5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Dragon Age: Origins.

It’s been pretty barren for new releases that have interested me recently, and no other games were clicking so I decided to revisit an old favorite in the meantime. Haven’t played this game in over a decade, but I’m happy to report that it still holds up as Bioware used to be my favorite game developer before the EA acquisition. Dragon Age Origins is a benchmark for western RPGs. Every main quest has multiple outcomes depending on your choices & character skills. Certain party members can even have their personalities change depending on how you handle their respective quests & the fallout of said quests. There are some side quests that you cannot complete if your character & current party members lack the needed skills/talents. With no way to respec it makes the simple act of leveling up attributes an important choice, as many of the weapons & equipment are character class specific or require certain stat thresholds. The absolute best part however is the origin mechanic. You get to play your own characters backstory with 6 different stories that lead straight into the opening act of the game. Writing & dialogue are spectacular. Each party member feels & acts unique with an approval mechanic that goes up or down depending on how you interact with them or how they see you resolve quests. If it gets too low then they will leave your party, and sometimes they even put their foot down on certain decisions and will leave the party for good if you don’t comply or reason with them. This is also the last Bioware game to not feature the dreaded dialogue wheel. Because there’s nothing I hate more than choosing tidbits that doesn’t give a full picture of what my character will say in a dialogue heavy game. Dragon Age Origins is a game from another time. It’s essentially the last Bioware game that was fully developed before EA bought them, because Mass Effect 2 ended up being their statement game for the new direction they were taking the studio. The combat is simple but can be challenging, the graphics are still decent with the Series X boosts, and it does have a good dose of the stiff & janky Bioware animations. Story & characters however are second to none with a soundtrack scored by longtime Fallout composer Inon Zur. If you enjoy fantasy western RPGs then delay no longer and play the best Dragon Age game, Origins.