It is notable for expanding the background and lore of the Darkspawn in a significant way, which ties in very well with the events that occurred in the base game plot.ĭue to the game’s protracted development time, it never was a huge looker at release. The Awakening expansion serves as a continuation of the main game. Good expansion that meaningfully expands the story The only downside is the game gets a bit bogged down in a dungeon location or two, but that is a minor complaint.

The game moves at a good pace from one location to the next. The game locales are generally smaller than in contemporary RPGs, being more focused on delivering interesting content in a dense manner. Almost all major locations have been uniquely designed. While Dragon Age Origins is not entirely immune from this, 90% of the game has a more old-school “handcrafted” feel. One tenant of modern game design has been the need to needlessly pad games with filler content, especially RPGs. In particular, characters like Morrigan and Loghain impress with good writing and voice acting, but most of the other key characters like Alistair, Shale, Oghren, etc., and side characters are also very good. It is clear that Bioware at this time still had plenty of writing talent. Not every character in the game is beloved, but I personally think many of the characters are really good. I am delighted to pick up new condex lore entries and have enjoyed reading the codex on every playthrough. The codex is also extremely well written. It goes in detail on many matters that were not discussed until the latter two games, or have not been explored even now. There are a lot of great stories and deep background information in the codex, that go far beyond what is shown in the game itself. The decision-making is welcomed.ĭragon Age Origins has, in my view, some of the best lore, and certainly the best journal codex in any game I have played. Some are minor decisions, but it is still nice that there are generally 2-3 ways to approach a conversational situation. Some of these have significant effects, including resulting in the life or death of specific characters.

Further, the player can make decisions on sub-plot points throughout the game. While abandoned as an idea for subsequent games, this added additional depth and replayability and was appreciated. The game has multiple unique starting segments depending on one’s race and class. Origins story concept and interesting choices Everything comes together to create a great and believable game world for one to get completely immersed in. Common critiques are that the game setting is “generic” and that the game did not live up to the complexity of Bioware’s prior Baldur’s Gate 2. Released after mixed pre-release hype and a weird marketing campaign, and becoming somewhat overshadowed by Mass Effect 2 which came out just a few months later, Bioware delivered after many years of development a great game with a very expansive and deep game world. Recently I have been replaying Dragon Age Origins.

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