Great Games That Actually Suck: Dragon Age: Origins

I'd like to begin this review by saying that the title is rather inaccurate; I would not say that BioWare's RPG Dragon Age: Origins "sucks," but I'm afraid that "Great Games That Aren't Quite As Good As People Say They Are" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Part of the problem with assessing Dragon Age: Origins is the issue of contrasts, specifically with its sequel, Dragon Age II. The sequel was such a thoroughly wretched game that the preceding title simply seems brilliant by comparison, which makes reviewing it objectively rather difficult. Notwithstanding the awfulness of Dragon Age II, however, I stand by my opinion that Dragon Age: Origins was never more than an above-average RPG that simply doesn't deserve the glittering praise it received.

Thanks to the triple-debacle of Dragon Age II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Mass Effect 3, BioWare is regarded as a joke by many, a sentiment I happen to share (to the point where uttering the word "BioWare" gives me the urge to laugh uncontrollably). Still, that doesn't diminish the good work they've done in the past, and I think history will bear me out when I say that Dragon Age: Origins will be viewed as the last worthwhile game BioWare made, although it pales in comparison to their previous works, such as Baldur's Gate II or Knights of the Old Republic.

Dragon Age: Origins is notable in that it is BioWare's first time in which they were creating an RPG based around their own IP, rather than licensing another IP, such as the Star Wars universe or the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It's also notable in that it's the last title BioWare released that was developed largely while the company was still independent, though some of EA's baleful influence is still plain to see, such as cut content being released as DLC ("The Stone Prisoner") and the game's idiotic "Sex and Violence" marketing pitch.

The game takes place in the world of Thedas, your bog-standard fantasy setting, which is threatened by a race of orc-like creatures called Darkspawn. The player character is recruited into an ancient order of warriors dedicated to fighting the Darkspawn, known as the Grey Wardens. But during a crucial battle, the King of Ferelden (the country where the game takes place) is betrayed by his trusted general, Teyrn Loghain, who pulls his troops back at a pivotal moment, leaving the king to die at the hands of the Darkspawn. Loghain blames the Grey Wardens for the king's death, leaving the player character with the goal of stopping Loghain and rallying the races of Ferelden to stop the Darkspawn.

It's not a plot that's going to win any awards for originality, but the problem is much greater than that. See, I don't care if a story or setting is unoriginal, so long as the writers try to put a fresh spin on it, but Dragon Age: Origins does nothing of the sort. Nothing about Thedas feels fresh or interesting; even the world's name (which is just short for "The Dragon Age Setting") suggests little else but blandness. Everything about Dragon Age: Origins feels like its been cribbed from somewhere else, and while BioWare's other original IP, Mass Effect, may have worn its influences on its sleeve, at least that game made it all feel fresh and interesting. By comparison, Dragon Age: Origins feels like something I've seen a hundred times before, which is not helped in the slightest by BioWare's irritating tendency to reuse the same character archetypes and plotlines in every single game they make.

Worse, the writers had clearly caught a bad case of Grimdarkitis, a debilitating disease that causes an irrational desire amongst modern fantasy writers to fill their works to the brim with sex, violence, rape, racism, bigotry, and general nastiness, often in the most juvenile and unsubtle manner imaginable. Dragon Age: Origins clearly wants to take a cue from A Song of Ice and Fire, such as having the word "sir" spelled as "ser", but it's attempt to become "adult fantasy" is totally superficial. Yes, there may be plenty of sex and violence in Thedas, but scratch away the fine layer of Grimdark and you'll find just another Tolkien-clone.

Didn't I see this in a movie, somewhere? I think it was called "The Ring Lord" or something like that.

Speaking of Grimdark, consider how magic works in Thedas. Mages gain their magical powers from a realm of spirits called "The Fade," which is formed around basic human emotions (rage, desire, pride, etc.). While this grants mages great power, it also places them in great danger of being possessed by Fade demons, so mages' activities are closely monitored by the Templars, an order of knights dedicated to rooting out unsanctioned magic. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's essentially the entire magic system of Warhammer 40,000 with the names changed. Other WH40K influences abound: the elves of Thedas have lost their homeworld but none of their smug sense of superiority, making them obvious analogues of the Eldar, while the Qunari might as well be the Tau with horns.

