Played on:
Xbox 360
Canadian developer BioWare has built its reputation on making great story-based games. This enviable reputation began on consoles back in 2003 with Knights of the Old Republic, and continued through the release of 2007's Mass Effect, a game which confirmed BioWare's status as the gold standard in RPGs. With that in mind, BioWare's latest RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, (and in spite of quite a few flaws) it lives up to expectations, and then some.
Dragon Age tells the story of Ferelden, a land periodically put-upon throughout the centuries by an evil race of undead/orc-like creatures called Darkspawn. Ordinarily, the Dwarven people keep these disorganized, subterranean monsters in check, but every now and then the Darkspawn uncover the soul of an old god and that's when the real trouble starts. Led by this old god (which manifests as an Archdemon in the body of a dragon), the Darkspawn erupt onto the surface and wreak death and destruction on everything they touch. These invasions or “Blights” can only be stopped by an ancient order of guardians called the Grey Wardens, and it's here your story in Dragon Age begins. But wait—we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Before you can join the struggle against the Blight, you get to choose and customize your character. To start, Dragon Age lets you pick a gender, a race (human, elf or dwarf), a class (warrior, mage or rogue), a backstory (Human Noble, Dwarf Noble or Commoner, City Elf or Dalish Elf, and Magus), and a voice. There's a tremendous amount of facial customization to be had, but no matter what you do, if you're female, you'll look hideous when you speak (more on that later). In any case, so many possibilities make it easy to spend an absurd amount of time picking a character, especially since each of the six back-stories offers a different start to the game. Yes, every race and racial sub-type has its own unique origin story, but all of these converge once you're recruited into the Grey Wardens.
So as a Grey Warden, what exactly do you do? Well like KOTOR and Mass Effect before it, Dragon Age is a party-based RPG. What that means is you'll spend the majority of your time talking to other characters, fighting enemies, customizing skills and equipment and micro-managing your party like there's no tomorrow. Almost immediately, you learn to fight. I played somewhat against type as a female Dalish warrior (in your face, all you archer elves!) so was slashing and bashing from the get-go. In typical RPG style, kills grant XP (as do historical documents found scattered everywhere) which levels you, allowing you to spend the points you earn on special skills and abilities. During combat, six of these abilities can be assigned to onscreen quick slots, making them easy to use with a single button press.
While Grey Wardens in general may seem like brooding, solitary types, you'll find you never have to fight alone. As you travel, you'll gather companions one at a time like you're in some kind of ultra-violent version of the Wizard of Oz. Once you gain these party members, you can control each of them during battle, swapping among them with the left and right bumpers. You can also control them indirectly by using their tactical slots. Each squad member starts with a couple of these and can earn more by skilling up. You can create your own custom settings for these slots or choose from several behavioral presets like Defensive, Aggressive and Cautious. There's enough to tinker with here to make the most OCD role-player giddy with delight.
Another key factor in managing your party is keeping things on an even emotional keel. Your party is a diverse group that runs the full range of the moral spectrum and keeping them all happy at once isn't easy. You can try to get to know them in camp or ply them with gifts to improve your likability, but some characters just will not come around. My kind and noble character for instance, had a devil of a time keeping on good terms with Sten, the big Qunari bruiser, and Morrigan, the bitchy witch of the wilds. All I can say is, thank the Maker for my ever-faithful war dog.
Party members aren't the only ones affected by your words and actions. There's no such thing as alignment tracking in Dragon Age, but circumstances can change a lot, depending on how you interact with other people. This shows itself in small ways during side quests and in big, game-changing ways during quests in the main storyline. The game plays out in a more or less open-world fashion, tracking your many quests and allowing you to perform them in any order. And while it might seem silly to stop army-building in Redcliffe to deliver a letter to some schmoe in Lothering, you can do it if you want to.
The game's main missions take you to every corner of Ferelden and allow you to experience a handful of compelling sub-plots. Side missions, which consist of collecting items and visiting different locations, are generally simple and easy to perform, if sometimes tediously far-flung. If you need a rest between these missions, try stopping at a tavern or ahem...house of ill repute. One of the funniest things I've seen in a game is my female Dalish spending the night with a male Dwarf "companion" at the Pearl bordello. Who knew Dwarves could be so sexy? Anyway, wherever you go, you won't have to run among cities and villages; you can teleport among them, although that means watching load screen after load screen. Then again, waiting through load screens gives you plenty of time to think about your character builds.
