Dragon Age Dragon Age: Origins is ten years old today

[Roguey]

I feel like reminiscing a bit about this now-classic RPG.

Remember when Bioware was improving its role-playing aspects? That was short-lived.

Or how about when you could offer to prostitute yourself in a mainstream game?

(sure, he turns it down, but at least you can make the offer )

And nothing makes one smug like being able to master a game while newbs struggle with it (when they're not trying to figure out how to get that foursome with Isabela)

(classic screencaps, taken near release)

It's nice how you can go with the sacrifice ending and pretend that the sequels never happened; treat this as a one-and-done with a definite ending. Alternately, an ambitious human noble female PC could depose Anora, put an unhardened Alistair on the throne, and become the real power behind it. Also nice how a guy can knock up Morrigan and tell her to take a hike when she suggests the ritual, so she ends up forced to raise a regular kid by herself. Good old Gaider, back when he allowed you to treat his pet characters horridly if you wanted. As jf8350143 noted recently, this was the last Bioware game where you could play an evil character (Bioware Evil, sure) saving the world only out of self-interest. Nothing but anti-heroes-at-worst since 2010.

I'm still disappointed with the lousy Thirty Seconds to Mars song they chose for the end credits (say what you will about the game itself, but DAII's use of that Florence + the Machine song was fitting). I wish they were able to poke fun of themselves by going with Goldfrapp's remix of This is the New Shit instead. At least the last minute of it.

 

[Neanderthal]

Played it a bit back so its still fresh in me mind and I was really surprised with how variable the graphics were, you had absolutely stunning areas like say the Urn of Sacred Ashes cathedral and then utterly dogshit ugly places such as Redcliffe. Strangely it all felt a bit dead and uninteractive to me, even the busiest areas, then again I always compare it with Witcher 1 that came out a couple years before and absolutely spanked Biowares arse with their own fucking tech. The arms and armour design were absolutely fucking hideous as well, but that goes all way back to NWN, where the strange, gaudy outfits that didn't even look like armour first made their appearance. Is it so hard to read a book or design a simple bloody breastplate, they're not complicated, well until Bioware starts adding ridiculous bits onto em.

As you say though most o c&c were solid, narrative was simple but serviceable, and archetypes were well implemented mostly though I could only really stand Dog, Sten, Loghain and Morrigan, the rest had too much Joss Whedon cutesiness dripping from them. Should have had winter in Ostagar pass holding back the main Darkspawn invasion though, as there was no reason for the horde to not invade further while you pissed around, and there should have been an option to side with Loghain and play a common human or barbarian (which were cut I believe) as Human Noble was just too cloying and nicey.

Pity decline hit so hard before DA2, but there you go.

 

[racofer]

That aged badly.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Amazing that at the time I considered it dumbed down and streamlined and now I look back on it as a minor classic. Of course at the time I didn't know what would follow.

 

[Riddler]

 

[Heroic Liberator]

The arms and armour design were absolutely fucking hideous as well, but that goes all way back to NWN, where the strange, gaudy outfits that didn't even look like armour first made their appearance. Is it so hard to read a book or design a simple bloody breastplate, they're not complicated, well until Bioware starts adding ridiculous bits onto em.

And that only got worse and worse with each new entry in the franchise, spreading to the design of the races as well (particularly the darkspawn and the elves).

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

I remember the Codex had a pretty lukewarm opinion of it back in the day. Too streamlined. I was pretty hyped about it myself.

 

[Funposter]

more like Dragon Age: Bore-igins

 

[Maggot]

Was this the only well received Dragon Age game? Seems like everything from Bioware after this game and ME2 was panned.

 

[biggestboss]

Was this the only well received Dragon Age game? Seems like everything from Bioware after this game and ME2 was panned.

IIRC DA:I was well received by critics and journos.

