Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Dragon Age was one of those few games that launched completely off my radar. I had seen bits and pieces about it here and there, but never payed much attention. I had no idea it was an RPG, let alone one from BioWare. It’s weird, because I love BioWare and am a huge fan of their RPGs, ever since Neverwinter Nights. It wasn’t until my buddy Jim started speaking it’s praises that I rab it off Steam.

Anyway; I finished my first play through last night, coming in at just under 60 hours played. I completed more than 75% of the side quests in the game (according the achievement I got) as a City Elf Rogue, with Bard and Assassin specializations applied. I decided to give this go through the “good guy” treatment.

Dragon Age has a variety of companions you can befriend along the way

Dragon Age has a variety of companions you can befriend along the way

On the surface, Dragon Age’s theme feels fairly uninspired. An demonic force is trying to conqueror the land. The peoples (made up of humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) of the land are in turmoil and civil war, too distracted to prepare for the invading army. You are the unlikely hero who must bring these nations together and lead a campaign against the enemy. Nothing too shocking here if you have ever played an RPG before.

What makes Dragon Age compelling, though, is the detail BioWare has put into the world and it’s inhabitants. From the moment you become a Grey Warden you are thrust into an ugly world of political espionage, slavery and religious zealotry that makes for some very enticing storytelling. You have to make tough decisions that will have lasting consequences, for better or worse, and you are free to take the honorable route, which often ends up being much harder, or the morally ambiguous one and try to cash in on an opportunity.

Morality and Companions

Right and wrong isn't about a point system

Right and wrong isn't about a point system

I really enjoyed the fact that Dragon Age shed the ridiculous omnipotent karma meter that most RPGs follow. Your actions are not judged and calculated into a title of Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good, with points deducted for bad behavior. Rather, your actions are judged by your party members. You can earn or drop favor with your companions based on your decisions, and very often they will have competing views. Alistair, for example, is a good guy through and through. You do something bad, he’s going to frown upon it. Morrigan, though, has a much more opportunistic view of he world. She’s OK with getting her hands bloody if it means getting something useful out of it. Most of the companions do not have a black-and-white view of the world, but if you talk with them and learn about their back stories and personalities you’ll get a good idea of where they stand on things.

Your companions involvement with your cause isn’t set in stone, either. (Well, except for Shale. Har har.) If you make a decision they really disagree with or anger them too much over time, they’ll leave you. The game is flexible enough to change course and compensate for different team configurations, so losing members is no big loss to the story. In fact, if you drop central characters like Alistair you’ll encounter a very different end game. Likewise, you can become romantically involved with some of the companions, which opens an interesting relationship meta game. You can go on quests for some of the companions to learn more about their history, and in the process open up all sorts of interesting content to explore. Shale was a particularly entertaining companion in this regard.

Combat and Specializations

When you create your character, you’ll have access to few base classes. As you play through the game you’ll have opportunities to unlock new specializations, either by buying manuals for them, completing quests or by earning favor with companions who already have the specialization. Morrigan, for example, is a shapeshifter, and Alistair is a Templar. Some are easier to acquire than others, but they all bring something interesting to the table. As I said, I decided to specialize my Rogue as a Bard at level 7, and an Assassin at level 14. The Bard gave me access to party-wide buffs and a few crowd control abilities that came in handy. Assassin likewise gave me mostly personal advantages for opening weaknesses in my enemies defenses and increasing my damage.

Combat in Dragon Age functions much like an MMO

Combat in Dragon Age functions much like an MMO

Disappointingly, unlocked specializations don’t transfer between play throughs. It would have been nice to be able to start a fresh character as a Ranger or Blood Mage, even if they started with a more generic origin story.

Combat in Dragon Age feels very MMO-ish, or Neverwinter Nights minus the dreadful cast-per-day cool downs. You have passive abilities, activated abilities, sustained abilities (like stances) and attacks and spells, and a power pool to draw from. As you level up you can assign your stat points and unlock access to new skills and abilities. As I mentioned further up, you’ll have an opportunity to specialize twice; once at level 7, and again at level 14. If you don’t have a specialization unlocked yet you can go back and assign it at any time. Companions level in the same manner, and you’re able to assign their stats and abilities in the same way.

Although you can choose to micromanage your companions on the battlefield and assign their attacks and buffs, Dragon Age really shines for it’s talent system. With it you’re able to design the behavior of your party by creating a prioritized list of conditions and actions. For example, I kept Morrigan as my only caster throughout my entire play through, so I ended up specializing her as a spirit healer. With the talent system, I told her to use a knockback if she is surrounded by two or more enemies, and heal herself or the rest of the party if we fall below 75% health. As we leveled up I gained access to more tactic slots, and was able to get more creative with their behaviors. By half way through the game I never needed to switch characters; I had my companions’ intelligent enough to operate on their own.

Questing

There's no shortage of quests to explore

There's no shortage of quests to explore

No RPG is complete without a plethora of side quests to keep you distracted, and Dragon Age is no different in this regard. The vast majority of my time was spent exploring the world and completing the side quests I picked up along the way. There isn’t much all that ground breaking here, really; harvesting, killing, capturing or rescuing X of Y made up most of questing formulas, as you might expect. Still, the quests provide a lucrative source of income for purchasing potions, armor and weapons that will come in useful. Several times I ended up acquiring very powerful armor sets for Alistair and my Rogue that outdid anything the main story arch rewarded me with.

As I said, the main storyline feels fairly uninspired on the surface, but the combat mechanics, top notch level design and art direction really make up for this. The environments feel incredible and huge, even while most of them really aren’t. The bosses can be very challenging, and the characters you’ll come across will leave a lasting impression. If I can make one suggestion to you it’s this: push them. Ask questions and make use of the Persuade mechanic to learn more and uncover the secrets behind what they’re telling you. You’ll be happy you did.

Final Thoughts

Dragon Age is not without it’s problems. I’m not a big believer in “replay value,” but if you’re into that sort of thing I wouldn’t expect much in that regard. The DLC we’re seeing from BioWare right now is just tiny bits of content; a handful of new quests to complete and places to explore. That’s all well and good if you just bought the game and are doing you first play through, but who will want to start a fresh character after the fact just to play the latest $5 microexpansion? I’m doubtful I will be doing that.

Some might find replay value in the toolset, allowing people to create their own custom campaigns to play through. This was, after all, the strength of Neverwinter Nights and it’s sequel. Sadly, the lack of a multiplayer component to the game really hinders this- for me, anyway. As a game designer I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and building some fun content, don’t get me wrong; I just wish I was able to explore it with my friends.

Slaying the Chess Dragon

Slaying the Chess Dragon

Of course, Dragon Age isn’t bug free, either. You’ll encounter crashes, an awful path finding system, and a few broken quest lines (namely, quests that become uncompletable due to storyline progression but don’t disappear from your journal.) Nothing terribly show stopping though, thanks to the auto-save system. Just be prepared for the occasional frustration.

By and large, however, I loved Dragon Age, and it’s earned it’s place as one of my top 5 favorite western RPGs. The game is truly epic and entertaining, and I hope BioWare continues to expand on what they’ve done here with some proper expansions (I want to see the Orlais!) and multiplayer support down the road (unlikely, I know; but I can dream.) If you’re looking for an RPG that doesn’t disappoint, I can’t recommend Dragon Age: Origins higher.

Rating: ★★★★★

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