Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware’s newest addition to the fantasy roleplaying genre has arrived to acclaim from critics and gamers alike. A spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate franchise, Dragon Age is a dark fantasy role-playing game set in a land beset by a looming peril. A story befitting a fantasy epic helps bring a thoughtfully crafted world inhabited by interesting and well-developed characters to life. Traditional RPG fans are sure to enjoy the effort Bioware has expended to ensure their latest series starts with an intriguing and pleasant experience. However, in spite of all the engaging narrative and character development Bioware has stuck to their traditional gameplay format which may or may not be to some players’ liking.
To say that Bioware’s character creation system for Dragon Age is extensive really doesn’t do it justice. A battery of slider bars for body proportions, facial structure and details like hair, tattoos, and a number of other options can make forging your hero or heroine a daunting, yet rewarding task. In fact, Dragon Age’s character design system is robust enough that Bioware released a stand-alone program in advance of the game itself, allowing players to make their character ahead of time to load into the final game upon release. Unfortunately for console players, the application was released only on PC. In addition to gender and physical appearance, players also choose from a selection of races and origin stories, which gives the game its name. Each origin story establishes your character’s place in the world differently, with some professions being limited to certain origins and vice-versa. These origin stories serve to introduce the player to the plot, gameplay style, and interface.
Origins’ game world is appropriately large with several population centers featuring each of the three primary races as well as a number of smaller areas, each hosting elements of the primary narrative and more localized problems to solve. Quests are well-written and interesting, varying in size from simple cross-town deliveries to multi-part undertakings spanning the entire continent. Each race’s primary settlement is different from the others, in size and layout as well as available merchants and side quests. The dwarven city for example is a larger, multi-zone area with multiple merchants and quests while the Dalish have little more than a camp with one merchant and a few errands. These differences are in keeping with the game’s lore, and help ensure that each race looks and feels unique. Travel in Dragon Age is a point and click affair. When the player leaves an exploration area or town the world map screen pops up to select a new destination. Travel progress is shown on the map by a trail of blood drops marking the route. Occasionally the player will befall a random encounter consisting of enemies to fight or characters to interact with such as a caravan or traveling merchants.
Similarly to most Bioware RPGs, Dragon Age features standard character leveling systems with points given for skills and talents, boosting standard in and out of combat skills both generic and profession-specific. Skills include basics such as combat mastery, lockpicking, or pickpocketing. Profession-specific talents are more specialized, teaching new skills or improving existing ones. Unlike some similar games, Dragon Age offers a variety of dialog options both positive and negative, but there is no morality tracking system. However, your words and actions can have an effect on each party member’s affinity toward your character, which determines how your companions react to conversation and events in the game. Some choices carry heavier consequences, and some companions may leave the party if they do not agree with the player’s choices.
Dragon Age utilizes an entirely new game engine. However, in many ways the visuals and interface seem dated. Models and animations are average at best, with textures feeling a bit flat and un-detailed. Particle and spell effects are flashy and impressive, but seem to be poorly optimized to the engine which may cause reduced framerates. Graphics detail could have been intentionally limited due to development for multiplatform support. The game interface is also different between the PC and console versions, with the PC supporting a traditional hotkey action-bar and consoles supporting a more user-friendly radial menu. Skill and item usage for the entire party can be handled manually by switching characters or using a tactics system that instructs party members to perform certain actions when conditions are met during combat. While the tactics system is a welcome feature, it is not without difficulty. Most characters have a limited number of tactics slots, and gain more through attribute and skill leveling, leaving the player with the task of micromanaging their party in the early game.
Combat is performed through Bioware’s real-time system, which encourages the player to take a tactical approach pausing often to move party members to more efficiently attack or defend and queue up skills or consumables. This system will be familiar to fans of previous Bioware games, as far back as Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. That said, it is indeed not for everyone. Some players may find party micromanagement tedious, and the constant pausing to evaluate combat conditions may disinterest players from combat entirely. Tactical upkeep of your party is important especially for players of the PC version, primarily due to increased game difficulty, even at lower settings. Players might find encounters in the console versions to be relatively easy compared with the same encounter at the same difficulty setting on PC. For players inexperienced with Bioware’s RPG formula or those that prefer more accessible RPG experiences, the console version may be preferable.
Dragon Age: Origins is overall an excellent game that will appeal to many fantasy RPG fans, especially those who enjoy Bioware’s lineup. A thoughtfully constructed game world filled with interesting characters and intriguing narrative are easily the centerpieces of Bioware’s latest, held back for some by potentially frustrating game mechanics. Dragon Age: Origins’ style may not agree with all RPG fans, but it certainly deserves much of the praise heaped upon it. With strong sales and stronger accolades, it is safe to assume that the story of Dragon Age will continue, with Origins being a strong start to the series.
