‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is the newest epic role-playing game from Bioware. Released on Nov. 3, 2009, ‘Dragon Age’ is an engrossing fantasy RPG experience filled with fantastic voice-acted dialogue, challenging combat and an atmosphere that will absorb any player.
On top of all that, Bioware has released professional-level tools that allow players to create their own content, immensely increasing the game’s replay value. Even with its quirks, ‘Dragon Age’ is an experience that will be enjoyed by both old-school and new players.
‘Dragon Age’ is set in the fantasy country of Ferelden, a land where monstrous creatures called the Darkspawn are rising from underneath the world. Players interact as the newest Grey Warden recruit, an ancient group of warriors dedicated to stopping the Darkspawn.
Character creation allows players to choose sex, race, appearance, class and origin. Creating a character’s origin takes up about the first hour of game play, and the game does well in making each of the six backgrounds unique. The character’s heritage continually comes into play.
As a human noble, for example, the goings-on in the human capitol mean much more for the character than the troubles brewing in the dwarven city. The entire game world views the character differently depending on its origins.
Bioware did a great job in portraying Ferelden and its surrounding countries as an actual world. Ferelden is more of a dark, mature world than the average fantasy culture. Racism and bigotry run rampant, and civilizations have real roots in the world. As the game progresses, bits and pieces of lore are added to the player’s ‘codex,’ the player’s index of the world.
All the major characters, events, places, creatures and more have their own spots within the codex. There is a lot of background to the game, and the mass amount of backstory to the game leave room for other ‘Dragon Age’ games, novels, and the ‘Dragon Age’ table-top game to work with.
There are a few aggravating parts to the game, such as seemingly random difficultly spikes. Some insignificant fights are much more challenging than some of the boss fights.
The issue has been partially resolved in an update, but the extreme difficulty of the game persists.
The final thing that puts ‘Dragon Age’ above most other games of last year is the Toolset, which allows players to create their own content for the game.
Bioware released the same type of tools for their 2002 RPG ‘:Neverwinter Nights.’ ‘Neverwinter Nights’ has a lackluster campaign, but players have created amazing content, giving ‘Neverwinter Nights’ a long life and a large, dedicated community.
‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is a great achievement in terms of story and gameplay. Bioware has a long tradition of making spectacular games, and ‘Dragon Age’ has only set the bar higher for games everywhere.
Reach reviewer Christian Kriech at Chris.Kriech@usd.edu.
