dragon age - origins

7/31/2019 Dragon Age - Origins

1/7

Developer:Bioware Edmonton

Edge of the reality(console versions)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Composer:Inon Zur

Engine: eclipse engineRelease date:November 23, 2011

Development:Bioware consists of members from the that split from the blizzard corp. the makers of legendary

RPG as Diabloand World of Warcraft .We they first came up with the idea of making an RPG

that could compete with such other titles in the market they obviously had to come up withsomething better and so their quest began with the making of game that would end of becoming the

game that would be benchmark for all the RPG releases .

Apart from the groundbreaking and enormous amount of writing(nearly 790,000words) and

dialogue the team also used original motion capture from the action crew of the movie 300 to creatthe action sequences so vivid.

The market of course is filled with many competitions when it comes to creating the RPG's andoften the better examples are on the front final fantasy for the example .The dearth however was no

just to create a game that would be more interactive and highly customizable but also the game tha

would offer players with options as equivalent to doing an experiment like and alchemist thatalways has a chance of creating surprising result .And so the dragon age started with the story line

up that has elements borrowed from the middle earth battle .Upon its release,Dragon Age: Origins

was lauded with overwhelmingly positive reviews and considered a critical success. Reviewaggregatorsite Metacritic ranks the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game with

scores of 91, 87, and 86, respectively. The game also received multiple awards from numerous

outlets, ranging from IGN's "PC Game of The Year (2009)" to the Academy of Interactive Arts &Science's "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year 2009".

As the name itself says origins stands for the 6 races that are available to chose for each time youstart the game and unique classifictions .And you have various skill to acquire and items to collectthat could further give leavrage to your skills.The most impactfull of all the decisions of the

character effecting the story line of the game and all these significantly add to gamelay replayabilitof the game .

The game is RPG has although not a MMO still has a huge fan following diablo 2 selling more tha5 million copies at adds valid proof to that .


2/7

Aesthetics:

The visuals of the game are not inclined towards realism that is good thing infact.It more maintainsthe dark and irre looks of a trilling fantasy and also shares a fine look on the forests the some bright

environments too.There are certain levels of Surrealism in the nature of enemies and when you

suddenly activate trigger there is Revenant and team to attack you .You will witeness how the

sudden appearance of a dark spirit changes the whole environment .There is no use of minimalistic

art anywhere as from inventory to codex everything is filled with details and customizable optionsto suit your gameplay.This is true essance of the an RPG the loads and loads customizations that

can be done.The graphics on numerous occasions is aided by certain emblems and symbols that tell you about

the area or region that you venture into .

Mood of the game is reflected depending upon the region that you are in the dungeons are darkand also accompined by the also similar kind of background score there are also the mountains and

time when the player gets captured in a dream .The art style there does provoke a very feeble and

weird feeling inside .

The is the fight of good against evil ,fight of light against the darkness and graphics of the game

acuratley matches the theme.Above all the voice acting of the characters are very catching and some

way make them very special.The sense of epic battle is made possible by the background score andtakes although a less attention from the player but is very sceretly manages to setup the whole

scene.


3/7

Story :

In every origin story, the player is introduced to Duncan, a Grey Warden who is trying to find

recruits to fight the Blight. By the end of his or her origin story, the player's character is selected as

a potential Grey Warden, and leaves with Duncan.

The player and Duncan journey to a fortress called Ostagar in southern Ferelden, to join Cailan, theking of Ferelden, and Loghain, a legendary general and Cailan's father-in-law. The three leaders

plan to make a stand against the encroaching darkspawn before the Blight can overwhelm Ferelden.

Duncan can sense the influence of an archdemon, a god-like being hosted in the body of a powerfuldragon that commands the darkspawn, which means that this would be the first true Blight in over

400 years. It is of utmost importance that this Blight is ended before it can gain momentum, as

previous Blights have left Thedas all but in ruins.

Duncan initiates the player into the Grey Wardens through a dangerous ritual called the Joining. The

Joining involves imbibing darkspawn blood, which can either kill a person or imbue him or her with

the powerful darkspawn essence known as the Taint. After surviving the Joining, the player andDuncan attend a council of war, where it is decided Cailan's army and the Grey Wardens will lure

the darkspawn into attacking. The player, along with another Grey Warden, Alistair, is given the

task of lighting a beacon at the top of the fortress which signals Loghain's men to charge the horde's

flank, breaking the darkspawn and ending the Blight. After fighting through the many darkspawnthat had sneaked around the battle into the tower, the player lights the beacon, though Alistair notes

that they're surely doing so late. Loghain, upon seeing the signal, abandons the battle along with hisarmy. King Cailan and Duncan are quickly overwhelmed by the darkspawn horde, who kill them,

massacre Cailan's army, and seize control of Ostagar and southern Ferelden. Later, it is told that any

survivors of the battle at Ostagar were taken or feasted upon by the darkspawn.The player's Warden and Alistair are nearly killed at Ostagar as well, but are saved by Flemeth, a

powerful witch who lives in a secluded hermitage with her daughter and apprentice, Morrigan.


