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Dragon Age: Origins
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Platform: Windows Vista Windows XP
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39 New and Used from: $26.00
List Price: $49.99
Our Price: $44.99
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| Product Details |
ISBN/ASIN: B001IK1BWC
Release Date: 2009-11-03
Sales Rank: 187
Average Rating: 
Media: DVD-ROM
Platform: Windows Vista Windows XP
Format: CD-ROM
Product Group: Video Games
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| Product Description |
| Become immersed in a dark and heroic fantasy world realized with BioWare’s trademark depth and expertise, enriched with its own unique lore and brought to life by some of the best artists in the industry. Deep customization gives you control over your character in Dragon Age. Race, appearance, abilities, and equipment all affect how you look. What you do will affect how you are perceived. Your origin defines your place in the world and how others see you. These playable sequences introduce the world and let you decide how your character becomes a hero, setting the tone for the entire story to come. Stand at the heart of the storm sweeping across Ferelden. Choose the fates of nations, people and, ultimately, yourself. Just remember: for every choice, there is a consequence. Control your perspective as you guide a party of four into battle. Issue orders, build your own tactical AI, or take control of any party member to lead the charge. Downloadable content will provide you with exciting new stories and ways to expand your Dragon Age experience beyond the original game. Use the provided toolset to author your own adventures to share with friends. |
| Customer Reviews: Average Rating: 4.5/5 | | Does not live up to expectations: Rating: 3/5 |
I should say, I had really high expectations for this game. I waited for years for it to come out, as it was billed by Bioware as the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate II(the best RPG of all time). Not that this game is bad, it was just an really disappointing because of the high expectations. This game is more on par with Jade Empire or Knights of the Old Republic.
One of the problems is, the dwarves, elves and humans you meet all talk with the same boring accent. Call me old fashioned, but I want my dwarves to have scottish accents, my elves to talk in eloquent English accents. In Baldur's gate, each area had a particular ambiance. The 2-D art and area music created a unique and immersive feel in each area. That is lacking in Dragon Age, the music is drab, and there is no ambience at all. It starts to feel like a run fest...like the "Elder Scrolls" games.
I actually found the world and plot of "The Witcher" to be more engaging and interesting. And that was a game that was just supposed to hold me over till Dragon Age came out. |
| | BUY THIS GAME: Rating: 5/5 |
| Awesome game with an awesome replay value. A must have for any fan of RPGs. |
| | Better than i expected: Rating: 4/5 |
i like RPGs, especially the ones back in the old days when you get lots of classes, spells, party members, etc. As a result, i wasn't impressed with Dragon Age when i first started playing it. You have a total of three races to choose from and, worse, only three classes you can choose (fighter, wizard, thief). i also haven't been a huge fan of Bioware's recent RPGs where the amount of story and cut scenes goes up and the number of spells, enemies and options goes down. Plus Bioware's always been pretty bad at AI
So i wasn't really looking forward to this game but apparently my family thought i should have been, because i got this for Christmas. And, it turns out, i liked the game, much more so than many of the recent Bioware games
The things i worried about were still there. There are embarrassingly few spells which is made worse by the new cool down timers that haven't been present in earlier Bioware games. You can pick subclasses later but they're not easy to get (ex - becoming a healer requires finding the one shop keeper who sells an incredibly expensive book on how to be that class). You fight the same handful of enemies over and over. Dialog options and options in general are more limited than i expected. The pathfinding is much improved and combat behavior is much better than in KotOR but still flaky (especially at the start when your tanks always run away, letting the bad guys go straight for the mages) can be flaky and the paying for tactical slots to set your AI is unneccessary. Since switching to 3D, Bioware has been awful at making pretty levels, and while they aren't gorgeous here (and still painfully linear), they're much better than Mass Effect. Despite the problems, the game was still fun. It's an interesting enough story and the story lines (werewolf curses, marriages of convenience, angry ex-wives, gold digging sisters, etc.) are pretty good. i liked having a dog. In the end, i almost had as much fun playing this as i did The Witcher
There were a few things i didn't like. First, the documentation. It's a new system, not D&D rules, so it would be helpful if there were more explanation about defense vs. armor, what armor bypass does, how much damage spells do, what physical resistance does, whether dragons are resistant to fire or hurt more by cold, how the fatigue numbers are calculated and a dozen other things that were important but are impossible to tell from the game's feedback. Second, the difficulty was surprisingly difficult on normal level, and since almost every good spell kills your party, mages are fairly useless. Third, the inventory system wasn't much fun. Fourth, all the characters were a little too over the top extreme, with the dwarf especially painful to listen to. And there weren't enough of them - if you make the obnoxious stripper leave (which is easy to do), you'll play the entire game with no magic users (unless you count the elderly healer, which you shouldn't). Only a rogue can learn to pick a lock (no knock spells here) but rogues can't fight so you don't want to waste one of the 3 NPC slots on one
i still prefer the flexibility of Oblivion, spells in the original Baldur's Gate, design of Planescape and general fun of Fallout but once you get past how constrained and linear Dragon Age is, it's actually pretty fun |
| | It's the Age of Dragons!: Rating: 5/5 |
Recently I had the opportunity to complete BioWare's new fantasy-RPG Dragon Age: Origins. What a fantastic game! I easily played more than 60+ hours of the game and I very much enjoyed it!
