BioWare have a rich history of making compelling role-playing games – from the genre defining Baldur’s Gate all the way through to the scandal filled Mass Effect. It is quite an impressive history to continue, but if anyone can make a solid RPG then surely BioWare can. And they have. It has its faults, which I will detail, but they are greatly overshadowed by the huge world and its impressive history.
Ferelden will be nothing new to fans of the fantasy genre, relying on age-old stereotypes to structure its story. Dwarves live in mines, untrusting of the world above. Elves live in the forest (or slavery) persecuted and scorned at by their human counterparts. Humans spread out across the lands, squabbling and killing each other like we do. Mages live in superstition and mistrust helping out where needed but always with their own motives at hand. What unites all these squabbling allies is the emergence of a great evil, the Darkspawn.
Similar, yes, but BioWare have twisted and skewed things just enough to give it its own identity. Personally I have no qualms with reading or playing fantasy stories that are based in cliché as long as they have interesting characters, narrative or (preferably ‘and’) a good story. The main gist of the story is featured around the Grey Wardens, an age-old order formed to combat the Darkspawn. In recent years they have fallen from grace but with the emergence of a new blight – a Darkspawn invasion – they have to reunite the races in a fight for the survival of Ferelden.
You feature in the story as a new member of the Grey Wardens. This is where you get to create your own character and the options are very impressive. Choose from Dwarf, Human and Elf, each option having two further options, such as Noble Dwarf or Castless Dwarf. Once you have your race and background you can choose your class from the standard affair of Mage, Ranger and Warrior. Sounds simple enough but what makes it so compelling is the fact that every character choice has its own playable origin story encouraging you to play through the game numerous times.
I do recommend restarting your character if you are not happy with them. I started an Elf Ranger and the origin story did not grip me, but when I started my Castless Dwarven warrior, Snorri, I was hooked. The game can be a bit of a slow cooker for the first few hours but give it a chance because it will eat you up if you let it. Like Mass Effect you feel like your walking into a well established world, a world that has been spinning and living for years, a world that feels so large. Rather than swamp you with all the details BioWare cleverly gives you enough to play through the game feeling well-informed and just gently hinting at what lies beneath.
Throughout your journey you will see many different environments, from the villages and cities of Ferelden, to the fortress of Redcliff (not the Chinese war epic) through the forests of the elves, all the way to the Deep Roads of Orzammar. The latter is the place that completely blew my mind and also conveniently proves my point about the depth of history that is present in the game. Orzammar is the last stronghold of the Dwarven empire and is a beautifully designed area. Rivers of lava run through the streets with great structures carved straight into the rocks around you. If this was not impressive enough, you quickly learn that Orzammar was just one small city in a great underground empire. There were many different cities all connected by roads carved straight through the earth. Exploring Orzammar and the deep roads is one of the best gaming experiences I have had in a long time. Simply beautiful surroundings steeped in history, I cannot wait to go back.
But Dragon Age is not all about exploring and looking at the scenery, no, it’s about adventure, wizardry and swordplay – all the components that make up a great fantasy tale. The combat is similar to Baldur’s Gate, where you manage a squad of four players, coordinating their attacks accordingly. BioWare have included an AI tactic system where you can set up specific actions for almost every situation. This is very good in theory but sadly in practice it does not work so well. Most of the time you will have to switch through your characters, downing potions and trying to disengage from opponents, just to survive the hard fights.
There are a lot of tough fights throughout the story, most you can persevere with and keep trying to find the right balance, but some will have you either breaking your controller off your knee bone or switching to casual difficulty mode. The boss battles are tremendously difficult, swamping you with regular enemies, blasting you with spells, while an gore smash’s your face into the stonework. These difficulty spikes are annoying at first but you should learn fairly quickly to save the game as much as possible. Nothing worse than losing a few hours of gameplay, especially if it involves a lot of dialogue.
The voice work in Dragon Age is a work of art.. There are hundreds of NPC’s in the game, all with either one or two lines or a whole conversation. Most of the characters are voiced very well with a few slightly ropey NPC’s. Through these characters you gain quests or just get to learn a little about the history of your surroundings. Your party members even interact with each other – in between the bouts of Darkspawn slaughtering – and considering there are 10 different characters to choose from you should still be hearing new lines even on your second or third play through. Conversation is an important factor in keeping your characters happy, happiness can lead to romance, and romance leads to what seems to be the inevitable Bioware sex scene.
It is all very light with no nudity and nothing to really be shocked about so there should be no complaints. I say should. However, getting the characters into bed is no easy feat. You can give them gifts to increase their opinion of you, with some gifts being suitable for different characters. The real problem is the moral choices in the game. Every time you get offered a choice, the answer will either increase or decrease a characters liking for you. This makes characters like Morrigan almost impossible to please as she hates pretty much everyone and always complains when you choose to help the needy, which I do, I’m a good boy at heart.
Morally, there are some really grand decisions in the game, some had me musing for an hour before deciding. In fact, Dragon Age presents you with some of the biggest decisions I have come across in the gaming world. Choose wrongly and you can lose the faith of one or more of your favourite characters, get kicked out of shops and even end up having to kill people. To see all the possible story arcs you will have to play through the game at least two times. It is good to see a game that actually tackles these choices and manages to execute it so well.
With all of Dragon Age’s positives, it greatly outweighs the problems. Difficulty spikes and clumsy combat can easily be forgiven for what is a beautifully rich game. This is easily one of the best classic fantasy RPG’s of this generation, and for that reason alone it is a game that you really have to play.
VideogameUK verdict: 8/10
