Dragon Age: Origins was first announced at E3 2004, a full five years before its release in November 2009. It has gone through some changes since it was first announced, most notably the name change from Dragon Age to Dragon Age: Origins. The development was both a long and difficult road. Which lead it to being delayed as well as lose some of the hype that surrounded the game when it was first announced.

The wait, however, proved to be well worth it as Bioware, the ones behind Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, have put together one of the better RPG's released this year and for this generation for that matter. In a time when game developers have been pushing out sequels and shorter games, it is refreshing to see a company release an original game that will take you at least fifty plus hours to finish, and leave you wanting more.

The story is the heart and soul of this game, while not completely original since it is pretty much a re-hash of the Lord of the Rings. Where you lead a group of unlikely allies who band together to save the world from an Evil threat, in this case an Arch-demon and the Darkspawn. Although DAO pulls it off perfectly, with its excellent writing as well as voice acting.

The game begins with selecting your race, as either Humans, Elves, or Dwarfs, in addition to which class you want to focus on. You have three to choose from, Warrior, Magic, and Rouge each providing their unique experience. The choices you make here will determine which of the six “origin” stories you will play through. It will also determine how some characters react to your presence, providing a unique experience each time.

The story then moves focus on to you as being one of the remaining members of the Grey Wardens, who are an organization that was created for the sole task of fighting the Darkspawn threat. You will spend the majority of your time trying to recruit allies to aid the fight against the latest blight. As you travel around collecting allies from the treaties, that were signed by the four races during the first blight, you will soon begin to realize that the world is not in a position to help, because they themselves are dealing with their own inner demons.

The Dwarfs a proud and strong race that have locked themselves inside their caves as they try to elect a new king. The Elves a poor and nomadic race are spread out across the land and are treated as 2^nd rate citizens and servants. Dalish, the more powerful tribe of Elves, are in a war themselves against werewolves. While the Mages, who are forced to stay in the Circle Tower because they are looked upon with fear and mistrust, are dealing with an evil demon summoned by an evil Blood Mage, which is killing everyone inside the tower. While at the same time the humans who you would imagine would be focused on the defeating this latest blight, are too busy dealing with the power vacuum left when their King is betrayed and killed during the first battle of the blight. So of course it is up to you to bring order to these races and build an army to defeat the Arch-demon and end the Blight.

Gameplay

Dragon Age: Origins, is a very linear game in terms of what you can and must do to complete the story. You are given a set number of places to visit with a singular task in each one. While you can approach each task in a different way, such as siding with Lord Harrowmont rather than prince Bhelen to be the new King of the Dwarfs, but the end result will still be the same.

Also gone from the more recent Bioware games is the good and evil system. While you still must make choices that are either good or evil it has little effect on you or the world around, although it does have an effect with what your companions think of you. For example, if you threaten a Revered Mother of the Church, you will bring down the approval of one companion while increasing the approval of another. The approval rating matters a lot in which conversations you get to have with each of them. Your companions will have no problem calling you out for something they feel is wrong. If the approval rating dips too low they will pack up and leave or if you raise it high enough you will be rewarded with special conversations that will lead to extra quests or new skills. While your actions may effect them, you can easily gain favor with them by showering them with gifts that you find along the way. Which seems to make it a little too easy, as well as your actions having little overall effect on the characters.

Dragon age also uses a very familiar battle system to those who have played western RPG's. Battles take place in real time with time based attacks rather than a hack-and-slash. First you must select an enemy, which is no easy task mind you, as it can sometimes be a crap shoot on which enemy it selects. Your character will then preform an auto attack, which is your basic move such as slash or shoot, while you focus on giving advance commands such as shield blast or fire ball. The game has made it easy for you to choose which power or action you want to use by having two sliding sets of powers mapped to three buttons on the controller, which can be changed out quickly by pushing R2. You can also take direct control of each of the three members of your party at a moments notice and give them direct commands as well. You can also take a more hands-off approach by assigning them tactics which they will carry out. Such as heal a warrior when its health is below 50% or attack the nearest enemy.

Where DAO falls flat though are the little things. It seems odd not to include a jump button in a game in this generation. The environments are also filled with areas that seem passable, such as a puddle but yet your powerful Grey Warden must be too afraid that his/her armor will rust and stops dead in their tracks. So you are forced to walk around it., which can be a glaring reminder that is indeed a game. The menu system is another major flaw. While good in theory, it is just too different from the standard that it falls flat. Even after 90+ hours of game time I still mess up on the menu screen for time to time. It uses way too many buttons at different times to be effective.

With the limited number places you can travel to, there is not really a way that someone can do the most basic of RPG actions, level and money grinding. The only way to gain experience and money outside of the mapped out story is to find books and tombs. So during each play through you characters will be around the same level and might as your first. Which makes it hard for those such as myself who like to reach the highest levels and have the best gear to feel satisfied.

Graphics and Sound

The look is another low point of Dragon Age: Origins. The characters and enemies have all been polished and look very good, but the surrounding world is very inconsistent. Many of the environments have not been polished and you can easily tell that it must have been created early in the development process. You can see a huge difference between the opening levels compared to some of the later ones. While the equipment looks good, each type of weapon and armor looks exactly the same, but with just a different color scheme. Which can be a real disappointment when you get excited that you can finally wear this piece of top-level armor that you have been saving just to find out it looks just like the one you just had on.

You will also realize that Ferelden is a very bloody place. During every battle gore shoots out from just about everywhere as you decapitate and impale your enemy. Blood even sprays over your characters bodies as you fight, which tends to stay there for quite some time. At first this was pretty cool, but after a while you begin to ask yourself why? Also Darkspawn blood is said to be black and thick, yet it is red when it hits you...weird huh?

While the graphics may not impress, the sound sure does. The music is another real high point of the game. You can tell they have spent some time to make sure they had the right ambiance for what was going on the screen. While you will not be rushing out to get the soundtrack it still does its job very well.

The best part of the game has to be the vocals. The actors were able to bring the well written script to life with emotion and subtle nuances that you rarely see in games. When you speak with them it actually sounds like you are having a real conversation with them. Each choice you make brings out a different subtle emotion. To be fair though some accents are a little too over the top, but not enough to ruin one of the best performances by a voice cast this year. You will find yourself talking with them just to hear what they will say next, or stopping and listening to random conversations between themselves.

Value

There is a lot of value to this game and deserves to sit on a shelf alongside your other games. A single play through will net you more gaming hours than most games these days. But once you account for all the different ways you can play through the game you could be gaming for years.

The Developers have already proven that they will be supporting the game after release with downloadable content; they have already released two DLC quests - “The Stone Prisoner” which is free with purchase of a new copy of the game, adds new items, location,quest and character with its own unique back story, and “Warden's Keep” includes a new quest which reveals why the Grey Wardens were exiled from Ferelden and allows the player to set up a base of operations with an area to store party members surplus equipment. The download also adds new talents, spells, and items. There is also a new DLC pack on the way for the holiday season.

Conclusion

Dragon Age:Origins is a top RPG that should not be overlooked. The story is one that you will remember long after you are done with the game, even though the graphics may not be what you are looking for in a $60 next-generation game. It's still well worth the price of admission when you consider the amount of time and enjoyment you will get out of this game.

Rating: 89/100