EA
What is it?
A fantasy role-playing game from veteran RPG studio BioWare.
What we like
A vast, rich fantasy world; solid and rewarding character progression.
What we don't like
Lacklustre graphics in the console version of the game.
Judgment
Though the visuals fall short of spectacular away from the PC, Dragon Age: Origins is an immense, absorbing game and a must-play for RPG fans.
Review
For all its blood-soaked, Marilyn Manson-scored bravado, Dragon Age: Origins is a game with its feet firmly planted in old-school, western RPG tradition.
EA
Don't get us wrong, there's blood aplenty (most of it spattered across your companions in post-battle cutscenes) but this is classic fantasy stuff at heart, venturing not too far from a heritage which includes Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate via developer BioWare.
Accordingly, Dragon Age invites you to pick your gender, race and class, then go forth and gather a party of companions to do battle with bandits, demons and the like in the process of roaming the land and raising an army to fend off an apocalyptic Big Bad.
Character progression and talent trees are par for the course and executed well. The quality of the dialogue is a bit uneven, but it musters charm often enough to get a pass.
It's also the basis of developing your approval rating with each party member, in the shape of conversation options - as well as gift giving, à la Fable II, and in-game actions themselves. This amounts to a relationship system that works well, especially in the absence of a visible good-or-evil meter, that clunkiest of RPG devices.
On the console version, which we played, the graphics were a disappointment. Animations tended to be stiff, with character lip-synching suffering in particular. Side by side with the PC version, it looks dated, with low-resolution textures and a general lack of polish not doing justice to the fantasy environments or character models.
The console and PC versions also offer contrasting combat control systems. The console game has trigger-accessed radial menus combined with quick commands mapped to face buttons. Though time is frozen while the menu is up and though you can switch between the four members of your party to give orders to each, the experience tends towards free-for-all action.
EA
Additional control over party members can be had by automating tactics beforehand but, unsurprisingly, the PC version seems the more refined experience, with the precision of point-and-click control lending itself better to strategic use of characters' abilities.
Despite its flaws, Dragon Age: Origins is hugely absorbing. It's a game built on a rich and intricate world, populated by the familiar fantasy archetypes, and the more time you invest, the more compelling it becomes.
And if you do have the time to invest, the game is vast enough to give value for money and then some. BioWare claims there are some 100 hours of play in the game - though this would mean taking on every last petty side quest and is far from necessary to complete the story.
EA
For the action RPG fan, Dragon Age: Origins has a good deal going for it on the console. For the experienced old-school RPGer (or those who can't bear less than gorgeous graphics) the PC version is the only way to go. In either case, this is a deep and absorbing game that amounts to much more than the sum of its flawed parts.
Dragon Age: Origins is out now on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