The reason the game is called Origins is because, unlike most other RPGs, the player can select one of six opening chapters, depending on their class and race: Human Noble, Mage, City Elf, Dalish Elf, Dwarf Noble, and Dwarf Commoner. Each of these opening prologues is fairly substantial, which goes a long way to making your character feel unique. It also gives some added role-playing depth to the game, as your character's chosen opening will influence any decisions you might make later. A Dwarf Noble, for instance, will probably choose a different king for his homeland than a Dwarf Commoner. Likewise, when confronted with the decision of siding with the Mages or the Templars, a Mage character will probably come to a different decision than a non-mage character. The six different openings also eliminate the "Chateau Irenicus Syndrome" where the player is forced to go through the same tedious opening game after game.

While previous BioWare titles have worked off the Dungeons & Dragons or d20 ruleset, Dragon Age: Origins uses its own ruleset that could best be described as some bastard combination of the 3rd Edition D&D system and BioWare's own invention. There are three classes in Dragon Age: Origins - Warrior, Mage, and Rogue, and each character has six basic attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Magic, Willpower, and Cunning.  Every time a character levels up, he'll be able to add three points to any of these six attributes, and Warriors and Rogues will be granted an additional Talent (analogous to Feats in D&D 3e), while Mages can learn a new spell. Every three levels (two for Rogues), a character can learn a new Skill which, again, are analogous to Skills in D&D 3e, things such as Persuade, Set Trap, Poison Making, and so on. Additionally, characters can gain a "Specialization" at levels 7 and 14, which add several unique Talents, although players will have to unlock Specializations before they can be used. This involves either learning it from a skill book somewhere, or getting a fellow party member's approval high enough that he or she will teach it to your character.

It doesn't take long before the cracks start to show, however. For example, while you can add 3 new attribute points to your character whenever he levels up, but there's almost never any thought required regarding where to put those points. Warriors will want to dump most of their points into Strength, Rogues will want to put most of them into Cunning, and Mages will obviously want to put points into Magic. Because these attributes are so fluid, one never really gets the sense that these attributes are really defining your character in the way they do in, say, Fallout: New Vegas. Worse, since Dragon Age: Origins implements level-scaling enemies (*shudder*) it's often difficult to get a sense that your character is actually growing stronger and more competent.

The Talent system is also questionable.  Talents are given out in a linear fashion, that is, they are organised into groups of four, and taking one Talent unlocks the next one in the group. While this wouldn't be so bad if each group consisted of nothing more than higher ranks of each Talent, each group is usually composed of Talents that are quite unrelated to each other. Want to take Lethality, which lets Rogues use their Cunning score in place of their Strength? Sorry, you'll have to take Below the Belt and Deadly Strike before that, even if you have no use for those particular Talents. The same problem exists with Mages - want to get the Fireball spell? Sorry, you'll have to get Flaming Weapons before you can get Fireball.

Quite simply, there's not a whole lot of ways to build your character in Dragon Age: Origins, beyond asking yourself "Do I want to play as a Warrior who uses a sword and shield, or a two-handed weapon?" It doesn't help at all that many of the Talents are near-worthless, while many might as well be labelled the "I Win" button, especially if you're playing as a mage.

And that's the next point I wish to bring up. The Mage class in Dragon Age: Origins is one of the most abysmally broken systems, from a balance of point view, that I've ever encountered in an RPG. It's a common trope in RPGs for wizards to be very weak initially; in Baldur's Gate, for example, a level 1 mage could only cast one or two spells per day and could have a maximum of just six hit points, but by the end of Throne of Bhaal that mage could defeat high-level monsters all by himself. Well, Dragon Age: Origins subverts that trope by making mages extremely powerful right from the start, and making them obscenely overpowered by the end, to the point where a single mage can easily solo most encounters.

The main problem is that the game lacks any effective means of limiting a mage's power. In the Vancian system of D&D, for instance, mages could only cast a certain number of spells per day, after which they would have to rest and re-memorise their spells. Spells, in other words, were a resource the player had to manage effectively, which often forced the player to make decisions such as, "Do I use this ultra-powerful spell now, or do I save it for a potentially more difficult encounter later on?" Dragon Age: Origins does away with all this, replacing it with cooldowns and mana, both of which are completely broken and fail utterly to serve their intended purpose.

Be it noted that I object to cooldowns, for several reasons. The first is that they make no sense lore-wise and are completely separated from the larger context of the game (why can I cast spells A, B, and C right after each other, but cannot cast spell A three times in a row?), and the second is that they reduce gameplay to a matter of waiting for the buttons to light up, at which point you push them (and something awesome happens!) In general, waiting to do something in a video game isn't very fun, to say the least. Essentially, combat becomes a series of Quick-Time Events, and more about activating obscenely-powerful abilities the moment they become available rather than any sort of tactics or strategy.

The mana system is likewise useless. Mana potions (or "Lyrium Potions," as the game calls them) are so ridiculously plentiful that you will never, ever be in danger of running out of them. Using the game's item-crafting skill, I was able to buy up around 200 pieces of raw lyrium ore for dirt-cheap, then craft them into a few hundred lyrium potions, which was enough to last me through the entire game and to the end of the expansion pack! And while there's some lore about how lyrium is toxic and highly addictive, that never once comes into play; the player can chug as many lyrium as he wants with no ill-effects. And the same goes for health potions, too - I was able to craft several hundred of them at a relatively low cost, the result being that I never was in danger of running out of HP or mana.

It certainly doesn't help matters that spells are so absurdly powerful in Dragon Age: Origins. Take the magic spell combination "Storm of the Century," for example, which has a massive area of effect, and deals out enough damage to kill everyone caught within in a matter of seconds. Or the spell "Mana Clash" which is, effectively, an area-of-effect spell that instantly kills all mages caught within its effect! Can you imagine being able to kill mages instantly in a game like Baldur's Gate? It would have made the entire game a virtual cakewalk.

Once your party's mage reaches a certain level, nearly every encounter can be reduced to "Mage casts one or two spells, kills nearly everything, and the rest of the party just cleans up the stragglers." Eventually, combat simply becomes a chore, with only a handful of boss encounters providing any challenge whatsoever, and even those are simply a case of wearing down the boss's metric ton of hit points whilst chugging health and mana potions.

But the most disappointing thing about Dragon Age: Origins' character system is how little reactivity there is to the character you've defined. For instance, the game makes a big deal about showing how elves are treated as second-class citizens; essentially they're the Thedas equivalent to the Jewish people, who have lost their homeland, are forced to live in run-down ghettos, are often the target of racism and even pogroms. And yet beyond the City Elf origin, an elven PC will almost never encounter any form of racism directed at him or her; as Yahtzee put it, playing as an elf generally results in people remarking "So, you're an elf" and little else. It's a major missed opportunity, since it would have felt highly satisfying to play as a character who has to fight his way to glory in the face of rampant prejudice and discrimination.

Another example would be Blood Magic. According to the lore, Blood Magic is considered a Very Bad Thing (TM), and practitioners of Blood Magic are to be hunted down and slain by the Templars. And yet the consequence for having your character practice Blood Magic are...nil. Even party members like Wynne or Alistair, who should be completely opposed to Blood Magic, will utter not so much as a peep if you start throwing around Blood Magic spells. In short, the game lore establishes certain rules...then completely disregards them when it comes to the actual gameplay.

Quests are another disappointing area of Dragon Age: Origins. Most fall squarely in the same tired categories of "Go here and kill everyone" or "Go here and fetch me this item," and there's rarely any sort of interesting backstory to these quests, either. Even the main quests boil down to solving some faction's problem, then making a binary choice (Mages VS. Templars, Elves VS. Werewolves, Bhelen VS. Harrowmont, etc.). There's almost nothing in the way of alternate quest solutions or branching paths, and despite the game's aspirations to creating a morally-grey world, most of the choices come down to acting like either a Boy Scout or a mustache-twirling villain.

