Dragon Age

Normally we only concern ourselves here with pen & paper RPGs, but today I'm going to mention a new game I'm playing for PC, Dragon Age Origins.  

Dragon Age, for those of you who don't know, is made by BioWare.  They are the company responsible for bringing us some of the greatest games in history.  Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and of course the amazing Baldur's Gate are all products of BioWare.  Given their past success expectations for Dragon Age were extremely high.

I'm still in the early stages of the game but I've played enough to get a feel for it at this point.  BioWare called Dragon Age the, "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" and I think that is accurate to a certain extent.  Dragon Age is a brutal game where danger lurks behind every corner and many people die horrendous deaths.  If you are looking for sunshine and roses this isn't the game for you.  The plot is filled with backstabbing political intrigue, demonic magic, and monstrous creatures known as Darkspawn.  The setting of the game is very detailed and well put together.  Overall all these elements add up to a very good game.

Though I consider Dragon Age to be excellent there are a few aspects of the game that seemed to have received less work and almost seem to have been done halfheartedly.  Pick pocketing in the game seem to carry no consequence when failing.  Not that you fail all that often given how easy it is in the game.  One of the cooler things in the game is how your companions react to your actions, and yet no one seems to care when you begin steeling everything in sight, even from beggars and refugees. 

These small complaints do not do much to detract from a game of very high quality.  I won't know exactly where Dragon Age fits into the BioWare pantheon until I finish the game, but it is already apparent that it belongs up there with the greats.