Gaming on the Cheap: Dragon Age: Origins

Though it may seem like I only play first-person shooters with the biggest explosions or zombies trying to eat my face, I do get down with the occasional RPG. BioWare’s “Knights of the Old Republic” series were some of my favorite games (not just RPGs) of the Xbox/PS2 era. The “Dragon Age” series seems to be picking up where KOTOR left off – bringing BioWare’s tried and true real-time action/RPG formula to the Xbox 360. While “Dragon Age” succeeds in making me nostalgic for the KOTOR series, it feels directionless at times and I often found myself really hating it. But not too often, though.

I had my eye on this game for some time now but just never got around to playing it. I downloaded the demo for the sequel on Live and the KOTOR nostalgia came flooding back and I couldn’t resist checking out the series anymore. I checked around and while most places still had Origins listed at $40, it was only $29.99 on XBL Games on Demand.

The story began (for me) as the son of nobility who must flee his home after being attacked by a former ally. I barely escaped, leaving my family to join the Grey Wardens – a group of legendary warriors who protect the world from the Darkspawn. A new Blight, an uprising of Darkspawn, has started in Ferelden and only the Wardens know how serious this new threat is – that an Archdemon has been awakened to lead the Darkspawn on another quest to destroy the kingdoms of man, dwarf and elf alike.

While KOTOR generally gave players a clear idea of where to go and what you should be doing, DA:O holds your held much less. Upon escaping the Battle of Ostegar and being betrayed by Teryn Loghain, you and Alistair, the last remaining Wardens in Ferelden, set out to gain support from the Dalish elves, the dwarves of Orzammar, the Arl of Redcliffe and the Circle of Magi. Only thing is, you aren’t given any kind of direction as to where to start or what to do first – you basically just have to wander through a trial-and-error process to figure out the best way to proceed (Protip: Do the Cirlce quests before the Redcliffe quests unless you want Alistair to hate you – like he does me, now). It’s not that I’d like the game to hold my hand but I always get discouraged if I find out too late that I made a wrong decision many, many hours ago that could’ve been easily avoided.

Though DA:O was only released in 2009, the visuals are nothing special. Background colors and images can be muddy but the color palatte is bright and pretty varied. While character models are pretty good looking, the visuals overall aren’t all that impressive. The sound design, on the other hand is great. Sound effects in battle and from creatures are crisp and clear but the sound really shines in the voice work. Whether it’s a random NPC or a party member, lines are delivered very convincingly. I only wish I had more of a chance to mix up my party and hear the random banter that occurs. For example, Leliana is always getting on Sten’s case about being big and tough but a big softie on the inside and Alistair and Morrigan usually antagonize each other. Unfortunately I was too focused on keeping the most powerful members in my party to hear the full extent of these interactions.

The character creation system is pretty standard – you pick a race, a class, and put points into various attributes as well as having different skill trees available. For instance, my warrior class was able to put points into shield and sword training, dual weapons or two-handed weapons. I think archery is also an option for me but, being the tank that I am, I went with dividing my points between shield/sword and dual weapons so that I’m always on the attack, drawing attention from my archer and mage. (I ended up going with Wynne, Leliana and Sten. With Wynne’s healing, Leliana’s archery/rouge skills and Sten hulk-smashing everyone, my team is usually pretty dominating.) There’s also tons of armor and weapons (as well as unique weapons and sets of armor) to be found as well. Too often I found myself at inventory capacity because of all the loot I was collecting – a problem that can be fixed by purchasing backpacks which upgrade your inventory.

While on the subject of characters I wanted to get into an interesting aspect of the game – the karma system, or rather what DA:O has in place of a traditional karma system. While most games keep track of your reputation throughout the world, DA:O keeps track of your esteem within your party. Every action and conversation you’ll have will potentially positively or negatively affect your relationship with other characters. For instance, Sten and I are regularly at odds over how the group is being led. Though I need him around for the damage he can take and dish out, he often has a problem with the way I handle matters – specifically that I too often embark on what, to him, are fool’s errands. Rather than confronting the Blight head on, as Sten would have it, he often questions the missions I accept. I even had to fight Sten once to keep him from starting a mutiny – fortunately I slapped the corn-rows off his big head. Then I gave him a painting to calm him down. That’s right, to get party members back in your favor you can also give them gifts. Most party members have specific gifts that will really make them happy (Sten likes paintings, Wynne likes scrolls and books, etc) but there are also random gifts that anyone will accept.

While I generally am enjoying the game, there are plenty of elements that annoy me to no end. For instance, you can’t issue movement commands to your party. If you want someone to back off the front lines, you’ll need to pause the action and manually move them which can cost you precious seconds in a battle. Also in terms of combat, you’re able to set allies with “combat tactics,” actions they’ll take on their own when not issued commands. Only they seem to be pretty hit or miss. For instance, I have Leliana set to take out melee weapons when enemies are close – except she’ll only take them out when she’s already being attacked and bring her bow back out seconds later, regardless of whether that enemy is dead or still right in front of her. I also couldn’t figure out a way to have mages cast spells on my character continuously – the best I could do is have her cast on the character currently selected, which isn’t exactly the same. But the most annoying aspect of combat would definitely be how you can’t queue commands – as soon as one is issued, combat will start again. It’d be extremely helpful to be able to string up a few commands per character or issue commands to everyone in my party before the action started again.

I have a pretty big gripe with the quest/map system too. The quest screen will usually only tell you the general area where quests can be found – and these areas aren’t indicated on the world map in any way (that I saw, at least). On top of that, if a quest has more than one part, the game doesn’t always keep track of your progression. For example, one quest has you finding Blackstone Irregular deserters and dealing with them. Well, I know I’ve found two of them but the quest screen doesn’t make note of which I’ve dealt with – only their whereabouts. So now, since I completed them when I ran across them, I have to go back to each area and, by trial-and-error, figure out which one I have yet to find.

Overall, though, I’m thoroughly enjoying DA:O. The story is large and sweeping, the dialogue and interactions are top notch and the combat makes me incredibly nostalgic for KOTOR. Keeping that in mind, DA:O will take you a very long time to complete – I just happened to notice my total time played so far (just over 33 hours) and I’m not even finished rounding up allies to stand with the Wardens against the Blight. Though DA:O has its flaws, they can be easily overlooked for the incredible package that BioWare delivers in the first of what will no doubt be a tremendous series. Dragon Age II is also out in stores now.