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November 18 2009

Dragon Age: Origins - Addicting As All Hell
by Buddha

To say that I have been enjoying Dragon Age: Origins would be the kind of understatement that one would expect of an addict.

The game has consumed me… entirely.

Bioware has created a world so rich and profound, that if you allow yourself to become immersed in its lore (and honestly, you’ve little choice in the matter), you will find yourself striving to finish each quest… not in the hopes of completing the game, but rather to save lives… defeat the Darkspawn… vanquish evil.

These are not pixelated fairy tales… not after you have been playing for several hours.  Alistair is as much a comrade in arms as your imagination will allow him to become.  And this is where Bioware shines, for they have gifted us with a game that can allow you to feel this way.

Let’s look at some basic lore, and then we’ll move on to the gameplay… although before reading on, know that this review, as well as the screenshots below, contain a great many spoilers. 

Character Creation

Your story begins in one of six ways, depending on how you create your character.  You have the option of being a Human, Elf or Dwarf.  From those options, you may choose to become a Warrior, Mage or Rogue.  Later on, you will have the option of specializing your class (eg. Warrior can specialize as a Templar).  Lastly, certainly combinations of race/class have different origins (eg. Elves may be servants or from a Dalish clan).

Your choices here will influence the game… in terms of how NPCs will treat you as well as what choices you will have when interacting with them.  It will also lead you down chains of quests which may not be available to other race/class/origin characters.

Couple this, along with the fact that your choices have a huge impact on where the story will lead you, and you can see how this game has a lot of re-playability.  I have started three characters thus far, though my main has become a Human Mage who has specialized as a Spirit Healer.  She often makes the ‘right’ choices, in wanting to be noble and true.

That being said, I cannot wait to start yet another Mage, though this time take her down the dark Blood Magic path.  She will be twisted, evil and corrupt.  As I said on the last podcast, I want her to be the kind of character, that would make Morrigan say; “that was wrong, what you just did there”.

Lore

Shortly after wandering into Ferelden for the first time, you will meet up with Duncan, a Grey Warden.  Duncan is noble and unwavering.  I’ve met up with him three times now on all my characters, and I must say that on my last, I actually smiled when he entered the story.  You learn to respect him and all that he stands for.

The Grey Wardens feel another Blight is coming, and they want to prepare everyone for the oncoming Darkspawn. 

Upon completing the Joining ceremony however (wherein you become a Grey Warden), you realize that Duncan lives by the Grey Warden’s code; by any means necessary.  If you’ve allowed yourself to become engrossed in the tale up until this point, this will change how you feel about your place in the story.

You may start to excuse your behavior, when forced to make difficult choices.  If Duncan could so easily take a life, then you too should be absolved when forced to bend or break your moral code of ethics.  You may take it too far, relying on this code, as did the Wardens at Soldier’s Peak.  Or you may choose to stand firm in your beliefs and not be influenced by this code.

It’s a very fine line, I’ll have you know.

Case in point, fairly early in the game, you will be forced with a very difficult choice at Redcliffe Castle.  A boy has been possessed and your choices are either to; kill the boy; travel to the Circle of Magi to get enough lyrium for a spell that will allow you to enter the fade to battle the demon which is possessing the boy; or allow Jowan to use blood magic for this spell which will drain the life from the boy’s mother.

There is no easy choice.  Travelling back to the Circle will take time.  Time that you do not have.

That said, the boy is very dangerous, not only because of the possession but also because he is a conduit for the Darkspawn.  He is a Mage, and an untrained one.

Then you have to factor in the mother, who is responsible for trying to keep the boy hidden (or rather his Magic abilities).  In so doing, she is partially to blame for much of the mess at the castle.  She is the one who offers herself to save her child, and it is because of that that I chose to sacrifice her for the Blood Magic spell and I saved the son.

I have four kids of my own, and as a parent, I know that I would give my life in an instant to save any of them.  Furthermore, if their life were in danger because of my actions, I would want to do whatever is necessary to save them as quickly as possible.

I allowed that part of myself to influence my decision in the game, and it made it so much more profound than a simple quest should be in a game.  Later, when Alistair confronted me about the choice, I stood firm by what I’d chosen to do, even though my character wouldn’t have had the same history as me upon which to make that choice.  Still, I knew that I had made the right choice.

Alistair isn’t that fond of my little Mage sometimes, but that’s part of what makes this game succeed on so many levels.

If you think you’re home free after saving the boy, you’d best think again.  This is another thing which I am loving about Dragon Age: Origins.  It is epic in nature.  Each questline takes you on an unbelievable journey, and just when you’re thinking you must be getting close to finishing the game, you realize that you’ve only just scratched the surface.

