GB Feature: Dragon Age: Origins Review

The very busy post-holiday season caused some delays with our Dragon Age: Origins review, but now our long-time moderator Fable has stepped up to the plate to give his perspective on BioWare’s spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate.

Each specialization brings with it attribute perks, and a branch of new, unique talents or spells. Many of these are ingenious game sub-systems that require strategy to manage well. Mages that become arcane warriors, for example, can gain tremendous defense and spell resistance capabilities, along with powerful weapons attacks whose bonuses derive ultimately from their magic attribute rather than strength. But armor fatigue is factored into the increased mana cost of spells during battle, while some spells require two hands to cast. (A mage staff is an extension of the mage, and doesn’t count.) This means sheathing a sword to do spells when you’re up close and personal with something large and vicious. Tactical and strategic tradeoffs, in other words, that you need to work out for yourself. Good job.

Note that you don’t start the game knowing specializations. As in Planescape: Torment you can be taught them by special NPCs, though you can also find some in odd places, or spend very large sums of money to buy an occasional instructional books from a few merchants. Specialized classes add a lot of character tailoring to the game, and are challenging to master. This, too, is an excellent idea, keeping many specializations as something that will suddenly jump out at you, rather than something you can actively seek. It makes the game feel more alive.