my dragon age origins review

Here is my Dragon age origins review.



I have had the game a couple of days and have put quite a bit of time into it already, the game is huge and this review will only really touch the surface of the game so don’t expect too much.



Dragon age origins is a EA game developed by (in my opinion leaders in western rpg’s) Bioware, the makers of some of the best games of the genre Baldarsgate and the Neverwinter nights series.

First of this game has had a lot of hype and fortunately it has stepped up to the plate, if I was to write a short review I would simply say EPIC.

The story is fantastic and The player begins his or her journey from one of the six origin stories which serve as an introductory point for the players and present the world from their personal point of view. The origin story chosen (the choices being Human Noble, Human/Elf Mage, Dalish Elf, City Elf, Dwarf Commoner and Dwarf Noble) determines who the character is and how NPCs react to the player. Each of the different origins reveals a different side of the story and this really adds to the replay value of the game.

After one chooses a character class one chooses a fighting style for example mage, fighter, rouge etc and can then customize the appearance, voice etc of the character and then begins the origin story.

After completing their character's respective origin story, the player encounters Duncan, leader of an elite group known as the Grey Wardens. Duncan guides the player to their destiny of becoming a Grey Warden and this starts the main quest of the game were on must rid the world ( Ferelden) of the darkspawn.

There are 100s of quests to be had in the game and a lot of NPC characters that can join the party and as a new member joins more quests related specifically to that character can become available, quests can be found by talking with NPC or looking on work boards around various villages, towns or cities. the quests vary in difficulty and are worth investigating.






I personally started the game using a elf mage and will base the screenshots etc on this character, but i also have a fighter that i havent spent much time with yet, if you register the game at the offical Bioware site they keep a record of your characters, achievements etc as well as screenshots which is a nice touch.





The mage has as expected a lot of options available from general to more specific and at certain points can further branch out into more specialized areas like shapeshifting,all the expected spells are there and you can also create potions and poisons if you choose to take that path.



One thing I have noticed and that is right from the outset my mage is quite powerful unlike some dark rpg’s that have very weak mages to start with becoming more powerful as time goes on my mage can handle himself very well in most situations, and add to that a maximum of three other party members allows for a really nice balance to be had of ranged and melee attackers.



The fighting in the game encourages one to use the pause feature to assign different attacks for each of your party members and is really quite tactical, the enemy AI is very good, targeting weaker members of the party , I have found the friendly AI to be wanting a little and even if you spend a lot of time creating individual tactics for the party members find that I have to pause and control each member frequently. battles become quite difficult and Ive found it really important to balance the party well with ranged and melee working well together.

you can be injured during battles which inflicts a constant penalty on the party member requiring you to use kits to remove the aliment, penalties can include defense, attack etc









equipment and items can be found by looting corpses, chests, barrels etc and certain weapons and armor can also be upgraded and infused with magic abilities, and of course items and equipment can also be brought from various merchants.

when equipping your party you will have to take into consideration the weight of the items and any bonuses or penalties that may arise from the item.

The graphics are fantastic, really clean and crisp and a pleasure to be part of.







the sound track is exceptional as is the storyline which sucks you in, added to that the best voice acting I’ve ever experienced really makes it hard to find faults with the game. In saying that It definitely isn’t perfect, I’ve spoken about the AI and would also complain about the camera angles as well, they have no set guidance and can be controlled by holding down the right mouse button, I would prefer something like NWN were you can set the camera to follow above and behind and then adjust it if you need to. As well as that related to the camera the map is sometimes misleading due to it showing the direction of the camera not the player view.

Other than that I think it is top class in every other category and highly recommend it to everyone fans of the genre or newbie’s a-like.

The game offers downloadable content in the form of new characters and also armor etc, if you buy the game new you will be given one character and a set of armor for free other than that expect to pay for it.

I have to give this game a 9.5/10 apart from those few small grips I have the game is in my view flawless, im only 10 or so hours into it and already can tell it will have me hooked for months to come.

Well that’s about enough to give you all a taste of the game there are better and more in-depth reviews around but hopefully this wets your tastebuds and encourages you to check this game out.

system reqirements: OS: Windows XP or Vista/Windows7, CPU: intel single 1.6 Ghz or equivalent, AMD athlon 64 2.0 Ghz or higher, RAM: 1gb XP 1.5gb Vista or windows7, Hard Drive: 20gb HD space, Video: ATI Radeon X850 256mb or greater, Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT 128mb or greater VISTA: ATI Radeon X1550 256mb- Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT 256mb, Sound: Directx compatible sound card

recommended specs: OS: windows XP SP3 or windows vista/windows7, CPU: intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz or higher, AMD Phenom ll X2 dual-core 2.7Ghz or higher, RAM: 2gb (3gb vista/windows7), Video: ATI Radeon HD3850 512mb or better, Nvidia 8800GTS 512mb or higher



im running this game with graphics detail very high, texture detail high and 4x AA at native resolution of 1680x1050 and frames rates are stable and never drop below the mid to high 40's.

