Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark heroic fantasy single player RPG created by the heralded developers at BioWare. The game is set in a freshly created world. As the spiritual successor of BioWare's popular Baldur's Gate series of games, it uses a pause-and-play tactical combat system. Games can experience the action in over-the-shoulder mode, or the more tactical top-down view.

Dragon Age: Origins features a large amount of cinematic dialog introduced via cut scenes and in-game activities. Players will be able to acquire unique party members, from the hot-headed Morrigan to the seductive Zevhran to the fierce Oghren and many more. These party members will have their own motivations for accompanying the player. DA:O is a very gritty, often bloody adventure with mature themes. It has elements of traditional fantasy like heroes, villains, and magic, but BioWare is not pulling any punches - players will be in a brutal, dangerous, and sometimes shocking world.

Origin Stories

The game offers a unique new feature called Origin Stories that shapes the way the world sees you and the way you will see the world. Each origin determines the player's motivations, shapes his or her experience, and renders a unique prelude, path, and ending to the game. We also chose "Origins" because it symbolizes BioWare's return to its roots.

Origin stories are selected in the character creation screen, but the choices regarding these stories are made in "prologue" style adventures that characters take on before jumping into the action of Dragon Age: Origins. Players can choose from the Dwarven Commoner, Dwarven Noble, Human Noble, City Elf, Dalish Elf, and Mage. Your choices will impact almost every interaction you have with NPC throughout the game.

Gameplay

According to BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins has the most story and gameplay content in any of their games since Baldur's Gate 2. As with all BioWare games, the final level your character will reach will depend on how much of the story you choose to experience. If you only do the core story, you will be at a lower level than someone else who does the critical path and many of the option side quests in the game. BioWare expects most players to be between level 15 and 20 at the end of the game.

The three main or starting classes for players are the fighter, the rogue or the mage. These are open to either male or female PCs. If you choose to play a dwarf character, you cannot play a mage as dwarves are naturally resistant to magic and cannot cast it.

Players will be able to customize the appearance of their character using the most detailed facial customization tool BioWare has created to date. Players can also choose their character's race, gender, and class. Continued customization choices open up as the character gains levels.

Dragon Age: Origins gives players the ability to interact with their party members and guide their development. Throughout the game, the player will be making decisions. Depending on the personalities of party members, these decisions might anger them, or make them happy. So instead of a simplistic good/evil system, Dragon Age: Origins revolves more around managing personal relationships with adventuring companions. Success leads to loyal, more powerful allies, and even romance.

Release Date and Ordering Options

Dragon Age: Origins will be released to the public on November 3, 2009. Ordering information can be found here.

Information gleaned and paraphrased from the Dragon Age: Origins Official Website.[1]