Dragon Age:Origins Review
Where Dragon Age’s story really shines is in the incredible depth it has. As opposed to games that start off strong and peter off towards the end, here the story starts off strong and gets progressively better, culminating in an ending of epic proportions. The remarkable thing here is that the campaign takes anywhere from 50 to 70 hours to complete, depending on how many side quests you take on. In a generation where developers are happy dishing out games with 10-12 hours of campaign length, this is astonishing. And to keep the quality up, throughout, in such a long campaign is an immensely immense achievement. So immense that I had to come up with a redundant phrase. And it gets even better – with the amount of choices the game has, there are loads of ways the story can play out depending on what you choose. So if it takes four to five completions before you exhaust all the story options you have, and each campaign takes 60 hours on an average to complete, you can calculate yourself the number of hours of entertainment this game provides. And then there’s the small matter of DLCs being available that add even more content. This game is a shining example of what replay value and value for money is.
As much as I praised the story, it would all have been for naught if the gameplay had not been up to the mark. Going into the game, my strongest concern was the way a traditional RPG would play out on a console. Fortunately, Bioware have done a more than satisfactory job on this end.
The in-combat controls are pretty simple. The left trigger brings up a radial menu where you can access the various battle options. You can change characters on the fly with the shoulder buttons, and targets with the directional pad. You then have a customizable quick skill menu where your character’s various talents can be mapped to the face buttons. Think three is too less? The right trigger allows you to map another three talents to the face buttons. Control the character with the left analog stick, and the camera with the right. An RPG like this would be a pain to play with cumbersome controls, so it’s fortunate that they are this simple, though it’s still very different from the point and click style of PC RPG controls.
However, it’s still not easy to manage your party in combat, and this is where the tactics system comes in. Anyone who has played Final Fantasy XII will immediately recognize this as being similar to the Gambit system, where you assign default actions to the characters you’re not controlling in specific situations. This system is an invaluable asset in tougher battles, especially if you’re playing on higher difficulties, because this game isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. The boss fights are challenging without being cheap, though some of the battles later on in the game will leave you tearing your hair out in frustration.
The attribute, skills and talents systems aren’t very different from other RPGs. Each character, depending on their class, has an array of skills and talents to choose from, which are dependent on their base attributes. As you go further in the game, these characters can also specialize in a field, which grants them access to more abilities. Each class has four specializations to choose from, ranging from the rage-driven Berserker to the cool-headed Assassin. Choosing the right mix from all these choices, for yourself, and the rest of your party, will go a long way in helping you clear this game.
If there’s one blemish on Dragon Age’s record, it’s that it doesn’t look very pretty. The graphics are just about above-average at best, and the frame-rates, atleast on the PS3 version, are terrible. There are times in the game, especially when there are loads of enemies on screen, where the game slows down considerably. To add to that, the draw distance is low, and it results in very awkward looking pop-ins. However, all of this is offset by good art design and sweet animations. Each location in the game is unique and has its own flavor, and there is something very satisfying about watching your character pull of a sweet move and chop off an opponent’s head. Did I mention the blood? There’s blood everywhere in this game, and the splattering effects and the way they linger on the character models is kinda gruesome and sweet at the same time.
Next Page – Final Words and Scorecard
