The humble RPG has long existed, whether it be tabletop, pen and paper, or more recently in videogame form. We're all familiar with the eastern take on RPGs such as the Final Fantasy series, but what about a more traditional swords and sorcery fantasy setting? Dragon Age: Origins is a much-needed DUNGEONS & DRAGONS style foray into a genre now synonymous to the MMO.
Now for those of you who have played a Bioware RPG before, you pretty much know what to expect; lots of dialogue, and lots of statistics based combat with a few abilities thrown in; but this being the first such Bioware game to make its way onto a Sony console, this is a great opportunity to discover a very different style of game to those you are used to.
Gameplay wise, Dragon Age: Origins is most akin to Final Fantasy XII, you control a main character who is followed by other party members; whom you can switch to at any time. Your party itself can be swapped around, with a potential ten different members; thus allowing you to take whoever you like along with you.
Morrigan is just one of the many companions who will join you.
All of your companions fill a variety of classes and specialisations (more on this later), and it's possible to take any combination of them you like; up to 3 in your party. This means you can easily cover for any weaknesses your main character might possess in their specification and frees you up to play the way you want to.
Combat is a simple matter of pressing the attack button and watching your character fight, though there are the typical (MMO) abilities and need for tactics, such as rogues attacking from behind enemies and warriors keeping aggro away from the other party members. Most abilities are a common affair; higher damage attacks, party buffs, heals and enemy debuffs; whilst others are useful out of combat, such as the lock-picking skill and stealth.
On casual difficulty, it's easy enough to simply wade through enemies, even solo, but try the same thing on nightmare and even the most lowly of hordes becomes a serious threat, and real tactical combat becomes a necessity. There is a real challenge here for seasoned RPG players.
While you will spend a huge chunk of your time running around fighting, exploring, and collecting treasure and XP in equal dollops, perhaps more of the game will be spent engaged in dialogue with other characters. There are many people in the world of Ferelden and almost all of them have something to say.
Unlike most titles were you sit and watch your character nattering away, Dragon Age: Origins adds an interactive element, namely the ability to pick and choose what you want to say from a list of responses. This allows you to not only make the character and story yours, but affects what happens, how companions and NPCs react to you, and even what content you can take part in by denying or revealing side-quests.
You will spend many, many hours talking in this manner, and for the most part it works very well, though as you can imagine it does slow down the pace of the game exponentially, and can even feel obtrusive when all you want to do is get back to questing. However such low-points are thankfully rare; the majority of such encounters in this game are enjoyable to take part in and put your view across, be it naughty or nice!
The game setting is revealed in this manner from the outset, tasking you to enquire further into the world yourself. While most will be content with this level of immersion, particularly inquisitive individuals can read up on almost anything about the game via its codex; an archive of written descriptions that are collected all over the world. Even if this doesn�t take your fancy, its still a thoughtful feature and at the very least people will collect them simply due to the XP rewards for doing so.
The story itself is lifted straight out of fantasy school. The expansive country of Ferelden is on the brink of obliteration from a horde of Orc-like creatures known as the Darkspawn. Only an ancient order of warriors Grey-Wardens are able to save the land. Unfortunately, someone betrays your army during the battle, and everyone gets wiped out, except for yourself of course.
Thus the basic plot follows your attempts to rebuild an army, challenge the man responsible for the betrayal and ultimately, quell the impending doom rising from the south. Its all standard stuff, but DA:O is unusual in videogames in that it is not the ultimate goal that matters, rather the journey on the way, for it's a journey that is very much your own
The main bulk of the game will take you around 50-60 hours to complete, but to deny yourself the experience of many of the side-quests is a real tragedy. These alone shoot this game up into the 80+ hour mark, and are just as fun as the main quests. Some can be taken from job boards in towns, while others can only be gained through companions, by manipulating and befriending them. Yes your companions will either like or dislike you depending on the way you treat them and others in the world around you. Bear in mind though that you cannot please everybody, and what one would approve of, another might take as a cue to leave your party altogether! It's also possible for your character to romance 1 of 4 particular characters.
This is done by doing your best to please them, be it showering them with gifts or listening to their problems; do this well enough and they will fall in love with you or at least invite you into their sleeping bag (for an extremely un-erotic sexual liaison)!
With the right set up, even Archers can handle multiple enemies.
What this game really has over any other RPG is the level of customisation offered. The character creation system is quite extensive, and allows for a variety of looks and even voices (though your character will only really talk in battle). In addition, you can customize statistics, talents, spells and skills in any order or amount as you wish. Points are awarded when you level up and you allocate them how you like. This also applies to your companion characters thus you can build a group up to specialise in anything you could want.
The only limits are determined by your character class; only particular classes have access to certain abilities and skills (such as the mage spells) but with the specialisation system and the right builds, it is possible to create a viable sword and shield rogue, a warrior archer, or even a melee mage.
This customisation extends to your party-members AI; much like the Gambit system in FFXII you can set Tactics for your individual companions, such as below 50% health = use a potion, etc. All abilities can be set and there are many available permutations in which to utilise them, though the game tends to set up the most logical Tactics automatically, making this feature more of an option then a necessity.
There is a large variety of weaponry and equipment for you to outfit your characters in, though almost all come with some kind of stat requirement attached, for example, a character must have a high enough strength score to wear heavy armour. Other items are sometimes restricted by class, but this is quite rare. In addition to additional damage/armour some equipment carries extra stat bonuses, while others can be enchanted with runes to enhance them still further.
The acquisition of gear comes in the form of loot from dead enemies, treasure found in the gameworld, quest rewards or by simply purchasing it from one of the many merchants you will encounter on your travels. Here you can also sell unwanted gear, which is something you will need to do often given the sheer amount of loot drops and your finite inventory space.
DA:O is deemed as a modern day take on the classic fantasy RPG, and for the most part this is exactly what it is. However, one point that seems to let the game down is presentation; the graphics while more then adequate for the current generation are hardly taxing the system. There is pop-up and textures tend to be quite smudgy and undetailed, though the character models look good and the combat animations are great, the general standing around and running animations are simplistic at best. The camera is also acceptable but there is no first-person perspective, nor any direct control other then spinning it around your character.
Similarly the UI is hardly striking; functionality seemed to be the keyword when developing DA:O's look. Whether graphical prowess bothers you enough to turn this game down or not, this game still holds its own via gameplay.
In terms of a full-on, old-fashioned RPG there are few that deliver a more encompassing experience then DA:O. The level of customisation, the sheer amount of choices available, the extremely long and detailed quests; all add up to one of the most unique games and strongest RPG on the PS3.
There a few niggles of course, the slow pacing for one, the odd glitch or pathing bug, or the always present feeling that perhaps this game should have had some sort of online play, but despite this, if you've ever enjoyed a fantasy including dragons, swords and sorcery, or knights and Dwarves, this is the game for you.
