Mass Effect 2 Review

Written 02/02/2010

Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken from my machine.

Let's get a few things out of the way here and now. Mass Effect 2 is better than the original by nearly every sense of the word. If you haven't played the original though, go and buy it before you play Mass Effect 2; it makes a monstrous difference in how much you'll understand in the storyline and enjoy the experience overall. So if you ask me, you should stop reading this right now and go buy Mass Effect 2 (and the original if you haven't played it yet). Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again! And no, I'm not joking, go buy this...right now!

Visuals and Presentation

The original Mass Effect, though still pretty by today's standards, was plagued with countless texture pop-ins, cookie-cutter “dungeons”, and many mostly barren planets. It was as though Bioware hadn't fully mastered how to get the most bang for their buck out of Unreal Engine 3 yet (that is, if I can properly pick out my engines). It also could have been the fact that they were working with a now three year old build of the engine. Either way, all of those issues have been fixed in Mass Effect 2 and it's a welcome change to say the least. Gone are the texture pop-ins of the first game. Each “dungeon” is fresh and unique; with far more detail in each than before. The planets, while not quite as big as in the original, are greatly refined and feel more alive. The models and textures have all been updated as well, and look truly spectacular. The ambiance is calming at most points, but can effectively heighten the tension when it needs to without any problems. In all, I just can't say enough about how good this game looks!

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is something Bioware has always excelled at, and Mass Effect 2 is no different. The voice acting is top-notch, with everyone who was in the first Mass Effect reprising their roles in Mass Effect 2, and some excellent additions to the already stellar cast. The dialog is smart and thought provoking with just enough humor when appropriate to keep things fresh. General sounds also have the same excellent quality as the voice acting. Guns pack the same audio punch as you would expect. Ambient sounds and music are very subtle, but immensely help develop the mood for any given situation. When the music does crank up though, expect an excellent score that is very distinctly Mass Effect. In short, Mass Effect 2's sound is the audio equivalent of art.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

At first I was kind of on the fence on Mass Effect 2's gameplay, but it grew on me to the point where I now find the first game's mechanics greatly inferior. Unlike the first game, where combat is ruled by the stats of your equipment moreso than your skill, Mass Effect 2 plays much more like a 3^rd person action game in the same vein as Gears of War than a traditional RPG. Weapons no longer have stats that you can readily compare with other weapons. Instead, you're given a description of the pros and cons of each weapon and allowed to choose whichever weapon suits you best. Armor still has basic stats, but you can essentially wear anything you want and be almost as effective as you would be if you nit-picked your stats to death. With this greatly decreased emphasis on stats, combat requires a bit more skill than the first game. Finding and utilizing the best cover spots is often paramount to success. You still have skills like you would see in traditional RPGs, and they do really help, but it's not impossible to go through the entire game on solely the shooter mechanics and cover. As far as bugs go, there really aren't any except for the occasional instance where I would get stuck on something and need to reload; as well as two instances where the AI just stopped working.

Make no mistake though, this is still an RPG at its heart and it should be approached as such. You're going to be spending more time progressing the relationships with your crew and figuring out what's going on in the story than blowing someone's head off. Some of the conversations can be pretty long, which may turn some people off at times; but if you're a thorough person like I am, it won't be much of a problem.

One of the main features of Mass Effect 2 is the ability to import your save file from the first Mass Effect, which transfers all (and I really mean ALL) of the choices you made in the first game so you can either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of those choices in Mass Effect 2. This is a HUGE deal because the way you play the original Mass Effect has a meaningful and permanent result in Mass Effect 2, and it has already been confirmed by Bioware that you'll be able to import your Mass Effect 2 save file into Mass Effect 3. So if your Mass Effect 2 save has all the choices you made in the first Mass Effect, and you import that Mass Effect 2 save into Mass Effect 3, then you will experience the consequences of all three games' choices. Now simply consider if you replay Mass Effect 1 and 2 and change a few choices before playing Mass Effect 3, something completely different could happen in a certain situation. Nothing like this has ever been done in gaming, and I'm very glad Bioware is the first developer to make it happen; they completely deserve it!

Gamplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Considering that great stories in games is what put Bioware on the map in the first place, it's no surprise that the story is by far Mass Effect 2's strongest point. Let's face it, as good as the visuals, sound, and gameplay can be, the main reason you're going to play a Bioware game is for the story. They are easily one of the biggest pioneers of game stories in the industry.

The story itself can be hard to describe because the way you played the first Mass Effect can possibly change how the story progresses. So the way you go through the story could be completely different from the way I did. To put it generally though, Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Commander Shepard and his mission to destroy a galactic threat of sentient machines known as the Reapers. In the opening sequences, everything seems to be going peachy until something...bad...happens and Shepard becomes....indisposed...while the Normandy floats away...in pieces. Shepard remains in this indisposed state for two years while he's being...fixed. When he gets back on his feet, he discovers that human colonies are disappearing without a trace. After a little investigation, he finds out that the colonists are being abducted by a race known only as the Collectors for an unknown, but obviously nefarious, purpose. After the Collectors abduct their targets, they disappear through the Omega 4 relay; a mass relay that whoever passes through it, save the Collectors, never return. The Collectors, he learns, are working for the Reapers and must be stopped. Seeing this as a suicide mission, Shepard scours the galaxy for those willing to join him.

Without giving away too many more spoilers, the story progresses fantastically! Characters you know and love from the first game make their returns and their reactions to you now can be quite interesting. They are extremely well developed over the first Mass Effect and feel that much more alive. Even though you could really connect with your crew in the first game, the deep and meaningful interactions you have with them in Mass Effect 2 are that much more profound. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story perfectly for what's sure to be an utterly amazing finale to the Mass Effect saga!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

The replay value of Mass Effect 2 is highly dependent on if you want to see what happens when you make different choices. Also considering that making different decisions in the first game will change certain dynamics in Mass Effect 2, so there's really a lot of potential there to mix and match how you want the story to progress. Unlike the first game though, when you finish Mass Effect 2 you're given the option to continue your current save and finish any side quests you may have missed or start the whole game over with all of the equipment and experience you already have. Personally, I always love it when an RPG allows you to continue playing after you finish the main storyline, so that's what I picked. It helps me get a little more closure on “what happened to so-and-so after such-and-such happened?” until the next game is released. Which ever way you go though, you can easily get three complete replays out of the game at the very least. Considering that the game took me 42 hours to finish one play-through, doing it three times is quite the bang for your buck!

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

As I've said before, Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again with Mass Effect 2! It is quite easily one of the best, if not the best, games in the company's portfolio. The depth of the story, very well rounded characters, fluent combat system, and the sheer amount of choice combinations is simply staggering. Any fan of RPGs, or gaming in general, would be doing themselves an extreme disservice to not experience this at least once. So whether you pick this up for 360, PS3, or PC (system requirements below), make sure you've finished Mass Effect 1 first, and get ready for a wild ride in Mass Effect 2!

Mass Effect 2 Overall Score:

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Recommended:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Dragon Age 2 Review

Written 4/3/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

Back in 2009, Bioware gave us Dragon Age: Origins, an epic dark fantasy with an excellent story, great characters, and solid gameplay. It suffered from the occasional crash, the combat could feel a little bland at times, and the main character had no voice-over work done except for the occasional one-liner. Now, just about a year and a half later, Bioware graces our hard drives with Dragon Age 2. If you thought Origins was mature, get ready because Dragon Age 2 is much darker and the choices much harder.

