Dragon Age: Origins come from the developer BioWare, who created such hits as Baulder’s Gate, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect. Mass Effect was one of my favorite games of 2007, and I hoped Dragon Age: Origins would be similar in its gameplay. I never played a game such as this, but I have read that it is the spiritual successor of Baulder’s Gate, and I did play a little of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

 

I loved the story of KOTOR, but despised the combat. I never felt like I was in the action, but I was just some coach on the sidelines yelling commands into my headset. With DA: O, you get more of the same type of combat. You chose a move and you have your character perform that action as you queue up another command. But let’s not start with the combat; let’s start at the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I started out, I was prompted to choose between gender, race, class, and background. You have 3 races, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. In fantasy settings I generally choose dwarves for their obvious badassadness, but I chose Human this affair. Then, you choose between 3 classes, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. You may think “Only 3 classes, that’s fairly limited”, but it gets much more in depth later on. Each class turns into 4 subclasses with their own strengths and weaknesses. After, you choose your background. With humans you really only have two choices, Human Noble and Magi (only if you pick mage), these affect your opening hour or so plays out, so choose wisely. Next, you choose facial features, but they all seem to end up with you being some sort rugged hero that’s well traveled, and you choose a voice as well. I really wanted this option to flourish later on. I gave my character a huge mustache, balding hair, and an experienced voice. I was going for a “Gangs of New York” look; I wanted to be Bill the Butcher.

 

So after I chose my character, I spent my time dividing up stats. I invested what little they gave me into Constitution (health), and Dexterity. Next, I chose my tactics and skills. I spent my points in poison and trap-making, along with an attack that let me use both my weapons at once. Next: name choosing. I let the game chose that for me, with hopes that it would be used in the dialogue. What was frustrating is after choosing my voice and name, the only time you heard it was when your character yells out in combat or says he can’t do that. I figured they would put me in the dialogue and voice it out, but I suppose that would take an even longer time.