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Showing reviews 6-10 of 223
 By far the best RPG for the PS3 to date. March 10, 2010
Dharma (Westchester, NY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This game is really amazing. Bioware has succeeded many times before in the RPG department, who could forget Never Winter Nights? Immediately, you will see a lot of NWN in Dragon Age, but they took all of the things that where bad about NWN and removed them, to create an amazing RPG with all the right elements.
The incredible broad open-endedness of the game is definitely a hallmark of Bioware. Wow did they get it right. You can do almost anything in this game, and your actions have consequences that ripple out. Because of this, and the different origin stories, this game has an insanely high level of replay-ability. The voice acting is top notch, and the story line is amazing. It doesn't leave any room for clear cut good vs evil, these are very difficult moral choices with consequences that could shift the entire story.
The games nonlinear nature makes for a really terrific environment to Role Play with a character of your chosing. Someone can be a sweet talker, and get themselves out of situations or even con people out of money, or you could take the vigilante aproach, you could be a saint, or violent insolent bastard haha. The possibilities are endless, and truely amazing.
The game forces you to role play by these grey area decisions, its not as easy as being "good" or "evil" like so many "open ended" RPGs offer you. There are consequences to actions, and most of the major choices in the game make you really reflect on what you should do, what your character would do. Its wonderful and delightful, and even people new to RPGs will enjoy how involved one gets in the story.
Pros:
Extreme Open-endedness makes the game the best RPG out for the PS3.
Story line is top notch and deeply involved, and large enough to accommodate several play throughs while still uncovering and learning more about the world your involved in.
Character Customization borders on ridiculous with the level of detail control.
Music is beautiful and consistent through the game
Character relationships make the story much more interesting, allowing the player to gain trust of different characters and learn more of their past.
D&D reminiscent character leveling
Voice Acting is really terrific, the best I've heard.
Combat is a bit clumsy, but it is basically very good, very much like NWN.
Cons:
Combat is a little clumsy, as stated, but it really isn't THAT bad, it takes some getting used to is all.
Graphics the game is older now, and it shows, but that being said the graphics still look very good.
The game is hands down the best RPG available for the PS3. Its a must own for any RPG fans, you will not regret this purchase :)
 Hardcore Fans Rejoice!!! Everyone Else... Might Have Something Better to Do. March 9, 2010
Poisoned Blade (California)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Those of you who are hungry to play a Classic RPG will enjoy Dragon Age, but this game will strain the patience of many non-hardcore fantasy fans.
Story 7/10
You must unite the Elves, Dwarves, Mages, and Humans to battle against a Dark Lord and his race of Darkspawn. Yeah, it's the Dark Lord story again... Only this time, the Dark Lord is called the Arch Demon... and he's a Dragon... Demon... Demon Dragon? Anyway, he's tough... and Dark. As far as fantasy goes, the story is pretty vanilla.
Graphics 5/10
Graphics snobs beware! Unfortunately, even on the highest settings, Dragon Age looks about six years old. It fails to measure up against older games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and The Witcher. If you've been playing games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, then you may end up hating the graphics. The lighting is bland and there is a noticeable lack of detail. However, the art direction is pretty good and there are distinct styles for all of the different cultures of Ferelden. The Dwarven architecture is rocky and blocky. The Elven items are finely crafted and heavily inspired by nature. The Human castles are regal and the slums are depressing. Medieval Fantasy Fans will appreciate the look of the game, but the graphics snobs will be disappointed in the quality of the art.
World 7/10
One of the most highly detailed worlds in a Single Player RPG. It's HEAVILY based on Lord of the Rings, but there is a darker twist. Elves have been enslaved, Magic is under the strict rule of the government, Human Kingdoms backstab each other to expand their borders... All of the different races have their own beliefs, religions, cultures, trade, customs, governments, and opinions. Hardcore fans will love this! However, Dragon Age violates the "Show Don't Tell Rule" as much as possible. Instead of having interesting missions in unique levels to depict the cultures of the races, the game stops all of the action and simply explains the cultures to you through the NPC's and Text via Codexes. Just about every NPC will gladly have a 5 minute conversation with you about their homeland. Unfortunately, the NPC just stands there with a blank expression on their face and simply talks at you. It is like someone is reading a fictional encyclopedia to you... and they keep going... and going... and going... The game would have been much better if YOU learned about the culture through the action and the quests, rather than dialogue and text.
