The Bottom Line:
Dragon Age Origins (DAO) is a "fantasy" RPG released by BioWare (the makers of Mass Effect, etc). Supposedly, the game is kind of a throwback to the Baldur's Gate style RPG. There is a lot of micro-managing of characters available. The romances in the game play out much like the first Mass Effect (with more clothing). There are 6 different "origin" stories to play at the beginning which may slightly impact the way the game world looks at you. The combat is a bit like that in their previous title (the far superior) Star Wars: Knights of the old republic. Basically you target an enemy and the character will keep attacking that enemy until they are defeated. This is a relatively long game (not JRPG long). One of the problems i had with the game is that the characters didn't really seem that interesting and there are some that feel like unnecessary duplicates - i guess they are there for their specializations. Like most WRPG, i got the feeling that your main created character was mostly a throwaway.
One of the reasons i got the Ultimate Edition is that BioWare kind of went crazy with DLC. There was an expansion and 8 DLC. This is going to be long. So, this "score" is for the entire package - and it gets bonus for a lot of content.
Grade: C+
Extraneous Commenting:
i mentioned the DLC on Ultimate Edition (which seems to be hard to find the XBLA version at brick-and-mortar retail). Here are the DLC packs included and the listed XBL prices
* Awakening (2,400 points, $30): This is the expansion to Dragon Age Origins. It picks up after the main story ends. Your character starts taking back a fort, then the game continues. You can import you character from the main game and gain access to new available skills. In my opinion, this is the best of the DLC stuff, but it is quite expensive for what it is. It is first accessed from New Game.
* The Golems of Amgarrak (400 points, $5.00): This is another add-on not accessible within the main game (start New Game). In this add-on, you will be going to a ruin to find out what happened to a group of adventurers. You will get a golem at some point and look for upgrades. This one is a bit more puzzle like at you may have to hit switches to travel to certain areas.
* Witch Hunt (560 points, $7.00): This is accessed from the New Game menu too. In this add-on (which may serve as a bridge of sort to the sequel, i'm not sure) you are trying to track down a former party member from the main Dragon Age game. Yes, the former member is a witch named Morrigan (one of my favorite characters from the main game). You can import a character into this DLC.
* Leliana's Song (560 points, $7.00): Accessed from New Game menu. This DLC is basically a back story of one of the characters you can get for your party in the first game (in the first city actually). Leliana is a bard (kind of a spy), who was tasked with creating havoc and placing stolen documents. The stolen documents lead to her problems. You start this relatively low level (level 10).
* The Darkspawn Chronicles (400 points, $5.00): Accessed from New Game. In this DLC, you face the final series of battles (most of them) from the perspective of the enemy darkspawn. This sounds cool in theory, but in practice it is kind of annoying. Basically you play as kind of a commander character. You go around an "enthrall" other darkspawn characters to form your party. Unfortunately, the "enthralled" character has a rather limited usefulness. You can't even use heal potions as them.
* Feastday Combo Pack (240 points, $3.00): This content is actually accessible from the main Dragon Age game. However, i fail to see its usefulness. Basically, all i could tell was that it added gifts that either drastically improved (or hurt) how characters feel about you - useful for romances and affinity skills.
* Warden's Keep (560 points, $7.00): This was one of the launch period DLC. Yes, it is accessible from in the main game (at the campsite). In this DLC you are tasked with retaking a former Grey Warden base and finding out about the past of a throw-away NPC.
* Return to Ostagar (400 points, $5.00): Accessed in game. In this DLC you go back to the scene of the first major fight (ok, slight spoiler, but it is really early on) and look for the armor of a fallen king.
* The Stone Prisoner (1,200 points, $15.00): Accessed in game. This was one of the initial two DLC. Basically, this was what they added to try and get people to buy the game new. Shale is a golem character. This DLC is about recruiting Shale and later doing a quest to find a little background.
What to Expect:
* A relatively long game filled with numerous opportunities for combat
* Somewhat boring/bland/repetitive characters - who aren't too intelligent
* Tactics - some degree of micro-managing characters
* Characters running into walls or other characters during combat
* A camera that doesn't like walls
* "Choices" in how to complete several tasks
* 6 origin stories that may mention other characters you meet later in your quest.
* 3 races (human, dwarf, elf) and 3 roles (warrior, mage, rogue)
Achievements:
This version of the game gets 1,750 possible points. Basically they are for such things as beating stages of the game, romancing characters, killing enemies, etc. There are not difficulty ones in the main game, but there are a couple in the DLC. Apparently, Darkspawn Chronicles has an annoying one with keeping a certain creature alive that may be one shot only (even with multiple game attempts). i got 1,480 on my first play through of these - it took me about 44 hours. The main game + add-ons accessible therein took me about 30 hours, the expansion about 10 and the out of game DLC was about 1 hour and 15 minutes each. There are still about 145 points i can add from the main game (i just need to finish another play through doing certain things).
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