So I’ve really been digging Dragon Age: Origins. Of all the games I got for Christmas and during the Steam holiday sale, I’ve been putting the most time into it… well, except for Braid. There are a lot of things that really make this game special.
I first started the game and rolled a mage. Looking back, I seriously wish that I would have first rolled a mage in World of Warcraft so it seems that every RPG game that I’ve played since that has a mage type class… I roll that.
After playing for about 8 -10 hours with my mage I decided that my skill/talent build wasn’t exactly what I wanted… so I rolled another mage from scratch to attempt to get things right. With Dragon Age, there is no such thing as respec… so make your choices wisely. My second mage, I focused on making a support/healer class and it has turned out to be really fun. Throughout the game, you roll around with 3 other characters, each of which you have total control over.
I currently am rolling with a fighter tank class, a rogue and another mage that is focused on blowing stuff up. At any time during a battle, you can pause the game, assess the situation and send your characters out to do whatever you want them to do. Usually at the start of a fight, I will pause the game and send all my characters out to different targets and use their CC ability on them. I then usually will let the fight play itself out, healing and buffing where necessary. Of course, I can always pause when things get a little hairy. The combat in Dragon Age is incredibly satisfying.
Another thing that is very cool is the way the storyline can change based on choices you make. I got to a point in the game where I had to make a choice: either I could use blood magic (forbidden), sacrificing an innocent woman to save a young boy who had been possessed by a powerful demon… or I could head off in another direction in source of another solution. The first time I played through, I chose the blood magic route and continued on my way after killing the demon. With my second mage I chose the less evil way. This has completely changed what I’m doing, where I’m headed and what could happen next. Seriously with this mechanic that is thrown in throughout the game, you could play through several times and never have the exact same experience twice. Very cool.
I’m going to continue to post cool things and screenshots as I get them along with the stories that accompany them… I don’t really want to give away any spoilers because everyone should play this game. I see myself dumping hours and hours more into this game over the next several weeks (months?) … that is until Mass Effect 2 comes out in a couple weeks… we’ll see how that game pans out. To me right now, Bioware is doing everything right and I have more faith and hope that they will be able to make The Old Republic the seriously deep MMORPG that we have all been waiting for.
