Dragon Age: Origins Reviews
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Slashdot gives it an 8/10:
Dragon Age: Origins has a ton of (quality) playtime in it; even more when you consider replayability. I'm sure I could go through the entire game again and have a largely different experience, both in story and in combat. (I tend to stick with a group configuration I like, so one of my potential companions has been sitting on the sidelines the whole time, and I slightly killed another one. Not to mention different talent choices and specializations.) BioWare didn't blaze a new trail within the genre, but they succeeded in their effort to create a game that presents a new, fun take on the familiar with elegance and polish. (And Claudia Black.)
FiringSquad gives it a 95%:
Dragon Age Origins lives up to the expectations I have had ever since I first heard of it about a year ago. It's not too often anymore that you see an RPG with so much character depth, well-written spoken dialogue, and engaging story arcs on top of such brutally enjoyable combat. Not to mention that, unlike so many others in the industry, BioWare didn't make the PC version suffer the same concessions as its console counterparts. It's not perfect, but it's one of the best games I have ever played, ranking right up there with the best of the genre. And when the number of hours played exceeds the dollars spent at retail, you know it's an awesome value, too.
GameZone gives it a 9.0/10:
Dragon Age Origins for the Xbox 360 is destined to become an instant classic role-playing game that joins the ranks of some of the best games in the genre. With a great story, likeable characters, plenty of options and plenty of bloody action, this is yet another role-playing game that is Required Playing for anyone who enjoys the genre.
The Guardian gives it a 4/5:
Some uneven difficult spikes don't help either, while the console versions suffer from a fairly clunky menu system. Dragon Age looks and plays the best on PC but is only marginally less impressive on the consoles. Modern Warfare 2 may win the sales war, but Dragon Age will be the real hit among more cerebral gamers this winter.
Planet Xbox 360 gives it a 9.5/10:
BioWare has obviously taken great pains to create a world that players can fully invest themselves in, which is why the visuals are so disheartening. They are capable, but they teeter on the brink of the previous generation. Search any structure and you are sure to find at least one instance of mis-aligned polygons, objects mashed into improbable conglomerations, or missing textures. Dragon Age is vast game, which is why such details are so important. It's very difficult to immerse myself in an emotional conversation with someone whose face is twitching in and out of existence. Discussing graphics and occasional issues with the A.I. seems almost irrelevant given the scope and success of BioWare's ambitions. Like the Pulp Fiction of high-fantasy, Dragon Age: Origins is an innovative homage to the greatest works of the genre, woven together with masterful dialogue and an acute sense of social interaction. In terms of storytelling and creating true emotional bonds, Dragon Age: Origins is one of the finest RPGs ever created.
ZTGameDomain gives it a 9.5/10:
Frankly if I am going to be honest here, writing this review has been hell for me, never have I had to write so much about something I wanted to do so badly. I've had to stop myself at least 4 times from tucking this away and jumping on Dragon Age. It's the best recommendation I can give the game, its beyond addictive, and the story is so good that I never want it to end. I will this though, this is not a game for someone who got their feet wet in the RPG genre with the likes of Fable 2, this is a downright, and pure blooded, PC RPG of the golden years that must be played by all of us.
TotalVideoGames gives it an 8/10:
It should also be noted that Dragon Age: Origins is a tough game unless you choose to slide the difficulty down dynamically during the game. Due to the way in which the game scales adversaries around you, you never get to a point where you feel as though you can wade through areas without a challenge. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing particularly given its stance as a more PC centric RPG experience. It's also worth remembering that Dragon Age is a game that will last, with anything between 50-80 hours of gameplay depending upon how many of the side missions you choose to take on.
A.V. Club gives it an "A":
The combat system closely mirrors BioWare's Baldur's Gate, allowing players to pause the action to issue orders to their party. In more chaotic fights, the tactics menu provides an invaluable tool, letting players give standing orders like (use a healing item when at half health.) Mastering the combination of automated commands and micromanagement is the key to victory, as fights can be brutally hard. Luckily, death carries only light penalties, and failure always feels educational. Add in excellent voice acting, gorgeous graphics, highly customizable characters, and complex systems for how spells interact, and the result is a game destined to become a new RPG staple.
And NZGamer gives it a 9.0/10:
At the end of the day, Dragon Age is a very nicely delivered RPG with loads of content to explore, plenty of replayability and genuine options to choose in the branching dialogue. Sure, it's far from the prettiest game ever (and would struggle for that title against games from several years ago at least) and there are some quirks to the core gameplay, but none of these things are enough to offset the pure, old-school PC roleplaying aweome that is at the centre of the game. It's BioWare, it's good and it's about time. If you're even remotely interested in RPG gaming, get into it without hesitation.
