4 Things I Love About Dragon Age: Origins So Far


Bioware has to be one of my favorite developers. I've played a good chunk of their games, with my particular favorites being Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. Now they've successfully sucked me into another masterpiece effort. So, what's so good about Dragon Age: Origins?

Here's my effort to capture some of the top things I'm really liking about DA so far.

1. Great Character Design

I'm hot and I know it.
There are, of course, obvious. . . aesthetic reasons to love the character design in DA, but Bioware really brings them to life. Especially Morrigan and Alistair, the main NPC's in the game, who exhibit certain tendencies but never quite react the way you expect them to. I've been pursuing the Morrigan romantic angle, and it's not simple. Certainly nothing like Fable II's incredibly shallow "marriage" system. *ack*

Plus, the interplay between Morrigan and Alistair is fantastic. The scriptwriting (and voice acting) is fantastic. These are people who don't fit into stereotypes and that you want in your party. Not merely because they fit some tactical purpose. Which, I have to admit, is a first--even for a Bioware RPG. I care about these people.

2. Plot Twists

The story is settling down now about ten or so hours in, but the first six were filled with interesting twists. (Not that the story so far isn't--far from it.) I have no desire to get into spoilers, but so far this is my favorite RPG from a story angle. KOTOR and Mass Effect were good games, but the stories were B efforts. So far DA is a solid A in my book. Even great games like Fallout 3 and ES IV: Oblivion suffered because they were too sprawling. We'll see, of course, how it all comes together, but so far DA has struck the balance between offering a compelling main storyline and offering occasional diversionary quests. One in particular, the 'Urn of Sacred Ashes', which is semi-optional, is incredibly well-designed.

3. Combat Mechanics

As usual, my first playthrough is on the default difficulty setting, and while certainly not crushing like Demon's Souls is reputed to be, there are points of the game that have been. . . challenging. The mechanics, however, are well-designed and bear close resemblance to KOTOR's system of being able to pause and switch between characters. I wish (sometimes) I could queue up commands like in that game, but the tactics menu eliminates some of the need for micromanagement. If, that is, you're patient enough to update it as characters level up to new talents and spells.

One small thing I like: the radial menu can be set to toggle on/off, rather than requiring you to always hold down the left trigger. This is AWESOME. I hate having to hold down buttons while using radial menus, especially here because of the need to frequently switch between characters.

4. Critical Disagreements

Two things had me skeptical about DA after reading reviews. One was the amount of gore in the game. Luckily, a la Gears of War, there is a setting to toggle off what Bioware calls 'persistent gore'. While some of the cut-scenes have near-adolescent male levels of gore, in-game gore is quite tasteful-realistic. It's definitely playable in front of kids.


I'm no orc, filthy human.

The second was the 'unoriginality' of the world. Yes, the darkspawn are clearly inspired by Tolkein's orcs, but there are so many other aspects of the world that are richly detailed and quite original (e.g. the elves having been enslaved by humans long ago). So far, not only have the excellent characters and plot drawn me in, but also the allegedly 'unoriginal' world.

Those are my thoughts for now. Stay tuned for more impressions and the final review!

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