There is one exception, though: the quest "The Arl of Redcliffe." During this quest, the player learns that nobleman's son has been possessed by a demon, and the player has several options of resolving the situation. The most obvious solution is just to kill the boy, but the player can also choose to enter the Fade and destroy the demon there. Doing this, however, requires a ritual that necessitates the use of blood magic, which results in the boy's mother having to sacrifice herself to power the ritual. However, if the player has already completed the Circle of Magi quest, and has sided with the mages, he can go to the Circle and request their aid, which will allow you to enter the Fade without anyone having to sacrifice themselves. Once inside the Fade, the player can either destroy the demon possessing the boy, or he can make a bargain with it, which might involve a few very tough persuasion checks. It's easily one of the best quests in the game, not only because of the multiple paths through, but also because it's connected with another quest, with the outcome based on what choices the player has made prior. Sadly, this sort of quest is the exception, not the rule.

So that leaves us with the "big thing" with BioWare games, that is, the writing. And I hate to say it, but Dragon Age: Origins simply doesn't measure up. As I said in the beginning of this review, nothing about its setting feels original, plausible, or organic, instead coming across as being a patchwork creation of various fantasy elements. Take, for instance, the character of Sten. He's one of the Qunari, a race that possess a rigid social structure where everyone has a clearly defined role and profession, and he points out that no one in Ferelden seems to know their place:

"No one has a place here. Your farmers wish to be merchants. The merchants dream of being nobles, and the nobles become warriors. No one is content to be who they are."

That would be all fine and well if we actually saw an example of this. Sten seems to assume that the people of Ferelden are like Americans, in that they always want to improve their social position, yet from all we see, they inhabit a typical feudal society with few examples of anyone doing any sort of social climbing.

Nor is the setting consistent with gender roles. The character creation screen informs us that men and women are generally regarded as equals in Ferelden, and when we see the army camp at Ostagar, we do indeed see that there are as many women as they are men. Yet in the City Elf origin, there's an NPC who's going to work as a labourer at the Ostagar camp, and she laments that she "doesn't like the thought of being surrounded by men who haven't seen a woman in months." In another example, the town of Redcliffe is under assault by a horde of undead, and yet the women have all taken shelter inside the church while the man are out fighting. You might argue these are minor quibbles, but they add up, and make the game's setting feel inconsistent and slipshod.

The writing is not helped in the slightest by the game's pathetic and puerile attempts to seem "dark" and "edgy."  It's not nearly as obnoxious and in-your-face about it as The Witcher series, but it's close. The City Elf origin, for instance, involves a bigoted nobleman kidnapping your character on his wedding day and raping his cousin, as if the game hasn't impressed upon you by this point how bad things are for the City Elves. Maybe it's just me, but when fantasy writers start throwing around gratuitous rape scenes, I instantly lose interest, because nine times out of ten it's there for no other reason than to smack the reader over the head with how "DARK, MAN! DARK!" the setting is. And yet while the game is filled with casual violence and bloodshed (the point where the party members can be totally drenched in blood), it still suffers from the absurd double-standard of treating violence as acceptable whilst even brief flashes of nudity are beyond the pale. When it comes time for your character to get into bed with his or her love interest, "doing it Ferelden-style" apparently involves dry humping one's underwear.

Seriously, the love scenes are probably the scariest part of this game

As for the party member's themselves, they might seem well-written on the outside, and they do possess a fair amount of depth, but if you've played any BioWare game before, you'll quickly realise that they're just the same sorts of characters that BioWare always includes in their games. There's Leliana, the sweet, kind-hearted woman (just like Aerie, Tali, or Liara) and there's Morrigan, the bitchy, haughty woman (just like Viconia, Bastila, or Miranda). As for the men, there's the Nice Guy With A Tragic Past, Alistair, and the Bad Boy Who Isn't Really That Bad, Zevran.

