Buy Dragon Age: Origins

One of the best RPGs ever

It is too short.

Very good game, recommended for everyone who likes RPG. I recommend buying the Ultimate Edition, instead of being stupid like me and buying the DLC seperately. Only need 200 more hours for all the achievements.

The best in the franchise, even at its age.

Got lost in the woods and lairs for 3 hours
*got out of the woods----chosen the werewolves side*
"Dragon age: Origins not responding....."




Just relized my latest save was in the starting castle
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKK

very entertaing and I love the story. highly reccomended

Beware! This game is not similar to Dark Souls or Lords of Fallen. This is a dialog-focused, RPG-tactical-combat game with multiple combat rounds.

OVERALL - Despite of the CONS, it is extremelly RECOMMENDED. Note: You do not need to play DA:O in order to play Dragon Age 2. Hence, you can start a new character with a "default background story", using canon ending decisions for the first installment.


PROS

STORY - 10 out 10. 'Origins' stand for 6 different character origin stories depending on your main character customization. You can customize genre, race (Human, Dwarf and Elf) and trainning classes (mage, rogue/archer, warrior). If you choose starting with a Human Mage character, you will see different cutscenes, NPCs, locations, maps, dialogs and even initial quests prior to the starting of the main campaign. Then, there are 6 origins stories in the game (Human Noble, Human Rogue, Human Mage, City Elves, Noble dwarf, etc). It is a unique feature in this game, which delivers a deep and interesting initial story with great quests, side missions and secondary quests spreaded throughout the world map. The focus here is to learn about the story by talking to NPCs and reading in-game books excerpts and the in-game codex.

This game offers a good quest management screen that separates active quests from completed ones. Also, there is a 'plot inventory' comprising items you may find that must be delivered to certain characters in certain quests. There are romance options that will be unlocked depending on your approval score for each potential romance option. Based on your decisions, some characters will like you and some will dislike your actions and reputation.

For the sake of the chronological timeline, I advice you to play the main campaign and its DLCs in the following order:

1. Leliana's Song: Accessible from the "Other Campaigns" menu only for the Ultimate Edition, and it is a very short origin story of one of your main party members: it is less than 2 hours lenght, however it serves as a game tutorial for collectables items and character leveling up. You can test different abilities, atributes, skills and talents to see how they actually affect gameplay combat, character experience and plot development.
2. DA:O main campaing: 60+ hours lenght gameplay, depending how deep you invest your time in reading the codex and the massive in-game information. The amount of inventory items, powers, craft items, weapons, armors, gadgets, talents and side quests are overhelming at a first look. This game delivers a huge content of dialogs, characters, locations, items, and plot-linked decisions. I beat the game in 65 hours at level 22 out of 25. See http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Experience for further reference about character experience levels.
3. The Awakening: It is the main DLC of DA:O with impact on Dragon Age 2. It is a 20-30+ hours length and it delivers new companions, talents, locations, quests and serves as a sequel to DA:O main campaign. It is extremelly valuable in terms of quality and story content.
4. The Golems of Amarak. 2 hours.
5. Witch Hunt. I have not played yet. You must search for a former companion that has chosen to run away. 2 hours.
6. Darkspawn chronicles. An alternative universe, you play as the bad guys. Similar approach as the game's DLC Half-life: The Opposing Force. 2 hours.

Every DLC delivers new characters, party members, itens, skills, and locations. They are extremely valuable.

It is also noteworthy the massive game lore and complex story and timeline covering all official published items from Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age 3. There are multiple midias such as games, novels, Game's DLCs, comics, cartoons and animated series. The total amount of midia sums up to 40+ items. For further details, visit https://forum.bioware.com/topic/511645-dragon-age-media-timeline/

FINAL MISSION - 10 OUT 10 - IMHO, Dragon Age: Origins delivers the second best final mission I have ever played. The best for me is the Mass Effect 2's suicidal mission. Awesome.

