[h1]Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition[/h1]
[h3][Overview][/h3]
Dragon Age: Origins (2009) is an RPG developed by BioWare. Following your character's origin, you're recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order sworn to defeat a catastrophic invasion of darkspawn monsters known as the Blight. As a new Warden facing an overwhelming threat, you must travel across the kingdom of Ferelden to gain support by invoking ancient treaties. Your mission is to navigate tense political rivalries and moral gray areas to unite fractured factions for a final stand against the darkspawn horde.
[h3][Recommended Tweaks & Tips][/h3]
- [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4689]Ultimate DAO Fixpack[/url]
- [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4384]Dain's Fixes (only use Core and Bug Fixes for minimal gameplay changes)[/url]
- [url=https://codeberg.org/Lyall/DAFix]DAFix[/url]
- [url=https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_Origins#Community_fixes]Fixes for Awakening DLC (too many to list, grab everything under Awakening except the 4K resolution mod. DAFix does the same thing, but better)[/url]
- [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=233222451]LAA patch (Reduces crashes on Windows)[/url]
- Linux/Steam Deck users should use this Steam launch option instead of the LAA patch: PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 %command%
- [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276542551]Install missing DLC (You only need A Tale of Orzammar and the promo items. Reward items unlock by playing DLC so you can skip them. Download each .dazip file and install them via DAUpdater.exe in the game files)[/url]
- Be sure to save often. The game has autosaves, but they only trigger at scripted events. The game tends to crash, so you can easily lose progress by not manually saving.
NOTE: This review is heavily shortened to fit Steam's character limit. I won't be able to cover everything in detail.
[h3][Positives][/h3]
- Enjoyable characters. Party members chat and banter with each other during gameplay. Different combinations of members offer unique interactions, adding incentive to mix them around. There's a lot of variety in the companions you meet, both in gameplay and personality. So if you don't like a character, you can leave them at camp and bring someone else. The voice acting is great across the game.
- Great music and sound design. The ambient sound effects are lively and the soundtrack itself is great.
- There are six Origins to pick from for your character. These are unique openings that set the foundation for your character before moving into the main story, adding a great early layer of replayability. It's impressive that so much content is entirely unique to each option. This feature makes replaying the game a bit more fresh compared to linear RPG openings.
- Solid story. Good variety of dialogue options and compelling narrative decisions that change plot outcomes. The writing starts off strong. Once you get into the bulk of the game, it varies in quality and pacing partly due to the open-ended design of the main quest. Thankfully, it picks back up once you begin setting up the Landsmeet. Your choices across the game all culminate in a pretty cool scene.
- Okay combat. It's RTwP D&D combat for better or worse. It's engaging and strategic at times. The difficulty is fair for the most part. You have many upgrades and abilities to pick from. The tactics system allows you to program your AI companions with battle strategies. The combat does start to feel tedious by the end of the game.
- All DLC was made free as of 2022.
[h3][Mixed][/h3]
- In-game cutscene animations are locked at 30 FPS. It's really not a big deal, as these scenes don't have much action anyway.
- Wonky controls, similar to prior BioWare games.
- The Party approval system is a neat idea but underwhelming in practice. You gain/lose approval depending on choices, dialogue options, and gifts. High approval grants combat buffs and companion quests, while low approval risks that companion's departure from the party. The gift mechanic really cheapens this system. Instead of actually making the right choices, it's far more efficient to just use gifts. Doing it the 'right way' simply isn't as appealing given the low payouts for bonding and high penalties for disapproval. Gifts can also be a bit vague at times regarding who they're supposed to be given to. The whole system feels underutilized and gifts make it feel gamey.
- Some of the Bard battle cries are so bad, they're [url=https://youtu.be/R_C9qOYuC0M]unintentionally hilarious.[/url]
- Okay visuals. Armor, weapon, and enemy designs are cool and detailed. The environments usually look decent enough. There are some issues with jarring, out-of-place low quality textures on carts and other assets. Anything in the distance tends to look rough, and water is flat and lifeless. The game lacks anisotropic filtering, so you'll have to force it via your GPU control panel.
- Awakening DLC is decent. It starts off a bit rocky having worse dialogue and tone at times, but it finds its footing after a while. Unfortunately it's very buggy and has some overly vague quest objectives. [spoiler]You also can't import your world-state if you got the Ultimate Sacrifice ending. You'll have to import a pre-ending save and retcon your Warden's death if you want your decisions carried over.[/spoiler]
[h3][Negatives][/h3]
- The game has many bugs and technical issues. Mods alleviate some, but not all of these problems. Even with mods, you'll still crash somewhat often, losing any unsaved progress.
- There's no way to respec your build in the base game. If you make a mistake or poor decision with leveling, you're stuck with it unless you load an earlier save. Awakening adds a respec tome, but it's only present for that DLC.
- Tedious inventory and travel. You have limited inventory space, which even with expansions is lacking during long dungeons, where you can't leave. The only dedicated storage is locked behind the Warden's Keep DLC. The dedicated storage also has limited (though ample) space, but you inexplicably can't modify your party at Soldier's Peak. So managing items for companions requires tediously returning to camp. Most vendors hold limited item stock, only restocking at specific points. Only select vendors have infinite stock of certain items, meaning bulk purchases require tracking down specific sellers. Ultimately, managing your party, inventory, and equipment is a frequent burden and time sink just to accomplish simple tasks.
- Bloat. The Fade and The Deep Roads are both awfully dull slogs to get through. This game has a lengthy runtime of 60+ hours for the main story. Trimming some of the fat would've made for a tighter, more consistent game.
- AI tends to be stupid and unresponsive, especially among your party. Micromanaging combat is essentially a requirement on tougher battles.
- The facial animations during dialogue cutscenes are flat and lacking in expression. The game's frequent use of close-ups highlights the issue further.
- Heavier areas, like Denerim's market, tend to cause noticeable FPS drops.
- NPC models look samey. There are quite a number of NPCs who closely resemble other characters.
- The Dalish Elves have a strangely diverse racial population, despite supposedly being a tight-knit community that has lasted ages.
- The smaller DLC campaigns aren't very good. Most are short, uninteresting, and reuse lots of content.
- Some DLC is missing from the Steam version (check the Recommended Tweaks for a fix. GOG doesn't have this issue.)
- No Steam achievements or cloud save support.
- The login servers were taken offline, so stats and accomplishments can't be synced to EA servers.
[h3][Conclusion][/h3]
A great RPG. The combat and pacing can feel lackluster at times, but the highlights really make up for it. Great music and companions. Steam version is rough without mods, GOG is a bit smoother.
8.5/10