What hooked me? What kept bringing me back to the game?
First of all, the graphics are gorgeous! I love the recent innovation in computer games where you get to design and customize your character. I'm not just talking about the standard RPG fare of skills and abilities, I mean the look, facial characteristics, hair, eye color, etc. To me, this greatly adds to the player's level of connection, immersion into the game and attachment to your character.
The story was deep and engaging. Fereldin is a dark world and has a distinct George R.R. Martin Game of Thrones feel to it, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The world is being overrun and you must gather an army to counter the threat. There are many TOUGH choices to make along the way, and seldom are they easy, black-or-white choices. In my opinion, that is terrific story-telling. BioWare spins a good yarn. They get extra credit in my book for not compromising on the topics addressed. This is an adult game, with adult themes. No whitewash, good-for-all-the-masses tripe here. During your adventure to save the world you boldly wade into topics of religion, racism, sexuality, homosexuality, blood & gore, murder, betrayal, religion and demons and BioWare doesn't compromise. As an adult gamer, I appreciate that.
The combat is visceral and looks good, the spell effects are spectacular and the sound effects are terrific. Personally I found the early game combat a little rough, as I did not have a healer and found my party getting wiped out every third battle. So, to avoid too much frustration, I turned the combat on easy. Later in the game, I better understood the Tactics settings and had developed a good healer. Then the game's combat became much more fun. As mentioned previously there are many options and abilities to customize. Therefore a player can approach combat the way that one wants to; again, a sign of a strong game.
For me however, the best aspect of the game were the characters. This is one of BioWare's true strengths and the hallmark of an excellent game. The characters were diverse and multifaceted. They had their own personalities, their own agendas and I found myself wanting to know all that I could learn about those characters that fought and traveled with me. That was one area that I felt the game excelled. For me it was a tough choice on which three characters to take with you as you journeyed along. I loved the banter and the dialogue between them - it often made me laugh out loud. The writing and the voice acting were extremely well done.
I felt like the pacing was good and not too rushed, but with a sense of urgency to move the story along.
Treasure and in-game items were diverse and good. The ability to find and buy "runes" to add to and modify your key magic items was very cool. I liked the fact that it allowed you to "plug & play" and keep using your best combat modifiers rather than forever locking them to a particular weapon.
The game itself was rock solid. It only crashed to the desktop on me twice. I had one bug and that was around new, downloadable content involving the Gray Warden's old keep. The keep was a welcome addition as a place to store some extra stuff, instead of forever having to lug it around, filling up your inventory. I wished that I would have been able to do more with the place and make it truly feel like a base of operations instead of a big trunk with two shops around it.
I don't know whom to credit the recent trend of unlocking "achievements" in a game, but I like it! It's like an addicting hobby collecting pins. I am motivated to unlock things and earn "badges" of honor. The fact that you can share these on-line is also pretty cool, although I doubt anyone but me ever looked at them.
The ability to quickly take screenshots in the game was VERY welcome. I found myself taking snapshots of then game and then using them as my computer's wallpaper. This kept me thinking about and interested in the game even when I wasn't playing. Often times others would happen by and remark on the picture and ask me about it. I would highly recommend this feature to other game makers.
Dragon Age Origins was one of the best fantasy RPGs that I have played in the past five years. While it was not as "wide-open" whole-world immersive as Oblivion, I felt like the quests, the plots, the characters, the voice acting and the story were better crafted.
I enjoyed the additional content, even though I had to pay for it. I look forward to the expansion, although not too soon as I have been hooked by BioWare's other classic: Mass Effect 2! Is Dragon Age perfect? No, but it's so close you can see it from there.
Enjoy!
Bob Blaser
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| | Oh yes, yes, yes!: Rating: 5/5 |
I really love this game. I wish I could wipe my memory clean of it and start over with a fresh slate. I was so totally immersed in this fantasy world I could think of little else for days and days. It's exactly what I had always wanted in a RPG game.
I'm hoping the sequel will be as good. But I understand they've left out the romance stuff, which, IMHO was about the best part of it. But maybe that's a girl-thing.
The really great part of this game is the story. It's very cohesive and believable, or at least as much as a fantasy genre story can be! The motivations for the characters totally works for me. |
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