Once upon a time, there was a guy named Remus. One day, he heard about a new BioWare game, called Dragon Age. The rumour back then was that it’s an unofficial sequel to the Baldur’s Gate series. So, Remus got excited and became a fanboy. After a while, EA swallowed BioWare up, and announced the official name for the game to be Dragon Age: Origins. Oh, Remus went berserk. “This is the beginning of the end”, he said. In a few years we’re going to play Dragon Age: 2012. Just like the FIFA or NBA series, a great IP goes to die in the Elephant Cemetery.

At the end of the mystical year 2009, Dragon Age: Origins came out, Remus played it, and realised he’s a big douche.

Epilogue

A long time has passed since the game hit the shelves and my intense fantasy fever has ended. Now, I can honestly write about my beloved Dragon Age: Origins, without forgetting to nitpick the parts that need my attention in the 'bashing department'. Let’s start with the story. David Gaider is the author of Dragon Age – The Stolen Throne, the book on which Origins’ narrative is based. In a way, it’s sad to see the weight of the whole games’ story standing on the shoulders of one man and one book, especially since the book was a bit lame. Now, don’t get angry with me. I’m not saying that it’s too disappointing, but, in a way, it combines Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings. These handicaps are seen in the game as well, bringing forth clichés and shortcomings. That’s not to say that the story is entirely bad. Origins offers a hefty amount of twists and turns, and some mind-boggling situations as well. What makes the story even better, is the fact that you can find a whopping array of books, tomes and scrolls in dungeons and different areas, that really cement the feeling that you are really spending your time in an authentic fantasy world.

Bless their pointy little heads

Your progress in this fantasy world is viewed through the eyes of your quartet. Yourself, plus another three heroes accompanying you through your travels. And, if you like tactics, than Dragon Age: Origins delivers. Although some combinations are more useful than others, the way you tinker with the members of your group can really affect the outcome of every battle. I think it’s safe to say that DAO is by far the best tactical role-playing game since Baldur’s Gate 2. You’d be surprised by the amount of hacking and slashing you’ll need to undergo all along the beautiful single player campaign, but, that doesn’t mean that button mashing is your friend. Without carefully attending to every skill and spell of your party members, you’ll surely eat dirt in no time. Some people have been referring to Origins as an incredibly hard game, even on the easy difficulty, but, if you analyse stats and abilities from all your members, you’ll soon find a combination that can make you breeze through combat even on hard difficulty (I won't spoil that in this review). The balancing could have been better, but even if you’re a beginner or a hardcore RPG fan, you’ll find plenty of challenges along the way. The tactics system is a very important aspect of the game. You may issue command to your quartet, that is if you don’t want to control them completely (on the nightmare difficulty, I’d advised for manual control). The system is very well-thought out, and offers a whopping array of features that can really make you feel in control, even if the AI is running the show. It’s been a while since I really took time to think about ambushes, backstabs and crowd control in a game, so the 'combat department' deserves a big gold medal.

There are three types of characters for you to begin the game with, and they are: fighter, mage and thief. At first glance, you’ll probably be disappointed by the small number of choices, but have no fear, because every class, branches in other four categories, from which you can choose two (first at level 7, the next one at 14). Several of this specialisations are only unlocked after completing a few related quests, and in this way, the character development greatly recovers after the brief disappointment at the character creation screen. Every race has different starting points, and I don’t mean that from an action games’ point of view, but from an anthropological point of view. There are six different backgrounds for you to choose from, depending on the race and origin (get it?), so expect that the first two-three hours of gameplay to be extremely different on a second play-through.

All along the Mages’ Watchtower

The locations you’ll be visiting on your adventures are astonishing. And here’s the point when I start unprofessionally mixing the technical stuff with the level design. The game looks amazing. Every house, every dungeon, every forest, is ripped from right from your own imagination if you’ve read a good fantasy novel in your days. The PC version is definitely superior to its console counterparts. Firstly, because of Origins’ superb graphics. So if you have a decent rig that can run on high details (and above), I wholeheartedly recommend this version. Second of all, it doesn’t matter if you’re a master of the controller, because the mouse and the keyboard fit like a glove to the gameplay mechanics. And lastly, because you’re not forced to play the game in third person view, giving you the opportunity to go into a top-down perspective, and fiddle with the camera however you wish, giving you more control of the tactics that are required for a full-fledged experience. But getting back to the level design, I must add one last thing. Even though it’s sublime, the cherry on top is added by the Fade which instantly reminded me of the Spellhold level from an earlier BioWare game (guess which?). It’s useless to rant on about the levels, since every word I write will seem like a big fat spoiler, so I’ll stop.

BioWare have again outdone themselves, creating a believable universe and casting webs of great narrative all along this journey. There are a few moments when you see past these webs and the immersion is a bit crippled, but after another ten minutes in the game, you forget about these minor hiccups. And although I wanted to complain about the shallowness of Origins, compared to previous titles by the Canadian developer, I must shut the hell up and enjoy the game for what it is. It deserves a five out of five, even if my previous nitpicks make it seem that this won’t be the final score. It’s a great experience, from start to finish, and everyone even remotely connected to western RPGs should really take a look at Dragon Age: Origins.