What do you mean - two years late? A Dragon Age: Origins review.
With the Dragon Age II hype, and wanting to test my awesome new computer (the name's Lux Torpedo) on something more demanding than World of Warcraft, I decided to play through Dragon Age: Origins (and expansion and DLC) first, because, apparently, if you play through the first one and have some saves in which something happens, your experience with second game is enhanced.
Expect me to voice my opinions on DAII at a later date, right now, it's Origins time. After some general notes.
I'm a huge BioWare fan, and frankly, I can't believe I missed Dragon Age: Origins when it came out. But I guess it doesn't matter now. I'm already a bit worried about DAII. BioWare, as much as I drool over their games, has a bad sequel history. Neverwinter Nights? Awesome! A breakthrough game, whole new engine (Aurora), used with such success for so long! Neverwinter Nights 2? Meh. Awkward game with awkward graphics. Star Wars: KotOR? Absolutely wonderful game that breathed new life into the deadbeat franchise. Star Wars: KotOR 2? Rushed, with a bunch of aborted story arcs it ceased to make sense about halfway through and so many bugs I got reminded of Daggerfall. Mass Effect? One of the best games I've played. Mass Effect 2? Well, maybe not bad, but not so great as the first one either. Icewind Dale? Light and relaxing hack'n'slash with beautiful backgrounds and music. Icewind Dale 2? Worse on every account. The only exception to the rule is Baldur's Gate series. First one was wonderful, but the second one was epic in so many ways! And it set the general tropes for BioWare games. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Okay then. Dragon Age: Origins!
If a game, be it MMO, single player or even tabletop RPG, has an option of elves and/or mages, I'll be an elven mage. If not, I'll try to get as close to that as possible. I am, therefore, an elven mage. Oddly enough, that established me as a double outcast. Elves are treated as little more than slaves and magi are thought to be the spawn of evil.
Character advancement is rather standard, somewhat reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons. Pick your skills, pick your spells/abilities, later on pick your prestige classes, oh, sorry, specializations. It's solid and it works, it's pretty flexible and allows you to make some insanely overpowered builds. On the other hand, it lets you fuck things up badly, so adding the option of auto level-up was a good idea, for those people who are clueless. The roles are clearly defined, as are concepts. Melee dps, albeit in several styles, Squishy lockpicking dps who can shoot if you really, really force them to or a spellcaster who's a healer/controller. I was never great at melee characters and rogues in such games are generally not much more than squishy lockpicks. I was a bit disappointed that there was no such choice as a ranger or a hunter: a badass bowman, if you will. No rogue specialisation can quite cut it.
My origin was Harrowing, a test for mages, I passed it with flying colours and was officially a MAGE! Not an apprentice anymore. My friend Jorwan had to fuck it up for me however. I was lucky that Duncan of the Grey Wardens happened to be around because I was kicked out of the Circle faster that you could say “Fireball”.
He initiated me to the Grey Wardens, quickly became the father figure I was missing and we set off to Ostagar to kick some Darkspawn ass in an incoming battle. This is where the so-called catches started to pop up.
Join the Grey Wardens, they said. Be all you can be, they said. First, I was sent to Korcari Wilds for some Darkspawn blood with a bunch of noobs, lead by Ensign Newbie himself, by the name of Alistair. I was quite taken with him, actually...
Anyway, upon our return from the trip, during which we all somehow managed not to lose our limbs or worse, heads, it became clear why there are so few Grey Wardens. We have this ritual called the Joining and it has quite a large fatality percentage. But hey, lucky me! I alone survived it!
In hindsight, I think it'd be better for me if I was dead after all. It was only after that, I was informed - I don't have much more to live anyway, 30 years tops, the taint of the Darkspawn will turn me into a crazy old bat quite fast. If I don't get killed in the meantime by the Blight. Fuck my life.
I had my Joining right before the battle, which should have been easy, but Loghain Mac Tir, treacherous dog, betrayed us all. Instead of charging the Darkspawn, he fled the battle with his troops. The battle was lost. The King and Duncan were dead, and Alistair and I were the last surviving Grey Wardens in the land.
