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As I sat down to write this, I asked myself why. I'm not much of a video game reviewer. The thing is, I don't play a lot of games. I choose a game, I play it, and then I'm done with it. Eventually, I might find a new game to play. It's not a big priority for me. I only play one game at a time. And most importantly, I am very bad at games. I have horrible reflexes, a slow reaction time, and my strategy usually consists of "mash lots of buttons and pray I don't die."
Then there's the fact that I never intended to play Dragon Age: Origins. Sure, I've played some BioWare games in the past, and enjoyed them, but I didn't want to buy any EA Games after the garbage they pulled to promote that Dante's Inferno game earlier this year. My husband got around this by buying the game and sitting me down in front of his computer to "just make a character because you like making characters."
Next thing I knew, it was 3am and I was out of the starting area. Three days later, he installed the game on MY computer and transferred my saved games over, because he wanted his new computer back. And almost a month later, I'm still playing it.
Oh yeah, there's the further proof that I'm not much of a gamer. I've had the game for almost a month and I still haven't beaten it yet. I'm still playing the first character I made, I haven't made any others. I'm just that slow.
Anyway, in my semi-qualified opinion, it's a good game. It has all of the things that I want from an RPG: quirky NPC followers, multiple dialog options, numerous pointless side quests, and lots of locked chests for me to open and loot. Oh, and of course, a dog. Any game with a dog follower is good in my book, even if he is literally the ugliest video game dog ever.
Dragon Age: Origins has most of the trappings of your typical RPG. There's the hero thrust unwittingly into the middle of the action (that would be you, the player character), the wise mentor (you know what happens to those), the bad guy that you know is bad right away because he sneers and is a jerk, and of course, the overarching goal of saving the world from a nemesis with a cliche name. In this case, we're stopping the Blight, which is full of Dark Spawn.
This game wants to be a dark fantasy, which means that lots of people die, horrible things happen, the player has to make tough decisions, and sometimes it's impossible to save people. It also means lots and lots of blood. Nothing amuses my husband more than looking over at my screen and seeing me talk to some noble while I'm covered head-to-toe in blood splatters.
There are a few things that I really like about the game. One is that there's no alignment system. That's right, no more choosing your options carefully to maintain the balance to keep some arbitrary alignment so your class abilities still work. All you have to worry about is maintaining a good reputation with your NPCs, and hey, if you piss them off, you can shower them with gifts until they like you again.
Actually, the interactions with my collection of followers are over all pretty strong. The voice acting is decent, the characters are interesting, and they have tons to say. They interact with each other and react to the choices you make. I seriously had one NPC lecturing me because she disagreed with my choice to sleep with another NPC. And it's not even that she wanted a piece of the action, she just thought it was unseemly. Nice. As an added bonus, where most games give you just one bitter or sarcastic follower, almost every follower in this game has their snarky moments. Seriously. Even the pseudo-paladin has a sense of humor, which makes up for all of his whining. Almost.
NPC approval is gained in a number of ways. You can listen to their stories and respond appropriately. You can make choices that they agree with when doing quests. And you can give them gifts. Occasionally, you can be lucky enough to find a special gift for that person, gaining extra favor. There are many benefits to having happy lackeys: they may give you side quests, they can teach you prestige classes, they may go to bed with you, and your strong leadership and friendship even boosts their abilities.
Regarding romance options, there are four available, including two bisexual characters, in case you swing that way (I have to admit, I haven't tried to initiate a threesome, but the game is rated M for Mature, so you never know what can happen). And even if you hop into bed with one character, that won't stop others from declaring their undying love for you. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.
While the story is nothing new or exciting, I am enjoying the setting. The developers clearly put a lot of work into the history of the world, so that it feels as rich and developed as any of the Forgotten Realms-based RPGs I've played in the past. There's a slightly unique view of the undead and monsters in the game, as they're almost all tied to the Blight.
Most importantly, when NPCs describe the far-away parts of the world they're from, I think "Man! Forget the Blight, I want to go explore that!" I guess they're saving those for the expansions.
And then there's the much-touted (by my friends at least) fact that the elves are gasp enslaved by the humans! None of that high-and-mighty Elven snobbery that we're so used to. It's not a big step away from traditional fantasy, but apparently it's enough for some people.
Now, being me, I am not without my complaints about the game. They start on the character customization screen, where I can make all sorts of changes to my face and hair, but I'm stuck with the same body no matter what. You can't even adjust your height. That's right, all Elven women are the same height and weight. I guess it does make shopping for armor easily, though it still doesn't explain how I can take off my armor and put it on a giant man.
Then there's the animation for talking. When characters are speaking, the movement of the mouth looks very unnatural, and at times brows furrow too deeply. It underlines the fact that it is very difficult to make a truly attractive character. Even if someone looks OK, they turn into some sort of monster freak when they talk. And that's after you patch to fix the bug where peoples' heads randomly twist off and fly at you (look it up on YouTube).
As I'm nearing the end of the game, I'm also finding that all of the dungeons sort of look the same . . . the same stone walls, the same statues. It's getting a little boring, especially when half the time they're even full of the same types of monsters.
But no game is perfect, and if you're a fan of RPGs like Neverwinter Nights, you'll likely enjoy this one, too.
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