Dragon Age: Origins

When someone says RPG in the gaming world, of course, the first name to pop in one's head is the Final Fantasy Series. When one says dungeons and dragons, a lot of gamers get a little iffy about battling fantasy creatures in some awkwardly dark fantasy land. Now, when one adds those to things together, the average gamer is beyond confused. The idea of a successful game built on those basis is sometimes laughable but Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins, may have proven us all wrong.

RPG based games are all about pulling a player in through the eyes of a character and taking the player through the story; dragging them through trials, tribulations and sometimes love to save the world in some manner. Dragon Age: Origins however does all that and more. The first thing that makes this game so much batter than other RPGs is that you're creating your own character as far as they look, their gender, back ground and attitude; something Bioware is known for in its games such as Mass Effect. You get the chance to choose to go through life as a high human noble, a disciplined mage, a lowly elf, a common dwarf, a wandering knife-ear (elf), or maybe even a royal dwarf. Which ever you choose reflects the way people think of you and react to your presence. For example, if you are an elf, most would jump to the conclusion that you are a slave not a warrior. After the fun little process of creating yourself, you begin to live through whatever story you have chosen.

After a series of unfortunate events that will more than likely end badly for you, you meet a man named Duncan. He is something called a Grey Warden, a warrior chosen to fight against the demonic looking creatures called darkspawn in the Blight. Depending on your story, the reasons he brings you with him vary but after this point all the stories go down the same path.

You now find yourself thrown in a world wrapped in war and lies and it's your job to bring everyone together to fight against the Blight and destroy the Archdemon, the creature behind all of this. In this journey, you will pick up some of the most shady, if not slightly crazy, people to fight alongside you. These characters all vary from lifestyles and finding out more about their past is only part of the fun. The game allows you to actually make many choices that affect the world around you and ultimately how the game ends. These choices also affect the way your party members perceive you. Stopping to help the poor may bother a more cynical party member while leaving them to die may upset another. Don't let this lead you to believe it's impossible to be liked by everyone; one simply has to be weary. The wrong choice with the wrong person in your party may lead to a deadly fight or them simply leaving... For good.

The world around you is worth more than just looking at. Almost everything in the land of Fereldon can be interacted with in some manner. There are countless side quests and tasks for you to complete when you wish to take a break from the pressing issue of saving the world. Besides your comrades, almost every villager you pass has a story to tell or a task for you to complete if you wish. Passing by them may usually open up a conversation you can choose to eavesdrop on or continue with your own life. Just like the conversing villagers, you party converses as well. Depending on the members you have in your party at the time, the conversations can change from suspiciously perverted to humorously odd. They are sometimes so strange you can't help but stop and listen, especially when they involve you. The most common of these conversations belong to Morrigan and Alistair. Morrigan is an apostate, an illegal mage who everyone presumes as a “witch”. Alistair is simply the insecure, naive, sarcastic and yet humorous templer turned Grey Warden. The two of them are natural enemies for more reasons than one and provide constant laughs with their bickering and banters throughout the entire game.

Now, of course, this is a game by Bioware, they do nothing but satisfy with giving you every opportunity to let your character be as human as possible. With that being said, you can only assume that you have the chance to form relationships with your fellow party members. After a series of conversations, gift giving and sharing secrets you may even get invited to someone's tent for some... “Melee lessons”.

As far as fighting goes, it doesn't play as many RPGs with the memorable turn based fighting system. In this game, you have more freedom when it comes to fighting, depending on difficulty. You are free to move about as you wish taking down the strongest whilst your team may distract him. Of course, in more difficult battles you find yourself pausing to find the right spell or the right potion for the situation but the fighting is a good point in the game which is rare to start with.

So far it seems great, right? Beautiful fantasy land to roam with your humorous, actual human acting companions, bearable fighting system, deep and well thought out storyline and intense player interaction, all the makings of a great game, right? Correct! But not everything is perfect; this game does have some cons. If not played on PC, the game can be slightly glitchy and have long loading times along with constant freezes. On consoles, the game isn't as appealing to the eye but still qualifies as eye candy. The PC version of Dragon Age: Origins is the preferred version simply because it runs so much better but if you're not graced with that privilege the console version will still satisfy.

Dragon Age: Origins opens a lot of doors for the fantasy genre and is truly a game that one can find themselves lost in for hours if not days. If it's not the attachment a player gets for the characters or simply wanting to know every possible outcome of the game (yes, there are a few), you still find yourself coming back for more darkspawn slaughtering fun. There are many things Bioware plans to do with Dragon Age: Origins in the future including more download-able content said to be released in early March. Until then I can supply you with this beautiful trailer to keep on the edge of your seat until you have the game in your possession. So I would like to end this review with handing this game 9/10 and highly recommending you to go buy or rent it. Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to my Alistair fan club.

Note: Trailer does not contain actual game footage, it is simply a trailer to tease the eye with a quest made in CGI.