Review: Dragon Age - Origins

I've been looking for a good RPG to play now that I finally got the MMO monkey off my back, so I went to Gamespot to see what they would recommend. At the top of their "best RPG's" list, was Dragon Age - Origins, coming in at a staggering 9.5/10; the only one on the list with a score that high. So I downloaded off steam, booted it up and started playing.

When you start in, you can choose one of three races (Human, Elf, or Dwarf) and one of three classes (Warrior, Mage, or Rogue). Warriors can be tanks or dps, mage can be dps or heals, and rogues can be meele dps or ranged dps. I decided to roll up an elf mage first. It starts off with a pretty rich storyline where the mages have to go though a deadly trial by fire type event to prove that they wont get corrupt by the antagonists of the storyline, the blight. You run around a castle for a while, talk to NPCs, pick up dumb little items, and level up a few times. Pretty standard fare for most RPGs.

Finally you get out of your "start zone" and end up at a little camp, where one would hope the real meat and potatoes of the game would begin. Much to my dismay however, this never really happens. The game has a feel of how Stanly Kubrick would direct Lord of the Rings back in his 2001: A Space Odyssey days, with poorly written combat sequences. For the last 6 hours I've played this games, and here is the breakdown of what you spend your time doing in game.

70% Listening to (or skipping though) tedious interactive lore encounters with NPCs
10% Loading screens.
10% Running around zones trying to complete unclear quest instructions.
5% Combat.
5% Trying to get your party to do what you want, and using skill points upon level up.

It's all well and good to have a rich story line, but this game takes it to painful extremes. After about an hour of playing, I grew so frustrated standing around listening to another mysterious magus character talking about how strange the forest is, I began skipping through lore text just to get to some sort of a real gaming experience. But since the lore is so ubiquitous in the game, I got quickly confused as to what was going on. Choosing weather to be bored out of my mind and informed, or only slightly bored and very confused is not a decision you should have to make constantly while playing video games.

Bottom line, unless you are a fiend for lore, pass on this game. I'd give it maybe 2/10.