Purchase Dragon Age: Origins

In the special features of the Lion King DVD, they mentioned how they felt they were the "B Team"; the team that's making that other movie whereas most of the concentration and excitement was on Pocahontas. I'm not saying Dragon Age is the B team and that it's going to eclipse everything but it's kind of weird to look at Dragon Age: Origins in that in a little over 2 months we'll be getting the highly anticipated "Mass Effect 2" which many people are saying it's going to be Game of the Year for next year, let alone RPG. Strange analogy to compare to M-rated RPG's to kid friendly movies but I bet a lot of people are looking at this game as one of 2 things: they're excited for it if it only weren't for Modern Warfare 2 being released the week after or the second thing which is this is what will tide you over till the big game comes out in January. Well what a surprise to find that it's actually a fantastic game and my pick for RPG of the year. Why not Demon's Souls? Mainly because this game is actually fun to play whereas the other game is fun but the learning curve might make people just give up right away. When people talk about getting their 60 dollars worth well there's more than enough content here to justify the price so it's definately worth checking out.

Story: In the kingdom of Ferelden, an event known as the Blight happens which threatens the whole land when creatures known as darkspawn rise from the ground and wreak havoc on the populace. Ancient, highly revered warriors known as the Grey Wardens have been the defense against this danger, even when a creature known as the archdemon arrives on the battlefield. You can play as one of 6 origin stories which range from the son of a king, an elf who uncovers a mysterious mirror or a mage living in a tower practicing their magic. Eventually you'll meet party members who'll aid you in battle as you gather your strength and numbers to vanquish the Blight and the darkspawn.

Graphics: A commmon thread on message boards is "sign here if you think the graphics suck". Well they don't suck per se but compared to other games, even in Bioware's catalogue, it might not astound. While from an art design standpoint the game's gorgeous with some really cool and even stunning locales, the actual visuals themselves might underwhelm and I even notice the occasional hiccup such as textures that flicker during conversations and screen tearing but as someone who doesn't mind playing an old school Playstation or even Nintendo 64 game on occasion, the graphics never bothered me one bit. One petty thing is that the designs for the characters in the Sacred Ashes trailer look downright awesome whereas in-game they look off. Leliana, the redhead badass in the trailer, now looks almost...innocent and the guy with cornrows (Sten) looks oddly fatter in-game than in the trailer.

Sound/Music: One thing you can't fault Bioware on is voice acting and here they are spot-on. From some great character work, especially by Morrigan (her VA also did Uncharted 2's Chloe) to general NPC's, very rarely do I find an outright badly voiced character and it's one of the few games that I actually want to hear the dialogue as opposed to Mass Effect where I'll admit I pressed X a few times to get to my dialogue selection bit. Music as well is awesome with some epic orchestral scores and if you got the Collector's Edition, the soundtrack's on the DVD (which can be added to your iTunes/Media Player via file copying). Sound effects in battle are alright though I love the loud boom you do when you do a Shield Bash.

Gameplay: Now one thing I have to mention is I've never played Knights of the Old Republic so I can't say if it's similar but basically what this game is boils down to characters see enemy, press A to start attacking. But holding the Left trigger will bring up a radial menu where you can switch between party buffs, magic or special attacks, make potions, check your inventory etc. Your X, Y and B buttons can be mapped so they activate a specific ability you want with a second menu providing more space, giving you 6 quick access abilities. It's not a bad system and works fairly well though it can get chaotic during the battlefield with not only your 4 characters but I've ran into at least 7 or 8 other characters to fight. Taking a page from Final Fantasy XII is where you can set your tactics, or if you want "if x/then y" situations where character AI will automatically perform certain actions should you program it in. Example, curing if someone's low health, automatically turn buffs on but how about casting an area of attack spell if you have a certain amount of enemies bunched together? The benefit that FF XII didn't have is that these tactics are available to you right from the get go as opposed to being bought or found though your slots and how much tactics you can program is limited.

Like any RPG you got to have customization and there's a ton in the game and it starts right from your choices as a dalish elf can have different conversations and most likely even quests not available to say a noble dwarf. One thing I will say is the the character customization, my bane of RPG's lately, isn't that bad though for some reason I still can't make people look how I want them to look. Past this you can specialize in a specific class such as mages opting to become a shapeshifter or a healer whereas warriors and rogues can have their own classes as well and then there's abilities which can involve general attacking, archery, whether or not you'll dual wield or just have a sword and shield combo. And how about customizing the quests? Indeed like in Mass Effect but moreso here, what you decide to say can influence the outcome of quests and characters so for example in the first town you go to (Lothering), there's some basically "toll collectors" who want you to pay money you most likely can't afford so you can decide to fight them to a point where they'll pay you and run off...but in a different run I said I was a Grey Warden and they just let me pass. And if you want to get your freak on you have 4 romantic options and figuring out how to get on their good side and subsequently them on your bed side is quite fun though keep in mind, try to romance 2 at once and you'll get confronted. So jealous, they are.

For those interested, I got the Collector's Edition and this is just to detail what's in it: you get a cloth map (complete with unsnipped thread still hanging off the sides, a neat touch), a bonus DVD which includes a making-of documentary, trailers for the game and Mass Effect 2, the soundtrack and wallpaper for your computer. The big addition is 3 download codes: the Blood Dragon armor which sadly requires a high amount of strength to even wield so it'll be awhile before you can wear it, the Stone Prisoner quest involving recruitable character Shale as well as in-game items. It's a cool collector's edition but I just put this here since more people'll read the regular version reviews than the CE's, I bet.

Does it have some flaws? Well aside from the aforementioned love-it-or-hate-it graphics, the game can get somewhat hard if you're not really paying attention and for those after achievements, Dragon Age, like Mass Effect, requires multiple playthroughs not just for the opening origins (Magi origin took me roughly 2 hours, rest were less) but you got to get not only the warrior but the mage and the rogue to level 20 and that might be awhile, in addition to 4 endings, 4 romance options and you better be in it for the long haul. If you are though, there is so much stuff to do in this game that it gets crazy. I don't know if it'll eclipse Oblivion's reported 200 hours but you never know. Question is, how thorough are you?Get more detail about Dragon Age: Origins.