Quite possibly, the best RPG of this generation.
Of course, with that staple attached to this entity of goodness, you'd be expecting nothing but flawlessness. With story elements so fleshed out, and tactical gameplay with a learning curve that is just right, it almost achieves sanctity. There are a few flaws here, sure, but the amount of care and attention that has been put into every facet of this games world will make you forget about most of the problems with this game. Some might consider this game "boring", or "generic", but the fact of the matter is that there is far more than what they're saying. Not every aspect of this game is exciting, not every single character will make you want to write a novel about them, but it wasn't meant to be like that. This isn't Dragon Age II, where "when you press a button, something epic has to happen!" If you're a being of patience, such as me, and take time to analyze how much there is to this game, you will inevitably appreciate it.
The patience that I'm talking about would be mostly found in the games story. This game took me about 40 hours to complete, and all through that time, I was mostly talking to my team-mates, and helpful NPC's. When I wasn't doing that, I was constantly adding to codex a list of different history articles, while fighting off Darkspawn with my moderately helpful team-mates. There is so much to the lore of Dragon Age, which it actually creates a world that, while not entirely original, is fleshed out beyond belief. Every single detail in this game seems to have some sort of interesting back-story that you can read anytime that you want. Weave that inside of a very warm jacket that takes the title of "story" and you have an article of clothing that will keep you satisfied for years to come, that you'll want to wear and show off to your friends, saying how awesome it is.
This coat tells the tale of a character that you hand-make, one that has gone through the agony of having his parents murdered and his home-town destroyed. You escape into Ostragar, where you go through the trials of becoming a warrior known as a Grey Warden, something of a symbol used to stand against various Darkspawn forces. These forces are led by a greater force though, one that desires ownership of the entire world. It's up to the remaining Grey Wardens to kill this force, as you recruit various armies for across the continent of Ferelden to aid you in your battle.
Sounds generic, doesn't it? Nobody ever said that this game was going to be original, but what this game does with its already existing fantasy tales is pretty shocking. To my surprise, going to each of these races in Ferelden, everybody had a problem that went beyond people having simple fetch-quests, or animals that need to be killed. This game takes the Mass Effect approach, in that everything is taken in a matter that is relatively simple, yet has a subtle feeling of distress. I couldn't count on my hands how many times I had run into people who had simply run out of hope and considered the thought of suicide. This being the second time I've encountered such controversial subjects (the first being Mass Effect, ironically enough), I had little idea about how much this game was going to through at me. There were times in the story where I actually had the chance of killing a small boy, no older than ten; that's something that you rarely see in video games.
Everything about this games way of handling itself reminds me of Spartacus: Blood and Sand: very brutal, with little in the ways of censorship. This is one of the few times in my gaming career where I've actually played a game that warranted an actual M rating. But does this add to the quality? Very much so, and it made me rethink that way I see most olden-fantasy RPG's. This game doesn't pull any punches. In fact, it throws even more than you'd expect just to make sure that you cared about what was happening in the game. But with all of these adult subjects being thrown around, surely there's actual depth to the characters and problems? Yes there is, and I'm sorry that I called you surely.
What caught me off guard even more than all the blood, sex, and violence that this game offers, is how much I actually cared about my party members. Throughout the game, you pick up various party members, which range from being rouges to mages to warriors. Most of them are different in personality, and have different origins than what you'd expect. Any game developer can do this with enough care, but it takes talent to actually make these side characters distinct in their own rights. I had about 8 party members at the end of my game, and I only recall hating like one character. All the rest of them offered insight about them, and made me care about them and their personal goals. What are awesome about the characters in this game are their different motives, seeing as how choices you make in the game greatly matter to your party members, and can either sway them in your direction, or push them away from you.
