DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS
9 out of 10

Dragon Age: Origins is Bioware’s award winning action RPG. It features beautifully rendered cut scenes, fluid in-game action, and top tier voice acting. Like all other Bioware RPGs, Dragon Age places a heavy emphasis on plot dialogue and the relationships between you and your party members.

Bioware’s RPGs differ from other ones, as there are many “dialogue trees”. You can choose to fight someone or if willing, persuade them to your side, maybe help them. Dragon Age is open ended in terms of being able to handle each situation the way you want. The consequences of these actions are reflected in the approval or disapproval of your party members and the ways you resolve situations. For example, you can either choose to free a trapped villager from an oncoming horde of monsters, fighting them off as you run or you can save yourself some trouble (and your own skin) by running and leaving him there. The choices you make ultimately decide who joins your party and how the story pans out.

The standard RPG rules still apply. There are several different classes and races you can choose from. Warriors, rogues, and mages, each come with 4 specialization talent trees. Characters are leveled by completing quests or killing monsters for experience. As you gain levels you may spend talent points in various talent trees to improve attacks/abilities. There are mana bars and energy meters to limit the amount of attacks one can do. You may equip items you purchase or gain from finishing quests or slaying enemies. Combat consists of abilities placed on an action bar. Combat is also done in real-time; with the option to pause and queue up an attack or ability on each of your characters. More difficult fights require more in depth planning and use of special attacks/abilities. Combat however feels a bit clunky, your characters at times will not attack the monster selected immediately. There are odd pathing issues that force your character to move around in an effort be right next to the monster before you attack.

Another drawback with dragon age is a very limited inventory system. Items such as weapons, potions, herbs, scrolls, various metals, come from killing monsters (there are a lot) and from discovering and unlocking treasure chests (there are a lot). The ability to sell the items to NPC vendors is only limited in towns. Unless you go into a dungeon with a completely free inventory, you will not be able to carry all the items that drop for you for the duration of the dungeon.

While there are some flaws for Dragon Age, they are not game-breaking and at best, minor annoyances. Dragon Age is one of the better RPG’s developed in a long time and continues to add to Bioware’s impressive resume. Dragon Age has a developed universe that is very rich in lore and a branching plot that fits intricately into it. Well worth the money and time investment. 9 out of 10.

James