Dragon Age™: Origins - Ultimate Edition

Simply a Masterpiece...

5/5 imo

Aged quite a bit and requires a lot of third party help for it to run smoothly, namely the 4gb patch. There is an audio bug that cuts off dialogue mid sentence, so you end up hearing this loud noise about 25% of the time. Also a bug where interactions won't start if the character model isn't in place (Avernus not walking to his spot), which results in the NPC just saying their greetings, forcing you to either reload or abandon the mission. Issues in map designs where your model will get stuck on nothing / some invisible wall (bridge puzzle, stairs at Redcliffe village). A lot of the game's core mechanics are dated. The unskippable overworld map travel which isn't a loading screen, large maps of nothing (Deep Roads), click-to-move AND click-to-interact (??), Denerim, the main quests of the Fade, dwarves, elves, Magi, and the final battle are possibly the worst in any game. If there were a mod to remove all of them, I would use it. Many of the side quests are more fun than the main ones. Items don't scale well as you transition to mid-to-late game, and are useless unless it coincides with your exact play style. Enchanting is limited. Shapeshifting is useless. Combat system is limited and easily exploitable (mage). The tactics system is hit or miss, and it isn't as smooth as, say, the Gambit system in FFXII. Writing hits all the bingo charts of western high-fantasy stories but doesn't do them particularly well (or bad): enslaved elves, isolationist dwarves with no aptitude for magic, Chantry as an analogue to institutional Christianity (+Morrigan being the "bitter truth" trope), Wardens = Messiah, hubris of blood magic / golems, the stoic foreigner brute (Qunari), the pseudo-witty side character (Alistair), the naive girl (Leiliana), humans being the aggressors between races (until Jesus/Wardens comes and fixes everything), etc. The dialogue options are O.K. Stil enjoyed it somewhat. Definitely too long for what was delivered.

.. but probably the best CRPG ever made. An epic story, a vast immersive world, superbly written companions. The game offers roleplaying opportunities unlike any other, you can be a noble or a street urchin, a mage or a forest elf, or I don't even remember how many possible beginnings the story has, all with unique locations and consequences. The story may be a bit cliche, the combat or classes, not perfectly balanced. Pish posh, says I. DAO is a superlaticve product, the best Bioware ever made.

It's an OK game. Stuff happens.