REVIEW : Dragon Age : Origins (PC)

Exactly when was the Dragon Age ?

Dragon Age: Origins is a role-playing game developed by BioWare - the same company that made Mass Effect and it's successor Mass Effect 2, and the Baldur's Gate Series - for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, XBox 360, and Mac OS X.

Sporting an attention-catcher title, this game is not your ordinary game. Prepare to spend the next 30-40 hours finishing it. I spent 38 hours playing it for the first time, and you should take note that I didn't have what it takes to love all those side quests. Now I'm starting the game all over again until BioShock 2 came to my laptop. ^_^

So why did I spent 38 holy hours for this game? Simple. It's magical. I've never encountered a game so cool I can't take my eyes off my screen whenever there is a cut scene. The story is so awesome! The game play is superb. Amazing voice acting brings characters to life. And that's just the beginning!

THE STORY

These are all the usable characters, those that can be placed into your party.

When you start a new game, you'll see a cool scene, then you'll be confronted with the character generation screen where you'll pick the gender, then you'll choose what race will your hero be - Human, Elf, or Dwarf. Then you'll choose what class will it be - Warrior, Mage, or Rouge. Note that not all class is accessible with any race. For instance, f you're a Dwarf, you can never be a Mage. Then you're gonna pick it's background. The background you select will determine which of the six distinct opening stories you play through, which adds a lot of points to the game's replayability. Then after you decide on those, you will then choose what appearance your hero will sport , which is cool because every feature just seemed real. I do not like it however (there are no cool hairstyles!). After you chose what appearance your hero will take (whether a handsome guy or some shit-looking man, or a girl), the game commences.

The game is all about wars - man against monsters (called darkspawns with their leader, the Archdemon), and man against man (well, that's cool). There are also wolves vs. elves, golems vs. dwarves, trees vs. you, you name it. The exciting part is that darkspawns are not the only one you are concerned with - a civil war is also brewing at the moment because of the treachery of a well-renowned person in the story - Loghain Mac Tir (you might find a resemblance between him and the archdemon). The archdemon is a dragon (cool, eh?) which leads the mindless darkspawns into organization - which means without the archdemon, the darkspawns are just a bunch of stupid fools (can you fall any lower than that?). Enter the Grey Wardens. These people are so famous they are known by everyone as heroes. They are in charge of killing the archdemon. Well, it's more precise to say that they are the only one who can do it.

Without a doubt you will play a big role in this war. That role depends on your decisions - which are one of the things why I love this game. The story is not your straightforward, typical hero-defeats-the-evil-king-then-lives-happily-ever-after story. Your character can die (I mean die, literally), and that's based on the decisions you will make. You can also be the queen if you decided to flirt with one of the main characters.

That's why this game is so much fun. Lots of possibilities.

THE GAME

A battle. Sweet.

It's easy to be accustomed to the game. You can use the Q-W-E-S buttons to navigate, or you can use the right click for the same purpose, much like Warcaft. The right click is also used to interact with objects and people. Controls are the same during battle. The skills is shown on the bottom of the screen. These skills will depend on the class of your active character (the mage is the coolest of 'em all!). 

That's it. Simple, right?

But in battle, simple fighting isn't just the key for winning. Strategies are needed to be planned. Say, you have a mage. An enemy soldier approaches him. The best thing to do? Make your melee fighter block that enemy's road by fighting it - and you can do this automatically. There is a Tactics screen where you'll be able to set the behavior of your characters during battle. You can set it up so that your mage will use poultices when their HP or mana goes low, or your warrior uses skills during the start of the battle. You can also issue commands when you pause the game, which is very useful when it comes to boss battles where you need just the right tactics.

There are also spells combinations! For instance, if you use the Petrify skill of a mage on an enemy, then use Crushing Prison or Stonefist on that same enemy, or a warrior under your command inflicted a critical damage on it, it will be shattered - instant kill. But of course you cannot use it on bosses. That's not fun. There are lots of spells combinations, and all of them are COOL!

There are also sidequests in the game, requested by, say, villagers, which you can do for additional experience, items, and money. Then there are the main quests, which are vital for you to accomplish to progress through the story. These quests are always accompanied with cutscenes. With stunning graphics and amazing voice acting, these cutscenes are memorable.

THE VERDICT

If not for GameSpot, I won't buy this game. This game is declared by GameSpot as the RPG of the year 2009. So even if it's 2010 already, you should buy this game. Amazing story, stunning graphics, superb voice acting, memorable cutscenes, a fantastic fantasy world, cool spells and abilities - that is Dragon Age: Origins.

Cool, eh?