It took about 50 hours, but I have finally finished one play through of the game – which is not the same as fully completing the game.
Story
A cliched overarching story is reminiscent of many RPGs of the last 20 years; rise up against the return of an ancient evil. Almost every Bioware game uses this same story. That’s not a fault because the true meat is in the dozen or hundreds of smaller stories that comprise the larger tale.
To talk about these stories, particularly the origins, is to risk spoilers. Instead what I can say are two things.
First, you will never be satisfied with only one play through. Each story has multiple points that force decisions from you – irrevocable ones. These are much bigger than who lives and dies – we are talking hundred or thousands of virtual lives! Their integration into and throughout the story is masterful. You might not even know the extent to which you turned the game’s narrative until the very end of the story.
Second, the sheer volume of twists and shocking turns in this game is staggering. It is well written and you form a bond with the characters (as much as it is possible in a game). Your friends will surprise you.Gameplay
The game feels like cocktail of all Bioware’s best RPG innovations. You can control characters in a turn based fashion or rely on the game’s AI. Each character can be programmed to fight a certain way using the game’s simple yet comprehensive Tactics menu.
Invariably I found myself commanding combat and supporting my team by controlling the healer Mage NPC in my party rather than using my own Duelist/Ranger character, Aeden. Power is skewed to magic users in Dragon’s Age – but that works out well. Your opponents have the same advantage and use it fully – so don’t bring knives to a magic fight.
Play difficulty is geared toward people who have played lost of RPGs with tactical combat and the WoW crowd who are used to complex battles. Dragon Age is one of the few games I would encourage people to start on Easy.
There are a few frustrating bugs. In one quest I was stuck in an orphanage room after defeating a Demon because an event would not trigger. Dragon Age reminds you constantly to quick save, I was able to load from a point a couple of minutes prior to the bug and continue on from there. Another bug – in some cases a highlighted character will not carry out commands. I found toggling to another character and back solved the issue. I feel these are minor niggles in a game this big.
Presentation
Audio is fantastic with a weighty musical score rivalling the best fantasy games like Oblivion and voice acting that is almost universally spot on. A single forced French/Belgian accent for one of the main party characters in the game is a little distracting.
Visuals are excellent. Character faces in particular are wonderful and convey lots of emotion.
Folks with high end systems have lamented certain aspects of the games visuals – such as foliage quality. But to deconstruct the visuals to such an extent is pointless and overlooks a huge advantage of the game’s engine – it runs very well on lesser hardware. In fact, Dragon Age looks better on a PC at medium settings than it does on either of the consoles (crisper and better draw in distance). My MacBook Pro ran the game very well at medium detail and 1440*900 resolution (Intel P8700 2.66 Core 2 Duo, Nvidia 9600m GT, Windows 7 RC, Nvidia 185 series drivers).
Community is not something I would normally comment on, but Bioware has done a spectacular job building an online achievement tracking system. I like it better than XBL or PSN and it also works as an authentication for DLC. This is a great way to release a non-DRM game – offer incentives to register (and only legit buyers can register their game).
Lasting Appeal
With multiple Origin stories, each of which has many ‘no turning back’ decisions Dragon Age will take an age to finish. Bioware plans to extend this with DLC – a touchy subject since the same promise made for Mass Effect was never kept. We already have a handful of DLC components – although you could argue that these were parts of the full game shaved off and included as DLC to discourage piracy and used game sales. Even if no other content were released you could play one hour per day of Dragon Age for the next couple of years (I have friends who bought Oblivion of launch day and are still plodding though it – Dragon Age is bigger).
If you are even remotely interested in RPGs you don’t need a review – you are already playing Dragon Age. Many people felt that there was no question Dragon Age would be a landmark game – they should feel vindicated now. I was craving more Mass Effect but Dragon Age was all Bioware was offering so I grudgingly accepted. I am very happy that I did.
Dragon Age is the quintessential western RPG. Much more visceral and ‘real’ than its Far Eastern rivals, this is a game that people will be referencing in 10 years, with at least one character who will be quoted in popular gaming culture for some time. If I rated based using numerical scores, anything less than a 100% would be stupid – and you should seriously question the motives of any publication that says Dragon Age is a not a perfect game – out of the box there isn’t anything else it could reasonably offer you for $50.
Verdict: Buy the PC version