And that is when shit hit the fan.
Dragon Age: Origins is very special to me because, for some reason, I got immersed in the story instantly, much more than it ever happened with any other computer game before, it has the feel of a very good book rather than a game. And I had my heart broken so many times while playing it, the idea ceased to be funny by the time I started crying over some of the decisions I had to make. So don't laugh. I cry over books too. And a good story is what I really like, so if it's as good as here, I stop caring about the technical side to the game and focus my attention on the plots, sub-plots and other intricacies.
I don't actually have to say a lot about technical side. It's pretty much Ye Olde Standarde BioWare Interface. Graphically it's very pretty even today, after 2 years.
The setting is rather grim and on the dark side, if you catch my drift, filled with so many shades of fantastic racism and Grey and Gray morality, it made my head spin at the start, as I was not prepared for such subversion of the Standard Fantasy Setting.
Dragon Age: Origins follows a typical for BioWare pattern: you have your prologue, your story-triggering event, you visit four places, then there's another major event and the final battle, as previously seen in Star Wars: KotOR and Mass Effect.
The storyline itself, while not too complicated (gather an army, slay the Archdemon) is presented in a very enthralling way and has many sub-plots, side-quests and crisis moments.
Oh god the crisis moments. There are so many choices you make, all of them influence the world around the Grey Warden. Most of them usually are the choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. I'm trying not to spoil too much, so just take my word for it. No matter how hard you try, you will always screw someone over, literally royally fuck something up, potentially cause several wars and so on. There is no right way to play this game. It's like “A Song of Ice and Fire” meets “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
I probably should elaborate. While why I mentioned “A Song of Ice and Fire” should be obvious, the Buffy thing might need some explaining. Nature of demons, the Darkspawn, Archdemons, the Grey Wardens and the Magi and Templars is quite heavily influenced by Buffyverse. Not to mention there is no god, but demons are aplenty and the need for the Slayer, oh, sorry, Grey Warden to commit a heroic sacrifice once every Blight. Also several characters were inspired by/ripped-off of/have their counterparts in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Most notably, Alistair is based on Xander and Zevran is based on Spike. And they were made BETTER!
Speaking of which. There's so many shout-outs to other games, movies, books, comic books and folklore in this game, that me, a sucker for trivia with one hell of a retentive memory, was almost orgasmically satisfied. I had my reference senses tingling most of the time. It was a long time since I had this much fun with a good game of Trivia.
Relationships between my companions and my own character are quite complicated and there's quite a bit of stress put on them, that's probably why I came to care for everyone in my Nakama so much. All my companions are well-developed characters with histories and agendas that I may or may not support, but all of them are extremely likeable one way or another, and you might even try to woo some of them.
As you might have noticed, I was romancing Alistair from the very start, taken by the character's adorable dorkiness and wacky sense of humour, contrasted by how truly heroic and dutiful he is. He's absolutely cute. Unfortunately, I managed to spoil myself some of the plot and for the best part of the game, I was pining, because I believed he must be made king and since I’m not human noble, I can't be his queen. Turns out, he doesn't want to be the king, so I let it go, but then I thought, he's doomed, because since he and my character are in love, he'll die to the Archdemon... Unless I convince him to shag Morrigan, but would he still love me after that?
He did. And he didn't die.
Screw you, World, my Grey Warden and him got their happy ending. After a while, that was actually the only thing that I could strive for. In that grimdark setting where everything you touch gets broken, at least one thing I made right.
It makes me think I won the game as opposed to just completing it.
After that, playing through Awakening and Downloadable Content was a piece of cake. It did enhance my experience with Dragon Age greatly it tied up some loose ends, cleared some things out. But after the turmoil of the original campaign, it was like a peaceful afterglow.
This game was absolutely fantastic. It went straight for my heart and it's going to stay there for a long time, surely. Despite the BioWare adventure pattern and Ye Olde Strandarde BioWare Interface, the story sucked me in worse than Harry Potter.
Since it was released in 2009, I'm content calling it one of the best games of that decade, on my personal scale of awesomeness.
