One of the most anticipated and overly-hyped games of the year has finally arrived – Dragon Age Origins from Bioware. Like any other game ever made, there are good and bad points. For fans of role-playing games (such as me), the facts that it was made by Bioware and was being called the ’spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate’ was enough to get me to pre-order as soon as it was possible. But there were several things that made me very wary – in particular a puerile advertising campaign that focused on blood spray, heavy metal, gore and sexual overtones to the point I thought the game might well have been called ‘Dragon Age: Blood & Boobies’. Now that the game has been released, I have already played ~30-40 hours and wanted to share a few quick thoughts.

Here are some highlights of my experience so far:

Character Creator: a few weeks ago Bioware released a stand-alone app to create Dragon Age characters, which could be saved to an online profile on the EA/Bioware ‘Social Site’ (more on THAT later). The promise was that when you started with a saved character you would get a small bonus item. It was clear marketing, but made the whole character creation process easier. My thought – too much ‘nose shaping’ and not enough skill shaping … but in the context of the game it all works out.

Origin Stories: there are six possible stories to pursue, depending on your gender, race, and class. These are NOT just a paragraph or two, but instead are multi-hour prologues that help acquaint you with the mechanics of the game while also giving you a solid back-story and a bunch of quests. I’ve played three of them so far, and the variety is stunning.

Choices MATTER: Bioware has been criticized since Knights of the Old Republic for having dialogue trees that consisted of choices that boiled down to “I’ll do anything for you for honor / Gimme money and I’ll do it / I’ll kill you just for fun”. Very quickly in Dragon Age you will come across situations where things aren’t so clear … and also times where the choices are about defining your character, not choosing a simplistic good / bad sentence. There are also loads of multi-stage choices through dialogue more complex than the quests in most so-called RPG’s these days … and it isn’t just the other character that is concerned with your answers, because …

Relationships MATTER: Little by little Bioware has been infusing an influence system into their games (well, by way of Obsidian really) – first there was Knights of the Old Republic 2, then Neverwinter Nights 2, and best of all was the expansion to NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer. Dragon Age takes it even further, such that nearly every choice you make has the potential to sway your influence and support with various members of your party. And since you don’t simply have Paladins and Dark Elves, their responses are complex. Being overly nice or overly evil can sometimes backfire with the very folks you hoped to sway, not to mention freaking out others. More than once I have saved and reloaded a few times to watch the whole dynamic play out.

Combat REQUIRES Tactics: A recent update made Easy mode even Easier. Why? Because it was too hard. Dragon Age is a true PARTY-based game in the spirit of Baldur’s Gate, not single player like Oblivion, or ‘player & henchmen’ like Neverwinter Nights and the Knights of the Old Republic games (and Jade Empire and Mass Effect and … ). This means that when you came upon a hostile group including archers, mages, war hounds, and warriors, sending your whole crew charging is like a slow version of reloading your last save. You need to make sure everyone is equipped correctly, then space them out, pace your battle and use your brains (and pause button!).

Of course, not everything is perfect, so here are some complaints:

Do I have something on my face?: Look at the screen at the top of the article. I wish I could say that was rare, but in general once you start a quest in a new area, you will see that basic look on your characters throughout. On the one hand having the reality of the bloodiness of battle in your face is a nice change. But the way it is done is over the top to the point of being silly. I have more screens piling up with silly looking scenes like that.

How can I get what I paid for? While I have friends who love tin boxes and cloth maps, I care about in-game content, so I sprung for the Steam ‘Deluxe Digital’ pre-order, and played the Dragon Age: Journeys game and used the character creator … all in the name of claiming more in-game junk. That is fine – but my first desire was to get INTO the game … and when I did I realized I couldn’t unlock any of my added content in-game. I had to go to an external site, log in, enter my serial numbers and get things unlocked. Then back in-game they started downloading and eventually unlocked. If I had a dollar for every thread I have seen about confusion over this … well, the game wouldn’t have cost me any money!

Do you want fries with that?: There has been a lot of consternation over not only the fact that there was just SO MUCH day of release DLC (downloadable content), but also over the way it is handled in-game. Early on you meet up with someone who basically breaks the fourth wall and tells you about the nifty things you can buy!

So how do I like it?: These are all fairly minor complaints in what is one of the best RPG’s in a long time! Is it up to being as good as the classic Baldur’s Gate games? I’m not thinking so … but it is certainly a tremendous game!

Related posts:

1. First Post-Release DLC for Dragons Age: Origins (PC / X360 / PS3) Announced!
2. GearGames Weekly: November 1 – 7
3. GearGames Weekly: October 5 – 11
4. The Netbook Gamer: Neverwinter Nights (2002, RPG)
5. GearGames: June 28 – July 4th