Dragon Age: Origins…An RPG for the Age(s)!

It has been a very long time since a decent fantasy RPG has hit the store shelves, but I believe that the wait will finally be over this October! Dragon Age: Origins is set in a completely new fantasy world built from the ground up by the good folks over at Bioware (if anyone can bring us an awesome RPG its them)! The basic premise of the storyline has the player in control of either a mage, rogue or fighter whom is one of the last of the Grey Warden, a group sworn to protect the human race from evil, in a battle against creatures called the ‘blight’. Of course, the story and involvement of your character in the Grey Warden will stretch far, far deeper as you progress through the game building and breaking relationships with your fellow allies and foes!

One of the key ingredients in Dragon Age: Origins is going to be character development and the ability to make moral choices in situations. How you react and what choices you make will affect those around you altering the way they see you and how they act towards you. Building a strong relationship with your party members will be key in this game in order to survive the struggles that lie ahead. However, the need for deceit and blackmail could also be beneficial as well! The choice will be yours of course, but regardless of how you handle a particular situation it will affect you…in some way or another! Your character will be able to carry up to four members at a time in the party, while also having the option to switch between any one party member at anytime during a battle or confrontation.

So, if you are in deep against a nasty Blight or even a massive fire-breathing Dragon, it will be essential that you use all your party members to their strengths in order to defeat the creatures! All of your allies will possess different skills and come from different backgrounds so ‘getting in good’ with the right people, can help make for a stronger party! Also, since this is a party-based RPG, the ability to freeze the game and observe your foes from different angles can give you some incite on how to shift the odds in your favor during a major skurmish! So, it will be all about how you want to play the game and what type of strategy you prefer when building your party! The game uses a behind the shoulder third person view, but for all you Baldour’s Gate fans out there, the option to switch to full over the top view will be available if you prefer this angle for better view of all your party members.

When you choose your character class at the beginning of the game, you will have ample time throughout the game to customize your abilities and to choose how you want to develop your skills. The skill sets associated with each class will be very broad, offering tons of options, eventually leading to even more powerful and more advanced sets of specialized skills. This assures that you, the gamer, will have full ability to build a character around your specific fighting interests. Obviously, if you are looking to master the skills of the blade then you will choose to be a fighter or if you prefer to use powerful magic as your style then the mage will be your choice. The rogue character class will be your sneak artist (like Altair from Assassins Creed) using stealth, sneaking behind enemies or even setting deadly traps! Don’t be fooled by your choice of only 3 character classes however, because, as I mentioned before, each class has a very deep and broad set of skills to choose from so they can be shaped to your liking!

As you travel through the land of Ferelden, your character will encounter many different types of people, places and enemies! As you learn why the land is riddled with these so called ‘blight’ you will unravel the mystery behind their emergence and soon realize the importance of sound decision making and realize just how valuable your party members will become! So prepare to master your skills and perfect your strategy as you embark into this unseen land! Dragon Age: Origins is sure to take you on a fantastic journey riddled with magic, deception and danger beyond your wildest dreams! This epic RPG hits stores October 20th for the Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC! And by the way, there will be Dragons…..you can be sure of it!