By Jimmy Dean (yes it's his real name)
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins dragon/digi_rp/Dragon Age/DA_GreyWarden_crest_wallpaper_full_.jpg?o=101]
Note: I played this on the Xbox 360. Also this is my second time posting a review; some constructive criticisms would be appreciated.
Okay.....I've spend two weekends playing this game, I've barley been on Modern Warfare 2 and all my friends keep wondering where I go off to in the middle of the day. I've logged almost forty hours on this game and you know what?
I've loved every minute of it!!
Okay, okay let me talk about this in a fair and organized fashion. Dragon Age: Origin is a Fantasy role playing game created by Bioware (the people who brought you Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect) and is set in the land of Ferelden, a world that's from the similar vein of Middle Earth. The land is part of a larger world called Thedas and is inhabited by a usual assortment of Fantasy creatures (Humans, Dwarves and Elves).
Before I go any further I would like to say that DAO is a game that was made for fans of RPGs. If you're the kind of person who like to play more online sorts of games, or shooters or racers or RTSs than DAO is a game that you probably might not get into. To put this in perspective, it took me thirty five hours to beat the game on normal with minimum side questing, the time commitment is huge and to some this might seem daunting. Bear in mind it's more of a tactical game, you distribute skill points to boost your characters skills and give them better abilities, you have to occasionally factor in different stats to determine what your character can and can?t do. This may seem daunting to those who don't play RPGs, but if you're willing to embrace this game than be prepared to enter a world that will draw you in from start to finish.
Now that's out of the way, let's talk game y'all.
The story in this game is incredible to say the least. I'm sorry to say that I'm going to do a minimal amount of commentary about the story to ensure that for those of you who are curious about the game can enjoy the plot without me spoiling it.
You start the game by creating a character, but this is not just some appearance customizing screen where you distribute your attribute points (you do that also by the way), you determine your origin story to see how you start the game. You can be a dwarf noble, leading life with a silver spoon and dagger or you could be a street elf, constantly scraping by life as a second class citizen of the lands. All in all there are six origin stories which by themselves easily take up three to four hours of game play. Whats amazing is, your actions taken in the origin stories, will have effects that resonate later in the game when you return. If you spent the night with a noble hunter, than she'll have a talk with you when you return to say the least. There are three available classes to choose from: Mage, Warrior and Rouge. The first two work fairly well, however the rouge is not as well built in and have some weaknesses. However they are the only ones who can pick locks and you will want one in your party at all times.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/Ulvirich/Dragon Age Origins/Screenshot20091106142242294.jpg?o=15]
If you strike me down now, my family might take vengeance on you later on...Maybe.
The story it's self it a tale of you and a small group of adventurers saving the world from and orc/deamon invasion. However it is told in a way that seems fresh and original (at least to me) and kept me on the edge of my seat of hours on end. A main staple of this game are the ethical choices you can make, and for once, not every choice is a simple black and white decision, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those in the game, but there are some real head scratchers in here, the kind that make you wonder if what you are doing is the correct course of action and in the end might or might not be. Even good choices and end up being bad and some bad choices and end up being good.
Your decisions also affect how your party members react to you and how they feel about you. Sadly, instead of them just organically liking or disliking you (like in Mass Effect); their feeling towards you is shows with a little bar that says how they feel about you. While the party members themselves are unique and expertly brought to life by their voice actors, the relationships you forge with your friends and lovers seems a bit shallow with this inclusion even thought the characters themselves are very deep. Another disappointing thing is the fact you can give squad members gifts to boost their approval rating of you, so now if a person gets really mad at you, you can just give them a few gifts to make the bad feelings go away. Furthermore each party member has different tastes in gifts and one gift might be really effective one person and not so much on another, but this inclusion still feels like a bad addition to a game that wants you to build relationships with your party members. Admittedly doing certain things can make a party member leave the group or make them even try to kill you, but these don?t really happen often enough and really it will be clear when an event like this will happen.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/Ulvirich/Dragon Age Origins/Screenshot2.jpg?o=27]
Normally, I would be very upset about you killing those people, but I just couldn't stay mad when you gave me these shoes!