Characters 8/10
The Character Creation system of Dragon Age is great. You can make just about any type of character that you can imagine. The NPC's that join the party are also very well thought out and have their moments. In Bioware fashion, they also bicker with each other when they join your party. Some of this is pretty funny. Unfortunately, because the world is dark, there is more arguing and pessimism than interesting or funny moments. The game picks up at the end, but throughout the middle, it's pretty dry.
Interface 2/10
The good news... there is a "Party Inventory" that is accessible by your current party. No more micromanaging items and trying to see who has space in their bag for this extra belt of frost resistance that you may need later. Any party member with you can give or take from this inventory at any time.
The bad news... buying and equipping items is fairly broken. Final Fantasy has been doing this correctly since the late 1980's and it's shocking to see a new game drop the ball like this. Items that you sell must be unequipped first. So, shopping goes a little something like this:
> Talk to shopkeeper.
> Get the "I want to buy something option"
> He says something witty.
> He opens his store
> You see a cool sword that Alistair could use.
> You buy it and put it in your party inventory.
> You exit the shop inventory.
> You unequip Alistair's old sword and equip his new one.
> You talk to the shopkeeper.
> Get the "I want to buy something option."
> He opens his store.
> You sell Alistair's old sword to the shop's inventory.
You should be able to easily swap items in and out of NPC's inventories and shopping could be streamlined 90%.
It gets worse if you see an item for a party member that is back at your camp.
> Talk to shopkeeper.
> Get the "I want to buy something option"
> He says something witty.
> He opens his store
> You see a cool bow that Leliana could use.
> You try to "Compare" it to her bow.
> But she has her sword equipped.
> You end the conversation.
> You exit the store... Load Screen
> You exit the town... Load Screen
> You access the World Map... and select your Camp... Load Screen
> You walk over to Leliana and toggle her weapons.
> You exit camp... Load Screen
> You access the World Map and select the Town... Load Screen.
> You walk to the shop and enter it... Load Screen.
> You do everything that you did when Alistair bought his sword.
This process could take 10-15 minutes and it may be a deal breaker for players who like their games streamlined.
Gameplay 7/10
There is no exploring because the game is linear. Levels load and there is a linear path through them with a few side areas where you can find treasure chests. Unfortunately, 95% of the loot that you find is worthless and you end up selling it.
The combat is tactical. You control 4 party members and you can give preset commands like in Final Fantasy XII's Gambit System.
Examples:
"Alistair - If an enemy is using magic - Attack him with Shield Bash."
"If my Health is <50% take Medium Health Potion."
During combat you can pause the game and issue commands at any time by clicking on an action bar, then on the target.
Click on Heal, then on your character to heal them.
Click on Shock, then on an enemy to shock them.
Then unpause the game and continue the battle.
If you try to play in real time, you'll probably get destroyed.
So, keep an eye on your characters and be ready to hit the spacebar to pause the action.
The good news is that they have a ton of spells and attacks that are very useful. There are area of effect spells, there are stunning attacks, there are buffs and de-buffs... There are plenty of tactical decisions that you make to control the outcome. These combat techniques and spells are unlockable when your character goes up levels.
One Additional Note: Dragon Age doesn't take advantage of damage types the way other RPG's usually do. Elemental Damage (Fire, Ice, Electricity) pretty much works the same on everyone. As a result, many of the battles feel repetitive. Cast Paralysis on the toughest bad guy, wipe out the minions before the spell wears off, then tackle the tough bad guy. You'll win 90% of your battles with this strategy. Dragon Age really could use enemies that are resistant to Mental Attacks or must be slain with Elemental Attacks like Mind Flayers or Trolls, respectively.
Sound 8/10
The music and sound effects set the mood, and the voice actors did an amazing job. There are probably 200 hours of dialogue in the game, depending on what decisions you make and it all sounds pretty good.
Pacing 2/10
If you have a busy life or want to rush through this game... don't even bother playing it. I have friends with Level 80 WoW Characters who love Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Oblivion, The Witcher, Final Fantasy, etc... that quit playing Dragon Age.
The shopping is cumbersome, but the Load Screens are the worst. This is one of the slowest paced games that I've ever seen. Even when you travel on the World Map, the map loads, you pick a town directly to the east, you see splotches on the map marking your progress, you head north, then east, then south, then you get attacked, then the encounter loads, you fight the encounter, the map loads again, you head south, and then the town loads. This could take 25 minutes, depending on the random encounter. It feels as if the game is mocking you. If you don't have much time, you will not be able to enjoy this game.
Note: There's also a memory leak bug, that lengthens the Load Screens, the longer you play. When you first load Dragon Age, the screens are about a minute. After playing for an afternoon, the same screens can be four or five minutes. If you notice this, just Save and Exit the game, then start it up again.