This game is a definite contender for game of the year and potentially even game of the decade…YES it is that damn good.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Nice review! Thanks! +1

One question though, do you play a lot of RPG's or not? I am not a huge fan of RPG's but enjoyed Oblivion and Mass Effect (didn't completely finish either one though).

I read a couple places that if you're not into RPG you might not enjoy it. But it seems to get good reviews all around.

 

I'm not a big fan of RPG's either. Though I did really enjoy Mass Effect. That game made me put a lot of faith into Bioware and so based on that I decided to get Dragon Age. Have to say, one of the best 50 bucks I've spent in a while.

 

i do like rpg's and think if you have had some background training in them it will make the game Little easier to start of with, the games story is so big that even if you are new to the genre you will pick it up soon enough, the story is so good that it will keep you going until you get the hang of it, i think its the perfect place to start if you are wanting to try the genre out because of the story voice acting and game-play.

 

MTness Good Review! I have played many rpg's in my time, Ultima's in the 80s, Baldurs gate in the 90s, Neverwinter Nights in this decade. Lots of other smaller rpg's here and there. Dragon's Age is very good. I honestly miss more of the true D&D style classes, rules, skills, etc... I think if they had implimented these (Neverwinter 2) this would be the perfect game. As it is the compromised between PC and Console and this is the product of that venture. I think many people will be playing this for years to come. Can't wait for some time to play. Best Wishes, Stevenx

 

yeah mate Ive also played all the games you listed, im personally glad for a change from the original D&D rule-set, i think this game is using 3 six-sided dice set which i think is plenty for what it is offering, and have to agree because of cross formatting the game decided to cater to the more general public from the consoles, they haven't complicated the game-play too much, but what i find fantastic is allowing for so much skill diversity with the characters, allowing the game to still flourish even with the rule-set limitations....i hope you find time to play it as well mate.
takecare and enjoy the game when you can

 

Because of this game I don't need World of Warcraft any more.....

 

lol for now.

Tis' a great game but as with any and all single player games you will come to a point where you beat it and there is no more replay value after beating it a few more times.

WoW since its a MMO is alive and until you just get bored of its game mechanic your online follows can keep you entertained when a single player game would have long been dead.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Starwars MMO it has the dialog choices and graphics and voice acting of Dragon Age, with the MMO aspect of WoW.

 

hears hoping it will be like baldarsgate and NWN with lots of expansions to make it a series to rival MMO's.
NOTE ill update the review later today with more screens and alittle more depth.

 

Question: im a bit lost about what this game is. Is it multiplayer? Like coop, or is it basically like oblivion? I don't really understand the party thing lol.
On top of that, is this a sequel to another dragon age? Just asking looking at the title, it sounds like a sequel

 

It's single player, but not exactly like Oblivion. It's similar in that you create your character, but different in that you meet other characters who join your party. They have their own personalities so you can talk to them and they won't necessarily like what you do, but you can control them in combat if you want. It's like Knights of the Old Republic or the Baldur's Gate series.

No, this is the very first game in this setting (hence "Origins"). The title also refers to the fact that you get to choose between 6 different ones which impact the story.

 

The bloods are getting a little annoying, and are ugly as well.

 

Look at the varies Project at the Biware forum, One of them reduce the Blood. I do think the default blood option is a bit much, looks like you just came out of a Bloodnbath on every little encounter. But turning it off completely is a bit too clean. so this is a nice compromise.

 

nice review. i cant wait to get it (i would have got it on release but i have no job atm) question: why are all your screenies pictures of the screenies in windows photo gallery?

 

i take the screenshots using xfire and then save them to paint before uploading as it reduces the uploads from 2mb+ to afew hundred kb

 

NOTE review updated with more information.

 

updated with new screen-shots and more info.

 

Very nice review thanks. Graphics may not be the very best but I think it looks fantastic too. People calling this rpg of the decade and I don't disagree

 

Can't wait for that, BioWare is without a doubt my favorite rpg dev's, and they always find new ways to surprise me. The only thing I'm worried about TOR is their lack of experience in the mmo scene which can be dangerous if they're not prepared for it (end game content, instances/raids, class balancing, etc) but I have faith in them.