 

[Machocruz]

DA:I, a not outstanding entry in its genre, beat out Bayonetta 2, an outstanding entry in its genre, for review sites' GotY awards....despite earning lower review scores from same reviewers

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

WAY too much combat in this game. I tried replaying it like a year ago and quit about halfway through because it felt like they deliberately designed the game to waste my time with tons of trash encounters

 

[Delterius]

RPG Codex GOTY 2009.

 

[BrotherFrank]

This is one of those games where my opinion diverges massively from the codex one, still have a big soft spot for this title, played it earlier this year (albeit with mods) and reckons it holds up extremely well for my tastes.

I liked the general mood of the setting even if it was generic, liked the characters even if they were tropey af and I even liked the combat enough to put it on highest difficulty. And for whatever reason, this is the last bioware game to be modder friendly so whilst not quite nwn levels with all the various fanmade modules, you still have tons of mods to beef up the base game.
As far as popcorn munching fantasy romps go, origins hits that sweet spot for me that only a few other titles (baldurs gate 2+pathfinder) have.

 

[Machocruz]

Never played it. Any point in playing it now, or is it hopelessly outdated (like for real outdated, not like plebs who think anything before Oblivion is outdated outdated)? Did it bring anything to the genre worth knowing about? I actually liked the first Mass Effect enough to finish it twice, and Hordes of the Underdark is one of my favorite CRPGs. Obviously my standards aren't super high, maybe I could get some enjoyment out of it.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Ah, this just became an old-school game, five more years and you won't be able to criticize it here on the Codex without becoming a pariah. Just like what's about to happen with Oblivion.

 

[Tiger]

This is one of those games where my opinion diverges massively from the codex one, still have a big soft spot for this title, played it earlier this year (albeit with mods) and reckons it holds up extremely well for my tastes.

I liked the general mood of the setting even if it was generic, liked the characters even if they were tropey af and I even liked the combat enough to put it on highest difficulty. And for whatever reason, this is the last bioware game to be modder friendly so whilst not quite nwn levels with all the various fanmade modules, you still have tons of mods to beef up the base game.
As far as popcorn munching fantasy romps go, origins hits that sweet spot for me that only a few other titles (baldurs gate 2+pathfinder) have.

Couldn't agree more. It's one of the games that's cool to put down on here. I love it, I think the combat is great fun. I'm due for another playthrough soon.

 

[thesecret1]

It was okay. Had its flaws, has its high points, overall I consider it a decent game with some good ideas, which it failed to utilize to their full potential. Still, a masterpiece compared to the dogshit that came afterwards. It's a relic of the ancient times when one could think of Bioware without smirking

 

[luj1]

The only decent entry in the series, however still worse than the classics.

 

[Sacibengala]

tried to play this long time ago, didn't last. some side quest was cool. main quest were painful and generic.

 

[Terra]

Last decent BioWare game, any potential the series had was then promptly pissed away by the unholy confluence of EA, Laidlaw & console gamers.

Game gets a lot of flak, but it needs to looked at contextually, when I played this it actually felt like I was playing something attempting a modern take on some of the classics. Hell, it brought me back into the PC gaming fold after a decade or more of console gaming (though this made BioWare's immediate forward march into consoletardia all the more painful).

It's a game I'll always have fond memories of but struggle to go back to given how the sequels pissed away a lot of the potential, they've retroactively tarnished the game for me.

 

[gruntar]

dragon age is boring

 

[Gregz]

The party AI + scripting system was really great, I wish more games followed DA's lead on that.

Also, Morrigan is hawt.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Could have been good. Lame mmo-lite classes and abilities in a generic LotR plot with bland graphics. Complainions were decent, good C&C, serviceable lore, and good opening vignettes. I went in eager and enthusiastic, but found it just bland. Certainly not the worst game ever, but far from the great it is touted to be.

 

[Lilura]

+ Full Party Control
+ Tactics Framework
+ Reactivity
+ Lore

- Encounter scaling
- Itemization scaling
- Console UI
- gift-giving
- voiced NPC dialogue
- The Fade