Now forgive me, I need to play through it again, as a male rogue Grey Warden named Spike, so I could hook up with Zevran, so that the both of them could literally go fuck themselves.
Expect me to voice my opinions on DAII at a later date, right now, it's Origins time. After some general notes.
I'm a huge BioWare fan, and frankly, I can't believe I missed Dragon Age: Origins when it came out. But I guess it doesn't matter now. I'm already a bit worried about DAII. BioWare, as much as I drool over their games, has a bad sequel history. Neverwinter Nights? Awesome! A breakthrough game, whole new engine (Aurora), used with such success for so long! Neverwinter Nights 2? Meh. Awkward game with awkward graphics. Star Wars: KotOR? Absolutely wonderful game that breathed new life into the deadbeat franchise. Star Wars: KotOR 2? Rushed, with a bunch of aborted story arcs it ceased to make sense about halfway through and so many bugs I got reminded of Daggerfall. Mass Effect? One of the best games I've played. Mass Effect 2? Well, maybe not bad, but not so great as the first one either. Icewind Dale? Light and relaxing hack'n'slash with beautiful backgrounds and music. Icewind Dale 2? Worse on every account. The only exception to the rule is Baldur's Gate series. First one was wonderful, but the second one was epic in so many ways! And it set the general tropes for BioWare games. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Okay then. Dragon Age: Origins!
If a game, be it MMO, single player or even tabletop RPG, has an option of elves and/or mages, I'll be an elven mage. If not, I'll try to get as close to that as possible. I am, therefore, an elven mage. Oddly enough, that established me as a double outcast. Elves are treated as little more than slaves and magi are thought to be the spawn of evil.
Character advancement is rather standard, somewhat reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons. Pick your skills, pick your spells/abilities, later on pick your prestige classes, oh, sorry, specializations. It's solid and it works, it's pretty flexible and allows you to make some insanely overpowered builds. On the other hand, it lets you fuck things up badly, so adding the option of auto level-up was a good idea, for those people who are clueless. The roles are clearly defined, as are concepts. Melee dps, albeit in several styles, Squishy lockpicking dps who can shoot if you really, really force them to or a spellcaster who's a healer/controller. I was never great at melee characters and rogues in such games are generally not much more than squishy lockpicks. I was a bit disappointed that there was no such choice as a ranger or a hunter: a badass bowman, if you will. No rogue specialisation can quite cut it.
My origin was Harrowing, a test for mages, I passed it with flying colours and was officially a MAGE! Not an apprentice anymore. My friend Jorwan had to fuck it up for me however. I was lucky that Duncan of the Grey Wardens happened to be around because I was kicked out of the Circle faster that you could say “Fireball”.
He initiated me to the Grey Wardens, quickly became the father figure I was missing and we set off to Ostagar to kick some Darkspawn ass in an incoming battle. This is where the so-called catches started to pop up.
Join the Grey Wardens, they said. Be all you can be, they said. First, I was sent to Korcari Wilds for some Darkspawn blood with a bunch of noobs, lead by Ensign Newbie himself, by the name of Alistair. I was quite taken with him, actually...
Anyway, upon our return from the trip, during which we all somehow managed not to lose our limbs or worse, heads, it became clear why there are so few Grey Wardens. We have this ritual called the Joining and it has quite a large fatality percentage. But hey, lucky me! I alone survived it!
In hindsight, I think it'd be better for me if I was dead after all. It was only after that, I was informed - I don't have much more to live anyway, 30 years tops, the taint of the Darkspawn will turn me into a crazy old bat quite fast. If I don't get killed in the meantime by the Blight. Fuck my life.
I had my Joining right before the battle, which should have been easy, but Loghain Mac Tir, treacherous dog, betrayed us all. Instead of charging the Darkspawn, he fled the battle with his troops. The battle was lost. The King and Duncan were dead, and Alistair and I were the last surviving Grey Wardens in the land.
And that is when shit hit the fan.
