Dragon Age: Origins only gets better with each new playthrough. A love letter to BioWare’s older RPGs, it was the perfect farewell to lore heavy, PC classics like Baldur’s Gate, as smoother, more direct controller-based titles like Mass Effect instead took its place. Yet it bridged the gap in a way that exemplifies the best of both eras.
I’ve written before about how Dragon Age: Origins is still very, very bloody good, even if it looks dated. Without retreading too much of the same ground, I’m going to go even further today. Dragon Age: Origins is the best game in the series, and this is because of the titular origins themselves.
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The best RPGs walk a fine line between making you feel all-powerful yet powerless all at once, which is what the origins in Origins are there for. The first hour of the game is you experiencing your backstory – a relatively mundane life, at the bottom of the pile, and with nothing going on. A Luke Skywalker-style farmer backstory was eventually cut, but basically, you’re Luke before RD-D2 and C-3PO show up. Your peaceful way of life is suddenly violently taken away from you and you’re whisked away to the all-powerful Grey Wardens. You’re part of an ancient army headed by the king himself. And then, you guessed it, that’s suddenly violently taken away from you too.
After a whirlwind of being told to know your place, and then being part of a massive army, you’re left with pretty much nothing. You’re let loose in a country you’ve never explored, but one that you know will already have an opinion on you based on your origin. You’ve also got a couple of companions in tow, but they’re just as lost and constrained by their own upbringing as you are. However, you have the promise of power – the treaties with all the different factions in Ferelden, so you can build that army up again once more. This entire opening segment teaches you two important messages that Dragon Age is all about, but is best balanced in this game: you have the power to make a difference, but you can’t do that alone.
Throughout the game, this power and powerlessness work in tandem to paint a vivid image of Ferelden. It’s diverse, but bigoted. It’s proud, but young, and naive. You gradually grow your influence as you run between the various factions around the country – mages, elves, dwarves, human politicians – but there’s always a bigger fish around the corner ready to keep you humble. Play your cards wrong, and you’re fighting your way through the Landsmeet. Play them right, and you may have become part of the corrupt politics of Ferelden itself. Or maybe you’ve got idealistic views of changing the system? Well, that involves kinda bullying Alistair into being king when he doesn’t want to. The choices are yours to make, but they’re not made in a bubble. They’re made within the same classist society that created you, and you still have to work within its rules.
Keeping player choices constrained by the rules of Ferelden society – mages can’t be king or queen, for example – can in itself be freeing. In my world state, Alistair is king (didn’t like Anora’s vibes), but my Warden is basically in control, and also his mistress. This is much more interesting than having all options available for all classes. The king probably won’t ever have an heir, and he’s freeing the mages to keep his girlfriend happy. Drama, I love it!
But this is why I love Origins: your character is yours, but Thedas is not. Origins sees you stretch the limits of your character’s birth to accomplish astounding things, but you can never play god. Companions have their own lives, and will try and kill you if you’re an ass. Ferelden grants you the freedom to write your own story – everything from a romantic coming-of-age tale, starring an unlikely hero thrust into war, or an epic about a brutal, callous soldier who stopped the Blight, but became worse than the Tyrant they disposed of. Yet BioWare is a brilliant DM, and you make all of these decisions of the rules it sets up in Ferelden’s oppressive society.
Dragon Age 2 is too constrained. Dragon Age: Inquisition is too free. Origins is just right.
Next: The Oral History Of Dragon Age: Origins
