Returning to Dragon Age: Origins today for what was far from my first game, I realized that it never had a true sequel (or maybe that's a bit harsh for some: it never had a sequel that followed its spirit of Classic RPG in pretty much the same way). Yes, Hawke and The Inquisitor have further explored the world of Thedas, and Rook will soon be added to the list of overworked protagonists with a sidekick named Varric, but it never felt like the spirit of Dragons and Dragons-inspired design. Dungeons of Origin would have ever really been repeated within the franchise. While lore has developed and new stories have irrevocably changed the future of Thedas (and everyone's opinion of Anders and explosives), Dragon Age's core gameplay has moved on from intricate tactical positioning and D&D-style role-playing. to a more “current” feel. ' combat and exploration, or at least what seemed current, in the games of its time.
Dragon Age 2, for example, was a limited character study by necessity, thanks to its incredibly tight turnaround time (16 months!), replacing the multitude of tone-deaf dialogue options in Origins with a more limited dialogue wheel, but with voice, Mass Effect style. a staple of all BioWare games now. Then, Dragon Age: Inquisition gave in to the flavor of the decade, after the great success of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and went completely open world, with materials to collect every three steps, a ping button to spam and so much more. bloat that the much-maligned Hinterlands starting zone became one of the series' biggest jokes. The official social media accounts even had to remind players that there was an entire game waiting for them beyond their limits.
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Even with the big differences between all the games, Origins stands out. Not only did it lay the foundation for the series' entire gloriously deep history, from complicated religions and warring countries to the fascinating and dangerous dream world of Fade, but it's also a deeply nerdy take on fantasy within video games. It shows in touches like the intricate tactics system that allows you to control your party down to the smallest detail of how and when companions can perform any action, but also in the wide range of dialogue options that allow you to be just as heroic. , evil I clumsily forward as you wish.
These race and background choices can drastically alter the ending, romance options, and how the world reacts to you, but also, crucially, how you react to the world. I'm usually not one to think too much about the past of my RPG protagonists, but there's something about the partially filled blank slate that Origins begins with that gives me a gentle nudge to join the RPG. I made a Dalish elf on my most recent excursion through the plague-infested places of Ferelden and from the beginning I decided I only choose the dialogue options I thought she would choose. To wit: cautious to the point of being rude when it comes to humans, asking about their religion at the Chantry when I was already fully aware of their bloody backstory, and at the same time pandering to demons who I know have deceitful intentions.
I also waited longer to fall in love with everyone's favorite royal bastard, Alistair. My naive Dalish surely wouldn't start flirting with a man she just met! And then that embarrassingly awkward scene where we barely touch loincloths would have to wait until my character was more comfortable around human people. (Really, I'm not sure she'll ever feel fully invested with the dog constantly barking in the background and a meter of space between her and the apparent love of her life as they marvel at each other's polygons, but there's only so far you can take the bite.)
It's not just me who feels the pull to play along, either. Somewhere between pretending to ignore Alistair and deciding whether or not to kill the poor potentially possessed wizards in The Circle, I forgot the consequences of knocking over a mysterious alchemical flask during the Warden's Keep DLC. In a search for answers I discovered a Reddit thread that quickly and dismissively answered the question of what it did, with the rest of the comments made up of chatter about the reasons why each person's Guardian did or did not take the potion. (The trade-off is additional skills versus dodgy manufacturing ethics, for those curious. Turns out blood magic and torture are a tough sell.)
The role-playing game may have its limits, but 15 years later, Origins is still a valiant attempt to provide a bridge from the Xbox 360 era to the nearly limitless possibilities of Dungeon and Dragons.. The problem is that, as a good bridge (and as a game that resembles the old school of RPG design), it's easy to feel frustrated by the broader, action-focused route that Dragon Age took in the years since. But here's the thing: It's harder to get mad that the series took a more real-time action-focused cinematic route in its sequels now, when the phenomenon that is Baldur's Gate 3 exists.
If Origins is a midpoint of D&D, Baldur's Gate 3 is, as we know very well, the closest a video game can get to experiencing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Origins encourages you to role-play, but in Baldur's Gate 3 it's almost impossible not to.
It has its own limitations, of course, but it doesn't feel that way most of the time due to the dizzying array of options available in almost every situation. For an old Dragon Age: Origins player, this is the dream. Stacking boxes to reach an area is just as viable an infiltration technique as turning into a mouse to sneak through a hole or teleporting over an obstacle with Misty Step. Companions and important NPCs can die. You can miss entire plots if you get too deep into the story. And your character race and class options are as extensive as the unique combat, exploration, and dialogue options offered by developer Larian. Even the appeal of classic slow-paced CRPG combat comes from the wide variety of options available in the game.
Baldur's Gate 3 also, just as I always wanted in Dragon Age, allows you to delve into the psyche of your flawed party, which can lead to a romance with any of them. United not in the task of saving the world, but selfishly trying to get rid of its mind flayer parasites, your companions' interactions with each other are on a completely different level, where the hostility between them can even lead to their death if you are without careful. Although the loincloths and ten-second clips of staring at your scene partner are replaced here with those now-infamous sex scenes that would make HBO blush.
Bladur's Gate 3 is, in other words, a lot like Dragon Age: Origins, all grown up. I can't help but appreciate that D&D's influence is coming full circle. Just as Origins was BioWare's spiritual successor to its classic Baldur's Gate games, Baldur's Gate 3 feels an awful lot like the spiritual successor to Dragon Age: Origins. Or at least the natural evolution of what the Dragon Age series could have been, if it had leaned into its sillier, more old-school CRPG side. Baldur's Gate 3 even picks up where BioWare left off with that smaller, more focused companion group structuring that the Dragon Age developer brought with Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2.
None of this, of course, is to say that Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition are bad, they just have very different design philosophies. I also don't think Origins won't continue to welcome newcomers to the series, now that Baldur's Gate 3 is here to steal your time. Instead, while it may be Darkspawn-tainted nostalgia talking, the point is that I think there's still a place for Origins' D&D-lite design today – perhaps, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world, even more so now than in 2009. Origins may not have as many crippling options and deep consequences as Baldur's Gate 3, but I think that's its main appeal, besides knowing the history of Dragon Age. It's like starting a game of Dungeons & Dragons, only this time with a pre-made character sheet and starter pack: an experience complex enough to create something unique to you, but not advanced enough to manipulate the entire world. . , beyond some established options. A comforting compromise – that middle ground – when compared to the sometimes overwhelming depth of some of today's contemporaries. It's been a pleasure to return to, and hopefully Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be a pleasure in itself and in its own style, when it brings another new twist of its own soon enough.