GRAPHICS - 7 OUT 10 - Overall is good, but some graphics seem dated, unpolished and rough for a 2009 title. They could be much better. It is looks like the same game engine of KOTOR, from Bioware, with some improvements.

LEVEL DESIGN - 10 OUT 10 - Maps are interesting, different and compelling. And they are not linear. Get ready to go back and forth and to visit finished locations multiple times using the fast travel feature. You will want to finish all game quests.

UPGRADES / LEVEL UP - 10 OUT 10 - skills and talents are unlockable by earning XP for each kill, loot or plot decision. Here, your squad levels up independently from you. The progress of character upgrades is remarkable good. The effect in combat improvement is awesome.

TRADE STORES / INVENTORY - 10 OUT 10 - You can buy and sell items from your inventory. And all your characters share your items. You can find many stores throughout the world locations and sometimes there are merchants on the road.

DLC / Extras - 10 out 10 - Buy the Ultimate Edition. Game content is huge with 3 DLC added to the main campaign and 5 bonus missions lauched from the 'Others campaigns' menu independently one to another.


CONS

COMBAT - 5 out 10. The weakiest element of the game. Camera position ranges from traditional 3rd person (over the shoulder behind the main character) to an aerial view similar to the Baldur's gate view. You need to point & click with your mouse to define a new target. The best part is that you can swap beteween controllable characters. For instance, regardless your main character is an Human Rogue, you can play in combat with your Mage squadmate (also reffered as your 'party member' in the game). Actually, you can play with all your party members in combat or during map explorations. The shame is that during a combat, some NPC will attemp to strike you or another character and will hit nothing but the air. AI seems dumb and poorly scripted and affects all controllable characters and NPCs. Most of the enemies will rally into you and your team faster and furiously than you actually can move. That is why you need to pause the combat and prepare yourselves for the battle. Automatic combat strikes can be easily set up by using the "combat tactics' menu for each controllable character. For instance, IF the CLOSEST ENEMY is attacking MAIN CHARACTER using MELEE weapons, THEN use the ability SHIELD BLAST. In this game, you can pause the combat, rotate the camera, change the camera angle, change the controllable character, choose the power, strike, weapon etc and resume the combat. However, due to poor AI programming, this feature does not work 100% well. I would prefer real time combat like gears of wars, mass effect, etc. However, the character upgrade based on Experience points has a strong impact in gameplay combat.
- NO CONTROLLER SUPPORT. Play it with keyboard /mouse or try to find a game mod on the net. That is why I did not played KOTOR.
- LIMITED INTERACTABILITY - PC version has no 'interact buttom' message as you gets closer to a door or a chest. You have to use a mouse to point at it and click all the time. Really anoying.
- REPLAYABILITY - Due to the combat mode, I prefer not playing it again.
- MUTE MAIN CHARACTER - no comments.
- GAME CRASHES - PC version crashes a lot
- LOW LEVEL OF ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIVITY. Interactivity is limited to the looting system (crates, chests, doors, corpses, etc) and some levers to open gates and doors. YOU CAN ONLY DISARM TRAPS AND DESTROY SOME BARRICADES if you or your squad have certain skills.
- No horses to travel with neither you cannot walk from one location to another. Fast travel only.
- TOO MANY LOADING SCREENS - In a city, there are multiples buildings and houses. If you enter a house, you get a loading screen. If you decide to exit it...oops, another loading screen. Very anoying.

"Dragon age" has interesting plot and amasing dialogues, especially between companions. Besides, decisions you've made during the game have their consequences. You definitely should pay attention to this game.

Awesome game.

Do you like D&D? Well here's Bioware's new D&D-but-not-so-we-don't-have-to-pay-for-a-liscence game. But see, it's different because the elves are downtrodden, and the orcs are also undead. Also it's M, because blood makes woo-woo elves mature.

Standard KotOR-era RPG mechanics, standard Bioware array of tropes. You already know if you'll like it or not.