Dragon Age Origins Review

Written 06/28/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. All screenshots were taken from my machine.

There are only two developers whose games I will buy without knowing anything about the game: Bioware and Valve. I have enjoyed their games so immensely over the years that I know whatever they release will be great. Case in point, Dragon Age Origins, a self-proclaimed epic RPG. The development team, Bioware, also greatly stressed the fact that this is also a very dark RPG, and I completely agree. While most of the game can be played by a young teen, there are some recurring themes and choices presented to you that are VERY mature and dark. It is with that said that I would not suggest this game for anyone under 16 or 17 years old. I'm serious, you have been warned!

Visuals and Presentation

DA:O is one of those games that I can't pick out exactly which engine is being used, so I can't really comment on how effectively the tech is being used. I can only assume that Bioware either did an excellent job at hiding the typical indicators that define certain engines or developed their own in-house; though I find the latter more likely. Either way, the game looks great! Character, weapon, armor, and environmental models are all top-notch; as are the textures. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that it's fairly noticeable when some of the characters are near-clones to another you've just recently seen. The animations, while very slick, also suffer the same treatment to a degree. There's enough variety in the animations sure, but you're still going to see some of the same ones many, many times. To the animations' great credit though, the killing blows are simply excellent and are equally satisfying when you pull one off. I won't spoil it for you, but one of the killing blows is so awesome you're literally going to exclaim “DUDE! Did you SEE that?!” to anyone who might be in the immediate area. Dungeon designs, while technically a lot of caves, towers, and ruins, are varied enough architecturally and culturally that you should hardly notice. Overall DA:O offers a solid visual package with minor, but noticeable, repetitious flaws.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Considering that all of the Bioware games I've played have been 95% voiced-over, it's no surprise that DA:O enjoys the same treatment; and it's awesome as always. Most of what you'll be hearing in the game is excellently written and performed voice-acting. It really felt like all of the actors/actresses understood the heart of their individual roles as well as how they interact with everyone around them. The music is also quite nice with lulling melodies to apprehensive dirges to thundering action scores. My only complaint, though it's a big one, is the fact that your character is not voiced-over at all except for a very limited amount of one-liners. I found this extremely disappointing considering that Commander Sheppard of the Mass Effect franchise is fully voiced, and not having it takes away a great deal of the presentational power in my opinion. I simply find it strange that since both games were developed by Bioware that they couldn't get the same treatment.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

If you've played the original Knights of the Old Republic, then you'll notice that the gameplay of DA:O is almost an exact replica of KotOR. You can pause the action at any time to properly plan your tactics and the skills your party members use accordingly. The only difference in DA:O is that your skills are arranged in an MMO-style quickbar instead of the scrollable three button system of KotOR. The dialog and choice system is a 100% copy of KotOR's, though it does feel like the choices you make have a little more impact on your overall surroundings than they did in KotOR.

It's also been quite a while since I've played an RPG in which the Normal difficulty setting is much more difficult than you would anticipate. It was so difficult in fact that I needed to change the difficulty settings to Easy to avoid dying every two minutes, literally. To someone who may be a better tactician than myself it may be just fine, but don't feel bad if you need to play it on Easy as well.

The game is mostly solid technically, though I did experience about 10 crashes during my entire playthrough. Considering how long the game is though, that's really quite a small number. Plus it mostly happened when loading from one area to another, so be sure to save before transitioning and it won't be a big deal. Another thing worth noting is there is a mildly significant framerate drop in two areas of the game. Overall though, the minor issues are not really enough to distract from the excellent experience.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

As I will be pointing out in my Mass Effect 2 review, great stories in games is what put Bioware on the map in the first place. So it's no surprise that story is the main focus of DA:O or that it's great. The tricky part though, especially for this game, is reviewing a story that can take literally hundreds of different paths within the first 10 minutes of gameplay alone.

The basics of the story are that there is an age-old menace, the Darkspawn, returning from underground to wipe out the entire nation in a Blight. The Darkspawn are lead by an Archdemon, a massive and intelligent dragon with the spirit of a corrupted deity. These Blights apparently occur once every few hundred years and require the aid of the Grey Wardens, a group whose sole purpose is to hunt Darkspawn, and to slay the Archdemon. When your character is introduced, you are recruited in to the Grey Wardens and set off to end the Blight.

The concept seems simple I know, but once you factor in your character's Origin Story, things become much more complicated. When you create your character, you are given the option of choosing his/her past and upbringing depending on your race and class selections. Once you have them chosen, the entire introduction to the game lets you play out your Origin Story. The choices you make and the things you do during this introduction will effect literally the rest of your gameplay experience. I was even being presented with the consequences of my Origin Story in the last minutes of the game as well as everywhere in between. So be SURE you're absolutely happy with your choices in your Origin Story, because you're going to be getting the consequences of those choices for a very long game!

The only thing that brought down the story a little for me was the fact that it moves rather slowly throughout the entire game. Usually I'm pretty patient with that sort of thing, but at times it didn't feel like I was really getting anywhere while at other times I felt I was blazing through the events. Overall though, if you're in to dark fantasy at all you'll definitely love this story.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

To put it simply, DA:O is easily 60 hours long on Easy difficulty settings. The game took me 56 hours & 40 minutes to complete, and I think I missed quite a few side-quests. If you were to do absolutely everything that was offered in the game you could easily put in 75-100 hours in a single playthrough. Then consider if you made another character of a different race, class, and Origin Story that the story drastically changes into something almost entirely different. In the end though, it just depends on how much you enjoyed the game on your first playthrough to determine if you want to replay it.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Overlooking my moderate bias toward Bioware in general, Dragon Age: Origins is a great addition to any RPG-lover's library; especially if you enjoy particularly long games, dark fantasy, or both. If the original Knights of the Old Republic was a bit too slowly paced for your taste though, Dragon Age: Origins probably won't change how you feel about that sort of pacing. The game is available for PS3, 360, and PC (system requirements below).

Dragon Age: Origins Overall Score:

System Requirements:

Minimum:

• OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) or Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Single 1.6 Ghz Processor (or equivalent) or AMD 64 2.0 GHz Processor (or equivalent)
• Memory: 1GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon X850 256MB or NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater (Windows Vista: Radeon X1550 256 MB or NVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB)
• DirectX®: DirectX (November 2007)
• Hard Drive: 20 GB HD space
• Sound: Direct X Compatible Sound Card

Recommended:

• OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) or Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz or AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 2.7 Ghz Processor or equivalent
• Memory: 2 GB (3GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Graphics: ATI 3850 512 MB or NVidia 8800GTS 512MB or greater
• DirectX®: DirectX (November 2007)
• Hard Drive: 20 GB HD space
• Sound: Direct X Compatible Sound Card