A friend recently asked me, “Will Dragon Age blow me away?” Well, my review of Dragon Age has to start with this caveat: There is very little competition in the serious RPG genre these days.

 

I mean, on Xbox 360 there is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as the forerunner. What else has there been? Two Worlds, which I haven’t really tried because it was pretty poorly rated. Fable II, which was not very “hardcore”… Fallout, which was a gun-oriented but way smaller version of Oblivion (by same studio)… and Mass Effect and some others which are essentially Japanese console RPGs (very linear, short, character driven, with turn-based combat).

 

So when you hold Dragon Age up against those, it can’t help but compare favourably for old-time D&D players. Like a D&D module, it is more story-oriented than Oblivion; you have choices of where to go next, but within those areas the game is pretty linear and story-driven. It’s not as open-world as Oblivion, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: the story is quite interesting and strong in comparison, with interesting character dynamics (do you remember how your party members used to talk to each other in Baldur’s Gate? They do that in Dragon’s Age, too, and it’s pretty amusing.) The more I played Dragon Age, the more I was sucked into it, and I think comparing it to Baldur’s Gate is pretty accurate: small zones to explore (like the screen-sized zones in BG), and lots of thought put into the characters and plot.

 

But if you buy it, your very first impression may not be amazing, because the graphics in Dragon Age are kind of surprisingly behind the times (it is hard to imagine these people made Mass Effect, which was so gorgeous…!) I think they were also inspired to use the muted colour palette of the Lord of the Rings films. Now, it’s not that the graphics are “bad,” but they are almost Xbox 1 quality. My guess is that the game has just been in development too long. (For what it’s worth, though, the character animations are very good, especially compared to Oblivion, and I’m not just saying that because the brother of a friend of mine works in animation at Bioware!) Also, the game interface is not as well planned for the console as Oblivion’s – though you do get used to it in time, as with all games.

 

Another major difference is that this is a party-oriented game: it’s your main character, plus three others, at all times (after the initial starting adventure). That’s a big difference from Oblivion: I find the combat more strategic and challenging, and more D&D like as it goes… for simple encounters, you just plow through them without much strategy or pausing… but for difficult encounters, you need to pause and plan and strategize (ala Mass Effect, I guess). I am playing at “normal” difficulty and still frequently lose battles and have to try again, being more strategic about how I use my party and skills, etc.

 

But really, if you are interested in RPGs, you will dig Dragon’s Age if you give enough time to get into it. Each character class has a different origin story in the game and a different little starting adventure, and for me, the game started to pick up after that initial starter-adventure was over and I finally became a Grey Warden… but I better not say more lest I spoil anything…