This is probably my favorite aspect of this whole game. There is no decision wheel in this game like Mass Effect, where all you had to do was point it up and win their hearts over. You really have to think about your choices in dialogue in this game. Since there are a ton of variables, it's a really good idea to actually pay attention to what's going on in the game, since it can either make or break your party. Talking to them and finding out about their motives and character WILL help you in your game, and it adds to the factor of replay value. The choices you make in the game can definitely alter your game in drastic ways. Some characters might actually leave you if you make wrong moves, which is something that very rarely happens in RPG's. I also mentioned that your quest in this game is to destroy this evil overlord that leads that Darkspawn? Well, it doesn't always have to be like that. All of the choices you make in the game will definitely have an impact on how the game ends. The endings in this game are so drastically different that if you have any remote interest in this game, you'll definitely start a new character up and act like someone completely different from who it once was.
There are so many of these instances in this game, not counting the ending. All of the recruiting quests that you gain can be altered in ways that you wouldn't even imagine. How would you like to have werewolves over the elves that you were supposed to recruit in the first place? Or, how would you like to salvage an anvil that actually turns people into unstoppable killing machines, instead of destroying it, saving an entire army of dwarves from losing their souls to a crazy woman? This game has some of the deepest player choice I've ever seen, and like I said, that's really impressive for a game that can span from 30 to god knows how many hours. These choices are all over the place, so much so that it can almost be over-whelming. If you're a story kind of person, you will absolutely love this game.
These choices also represent how well written this game is at times, although I wouldn't have minded the game telling me what tone some of the dialogue choices take. At times I feel like the character should be joking when I pick a dialogue choice that is probably joking with someone, but half the time it ends up being a serious threat, which can put a hamper on your allies' pampers. Regardless of this though, the dialogue is fairly strong, and adds even more to the personality of each and every single character in the game. The NPC's are surprisingly strong with their dialogue too, which comes as a breath of fresh air to me; finally, there's a game where the sub-characters aren't just there to spout tutorials or ways to advance in the game. Often times they help you understand the world even more, while adding to what you might expect from their races, like how dwarves are generally categorized as drunks who are often great strategists who just want their land to be cleansed of evil. The NPC's aren't just there because they have to be: they offer a lot beyond that. Couple this with the fact that this game is huge, and probably contains more dialogue than an actual fantasy novel, and you have a world that is very much fleshed out.
Regardless of the amount of story and dialogue there is, what else does this game offer? Well, sit your little booty down and I'll tell you. Something that has been missing from a lot of RPG's as of late is an actual class system. This game has that, with the option of being a mage, a warrior, or rouge. While this might seem like a scant selection of classes, believe me when I say that your combat encounters will be very much different on your way to the 20 level-cap. In addition to your origin story having a pretty big impact on your game, choosing certain classes unlocks even more options and solutions to the quests that you have. All classes have certain responsibilities, like rouges being able to pick locks on chests, or mages being the only ones that can heal without items, or with warriors, who are most proficient with massive armor. I would be lying if I did say that everything in this game was balanced though. Mages seem to be the most annoying thing in this game, never being on the frontline and being able to knock you back with spells that seem to replenish every two seconds. While the balance is kind of whack, the amount of variety between roles is admirable, with a whole slew of different talents and weapons available to each class.
Progression in the game is somewhat simple, although a lot of thought is required to think of the best possible combinations. Seeing as how you have a party that you can level, with them having different talents and what not, there's a huge thought process behind how you want to build your party. I can't believe I'm making this comparison, but it's a lot like Pokémon. It's a good thing to have variety in your party, hell, without it you'll most likely die a horrible death. It's a good use of time figuring out strategies, and who you should take whenever you leave your camp. From the get-go, this will seem like a very simple game, and it'll feel like a waste of time. Truth be told, the first few hours kind of are. But once you gain more party members, and unlock new talents, things start to open up to you. The relatively simple start acts as a gateway of opportunity to a strategic, deep battle system that rewards you greatly, and it fulfills this opportunity greatly.