The game is a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, but you don't have to have any knowledge of that game to be able to play Dragon Age (Trust me, I've only played a little of Baldur's Gate 2). There is lot of lore within Dragon Age Origins, from the history of a neighboring country to the foundations and principals of the games dominant religions, all this information is stored in a handy-dandy (if sometimes unwieldy) codex. The sheer amount of information is staggering and you could probable fill an afternoon just reading all the stuff you've managed to compile within this massive reciprocal of information. What's great is the game doesn't really punish you for not knowing the lore; it's just there for those of you who are curious and want to take a look.
Well, I'm eight paragraphs in and have not mentioned game play (partially because of how important plot is in this game), so I'm going to split this up into two parts. For those of you who have played KOTOR, the game play is very similar to that game, but the abilities have recharge times, you can automate how your party members respond to situations somewhat, and you and hotkey some of your abilities.
For those of you who have not played KOTOR (or weren't satisfied with my answer above, I understand, it was a bit lacking), the game play is in pause able real time, you have a wide variety of combat actions your character and party members can select from. Fighting and combat damage is determines by the computer with a hit/ miss dice roll sort of system. The computer generates odds of your attack hitting or missing and then determines that damage of that strike or spell. Your abilities give you different combat actions or spells you can use against enemies to a varying degree of effectiveness. You can also customize what actions your squad mates take during combat; you do this through a simple tactics menu. For example if you want your mage to heal a party member if their health falls below a certain percentage amount, than you can do that. If you want your warrior to pull enemies for your mage can cast fireball, than you can do that. This gives your squad a certain degree of flexibility in combat and can allow them to be able to defend themselves reasonably in combat (if worse comes to worse, you can manually control a party member as well).
There is a certain learning curve to get over in this game, although for me it did not hit me until a third of the way through the game. Until that point, I had been able to get by just hacking and slashing my way through opponents and by chugging health potions. However, eventually (and dozens of deaths later) I realized that I needed to learn how to play the game properly, mapping out skills better (the main mage I used didn't have heal until around level ten), giving more appropriate weapons to characters (my rouge who was a good archer had been using blades the whole time) and be strategic about targeting enemies (I.E have your party focus on one opponent at a time to bring the other group down faster). The result was very satisfying as I watched my party clear rooms of difficult opponents by working better as a team and reacting more appropriately with a better utilization of force.
Its still stays tough later in the game and even if you learn how to play it well, you will still have a good challenge beating tougher opponents.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins dragon/corkruler/video games/Dragon_Age_Origins.jpg?o=74]
Okay time for a new plan....Don't send the mage in first.
Graphics wise the game looks nice, although occasional frame rate issues may appear on the Xbox 360, it still chugs along quite nicely (although the P.C version seems to have better graphics), overall no matter the system you play it on, the appearance of the game will look quite beautiful.
The sound of the game is good also, the voice acting is top notch and helps breath a personality into the many of the characters of the game (although with some NPCs you can sense that they and some other NPC sound a-like somewhat). The music also suites the atmosphere and helps make certain scenes I the game more intense, dramatic or emotional.
Overall this is a great game, it has some issues, but they are ignorable when given the scale of this world and the sheer about of quests that can be had, I'd say:
BUY IT! if you're a fan of Role Playing Games, you will seldom find a game that can offer a better experience than this.
If your not an RPG person, but are curious about this game, I would say Rent IT!, while RPGs might not be your forte, you will still most likely have a pleasant experience with this game
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/cooliness/Signatures/Dragonage.jpg?o=22]
Jimmy Dean is a high school junior who like to play role playing games in between making sure he's passing all of his classes and ensuring his parents don't do something that will ruin his chances of being president in forty years
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins dragon/digi_rp/Dragon Age/DA_GreyWarden_crest_wallpaper_full_.jpg?o=101]
Note: I played this on the Xbox 360. Also this is my second time posting a review; some constructive criticisms would be appreciated.
