Dragon Age: Origins Review

Conclusions

In cases such as this, it’s best to be frank and say that, while Dragon Age: Origins is undoubtedly an amazing RPG that reliably offers the kind of scope and character-driven adventure that we’ve come to expect of Bioware, it’s still very much a game with problems.

The root problem is, as we’ve mentioned, an air of predictability. It diminishes the deeper you delve into the game and get caught up in the specifics of the characters and the nuances of the narrative, but it’s an important and significant barrier when things are first kicking off.

It’s not just the plot either – the world itself feels too familiar and seems very much a rebadged D&D setting in many regards, though whether that’s a weakness of Dragon Age or a strength of D&D is hard to discern. Either way, until you’ve plodded far enough through the game to find that certain, indefinable moment where the game ticks over into something great then you’re stuck with the distinct impression that you’ve seen all of it a million times before.


That feeling is so strong that it actually throws some elements of the game into a slightly different light - namely the ones which we mentioned as feeling at odds with the larger gameplay and Bioware’s usually mature approach to story. These aspects of the game feel like they may have been added mainly to help give more excitement to what is actually a well written RPG based in a fairly boring setting – which, if true, would be a shame because they actually have the opposite effect.

This is an important issue for Dragon Age, so it’s vital that we’re clear; Dragon Age is not Vampire: Bloodlines and the level of (for want of a better phrase) ‘adult content’ isn’t any where near that level in quantity. Unfortunately, it’s not near that level of quality either and so, rather than complementing the game, actually distracts you from it.

Which is a shame because, depending on what you want to get out of Dragon Age: Origins, it has the potential to be one of the best RPGs of the last decade. It certainly has the epic storyline and the familiar feeling world that we’ve loved in other RPGs, as well as the graphical fidelity and well-balanced skill system that can take such games to even greater heights.


You can even recruit a huge, slobbery and droopy-jowled dog into your party which, let’s face it, is something we’ve been looking for for years!

What Dragon Age: Origins doesn’t have though is that special flair or sense of timing that would allow it to claim true brilliance. It’s been in the works for at least four or five years and now it’s here – but we’re not sure if it’s likely to be a game that we’re still discussing in years to come or if there’s any longevity to the game as part of a larger franchise.

Frankly, it has less charisma than a half-orc berserker wearing an only half-functioning girdle of gender changing. Also like that orc though, Dragon Age: Origins is a solid and functional RPG that’ll reliably hit all the major targets you care to position in front of it, even if it isn’t hitting them with all the strength we know that it could have mustered.

A safe buy and one we can definitely recommend to anyone who wants a decent RPG, Dragon Age is a good game – but we’re just not convinced it has the staying power to achieve the same kind of success as its forebears.

Score Guide