"Dragon Age: Origins" Review

Publisher:  Bioware

Genre:  RPG

Summary:  As a Grey Warden, it is your duty to stand against the fearsome darkspawn.  Can you gather forces against them in a land torn by conflict and defeat the Blight?

Gameplay:  Within the warrior, mage, and rogue classes there are plenty of opportunities for sub-specializations, with occasional traps and easy cheats.  Various tactics can be assigned to each individual party member, depending on particular you'd like to be (and what level of difficulty you're playing at and which of those easy cheats you're using, most likely.)  Overall, combat is interesting, but there's just a bit too much of it in the game.

Crafting consists solely of getting runes on weapons (although you don't have to literally be holding the weapons to do so, something I wish Inquisition had remembered) and the occasional armor made of dragon bits.

There are occasional puzzles of logic.  Sometimes there are extra dialogue options because of character abilities, which is always nice.  Also nice is with either of these offers a different path to achieve a quest.

Style:  The graphics and environments of Origins are occasionally grand, but I also sometimes get tired of seeing elements reused.  Especially similar are the armor and clothes.  It's hard to get excited about a new, special suit of armor, no matter how powerful, if it looks exactly like the last two.

Rich colors are generally in short supply.  This is sometimes explained by the lighting, as it is often sunset or underground.  This gives a nice atmosphere of doom to the game (I might fanwank the whole thing as a side-effect of the Warden's taint, actually), but it does made things a little more brown and a little less vivid.

I really like the menus, sensibly organized into subsystems.  I especially like how when shopping you can use a drop-down menu to check an item against whatever any party member is currently holding or wearing.  Helmets and other ridiculous hats are unfortunately always seen except in cutscenes, but at least you can turn them off there (how often I wished for that option in Mass Effect 2!)

Story:  While the overall story of defeating an army of evil monsters is nothing special, Dragon Age Origins really shines in the details.  Well-named, it offers an introduction to a rich world full of fascinating characters.  With six options for character origins, all with different possibilities for relating to the story to come, Origin excellently sets the stage for the following emotional choices and sometimes-tough decisions easily based in character.

Origins is a tale of duty, but how your character chooses to react and deal with their duty to defeat the darkspawn is up to you.  Many choices are up to you, but with the fallout of others' poor decisions all around you, making them may not be easy.

Conclusion:  Dragon Age:  Origins is still one of my favorite games.  While I could wish it was a bit brighter visually or the combat a bit shorter or more exciting, it succeeds in the areas I care about most.  It offers a rich story with many opportunities for character choices in a fascinating setting.