We are so screwed.

Imagine that you have a hero that wants to defeat a Demon, he has to do X, then do Y, then he finds out he has to do Z, then Q, then R, then T and eventually kills the Demon. He does not know beforehand that the journey will comprise of doing X, Y, Z, Q, R, T, and as such, is lead bit-by-bit, dragging the hero down the story, and making the player wonder “Wow, what will happen next?”. When you have it layed out like this in Dragon Age, with plot twists coming exactly at the end, in quick succession, after days of uniting the races, you’re pretty much saying from the first hours, “You have to do this, this, this and this, then play for a few more hours and then the game ends”. It just cuts in on the overall feeling of a legendary adventure.

The good news is that this is the single biggest nitpicking problem i’ve had with the game.

Mass Effect easter-egg.

But in the end, this is not just our character’s story. It’s also our companion’s. As said, Dragon Age: Origins allows you to have up to three people in the party besides your character, but choosing which sometimes is extremely hard. I’m not talking strictly about having certain classes, but actually sharing the adventures with your comrades in arms. Bioware has a certain knack for making great characters that i always feel are unique, while oddly stereotypical. With Dragon Age i don’t think i’ve met a single person that did not have at least one favorite character. We have Alistair, your fellow silly but funny Warden, Morrigan, a pretty unique telling-it-as-it-is young woman raised in the Wilds, Leliana, a Chantry sister with a pretty dark past as a Bard in Orlais, your pet Mabari wardog which you get to name and a ton of other interesting characters which are a joy to talk to, take along, and see their reactions both with situations you face and between themselves.

Really, if i have to pick one thing that Dragon Age does extremely well, and one thing only, it’d be the characters. They are written and voiced exceptionally well. In the terms of Dragon Age, with all the choices and alternative routes that you can take, having the game fully written and customized, and having a lines done with great voice talent adds tremendous value to the game. I throughly enjoyed all my interactions with the characters and i genuinely bursted out into laughter sometimes. Also having actors the likes of Claudia Black, Jamie Glover, Susan Boyd and Tim Curry giving a soul to the characters is nice.

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