Dragon Age: Origins – Spoiler-Free Review

2009 November 29
by Stupid Ranger

I finished my first run through of Dragon Age: Origins this weekend.  And I loved it so much I started it again!

My Thoughts

I shared some preliminary thoughts on my game experience after my first weekend of game play, and most of those impressions were accurate through to the end.  My Dalish Rogue Elf was a lot of fun to play; I specialized as a Duelist, which gave me some great, front-line melee attack options.  The graphics throughout the entire game were beautiful, especially the ending sequence.  The story line did have some predictable moments, but there were still some crazy, unpredictable moments.

Advice Without Spoilers

For those of you embarking on your own DOA adventure, I offer this advice, free of spoilers.  Talk to your companions, especially while at camp.  They will periodically give you quests to complete.  If you earn a high enough influence score with a companion, s/he will gain stat bonuses.  If you’re so inclined, you can work your way up to a romantic relationship with some of them; there are even achievements for romantic relationships for the achievement-seekers out there.

Stock up on health potions, lyrium potions, and healing kits.  I recommend maxing out your (or one of your companion’s) Herbalism skill, which allows you to make your own potions.  I found that on occasion, I had bought up all available health potions in a region and couldn’t find any more; being able to craft your own will make things much easier.  Buy recipes when you can find them, even if you don’t have your skill high enough yet; you may not be able to find that recipe again.  Stock up on basic potion-crafting supplies when you can buy them.

Later this week, I’ll share thoughts on my specific game play, which will include some spoilers, but for now, here’s what I think: If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins, go now.  Play.  Play through to the end.  And then, play it all over again!

3 Responses leave one →
  1. November 29, 2009

    No joke about stocking up on potion components. I went into the final battle with 99+ lyrium dust, flasks, elf roots, distillation agents, etc, and still managed to run out.

  2. November 30, 2009

    And you don’t even mention that Green Ronin is about to release their pnp Dragon Age rpg? For shame…

    http://greenronin.com/dragon_age/

  3. November 30, 2009

    I’m still playing through it. But it’s going a bit slow since I’m doing every side quest I can find plus running two characters (Human Noble Warrior and Dalish Elf Rogue) through it at the same time just to see the differences. So far it’s been great fun. Can’t wait to the Green Ronin game but part of me also thinks the setting could be cool if converted to Savage Worlds.

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