Before I do my review, it is important to note that the game does not really work if you do not mod it, as EA decided to port the game over as it was and it does not run on modern systems. I will link the Youtube video I used to fix the problems the game has, as since I did those changes and copied the same settings, I never had problems again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_qBFeyWR5Q
Dragon Age Origins is a masterpiece of an RPG and one of the best (and now my favorite) games I have played. The story and overall narrative is extremely engaging, and the game has some of my favorite companions in an RPG that I have played. The writing and dialogue is so good, witty and entertaining that it was a joy to just sit and listen to my companions banter between themselves, as well as speak to them and get to know them better.
The gameplay is really fun and fairly unique compared to most RPGs I have played, as I feel it is a really good mix in between turn based party gameplay and non turn based party gameplay. When I originally started the game, I was not sold on it, but it got better as it went on. The depth of character skill trees, abilities and classes, while not up to the same standard as some modern RPGs, is so good, especially when you consider this is (relatively) an older game. The world of Fereldon is so interesting with the different races, and the overall story quest that involved exploring this world and stopping the Blight had me engaged from the start to the finish. The music is also very good as well.
While the overall story and narrative is excellent, the biggest praise I can give the is the characters, the writing and the dialogue, which all tie together. The main group of companions may be my favorite in an RPG I have ever played. I adore both Alistar and Morrigan as characters, and the banter between themselves was so good. Leliana is a great character to, and while I romanced Morrigan because I think her character is just more interesting, she is such a good character too, as to is Sten and everyone else. It was hard to pick a main party as there were just so many companions I wanted in my party at the same time. It made it very hard to pick my other 3 companions to accompany me, but I mainly had Morrigan, Leliana and Alistar, as well as Sten at times, as those where my favorite, but the rest of them were awesome as well and when I do a future playthrough I will use them more.
I think the writing and dialogue may also be my favorite in any game I have played. This ties to the overall story and narrative; the story is so interesting because the writing is so good. It was so much fun to interact not just with my party members or even other main characters, but random NPCs because you never know what they could say that is interesting. I cannot praise this aspect of the game enough, and I could write so much more about it.
The only big issue I really had with the game was that the game just did not work. I was around 2-3 hours in when it started crashing nonstop, and I was tempted to just stop playing the game, but lucky I found the video I linked above and I 100% recommend doing what the video says to make sure you can play the game.
Overall, Dragon Age Origins is a masterpiece in my eyes. The story, characters and writing are all top tier, especially the companions, as they are so good. I 100% recommend this game to basically anyone, but especially if you like RPGs, especially CRPGs like BG3 or DOS (those are the only other ones I have played as of now), as this feels like the predecessor to those games. I am looking forward to play some of the future Dragon Age games, but it will be hard to live up to the expectation that Dragon Age Origins has set. I play on playing the Awakening DLC before I hope into DA2, as well as maybe doing one of the other DLCs I did not do (I only did Morrigan's DLC at this point). This game is a masterpiece, and you should 100% play it.
10/10