Okay.....I've spend two weekends playing this game, I've barley been on Modern Warfare 2 and all my friends keep wondering where I go off to in the middle of the day. I've logged almost forty hours on this game and you know what?
I've loved every minute of it!!
Okay, okay let me talk about this in a fair and organized fashion. Dragon Age: Origin is a Fantasy role playing game created by Bioware (the people who brought you Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect) and is set in the land of Ferelden, a world that's from the similar vein of Middle Earth. The land is part of a larger world called Thedas and is inhabited by a usual assortment of Fantasy creatures (Humans, Dwarves and Elves).
Before I go any further I would like to say that DAO is a game that was made for fans of RPGs. If you're the kind of person who like to play more online sorts of games, or shooters or racers or RTSs than DAO is a game that you probably might not get into. To put this in perspective, it took me thirty five hours to beat the game on normal with minimum side questing, the time commitment is huge and to some this might seem daunting. Bear in mind it's more of a tactical game, you distribute skill points to boost your characters skills and give them better abilities, you have to occasionally factor in different stats to determine what your character can and can?t do. This may seem daunting to those who don't play RPGs, but if you're willing to embrace this game than be prepared to enter a world that will draw you in from start to finish.
Now that's out of the way, let's talk game y'all.
The story in this game is incredible to say the least. I'm sorry to say that I'm going to do a minimal amount of commentary about the story to ensure that for those of you who are curious about the game can enjoy the plot without me spoiling it.
You start the game by creating a character, but this is not just some appearance customizing screen where you distribute your attribute points (you do that also by the way), you determine your origin story to see how you start the game. You can be a dwarf noble, leading life with a silver spoon and dagger or you could be a street elf, constantly scraping by life as a second class citizen of the lands. All in all there are six origin stories which by themselves easily take up three to four hours of game play. Whats amazing is, your actions taken in the origin stories, will have effects that resonate later in the game when you return. If you spent the night with a noble hunter, than she'll have a talk with you when you return to say the least. There are three available classes to choose from: Mage, Warrior and Rouge. The first two work fairly well, however the rouge is not as well built in and have some weaknesses. However they are the only ones who can pick locks and you will want one in your party at all times.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/Ulvirich/Dragon Age Origins/Screenshot20091106142242294.jpg?o=15]
If you strike me down now, my family might take vengeance on you later on...Maybe.
The story it's self it a tale of you and a small group of adventurers saving the world from and orc/deamon invasion. However it is told in a way that seems fresh and original (at least to me) and kept me on the edge of my seat of hours on end. A main staple of this game are the ethical choices you can make, and for once, not every choice is a simple black and white decision, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those in the game, but there are some real head scratchers in here, the kind that make you wonder if what you are doing is the correct course of action and in the end might or might not be. Even good choices and end up being bad and some bad choices and end up being good.
Your decisions also affect how your party members react to you and how they feel about you. Sadly, instead of them just organically liking or disliking you (like in Mass Effect); their feeling towards you is shows with a little bar that says how they feel about you. While the party members themselves are unique and expertly brought to life by their voice actors, the relationships you forge with your friends and lovers seems a bit shallow with this inclusion even thought the characters themselves are very deep. Another disappointing thing is the fact you can give squad members gifts to boost their approval rating of you, so now if a person gets really mad at you, you can just give them a few gifts to make the bad feelings go away. Furthermore each party member has different tastes in gifts and one gift might be really effective one person and not so much on another, but this inclusion still feels like a bad addition to a game that wants you to build relationships with your party members. Admittedly doing certain things can make a party member leave the group or make them even try to kill you, but these don?t really happen often enough and really it will be clear when an event like this will happen.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/Ulvirich/Dragon Age Origins/Screenshot2.jpg?o=27]
Normally, I would be very upset about you killing those people, but I just couldn't stay mad when you gave me these shoes!
