Dragon Age: Origins (PlayStation 3) – First Impression Review

When was the last time you took a nose dive into the Rabbit Hole? Or maybe allowed yourself the slight indulgence of a 150+ hour jaunt through a haunted landscape? If the answer to that question begins with the word “Neverwinter,” you need to finish reading this enlightening first impression, then get to your local video game watering hole and pick this gem up.

Before I get to the nuts and bolts of this, let me first introduce myself and give you the skinny. My name is…call me B.T. I’m a writer, published author, and video game fanatic. And this also happens to be my first review for BSC Review. Welcome. Second, I’m a gamer, and I used to do these reviews unofficially when I felt like it, just for fun. With the invitation from BSC, I now do them officially, but still for fun. The novelty of playing a game to unwind and break from the daily grind of the “real world” has never worn off, and it never will. If it does, you will know B.T. is dead. Third, these reviews will only come to you after I’ve spent a significant amount of time with a game. In many cases, I will have beaten the game like a rented mule prior to posting a review. However, with a game like Dragon Age: Origins, a beast of a game (pun intended), the amount of play time necessary to formulate an informed review is considerably more demanding.

My format will be thus: approximately 10-30 hours into playing a game, depending on the title in question, I will post a “first impressions” review like the one you’re about to read. After I have turned the game completely on its head, earned the absolute final trophy, etc., I will follow up the first smaller review with a fully categorized “Final Review.” Why? Simple. First impressions aren’t everything ,and, with video games in particular, the way a game handles the middle and ending portions can drastically change the score for good or ill. I think many industry reviews are one of two extremes: done too quickly, or done in unreal time. Review a game too quick, and the title may earn a score – high, low, or mediocre – unfairly; and sitting down for 150+ hours straight to review a title for a deadline, in my view, warps the reality of the title. Doing it in “unreal time” just isn’t realistic, though I understand deadlines and other industry drivers. My opinion, of course, but how many gamers can really do that? Most of us play games sporadically, even if it’s a daily thing. Gamers work, we have lives – come on, stop laughing, we do…I mean it, stop laughing! A game needs to fester. As your mind dwells on the concepts and images, your impression of them changes, and new synapses are formed. The romance between the gamer and a game is something that takes nurturing and thought. Some reviews seem mechanical, and I don’t want my reviews to be that kind. Savor the experience…your views will change, and so can your impressions of a game.

So yeah, that’s me, that’s how I do it, but I digress…back to the Rabbit Hole. There have been precious few games like Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O from here on to save my poor fingers the abuse), but BioWare has a strong track record of bringing such games to the masses. Neverwinter Nights 1/2, Mass Effect (and its forthcoming sequel), Baldur’s Gate and all its various sequels and expansions, and Knights of the Old Republic. Each of these titles have etched out entire sections of gray matter, no doubt. But you’d better make room for DA:O, and you’d better make it fast.

I’ve spent a solid 32 hours with DA:O on the PlayStation 3…yes, the PS3. Blasphemy!!! “Not the PC?! Excuse me?” You heard it…the PS3. BioWare announced early that DA:O would be multi-platform, not just for the PC and Xbox 360. We PS3 owners demand lovin’ from the virtual playthings, too! And we got bucket loads of it this time around. I debated and argued with myself over and over again before I transferred my reservation money for [title removed to spare verbal beatings] to score DA:O on the PS3, but I think it was a good decision. For one, it allowed me the chance to see how a PC-centric title would translate to a console, mainly with respect to controls.

But regardless of platform, one thing you’re going to get is a story that is second to none. I mean, I really thought fantasy stories in video games peaked with Neverwinter Nights, followed by the sci-fi title Mass Effect, but DA:O’s story is compelling for reasons that transcend the background story of the Darkspawn and betrayal. That’s just it, it’s not the raw story that draws you in. That’s not to say the story isn’t great on its own. It is. BioWare’s writers have done plenty to take the traditional elements of fantasy and twist them just enough to make it unique, if only subtly. But it’s the characterization, a la Mass Effect, that brings the story from interesting to compelling. I fell in love with these characters and the choice dilemmas you, as the gamer, face with them. I’ve been on the edge of my seat, nervously bouncing my leg while some of my choices unfolded through dialogue and even more subsequent choices! I felt that way with Mass Effect, but DA:O ousted it from the top spot of games that do this, gone, outta here. You really just can’t gauge how a decision will affect you or the other party members, which gives you the feeling of opening presents on Christmas or birthdays each and every time there’s a major dialogue sequence.