You'll have to forgive Morrigan for being such a bitch, her mother is Captain Janeway, after all

Obviously your mileage will vary on this, but none of the characters, least of all the love interests, held much appeal to me. Leliana is a frilly twit, prattling on about shoes or hairstyles, and her lispy French accent and religious blathering wore thin very quickly. Morrigan is simply a bitch without any redeeming qualities, Zevran is a lecherous slimeball, and Oghren is your bog-standard drunken dwarf warrior. The most interesting character was the Qunari warrior, Sten, largely because he initially comes across as just a stoic warrior, but actually pursuing his dialogue options reveals a fair bit of depth to his character (his deadpan delivery also makes him the perfect comedic Straight Man).

Key to your interactions with party members is the "Approval System," which tracks how each party member feels about your character. Party members whose approval drops too low might leave (or just whine at you), whereas high approval might lead to additional dialogue options or even romance. The problem is, there are numerous "Gifts" one can acquire and give to party members to raise their approval, and these often have a substantial effect. The end result is that one can easily use gifts to bribe party members back into your favour, which rather negates the whole purpose of the approval system in the first place. I personally just ignored the gift system entirely, if only to take pleasure in making Leliana angry:

On the technical side of things, Dragon Age: Origins is a rather mixed affair. Graphically, the game looks rather dated, with numerous low-res textures and low-poly environments. There's also no option for anisotropic filtering for some baffling reason, and the game features one of the worst depth-of-field algorithms I've ever seen. Instead of blurring objects in the background, it simply pixelates them, and the result is just atrocious. The environment design is likewise lackluster, being the very embodiment of "generic fantasy," with dungeon design being a particularly disappointment. Like Neverwinter Nights (and I suspect that Dragon Age: Origin's engine is heavily built upon the Aurora engine), each dungeon appears to be crafted from individual blocks, which lends them a rather "boxy" feel. It doesn't help matters that several dungeons blatantly re-use several architectural elements, such as he Brecilian Ruins, the Ruined Temple, and Fort Drakon. In short, none of the locations in the game felt particularly unique or memorable.

Sound-wise, the game's score by Inon Zur is totally unmemorable, save for a track here and there, and particularly baffling is the closing credits music - This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars. In terms of voice acting, the game is solid, though with such a large number of voiced characters the game runs into the inevitable issue of having several NPCs who all sound alike.

When it comes to the general stability of the game, this is where things to start to get iffy. There's numerous bugs in the game, such as spells not working as per their description, characters referring to the player by the wrong gender, characters forgetting who was made king following the Landsmeet, or the main character getting "stuck" in a certain pose, even during cutscenes. There's also an annoying memory leak that causes loading times to become longer and the longer the game runs, and can only be solved by quitting and restarting. For a game that was several years in development, the amount of bugs present is rather questionable, to say the least. Still, it could be worse...Dragon Age: Origins could be a Bethesda title, and feature more bugs than a Brazilian jungle.

In the end, Dragon Age: Origins is simply "okay." While not a bad game by any stretch (and certainly nowhere near as godawful as its sequel), it simply doesn't compare to Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, or even the mediocre Neverwinter Nights. As an attempt at creating a new IP, it's a miserable failure, lacking a voice of its own or any sort of unique take on the fantasy genre. Its attempts at "maturity" are merely that - attempts - and are ultimately inconsequential. The combat lacks the depth of Baldur's Gate, and given the length of the game (and believe me when I say that Dragon Age: Origins is a loooooong game) it usually ends up feeling more like filler than actual content.

But as it stands, Dragon Age: Origins is the last work from BioWare that I can recommend. And that's frankly rather depressing, considering how good their previous work is. It goes without saying that I have little interesting in the upcoming Dragon Age III: Inquisition, and I think many others feel the same way, having been utterly alienated by the debacle that was Dragon Age II. This is a franchise that is going nowhere.