Dragon Age Dragon Age: Origins is ten years old today

[The Bishop]

DA:O was the last great Bioware game and it's setting and writing were good for a videogame. It's one of the last games and RPGs which were progressive and not woke. Even if it has some subtle hints of what became woke later. It has an isometric view and a party of 4 with a silent protagonist. I don't hate voice-acting and cutscenes provided they're good and DA:O voice-acting was great. MMO combat could've been implemented better and improved upon but alas. An amount of the DA:O trash combat is the biggest thing which hurts replayability.
Bioware wasn't that good with a videogame plot except BG2. Their strength was always great and larger-than-life characters and DA:O has them in abundance. For example, the Cousland massacre is a ripoff of the ASOIAF Red Wedding and as others already mentioned Gaider and others were obviously inspired by ASOIAF. Gaider and other DA:O writers were last RPG writers who read the literature and fantasy unlike modern narrative designers who only watch the movies and TV shows.
DA:O sure has some pozzed moments like a sob story of Avelline - the first female knight who was killed by evil patriarchy but you could always roleplay an authentic medieval aristocrat not caring about peasants with Human and Dwarf Noble origins. Leliana and Zevran are bisexual and romanceable but Leliana is feminine and is straight for all intents and purposes unless you court her as a woman and her lesbian tryst with her mentor is only hinted at.
Vault Dweller in his Codex review liked C&C and reactivity in DA:O with an example of a Redcliffe quest with so many permutations and reactivity.

One other point about DA:O writing that is often overlooked and underappreciated is that it's functional. Videogame writing is supposed to underpin gameplay. It's supposed to give you reasons to care about going into this dungeon or looking for this item other than "I need to trigger the quest node" or "I need to farm xp/gold/materials". At no point in DA:O you feel like you just pushing forward for the sake of doing it. There is always a convincing reason why your character should care about whatever it is you're doing right now, how this thing resulted from that other thing before it. The writing isn't super deep, super original, or super groundbreaking. But it works. It ties in all the strands of gameplay into a thing that can be reasonably construed as adventure.

This is in stark contrast with pretty much everything Bioware put out since. And it's not just Bioware. For some reason stories that work in most basic sense have become very rare beasts in videogames. As a player you know that you're completing quests and consuming content, and the game doesn't try to convince you otherwise.

 

[Aghoric Visions]

Manson? EWWWWWW

Anyway, I've dying for another game using DA: Origins combat system. Still pissed we never got one.

 

[Absinthe]

The funny part is that Manson's song is actually a critique of mindlessly pursuing shiny, edgy new shit.

 

[Aghoric Visions]

The funny part is that Manson's song is actually a critique of mindlessly pursuing shiny, edgy new shit.

He knows his audience.

 

[9ted6]

Origins was boring and uninspired but it was better than the newer games and better in terms of story and characters than its contemporaries. At least its NPCs were mostly tolerable unlike Twitcher.

I wonder how it ended up being okay though, because come to find out Gaider wrote two prequel novels leading up to the game's release and they sucked, had some of the material we now associate with the later games, like some terrible Whedonesque dialogue. Yet Origins, somehow, is pretty much fine and the novels are irrelevant to anything going on in it.

 

[Lacrymas]

Origins in an acquired taste imo. I found it extremely boring when I played it for the first time too and couldn't get past Lothering, so I didn't touch it for a while but then tried it again at one point due to a recommendation iirc and it clicked with me when I finished Lothering. It's not anything special by any means, but it's Bioware's last RPG and at that time Bioware were at least competent and were just less good at the worst of times, as opposed to actively bad post ME1.

 

[Sacibengala]

Thanks DA:O for inspiring the worst parts in BG3.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Origins in an acquired taste imo. I found it extremely boring when I played it for the first time too and couldn't get past Lothering, so I didn't touch it for a while but then tried it again at one point due to a recommendation iirc and it clicked with me when I finished Lothering. It's not anything special by any means, but it's Bioware's last RPG and at that time Bioware were at least competent and were just less good at the worst of times, as opposed to actively bad post ME1.

Being able to zoom out and program your character's behaviors (seriously, the tactics screen was a neat thing) numbed the pain. But I think DA2 is less retarded than ME2.

 

[9ted6]

Thanks DA:O for inspiring the worst parts in BG3.

I don't remember a gay druid bear sex while transgender tieflings watch scene in DAO, but it's been a while.

 

[Sacibengala]

Thanks DA:O for inspiring the worst parts in BG3.

I don't remember a gay druid bear sex while transgender tieflings watch scene in DAO, but it's been a while.

They had to expand it a little in the kinkyness somehow to make it worthy of 2023 sensibilities. But in Origins you still have a tanned elf that hits on you all the time. In BG3 he is pale and try to *SPOILER ALERT* suck you while you sleep, though.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Thanks DA:O for inspiring the worst parts in BG3.