Visuals and Presentation

Dragon Age 2 takes a slightly more stylized approach to the visuals than Origins. It sacrifices realism slightly in order to achieve a more concept-art result. With that said, the game definitely still feels like Dragon Age despite this. The environments are richly detailed with equally solid characters, textures, weapons, props, and animations. If you’re playing the PC version though, Bioware offers a high-resolution texture pack (which you can grab from FilePlanet here) that makes the game look markedly sharper than without it. You need a pretty beefy machine to run the game with the hi-res texture pack though, with a video card with at least 1GB video RAM and support for DirectX 11. So basically, the hi-res texture pack requires you have a Radeon HD 5870 or better video card. I’m unsure what the Nvidia equivalent is. If you don’t have such a video card, you can run the game in DirectX 9 without the hi-res texture pack no problem.

If I had any complaints about the visuals, it would be that that environments are somewhat limited and repetitive. You’ll spend 90% of your time in the city of Kirkwall, and while it’s not a bad thing, I would have preferred there had been more variety outside the city aside from the three or four small locations available. The same building interiors and caves are also used moderately often, and can grow a little tiresome after some time. Also, I did experience a few steep framerate drops during gameplay, but I would be willing to attribute that to my using the hi-res texture pack. Overall though, the issues present in no way distract the very pretty visual package of Dragon Age 2.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

This is a Bioware game, and if they are great at anything aside from excellent stories, it’s excellent sound. Most of the voice-actors that appeared in Origins are back with one notable exclusion, but I won’t spoil which character it is. The new additions are all excellent, and all up to Bioware standards. The best addition is the fact that Hawke, the main character, is now fully voiced-over. I really missed that in Origins, especially after playing both Mass Effect titles. The writing is excellent and well performed, but feels a little more serious than in Origins. It makes the world more believable in my oponion, but it also means the moments of comic relief are fewer and farther between. The music is also great, and feels appropriate to the Dragon Age style. Overall, you simply can’t get much better sound than in a Bioware game, especially when it comes to voice-acting!

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

The gameplay of Dragon Age 2 is where most of the improvements over Origins were made by far. Just like in almost every Bioware game out there, half of the game is focused on having conversations with the people around you and making choices that directly influence your character, the world around you, and at times how the story progresses. The other half of the game is focused on combat and clearing hostile areas.

The conversation system has changed from your choices being selectable in a list, and say exactly what your character is saying, to a choice wheel exactly like that of Mass Effect where the choices represent emotional responses moreso than knowing exactly what will be said. There are usually three responses available in conversations: positive / peaceful, neutral / sarcastic, and negative / aggressive. So when a choice is presented to you, your decision should be based on how you feel about the situation and what’s really going on. I find that to be a much more natural way of doing a choice system than knowing the exact dialog of each choice, as it helps you respond in a much more realistic way. Occasionally, you will be given a fourth choice that allows you to seek a romantic relationship with the character you’re speaking with, but they are completely optional and can all be skipped entirely if you so choose.

Combat in Origins always felt inappropriate to me except for the killing blows, considering the brutality Bioware was trying to achieve. It was slow, methodical, and repetitive. While combat in Dragon Age 2 is still methodical, it’s also much faster and flows more naturally. Each strike is now fast, precise, and deadly. The violence and brutality are raised to 11 with dismembering bodies and explosions everywhere. I think the combat in Dragon Age 2 is what Bioware tried to achieve in Origins but fell short of. If you were to casually glance at the combat, you would think it was an action game. You can still pause the action and issue individual orders to your party for a more tactical style of gameplay; though this is much less necessary than in Origins. You can mostly get by in normal battles by playing like it’s a third-person action game, but the boss battles almost require you to pause the action and issue individual orders. The skills all pack a wallop and are great fun to use, but I found that there were less available to me at the end of the game than there were in Origins. That could have just been how I decided to progress my character though.

