It’s been a while since a game has been reviewed that wasn’t obscure or… well really any game that Julian Horan didn’t review. I come now to break that trend. There are many people who have already spent well over a hundred hours playing this game, but that most likely includes all the Downloadable Content (DLC) and the expansion, Dragon Age Origins Awakening – which are four words that qualify for the most seemingly random title ever. This game, without all the fancy bells and whistles that came after its initial release, is still a fantastic game to play and will take hours and hours of time from your other responsibilities.
Before the game even starts, you may spend an hour or two deciding what exactly you want yourself to look like. Personally, I think this is overkill, but that’s a common theme to long RPGs nowadays. There are several beginnings to this game’s story, depending on the race (human, elf, dwarf), class (mage, rogue, warrior), and area you choose to play. For instance, if you choose a dwarf commoner, you have to escape from the dwarf king who has just killed his brother, but if you choose the human mage, you are resigned to starting in the mage’s tower, a place where you can be watched and kept under lock and key. Each unique beginning quickly catches up with the main story: to become a Grey Warden and stop the evil “Darkspawn” from taking over the lands. Things don’t go as easily as planned, however, and you’re left with forming a new army and recruiting party members along the way. To create the army, you have to go to three different areas and complete a string of quests. Afterwards, you are promised an army when the time comes. If you already think the story is obvious or find it lacking, don’t worry, the best part of the game is the combat, of which there is much.
Sugar, spice and everything nice.
If you’re used to Bioware’s games (Mass Effect 2, Knights of the Old Republic, even Jade Empire) then you’ll fit right in with this game. You can have a party of up to four people, three of which you can change around while the main character is always present. Each party member has their own special skills, spells, attributes, etc. which you can tell them to use with the tactics option or take full advantage of by playing as that character yourself. Don’t like that warrior you created after 20 hours of gameplay? Would you prefer to play as a Morrigan, the saucy spell caster? That’s ok. Just always switch to the next member of your party. To make the combat more thoughtful, you can pause the game every time combat begins, specify every action and directly manage the team. It’s a great addition and incredibly useful, but can sometimes feel like it gets in the way of the flow. In addition to the skills available to you through your class, which are many and various, there are also specializations that you can learn through books, party members or side quests. They also allow for more skills to be learned, although I didn’t much care for any of them.
I'm pretty sure I killed this elf.
If fantasy isn’t your thing, then stay away from this game. There is a ton of stuff packed into this game: codices, letters, quests, side quests, histories, lore. If you take the time to read everything and try to figure out the context of the world as a whole, you’re in for some long nights. On the other hand if, like me, you just want to play the game, level as much as you can and then kill some dragons, you’ll still partake in a great gaming experience. Everything fits well together, nothing seems like it was added without a point and you can do dozens of quests to keep you coming back for more. The gameplay is a solid, hardcore experience that you’ll come to thoroughly enjoy the more you play. Each of the abilities you learn are useful depending on the situation, and you can create your party to suit the kind of game you want to play. The soundtrack also manages to have that medieval feel to it, present in most fantasy games. There‘s always some lady, singing eerily. I don’t know why that’s a staple for things like this, but there you go; I can’t fault a game for fitting into the genre, no matter how odd I think it is (chanting) or how much I hate it (elves). The one thing I feel I should mention about the soundtrack as something just completely out of place doesn’t even happen during the game. After about 4 minutes of credits rolling at the very end, all of a sudden, without any warning, a rock song comes on: “This is War” by 30 Seconds to Mars. My only thought at this time was, “what the hell?” It doesn’t make the game worse, but it is funny. Sorry for the spoiler.
4.5/5 Near Perfect Score! Super Good!
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