Dragon Age: Origins

03 Nov 2009

Mac Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 PC (Microsoft Windows)
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9.0 rating
1485 want
4613 played
302 playing
113 reviews
Developer
BioWare Edmonton
Publisher
Electronic Arts

Tags

Time to beat

Main story icon

Main story

40h 30m
Main story and extras icon

Main story + extras

50h
100% completion icon

100% completion

87h
Based on 17 answers
Summary

Dragon Age: Origins is a third-person role-playing game described as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights franchises. Players create their own character by customizing gender and appearance as well as choosing a race and class. Combat is in real time with the ability to pause at any moment: tactical options include an editor which allows the player to give the AI detailed instructions on how to behave in every possible situation. Although the main storyline is the same for every character created, the game features six unique prologues, two for each race. Dragon Age: Origins received critical acclaim upon release, with praise mostly directed at its story, setting, characters, music and combat system.

Dragon Age Origins has a great story, likeable characters and an intriguing setting. The combat, however, is not fun. It has potential, which Bioware finally capitalised on in Dragon Age Inquisition, but in Origins it is simply too clunky and unintuitive to work. Some enemies require you to plan out every single frame of combat or they will absolutely destroy you, (even on Casual difficulty) and doing this is incredibly tedious. The alternative to this is that you can essentially program the AI to fight how you want, but even this doesn't make the game any easier. Too many times my ranged teammates (who barely have any defence) will rush into close range of enemies just to be cut down in seconds, or do something else stupid that gets everyone killed. Everything else about this game pulled me through to the end and I'm glad I finished it but at times the game felt incredibly draining.

Although it is cool that you can import your save file over to the next games, I don't recommend starting with Origins. The story might not make as much sense or be as impactful if you start at Dragon Age II or Inquisition but I think the overall gameplay will be a lot more fun for newcomers. I feel the same way about Mass Effect too; start at Mass Effect 2 it is so much better than the first.

Also I would recommend playing as a Rogue and putting your points into lockpicking. Nearly every chest in this game is locked and it is so frustrating, especially if you are a loot hoarder like me.
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12 Jan 2021
The story is amazing and the decisions you make are actually changing the plot. But the mechanics is really odd. I couldn't kill some enemies even on easy mode.
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07 Apr 2023
this is a glorified dating sim
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20 Jul 2023
Really nice story, but it's mechanics are hard to come to terms with. It's not player-friendly at all, but still a good game
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07 Mar 2023
why’s it look so ugly
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09 Jan 2023
great game. Completed it two times. Recommend
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21 Nov 2022
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