Some nights, I just bought supplies, talked to some NPC's, organized my party, and did two side quests... I looked at the clock and 3 hours had passed... no joke.
Replay Value 9/10
This is an 80 hour game with multiple endings, an array of party members, and a variety of outcomes. You could play Dragon Age for 320 hours if you wanted to see everything.
Why the PC Version is Better:
The PC version is better than the Xbox 360 version for the following reasons:
- The graphics are slightly better on the highest settings
- The difficulty is a bit harder
- You can zoom the camera back to an isometric (Baldur's Gate Style) view. This really helps you make tactical decisions in battle.
- You can pause the game and command your party members as much as you want. In the 360 version, every time you pick a target, the game unpauses.
Maturity
M for violence, blood, gore, language, and 'romantic' sex scenes that you could see on any tv show where the characters do it in their underwear.
Overall 7/10
Dragon Age is a very long game that moves at a turtle's pace. It's got high adventure, strategy, and party based gameplay; and there aren't a lot of single player party games out there. If you're a dedicated fan of the genre, appreciate deep fantasy cultures, have 80 hours to kill, and like tactical battles, you'll love this game!
However, if you need great graphics and want to enjoy a reasonably fast paced game, forget it. Dragon Age will test the patience of most of the gamers out there.
If you enjoyed the world of Dragon Age, check out The Witcher or Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
If you enjoyed the party based combat, look for Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale 1&2, and Planescape Torment.
 Entertaining, but not all it could have been! March 5, 2010
Dahne (United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I hesitated buying this game because the ads for it seemed to put a lot of focus on the bloodier aspects of it. However, I had someone tell me that you can turn off the persistent blood splatters. So, I plunged in and I had very mixed feelings. The overarching story is absorbing, if not groundbreaking. I found the graphics just fine. I have an awesome gaming rig though so everything was set to the highest settings. The voice talent was so good-it really helped make the game. I enjoyed the combat system which gave me time to plan my attack. I was satisfied with the armor and the weapons. Most of the quests were interesting enough, but parts of it were a bit tedious-namely the dwarf city.
The aspects of it that I did not like so well were not so many that it ruined the game, but it prevents me from wanting to go back and replay. While I like the overall story, the individual conversations are often juvenile and frustrating. For a game that is supposed to be for adults, I thought a lot of it was geared toward 13 year old males. The ridiculous buckets and pools of blood everywhere are distracting and silly. Fortunately, you can turn most of that off in the options. Also, most of the women are big breasted male fantasy characters-including the demons with nipple jewelry, no less!! I noticed there weren't any males walking around with their parts only covered by a tiny bit of jewelry--not that I want that either. Of course, you can pursue a romance or friends-with-benefits relationship complete with painfully animated sex scenes. No full nudity, just underwear, but it's just cringe inducing. If sex must be included, why not just do like the classic movies and leave it to our imagination? But, games are made by males for males--mostly, so there you have it.
I think there were too many party members to choose from without enough reasons to use all of them. Also, I did like a few of the characters really well, but I would have liked to have been able to influence them to some degree by my behavior. Also, I found some of the NPC's more interesting than my own party members. I thought they did a good job with Duncan, Riordan,Bann Teagan, and Loghain. I also find the moral ambiguity of the game unbelievable. If you choose, you can be an evil warden but still end up being the hero of Ferelden. That makes no sense. I didn't play as evil but I have heard from people that did. They didn't like it.
And another positive for me was the fact that this was a long game, but I only experienced a couple of crashes. I think that shows that they spent a lot of time and effort to turn out a good product. I also like the DLC. I think it's great because you can purchase if it you are interested, but if you're not, you don't have to. The really big negative part to that is that the DLC is kept on THEIR server, so when my internet went down for a weekend, I was unable to play the game because all my saves had DLC content in it. That is a BIG NEGATIVE to me.
Overall, I think it is an entertaining game, I just can't help but wish that they would concentrate on a riveting story with great writing, good combat, and interesting quests that build the relationships in the game and move the story along at the same time, and leave out the more juvenile parts.
 PotionSpammingAge: Imbalanced and Buggy Gameplay March 5, 2010
F. Johnson (East of Eden)
I enjoy this type of game and I usually love Bioware games(Love KOTOR, ME, ME2). The production values in DA with all the voice acting is amazing. That they could take all this work and turn it to crap with poor balance is even more amazing. The uneven gaming experience that DA presents is a very disappointing to me.
