evil ‘blood’ magic to save her possessed son, or to kill her demonic son to end it right there. A decision that regardless of the choice you make, still feels slightly unsettling and is guaranteed to disappoint at least one of your party members.
As is frequently the case with Bioware titles, the array of party characters is quite impressive. It’s a shame that none stand out as memorably as the likes of Minsc in the Baldur’s Gate games but they still certainly hold their own. There is a hearty mix of good, bad and slightly strange all of which have their own quirks and backstory. They also don’t exactly all get along either making for some entertaining dialogue along the way if your team at the time consists of two characters who especially hate each other. I particularly enjoyed the banter between Morrigan and Alistair who quite obviously despised each other for having strongly opposing views and morals. The ability to romance each character is a nice, but common, touch although I did find myself only really doing so just to see the dialogue changes.
No RPG is worth its salt without a strong combat system and fortunately Dragon Age: Origins does a good job here, although isn’t quite as accurately implemented as the PC version. The combat system feels like a cross between Mass Effect’s and Baldur’s Gate with it being surprisingly strategical for a console RPG. The ability to pause here is extremely useful to plan out tactics. There are many moments where micromanagement is crucial and switching between characters quickly is frequently useful. There are options to adjust tactics individually to ensure that each character reacts accordingly, but at times I found it easier to control it all myself. The AI responds reasonably well and there is a wealth of options so that for example you can ensure that your tank always protects your mage, but annoyingly the system also let me down at times with characters getting stuck to walls or simply not moving despite there being enemies nearby. The combat is quite challenging, especially on the higher difficulty levels so micromanagement really is essential. It is however refreshing to play a challenging RPG, one that forces you to think ahead and consider factors such as keeping your rogue behind the enemy at all times for sneaky backstabs, and to keep your archers and mages safe from danger.
There’s a huge amount more that could be covered on Dragon Age: Origins, but it’s the sort of game that players really need to discover for themselves, no matter how much I want to continue gushing. For the RPG fan it’s an absolute no brainer and something that I am certain they will enjoy. Even those who liked Mass Effect but were previously put off by Elves and Dwarves in other RPGs should still give this a shot as despite the increased difficulty level, Dragon Age: Origins is very easy to get into. The content that is available now is vast, but with Bioware already offering 2 pieces of DLC (one included free with new copies of the game), it looks like there’ll be a fair amount of support for the future making this an even more tantalising prospect. Simply put, you’d be mad not to get this.
