Dragon Age

What's going on? In my last review I argued that EA were a corporate monster worthy of scorn and not my hard earned coin. Yet here I am, a month later, reviewing another of their titles. And that title is Dragon Age: Origins, the latest bucketful drawn from the Tolkein well - a font that never seems to go dry for RPG developers.

As an RPG, Dragon Age's main conceit is that it sports a variety of opening stories depending on the the race of character you choose at game start. Hence DA:'Origins'. My character was a Dalish elf, Madjack don't you know, fleet of foot, deadly with the arrow, living the carefree existence of a woodland elf. And not gay, ok? Anyway, one day, along with another elven companion, MJ surprises a few humans fossicking about in the elven neck of the woods. We don't likes the humies, but Madjack is not a cold blooded killer so he gives them a few scares and then lets them go after questioning them. After that, it's de riguer to investigate the cave the humies were blathering about. Needless to say, monsters are killed, treasure is looted but then things go pearshaped and Madjack ends up pressganged into the 'grey wardens'.

This where the game proper begins and where the origin stories apparently converge. It's the usual thing - an ancient evil has returned, there's an evil overlord lurking and you'll have to kill it before the end. To this end you shephard your main character plus his team of specialist killers around a map, slaughtering monsters, beasts of the forest and the odd disagreeable human. Usually this is undertaken in order to fetch objects for helpless types.

Gameplay revolves around fighting and exploration, but mostly fighting. The exploration involves the usual tropes; a ruined temple, cave or castle dungeon to slog through. Creep forward a short distance, and come into range of a slew of enemies who'll then make a beeline for your team. Enemy mages like to hang back and fling really annoying fireballs your way. Once battle is joined it's a matter of shepharding your resources until the last enemy keels over - usually having been frozen or paralysed courtesy of your mage and then kinghit by your dwarf. Rinse and repeat. During the battle you'll need to hit the spacebar to pause and queue up special attacks, movement commands, health potions and spells all while keeping a close eye on party members' health and mana bars.


The maitre de took exception when Alistair tried to sneak out without paying...again

There's a lot of depth and strategy here but it is crucial to have ye olde RPG balance; fighters for soaking up punishment, a rogue for handling traps and the odd stealth attack and a mage for area effect spells and rejuvenating party member's health (in fact it can be argued that mages are somewhat overpowered in this game in terms of the sort of mass devastation they can deal out).

Early encounters can be very tough and there's a fair amount of grind involved. In fact, early gameplay can sometimes feel a little like being pecked to death. Even later, with higher level characters on your team, things can go pearshaped with astounding ease. The save button is your friend in this game. Doubly so as the game is also not averse to sometimes dumping the player into fights that are essentially unwinnable. Critically here, there's no retreat option. This means that on encountering one of these fights, the player must reload and then armed with foreknowledge, take a different path. For me, this broke immersion somewhat.

Having said that, DA introduces quite a few twists and turns into the story - more so than the usual RPG and this shows up the game's other main attraction - the attention to detail. Indeed. When the gameplay starts to grind (and it will), the depth of character interaction certainly helps keep you going. There's been considerable effort into rounding out your party members with well written dialog and extensive voice acting.

But Was it fun? Well, it certainly kept my interest. This is one big game with excellent production values that will keep you occupied for many a night. So on the balance, although I had my frustrations, this was an enjoyable experience.

But at the end of the day, it's also typical EA. Excellent production values, solid but somewhat conservative gameplay blended with cliched fantasy tropes. Sure Bioware can continue to put out games of this stature, and they should be welcomed, but I also feel that RPG's need to move beyond orcs and elves and I hope that ten or fifteen years from now, RPG's have a wider scope than hero's with clanking armour.

A-