Dragon Age: Origins Review (A Spoilers Blight!)

Nice tits you got there, lady.

I finally got to complete Dragon Age: Origins with all its DLCs for the third time (or was it fouth?), and my Dragon Age feelings are currently overwhelming me, so I decided to do a review on this epic, breathtaking game. I have to say, first of all, that this game introduced me to Bioware, the developpers who also created the Mass Effect serie, to name only this fabulous one, and it's Canadian (even though it's now owned by EA, which is American, but shush)! I'd probably try to work for them if I was in Montreal, that's for sure. Anyway, Dragon Age: Origins was released in 2009, and Awakening, the main expansion, the following year. With the Ultimate Edition (that means the main gain with Awakening and all the other DLCs), it took me more or less 50 hours to complete (thank you Evolve). I have to admit I'm fast (and I happen to use a few console commands...?), so it can take up to 100 hours if you prefer to take your time. I probably know every event of the game by heart now, and I play mostly for the fun of being evil or to see every possibilities the game has to offer.





The plot itself was really intriguing, for some it might seem like a typical scenario, but it's really not. Like any good RPG, you get to choose what your character will be between a human, an elf or a dwarf and his class, but you also choose his Origins depending on this combo, so you can begin as a mage elf/human in the Fereldan Circle of Magi, as a human noble whose family goes down (like, six feet under), as a Dalish elf living in the forest, etc., so that's very exciting to begin with (or at least, that was exciting for me, as I wanted to try every possibility). I admit, the end doesn't change that much, but the options are still nice.

Something that really sucks in this game is that the classes aren't equal. I mean, the mage class kicks asses, but the rogues suck bad, and the warrior class is okay-ish, but they're sooo slow. If you want to have epic battles, don't pick the rogue class, I really didn't have any fun with that one. The mage one though was so cool, I could do anything, from transforming into a spider to create big tornados of firah!

Rise and shine, baby

There's a lot of freedom in how you can explore the world and complete your quests. After becoming a Warden, the main quest is to gain allies because a Blight is coming, with the Darkspawn invading Ferelden. You can choose whether you want to visit the dwarves first and do their never-ending fucking quest, help the Dalish with their werewolf problem (I always side with the werewolves for some reason) or do an exorcism on a boy and then look for the Urn of the Sacred Ashes to heal Arl Eamon, the ''Humans''' leader for the lack of another title, it's all up to your mood. You can also chitchat with your companions you meet along the way around the campfire, have sex (you need to romance the person first, but Zevran and Morrigan are easily conquered) or get all wrong in the destination you wanted to go and be attacked just for fun. In the end, one of the wardens has to die after defeating the Archdemon, and it's either you, Alistair or Loghain if you choose to save him. Alistair died once while I was romancing him and I was like ''No! What the hell went wrong?!'' and I redid the last part so I could be his mistress and give him all the cheese he wanted.

The characters in this game take a major place, and our interactions with them is what brings life and epicness to the whole story. For most of the game, you hate Loghain's guts because he's a traitor and Duncan and the King died because of him, but when you finally get to meet him, you realize he's human, and that his daughter, the Queen Anora, still loves him after everything he's done, and because of that, you get all fucked up when you have to make decisions. It's the same thing with the mage, Jowan, who poisoned Arl Eamon, I couldn't kill the bastard after he explained to me his point of view. Luckily it's not The Walking Dead, and you can take whatever time you need before making a decision, or you can save before major decisions (what I most certainly always forget to do). You also get approval from your mighty companions when you do things they like or give them gifts, and speaking with them is very interesting, each of them have a complex background you get to learn if you only take the time to gain their friendship (even Sten!).

The Dragon Age universe is a complex one, and you learn bits here and there in conversations with different points of view. There's always a clash of opinions in any good game, and it's mainly Templars vs Mages in this serie. To make it short, Mages are really powerful, but always tempted by demons in the Fade (where everybody goes when they dream) who promise them all sorts of things in exchange of something - usually blood. That's why Blood Mages aren't well seen, they can transform in abominations any moment and can use other people's blood to gain power (like the Magisters in Tevinter). Circles of Magi exist because of that,  managed by Templars who have daily doses of Lyrium to be able to stop mages and control them. Each mage has to pass the Harrowing at some point, to prove they can resist to the demons' offers. (It's nice to be able to do it when you choose the Circle's Origins) If not, Templars will use the Rite of Tranquility on them, which cut their access to the Fade, and in the same process, all of their emotions. That's where it becomes tricky. Like everything else, some Femplars may become crazy with the power they have on the Mages, and they may overuse it. The whole point of the existence of the Circle is to protect the Mages from themselves and others, but not every Mage is dangerous or under a demon's temptation. They can't use what they were born with in the Circle, they can't be themselves with the Templars always watching them, and some can become crazy as well because of that and accept a demon's offer to free him. People are afraid of the mages' powers and of Templars, the Mages want to be free (that's why a lot of them are apostates, always hiding from the Templars), and the Templars want the mages to bend under their will without a word. That's a fucked up situation. We see a bit of that with Wynne who is for the idea and Anders in Awakening with his seven (or more?) escape attempts. He's against the idea, of course. The whole thing reminds me a bit of the Jews with the Nazis. Everybody would blame anything on them, just because they could.

I'd like to talk about every companion, but my article would be super long, so I'll just mention that Wynne brings a lot of philosophical questions that I found myself intrigued by, it made me want to argue with her (mostly on the Circle Towers). Even though some think she's an old bitch, she's not always wrong. Alistair is also really cute when he tries to say he's still a virgin. It's amazing how much he evolves during our quest, from a shy little Templar Warden to a confident King (or confident alcoholic, whatever you prefer).

The music is also awesome in this game. The main title is so overwhelming , as well as every other songs Aubrey Ashburn sings, because she's marvelous. Songs with a soft voice like that have a way to make me cry, because it seems so sad and ephemeral, and when I've just completed the game, I felt satisfied, happy that I completed it, but sad because it's over, like a good book you really enjoyed reading. The instrumental songs were also really good, even though I don't like them as much because we hear them so many times on repeat in the game.

So that's mostly it, sorry about the long rant on the Templars and the Mages, it's such a big subject in this serie that I couldn't not talk about it. As you could tell, I'm against the Circle Towers, but the thing is you don't need to be a Mage to kill people, but they're the ones who suffer because of who they are and what they're capable of. Never go in Tevinter anyway, that's my advice.