By Cody Webb

Most gamers are familiar with developer Bioware’s science fiction style roleplaying games, like the recent Mass Effect 2 or the less recent Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) series. While these titles have proven themselves worthy of any gaming nerd’s collection, it’s always nice to see Bioware going back to their fantasy-based roots. Dragon Age: Origins is a good example of the developer embracing their roots, complete with a great evil and characters with long, complicated names.    Dragon Age is available for consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) and for PCs and Mac, but I’ll be talking about the console version here. While there isn’t any difference in the story between platforms, the gameplay has more of an RTS feel on computers. The consoles lean a little more towards action in the combat, due to the controls having been adjusted to fit gamepads.

Let’s start with the high point of this adventure: the story. True to Bioware’s legacy of intricate stories where your choices matter, they have crafted a tale where everything you say and do affects the world around you.  The best part of this story? The beginning, where you get to pick from six origins and play through your character’s “prologue” to see their personal reasons for fighting the great evil threatening to overtake the land. Not only do they affect your character, which origin story you pick dictates how other people view you. Pick human noble and be recognized as a lord, or pick city elf and be looked down upon with disdain. I hope more RPGs in the future take this approach to opening sequences, they’re certainly better than static cutscenes in my opinion.   

But what good is a stellar opening without the rest of the story staying true to form? Bioware has once again shown that they are truly the masters of RPG style storytelling, making your quest feel mature and urgent. There’s a feeling of dread underlying the various cultures, everyone afraid of their impending doom. The evil spreads as you finish quests and encounters with it become more and more frequent. And yet, despite the looming disaster, you can still find things to be amused by.

Fleshing out the story are the various party members you can find and recruit, something that seems to be a standard with Bioware’s RPGs.  Each of them has their own personalities, preferences and opinions. If you don’t appeal to them or offend them enough, they may leave or even try to kill you! Trust me, you’ll want to keep these friends as each of them has very interesting backstories and missions for you to do. An added bonus: the more they like you, the better they’ll fight and assist you in combat.

About the combat: anyone who has played KOTOR or Baldur’s Gate will be familiar with the gameplay here. You select a target, start attacking, and use various skills to do further damage or give negative status effects. Players can also switch between their three other party members and make them use their skills as well. You can do this all in real-time or pause the combat to take time to plan out a strategy.

Unfortunately, now we’re at the low points in this otherwise fantastic adventure: the graphics. They aren’t horrible or PS2-worthy, but Bioware can definitely do better. Especially following in the wake of Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age looks dated. Worse still, the game tends to lag when the fighting gets too intense. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s certainly disappointing.

So would I recommend Dragon Age: Origins? Yes, I would; any RPG fan will enjoy the tale that Bioware is telling here. Great DLC is already available for the game, and if you liked the game, you should make it a point to check out Awakening. I’ll give Dragon Age: Origins a B; hey, since it says “Origins” in the title, does that mean there’s more to follow? I hope so!

Cody Webb lives in Live Oak.