Pros:
-Lots of customization of characters, gear, skills, and spells
-Many different valid options on party make up
-Different ways to complete most quests
-I would imagine the first three bullets would give good replay value (assuming the you can overcome the annoyances.
-Lots of content and game play (although some content in some of the areas seemed like filler)
-A whole lot of spoken dialogue with reasonable to good voice acting. Lots of different dialogue options.
-Nice banter between the non-player characters
-Interesting story
-Good, but not great, graphics
-Romance options and involved faction with your many companions
Cons:
-A little buggy with some crashing on my PC, which doesn't have this problem with the vast majority of other games I play(I play a lot of games). FYI: Just played ME2 to completion several times with NO issues.
-Uneven difficulty (even on normal) can lead to frustration unless you know and abuse some powers and skills. I have played many of the CRPGs over the years including BG2 that this game is compared to. Most of these games don't have this problem.
-Reload fest. Some of the battles(especially some early ones) were reload fests, which is very immersion breaking. Reloading every once in a while in a game with challenge is OK. Reloading several times, one of my friends who liked the game admitting reloading a few battles over 20 times before he finally won them, is not fun.
-Being target though walls was annoying. Having my mage character be alpha struck by several charmed Templar at once through walls was even less amusing.
-Too grindy. Some of the areas had annoying filler room by room combat.
-Over reliance on potions is almost a requirement to complete the game. This chug fest ruined some of the immersion for me. How many fantasy stories do you imagine where the heroes have to slam down potions every few seconds to survive?
-Aggro and taunting are very important reminding me of an MMO rather than a single player game. See next point.
-No melee zones of control. You can block a doorway by having melee characters stand in it. The enemies just rush through.
-Poor AI, which only adds to the frustration in some battles
-Poor puzzles (the bridge...nuff said)
This game brings out the nerd rage in me more than most other games.
Homeric Epic in Game Form March 3, 2010
Manfred von Rollison (Defiance)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let it be known that those searching for a mature-themed RPG that is vast in scope and deep in tactical strategy need look no further than Dragon Age: Origins. From the moment I began my first play through as a human warrior, I was truly immersed in one of the richest fantasy worlds I have ever encountered. From the well-designed locations to the intense combat and all the way to the grandiose storyline, there is enough here to keep one entertained for days worth of playing time, if not weeks.
The story of the game focuses on the player-created protagonist who joins the secretive order of ancient defenders known as the Grey Wardens. The rest of the tale, ultimately, lies in your numerous choices along the route to confronting a grave and imminent evil. Although the story is linear, one can make any number of choices as to where one might travel first, who to fight and even who to travel with and share your adventures (or even romances, if you're feeling particularly bold). Be warned, however - as this game is rated Mature, there are indeed some adult themes and ideas presented within the game. Murder, cannibalism, rape and religion are all addressed within the game, so it could be said that this game might not be for the young and impressionable. Adult and young adult players will find, however, that the themes in the game enrich the overall playing experience and make their actions feel meaningful in the tale.
The game certainly does not disappoint when combat has begun. Those who enjoy a tactical experience will certainly want to try the game on the harder difficulties, as more strategy is key to survival. Yet those of us who like to wade head first into the thick of things will find that the game is still quite playable. The pause feature is especially handy when orders need to be issued or a health or mana potion needs to be taken. Terrain and enemy type need to be taken into account if one wishes to come out victorious in most battles. Perhaps you'd like your mages and archers to rain down oblivion on your foes from above while your heavily armored warriors attack head-on? Maybe you'd like to taunt foes away from your weaker party members while you move your rogues into backstab range where they can be exceptionally lethal? You can even freeze opponents with one of your mages' spells and shatter them into pieces after a mighty blow from one of your melee fighters. The combat is arguably as deep as the story, as you will find enemy encounters rarely become stale.
The graphics, too, are impressive. Colors are numerous and vibrant, although the game does maintain the look of a medieval setting (think darker colors and overtones). When set at the highest quality, the game looks astounding (especially when you zoom in), but not all systems may be able to handle the stress. With 4 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 8000 series video card, I am forced to turn the game on its lowest settings for best performance, and even then with a moderate amount of lag during heated battles. Those with more advanced systems, however, should have no problem making this game shine visually.
This game is undoubtedly one of the best I have ever played, hands down. There is no doubt in my mind that the lengthy storyline (roughly 30-40 hours of play time) will keep one journeying for a long time, especially with the Xbox 360-esque achievements and the several add-ons available for purchase. If you enjoy a good story and some medieval-fantasy combat, you'll feel right at home while playing Dragon Age: Origins.
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