I think I’ve mentioned it before but I play computer-based fantasy role playing games with some regularity. It is my only vice that isn’t illegal, immoral, or fattening. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons with paper and pencil 35 years ago or more back in the old version 1 days and, as computer-based games became more capable and interesting, I began playing them. The other day I finally played Dragon Age: Origins through the final battle.
With a few name changes DA takes place in a familiar quasi-medieval world of humans, elves, and dwarves, mages, warriors, and rogues. In this particular quasi-medieval world elves are an oppressed minority. Like The Witcher, which I thoroughly enjoyed, there’s a certain amount of moral ambiguity and your decisions matter in how the course of the game plays out.
The first character I created was a human rogue. In regular D&D I typically play as a bard (a duelist bard if it’s allowed) since I find that best suited to my temperament and inclinations. You live by your wits. I gave up in my attempt at playing as a human rogue at normal difficulty about halfway through the game. There was simply no way my party was strong enough to deal with some of the challenges we faced. I re-started as an elven mage at normal difficulty and absolutely tore through the game. The experience of playing DA as a mage is probably the best mage experience of any fantasy role-playing game including the gold standard of the genre which remains Baldur’s Gate II. I have never had as immersive and absorbing a gaming experience as BGII.
Advancement is via the now-familiar skills tree; the user interface is more complete than most in the genre. The artificial intelligence is so comprehensive I haven’t scratched its surface.
Dragon Age: Origins is a big step in the right direction on the part of Bioware from the Neverwinter Nights series which I found tedious. It doesn’t quite match the plot of The Witcher but it is entertaining. I have restarted as a human warrior and so far the game is proceeding pretty well albeit significantly tougher at hard difficulty than playing as a mage at normal difficulty. I’ll report back on it when I’m farther along.
Spoilers
As you prepare to enter the final battle you’re confronted with an unexpected dilemma: you must choose among giving up your own life, letting one of your companions take the hit, or doing something that I found personally reprehensible. I chose to give up my life for my friends, consistent with my own beliefs and with the character to which I’d devoted a considerable amount of energy. However, it was a rather baleful ending.
BGII was a great game – still one of my all-time favorites. My first computer game of this genre goes back to “Adventure” on the old Atari console which was a horrible game, but cool for me at that age. I used to do a lot of gaming – D&D, other paper RPG’s and wargames mainly. I still game a bit – mainly World of Warcraft – but not like I used to.
I think I still have my BGII disks somewhere – I should see if it will install and run on Windows 7!
I imagine the ideal ending choice to be that of Joe Stack. He took his own life on principle, to improve the lives of his family and friends, and to take with him as many Gummint functionaries as possible.
Only von Stauffenberg and Sampson can compare with him.
I’ve heard of this game, and while I’m not usually a fan of MMORPGs (I prefer real-time and turn-based strategy games, like Warcraft III and the Civilization series), I’m considering giving it a go.
It helps that the creators have said that my favorite fantasy series was one of their inspirations in its creation.