Dragon Age: Origins is very special to me because, for some reason, I got immersed in the story instantly, much more than it ever happened with any other computer game before, it has the feel of a very good book rather than a game. And I had my heart broken so many times while playing it, the idea ceased to be funny by the time I started crying over some of the decisions I had to make. So don't laugh. I cry over books too. And a good story is what I really like, so if it's as good as here, I stop caring about the technical side to the game and focus my attention on the plots, sub-plots and other intricacies.
I don't actually have to say a lot about technical side. It's pretty much Ye Olde Standarde BioWare Interface. Graphically it's very pretty even today, after 2 years.
The setting is rather grim and on the dark side, if you catch my drift, filled with so many shades of fantastic racism and Grey and Gray morality, it made my head spin at the start, as I was not prepared for such subversion of the Standard Fantasy Setting.
Dragon Age: Origins follows a typical for BioWare pattern: you have your prologue, your story-triggering event, you visit four places, then there's another major event and the final battle, as previously seen in Star Wars: KotOR and Mass Effect.
The storyline itself, while not too complicated (gather an army, slay the Archdemon) is presented in a very enthralling way and has many sub-plots, side-quests and crisis moments.
Oh god the crisis moments. There are so many choices you make, all of them influence the world around the Grey Warden. Most of them usually are the choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. I'm trying not to spoil too much, so just take my word for it. No matter how hard you try, you will always screw someone over, literally royally fuck something up, potentially cause several wars and so on. There is no right way to play this game. It's like “A Song of Ice and Fire” meets “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
I probably should elaborate. While why I mentioned “A Song of Ice and Fire” should be obvious, the Buffy thing might need some explaining. Nature of demons, the Darkspawn, Archdemons, the Grey Wardens and the Magi and Templars is quite heavily influenced by Buffyverse. Not to mention there is no god, but demons are aplenty and the need for the Slayer, oh, sorry, Grey Warden to commit a heroic sacrifice once every Blight. Also several characters were inspired by/ripped-off of/have their counterparts in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Most notably, Alistair is based on Xander and Zevran is based on Spike. And they were made BETTER!
Speaking of which. There's so many shout-outs to other games, movies, books, comic books and folklore in this game, that me, a sucker for trivia with one hell of a retentive memory, was almost orgasmically satisfied. I had my reference senses tingling most of the time. It was a long time since I had this much fun with a good game of Trivia.
Relationships between my companions and my own character are quite complicated and there's quite a bit of stress put on them, that's probably why I came to care for everyone in my Nakama so much. All my companions are well-developed characters with histories and agendas that I may or may not support, but all of them are extremely likeable one way or another, and you might even try to woo some of them.
As you might have noticed, I was romancing Alistair from the very start, taken by the character's adorable dorkiness and wacky sense of humour, contrasted by how truly heroic and dutiful he is. He's absolutely cute. Unfortunately, I managed to spoil myself some of the plot and for the best part of the game, I was pining, because I believed he must be made king and since I’m not human noble, I can't be his queen. Turns out, he doesn't want to be the king, so I let it go, but then I thought, he's doomed, because since he and my character are in love, he'll die to the Archdemon... Unless I convince him to shag Morrigan, but would he still love me after that?
He did. And he didn't die.
Screw you, World, my Grey Warden and him got their happy ending. After a while, that was actually the only thing that I could strive for. In that grimdark setting where everything you touch gets broken, at least one thing I made right.
It makes me think I won the game as opposed to just completing it.
After that, playing through Awakening and Downloadable Content was a piece of cake. It did enhance my experience with Dragon Age greatly it tied up some loose ends, cleared some things out. But after the turmoil of the original campaign, it was like a peaceful afterglow.
This game was absolutely fantastic. It went straight for my heart and it's going to stay there for a long time, surely. Despite the BioWare adventure pattern and Ye Olde Strandarde BioWare Interface, the story sucked me in worse than Harry Potter.
Since it was released in 2009, I'm content calling it one of the best games of that decade, on my personal scale of awesomeness.
Now forgive me, I need to play through it again, as a male rogue Grey Warden named Spike, so I could hook up with Zevran, so that the both of them could literally go fuck themselves.