Developer: BioWare
Publisher: EA
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC/Mac
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 45
Progress: Completed main story on “Normal”
Some of the best RPG experiences I?ve had have been with Bioware games, both Knights of The Old Republic on the Xbox and Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 were revolutionary titles long after Bioware started etching out their legacy as a developer of premium RPG titles. It?s therefore no surprise that Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware?s latest RPG offering, comes with much anticipation and high expectations. Originally heralded as the spiritual successor to the popular dungeon crawler Baldur?s Gate, the developers changed pace and decided to give the game a behind the player, 3rdperson perspective and a more deliberate combat system with deep story line and party-based combat and exploration. When originally conceived, the game was thought to be a PC-only title. Fortunately for console gamers, publisher EA saw the mass-market appeal and pushed for a console release as well. Inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons universe, Dragon Age: Origins is a throwback to ?old school? RPGs but with the Bioware flair and seal of quality we?ve become so used to. Read on to find out how it stacks up to their previous titles…
Rich story telling is a trademark in Bioware games and so it is in Dragon Age: Origins, choosing between different races (Human, Dwarf or Elf), classes (Warrior, Mage and Rogue) and heritage (noble or commoner), the player embarks on completely different ?origin? stories, which explore your character?s background and motives. Regardless of beginnings you will find yourself eventually joining the ?Grey Wardens?, an organization dedicated to the eradication of the ?Dark Spawn?, evil creatures, much akin to Orcsand Goblins who live underground and venture forth to the surface in massive military campaigns called ?Blights?. As a fresh Grey Warden recruit you?ll meet up with a variety of different characters, many of which can be conscripted into your party to fight with or fight as. Similar to games like Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect, background stories about these characters can be uncovered and different relationships can be formed between your main character and the rest of the party based on a wide variety of dialogue options and decisions you make as you progress through the game?s main story. Shouldered by top-notch voice acting, the game?s story explores the intricacies of life in the province of ?Farelden?, where your quest takes place. The writers confront the player with the dynamics of the races that populate Farelden and touch upon themes like isolationism, prejudice and civil war. Often the player will feel like the populace of the land is so preoccupied with their own, seemingly petty, squabbles that they forget doom is at their doorstep in the shape of the gathering Dark Spawn hordes. This is exactly how Bioware wants you to feel, as you quickly realize that you have to take ownership of your new role as Grey Warden and look at the big picture as it pertains to you possibly being the only saviour of Ferelden in the wake of impending disaster. As such, the writing is great and tackles mature concepts through realistic dialogue in much depth. The overall concept of the game and story will feel very familiar to anyone who has played their share or RPGs and Bioware really hasn?t strayed far from their tried-and-true game design formula. The feeling of ?freshness? found in a more original game like Mass Effect is lost a bit here in the face of a more traditional fantasy world setting and story. Fortunately for the player, much of this is mitigated by the wealth of dialogue and decision making options that will put a different spin on the game?s proceedings every time.
Meshing excellent story telling with top-notch visuals is something we?ve come to expect from Bioware titles, therefore you might be a bit surprised to find that Dragon Age: Origins is not exactly a looker, especially on the consoles. While the game looks by no means terrible, textures are typically drab and lack that high-res sheen while environmental models are a bit basic, missing the level of detail we typically find in other triple-A titles. Playable characters fair a bit better, with their best feature by far being the facial animation. Always a welcome touch is the real-time modeling of new armour and weaponry on your playable characters and Dragon Age pulls this off well, character animation is a bit stiff and not up to the level of the facial animation and lip-syncing. Set in a fantasy-style world based on the Dungeons and Dragons universe, the opportunities to create lush and fantastical environments are many and although the writing and overarching story are great, the environments and different locations found in the game are a bit too plain. The player will find himself walking through a forest so generic it could have been plucked out of any game, trees all look the same, foliage is bitmapped, invisible walls keep the player hemmed in and there are few, if any, ambient affects. We could visit a village or dwarven mines and the same repetition of textures and lack of architectural detail would prevail. Spell and combat effects are better, but also serve as a reminder of how lacking real-time lighting effects are. The best way to describe the overall visuals of Dragon Age is as terribly plain. It must be said that this is mostly true for the console versions, which our review is based on, but the PC version looks light years ahead of the console versions with crisper textures, better lighting effects and more detail.
Musical scores notwithstanding, RPGs are not typically known for stellar sound effects; having said that, the audio in Dragon Age is top notch, the score and combat music are not the most original but certainly serve their purpose. It is the sound effects and surround sound implementation that end up being the most impressive. Crank your audio system up and you?ll be immersed in booming sword strikes, rattling of armour and deafening drum sounds. There just seems to be more substance to the sound than with many other games, especially in this genre. The many hundreds of lines of voiced dialogue are another great element of Dragon Age?s sound design; the voice acting is impeccable and really anchors the story. Random conversations even occur amongst your party based on which characters you presently have in your group, these can often be quite amusing, such as the exchanges between Morgan (a pretty young forest witch) and Alistair (a former Paladin).