4/7

The player, along with Alistair and Morrigan, decide that in order to stop the Blight from

destroying Ferelden, and possibly all of Thedas, they will need to gather a new army and slay the

archdemon. Using ancient Grey Warden treaties, the player's Warden must travel across Ferelden to

enlist the aid of the Dalish elves, the dwarves of Orzammar, the Circle of Magi, and Arl Eamon of

Redcliffe. Unfortunately, all of these factions are facing problems of their own, which the player

must help resolve to secure their allegiances. Meanwhile, Loghain returns to Ferelden's capital city,

Denerim, to inform Queen Anora, his daughter, of King Cailan's death. Loghain uses the Grey

Wardens as a scapegoat, blaming them for abandoning the battle and betraying Ferelden, outlawing

the order and hunting down any survivors. While Queen Anora inherits her husband's authority,

Loghain quickly declares himself her regent and effectively seizes control of the kingdom. Loghain

swiftly becomes a brutal and tyrannical ruler willing to do anything to retain power, igniting a civil

warbetween himself and Ferelden's nobility, who refuse to acknowledge his authority.

After the player successfully obtains the assistance of all the primary factions, a meeting known as

the Landsmeet is called among the nobles of Ferelden. There, the player confronts Loghain and

rallies support from the rest of the kingdom to face the darkspawn. The player is also presented

with the option of executing Loghain for his crimes or sparing his life. Sparing Loghain causes

Alistair to leave the player's party in anger and disgust (if Alistair has already agreed to marry

Anora and become king, he will remain in Ferelden and be present at the end of the game, but he

will not rejoin the player's party for the final battle). If Loghain is spared, he is forced to undergo

the Joining and takes Alistair's place as a Grey Warden, showing sincere regret for his actions as

regent.

At this point, the player learns that only a Grey Warden can slay the archdemon because of the Taint

present in a Grey Warden's body. Killing the archdemon releases the demonic essence within it,

which is automatically drawn to the Taint in the Grey Warden who slew it, and effectively kills him

or her as well; if anyone else slays it, the archdemon's essence survives and finds a new host in the

nearest darkspawn, making the monster effectively immortal. On the night before the final battle,Morrigan offers the player's Warden a way to slay the archdemon without sacrificing anyone:

Morrigan believes that if the player succeeds in conceiving a child with her, that the child would

also carry the Taint. Once the archdemon dies, its demonic essence would be drawn away from any

Grey Warden to safely merge with the unborn child instead. The resulting child would be born a

demigod, which she plans to raise on her own. Morrigan admits that this was her true motive for

joining the player's campaign all along. The player can accept Morrigan's offer, convince Alistair or

Loghain to take part instead, or refuse the witch's proposal, causing her to leave the party. If the

Warden is female, she can only refuse Morrigan or convince Loghain or Alistair to do it.

The next day, the player and the newly assembled army of Ferelden fight their way through the city

of Denerim, which is now overrun by the darkspawn. After fighting their way through the

darkspawn horde, and an epic final battle against the archdemon atop Denerim's highest tower, the

player is given the chance to deliver the killing blow or to let Alistair/Loghain do it. Either way, the

archdemon is killed and the rest of the darkspawn army retreats from Denerim, marking the end of

the fifth Blight. Unless the player chose to sleep with Morrigan, whoever slew the archdemon also

perishes. Should the player choose the ritual, the option to allow Alistair/Loghain the final blow is

skipped: the cutscene showing the Warden slaying it plays automatically.

The story ends with a ceremony attended by the people of Ferelden during which the player and his

or her companions are honored for saving the kingdom. The game then presents an epilogue in text

and pictures which details the ramifications of the player's in-game choices on the future of

Ferelden and the lives of his or her companions.


5/7

Gameplay & Game mechanics:

In Dragon Age, your choices change the world and affect the people around you. Certain situations,

storylines, and conversation options will change drastically depending on your origin and your

motivations. You choose your origin, and from that starting point, your story begins. You playthrough your character's early days, defining his or her background and motivation and begin to

learn more about the world of Ferelden from your own distinct perspective. Your choice of origindefines how you will view the world and how it views you. Choose a sneaky, disrespectedcommoner and you will play a story that focuses around subtle skills and careful wordplay. Choose

a noble origin and the world will be much more positive and helpful, but those jealous of your status

will not be afraid to take what you have, violently if necessary.

