Game Review-Dragon Age:Origins

Dragon Age: Origins

Storyline- A tale of death and betrayal, of epic battles of  demons and monsters of corruption of beasts, of Men of Dwarves and of Elves, and those are just the origin stories! When you get past those you add intrigue and murder, oh and sex! And for those that care, a tad bit of gossip. The storyline details that of the last of the Gray Wardens collecting allies to combat a blight, and also to if they wish take any and all the quests along the way they wish! Your companions even have their own storylines and that makes this game far more immersive than most, prepare to enjoy hours on end of hilarity! If you like your dog talk to it in camp even he has a few antics of his own! Somehow its just so much fun talking to the characters, I can't get over it now matter how much I do it.  The characters in this game are just so unbelievably true to life that they have more personality than some people I've known! While the tale is somewhat familiar it is done in such a way and with such unique twists that you will never see them coming, this games story shatters all expectations of "traditional" but somehow keeps close ties to what we know and love! 20/20

Graphics - Crisp and clean for the most part, but as with most newer games, on both consoles and PC they seem to blur around the edges especially in cinematics, while this seems to almost be common place in recent games 2 of the last 5 games I have reviewed having this problem, its not a huge problem just noting how common its been as of late. The character expressions are done expertly, as no other PC game I've seen before, and the cinematic style killing blows could not be handled so well without a good graphics engine.  10/10

Game play- Not quite innovative, but most definitely good. The tactics are very well done and its especially useful when you give the computers tactics that they use right.  Just remember, they tend to use most AoE abilities with little attention to the placement of you or your other allies, and it always sucks to get frozen. I especially like when they have an open tactics slot and add their new ability to it! There are a few snags when it comes to the game play though. one for sure is the spells and just abilities in general There's no creativity in spells here, and spell progression is obnoxious, and I don’t know how many times a dumb ass ally (some times in my party usually not) walks into a room and whips out a fireball and kills us. I really wish the spells showed some imagination, but quite simply they don’t they are the same old spells, save for a few twists on spells like chain lightning, and aren't you really limiting yourself to 4 spells in a school? I think that’s where you really went wrong. But I can say this, no game has ever made me want to become a mage and create spells more than this one. Also spell targeting can be a tad on the wonky side. And finally we come to the game itself, the world should be more open, I want to see more of it, but I'm limited to these little squares, I mean, aren't these the people who made Mass Effect which had whole planets to go to? It’s a small annoyance, but my lust for exploration is hardly sated by this game.   11/15

Enjoy ability- This game is fun, but like most RPGs you might want to take your time, don’t rush through it explore, take a look around, get more than just the main line of quests. If your having trouble beating a boss and you can leave, do it and go do some quests and come back latter, take liberties with this game, its more fun that way! Oddly enough interactions with characters are almost more fun than the game play, wanna hook up the royal bastard with the royal bitch? Go ahead! 20/20

Art direction- Sadly this really depends on where you go… some places are exactly what we've come to expect from a company such as this, which isn't a bad thing mind you, its just we like to see more! Sometimes though we get exactly that! My favorite place is Orzamar its gorgeous a fantastic and true to fantasy creation, exactly what I would imagine a Dwarven city would look like! 10/10

                                        
Sound &VA- With as many voices are in this game its no surprise that their ALL top notch incredibly well done, in fact in my gaming career I have NEVER played a game with VA done THIS well its mind blowing, heck even how extensive it is, is simply unbelievable! 10/10

Length- Well, this game is the length to be expected from an RPG 50+ hours, but add in deaths, alternate characters and the like and your talking hundreds of hours! but no worries, with all the different classes your in for some differences right? No sadly your not really in for much differences… there are certain things you just gotta have, and ones a healer, if you don’t got one you just don’t get far or at least I didn’t. Sure in that sense there's a little repetition but this game does lend itself to replays, and hey if your good enough with making potions you just might not need that healer good luck, and don’t forget to eat!  15/15

Total- 96/100

Bottom line- Get this game! Its fun and it will keep you warm in the winter nights, but not be surprised if you get mad when you get make Alistair love you again. It comes down to this, the game is awesome, and despite its minor hiccups I will be playing to quite a while!

The 5-

1- Spell combos are just awesome! Even though sometimes they don’t take a spell, it feels good to shatter that rat bastard that just killed Morrigan!

2-  Factions- are you in are out? Your not sure if Templars like you but you can help the mages that don’t belong to the tower, hmmm… its interesting not having something to keep track of factions but at the same time, you wouldn’t would you?

3- There sure is a hell of a lot of lore in this game, you could spend the time to read it… but really… ok yea its really interesting read it!

4- This game has the potential for future modules but no online play? That seems odd when compared to Never winter nights.

5- There's a point in the game where it appears I was supposed to be arrested I spent almost 2 hours trying and trying to win the fight but quick loading before everyone died, when everyone finally died it loaded me to a cut scene about me being arrested! I was supposed to lose and I wasted almost 2 hours! So what I'm saying is, the first time you die ALWAYS let it go to the load last saved screen cause you never know when your gonna be arrested.