Dragon Age: Origins Part 4- With Flying Colours

At the core of both Gears of War, Dragon Age: Origins & indeed countless other video games. The plot can be boiled down into "Save the world" RPG's will allow for your own reasons as to why, and sometimes even how. Sure, it's possible to go into a huge degree of detail as to why we have to save the world, how we're going to do it, why it has to be us etc. The crux, however, often remains the same. We just have to.

I feel like before I go on, I need to address something else though. It may seem unfair to compare DA to Gears of War. Gears, is a 3^rd person shooter and DA is an RPG, surely one is going to be (and forgive the choice of words) geared toward story due to its nature? No. A game doesn't need to make sense to be fun, I've had fun with "Fusion Frenzy 2", an RPG doesn't need a good story to be an RPG & likewise, a shooter doesn't need a story to be fun- doesn't mean it wouldn't be improved by mixing these things together though. Consider games like Farcry 3 or Spec Ops: The line, both arguably just shooters- however they're improved by how their story conveys an interesting message.

Regardless, Dragon Age passes the first test of having a story that requires something of you and gives you a reason to fight. You need to save the world, not a particularly uncommon plot hook.

Now we move onto the characters.

There is a whole host of characters in Dragon Age, and to go into why I like each particular one and what I feel the bring to the entire experience of playing the game would be a foolish. There are so many, that contribute in big ways both to the story & the setting of Dragon Age. I will try to give an overview and perhaps I will talk about one in particular in another post. For now though, I'll try and stay as general as possible.

Each and every possible party member has a very well defined personality in Dragon Age, after interacting with them for just a few minutes- you understand them. You don't know them, and their goals aren't made clear right away- sometimes not at all. However, you get a general idea of the sort of person they are- without having everything given to you right away. Like meeting real people. Each party member has a bar for how much they like you, starting in the middle i.e. neutral, and either raising or lowering based on if you're a dick or not.

Talking these people and letting them know how you feel, in either a positive or negative way is a very rewarding experience. You'll learn about their past, what they think about other members of your group, what they think about you, their past, their fears and even their cherished memories. This process takes time, you can't just spam click different members of your party until they like you- Sims style. Certain conversations are only available during particular missions, or after them. Some members will even comment on your relationships with other members, either because they're concerned, jealous or just don't like them. Of course, all of this was ruined with DLC- you can just buy gifts to give to them and have them love you within the first hour of the game.

Becoming friends with characters will also give them stat buffs, and the possibility for particular quests that can reward you with extra XP or even unique items. Even if you're meta gaming the entire system- just to squeeze out those extra buffs & weapons- you may find yourself accidentally enjoying the simple act of talking with these people. They're all interesting.

Of course, your party members aren't the only people you'll interact with in this game- tonnes and tonnes of NPC's litter this game, and whilst they aren't all as interesting as your party members the main ones certainly stick out with some top notch writing.

So yeah, that's 2/2.

Of course, this particular style of character development is more or less strictly RPG only. However, the depth this game goes to to define its characters isn't limited to RPG's. A player will be interested & invested in any character if work is put into them- if they have more personality than a brick & are likeable. Consider the party members of DA, they are characters that have predefined personality’s and story’s. Any one of these characters would do well in their own linear game, not because the player inserts themselves into the role of character X, but because we like this character, we care about what happens to them.

It seems that in recent years, games have been unable to mix story & gameplay. There's the shooty-killy bit, for the most part the focus of the game, then the story bit. This forces players to distance themselves from the story, because the gameplay is completely shut off from the story. Not everything has to happen in cut scenes. Dragon Age, and indeed any game worth its salt can, in places, combine these two parts to create a truly immersive experience.