As I've mentioned before, this game has a learning curve and its perfect here for people who intend on sticking with the normal difficulty for the whole game. Surprisingly, this game is actually really hard at some points, especially in the Deep Roads. It takes a lot of planning and resources to get past a lot of the harder parts in this game. But even then, it's really hard. This is where I come to the first really big problem of this game. The friendly AI in this game will not do you any favors that you'd expect out of them. It's hard to rely on them, seeing as half the time they do the exact opposite of what you want them to do. This problem is partially remedied with a battle-plan system that allows you to create pre-selective attack strategies to use in certain situations. But this only helps in some cases, because of how some of the enemies in the game work with their overly powerful mages, and you and your party still fall victim to the "difficult to a fault" disease.
When this game isn't being cheap though, it's deceptively deep. The radial menu that you can access from pressing L2 helps in so many ways, and is a concept that I'd love to see in more games. From it, you can focus team attacks against certain enemies, access all of your spells, choose from your battle-strategies, use one of your various items that you crafted, and just about everything that isn't just attacking someone in battle. In addition to the radial menu, you get your standard hotkeys for skills and items. It's a shame you only get 6 slots in this hotkey on consoles, but it can be manipulated and used in different ways that you might like. I might as well add that the combat in this game is very reminiscent of World of Warcraft, except the depth level is far more intense, especially with you being able to have a party at all times. This is another aspect that people might consider boring, as the game does most of the work for you with you only having to press a few buttons at a time, but it is still moderately satisfying, and gives your strategic thinking a run.
For a game that came out in 2009, this isn't a terribly good looking game by today's standards. Even back when it was released, this was still a pretty rough looking game. There are a few moments of beauty, and some of the creature designs are pretty neat, but the overall look of the game isn't all that fleshed out. It doesn't help that there are a lot of frame-rate problems on the PS3 version. There were times where the game would turn into a slide-show of different pictures it's so bad. When it is running smoothly, it doesn't really go at anything above about 45 FPS or so. These problems are apparently gone from the PC version, but they aren't too big of a problem in the console versions. The frame-rate problems only seem to last for a brief time before going back to normal, so the game is still very much playable.
Artistically, this game could be considered generic, which is a bit of a surprise, coming from a studio like Bioware. This company has been behind games like Jade Empire and Mass Effect, yet this game seems to follow typical fantasy lore pretty closely. Like I said though, the mature theming of this game makes up for this, and creates a world that, while isn't a technical marvel, offers plenty of appealing sights. For a game this big, there is quite a bit of diversity in environments, and the tone of the game often differs between settings, as you go from areas that seem generally harmless and happy to places that feel better off in someone's bondage collection at home. I like that this game mixes it's theming up so much, giving the player just enough incentive to go into darker places, just to end up in much brighter places that could act as solitude.
The games music is pretty amazing, especially for an original score. Every single environment in the game has some sort of distinguishable tone, and they go perfectly with what is being presented. Weapon sound effects, however, are somewhat dated. The same remark can be used against voice-acting, which is pretty spotty. It ranges from being fantastic, to a bit silly. Regardless of the amount of poor quality sounds that might come out of your TV when you play this game, when you round it up on the medium of quality, it definitely isn't bad, just nothing special.
You could probably tell that the visual end of this game didn't impress me, and that is quite a shame. If this game had looked better, and offered a more stable experience that was bug-free, this probably would have been my favorite game of 2009. I might love this game even more on the PC, but I highly doubt I'll ever play the PC version of this game. That's not to say that there aren't redeemable factors to this game, there are, but overall this feels like a sub-par presentation to an otherwise stellar game.
Presentation aside though, this is definitely one of the best games that you can pick up at the moment, if you've somehow missed out on it like I did. It's one of the best stories I've seen this generation (if not, the absolute best), and offers a gameplay experience that has a surprising amount of depth and complexity. If you don't mind some rough edges to this familiar world, then you shouldn't hesitate, Dragon Age: Origins is definitely one of my favorite RPG's of this generation, and it could be yours too. I've been reading reviews on this site from users, and I don't think many of them got the point of this game. This is a story that was meant to be manipulated and told many times before you get bored of it. It's basically a legacy in itself, one that offers something interesting to just about everyone who plays it. Please, do me a favor and make sure that these people know what they're talking about; I'd really hate to see a game like this passed up because someone thought it was boring.
Review by Cal Burkhart