Dragon Age: Origins is another fine entry in the catalogue of games by Bioware, makers of such memorable titles as Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As a whole, Dragon Age preserves the developer’s reputation for flawed masterpieces, creating a game world that is both captivating and compelling while still failing to live up to the potential of the material. If you’ve ever played a game by Bioware, Dragon Age will feel very familiar, perhaps repetitively so. Those who haven’t played one of their epic sagas before should be in for a pleasant adventure that’s refreshingly different from other RPGs on the XBox 360 platform.
What Is Old Is New Again
If you are familiar with combat in Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, or Mass Effect, Dragon Age’s combat system may throw you for a minute. Commands are entered much like a turn-based RPG while events are happening in real-time. You only have control of one character at a time, but you can quickly flip between available party members. If you rely solely on the Attack command, you’ll grow bored of combat very quickly, but, then again, you’ll also be dying quite a bit. Being able to effectively use your characters’ different abilities and attacks is an essential skill for survival in the world of Dragon Age. The combat system in Final Fantasy XII for the PS2 (one of my favorites in that series) is the closest equivalent I can think of. For other comparable systems, you’d have to go back several years to Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate series for Mac and PC.
The character portraits even seem similar to Baldur’s Gate, just on the opposite side.
In fact, much of Dragon Age seems a throwback to those older Dungeons & Dragons RPGs, only without the license. From leveling characters and acquiring skills, to weapon and armor bonuses, to quests and side-quests, to the quirky cast and dark humor, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was playing a decade-old game with a very shiny coat of new paint upon it. Mind you, this is not a bad thing. In the case of Dragon Age, the whole system works quite well – so well, in fact, that what flaws it does have tend to be all the more evident.
Where Dragon Age stands out is in the realm of character backstory. There’s a reason the developers appended the word Origins to the title of the game. Based on which of seven different combinations of races and backgrounds you choose for your character, the game will open with a unique beginning to that origin. Then, throughout the game, different characters and quests you encounter will be affected by your backstory. Bioware implemented a limited version of this in Mass Effect with a unique mission that comes with each backstory for Commander Shepherd, but Dragon Age takes it to a whole new level – creating incentive to play the game multiple times.
Does No One Wipe Their Mouth Here?
Dragon Age quickly earned a reputation as a very gory game, and rightfully so. Melee attacks and injuries result in blood spilled all over your character, and these spatters don’t go away until your party changes locations. It’s supposed to add realism to the medieval combat, but I mostly found it stomach-turning. Fortunately, Bioware lets players turn this off in the Settings menu.
This is a relatively tame example.
All of the blood is more than a visual gimmick, though. Blood is central to Dragon Age’s mythos. It is important to your character becoming a Gray Warden. It is key to resisting the darkspawn blight. It is essential in overcoming the call of the archdemons. This is why that dark sense of humor I mentioned earlier is so welcome. This villains in this game have no problem destroying villages, wiping out key characters, even killing children. Dragon Age is a dark game with dark themes, but Bioware manages to keep things just lighthearted enough to avoid that darkness becoming overbearing. At first, it struck me as odd just how much more humor was sprinkled throughout Dragon Age than in other recent Bioware games. A few hours into the story made those moments of humor all the more welcome.
You Happen to the Story
While playing Final Fantasy XIII recently, I mentioned to the wife that I felt the key difference between Japanese RPGs and Wetern RPGS was this: that in Japanese RPGs, a story that you have no control over happens to characters you control, but, in Western RPGs, you happen to the story. Few games embody this philosophy more completely than Dragon Age. From the beginning, you are making choices about your character that will impact the entire game. Every major quest has multiple resolutions that can have vastly different results. Depending on your background, characters will react to you differently, and you, in turn, can choose how you will react to them – again affecting opportunities and missions you will get. You can even fail to recruit allies to your cause or find unexpected allies depending on your choices throughout your quest. Oh, and yes, you can seduce much of your party.
Choices, choices.
Here’s a quick example of what I’m talking about from one of the simpler quests in the game. You come across a band of elves plagued by werewolf assaults. Over the course of the quest, things turn out to be less cut-and-dry than they seem. Eventually, you have a choice. You can simply slaughter the werewolves; you can ally yourself with the werewolves and destroy the elves instead; or you can even mediate between the two parties and find a (relatively) nonviolent solution to the crisis. Based on your actions, the elf population may be too weak to join your army against the darkspawn, or they will be able to fight with you. Alternatively, the elves might be destroyed, and the werewolves may fight at your side instead. All of that can come from one choice in one quest, and I would say this specific quest offers relatively simple choices. By the end, you are making some extremely tough calls that don’t always clearly fall into categories of good or evil.
The end result is a strong sense that you, the player, have a great deal at stake in this story, and choices you make in this game will undoubtedly have repercussions in the inevitable sequel.
Time to Pick Nits
I called Dragon Age another flawed masterpiece by this developer, so I’d like to take a second to discuss just how this game falls short of its potential.
- It’s a port, and it looks like a port. Dragon Age was developed for the PC by Bioware with Edge of Reality porting it to consoles. The visuals suffer as a result, with some elements looking more at home in a Wii game than an XBox 360 game. (I’m looking at you, trees-surrounding-Ostagar.)
- Glitchy, glitchy, glitchy. Many of the bugs have been addressed by now, but little visual glitches and quest-related bugs permeate the experience. Sometimes the sound drops out during important dialogue. (Make sure subtitles are enabled.) There is one fairly major bug that’s triggered by selling too much to a single vendor. You trigger this, and your saved game gets destroyed.
- Loading. The load times are pretty long. This is especially frustrating when you just realized you walked into the wrong store in town.
The vendor bug could have been a game-breaker, but it was recently fixed with an update that came out alongside the expansion pack Awakening. The other shortcomings simply tarnish an otherwise well-polished game; especially the graphical issues. The PC/Mac version looks noticeably better. Nothing breaks that coveted suspension of disbelief like gazing over windswept hills only to see trees that look like cardboard cutouts.
But Wait! There’s More!
The additional content available for Dragon Age is notable, and, if you get the game new, some of it is free. There are currently three major pieces of downloadable content (not counting downloadable items) with a fourth coming later this month. Most of the add-ons are $5 or less and generally add one new quest, a new location, and a few unique items to the game. The notable exception is the $15 Stone Prisoner add-on that also gives your party a new member you can use throughout the rest of the game. (The Stone Prisoner is free if you buy the game new.)
In addition to these smaller pieces of downloadable content, a $40 expansion pack is available for purchase called Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. Whether or not you find Awakening worth the price depends entirely upon how much you enjoy the core game. It adds a major 20+ hour quest taking place in a new region. The story is set almost immediately after the events of Dragon Age and can revolve around a character you import from the original, or you can create a new character from scratch. I found the expansion to be enjoyable if a little on the short side for the price. (Interestingly, you do not need to own or have played Dragon Age: Origins to play Awakening. It can be enjoyed on its own.)
Conclusion
In the end, Dragon Age is a wonderfully crafted game that gives you a great deal of control over how the story unfolds. You get out what you put in. Despite some shortcomings, it is a very ambitious game that sets the foundation for even more ambitious sequels. Bioware has created another compelling world full rich history, characters, and culture. Dragon Age should find a home in the library of any RPG fan and any gamer who appreciates quality.
all game images in this post come from the excellent Moby Games.
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