Dragon Age: Origins Review

On the technical side of things, the Xbox 360 edition of Dragon Age: Origins did not seem to have any issues that could turn you away from playing. What I noticed was that the game sometimes fails to generate loot properly. After you kill every nearby enemy, it takes a few seconds until the loot shows up. Still, this was a minor bug.

After somewhat of a lengthy debate here at ActionTrip, we couldn't help but agree that Dragon Age could've benefited from a different approach to art direction. Most of the in-game characters look uninteresting and bland, which is also true of certain parts of Ferelden. Then again, in terms of visual appeal, DA is generally a mixed bag of bad and good. In contrast to badly presented random scenery, other locations look quite beautiful. It's obvious they invested more creativity into specific areas, while others remain unimaginative. We understand the concept artist's effort to give the world a more darkish and greyer tone, to suit the storyline, but somehow, the whole setting feels a bit lifeless. Consequently, some of the races look just as disappointing - particularly the Elves. This might affect what people think of the game very early on, in terms of race and class selection. Ultimately, we do stress that this is a question of individual taste. Believe me when I say it that DA compensates for such mishaps, mostly through gameplay.

It may not be the prettiest game ever made, there are still some great-looking environments such as the Dwarven city of Orzammar and locations like the Ruins above the town of Haven (where players head out on a quest called the "Urn of Sacred Ashes"). Fair enough, a few locations tend to show poor texture patterns, albeit that shouldn't really bother you too much as you'll most likely be swept up by well-written story, the vastness of Ferelden and the numerous challenging tasks that will be placed before you and your party.

It's amazing. They all missed!

Let's see what you've been eating these days.

The game features an epic soundtrack, complete with a range of cool music themes (not one of them heavy metal, thank God). What's more, there's some fine voice acting at work here, befitting each in-game character perfectly.

Despite the fact that they are also making two major games -- Mass Effect 2 and SW: The Old Republic -- BioWare delivers on its promise. Players can expect a thoroughly entertaining and deep single-player RPG experience with an intriguing plot, solid quest structure, exciting gameplay and an unbelievably vast world to explore. Each quest feels like a separate and well-told story on its own (that also goes for every side-quest we embarked upon). Dragon Age: Origins, unlike a majority of titles we see today, offers a considerably large dose of replayability, which makes it a worthwhile purchase - not to mention the fact that it took us approximately 40 hours for one playthrough and that's without completing all of the side-quests. The M-rated content comes in a bloody package here. Blood basically splatters across the armor and faces of the characters, which adds to the immersion (even if it looks a bit funny on occasion :)).

This game is an important contribution to the decaying and nearly forgotten scene of single-player RPGs. The designers may have been playing things a bit safe with this one, relying heavily on familiar gameplay mechanics from earlier titles such as Baldur's Gate and NWN. And yes, there's the ever-present issue related to the art direction. Again, the art is a matter of personal preference. Dismissing this game for its art and a few bugs would be rash judgment indeed. There's so much to enjoy here, we feel all gamers should give it a go.