Blight to see you, to see you...

For many old-skool BioWare fans that game would've been one of its seminal PC swords n sorcery role-players; namely Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. For me personally it was stonking Xbox Star Wars RPG Knights of The Old Republic. Others meanwhile might have joined the ranks for mystical martial arts epic Jade Empire. If you lost hours of your life to any of these, Dragon Age: Origins is a game you need to play.

If however you became aware of BioWare by way of sci-fi adventure Mass Effect, then take heed: Dragon Age has its developers' hallmarks for quality questing, complex plotting and immersive characterisation, but in other ways it feels old fashioned compared to Colonel Shephard's outer space shenanigans.

For one thing, there's the setting. As the name suggests, Dragon Age is proper high fantasy fare; all elves, dwarves, goblins, mages, kings, swords and scale armour. Not that there's anything wrong with that - especially when it's this in-depth. It's like someone at BioWare swallowed the entire Lord of the Rings collection, complete with appendices, and regurgitated it onto a game disc like a particularly talented cave troll.

Tread Blightly...

From the moment you hit 'New Game', the commitment to storytelling is clear. First, a lengthy cinematic introduces you to the world of Ferelden, in which an army of orcs and undead dubbed The Blight runs rampant across the lands, and an elite band of warriors known as Grey Wardens rally its disparate races to unite in battle.

Next up is character creation, which depending on your selections of race, class and background will lead to one of six Origin Stories. I went with Human, Rogue, and Noble, beginning my game as Kelden Cousland, younger son of the leader of Ferelden province Higheaver. There are also Dwarf and Elf races, plus Mage and Warrior classes, usually with a choice of privileged or underprivileged backgrounds. These affect your starting location, the skills you have available, and the way characters address you throughout the game, so potential replay value is through the proverbial roof.

How many times you want to play through Dragon Age will depend on two key things; how much you enjoy in-game dialogue, and how well you click with the battle system.

Be under no illusions; Dragon Age is a very wordy game. Whether you're reading about the history of Ferelden, its characters, or item descriptions in the menu, taking on incidental quests to quell an NPCs woes, getting to know your party or conversing with key story characters, you'll spend a lot of your time reading and listening to speech.

Mute Effect

Next to Mass Effect, two things stand out. First, the main character never actually talks. In that respect, it's a lot like BioWare's older console efforts. However, unlike KoTOR and Jade Empire, there's no morality system. Sure, your responses can vary wildly between self righteous, virtuous, arsey, aggressive and downright evil, but it's never rewarded with something you can point to; an alignment on the stats screen or a character whose appearance morphs, Fable-style, to reflect your actions. It's less rewarding, then, and feels a bit of a step backwards.

Thankfully, Dragon Age is markedly more accomplished in its party interaction. Taking the mantle laid down by Mass Effect, Origins not only lets you converse with your followers to discover their backstories, but also rates their approval or disapproval to your responses and actions - including giving them gifts to curry favour. Get close enough to someone and you may even be in line for some sex, such as it is; stilted, censored, and good for but a childish giggle. Piss someone off enough though and they might leave your party for good. And since they won't all see eye to eye, keeping everyone happy (and horny) is pretty much impossible in just one run through.

If you are to play Dragon Age through more than once, it'll be because you enjoy the combat. On PC, that won't be hard; Dragon Age is clearly designed with keyboard and mouse in mind. The top-down perspective allows for ample tactical movement, pausing with the space bar, activating ranged attacks and spells, and directing your melee fighters into flanking positions. It's very much the spiritual follow-up to Baldur's Gate that RPG nuts wanted; incredibly challenging, but brilliant with it.

This is your story

The console combat system though is a compromise. The camera is fixed in a third-person view, and while there is the option to pause and prompt with L Trigger, you'll need to order each party member by jumping between them with the bumper buttons. Unable to queue up actions as in KoTOR, you'll instead have to set up Tactics in order to fight effectively over prolonged periods. These work like FFXII's Gambits, asking you to set actions for conditions, like healing an ally when their health drops below 50%. This combo of manual and automated fighting proves functional, but lacks the PC iteration's tactical edge or the immersion of Mass Effect's quasi real-time squad shooting.

What Dragon Age does have going for it is its Tolkien-style world, its strong storytelling slant and a list of playable archetypes that influence narrative and gameplay with equal diversity. Admittedly, its looks are functional and its art style unspectacular, but BioWare's brilliant use of audio in both screenplay and ambience truly bring Ferelden to life. More importantly, there's always that sense that this is your story, shaped by your actions, with a series of minor, malleable events building to the major, satisfying forks in the plot's long road.

Don't go into Dragon Age expecting a medieval Mass Effect. Buy it instead expecting Lord of the Rings crossed with KoTOR and you'll likely love every minute of its spellbinding 70+ hours.

Despite the old-fashioned feel, for RPG nuts Origins is not to be missed.

Dragon:
+ Accomplished, if familiar RPG fare from the kings of the genre.
+ An engrossing LotR-style fantasy world filled with deep history and compelling characters.
+ Through-the-roof replay value.

Draconian:
- Unspectacular visuals and art style.
- Combat can be incredibly hard - and on console isn't half as tactical as on PC.
- The lack of a morality system makes choices less rewarding.