Dragon Age: Origins

'm not a big fan of dogs, but when a fantasy RPG from BioWare includes one as a major character, Isit up on my hind legs and prick up my ears. If nothing else, Dragon Age: Origins will be the first game Iknow of that'll allow you to level up a canine in the same way as a wizard.

I'm still not sure I was meant to find the dog while sitting in the corner, far from the prying eyes of various PR people observing the collected throng of journalists attempting to defeat an evil, insane wizard. Naturally, I'd mopped the floor with him with a minimum of fuss and was busying myself trying to explore as much of the game as I could before EA tore the mouse from my bloodied stump of a hand.

And that's how I discovered that, among the various wizards and warriors, a huge bulldog-type creature who, when included in your four-man (OK, creature) party, was just as capable of gaining experience and levelling up as his bipedal colleagues.

Apparently he's just called Dog too, which I suppose is as apt a name as any. But enough of that. One of the main worries about Dragon Age is that since the game has gone cross-platform, all the initial "We're making a PC game for PC gamers" bluster would turn out to be just so much hot air. While we only obviously got a limited run through various aspects of the game, my impression was that Dragon Age: Origins is a cross between Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect. That isn't big news really, but it might help qualify what you should expect from the game come winter.

Combat was the focus of our hands-on, with the aforementioned mad mage needing to be put in his place. First of all, a conversation was had that was straight out of the Mass Effect playbook. The facial animations and conversational style were so similar, so while we shouldn't expect the same level of sophisticated storytelling as shown in The Witcher, BioWare's usual high standards in terms of acting and writing will shine through.

After the inevitable "Actually, you know, I won't just give up" conversation finishes, you get ready to rumble. This is where BioWare have, surprisingly, managed to keep the new and old RPG fans happy.

For those used to Mass Effect and its ilk, you can fly right in and look over your character's shoulder while you fight. For those of the Baldur's Gate school, you can keep the view zoomed out and go old school.
Combat is pausable, so you can consider your strategy and queue up spells and attacks, just like in the good ol' days of top-down goblin slaughtering. Certainly for those worrying about Origins being dumbed down, this notion has been blown out of the window for the combat at least. You can even zoom out outside of combat too, so instead of using WSAD to move about, you can click around the screen instead. It is, as they say, up to you.

As for what is going on behind the scenes, it's all reassuringly dice roll-y and the number of skills, spells and so on are a far cry from more recent streamlined RPGs. While I won't go so far as to say the game mechanics are as in-depth as the Baldur's Gate series, it certainly shouldn't be lacking in options.

The main problem that still persists is whether the game's storyline and its universe will be interesting enough. Other than being described as a "mature fantasy" Dragon Age: Origins doesn't seem to have much of a hook, some key ingredient that will get people rushing to the shops to buy the game. One imagines that BioWare are gambling on their name alone being enough to guarantee sales, which is probably true, but there is definitely a "meh, whatever" attitude amongst a substantial percentage of the PC gaming community.

From what we've played so far, the actual gameplay won't be a problem, pleasing as it should veterans and newbies alike. Whether the core story and characters will be good enough, well, we'll just have to wait and see