HISTORY:
Founded in 1995, BioWare hit the mark with PC gamers by way of their 1998 RPG, Baldur’s Gate. They, and Black Isle Studios, followed this up with an expansion as well as a full-blown sequel in 2000 and went on to develop some of the best video games in existence. For instance, BioWare developed both the Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect series of games.
After Neverwinter Nights, however, BioWare’s RPGs tended towards the action variety as PC developers the world over tried to keep up with the faster-paced games making their way onto console platforms. In business, you give the people what they want and the cold, hard truth of it is that there are a multitude more console gamers than PC gamers these days (not counting the hybrids, of course, such as yours truly). In 2004 as fans found out that Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound, being developed by Black Isle Studios, had been canceled they returned their attention to BioWare for classic-RPG salvation. BioWare has answered their call with Dragon Age: Origins. They have said that this title will appease both types of core gamers and I finally got the chance to check out the PC version in order to see if it really lives up to its promises.
STORY:
The kingdom of Ferelden is potentially in the midst of what Grey Wardens call a Blight. Basically, this is a situation where a twisted and evil group of beings known as Darkspawn wage an all-out genocide against humanity as well as the rest of the races in the land. Grey Wardens are a group of individuals who fight the Darkspawn and are imbued with some mystical powers. Your part is played as an initiate Grey Warden who must battle the Darkspawn as well as perform some other pretty huge tasks, such as uniting a slew of conflicting races as well as restore the proper order in some instances of political coups!
While the basic story in Dragon Age: Origins may sound familiar, I promise you that this game is murky – VERY murky. You will be forced with making some very tough decisions and, in some cases, the decisions you are offered are all negative and it will be your job to choose the option you feel best. The great thing about DAO is that it really does not judge you for actions that could be considered ‘bad’. Sure, there are consequences in the way the world unfolds around you, but you are never labeled as one thing or the other based on those actions. Likewise, the amount of human drama which takes place in this game rivals some episodes of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. This is a mature game with mature themes, and will readily appeal to the group of gamers who grew up with classics such as Baldur’s Gate. Most of us are in our thirties now and able to ingest such content – yay for maturity!
GAMEPLAY:
DAO has a varied play styles depending on your preferences. If you like, you can play the game in a 3D isometric view of the world and your party. Moreover, you can also set the game to auto-pause at the beginning of combat. This will give you time to assign actions to your party members before resuming real-time combat. This play style warmly reminds me of those classic RPGs while also dazzling me with popping 3D effects and details. It truly was the best of both worlds and his how I prefer to play.
You can also choose to zoom the camera all the way in behind the character you are controlling at the moment and play the game like a modern MMO such as World of Warcraft. I see this view lending itself more towards the younger crowd who grew up mainly on console titles, however it still works very well on the PC. The experience is definitely more intimate in this view and it is easier to lose your perspective on combat (you may want to use the auto-pause to help with this) but you ALSO get the benefit of seeing a lot more of the gory details and effects!
The rest of the controls are easily picked up by anyone who has played an RPG, MMO, or shooter in the last five years. Right-click to attack and move, left-click to select something. You will find the traditional inventory screens as well as skills and ‘paper doll’ interfaces work seamlessly and are very user-friendly.
GRAPHICS:
Dragon Age: Origins features detailed characters and vibrant combat and magic effects. It also features blood. Lots of blood. In fact, blood is a recurring theme in the game, from the box art to the loading screen you will find blood spray and spatter. Also, a key point in the game revolves around the blood of the Darkspawn. You will not be surprised, then, to find out that after combat your characters will look like they stepped out of an Ed Gein dinner party. They are covered from head-to-toe with the blood of their enemies. The effect is really cool at first but, when you find out the blood stays with your characters as they go about the rest of their business, it is off-putting. Walking around an unsuspecting village, talking to citizens, all while drenched in blood just appears strange. You expect the NPCs to ask you, ‘Hello, why are you and those three other characters drenched in blood?’.
Aside from vibrant magical effects, you will also find that DAO features its share of combat finishing moves and other gory moments. The blood and heads really start flying in heated battles – this is easily the goriest game BioWare has made to date. Well done – it looks amazing!
SOUND:
The spectacular soundtrack of DAO was composed by Inon Zur, veteran composer of games such as Fallout 3 and Baldur’s Gate II. Here, Zur is at his best with sweeping sounds and musical climaxes. Aside from the game’s soundtrack, the sound design team has done a wonderful job with the environmental noises as well as the sounds of combat.
It needs to be mentioned that the voice work in Dragon Age: Origins, is almost too solid for its own good. You will begin to think that all games should have a voice cast this talented, which will then ruin your experience with these other titles. Actors such as Claudia Black, Tim Curry, and even Kate Mulgrew will grace your ears with their incredible performances. BioWare and EA really pulled out all the stops with their casting on this one.
ORIGINS:
Unlike most classic RPGs, the amount of character customization available to the player is more limited than they will remember from older RPGs. In DAO, you will find three races to choose from, each with only a couple of class picks as well as a couple of background options. Your decisions when first creating your character will decide what origin story you play-through first. An origin story is like a training campaign – more than that, it sets up your character’s back story and really puts you in his or her mindset.
Some of these origins are noble, while others start you off as a cold-blooded killer… Like I said, this game is murky. Each of these origin stories takes a good couple hours to complete, so be ready to put in the proper time to get your maximum enjoyment from the game. This, being a more classical RPG, has a huge amount of story options for you to take on. Prepare to spend about 40 to 50 hours on a thorough play-through!
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
Once your character begins leveling up, you will have to choose where to spend your skill points. You will be able to choose from several disciplines and skills to increase your proficiency in. Character development is fairly straight-forward and it is really fun to plan out how your want your party members to develop.
Like the Baldur’s Gate series, your party members will often communicate amongst themselves and, in some cases, squabble about random stuff. Your decision as to what party members to bring with you will also affect how their interactions go. Like-minded characters tend to get along better, etc.
TACTICS:
A big gameplay point BioWare has added a new AI feature called ‘Tactics’ to DAO. Basically, this allows you to setup your AI to perform certain actions or skills based on varying criteria. For instance, you can set a magic user to heal if health goes below a certain percentage. A player who has more levels into the skill ‘Combat Tactics’ will be grated additional tactics slots to fill out. Unfortunately, for the less hardcore gamers this system might be overwhelming. Thankfully, you can use preset character tactics (like Aggressive, Defensive, Ranged, etc) to make this aspect of the game easier.
CONCLUSION:
Dragon Age: Origins is an incredible deep role-playing game experience that is accessible by both PC and console gamers alike. It features a rich story, excellent voice acting, and crisp visuals that will keep you clamoring for more, even 50 hours into the game.
