Dragon Age: Origins Initial Impressions
Okay, so I told y’all (I really can’t get away with saying that what with my Scottishness) that I’d be whoring Dragon Age: Origins up until Mass Effect 2’s release, which is now only a mere 8 days away. Well, work and life are doing what they do best and getting in the way of some serious gaming, so I haven’t played as much of it as I would have hoped. I’m about 30 hours in, however, which has given me a good enough feel of the game to share my initial impressions. 30 hours in and this is initial impressions? I hear you cry. Yep, it’s the crazy, nonsensical world of Role Playing Games.
The Devil Is In The Details
In my eyes, a significant portion of what accounts towards a successful RPG is the detail. The devil really is in the details, and the sheer scope of thought that goes into forming the foundations of the world you’ll be spending so much time in never ceases to amaze me. My Dragon Age: Origins adventure as a City Elf, Buddeigh (do you see what I did there? Huh? Female Buddy the Elf?), is currently sitting at the 30 hour mark, yet I still find myself often overwhelmed as I navigate through a deeply rich and scripted world.
It is this aspect of RPGs that I believe has gamers divided. Some eat it up and devour every fictional breadcrumb fed to them, others don’t have the time to dedicate and can’t get past the initial hurdle. But it is this I have in fact grown to love about RPGs, and something I have come to duly expect from Bioware.
All you need to do is refer to my past post about Mass Effect and you’ll understand what I mean. It was the Codex that gave me particular grief, and Dragon Age: Origins is no different, with a continually updated Codex that stores a wealth of background information on the game. Typically, when I play a RPG I like to completely immerse myself in it, and if there’s a means of delving deeper into character history and the like, I’ll take it. But the Codex is not one for the RPG novice or those with challenged attention spans, and it undoubtedly slows the pace of an already steady game. Bottom line is, Dragon Age: Origins has one hell of a story, and the writers have done a great job in strengthening it with the Codex and dialogue… But only certain gamers will fully embrace and appreciate it.
Combat
While I’m more of a fan of turn based combat, Dragon Age is all real-time and fairly hack and slash seeing as how gory it gets. You only have to think about slaughtering a mage and you’re covered in blood. You’re also given the choice of some very big weapons playing as a warrior, and there’s the option to control any of your other party members. If health is getting low, switch to the Mage and heal everyone.
Character Creation
Who doesn’t like creating a character from scratch? It only adds a deeper means of immersion, giving you an improved sense of engagement with the game. To add to the wealth of aesthetic tweaks you can make, there are three different races; human, elf, and dwarf. Within your race you can choose your class; mage, warrior, or rogue. Whichever one you choose will effect the beginning of the story differently, though they all lead to the inevitable joining of the Grey Wardens. Specialisations become available later in the game when you’ve reached a certain level. There are also 6 origins dependent on race and class, which give an even deeper insight into your character’s background. As you can see, with all possible combinations you can make an individual character and enjoy replayability without feeling too familiar. Good work, Bioware!
My DA:O character. A City Elf Warrior.
Dialogue
Okay, so dialogue wheels are great. I want to implement a strict rule adhered to by all developers that states dialogue wheels are a mandatory feature. I love having a sense of control in regards to interacting with characters on a verbal level. Again, it’s another aspect of RPG’s that I love, adding to the individuality of your character and improving the overall sense of immersion. How can anyone not like RPGs?!
My elf, Buddeigh, started off with a bit of an attitude problem. She was headstrong but with good morals, and more than a bit pissed at being pushed down the forced marriage route. Since meeting, seducing, and falling for fellow Warden, Alistair, I’ve softened her up a bit. All because of a stupid wheel with words.
Unfortunately though, I am a bit disappointed that the only voice acting my character does is in battle. I don’t see why Bioware couldn’t have recorded the dialogue in a similar fashion to Mass Effect. I mean, all NPCs are voice acted, why not your character? Having said that, the voice acting in general isn’t anything to be admired, more often than not coming across as wooden and unnatural. If I notify you of your husband’s death and you respond with an emotionlessly robotic “This. Is. Awful.” I’m going to assume you’re not that cut up about it.
Graphics
Have I ever told you I’m a bit of a graphics snob? It’s really important to me that games look good, so it comes as a bit of a disappointment that Dragon Age is graphically so-so. Even in cut scenes characters are pixelated, their facial expressions often remaining the same irrespective of the nature of conversation, and the mouth movements stiff. This is something I feel is difficult to justify in this stage of the 360’s lifespan.
Sex Sells
Like Bioware’s other RPG I’ve played, Mass Effect, you can manipulate the game — via the dialogue wheel and choices made in quests — to alter other character’s perceptions of you. So much so that some may even choose to leave your party altogether. This hasn’t happened to me yet, but that’s because I choose my party members wisely. Dependent on quest or my intentions, I’ll select certain people based on their morals. It’s vital you do this if you don’t want party members leaving permanently.
From the get-go, when I realised there was a representational graph of how much (or little) someone liked you, I decided to go in for the kill with Alistair. He’s a Templar warrior kitted in heavy armour, dirty blonde hair, his bumbling idiocy reminiscent to that of Hugh Grant’s (but not as annoying). Oh, and he’s never had sex, so getting him into bed wasn’t going to be easy (he wanted it to be special). Alas, I showered him with sentimental gifts, complimented him, attempted to put him at ease, and even went on a quest searching for his sister. After we had allocated his sister, I took him to my party’s camp and kissed him. I’m a good kisser, y’know, for an elf, so he was raring to take me to bed after that. And so he did, with a passionate sex scene and 10 Achievement points to follow.
Quests
So far I’ve found the quests to be varied and challenging, but the game has a habit of throwing even more quests at you while in the middle of one. This is why RPGs can often be overwhelming and put some people off. At times I found myself having to quit the game altogether and switch to something brainless, like Trials HD. Still, I always had the itch to go back to DA:O and finish off my quest. There’s so much to do here, so you’ll never get bored.
There’s a whole bunch of stuff I haven’t mentioned, and I’ll likely save that for when I finish the game. There’s a multitude of quests, there’s DLC on the cards as well as a couple of extra quests already on marketplace. Dragon Age is enormous and provides enough of a challenge for you to get your teeth sunk into. I’d avoid it if you’re not one for ‘heavy’ gaming i.e. if you prefer casual, lighthearted adventures, but if story driven games with layers of plot and customisation are your thing, then you can’t go wrong with something as meaty as Dragon Age. Bioware have done themselves proud yet again, and personally I can’t wait to see what the rest of my adventure holds.
It took me ages to get around to playing the original Mass Effect, but as soon as I did it was a case of “Why didn’t I do this sooner?!”. I’ve been looking forward to the sequel ever since, and it’s not disappointing. What can I say? It’s good to have Shepard back in my life.
David