It's 5am and you're sitting in front of the TV; eyes are bloodshot and tired but your mind is as alert as it was 6 hours ago when you sat down for 'a nightcap' of Dragon Age: Origins. The volume is tuned down to the threshold of my hearing so as not to wake your sleeping girlfriend next door, and you're making love to Leliana in the party camp after a long and gruelling quest.
Games like Dragon Age come few and between; the high fantasy RPG has always been a genre defined partly by the fact that its big titles come out rarely, but when they do they draw you into their game worlds for years. Nothing says escapism like a world full of dragons, dungeons and axe-wielding dwarves. The brilliant Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion fulfilled this role admirably in the past few years, and now >Dragon Age has stepped up as the rightful successor to the RPG throne.
Dragon Age was developed by RPG stalwarts BioWare, who have been pioneering the genre since releasing Baldur's Gate in 1998 right up until Mass Effect in 2007. While Dragon Age does little that Bioware hasn't done before, its brilliant character development, strong story, and deep, twisted game world are typically brilliant. Forget about the idyllic landscapes of Oblivion, the world of Ferelden is dark, smart, and intriguing, and it won't be long before you will get caught up in its shady conspiracies and corrupt politics.
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Character creation is well-detailed; worth spending time on considering you'll spending at least 60 hours with him/her.
True to RPG tradition, you begin by creating a character, customising his appearance, and choosing his 'Origin'. There are several choices here and each will affect how and where you begin your adventure and how various characters interact with you throughout the game. After spending an hour obsessively tampering with facial intricacies such as mouth shape and nose sellion depth, the writer entered the fray with a Dwarven warrior. The first thing that's striking upon starting the game is the brilliant character interaction; talking with my Dwarf's sister lets me accuse her of sleeping around and state that my in-game mother is a hopeless alcoholic. While early interactions don't have much long-term effect, it's worth being choosy with your words in the later game as what you say affects how your allies, enemies and how the plot line will evolve.
Something that doesn't instantly impress in Dragon Age is the macro-based combat system in which combat is automated and specific abilities need to 'cool down' before they can be used again; this was especially dreary as a warrior, whose slow weapon and single combat ability made for painfully linear combat. However, once you gain more skills, spells and party members the tactical nature of the combat becomes extremely satisfying. The intuitive radial menu allows you to pause the action at any time, giving you easy access to the various abilities and items available to your party. This allows you to have all your party members using specified actions simultaneously, and then enjoy the moment as your synchronised party wreaks havoc on the enemy. Adding to the depth is the Tactics screen which allows you to play around with your party AI and specify what actions they should take based on a substantial list of pre-set situations. However, this combat system is clearly better adapted to the PC version - which uses the irreplaceable mouse and allows for an isometric camera angle. When there are more enemies on-screen, targeting becomes a nightmare as you pretty much need an uninterrupted line of sight to your chosen enemy to select him.
Another problem in bigger combat situations is that your AI party members develop some major pathfinding issues. While these issues slightly mar Dragon Age's deep combat system, it is otherwise a good combat system that, with some patience and dedication, will ultimately feel very rewarding.
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Dragon Age is dark, charming and, ahem, seductive...
Where Dragon Age really shines is in its storytelling. All the characters you meet have an individual story to tell that fills out the game with a sense of scale and history. This is reinforced by the seemingly endless wealth of the codex scattered throughout Ferelden; while reading through all of it is something only for the hardcore gamer (with too much time on his hands), the fact that it's there should you get curious about a certain place or creature is novel. Good contact with your party is also essential, as you receive stats boosts, important information and even the chance to bed your companions .
The quests also have a dark edge to them that helps justify the game's 18-rating; children possessed by demons, human sacrifices and cannibalism are just some of the things you'll encounter and the way in which you decide to deal with them will have a lasting effect on your game.
Dragon Age's main weakness is its graphics, which looks dated by a good couple of years. While the character models look decent enough and have a good variety of facial expressions, the environments are generally ugly due to their unvaried colour palette and relatively low-res textures; yet for some reason, Dragon Age can get away with it. It is a dark and corrupt world with so much intrigue and depth, that you never feel the need to go for a walk in the wilderness at dawn and watch the sun rise over the capital city. Instead, you talk to random people (quest-givers are handily labelled), find out about the history of Ferelden, or do one of countless side-quests – which can shed light on storyline and characters. So, in an abstract way, the average graphics highlight the brilliance of the game's other aspects. Fan-boys will however be pleased to hear that Dragon Age on the PS3 looks better than the 360 due to higher texture resolution and bump mapping; there's a first time for everything.
The graphics are passable, but the storytelling is brilliant
Dragon Age: Origins is a rare breed of game that definitely isn't for everyone. It's not the kind of socially acceptable game that you can chat about with casual-gamer acquaintances, but rather the kind of game you can excitedly ramble about with your like-minded friends. If the word 'RPG' evokes images of rocket launchers rather than swords, sorcery and goblins then Dragon Age is definitely not a game you'll 'get'.
Unlike Oblivion, it doesn't offer the novelty of being able to rob and kill whoever you want, wherever you want; things that for some reason always appealed to the casual gamer. It's a plot-heavy game in which you'll probably spend an equal amount of time chatting to people and making game-altering moral decisions as you will fighting. For true high-fantasy RPG fans, Dragon Age is a game that should keep them busy for a good couple of years (especially with its huge mass of upcoming DLC). For those of you unfamiliar with such games, or if you were fooled by the misleading advertising into thinking that this is some brutal, grungy hack-n-slash, think again. Dragon Age is a hardcore RPG experience that is rewarding only to those who are willing to be seduced by its dark fantasy charm.
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Playstation 3 
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 12:57 | 
Written by Rob Zak |
