Dragon Age™: Origins - Ultimate Edition

So first off, yes it's DRM free. But the performance on modern hardware is not all that great. And it's not updated for those at the time of playing. I went through several hoops just to get it to minimal crashes. Technical things aside, Dragon Age: Origins were very disappointing for me. The origin stories had great potential in the start of the game. But eventually it all comes down to the same conclusion based on your choices in the main game. What I mean by that is that the origin stories only matter in the context of how other characters look at you. Otherwise you can progress the story like normal. The graphics and gameplay didn't age very well compared to games that came after this one. Or even before this game. Movement felt slow and they went a little overboard with micromanagement of your pary members in my opinion. It just takes the flow out of the gameplay. The gameplay loop revolves around having muliple rooms with enemies, with slow combat, quest progression etc. The graphics part is a matter of taste and it just weren't to my liking. One more thing to note is that it's possible to softlock your character at a certain point. Look at Games like Mass Effect, Diablo 1&2, Fallout NV etc. Here's why I think they are superior experiences. Mass Effect aged gracefully, although I did play the Legendary Edition. The Gameplay is phenominal, and the RPG Mechanics actually mean something. Diablo might be difficult to get into nowadays, but the pixel art, sound design and theme of the games are top tier. Fallout New Vegas might need anti crash and preferred shader fixes. Luckily the engine were built for that and many of New Vegas' issues are ironed out nowadays. It truly is one of the best RPG experiences ever. Now for the positives: The storyline and character development are sublime despite being semi linear in progression. The DLC were fun to play. It ended in a satisfying way. In conclusion, it's not overrated, just expected more out of this game.

Don't ever buy this. It's a buggy mess. You will have game breaking bugs, non game breaking bugs, crashes, corrupted saves...you name it.

I tried playing this now (december 2024) for the first time since 2012, but it freezes constantly and has to be terminated with the task manager and relaunched constantly. I made it through a fair bit before giving up, but when I entered the Fade in the Circle of Magi, it froze almost every time I zoned to a new area, so I gave up. It's a damn shame, because the game is still fun to play when it works. There are certain things one can do that supposedly makes it more stable, but I tried all of them without getting it to work. It did become more stable, but the freezing got worse and worse and eventually it got so bad I simply gave up. In short, the game itself is 5/5, but the technical problems makes it unplayable.

So much to see and so much to do. Semi open game play, NPCs are chatty and most have good voiceacting. The combat is realtime that may be paused. The The Abilties to choose from when leveling up is big and setting rules for how your party should act in combat makes it a game you can over and over. Still my fovourite RPG (though Baldurs gate 3 comes close).

Hands down best RPG or adventure game you'll ever play.