Dragon Age: Origins
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: EA
Released: 2009
Rating: Mature

Written by Victoria Zukas

For this play-through of Dragon Age I chose the Dalish Elf origin story. There are 6 possibly origin stories, all of which end with you being recruited into the Grey Wardens; a multi-racial group devoted to fighting monsters called the darkspawn. Each origin story takes roughly 2 hours and which ones are available depend on which race/class you choose. Mages always get the Circle Tower story, no matter what race. Elves can choose between the Dalish Elf story, which is your standard Tolken-esk elf setting, or the City Elf story where the elves live in human slums. Dwarves choose between the Noble or Commoner stories and Humans only have the Noble option. The origin stories are mostly there to give your character depth and show why you joined the Grey Wardens; however NPCs will react differently to you depending on your story, race, or gender.

The game starts with your standard RPG opening cut scene and then brings you into character creation. You’re given the usual array of fantasy options for class, race, and gender. Next, you pick your origin story and then it’s onto physical features. There are a wide variety of options, so if you want to customize exactly where you cheek bones are you can go to town. After picking your physical features you get 5 points to add to your base stats. Then you pick starting abilities, skills, and it’s off you go. If anyone is thinking this sounds like a simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons character creation you wouldn’t be far from the truth.

The character creation screen is a bit confusing in it’s use of UI elements. The options listed are “Presets”, “Next”, then “Hair”, “Skin”, etc. Only “Presets” and “Next” are lit up, so it’s hard to see the other options on an older TV (I was using a CRT TV from 199X). Choosing “Next” brings up options for stats and starting abilities. After selecting those you are taken into the game with no warning. Some kind of “Are You Sure?” option would have been useful here, as I went forward thinking I still had a chance to change my character’s appearance.

The art team did a fantastic job of creating a unified aesthetic. Everything looks like it belongs to the same world, while still giving each race it’s own unique feel. Human cities, Elven camps, and the Dwarven Deep Roads all feel part of Ferelden yet each look distantly different. A lot of work was also put into the history Ferelden. Characters talk about old empires that used to cover the entire land. Given the architecture of the various ruins scattered about you feel as if something did used to live here a long time ago. My only complaint about the world is something that’s a problem with most fantasy. Elves lives in trees and are archers, Dwarves live underground and are miners, and Humans are jerks and live everywhere. Every fantasy tale follows this rule, and Dragon Age is no exception. However, the world of Dragon Age is so deep that you almost forget that.

The voice acting for this game is superb. Every character sounds real, even the bit parts. The rest of the sounds were also given the same attention to detail that the world design was. There are sublet touches, such as birds in the background or the noise of a blacksmith in the market. On the down side, the sound of your armor moving while you move is one that will pop out right away, and one you better get used to. A full party of four people with armor running around will be a loud constant sound throughout the game.

The UI is almost non-existent, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the game. There is just enough on screen to give you what you need and nothing more. The rest is in the rather large set of menus. Everything from current/previous quests, inventory, codex, relationship with other party members, current stats, etc is provided in the menus. The screens you’ll use most often are the inventory, quest log, and character record screens. A huge help is the Conversation History and Current Quests sub-menus. These allow you to pick up the game after having put it down for awhile.

My major problem with the game is it’s bugs. The BioWare team that made this game did a fantastic job of immersing you in the world and the story, to the point where you can play for hours and not want to put the game down. Then you’ll be talking to a character…and his arms will go through his chest, or the skybox will be pixelated, or characters will spout dialogue that doesn’t make any sense based on previous choices, or you’ll watch as both you and a party member do the exact same I’m-shifting-my-body-as-I’m-listening animation at the exact same time and then you’re reminded that you’re holding a lump of plastic in your hands. This is especially horrible when you are wooing a party member and that moment where he tells you he loves you (by the way you can sleep with party members in this game) is ruined as his character model clips right through yours and you both occupy the same space and hug thin air. While noticeable bugs like this don’t happen often, when they do it hurts.

A secondary complaint is specific to the Dalish Elf story. There were no less then 5 chests and 1 door that could only be opened by a Rogue. I was playing a Warrior, and none of the party members available where Rogues. If there are going to be locked objects then there should be a way to get to them. It left me feeling a bit frustrated and wondering if I had picked the wrong class for this origin.

Overall I would recommend this game to anyone who likes Fantasy RPGs. The replay value is astonishing and will keep you going for weeks. If possible buy the “Ultimate Edition”, as this comes with Dragon Age and all of the expansions. Understand, however, if you get the Xbox 360 version of this game that you’ll have to deal with some graphical bugs.

Final Result: Buy it