My first impression of this game is 100% based on the characters at this point. The PC version has been touted as the best version graphically, if you’ve got the box to run it, of course, and they’re right. The PS3 version is “muddy,” texture-wise. Loads of draw-in, pop-in of objects, and the frame rate…good lord, the frame rate. We’ve all see games come out on the PS3 that are just tear-jerkingly beautiful, but this is not one of those games. The game was designed for the PC in mind, for sure, and it shows. Action scenes with lots of things going on slow the game down to a stuttering crawl. I’m talking below 10fps, slow. Even during “normal” moments, such as running around a town, you can tell the frame rate is running low enough that your eye can pick it up, which is at or below 24fps, in case you were wondering. When the camera changes viewpoint, shadows and characters will flicker into the screen. It’s only a split-second, but it’s noticeable. During conversations, voices will literally cut out…you can see lips moving, but no words. Happened two or three times now. This may not be a PS3-only issue, mind you, I’m just reporting that it does happen on the PS3.

In short, DA:O is a bug-filled experience thus far, but again, I stress that this is NOT preventing me from loading it up almost non-stop since I bought it. That should be a testament to the lasting quality of the characters, setting, and overarching storyline. The side quests are fun and earn you some cool schwag (in this meaning of the word, “free trinkets,” stuff, loot, booty), all while you’re learning more and more about the world of Ferelden through notes, books, and other items.

Controls are spot on in the console version, period, don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. It’s not the keyboard and mouse layout, we know, get over it. I hate that the console version is being compared to the PC version like we can’t figure out that it’s NOT a keyboard/mouse-controlled game. We get it, we really do! But guess what? If the developers were allowed to do it, they could easily let the PS3 use a keyboard and mouse…it’s PnP with every USB keyboard and mouse I’ve hooked up to it, so no excuses. If you want keyboard/mouse on the PS3, demand it from the developers or buy the PC version. But really, the translation of the controls was done very well, and I haven’t had a single issue controlling my party. Switching members on the fly is done with the R1/L1 shoulder buttons; the quick-launch menu is L2, which tactically pauses the game to allow you to sort through spells, tactics, potions, poisons, and special talents; R2 brings up your second tier of assigned face button spells/powers, giving you six total at your beck-n-call (triangle, square, and circle spells, plus R2 + those same face buttons); the right stick is camera; left stick is character movement; the “X” face button is reserved for invoking actions in and out of combat. The orientation of the controls is such that it promotes a more action-paced adventure on the PS3. In the PC version, you get a higher camera angle function that’s not there on the console version so you can plan your strategy. Now, this may be a nit-picky statement for a fantasy game, but how is it realistic that you can see your enemies before they can see you purely because of a meta-gamed camera angle? I’m always confused by that one, but perhaps it’s because I’m over-analyzing too much. Bottom line, the controls are great and work perfectly fine on the PS3. It’s not perfect or as fine-tuned as the PC is purported to be, but for a console translation, it’s wonderful.

I’ll cover more of these details in the final review. I’m only on my first play-through as an Elf Magi (mage class), so there are two more classes I need to explore (rogue and warrior) and a lot more combinations of them before I can make a full review, to say nothing of the remaining hours of story and decisions I have yet to experience.

First Impression Scores

And Next We Have… (Presentation):                             9.0 (the menus and interfaces are all slick, laid out well, and easy to use; sometimes hitting the wrong button can lead to trouble)

What’s Going On Here? (Story):                                    9.2 (the story shines through because of the world of Ferelden and the slew of info you discover; enough differences to keep it fresh)

Who Are You? (Characters):                                         9.9 (what more can I say?)

How Do I Look? (Graphics):                                          6.5 (PS3 version only; muddy, low-res textures; draw-in and pop-in; horrendous frame rate issues, especially in combat)

I Want To Bang On A Drum All Day (Sound):                  8.8 (wonky at times, some bad voice-acting mixed in with the great ones, but otherwise well done)

How Do We Do This Again? (Gameplay):                       8.7 (cool side quests; run-and-fetch can get repetitive; combat gets repetitive…throw down, heal, rinse, repeat)

Give Me The Wheel! (Controls):                                     9.0 (I know, right?)

Overall First Impression Score:                                 8.7 (Average)