Finally, you can no longer give your companion characters different equipment except for their weapons and accessories. Their armor levels with them, but you can find certain items tailored for each character that increases those stats slightly. While some RPG purists will cry foul at this, it definitely makes for less micro-management, and thus more time actually playing the game. If I have any complaints, it would be the fact that the auto-attack range is very easily broken in melee combat, forcing you to right-click the target again to continue your assault. It’s a minor inconvenience, but one worth noting. Overall though, the gameplay in Dragon Age 2 by and far exceeds that of Origins.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

There’s not really much I can say here without giving away some pretty major plot points, so I’ll be a little vague on purpose. You begin the game with your family as a refugee in the city of Kirkwall fleeing from the Blight occurring in Origins. You try and make a new life for you and your family, but destiny has its hand on you, and you become the key influence of events that change the state of the world forever. I know that brief description sounds cliché, but the story goes much much deeper than that, with themes such as unjustified and justified fear, oppression, slavery, religious zealotry, corruption, the occult, and hopeful belief in what’s good and right permeating every facet of the story. Other themes such as sexuality are also explored, as a party member will try and initiate a homosexual relationship with you. As a Christian, I disagree with that, but the beauty of a game like this is that you can choose to turn down such advances. After that first encounter, the game only tries to initiate it once more. If you refuse again, it’s never brought up again.

On another note, each of your companion characters are genuinely interesting, with their own agendas and motivations; some of which are directly contrary to your own. Depending on your choices, you may lose a party member permanently or gain their undying loyalty. How they interact with each other can also develop or tear down their individual relationships, though it has little impact on how they perform in combat together. Overall, my description is a little general I know, but this is one of the most engrossing stories in recent gaming history, and should not be missed by anyone that even remotely cares about story in their games.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

The game took me 42 hours, 40 minutes to complete on the Normal difficulty and completing every side quest I could find except for four. Considering how your class choice directly influences some initial events and how people treat you, I can easily see myself replaying the game as a different class with different choices when I get enough time to do so. The simple fact that you can experiment with different choices in itself is worthy of another playthrough, but the game and story are so amazing that it’ll be hard to put this one down!

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

You just can’t beat Bioware when it comes to deep and thought provoking stories in games. They have outdone themselves yet again not only in story, but in gameplay, sound, and visuals. If The Old Republic is anywhere near the quality that is presented in Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2, it very well could be the one MMO to rule them all. In the meantime though, Dragon Age 2 will hold you over most excellently for some time to come!

Dragon Age II Overall Score:

System Requirements

Minimum:
• OS: Windows XP with SP3; Windows Vista with SP2; Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater; AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• Memory: 1024 MB (1536 MB Vista and Windows 7)
• Hard Disk Space: 7GB
• Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB and the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB cards
• Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5 

Recommended:
• OS: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent; AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8GHz or Equivalent
• Memory: 2Gb (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: ATI 3850 512MB or Greater; NVIDIA 8800GTS 512MB or Greater; DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or Greater; NVIDIA 460 or Greater   

Dragon Age 2 Demo Impressions

Written 2/23/2011

Note: Screenshots and video taken from my machine.

Dragon Age 2 is nearly upon us, and I, for one, am excited! Rather, I was excited already, but now that I’ve played the demo, I’m REALLY excited and simply cannot wait to get my hands on the full game! If you’ve been reading my Dragon Age Origins and Awakening reviews, you will have surely seen the somewhat slow and methodical pace of the combat. I’m not saying it was bad by any stretch, but it did become tedious after a while; unless a particular fight was tactically difficult.

Dragon Age 2’s combat is much faster and more chaotic. Whenever this was first revealed I, like many others, worried that the game would no longer feel like Dragon Age due to the faster, more action oriented style. Luckily, this is the farthest thing from the truth. Considering that one of the recurring themes of Dragon Age is blood, the combat of Dragon Age 2 allows for much more copious amounts of it than Origins could ever hope to achieve. Skills are a great deal more fun to use in Dragon Age 2, and equally as powerful.

The visual style in Dragon Age 2 has also taken on more of paint-brushed look without sacrificing any necessary realism, and it looks fantastic! Sound is equally as stellar, especially since Hawke, the main character, is now fully voiced over along with the rest  of the cast. I do hope that the voice-acting volume is increased in the full game though, as it’s very quite in the demo. The story seems to take place in the very beginning of the game, or shortly thereafter. It doesn’t reveal too much, but does give a good glimpse into the main plot and a few of your party members. Conversations feel much more natural as well with the addition of the Mass Effect dialog wheel.

With all of that said, I did experience a few crashes during my experiments with the other classes, but I’m sure Bioware will have those issues fixed by the time the full game is released. Frame rate also stutters from time to time, but it’s not a massive issue either. Again, I’m sure it’ll be fixed by the full release. So if you have the game pre-ordered already or not, you should definitely try the demo. Especially since finishing the demo unlocks additional items in the full game. You can grab the demo from the official Dragon Age 2 site or FilePlanet.

Dragon Age 2 Demo Impressions:

Dragon Age Origins Awakening Review

Written 2/13/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game: The screenshot and video were taken from my machine..

First off, considering that expansions to games are almost identical visually, audibly, and in gameplay, I will not be writing this review in my typical fashion. It will instead be much more short form. If you would like to know about the visuals, sound, and gameplay of Awakening, I would highly suggest reading my review of Dragon Age Origins.

With that said, I would like to point out that the visuals in Awakening seemed markedly clearer than in Origins. Granted though, I was also running Awakening in a much higher resolution than I did Origins; so that’s likely what made the difference. The new areas of Awakening fit very well into the world Bioware has already crafted, as do the characters. It did seem that the characters paralleled some of the key characters in Origins though. For example, Anders’ personality is strikingly similar to Alistair’s. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not terribly different either. The new voice-actors are also excellent additions to the cast, keeping the quality up to Bioware standards without any problems. The music is pretty much identical to Origins, but still great nonetheless.

Story-wise, the game feels much more focused, probably because of the fact that Awakening is much shorter than Origins. Spoiler alert! In the same way that you can import your Mass Effect 1 save data into Mass Effect 2, you can import your save data from Origins into Awakening; complete with all of your choices made in Origins. So it’s entirely possible for the story in your playthrough to be quite different from mine depending on your race, class, relationship choices, etc. The unchanging base story takes place after the Grey Warden has slain the Archdemon and ended the Blight. Upon returning to Vigil’s Keep, he learns that the Darkspawn are ambushing the keep at that very moment. After quelling the threat, he finds himself faced with a Darkspawn that can speak and reason; something unheard of to this point. The story then quickly turns into a mission of hunting down and eliminating this new and growing threat, but as always, such things are not always very cut and dry. End of spoiler alert!

Finally, I found the difficulty in Awakening to be much less severe than in Origins; though that’s probably due to the fact that I imported my high-level character from Origins into Awakening. Either way, importing your character from Origins is definitely more enjoyable both in gameplay and story. The gameplay time clocks in at roughly 19 hours if you do most of the side-quests. If you do solely the main plot though, I wouldn’t be surprised if Awakening could be completed in 5-7 hours. Overall, Awakening is more of same from Origins. That’s not a bad thing, but if you disliked Origins or was kind of on the fence about it, you may not like Awakening. If you enjoyed Origins though, definitely pick up Awakening and get ready for Dragon Age 2!

Dragon Age Origins Awakening Overall Score:

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   

Star Wars: The Old Republic - That's a Wrap!

I would like to take this time to thank you all for reading my week long preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together. This blog doesn't end here though! Every Friday, I will be posting either a game review or an indie spotlight. Also, starting tomorrow, I will be posting the beginning of my first game playthrough. What's the game you might ask? Let's keep with the Star Wars theme for now and start with Star Wars: Republic Commando. If you have enjoyed what you've seen here so far, be sure to Like this blog on Facebook or follow it on Twitter! I look forward to seeing you all as we move forward at SilverStar's Creative Gaming!

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Planets 13-17

Hoth:

Until recently, Hoth has been insignificant to both the Republic and the Empire. When a decisive space battle took place in the system, ship wreckage from both sides fell to the planet below; some of it still prototype technology. As the war went on, neither side possessed the means to recover their lost wreckage and left it on Hoth’s frozen surface. Soon after, an ambitious pirate organization began salvaging the technology in an effort to build their own pirate armada. Now that the Treaty of Coruscant is in effect though, both the Republic and Empire have returned to Hoth to claim their lost property and steal their enemy’s. Considering the planet’s secluded location, skirmishes have broken out that would break the Treaty of Coruscant on other worlds.

Nar Shaddaa:

If there was any planet that could be considered Coruscant’s dark twin, it would be Nar Shadda. Where Coruscant stands as a beacon of honor and justice, Nar Shadda stands as a beacon of corruption and injustice. For a price, the planet’s upper levels provide anything your heart could desire, whether it be legal, illegal, or even a certain type of “company”. The Hutt Cartel rules the planet, but they tend to stay on the nicer upper level. The lower levels, on the other hand, are a place where some of the most heinous crimes and experiments in the galaxy take place. It is here that the Exchange syndicate provides the only real competition to the Hutts’ rule. Lesser gangs also constantly fight for control of less important parts of the planet in hopes of one day becoming a major player equal to the Exchange and the Hutt cartel. If you value your safety, it would be wisest to remain on Nar Shaddaa’s upper levels and not cause any trouble.

Corellia:

Corellia is the economic center of the Republic, as well as one of its founding members. Because of this strong economic focus, corporate interests hold a great deal of influence in Corellian government. Such corruption is tolerated by the people because of the freedoms and prosperity such a governmental system provides. Regardless of Corellia’s own questionable government, the system has always been loyal to the Republic. Rumors have been circulating that the local government has fallen sway to Imperial influence of late, and the sudden collapse of key communication lines to the Republic only lends greater credibility to those claims. Now images and video of destruction around Coronet City, the planet’s capital, are beginning to emerge, and Republic aid will surely be rushing to the planet soon.

Ilum:

An essential part of a Jedi’s training, the frigid world of Ilum provides a natural source of Adegan crystal; one of the key components in lightsaber creation. When a Jedi was ready to construct one of the legendary weapons, he and probably his Master would go on pilgrimage to Ilum. There, the Padawan would venture into one of the planet’s ice-caves alone and retrieve the crystals required to complete his lightsaber. While in the caves, he would also need to avoid and defend himself against the highly dangerous animals that lurked within. Such a journey and trial was considered a rite of passage to Jedi Padawans across the galaxy. Now, that is no longer possible. Somehow, the Empire has discovered the secluded planet and destroyed every Jedi enclave and temple present. Though instead of solely harvesting the Adegan crystal as expected, they are searching for something else entirely. Could something be hidden in Ilum’s snowy wastes that no one to this point has even imagined?

Quesh:

When the Republic first discovered Quesh, they quickly abandoned it after scientists found poisonous content in its atmosphere. Years later, a young chemist rediscovered the data on the planet and recognized an amazing opportunity. The chemicals and compounds present on Quesh were very similar to that of Hutt Venom, and key component in health, reflex, and concentration adrenal stims. Within a decade, the Republic was fully invested in Quesh, but engineers were unable to master the techniques required to make adrenal stims from the planet’s resources. Thus, they were forced to seek aid from Hutts that were currently under a neutrality treaty with the Empire. They offered them a hefty cut of the profits in exchange for the knowledge of how to use Quesh’s resources. Some accepted, essentially breaking the neutrality treaty with the Empire secretly. When the Empire learned of Quesh and its potential, they also learned of the Hutts’ aid. They then demanded that the individual Hutts involved with the Republic be branded as traitors, and that the remaining Hutts were to assist the Empire in taking Quesh. Now the Republic is desperately fighting to protect its investment while the Empire tries to wrest it from their grasp.

Next: The Old Republic's "Returned" cinematic trailer