The biggest stand-out (not necessarily a positive one mind you) in Dragon Age’s control scheme is the radial menu, a console compromise to the game’s PC-centered control scheme. First the default control set up: left thumb stick controls character movement while the right one rotates the camera, the D-pad allows you to toggle between targets, holding the left trigger button opens the radial menu (more about that later). Holding the right trigger opens up a shortcut battle menu, the trigger buttons allow you to toggle between party members. As for the face buttons; the A button is the action button the B, Y and X buttons correspond with the battle command shortcuts displayed on the bottom right-hand side of the screen. The radial menu, mentioned previously, brings up all the battle commands for the controlled character, bringing up this menu pauses the game, allowing you to take your time in order to find the desired command. This also reveals the main problem with this control scheme; there are so many commands and abilities available that many are hidden in sub-menus within the radial menu, this makes it take even longer to get back into the battle and constantly disrupts the flow of the proceedings. The quick menu, which allows you to map the three most used abilities to the controller’s face buttons, help, but it shows that this game was really developed for use with a keyboard.
RPGs often seem to distinguish themselves through the combat style employed in the game. Dragon Age: Origin?s is unusual but not unfamiliar, commands like attacking with a carried weapon, using an ability or magic spell are queued and carried out in “real time”. Enemies are displayed in the game?s environments in real time and are engaged by carrying out attack or magic commands within the range of those abilities, very similar to what we experienced in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox. After the initial ?origins story?, which lays bare the background of your main character, the game opens up right away, allowing you to visit different locations on the world map to pursue treaties between the Grey Wardens and the other factions in Farelden in order to stop the impending Blight. While traveling the world map, occasionally you?ll be drawn into a ?random? battle, which can be against a wide variety of enemies in a smaller, arena-style environment. Once you reach your location, you?ll often find yourself in an environment populated with multi-branching paths, bordered by environmental objects like trees and rocks or sometimes invisible walls. These are not wide-open locales such as the ones we find in MMOs and despite the different paths tend to be quite linear, the focus lies therefore not quite as heavily on exploration, but more on progression through combat. This doesn?t mean there isn?t a lot of loot to collect or puzzles to solve, however the game doesn?t feel quite as ?open? as some of its competitors. The many beautifully written lines of dialogue are a big part of Dragon Age?s gameplay, the decisions you make and dialogue options you chose will impact the outcome of quests, how the game world changes and how your party interacts with you. Thankfully the archaic ?karma gauge? found in so many games to express how ?good? or ?evil? your character is, does not make an appearance. You are instead able to view how much the members of your party like or dislike you based on a gauge in the character menu, however Dragon Age is a lot less black and white than many other games that presume to give you a choice in whether you shape your character into a hero or villain. You?ll quickly learn that making an off the cuff decision can have major consequences, often irreversible, forcing you to pay close attention to the story development and your available dialogue options. It really makes up for the less than impressive game world and causes the gamer to stay immersed in the proceedings throughout.
I like my coffee strong and my RPGs hard, well consider Dragon Age a shot of double espresso; playing the game on ?normal?, I?m embarrassed to admit that on many an occasion my party went down and didn?t get back up and not during some crazy boss battle mind you, but simply at the hands of a sizable group of grunts or a bunch of baddies lead by an elite unit. It?s often forced me to rethink my strategy and ask questions such as: who do I take with my in my party and what kind of items do I equip for this particular enemy? Unfortunately the strategic thinking doesn?t end there, the player is able to set the behaviour for the party members through a detailed set of ?if, then? commands. Sometimes it?s more useful, for instance, to have your battle mage act as a second healer when facing a tough enemy, and have your warriors close in to deal the damage. The sky?s the limit really when you consider how you can tweak the combat behaviour of your party members, the point is that it can be necessary to do so at times and that you won?t be left wanting for more options. The game?s challenging nature really culminates in the final boss battle, which is both epic and incredibly tough, leveling up doesn?t happen all that often so this isn?t the type of game where you level grind until your thumbs turn blue, but rather one where careful consideration of your combat tactics pays off. The diversity in origin story scenarios is one of the most enjoyable aspects and highlights the many different game experiences you can have playing this game, no matter what you do later on in the game, the player is funneled towards an eventual conclusion that will be similar for all. The start of the game, which focuses on your character?s background and eventual reason for joining the Grey Wardens is completely different for each race and pedigree (noble or commoner), it?s therefore one of those titles that?s definitely worth revisiting once you?ve finished it for the first time.
Dragon Age: Origins is a solid, classic-feeling RPG with an excellent story and great voice acting. The graphics on the consoles are a bit disappointing and the game world doesn’t feel as open and free as some other games in this genre, but there is a lot of content here and quite a challenge. Replaying the game is encouraged with different “origin stories” and game events being directly impacted by the player’s decisions. Not quite as polished as past BioWare games, but still a highly recommended title for all RPG fans.
Story:
+ Very well written story and dialogue
– Many familiar elements in the story won’t make it feel very original
Graphics:
+ Good character design
– Plain textures and modest lighting effects
– Uninteresting locales
Sound:
+ Fantastic voice acting
+ Solid score and sound effects
– Why does the main character in a RPG always have to be a mute?
Gameplay:
+ Game events constantly change based on player’s decisions
+ Challenging combat with lots of combat customization options for party members
– Use of radial menu can be a pain as you may have to drill down to several sub-menus to pick the desired ability
Usagi Factor:
+ Lengthy quest, downloadable content already available
+ Challenging difficulty will prevent gamers from breezing through
– Game doesn’t feel quite as polished as previous BioWare titles (especially on consoles)
