Dragon Age Origins is personally one of my favorite RPGs, right up there with both Neverwinter games, Baldurs Gate 3 and the PoE series. It is without a doubt the game that changed how I perceived companions in my party, and the game where I really, REALLY started to actually care for them individually. The dialogue of this game is incredible, the barter between each party member during each quest and situation is rich and changes depeding of who is there. the writing of the characters and the storytelling of it all feels genuine and unique, they are actual characters, not just NPCs. There are a lot of games with great companions and stories but DAO just hooked me inmediatly and that feeling and facination never stopped or dwindled during the multiple times I've played this game over the years. The game is actual dark fantasy, with incredible compelling characters, specially Morrigan, whern I first met her it's when I actually understood that the companions of this game where something else entirely, and something I've just never seen myself. Some are more insteresting than others but they all tell amazing stories and present you with different decisions, points of views, and attitudes. It is so diverse I fell in love with this game. I'm 1000% sure that BG3 took a lot of inspiration from DAO's type of writing and characters, and probably every RPG with that style of gameplay too. This game is a masterpiece in my opinion, and now thanks to GOG, I just need to download and play. No crashes, no game breaking bugs, no need to spend hours manually patching everything in the game. Thank you GOG for preserving this masterpiece. Also I just wish more games used the and tried the same Tactical Gameplay DAO has, it's incredibly interesting, and it's the only RPG where' I've been able to customize the AI of each party member to match my gameplay style and build to perfection, where I just have to take command of my character and I know my party will go in sync.
The game is an incredible treasure trove of fun campaigns and community made scenarios. The main campaign might not be the best thing in the world when we talk about narrative but it has a lot of random specs of brilliance now and then along the secondary quests. The Expansions, well those are a different story, you can see the huge difference of what the devs could actually do when they had enough time to cook. Being objective, this game was very rough at the start both in its release back in 2002 and again when Beamdog dropped the Enhanced Edition version of the game. But now it's one of the most complete and fun CRPGs you can find out there. Being subjective, this game was the reason I started playing and loving RPGs when I was a kid back in 2002, and even then with all the rough edges it became an experience that stuck with me to this day. I love it with passion and couldn't be more happy with the state of the game today, 22 years later. Thank you Beamdog for bringing this gem back.
This was back in the day the 1st crpg I played. Nostalgia brought me back to it after I saw Beamdog doing the remaster. Although slightly rough at launch according to the forums, by the time I bought it and played it again I felt it was the same amazing experience I had back in the 2000s and probably even better. They even added a new HD textures pack that certainly makes the game look better, and if you dabble into what the community makes, the mods and modules made by fans are also plenty of fun, even if some are not so well developed. I'm currently doing all the campaigns again before jumping into the modules, but overall this is a solid RPG, with some dated mechanics (henchmen/companions) but with excellent writing and challenges. If you dabble into mods, the PRC Consortium is a really cool addition for those that want to play the classic and expansion campaigns and have fun with more classes, skills and available builds from D&D.
