Dragon Age: Origins Reviews

Along with the new Mass Effect 2 previews, I thought I’d point out a couple more reviews for Dragon Age: Origins that showed up over the last several hours.

First up is TheGo with a score of 9.5/10:

The only real complaint I have is in the main character’s lack of speech. Dragon Age definitely has one and a half feet in the door, but without your main character speaking to the NPCs like Commander Shepard would in Mass Effect, it feels more like you’re being talked at rather than being talking to. It makes me wonder why I was given an option for what kind of voice I wanted my character have when I was making him in the first place.

Everything else in the game, however, is above and beyond just about everything we’ve seen this year, and definitely worth a purchase. PC gamers will love it for the game’s Eclipse engine for better convenience of fan-made content, but 360 and PS3 owners will have to deal with loading times and some slight differences in graphic quality. Buying the game also gives you access to one of the game’s DLC campaigns, and if you plan on getting Mass Effect 2 in January, a special-looking piece of armor, some neat value to be had alongside such a great package. But it doesn’t matter which version you get here, just pick it up.

And then we have Hardcore Casual with no score provided:

The story/setting so far has been very solid. I was half-expecting a Witcher-like world due to the mature rating, but Dragon Age is more NWN/BG-harsh than Witcher-harsh, think PG-13 rather than R. Which is not to say it’s all fairies and rainbows, it’s not, but it has so far lacked that very gritty tension that the Witcher had with it’s theme of racial prejudice and true ‘˜no right answer’ options, where most choices resulted in something bad happening, with the choice usually being ‘˜to who’. The Witcher really made me stop and think about some of decisions you had to make, and while the choices in Dragon Age are not always the clear-cut good/neutral/funny (there is never a true evil option) of NWN, I do wish they were a bit tougher/grayer at times. That aside, the story so far has been very interesting and well executed, while moving along at a good pace.

Obviously, I highly recommend Dragon Age to anyone with even a slight RPG interest, as so far it’s played as just one of those games that’s head and shoulders above the norm. I write this while sitting here excited to get back into it, and baring a complete 180 at some point, Dragon Age should put itself among the top RPGs I’ve ever played.