Dragon Age: Origins

2024-12-09
You'll have to forgive my high-schooler self of 2009 for pirating this the first time I played it. I played so much, immediately opting for a mage, immersed in the incredible intro in the tower, so curious to find out how I could possibly become a Blood Mage because How Cool Is That. But at some point I just kind of burned out on my full party of mages absolutely shreking everything we came across. And so it was abandoned like so many stinky dwarves in Orzammar, due likely to a mixture of youthful whimsy and the fact that because I pirated the game I had no skin in the game.

And in 2023, over 10 years later, I finally went back to see the old progenitor of this now-venerable series. And whad'ya know, it's still just such a great game. The grand scale of the story, the gripping scenes with grotty demons, ah and that fantastic dense world building weaving it all together. And don't forget the ability to meaningfully spec characters differently is fantastic (love making a Blood mage with high Con that uses their party's health bars as their mana pool). The whole way you're given rewards for exploring. They give you XP for reading lore books, they give you XP for finishing quests, they give you cool items for going off and exploring every part of the map. It's such a damn tight CRPG it's a bit crazy. And it's got a perfect length (though apparently too long for my younger self, ah you stupid naive youth). Oh and it's got some of the best repercussions of decisions ever. The whole number of branches you can go down with the demon inside the kid is wild.

Especially glad I finished it because depending on who you talk to Dragon Age 2 is the best of the lot. And that's next up.

2023-04-01
I'm a little lazy to write a review especially for a game that I'm sure has had so much written about why its great. So let me try to just keep it short.

I first played this when it came out back in 2009 and I adored it. Of course I pirated it because I was a poor high schooler / soon-to-be college student. But I was addicted. I played so much, immediately opting for mage, so curious to find out how I could possibly become a Blood Mage because How Cool Is That. But at some point I just kind of burned out on my full party of mages smoking most of the content of the game. Somewhere in the Dwarven area.

I, now, over 10 years later have finally finished it. After attempting to play through it again a questionable number of years back (maybe college?). And it's just such a great game. The story is so cool. The world building is cool. The ability to meaningfully spec characters differently (love making a Blood mage with high Con that uses their party as their mana pool). The rewards that are given to you for exploring are great. They give you XP for reading lore books, they give you XP for finishing quests, they give you cool items for going off and exploring every part of the map. It's such a damn tight CRPG it's a bit crazy. And it's got a perfect length (though I somehow never finished it the first time... lol). Oh and it's got some of the best repercussions of decisions ever. The whole number of branches you can go down with the demon inside the kid is wild.

Great game. Glad I finished it.

Also realizing my rating is skewed because I just kind of played it too many times. And playing it again now in 2023 the lustre is lost significantly... Hmm.