After Action Report - Dragon Age: Origins

Twenty-one hours and a fantastic story later, this game didn’t just blow my mind; it got me ready for Mass Effect 2.

Of course the title lets us know that Bioware plans yet another epic trilogy, and I can honestly say that my appetite has only been wet by the way this game handled. The A.I. was a little finicky at times, and even after changing the tactics around on my teammates they would still run headlong to hell and completely disregard the massive stockpile of potions.

One of the things that Bioware is getting shockingly good at, is giving you insanely hard moral choices to make throughout the game. I found myself putting the controller down to go outside and think about my decision, taking all the possible repercussions into consideration. I loved the character relationship addition to the game, allowing you to give gifts or converse with various party members to either gain or lose favor in there eyes. This greatly changed the game in the middle for me, because of my not so favorite characters ended up trying to shank me in a back alley.

The story varies by race and class, I spent my first play through of the game playing as a City Elf Warrior, starting in the capital city of Ferelden’s. Regardless of your starting set, after playing through the introduction to each individual character type, the game ends up converging at the exact same point for every class and race.

After progressing through the story and getting to the end gambit, the game changes on you yet again with the addition of Army Controls. Allowing you to select one of the armies that you spent the entirety of the first half of the game collecting to assist in whichever way you see fit.

The game already has a wealth of DLC, and yet another addition is on its way. A yet to be announced stand alone expansion is on its way as well, retailing as a disc and not on the marketplace; I’m anxious to see what else they’ll throw at me.

This game is definitely a purchase because of its length, but if you’re just casually into RPG’s then walk away slowly, you’ll start it but you won’t ever finish it.