Review:
Dragon Age: Origins: Good Origins, not enough Dragons

Bioware has been in the game making business for a long time. They know a thing or two about making a quality game, and they are one of a very short list of developers who have never released a bad game in their years. They started with the Baldur’s Gate franchise, back when they were Black Isle. Since then they also did Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and now Dragon Age: Origins. The best thing I haven’t mentioned: Bioware, like me, are Canadien.

So today I’ll be reviewing Dragon Age Origins. It’s easy to tell, when playing this game, that the developers have experience making fantasy role playing games. They’ve been doing it for decades, and it shows. If you’ve played a game from them before you’ll know what to expect, but if you haven’t you’re in for a surprise. I’d say newcomers would likely appreciate this game more than veterans, as many of the best aspects of this game are all things we’ve seen before.

The story follows you, a member of a heroic group called the Grey Wardens, who exist solely for holding back the evil scourge of the darkspawn, keeping them from taking over the world. How you become a Grey Warden is dependant on your decisions during character creation, and during the opening origin story. You get to choose which origin story you wish to play through, and they are vastly different depending on your race and social class.

Choice is yet again the name of the game, similar to previous Bioware efforts. Every conversation you are always able to choose between heroic answers, funny answers, or you could always just kill every innocent bystander who comes seeking aid. Just don’t expect your allies to appreciate such action. Well maybe Morrigan.

The voice-acting is top notch. All the dialogue besides your own is voice acted, with some stand out roles including Claudia Black as Morrigan and Kate Mulgrew as her mischievous witch mother. Also Steve Valentine as Alistar is fantastic and should make anyone with a sense of humor laugh. It’s the quality voice acting that’ll have you talking to absolutely everyone you meet, as well as your crew more often than necessary. Also the relationships you can have with your friends are fun to explore. Wink wink, nudge nudge.