Upon saving the boy, you find out that you must get Andraste’s ashes to heal the Arl.  This long questline ends with the Arl waking, however where one questline ends, another three open up… and this ripple effect is felt throughout each gaming session.  Side quests exist everywhere, and many further the story along.  If nothing else, they give you a lot of back story so as to feel a part of Ferelden.

In much the same way that you may stop and speak to people throughout your day, this game encourages you to do the same with your character.  In fact, it rewards such actions.

Gameplay

Dragon Age: Origins has taken concepts as old as those used in Baldur’s Gate, tossed in some new game mechanics, and blended together a variety of genres to create something that feels both familiar and fresh.  You won’t be wasting your time reading quests in this game, as you do in most RPGs.  Instead, you’ll take part in quest cinematics, where voice actors (and damn good ones) interact with your character.  You are then given choices based on your character and everything they’ve been through thus far.

How you answer will impact the game from that point forward… every time you answer any quest.

The game is designed in such a way that there are consequences to your actions… which creates a weight to each choice.

Do you really want to ask for rewards each time and appear greedy, or are you more noble in your pursuit of justice?

Do you want to spill the blood into Andraste’s ashes and reap the rewards, or will you show respect for the deity and only take a pinch to heal the Arl?

Choices like this will be presented constantly in this game… and rarely are they minor, inconsequential matters.  Most times, they are fairly dire choices.  This is what roots you into that world.

When not progressing through the story via these cinematics, you will be travelling through different zones, castles, dungeons with your party.

A variety of characters will join your team, each with their own reason, and you will have the choice to bring different ones along with you based on their strengths and your relationship to them.  You can bring up to three characters with you.

The thing to note here is that you can choose to set your characters up via the Tactics screen so that you have very little involvement during battles, or you can micro-manage your team during fights, pausing often and switching between characters to direct each.  In especially difficult battles, you’ve little choice but to do this.

An important thing to note also is that depending on the difficulty level you choose for your character, you may have no choice but to micro-manage.  This means being very selective about their spells.  Configuring each spell bar, as you would if you were playing that class.  You have to be able to swap weapons quickly when needed, on any of your characters, assign potions, spells, crowd control, etc.

This is NOT an MMO dungeon run were you can just stand there and hit a single macro button repeatedly.  You have to know all your classes, all of their abilities, their placement in fights, who should fight which target, etc.  Some fights require several tries before winning.  Some fights, such as those against certain Revenant bastards, may require as many as eight or nine attempts.  However when you finally kill the son of a bitch, it feels very rewarding.

Equally rewarding (though sometimes maddening) are the puzzles sprinkled here and there throughout Ferelden.  Some will have you stepping on stones in order to create a solid pathway over a gap in the path, whereas others will have you sipping water from a jug upon an altar or moving tiles to make fire jump.

The puzzles are not difficult, for the most part, however some require quite a bit of trial and error.  Some, such as the ghost pathway, require diagrams on a scrap piece of paper.

The puzzles fit into the story though.  You don’t necessarily feel as though you are being yanked out of the experience.  Instead, you feel as though you’ve been challenged and must actually use your wits.

Downloadable Content

At launch, Bioware had a couple DLCs available and fully integrated into the game.  The Stone Prisoner gives you a small zone to explore including a mage’s lair, which rewards you with a golem character (whom you can add to your team as a warrior).  The content does not take that long to complete, however the value of this DLC is its lasting use, if you choose to add Shale to your team.  He makes a very good addition, and has interesting, useful spells.  Also, he doesn’t use armor or weapons, but rather crystals, which makes for a different dynamic when equipping him.

Warden’s Keep was also released at launch, and this one contains a little more in terms of the time frame needed to complete it all.  However it too falls under the same value model as The Stone Prisoner, in that the added value is in the fact that you will use this keep from them on in lieu of your camp site.  That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this DLC.  I loved the lore behind it with the visions from the past.  It was very engaging and with my next character, whom I’ve already decided will be a Blood Mage, I will have another added bonus.

What I enjoyed about these DLC items was just how integrated into the game they were.  Bioware has a two year plan for Dragon Age: Origins which will include more DLC.  I’m very curious as to how they will measure up… but if these are any indication, I’ve nothing to worry about.

Conclusion

Dragon Age: Origins is definitely not for everyone.  Ironically however, I’ve not spoken to a single person who has tried it and not immediately fallen in love with it.  Perhaps those who would not enjoy it knew from the reviews and videos that it would not suit them, and so never bothered.  As an RPG player however, you owe it to yourself to pick this game up.

The depth of this game is dizzying.  It is the first game in a long time where there are very real consequences to your actions… and each choice affects your experiences from then on. 

You play through the game because it is so absolutely engrossing.

You play through it a second time because it is that addicting.

Screenshots

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