Dragon Age™: Origins - Ultimate Edition

I remember when this came out that I was still busy modding and enjoying Bioware's Neverwinter Nights. I continued to play NWN and never got round to Dragon Age till now. I can only assume that the glowing 5-star reviews come from brain-dead fanboys without any critical reasoning ability. The game uses a desaturated palette which I suppose suits the backstory, but it also makes the game much less attractive than NWN. Textures and animations are a bit smoother than NWN, which is an improvement. But NWN started you in a hospital, and making your way through the hospital to learn your mission and exit was in fact a very deep tutorial in which you learned how to do everything in the game. DA:O doesn't have anything like that. After a text description of the world situation, you're deposited in your bedroom in the palace. You're told a ceremony will be held to celebrate your being appointed commander in chief or something, but that that's hours away and you're expected to tour the merchant district in the meantime. But on going there, you're almost immediately confronted by your brothers, who demand to know why you aren't at the ceremony. Return to palace, no ceremony. Return to outside, see the same half-dozen merchants, only half of whom have inventories, but despite being a royal prince you have no money with which to buy anything. A guard tells you he was appointed to give you an escort to a gladiatorial match. Wait, why the shame-fest about not being at a ceremony that hasn't started yet if I'm supposed to be watching bloodsports? But going to the games results in staring at two no-names bashing each other in which no one ever loses health, the match goes on forever, no NPC has anything for me to do, there's STILL nothing on at the palace... Two hours spent and it still doesn't feel like an adventure game. There are no other options... except to quit the game. Call me Joshua, but I fail to see what the big deal was about this.

Decided to play for the first time since I skipped it on release somehow. Now I remember why I did. Worst let down and the begging of the end for bioware due to pursuit for the "mass market" player. Combat and progression system? MMO-esque worse version of Diablo, and literally plays itself on hard even in boss fights Quest design? here is a fetch quest, travel to a tiny location, kill everything, get reward Reactivity? almost absent outside of specific triggers. There isn't even use for stealth outside combat Level design? hope you like the same linear-path tower layout reused for levels, because you'll be seeing that a lot Writing? ..well at least it's always short, don't want to bore the midwit... akhm the average player. Here is another token "moral dilemma", in an otherwise completely linear quest, how inspired! (no.) I know this game gets a lot of praise, but it's far from deserved and only because bioware succeeded at appealing to mass-market crowd. Is it an alright game? probably. Is it a good crpg? No.

awdas

Maybe its because Im not a fan of tactical rpgs or maybe its my complete apathy towards the fantasy genre but I didnt enjoy this game that much. Got boring half way through and the Story didnt do it for me. Its weird because I like Kotor which has a simalar combat system like DA:O but it wasnt nearly as enjoyable. Idk maybe I´ll give it another chance one day.

I love this game which I originally bought at that other place. I purchased it again here because I was having problems with freezeups. I installed this yesterday and it has been a nightmare! It freezes up even more than the other install. I have tried all of the suggested remedies:the 4gb patch, the LAA, tried reducing all of the video setings, tried to run it in 16 bit color, in compatibility mode,etc. Every origin story has a spot where it freezes.After rebooting, shutting up all unnecessary services,it still freezes a tht eexact same spots. This is a really enjoyable, immersive game:when it works!