I started playing Dragon Age: Origins a couple of days ago and I’m hooked. The game graphics aren’t that great, and the combat is a little World of Warcraft-ish, but those are about the only complaints I have. In all honesty, though, those shortcomings hardly detract from the game. Sure, there’s combat and leveling, but the combat practically runs itself and the leveling is straightforward enough for it to not be a hassle. (Some might call it “over-simplified” but I think other video games’ systems are too complicated.) The real beauty of DA:O is that it’s an RPG that focuses on the RP, and you rarely find in games anymore.
This may sound kind of funny, but I think I had forgotten what a roleplaying game was. In fact, I think RPG makers have forgotten what an RPG is. So many RPGs nowadays are just linear stories with inevitable plot points that the player can’t change: the only things players can affect are their combat specifics and the time it takes them to move from one plot point to another. I do prefer tabletop games because of the amount of story customization they offer. Gear is, well, let’s just say I’m not motivated by having the “biggest and best” in gear, so that’s not a big draw to me. I’d much prefer to weave a story, and that’s exactly what DA:O gives the illusion of doing.
Sure, there’s some railroading involved, but you can’t get away from that in any sort of game. DA:O lets you choose from, essentially, 6 starting stories, which affect the total game to a point, but after you join the Mega Order of Epic things pretty much follow the same course. I’m only about 9 hours into the game, so maybe later my starting as a female dwarf commoner will have an impact on more than just my interaction dialogue, but; for now it seems as though I’m going through the same things as my brother, who started as a male human noble, (post-Order-of-Epic-joining, of course.) Even still, the interactive dialogue is different. For one, I know a secret about one of my party members that my brother hasn’t discovered yet. Perhaps it’s because I’ve fostered a higher affinity with that character, or maybe it’s just the dialogue choices I made that were the difference; I don’t know. Either way, it’s a really deeply engaging game if you let yourself get drawn into the background and lore of the world.
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