The game is a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, but you don't have to have any knowledge of that game to be able to play Dragon Age (Trust me, I've only played a little of Baldur's Gate 2). There is lot of lore within Dragon Age Origins, from the history of a neighboring country to the foundations and principals of the games dominant religions, all this information is stored in a handy-dandy (if sometimes unwieldy) codex. The sheer amount of information is staggering and you could probable fill an afternoon just reading all the stuff you've managed to compile within this massive reciprocal of information. What's great is the game doesn't really punish you for not knowing the lore; it's just there for those of you who are curious and want to take a look.
Well, I'm eight paragraphs in and have not mentioned game play (partially because of how important plot is in this game), so I'm going to split this up into two parts. For those of you who have played KOTOR, the game play is very similar to that game, but the abilities have recharge times, you can automate how your party members respond to situations somewhat, and you and hotkey some of your abilities.
For those of you who have not played KOTOR (or weren't satisfied with my answer above, I understand, it was a bit lacking), the game play is in pause able real time, you have a wide variety of combat actions your character and party members can select from. Fighting and combat damage is determines by the computer with a hit/ miss dice roll sort of system. The computer generates odds of your attack hitting or missing and then determines that damage of that strike or spell. Your abilities give you different combat actions or spells you can use against enemies to a varying degree of effectiveness. You can also customize what actions your squad mates take during combat; you do this through a simple tactics menu. For example if you want your mage to heal a party member if their health falls below a certain percentage amount, than you can do that. If you want your warrior to pull enemies for your mage can cast fireball, than you can do that. This gives your squad a certain degree of flexibility in combat and can allow them to be able to defend themselves reasonably in combat (if worse comes to worse, you can manually control a party member as well).
There is a certain learning curve to get over in this game, although for me it did not hit me until a third of the way through the game. Until that point, I had been able to get by just hacking and slashing my way through opponents and by chugging health potions. However, eventually (and dozens of deaths later) I realized that I needed to learn how to play the game properly, mapping out skills better (the main mage I used didn't have heal until around level ten), giving more appropriate weapons to characters (my rouge who was a good archer had been using blades the whole time) and be strategic about targeting enemies (I.E have your party focus on one opponent at a time to bring the other group down faster). The result was very satisfying as I watched my party clear rooms of difficult opponents by working better as a team and reacting more appropriately with a better utilization of force.
Its still stays tough later in the game and even if you learn how to play it well, you will still have a good challenge beating tougher opponents.
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins dragon/corkruler/video games/Dragon_Age_Origins.jpg?o=74]
Okay time for a new plan....Don't send the mage in first.
Graphics wise the game looks nice, although occasional frame rate issues may appear on the Xbox 360, it still chugs along quite nicely (although the P.C version seems to have better graphics), overall no matter the system you play it on, the appearance of the game will look quite beautiful.
The sound of the game is good also, the voice acting is top notch and helps breath a personality into the many of the characters of the game (although with some NPCs you can sense that they and some other NPC sound a-like somewhat). The music also suites the atmosphere and helps make certain scenes I the game more intense, dramatic or emotional.
Overall this is a great game, it has some issues, but they are ignorable when given the scale of this world and the sheer about of quests that can be had, I'd say:
BUY IT! if you're a fan of Role Playing Games, you will seldom find a game that can offer a better experience than this.
If your not an RPG person, but are curious about this game, I would say Rent IT!, while RPGs might not be your forte, you will still most likely have a pleasant experience with this game
[http://media.photobucket.com/image/dragon age origins/cooliness/Signatures/Dragonage.jpg?o=22]
Jimmy Dean is a high school junior who like to play role playing games in between making sure he's passing all of his classes and ensuring his parents don't do something that will ruin his chances of being president in forty years
