Ode to DAO
I have not the vocabulary to express my appreciation. To borrow a line from
Morrigan (nod to Claudia Black) "A fine gift, you have my thanks".
I am not a professional reviewer nor critic. I am an RPG fan that has been playing RPGs/MMORPGs for over 20 years, on PC since the original text based Zork. Of those I have played, a few are notable. But none compare to the experience of Dragon Age Origins.
Usually I do a lot of research on the internet before buying anything, let alone another game. In the case of DAO I did no research. I was simply on game stop purchasing a successor FPS and Risen when I saw an advertisement to preorder DAO. I bought it simply because it had been a long time since a new RPG had been released. Only after playing the game all the way through for the first time did I stumble upon the This Is War 30 seconds to Mars trailer which both does it justice and does not. And then I saw there were several other trailers released for the game! All of which I missed and also do it justice and does not.
I had given up hope and resigned to the thought that I'd never see the likes of Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Oblivion, and Daggerfall again. I had mistakenly came to the conclusion that no game producer would create a PC based RPG as the world has seemed to denigrate to FPS consoles. Therefore I was not looking and was not in the know. It was an impulse buy that I figured why not? It had been the first cRPG that I had seen in a long, long while.
What a tremendous impulse buy it was. How fortunate for me to stumble across it. It makes me wonder where RPGs will be 20 years from now. Perhaps characters with AI, a voice interface instead of selecting predefined scripts or other functionality adding to the depth of immersion.
From the heart rendering story through phenomenal cast performances to the epic score, no other RPG has provided that level of immersion nor touched my soul as deeply.
Dragon Age Origins is captivating from the start, rapidly crashes through enchanting and plunges deep into enthralling.
To the entire cast and crew that a hand in creating DAO I can only say this;
"A fine gift, you have my thanks."
The voice actresses and actors absolutely nail their characters. I have read few, a very few, of the negative comments from people out there. I disagree. The cast did a marvelous job and absolutely did nail the characters. Stunning performances. The voice over's were emotional and heart felt. And The sound and music is absolutely stunning. Kids today call that "Epic". I am absolutely bewildered at the tremendous amount of serious talent Bioware brought to bare on DAO production.
Top tier acting talents such as Kate Mulgrew (Flemith - Captain Janeway/STVoyager), Claudia Black (Morrigan - Farscape/Pitchblack/SG1 etc), Tim Curry (Arl Howe not even a companion - The Three Musketeers/really too numerous to mention), including not so well known but serious talents none the less, like Corinne Kempa (Leliana - True Horrors/Vampires).
Bioware even went so far as to hire hottie model talent for the generation of the physical models of the beautiful and sexy female talents as in AlleyKatze (Alexandra Stein) for Leliana and Victorria Johnson for Morrigan who both were featured in Maxim magazine.
Over 800,000 lines of dialog! The story level of immersion is beyond compare. I have never seen it's like. Dark and fantasy, set in a D&D like environment, medieval/iron age. A perilous struggle to avoid certain death with no hope of victory except raw courage and sheer will.
And music beyond compare. Yes games have used orchestras before, even rock groups. Would you believe all that plus original scores that are somewhat Celtic and nails Elvish beautifully and artistically? Inon Zur composed a masterpiece around the story, the dialogue, even combat, literally every segment of the game that draws you into the environment and makes you part of it. With talent such as the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra and Seattle Symphony with lyrics and performance from Aubrey Ashburn.
And all of that put together in a seamless, deliberate package that stuns and enthralls the Player Character. And I mean that in the denotation and every literal sense of the word, enthrall.
You must think I'm joking right?
A computer game??!
All this talent?
Believe me I was and still am as stunned as you are. I don't have the vocabulary to do it justice. Bioware has set a new benchmark for RPGs that I cannot imagine what could possibly surpass it. The amount of sheer talent that has gone into the production of DAO is blockbuster. I would have never thought in my wildest dreams that any company let alone in this day and age of consoles would have brought such talent to bear on a cRPG, not even a MMORPG. This was one of the few games I ever bothered to watch let alone record and review the credits and research the contributions.
I can only dream that this might be an insight into the future. Dragon Age is trendsetting to say the least. A blurring between game and movie. It is more of an interactive movie than a game or movie by itself. Truly the sum is greater than the parts. The essence of role playing. A game that changes based on your ethical and moral decisions. A love story, a play, a ballad, a fantasy, a war but so much more than that.
Sure we used to say bah humbug to television, movies, graphic computer games. Where would it all take us? A lack of imagination? Surely a dungeon master, book, dice and painted figurines were the true essence of RPG right?
Wrong! Boy were we wrong. Takes me back in the day when my mother came to me after hearing from a friend that had watched the TV show. It wasn't called dungeons and dragons, I guess they didn't want to buy the copyright. Mazes and Monsters I think. It was in the early 80's. It was about a group of kids and one of them became so enthralled that he suffered a permanent mental fantasy condition and was truly sick needing treatment. Mother came to me to make sure I understood it (D&D) was just make believe. I can't imagine what she would have done if we had PCs and DAO back then.
So a word to parents if you see that movie, it is rarely played now but I have seen it since. The old board game method of playing D&D is literally child's play compared to DAO. You might want to think twice about letting 17 and below play this game. I know it's rated for sexual content and violence but if you disregard that, remember there is no rating for enthrallment. Although the movie was a work of fiction as well as the book it was based on, and I don't know if such a mental condition can actually exist, but I do know children need extra help in coping with these things.
So without a spoiler I can say that for me it was a deep experience of pain and joy, love and hate, despair and hope, a perilous struggle to save the ones you love, your country, your world, all peoples regardless of race, tied to a single fate. To do that which is impossible against all odds. Swimming through the depths of the Fade and hordes of Darkspawn. Never faltering, never wavering, with steadfast resolve. And in the end, which ever end you choose, a deep feeling in that fate. A combination of the experiences of life embodied in a game.
Few stories/games have ever touched me so. The only other game that came close was *Hint* Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande. The woman I turned from Evil through love and then later rescued in the depths of hell even though she knew not who I was. That was enchanting and heart rendering. But NWN provided no where near the immersion of DAO.
I will not focus on the graphics or the engine as that seems to be the focus of too many other games. Yes it is needed and yes it is well done. Without it, the rest would have gone to waste. But that is not the focus here.
The game is not perfect and there is still room for growth. The CGI trailers are misleading in this regard. And there are quest and world problems. But the rest truly over shadows these issues.
And now I come to an end of what I have to say about DAO. If you are an RPG player, go get DAO, you won't regret it. And do try to remember...it's only a game.
;)
