Top 10 Games of The Year 2009

Four – Dragon Age: Origins

Publisher: Electronic Arts
UK Price: £17.99 (Incl. VAT)
US Price: $49.99 (excl. Tax)
Bit-tech.net Score: 8 out of 10

BioWare, it seems, can do very little wrong when it comes to game development (Jade Empire excepting) and the release of Dragon Age: Origins only helps solidify Bioware’s reputation as the best RPG maker in the business.

A spiritual successor to the phenomenal Baldur’s Gate series, Dragon Age has eschewed the Dungeons & Dragons setting in favour of a new, custom universe – albeit one which is fundamentally very similar. You’ve seen one fantasy kingdom facing imminent destruction, you’ve seen them all – that’s what my ol’ mum used to say.

In Dragon Age: Origins the looming threat you’re compelled to overcome is an army of demons called The Blight who want to wipe civilisation off the map completely. Naturally you’re one of the only people who can stop them, so you roam the wilderness trying to find allies – both in the form of nations to join your army and warriors to aid your immediate squad.


It’s this core group of characters you surround yourself with that really make Dragon Age such a great game, with each member of your party a remarkably well-rounded and believable personality. As you argue with some and woo others you can’t help but come to form a strong bond with the NPCs that surround you, the likes of which is very rare to find in any medium, let alone games. It’s this ability to create characters with lasting appeal which has always been Bioware’s main strength and which helps to make Dragon Age what it is.

Strangely though it’s the new features and tweaks that Bioware has bought to Dragon Age which most weaken the success of the game as a whole. The origin stories that the title refers to are a new feature where you play out short, customised prologues to the main plot. It’s a great idea but the selection is rather limited and the scope very predictable on the whole, so you end up rushing through them far too quickly.

It’s Bioware’s usual high quality writing and the ability to create a cast that players come to genuinely care about that make Dragon Age such an enjoyable game – not the persistent gore or ‘mature content’. That’s something we all recognise.