A great story wrapped in some deep lore.
User Rating: 8 | Dragon Age: Origins X360
First I need to clear up that I am actually reviewing the dragon age ultimate edition here. Which is the copy of the game that includes dragon age origins, dragon age awakening, and all of the extra downloadable content. This is the way I would recommend playing the game also because you get the full story. Ah, the story; the strongest aspect of dragon age. The story is deep and rich and full of wonderfull characters whom are voiced exceptionally well. The people/creatures you meet will all have individual personalities of their own and they help to give the tale some depth. The world of ferelden is also a large place full adventure and exploration. If you choose to do all of the side quests across the entirety of the story then expect to spend about 80-100 hours on this game. Basically what I am saying is pack a lunch. And I would recommend doing the side quests or at least as many as possible because not only will you further level up your character and obtain some great gear, but you will also affect the main story line in ways you may not expect. A fantastic job was done in creating choice and consequence in this game. Dragon age is set in medievel times. You can start the game as one of several classes and this of course will affect the way the game plays out in certain ways. You will eventually become a grey warden and you will be tasked with thwarting the evil arch demon and the oncoming blight. What is a blight you might ask? A blight is when the darkspawn(a race of nasty looking humanoids, think orcs) crawl out of the deeps and run across the surface land killing everything in sight. The grey wardens are a group of elite knights who are resistant to the darkspawn's poisons and they are tasked with stopping them. You spend most of your time recruiting the various races of people; dwarves, quanari, elves, men, and mages. You will also have to save some villages along the way and recruit warriors for you party. Yes, you control a party of up to four characters. The quests are pretty varied and interesting. The party members are a varied bunch which allows you to be tactical in the way you handle quests. There is tons of loot to find; armor, weapons, majic rings, potions, traps, valuables, etc. etc. So from the very start you can customize your characters in a number of ways. The combat is unfortunately a little old fashioned and cluncky. Your physical attacks feel slow, disconnected, and they don't have any heft to them. I have been ruined by games like dark souls I'm afraid. The controls are pretty straight forward and responsive, but some of the menu setups aren't very intuitive which can make managing your inventory and characters frustrating. Because of the way the console version of this game is set up, being tactical and issuing commands is super difficult. From what I understand the pc version allows you to issue precise commands for each member of your party. In the console version you can set up basic tactics, but you just have to hope that the computer controls your party competently because switching back and forth between members gets too chaotic for the control scheme to keep up with. This to me is the biggest flaw of the game. The visuals are a little stale and dated too. The music is pretty good overall. I also never experienced any significant glitches. I also like the fact that you could keep your created character whom you have invested so much time in and load him into the expansion portions of the story. Despite its weaknesses Dragon age keeps you entertained with its story, its character interactions, and its variety.
Lastly: A more traditional rpg with a fantastic and deep story. An enjoyable game, but somewhat hampered by the console control scheme.
