The Not Book Club: Books, Games and other Lifesavers: Dragon Age Origins

It's been about time I blog about this game. It has been one of my favorite games back in '10 and it took up majority of my free time back then. Dragon Age Origins was refered to me by a store clerk actually, saying that that was a pretty cool game and so I bought it. I usually never buy because someone tells me to, but this time I had my spending jeans on and I just thought what the hell, I got myself a brand new PC and Imma use it to the fullest.

Said, done! The first thing that impressed me was the opening screen with this damned dragon.... Awesome graphics and a roleplaying game...that was all I could think of in the beginning. The story line was good too. In the beginning you can choose from different races and classes like in every other roleplaying game, but every race and class gives you a different storyline and background story to begin on. Some are more extensive and some are less extensive.

The game is about the great attack of the darkspawn who threaten to destroy mankind, elfkin and dwarvenkind. The darkspawn are lead by a great dragon who is the Archdemon. Once he is killed, it is said that all darkspawn will die or dissappear. In the early days, a group of fighters called the Grey Warden fought successfully against the darkspawn and will so again with your help. Your character joins the Grey Wardens and becomes the hero of Ferelden.

Archdemon

You are the decision maker in the game and the whole world alters whenever you choose something. Obviously there are only limited choices and limited cut scenes so the choices are predictable. The only problem here is that you do not get to have your own voice, just like with neverwinter nights. The style of gameplay also reminds me of a better 3D version of Neverwinter Nights.

There were however plenty of differences like the ability to have different classes at once at a certain level.
You were able to collect all the different types of sub-classes and be a mixture out of all of them. Let me give you an example with Mages. You could be a Healer, a Bloodmage, a Warlock etc and the more quests you do, the more classes you can unlock for your character to develop on.

Another great thing about this game are the romances. You can choose to develop relationships with the members of your party, whether romantic or friendshippy relationships. You are even able to have several romances at one or even have a threesome. You get more and more cut-scenes with your lover asking you stuff and being all intimate.

Combat modes are similar to regular role playing games. You can control every characters' moves and also use action slots to decide how characters are supposed to behave in certain situations. There are hotkeys for every ability you have and from then on it's just cast and heal.

I also got myself the expansion Awakening, which is a side story about the Architect and the Mother of dark spawn. It was O-K, but I'd rather not have spent money for it.