The play structure is in theme where you can pause the gameplay and give successive commands to

the other player the action would be performed after the respective cooldown time .Building the system and sub systems for a fantsy RPG is a very daunting task the usually requires

innovations out of box to feature balance these together.And designer at the bioware knew what

they had to do best .At first take look at the prime system is the story mechanics using the built indialogue system the players cna now not only control the story of the game but also most

importantly can increase of decrease their level of trust with the party members.The dialouge

system lets you repicate your own vision and preduice of the things the people .


6/7

Designers at the bioware have put enough amount of research to provide detail and justification to

the options that player can make during the game like when you are to decide if to kill warewolvesor the elvan tribe .It does take you through a hard to make deciding process and in the alter thegame experience according to the choices.

The second system is the economy system dragon age origins has a better inventory system

comapred to the witcher .Players can now carry more weapons and equipements .Mages can createpotions and elixirs that can be used based on their needs .However there are markets at certain

locations in the map were a specific type of items can be purchased and is often very exciting tolook through the available items even if you can't purchase them as the look and design the

equipments a eye catching.

Now the third and most important the combat system players can now control a set of party

members for the battle .Game can be paused during the fight sequences and attacks can be orderedduring that time.So giving the players ample amount of time to plan strategy according to type of

the enemy they confront.

The set of commands are displayed at the buttom of the screen and again can be customised to

match the preference of the players is pretty much similar to mass effect series.There is not much of

control intraction except the excessive use of mouse of to click and command the players .But inthis case the game is turn based as there is cool down period after each attack during which the

player is vunerable but combat system has enough leavarge that can get you ahead by forming the

stragtegy to defeat a particular type of enemy.Players get rewarded for by level up points that theycan further use to power up their abilities.


7/7

Technology:

BioWare created the Infinity Engine, which was used as a core component for development of2D

role-playing video games based onDungeons & Dragons, such asBaldur's Gate andIcewind Dale.For their gameNeverwinter Nights, launched in 2002, BioWare developed the Aurora Engine, the

basis for a number of successful 3D RPGs thereafter.Neverwinter Nights shipped with a number of

tools allowing users to create their own role-playing adventures for single and multiplayer online.The tools, using the Aurora Engine, have been adapted to many forms of gameplay and storytelling,

with thousands of amateur and professional modules available on various web sites; some releasedfor sale as premium content.Neverwinter Nights was a pioneering example of user-created gamecontent commercially supported and distributed over the internet.The Odyssey Engine was

developed for the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was based on the Aurora

Engine. BioWare has recently developed the Eclipse Engine (a next generation RPG engine) for the

gameDragon Age: Origins.After years of working with licensed content, particularly from theD&D world, BioWare began

efforts to develop their own original, independent universes and franchises.Jade Empire was a step

in this direction, as are their current projects: the RPG seriesMass EffectforXbox 360 and PC,which utilizes the third version of the Unreal Engine.

BioWare maintained a limited oversight on Obsidian Entertainment's development ofNeverwinter

Nights 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords.The Aurora Engine was the3D successor to BioWare's earlier, 2D game engine, ca lled the infinity engine. The engine allows

forreal-time lighting and shadows, as well as surround sound. The first game released using the

Aurora Engine was Neverwinter Nights, and included an accompanying "Aurora toolset" for users

to create their own content. The sequel,Neverwinter Nights 2, developed by ObsidianEntertainment, features an updated version of BioWare's engine named the Electron engine. Star

Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

(from Obsidian Entertainment) use an updated version of the Aurora Engine called the OdysseyEngine. Aurora was also used by CD Projekt RED in their game The Witcher, although the

rendering engine was written from scratch.

Gaming experience:

When you play dragon age:origins the availability of massive options can be confusing at first if

you are new to the genre .But once having gone through the basic nomenclature of the game its

more than the fun you can ever expect .And so the your curiosity increases with every experimental

combination that you used resulted in something better .This the true USP of the game players

would like to play the game again and again in different style using different combinations to seehow it actually fared.

Playing the game as assassin classification you and also be a duelist or archer .The game will offer

numerous level ups accordingly complement your choices of skills .If taken a mage the story startsin the circle of mages and you face creatures that are born with certain elemental powers and can bedamaged or destroyed with the opposite element .Playing dragon age origins for the first time was

very disbelieving as there could be a RPG that had such a massive headroom for customization and

taken into the account the a splendid dialogue system the game leaves an ever lasting memory on

the players .Something that they can visit again and again.

dragon age - origins

Documents