Dragon Age: Origins - Review of an epic tale

To be frank, many games talk about choices (inFamous) and don't really deliver. There are a few games that do (The witcher) and they do so well. Dragon Age isn't leaps and bounds above anything, but there is a very good amount of choices for you to delve into. This is one of the first single player games that I have actually beaten twice all the way through, just to choose different origins and outcomes.

Another fantastic quality is that most of the choices aren't simply between the saint choice, and the devil choice; most of the chioces are simple consequence on consequence basis, and it isn't always obvious what will become of your choices. Most 'choose your own adventure' games tend to be fairly predictable when it comes to knowing how the world will react to your choices. Bioware does an excellent job of making you stop for a moment, to think about how to proceed with your 'life'.

If you are thinking about playing this type of game, you know full well that chatting with some of the NPC's is half the fun. Well good news, the writing is superb, and the voice acting matches the universe you've found yourself in. I found myself wanting more responses at of my group members, so I would advance the story in order to get more out of them. What's great is there are items that are categorized as gifts, and if you give certain items to a certain character you can trigger quests to find more about their history, and who they are. There are of course just normal gifts that raises their disposition towards you.

I didn't find everyone's special story, but I am sure there are multiple for certain characters, and I can't wait to try new combos in my third playthrough. That being said, the ending is utlimately sad because you cannot keep playing 'after the epic events', as it says in your epiloge save. You can only play DLC episodes with those characters, which is still a nice touch. (New DLC pack called Return to Ostagar coming out soon-ish)

And of course: Pathetic. Maybe it is just me, but seeing two polygons (albeit well rendered) going at each other in their underwear just doesn't hit me the way it's suppose to I think. I'm glad that my character is getting it on, and that bioware is including these 'adult themes' in the game, however I'm not sure the graphics, or the animiation (or the fact that America is still scared to put nudity in games), is ready to emulate intimate relations; take that with a grain of salt like always, but keep in mind there are 4 trophies for 'completing the romance' with four characters. Good hunting.

Those of you who have played an MMO will feel right at home with how the combat feels. It looks better, and the system is of course heavily influenced by table top RPGs. However the console versions feels more like an action adventure game had a single-player baby with an MMO. There are 6 'hot key' abilities that you can map, they are accessed via X, Y, and B, and alternatively hold the right trigger to access the other 3 abilities.

Don't expect anything beautiful since I wouldn't say the actual combat is the selling point. The tactics needed when playing on a higher difficulty are quite strategic. I will admit I used faulty pathfinding to kill a few difficult bosses. I also lowered the difficulty to casual on my second playthrough and had a much more enjoyable time.

I would think that playing tactfully would be easier to don the PC version, as the console versions are not only have less quality graphics, it is very difficult to accurately control all party members during a big fight. It is possible to pause the game (think Mass Effect ability wheel) and que up actions, however I imagine it would immensly easier on the PC.