New Game Appreciation - Dragon Age

I've done a few posts before about games I've been particularly impressed with, however those have tended to be on old classics. Time for a look at a pretty new one today :-)

As my interest in the online games has waned, I've taken a look at something new from Bioware, a developer that's always produced outstanding role playing games : Dragon Age Origins. It's an old story being retold again, you're a hero who has to save the day against the incoming horde of nasty beings who want to destroy everything.

The early parts tell the origins of your character, I've done two of these so far. The first I did had a human noble who's father is betrayed, the second has a city elf who is carried off by some nasty piece of work noble people with rather nefarious intentions ... The origin stories introduce your character to the world and they get you used to the engine which runs the game. It's obviously inspired by other games, after all Bioware have had a huge amount of experience doing these games. However, it's easy to play and it allows for much faster, simpler combat action than would be possible in a D&D based Computer RPG.

There's four more Origins stories in there as well, will have to try them out in future plays. I went for the City Elf one today to restart my first run through before it got a bit too deep ... Think I went for a really tough start in my first run by going for the toughest area a bit early.

Saving the world is an excellent cause ... but unless there's some fun to be had it gets boring pretty quickly. I've bought more than my fair share of role playing games over the years, some grab me while others get put away and ignored. That fun aspect is what separates the ones that last from the ones that gather dust.

What elevates Dragon Age ?

One area that Bioware have always excelled in is character interaction. If you've read any of David & Leigh Eddings books, you'll have an idea of what I mean here. People who follow you around and help out that actually have real character. What grabbed me first with Dragon Age was how the characters Morrigan and Alistair don't get along. You'll have your party running through a town or country on the way to the next thing to thump and they'll then break out into a bit of banter. With Morrigan and Alistair, they like to bicker and some of the dialogue is laugh out loud hilarious.

Other companions include Leliana the bard, Shale the stone golem (inspired by HK-47), your faithful hound (really!) and a few more too (trying to avoid spoilers). Even your faithful hound gets in on the banter with a few character filled whines and barks. Yep, Alistair even gets outdone by the dog :-) As with all Bioware games, there's potential for relationships between the characters too.

It's a deep game, I've only scratched the surface of it so far. Looking forward to a few full plays through. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do so before Bioware's next masterpiece, Mass Effect 2, comes out :-)

For more, including pictures, check out the CVG review linked.

How's it actually run ?

My PC specs : Athlon X2-3800+ with 2GB Ram running WinXP. It's got an ATi Radeon 4850 in there.

It's not a really new PC, if I remember right it's had that cpu for 2, maybe 3 years. The graphics card was new this January. The performance in Dragon Age is surprisingly good. I have the resolution up as high as my monitor will take (1280x1024), which the engine handles well even with lots of the pretty options turned on. Frame rate is still pretty good even when the action hots up. No problems here.

Verdict - Bioware do it again, I reckon I'll spend as much time on this one as I have on most of their classics : Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars KOTOR, Mass Effect.

PS There usually is a word on stability with a PC game and it strikes again here ... There's a Crash-To-Desktop bug in Dragon Age that seems to hit the ATi cards. I got plagued with it on my first run through and it still hits certain areas. When it hits, it's a case of "Pete GO TO BED" :-) Always save often ...