The Past and Times of Yore: Dragon Age Origins revisited

 
Release Date: November 3rd, 2009
Genre: Role Playing
Publisher: Electronic Arts 
Developer: Bioware, Edge of Reality
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X
Players: 1
Classification: M (Mature)

I recently had another go at Dragon Age Origins again, you may remember me mentioning the game in one of my first ever posts back in April 2011 where it was 90% Minecraft and before I formalized the reviews. I didn’t mention this in the post (I didn’t mention much actually but I did get a short way through the main campaign as a Mage and a reasonable way through as a Sword and Shield Warrior) but didn’t end up going forward due to all of the managing of following inventory and also trying to work out which follower likes what. Oddly enough I’ve had to deal with the same thing in SWTOR but funnily enough it’s been easier to manage. 

Character creation screen where you choose your origin

So basically I never did finish Dragon Age Origins though I wanted to have another go as I had so much fun doing the “origin stories” using various race and sex combinations to see how it changes the initial story. I especially liked the Human Noble, City Elf and Circle Mage stories as all of them had that Bioware touch of choice interaction and awkward/cheesy acting and dialogue which sometimes is reminiscent of a soap opera.

"My dear I have a confession to make"

 Human Noble Origin – You’re the son/daughter of the Lord of the Castle and help defend it during a betrayal.

Spoiler: The traitor is the dude on the right

City Elf Origin – You are a  downtrodden male/female City Elf who wakes up on your marriage day that gets broken up by some evil human lords intent on sexing Elf women. I’ll admit this one was the most striking as this is the first ever game where elves are a previously enslaved race.

This is an Elf wedding, you can see how they really are downtrodden.

 Circle Magi – You are a Mage of the Circle who undertakes the Fade ritual, you are under strict control by Templars but get involved in a scandal involving your “friend”

The Magi was probably my favorite "origin" you were under strict guard by Templars who were fearful of their power.

There are other origins of course including the Dalish Elves and Dwarves though I found those three to be the most fun, I enjoyed using female characters in this regard as they can lead to some funny moments especially when as a female Magi you can flirt with a Templar guard and embarrass your friend in front of his lover. 

These kind of experiences make me want to try this in other games such as SWTOR but you put a lot of time and effort into an MMO character and interact with a lot of others and I don’t know if I’d be ok with being hit on by guys and start a relationship with one. I will definitely play as a female the next time I play Saints Row IV as you spend quite a lot of time naked and there is this one party where you dress up as a stripper and have to quicktime a sexy dance and man doing that as a male character was ugh. Though Saints row is a bit different to MMO’s and serious RPG’s obviously as the “romance” is just casual sex.

Everyone's looking pretty calm for a bunch of girls who are supposedly going to get raped, this whole story was ripe for controversy in the general media.

But anyway, Dragon Age never kept me occupied for long, the character creation and interactivity were there it just didn’t hit the nail on the head for me to keep playing though I got a decent way through.  As fun as the origins are you always end up in the same place anyway after all of them so it’s true what Zero Punctuation said in his review that you’ll just keep playing the different starting missions of each race and I sort of have, it’s just to show how I love starting again in games. Dragon Age a stock standard Fantasy RPG but it’s good for a play if you like that sort of thing, come to think of it I have to try Dragon Age II and Inquisition.

JD

Our expressions say it all, this happens a lot in Dragon Age

My favorite place to be is the beginning.