Last week Dave hosted a Round Table Podcast that caused many of us to discuss our favourite games of all time. Listening to some of my colleague's submissions as well as reading the comment section took me on quite a cool trip down memory lane. One game mentioned by a few in the honourable mentions and comments section was Dragon Age: Origins. As luck would have it, the first in the series was available on demand on the Xbox Live Marketplace last week at a ridiculously low price (around £2-3 if memory serves) so I kind of had to buy it. I had to. Since then, I've played it for multiple hours virtually every day. I've re-downloaded every bit of DLC for the game (including it's stand-alone expansion pack "Awakening") and decided that this game needs one of our reviews. Especially given that, in my opinion at least, the franchise has never been as good as it's first game.
ORIGINS - One of the most unique things about this action-RPG is that there are multiple origin storys to pick and choose from prior to joining the ranks of the Grey Wardens. There are seven different origins available depending on your choice of class and each one offers it's own unique challenges before sending you away with Duncan (of the Grey Wardens) to Ostegar to battle the big bad threat to the game's world - Ferelden - The Darkspawn.
After completing your Origin, you are thrust into the role of a Grey Warden - defender of the realm and battler of the blight. Your duties are to fight the hordes of Darkspawn hellbent on destroying this plane of existence. Throughout your travels you will meet a variety of playable and non-playable companions and - like BioWare's other IP, Mass Effect - every interaction you have with them shapes your gameplay.
Ambiguous Romances - One of the game's more controversial elements is the option for in-game romances with one of 4 potential partners. Once you have developed a good enough relationship with one of the characters you can take them to your tent for a bit of the old "Shak-a-lakka Bing Bang" which also caters to both hetero and homosexuality as, should you play as a male or female character your options vary. For a male character, you can sleep with 3 of the 4 - Morrigan, the hot as hell witch from the wildes, Leliana, a former assassin turned chantry-nun and Zevran, a male assassin who takes his pleasure however it comes. For a female character you have the option of Zevran, Leliana (who it turns out is bi-curious, which you learn in the main game and DLC should you complete the relevant quests) and Alistar, a noble virgin knight.
Unify the Lands - The main quest line of this game sees you scour the lands in order to find allies for the impending final push against the Darkspawn and their Arch-Demon - a big ass fucking dragon. Thanks to the very, very good action/turn based hybrid control system you'll find this game impossible to put down and - if you're anything like me - you'll find that the game is that good that you just flat out HAVE to play the extensive DLC to find out what comes next.
DLC - One of the highlights of the DLC is that each set is different. There's a prequel in Leliana's Song (wherein you find more of her backstory), an additional character that can be recruited at any point during the main quest in The Stone Prisoner (I highly recommend doing this before travelling to Orzammer as if you keep the new character, Shale, in your party for that event then a new and unique quest line will open up), a "what if" in the sense of the Darkspawn Chronicles (where you play as each of the different types of enemies you've just spent days butchering) a couple of in game areas with unique experiences in Return to Ostegar and Warden's Keep and three fantastic follow up stories in Awakening, Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt (that take place in that order, if you're planning on playing through the game correctly).
I'm really disappointed with myself for not including this in my Top 5 games last week, but would easily rate this with a solid 9.5 out of 10 and recommend this to anyone.
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