Dragon Age Origins - XBOX 360 Review

In recent years, Bioware has been a developer sitting happily at the pinnacle of story-driven action role-playing games, and their catalogue speaks for itself - Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, Jade Empire and Mass Effect can all attest to their ability to immerse players within quality stories, whilst providing a thoroughly entertaining style of gameplay. For their latest foray into their favourite genre, Bioware has players trading in their futuristic laser guns for old school swords, maces and magic. So how does this latest venture fare?

Dragon Age: Origins takes place in the seemingly Lord of the Rings inspired kingdom of Fereldon. After a quick prologue, our heroes are forced to leave their old lives behind as they're recruited into the Grey Wardens. The wardens are an ancient order of elite fighters whose task it is to defend the world against an apocalyptic event known as the Blight, by taking the fight back to the forces of darkness. To perform said duty, players must venture far and wide, exploring the kingdom and recruiting fighters of all races in an attempt to unite Fereldon against the rising darkness.

The games prologue can vary depending on the race, social standing and class of character you create. There are six of these origin stories in total and each provides a unique and distinctly different background story for the character. Some small nuances in the grander scheme of things become apparent throughout multiple play-throughs as various characters and locations from these introductions make reappearances in the main story. Not only do these prologues add several hours to the game, they reward players for replaying the game by providing unique dialogue to the occasional NPC and additional motivation to the player's actions, this means no two play throughs will ever be the same.

The story, as is always the case with Bioware, is very good... even if it does draw some vague comparisons to the Lord of the Rings. It is an epic tale filled with betrayal, anarchy and a copious amount of fighting, which will likely take upwards of 25-30 hours to complete. The overall plot - the sweeping, epic tale that follows that old 'a few heroes taking the fight to the forces of evil' chestnut - seems a little clichéd in parts. However, the game's storytelling really shines through with its rich lore, interesting characters, the six origin stories and the diverging quest plots.

No story would be complete without its characters, and whilst our main man/woman is unfortunately a mute, the various personalities encountered on the quest to quell the darkspawn threat are numerous and entertaining. Players can hook up with several other adventurers along the way, and each of them has hundreds of lines of dialogue and their own unique back story and side-quests to learn about and explore. Their motivations, inclinations and opinions really help to immerse the player into the game and assist in further fleshing out, not only of the characters themselves, but the story and the entire world of Fereldon as well. And yes, like Mass Effect, if you play your cards right, you can form relationships with and even sex it up with some of your companions (dog excluded, thankfully), Huzzah!

Important philosophies intertwined throughout Bioware games that have made a comeback in Dragon Age: Origins are those of morality and choice. Players can take the good or evil route, and most of the story set pieces have opposing factions that players will have to ally themselves with. Taking either side will change the story, dialogue and outcomes. The amount of variation and choice give the game an amazing amount of replayability, and several play-throughs of the main story will be required to fully experience all the possibilities.

Players are given the opportunity to play as one of three different character classes; the Mage, the Rogue and the Warrior. The Mage is a magic user specialising in ranged elemental attacks, area of effect attacks and can even turn enemies into walking bombs. The Warrior is a weapons expert who can dish out as much damage as he can soak up, and the Rogue can unlock doors, disarm traps and utilise a range of numerous damaging and enemy-hindering abilities. Each of the character classes handle quite differently, and to further diversify the experience each class has an additional four specialisations, which add a nice bit of variety as to how each class plays. As expected, killing enemies and completing quests yields experience, accumulating enough of this will allow players to level up. With each additional level, players gain points, which they can spend on acquiring new abilities and additional proficiencies to make killing bad guys easier.

As is the norm for RPGs, the gameplay relies heavily on its user-friendly combat system. When exploring the world, players will be accompanied by a group of three AI players who will handle themselves when entering combat. Individual battle commands are handled by quick action slots and a pair of battle menus, which can be pulled up at any time with a quick press of a shoulder button. The battle menu and quick action setup is very effective and makes combat much easier to get the hang of. To supplement this, players can switch between all four party members at any time during combat to use their abilities.

For the more hardcore players, Dragon Age includes a nifty macro creator that can help to control how their AI party members will act. This macro creator allows players to build up a list of commands that party members will perform if specific conditions are met during combat. For example, players can create an instruction that will make a certain player heal another party member if their health falls below a specified threshold, or specify utilisation of various player attacks depending on the number and clustering of enemy combatants. This option to manage the AI's use of abilities allows players to enjoy a much greater degree of control over the flow of battle and is certainly an addition to the game that makes the experience a little more enjoyable. Of course, this customisation can be a little daunting to start with, and even after repeated use, may not be everybody's bag. So the game provides several default AI character profiles for those who want to do away with the tinkering and jump feet first into the action.

The presentation of the game is great, Bioware continue their fantastic run of high quality voice acting, which helps draw the player into the experience, whilst the music adds a tonne of atmosphere to the fantasy world. Unfortunately, the graphics are looking a little bit dated, but still do a great job of creating a realistic fantasy world filled with some monstrous enemies, believable characters and beautiful locations.

Bioware have done it again! Dragon Age: Origins provides hundreds of hours of gameplay surrounding an epic story with diverging plot lines, engrossing characters, three character classes, and a tonne of side quests. With additional download content already available and more on the horizon, it's a game that will provide a lot of bang for your buck. RPG fans rejoice!

Story: 9/10 - A great fantasy story with diverging plots.

Gameplay: 8.5/10 - The user friendly combat system makes the game easy to pick up and play, whilst the macro creator caters for the more hardcore contingent.

Graphics: 7.5/10 - The graphics are looking a little dated, but still provide players with some beautiful environments.

Audio: 9/10 - The voice acting is great and the music helps to immerse the player.

Overall: 8.5/10

Review by Paul Williams