Dragon age Origins/2

For anyone having doubts. For people still thinking Dragon Age is your typical RPG with wizards spells and all that 'lame ass s**t'. And for people expecting the target demographic to be fat middle age men who still live with their mothers, I am here to comfort you...Dragon age is f*****g badass.

Dragon age: Orgins,when released was a typically dangerous move by Bioware. In a world of sequels and Call of Duty's, where company's churn out countless revamps of the same old formula, starting an entirely new franchise could have been a complete disaster. I have to admit, when it first came out it didn't really appeal to me. I just expected an oblivion clone, which inself isn't a bad thing, and that same old RPG format that everyone seems to have copied since diablo. What I didn't expect, when I finally made the dive after playing Mass Effect 2, another outstanding game, was a storyline so rich with racism, seregation, violence, sexual content and horror that I was actually shocked. Every element of the storyline fasicinated me, the way that the mages were feared and suppressed by the vigilant and oppressive templars, the racism the elves are subjected to by the humans as they live in rundown slums, and the constant backstabbing and corruption within Dwarven heirarchy, this is not a pleasant world. What it is though is a world rich in culture and complex relationships, which thoroughly makes the storyline engaging and involving.

The game constantly bombards you with choice and it's these choices that directly influence the outcome of whether a companion will love you, like you, hate you or leave you. While the choices you make give you little benefit endgame, it's the interactions with the companions that really give the story its colour and its flavour. Your companions have certain morals and character traits that give them their own unique personalities and coupled with their incredibly witty character dialogue they give real feeling the world.

Through the visuals DA:O maintained this idea of a gritty, unforgiving world. Characters are drenched from head to toe in gore during cutscenes and combat is filled with violetly entertaining finishing moves which dicapitate and dismember foes. While not claiming to be a Crysis wannabe, DA:O picks up its marks for atmosphere and substance something which all these new games of late fail to recognise.

Gameplay is slow and at times very difficult. The combat is best described as a blend of turn based RPG in real time and often it becomes neccasary to pause the game and decide on the best move, with the the combat becoming unmanagable with so many spells and abilities along 4 characters. I found the combat to be very rewarding and exciting with the animations, especially the finishing moves, offering variety. I can't niggle to much a the difficulty, as I myself prefer a challenging game and that the difficulty inself is adjustable in the options menu during combat.

Overall I give Dragon Age Orgins
9/10 Overall

Ill finish this later, tell me what you think so far

I had dragon age origins lost count of how many times i completed it, that game is awsome.

i also heard that this game is quality, thinking bout getting it myself!

Lost count?! I'm still working my way though my first playthrough!

DA2 looks pretty sweet too. Housemate's got it.

(Small point: Dragon Age is a straight up RPG, in the sense that this is what classic and pen-and-paper RPGs are like in terms of the atmosphere. It's only modern popular RPGs that have prettified and niceified things.)

yea i get ur point deadly, what I was trying to say was that it reinvents the standard RPG into a adult and controversial world. I mean looking at it you wouldn't think it was so rich in racism and violence and stuff.

I'll finish something for dragon age 2 when my gaming comp gets fixed and I can play it some more, I think i got to the end of the first act and so far i can recommend it heavily.

Your choices carry on through the acts, as each act is set a few years apart, and you can see what effects your actions had on other people. For instance, I decided to help a templar find his lost apostate son and proceeded to blackmail him afterward, saying that I would tell the other templars if he didnt cough up. I have a strong hunch that this will come back to bite me in the next act.