Dragon Age: Origins 0

by Chad Blue • Reviews

Ok everybody…Modern Warfare 2 is here! Rejoice! But wait…maybe the “Game of the Year” already came out! You’re probably saying, “No way Chad….can’t be”. I will say, “Oh yes….can be!” Dragon Age: Origins may be the game. For me, at least, it just might be. Bioware has done it again. I first played a Bioware game when Baulder’s Gate came out on the PS2. Before that game I had never really played “those” type of games. Dungeon crawlers, is what they are called I think. That was a great 4 player co-op game. I did not know who Bioware was at the time. The 2nd one came out, Dark Alliance, I think? Same ol’ greatness. Then I played KOTOR….jaw droppingly awesome. Bioware was now on my radar. Then Mass Effect…which I think is one of the best games of all time, for that type of game, at least. So now comes Dragon Age: Origins, which I didn’t know anything about before I played it. I mean like ZERO PERCENT. I mean its Bioware…when have they went wrong? Even that Sonic game they did on the DS was Awesome. So let me get to it.
I literally could write a novel about this game and be nowhere near being able to describe it completely, so bare with me. You can probably guess when the game takes place. It takes place in the future when robots have taken over right? Nope! It’s the dragon age. From the beginning you get to pick your character type. Male or female mixed with your choice of warrior, rogue, mage, dwarf. The basics. Pick how they look and also their basic starting attributes and spells or abilities. Now the awesome thing is every class has their own origin story. A set of missions and characters solely based on their beginnings. Now they will all spearhead towards the main goal, but just start from different vantage points. I started as a human warrior of course whose noble parents were betrayed by someone who wants control of the kingdom while at the same time the Darkspawn wage war across the land. My girlfriend also started from the same class. Even though we had the same origins each of our games played completely different.
Let’s get to the basic game play elements. Assume KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Baulder’s Gate had a baby. This would be the baby. You fight like KOTOR. You can mash at the attack button, but one simple press and they will keep attacking until you change it. Your basic attack is the A button while you can map up to 6 spells/abilities/potions/skills on X, Y, and B. Pressing the RT swaps 3 for the other 3. Easy for the quick go to, or you could hold the LT and everything freezes and allows you to manage and pick everything from a radial menu. In this menu you can also pick how you want to map your abilities on your buttons. Now if you really want to manage your character just hit the back button and you get the “Baulder’s Gate” character screen we all know and love.
As for the characters, you can walk around with up to 4 people at once. These are people you met along the way and maybe you helped them previously and now they are returning the favor. As of now I have almost 10 I think, while my girlfriend ended with just 4 (she was quite angry that I had more people than her). Now you can switch between your people very easily by hitting the RB or LB button. The great part about it is the tactics slots you unlock for every character so you can basically control what you want them to do in any situation without controlling them. At first I didn’t bother with this but then I found it to be essential. Especially in the almost impossible boss battles. You can also build relationships with your members by chatting with them, completing missions to their likings, or just giving them a gift. I even got to have sex with my evil mage girl. Luckily she didn’t want to build a real relationship. The game even rewards you by building these relationships. The players get special skills, and they might even give you something.
I wasn’t going to add a con section but I felt I should at least write a couple. Graphically I wasn’t impressed at first. It is probably because there is also a PC version. But I got over that quick. And just one more complaint sometimes the combat gets annoying when it comes to sword fighting since hitting a button starts the action and doesn’t do the action. Sometimes I would go for a swing and my character would walk around the guy first or just get confused about which guy I want to attack.
Now I want to talk about the story and other missions but I feel I loaded this up already. So maybe I will continue this review another time. I just wanted to give you some feedback on this game everyone should be trying. It is a fantastic game that should be played by all, especially the hardcore gamers because this game can be very hard. One of the hardest games I played in a while. And it is sad because my brothers won’t play this game because they might have to listen to someone talk or even read something. God forbid you might have to play a game with reading!

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