PS3 Review – Dragon Age: Origins
It’s often easy to forget in this day and age of high definition graphics and 5.1 surround sound that Role Playing Games made their meager start with a pencil, paper and dice. BioWare certainly knows this heritage, with the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series closely following the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set. That AD&D lineage runs strong in Dragon Age: Origins, which weaves an epic tale of loyalty, corruption, intrigue, and some kick ass combat.
The Kingdom of Ferelden is in a period of civil war, and the hero is forced by fate to serve with the Grey Wardens. It is the Wardens’ mission to protect the kingdom from the evil forces of the Arch Demon. Armies of Darkspawn, lead by the Arch Demon, are poised to wreak havoc across the lands. As the tale unfolds, the hero must unite a kingdom rife with political discourse and tyranny to defeat the forces of evil.
The tale begins by having the player select one of six backgrounds for the hero: Human Noble, Magi (Human or Elf), City Elf, Dalish Elf, Dwarf Commander and Dwarf Noble. The hero’s name, gender, voice, appearance and attributes can all be customized. Many cosmetic attributes can be fine tuned to alter the hero’s appearance. Gameplay-affecting attributes are comprised of Strength, Dexterity, Willpower, Magic, Cunning and Constitution.
The land of Ferelden features three major classes: Warrior, Mage and Rogue, with four specialties per class. A Warrior can be a Berserker, Champion, Templar or Reaver. Mages can fine-tune their craft as an Arcane Warrior, Blood Mage, Shape Shifter or Spirit Healer. Rogues have the ability to specialize as an Assassin, Bard, Duelist or Ranger. Depending on the attributes chosen, it is possible to have more than one specialty. In addition to the class and race benefits, there are various talents, skills and spells suited for each specialty.
Each background includes a unique starting place for the story. The beginning stages are quite rudimentary in scope but provide an appropriate backdrop to introduce the game’s basic mechanics. The menu system can be a bit cumbersome for newcomers, but it offers a variety of options for the journeyman. Regularly used items, talents, and spells can mapped to the top three face buttons. The remapped buttons come in quite handy for combat as well as often used items and talents.
Once the background is established, Dragon Age fits it seamlessly into its story. Much of the story content will take place in dialog cutscenes. The voice acting is done quite well considering just how much of it there is. As conversations unfold, there are dialog options which result in consequences, for better or worse. The dialog system truly turns this into a “choose your own adventure,” when dealing with tasks and missions, and there is weight to the choices made. Frequent saves are advised if the player is seeking certain results. As the story progresses, the fate of Ferelden changes based on the player’s decisions, and there are plot twists along the way that effect alliances with various tribes, creeds, and kingdoms. This brings a sense of value to the story, and it never becomes only about leveling up. Level grinding is not a necessity, as there is plenty of combat to be had within the scope of the story.
17 Responses to “PS3 Review – Dragon Age: Origins”
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November 5th, 2009 at 9:49 PM
awesome review dude, awesome!!!! I know im having a blast playing this game.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Awesome review. Reading about this game reminded me of my great World of Warcraft days. Gosh I miss that game…
November 5th, 2009 at 10:22 PM
My only complaint is with the Collectors Edition of Dragon Age Origins. The soundtrack is on the Bonus Disc which is a blu-ray disc. The problem with that is, when you select the soundtrack from the menu you get a message saying to insert the disc into a PC to access it. Which in turn means you need a PC with a blu-ray drive. There is no way to access it from the XMB. I don’t have a PC with a blu-ray drive and I doubt many PS3 owners do. I can’t figure out how they let that slip.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:08 PM
I passed this game off as a 1/5 just because the name was so wack. Are you sure it’s legit?!
11/05/2009 at 11:27 PM
There are some graphical hiccups, but what this game accomplishes beyond graphics in gameplay is something that needs to be experienced first hand.
Classic AD&D style RPG.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I can’t wait to get it! I preordered it on Amazon two months ago, but it’s back-ordered, so it’ll be a month or so. I guess that gives me the chance for more quality time with Uncharted 2 and my PSP.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:18 AM
This will be my next purchase for sure.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Bioware pretty much nailed this one
November 6th, 2009 at 4:58 PM
love this game…
only real complaint(if i could call it that) is that I can’t see what the skill branch trees actually open up ie blood mage…I would like to see it in advance so that i might plan my char. other than that really, and again I can’t even really consider that a complaint more so me frakin up developing my main char. I really don’t want to auto level him up.
also moorigan took the route i was going to take…so now i have to choose to be something different. but one of the coolest things for me is when i tried playing as the rogue and moorigan. the rogue going stealth is amazing…just looks like a puff of smoke running around. curious to see if i can actually sneak around in front of enemies like that.
the other moorigan transforming into animals…aww now that is classic.
also one of the early convos with the sloth monster in the fade…had me hooked on the first riddle…
again…love this game.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:22 AM
I haven’t played this or Oblivion, but they seem alike- am i on the right track with that?
I’ll have to think about this, i might consider picking it up.
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:37 PM
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November 26th, 2009 at 10:44 AM
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November 26th, 2009 at 1:26 PM
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November 29th, 2009 at 7:00 PM
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December 30th, 2009 at 10:01 PM
[...] Age: Origins has released to rave reviews from both gamers and industry experts, including a 5 out of 5 from us. Along with all this positive talk Bioware has been pretty good about supporting their [...]
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 PM
[...] Age: Origins has released to rave reviews from both gamers and industry experts, including a 5 out of 5 from playstationlifestyle.net. Along with all this positive talk Bioware has been pretty good [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 10:46 AM
[...] in the game, yet the mode was left out to be sold as DLC. A more recent culprit was Bioware with Dragon Age: Origins. In this game, you can actually accept quests from NPC’s that can only be completed if you [...]