I don't remember a gay druid bear sex while transgender tieflings watch scene in DAO, but it's been a while.

you can get in an orgy though. BG3 is seriously lacking in the group sex design.

 

[Lacrymas]

you can get in an orgy though. BG3 is seriously lacking in the group sex design.

You can have a fivesome in BG3, it's only up to a foursome in Origins ;d

 

[9ted6]

Thanks DA:O for inspiring the worst parts in BG3.

I don't remember a gay druid bear sex while transgender tieflings watch scene in DAO, but it's been a while.

you can get in an orgy though. BG3 is seriously lacking in the group sex design.

At least that orgy requires you to recruit a scummy companion and turn the other one evil.

In BG3 the gay trans-bear orgies and elf cucking activities consist of supposedly good guys. You got elves trying to suck you in your sleep now apparently.

 

[sebas]

I know it's panned nowadays, here at least, but I really enjoyed DAO back then. The Fade, the Darkspawn, the City of Gold, the Qunari, Blood Magic, the different prologues and I remember I liked how the elves were portrayed (after having played The Witcher beforehand). I also really appreciated the party tactics menu, it was exactly what was missing from my Infinity games (not the limited rests or auto-healing mr. Sawyer). I also remember Allistair was incredibly annoying but I liked Lelliana and the Enchantment! family.

Yeah, the game had its flaws: the deep roads, morrigan looking like a crack whore, the camera, the lack of balance and quite a few others.

But looking back at it, it's definitely a game made by game developers and not by game companies. Take the intro: they put in the effort to give you a proper race specific backstory that was immersive and in line with the overarching story whereas in a much bigger and more expensive DAI even as an elf or a qunary you just happen to be there as a member of the fucking Chantry (ie. the fucking nazzi).

DAO was a new universe, a proper one. Not fucking Starfield. I don't know that any western AAA game company nowadays would invest so much in a new IP.

 

[Delterius]

I know it's panned nowadays, here at least, but I really enjoyed DAO back then.

don't listen to the posers who weren't here for Codex GOTY 2009

 

[Modron]

I know 2009 was a very dead year for crpgs but there was zero reason to pick this over KotC or even Risen.

 

[Delterius]

I know 2009 was a very dead year for crpgs but there was zero reason to pick this over KotC or even Risen.

the world wasn't ready for turn based rpgs, thankfully we now have bg3 (tb dragon age)

 

[Mauman]

I know 2009 was a very dead year for crpgs but there was zero reason to pick this over KotC or even Risen.

the world wasn't ready for turn hot stinky garbage, thankfully we now have bg3 (tb dragon age)

Yes....standards hadn't been lowered enough yet.

 

[Space Satan]

If you want to bash Dragon Age: Oriigins then compare it with RPGs of 2009, when it released. Things will be a bit clearer why it became so popular so well recieved

 

[The Jester]

Edgy as fuck, but it got my 15 year old self hyped

I unironically enjoy this song.

 

[Delterius]

I know 2009 was a very dead year for crpgs but there was zero reason to pick this over KotC or even Risen.

the world wasn't ready for turn hot stinky garbage, thankfully we now have bg3 (tb dragon age)

i hate proper D&D

sad!

thankfully sven has proven computers are too developed now and we don't have to lower ourselves to RTwP no more

 

[Mauman]

I know 2009 was a very dead year for crpgs but there was zero reason to pick this over KotC or even Risen.

the world wasn't ready for turn hot stinky garbage, thankfully we now have bg3 (tb dragon age)

i hate proper D&D

sad!

thankfully sven has proven computers are too developed now and we don't have to lower ourselves to RTwP no more

If, by proper D&D, you mean the dumbed down sludge that is 5E, then yes, I hate "proper" D&D.

But it's more the writing of BG3 I despise more than anything.

 

[Delterius]

you mean the dumbed down sludge that is 5E

3E nerd alert

why don't you multiclass into 3 types of dragon somewhere else kiddo

the writing of BG3

i do agree though larian is too serious for baldurs gate

 

[Mauman]

you mean the dumbed down sludge that is 5E

3E nerd alert

why don't you multiclass into 3 types of dragon somewhere else kiddo

the writing of BG3

i do agree though larian is too serious for baldurs gate

Sure...I like 3.5/pathfinder. I'm also a 2E connoisseur. No shame there.

As for your 2nd bit. Yeah. Ok.

edit - also, the irony of calling me "kiddo".

 

[Delterius]

I'm also a 2E connoisseur.

oh yeah the crpgs where you 1) pick class 2) pick weapon theres your build voilá congratulations thereyago you'vedunit the game is over now now thats proper D&D compared to 5E where you coincidentially do the same thing