Dragon Age: Origins

Overview:

Dragon Age: Origins is a single-player, dark, story-driven rpg where the player is plunged into the world of Thedas. Barely three decades after the end of a brutal occupation by a neighboring empire, the country of Fereldan faces a new threat: the return of the ever-reviled darkspawn, monstrous creatures said to be spawned from the hubris of men who sought to break into heaven and were cast out and corrupted for their sin. War is brewing in the south and the player character, the Warden, has little idea what awaits them.

Players can choose between six distinct opening stories, or origins, for their characters. A scion of a noble human house, a member of one of the mysterious wandering clans of Dalish Elves, a city elf living under the thumb of their human overlords, a member of the disgraced Casteless Dwarves, the child of the dwarven King, or a member of the Circle of Magi imprisoned in their tower. Depending on your choice of race or class, characters will play through a unique origin (roughly 1 hour long) before the beginning of the main game.

Once the player leaves their old life behind by being recruited by the current Warden Commander of Fereldan, Duncan, they begin their journey to becoming a Grey Warden and saving the world from the Blight. For if they fall, so too does the world.

General thoughts:

so this is a strong contender for my favorite game EVER. yes, it is old and clunky and some dialogue definitely reflects the views of the time, but this is exactly the kind of story-rich game that i am so, SO obssessed with. i picked it up on a whim in gamestop (showing my age lol) when i was in highschool i think? and it changed my life forever. dragon age is without a doubt my favorite video game series of all time and while i struggle ENDLESSLY to pick my 'favorite' between the 3 (there is a 4th game but i haven't played it yet because my current pc didn't have the specs) i'm usually certain that it goes to Origins. in my opinion it's an incredibly introduction to the series and sets the tone perfectly, even though it just feels very different to the other two (though it can be argued that all three of them have very different feels). the inclusion of the origin stories were absolutely unmatched to anything i'd seen before or since. all of the romances were swoon-worthy and this game actually has my favorite romance out of the entire series. it definitely shows it's age in 2025, but it's almost part of it's charm. it's one of those games i ALWAYS keep installed because i never know when i'm going to want to pick it back up again.

In-depth Review:

Story: absolutely LOVED the story. this gaem gives you such a variety of responses to situations it's straight up memed. there are truly some crazy responses you can offer up but it makes it a lot cooler as it allows you to be every shade of grey on the spectrum. each of the main quests result in a choice that effects the overall outcome of the story and they all have a part in the final battle. with how interconnected the first three games in the series are it's incredibly cool to see how these choices butterfly out into the world and in the other games. some of the main story quests drag a little bit (if you've played it you know EXACTLY which quests i'm talking about) and i'll admit, i have a mod installed that skips them, but that doesn't make them BAD. they're very well written, it's just long enough that there's not point in playing through it again once you've experienced the story once. i'm usually stuck in what choices i like to make all the way to the end game, but they do give you a very nice variety of different choices to make.

Graphics: they're about what you'd expect from a game from 2009. they're not an eyesore in my opinion, i think they look good and fit the story, and any blocky or awkward bits just come off as charming (though i may be biased). i've never felt the need to install any graphics mods but i'm sure they're available.

Worldbuilding/Lore:

Character creation:

Combat:

Replayability/Depth: