Dragon Age: Origins Reviews

Dragon Age: Origins is an outstanding game on all levels, one of the best in recent years perhaps. If there was one thing that wasn't quite so good, it was that some of the outdoor background art were a little flat-looking. Other than that, the graphics were not bad at all despite the numerous criticism it has gotten on Amazon. The characters look well-modelled at least, the colours are atmospheric and help make the world and adventure believable and the voices do sync well with the lip movements. The music has moments where it is rousing and others where it's eloquent, overall it's well written and synchronises with everything with never a jarring note. The story is rich in detail and characterisation, totally immersive in its blend of fantasy, adventure and action and you are genuinely transported into the world the characters inhabit. The game play is varied and not overly-simplistic or overly-complex(even if at times Alistair was perhaps too easy to kill, but really that's part of the fun). What was also impressive was the balance of game play and story, they added so much to one another and there wasn't a time where there was too much or little of one. The writing and the voice acting stood out the most. The writing is incredibly intelligent and thought-provoking with some well-judged light-hearted humour for contrast, doing wonderfully in giving the characters distinctive personalities and emotional impact. The character interaction is strong and never stiff. And the voice work adds so much to those qualities, everybody is wonderful and nobody bad but in particular Kate Mulgrew is quietly firm and authoritative and Tim Curry has that subtle smarmy malevolence spot-on. All in all, an outstanding game. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This game really excels at story telling, voice overs and character face animation.

The combat gets repetitive. It does not have enough enemy variety or a proper difficulty. The tactical automation saves grind and makes real time combat possible.

Inventory management in all its facets is still a pain.

Dragon Age: Origins is a modern RPG that uses some of he best elements of old school RPG's (i.e. Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment) to create a fantastically realized fantasy RPG universe.

The story is deep, the characters widely varied and personable and the world is one of the best I've seen in a recent RPG. There are some issues with bugs and information overload but this is a game that is greatly immersing.

I had some issues with the combat early on but once I became used to effectively balancing my combat parties those issues went away and combat became a nice affair that rewarded strategy and wisely thought out combinations. There is also enough variety to the missions to make the giant battles that the game throws at you meaningful and interesting.

My favorite thing about the game by far was the characters. You meet quite a few along the way and each person has a fleshed out back story and personal motivations that are intriguing and key to plot development. They also add to the replay value as some characters have arcs that only appear if you have them in your party while on certain missions.

Overall this is one of the best recent PC RPGs. The writing and core systems are close to perfect and the game has a lasting appeal.