Dragon Age™: Origins - Ultimate Edition

The GOG Preservation 1.05 update for Dragon Age has broken the game. The DLC is missing for the offline installers since the update, and GOG still hasn’t resolved the issue despite multiple reports from users for weeks. Adding to the frustration, the old installers are no longer available on the site. I’ll gladly update my review when this is fixed, but as it stands, this is unacceptable for a platform that prides itself on preservation.

Dragon Age: Origins is one of the last great RPGs, and certainly BioWare's last great RPG. I don't think anyone would recommend against playing it, but playing it on PC in 2023 is a hassle. The game crashes seemingly at random. There are plenty of recommended solutions to be found, but none of them seeemed to work for me. If you were hoping to buy this and just play it without issue, just know that it might not be so easy.

First of all: the game had enough good moments to keep me playing. I played it the first time, since I missed it back in the days. The Story was okay, not overwhelming, missing a lot to the end and gets rushed, [SPOILER] ending with a very intenseless fight against the archdemon [/SPOILER]. BUT, the worst of all was that the game keeps crashing regardless where you are or what you do. I had like 30 crashes through the game, highlighting in a crash before the final cinematic. On top of that where some serious graphics bugs: people's clothes flicker, entire interiors went black, blood puddles become a red square and so on. That's not what I call a "Ultimate Edition". The game gave me a headache, ending in my decision not to play Awakening, because it's technically unbearable. Back to the game itself, there was just one single scene, where my actions in the game had (maybe) an influence. Other than different dialogues, the game plays the same and the outcome still is the same. It doesn't really matter if some side character dies or you just screw up, because... hm... you can't really screw up. Maybe it's just me, but I would like to have consequences.

...And I regret nothing :) Ah, Dragon Age Origins, a game that just knows how to draw me in, one of my personal faves and I think one of Bioware's better games as this game's successors, while fun in their own right, lacked some of the charm this oldie has. As with any game made by Bioware, it's got solid writing and engaging characters, though the visuals and animations show their age they are far from terrible and the gameplay, which is similar to Baldur's Gate or Kotor tends to be unbalanced at times, but in a way that I still feel is fun and has run pretty smooth on my PC (Using Win8 to be exact). One thing I ought to suggest however is a little mod called "Skip the Fade" found on the DA:O Nexus, anyone who has played this game will know what I'm talking about. In the end, Dragon Age Origins is truly an epic, and despite some minor issues has aged like fine wine, a must have for any fan of the genre :)

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