Dragon Age – Origins, Gem Among Gems by Bioware, the RPG of 2009
Format: Xbox 360, PC
Style: Third-person RPG/RTS
Modes: single player campaign only
Pros: Stunning graphics, epic story, gripping gameplay, top notch voice acting, good combat, great fun.
Cons: Difficult to pull hair in some spots.
Introduction
Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A company that puts all its heart and soul into its games, and the result is more than worth it. Dragon Age: Origins is a platinum among gold. With an expansion of role-playing games in the last decade, it’s hard to narrow it down to the best. But what most gamers agree with is that DA:O is one of the best RPGs of this decade, if not the best.
Startup
Like any RPG, you get character selection/customization. First I tried to make a Dalish elf. These are the elves who have stayed in the isolated forests, hiding from humanity. It started with a good introduction to history and the Dalish Elves. After the video, I immediately made decisions, whether or not to kill some humans that roamed our forest. Of course I had to let them go, I know how humans are. They also filled me in on some ruins I ventured into with an elven friend and went into a quick and easy introduction to combat. Easy switching between the zoomed out camera view, overhead zoom, and the close up “adventure” camera view with the scroll wheel makes switching between combat and walking very seamless. The first part of the game is very forgiving and eases you into a style that I wasn’t used to. It’s like a cross between real-time strategy and classic third person, packed with story, action and missions. The cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous and the voice acting is top notch. The second character I made was the generic Human Noble. I usually don’t like melee fighting in RPGs, but I decided to push this game to the limit. This turned out to be a great choice. Even the last thing I wanted to be was a lot of fun. You start with the choice to have your dog as a companion, and I don’t know how you can pass up an opportunity like that. During the game, you can only have 4 partners at a time, so you usually fight as a team. I decided to be a tank (defensive character) to help hold off enemies and take the brunt of the damage. The combat and tactics were easy enough to get used to, but the gameplay is incredibly difficult.
graphics
While playing at maxed out graphics with a new Radeon 5800 series GPU, it’s a stunningly beautiful game. The faces are the best I’ve ever seen, the armor and weapons are incredibly detailed, and the environment is beautiful to look at. Lighting and shadows are in perfect balance, each light has a nice glow and the dark is very contrasting. Even the fire alone is the best fire I’ve seen in a game so far. It has this warm, comforting glow, with a strong lick and… well, it’s a very nice fire. The detail in the game is amazing, after fighting your characters are covered in blood specs, unlike the usual clean heroes in most games. People will eventually notice that every location, every forest, every dungeon and cave they pass through is detailed and wacky, along with its contents and enemies. The game is top notch for DirectX10 and only DX11 can beat it. However, it was a smart move to use DX10 as not everyone has a DX11 (recently released) GPU. Basically, the game is absolutely pristine.
how to play
This is one of the most difficult and frustrating games I’ve ever played, except for Street Fighter and Mega Man 9. The difficulty can be summed up like this: In the second mission, I had four characters, at full health, and ready to fight. . There were only two enemies waiting by a bridge over the marshy waters of Wild. I thought “hey, pretty easy, just throw them and hit them”. But no, I was wrong, those two led us through bear traps and a host of other enemies. They hit us time and time again. It must have taken five tries to finally get through them. Within the first half hour of the game! On normal difficulty! It is a great challenge. One feature that really took some getting used to was the tactic. This menu pack determines what your character does when a certain event occurs, like if your character’s health is below 20%, it will use a special block move. This really comes in handy for the big fights where you can’t really keep track of everything every second. Apart from the occasional jaw-gnashing difficult parts, the gameplay is pretty straightforward and simple. Completing quests, continuing the story, gaining levels and skills, upgrading armor and weapons, it’s your RPG game with no surprises. But what you don’t always come to see is the fantastic, unique and fascinating history. This rich story stands out in the world of role-playing games because it is highly original and detailed. The Blight (a bunch of grizzly ugly guys) come along and try to kill everyone every two hundred years. They were old wizards who tried to take over the heavens, but were defeated and cursed. There is an archdemon who leads the plague and must be defeated to end it. The Gray Wardens are a group of fighters who work to defeat the Blight with the help of the people, and you become one of these last Gray Wardens. You must work with three other fighters/adventurers (any one you choose) to delve deeper into the world with quests, objectives, and fights. And yes, like Mass Effect, there is a sex scene involved, it probably won’t be in the news as much because there are no aliens involved. But anyway, the gameplay is fantastic, easy to understand, incredibly challenging and fun, and the story is great. Every time you start with a new character, you are thrown into a completely different beginning with different options and quests. As you progress, you choose your path depending on what you decide to do, so you could play the game twice in two totally different ways. The replayability is amazing, because there aren’t many other games that give you that much decision. The fact that it’s single player doesn’t hinder the experience at all and is a better route to take in my opinion, it would just feel weird playing with other people. Compared to other RPGs, Dragon Age: Origins is a gem; has taken everything we love about RPGs and perfected it. BioWare knows how to make a great game and I look forward to the sequels to this fantastic game.
Ratings
Graphics – 9.5/10
Sound – 10/10
History – 10/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Replayability- 10/10
Final Score – 9.7/10
Required Specifications/Recommended Specifications (Vista/7)
CPU
Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6 Ghz or faster / Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM
1.5 GB or more/4 GB
GPUs
ATI Radeon X1550 256 MB or better/ATI 3850 512 MB or better NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB or better/NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or better
HDD
20 GB free or more
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