Dragon Age: Origins

Religion, race, relatives, and relationships are the universal four R’s that motivate people and nations to war. Each of those R’s acts as live ammunition in every discussion, action, and choice you make in Dragon Age: Origins, a truly epic fantasy adventure. Meandering from situation to crisis, balancing your personal motivations with the greater needs of people of Ferelden as they stave off the marauding Blight — make no bones about it — this journey is very long and very wide.

The decisions you make become more thought-provoking as your investment in the story and your character develops, to the point that I agonized — I mean, really, truly agonized, even asking my significant other what I should do (she told me to stop bothering her) — over some late-game direction choices. I weighed personal dislike for a character with greater-good motivations. I considered consistency of past decisions with the desire to, uh, earn an Achievement. Amid the controller-mashing manipulation of the interface and traditional third-person RPG combat situations, internal debates were consistently and genuinely provoked. And now that I’m done, I have to go back. I wish I’d sided with Branka, and I wish I’d supported Bhelen; I know I could have nailed Leliana and earned more personal glory and loot if I hadn’t been so damn noble. Who those characters are, why they matter…those bits you’ll discover for yourself when you step foot in a world that’s dark and dangerous, but totally shaped by your direct involvement.

Choice isn’t unique in videogames, but it’s rare to feel like you could impact so many different outcomes. Right at the outset, as you pick one of the six starting backgrounds, Dragon Age pushes you to think about, then take responsibility for, every decision. I went the Dwarf Commoner route (rather than noble, elven, or human options), and playing through the unique opening actually motivated decisions I made some 60 hours later. Though many conversations and characters appeared trivial, were frustrating, or could have been better streamlined, it’s impossible to argue that this world is not fully styled, shaped, art-directed, and motivated. If there’s a knock to be made, it’s that midway through I just wanted to get on with the thrust of the main storyline, even though fetching item X from Mr. Y for Ms. Z would likely earn loot for better gear or just more experience to keep leveling up.

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