Will always find it ironic that one of my first exposures to the world of cRPG was on the Xbox 360 port, done by Edge Of Reality. It’s fine enough, but you really should just get it on its initial PC format nowadays, cause it’s a buggy game no matter what and mods will be able to ameliorate, or at least alleviate, most of the problems. It’s not as overbearing as KOTOR1’s steps, but not as lenient and (comparatively) straightforward as Jade Empire’s. Firstly, while Steam isn’t missing any of the essential DLCs, it does lack all the promo items that are bundled in the GOG or even Origin “EA App” versions, so if you’re extremely meticulous about having all DLCs and/or want to make the game a lot easier (seriously some of these are rather OP), follow this guide first and foremost, then install the following: FtG Ui Mod for easier readability; Qwinn’s Ultimate DAO Fixpack, both the main file and the hotfix, for the most extensive fanpatch available; Dain’s Fixes for even more sprucing up on top of that (just the Core and Bug Fixes folder for duct-taping issues, but you can nab the other folders after examining them if you want); a 4GB EXE patch to address the game’s memory leak issue, which Steam users need to follow this install guide on; and finally, Shale’s Talents Fixes Only so that party member Shale’s talents actually function properly. There’s four others I used, but they’re not essentials and are more so recommendations for special cases, such as DLC Item Integration for one example, so I’ll mention them when appropriate. Word to the wise, there’s two types of installs, so it’s imperative that you read the description to know which one you’re doing, alongside any important details to avoid issues.

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BioWare has always been a place where its employees implant their influences into their releases, Dragon Age Origins being no different. Its setting and worldbuilding blend epic and dark fantasy series like Lord Of The Rings and A Song Of Fire And Ice, with obvious callbacks to their roots of creating the Baldur’s Gate duology several years prior. Thing is, it’s also a title developed in about 7 years, and it shows in an egregious fashion. Drafts of ideas being abound but never coming to fruition, such as other origin points for Humans shot down before they were able to go anywhere, Morrigan being the narrator with an expanded Dark Ritual scenario becoming truncated or excised, Grey Wardens and Darkspawn weren’t elements conceived of at first, fictional languages for different races, with help from Wolf Wikeley once again, having to be tossed aside and altered after not panning out well, chaotic rumblings affecting the production and prototype process amongst other roadblocks like whether or not multiplayer should be implemented, hell originally the dragons part of the title weren’t gonna be a thing, yet they were retrofitted onto the story thanks to a name generator giving them ideas, and Thedas being born as the community forum’s shorthand for, well, THE Dragon Age Setting. This notion and wounded stitch can also be felt within the game: an influence system, forgoing the studio’s rising penchant for morality, has systemic benefits for your bonded partners while intense friction can allow them to leave permanently, but with how easy it is to accrue gifts and approval points, and no equal benefits to outweigh the immense drawbacks, there’s little reason to act as enraged towards them; the Broken Circle arc fundamentally has two dungeons, one you’re actively doing as you climb to the top, and another that appears right before the end enacted by a Sloth Demon’s hypnotic spell, that sprawls and elongates the venture to such a degree that those who replay it - myself included - elect to installing the Skip The Fade mod, reaping all the benefits while downscaling all the story bits to the absolute essentials; the Orzammar Assembly has options to coerce higher ups into swaying on the side of either Bhelen or Harrowmont, yet it’s all for naught since this arc ends with you gifting a crown that cements the new ruling; Brecilian Forest and the Denerim Alienage both have strong prologues to help lay the groundwork of worldbuilding and roleplaying potential, yet their inclusion in regards to the main story reeks of either undercooked ideas with any threads to the Dalish Elf’s encampment snipped and handwaved as “a different group”, or an excuse to help the player and their allies progress the Landsmeet plot while giving the City Elf’s birthplace an involved cog in the machine. Even the Dog you recruit, with its maxed influence, niche talent pools, and ho-hum stat fills that seems to have suffered from aborted experimentation and ideas, affecting the combat balance to such little degree that I used the Extra Dog Slot and Dog Gift Tweaks mods with marginal or no errors having cropped up during my entire session. Those are just the ones I can immediately recall, but there’s several more at the forefront.

Even the worldbuilding aspect comes across as moot, containing little deviations and idiosyncrasies that can carve out the title’s unique identity. The prevailing wound bled from all that time spent trying to get the idea a foundation, and it results in executions of tried-and-true cliches at their most bare, few deviations being done to give itself a mein. For the matriarchal belief and religion that Andraste had inspired, there exists Ferelden’s Chantry sect that is very easily inferred as controlling and seclusionary upon the mages. For the caste-based system and underground dwelling that gives the Dwarves a position to call their own, the Elves’ divide between nature and (sub)urban assimilation begins to sketch its mark yet again. It’s not inaccurate to say that DAO’s fantasy outings are “generic”, but it’s perhaps more accurate to say that it isn’t carved enough for genre enthusiasts to sink their teeth into, such as how the Fade exists and intertwines itself with the living or the near-fatalistic ideology that is shared amongst the Qunari, various DLC add-ons upholding that void instead. Also humanoid presentations are just kinda ugly but at this point I feel like that’s just a small issue. I haven't come across an entirely finished title this blatantly troubled and cobbled together since replaying Wind Waker last year. Thing is, much like that game, I'm willing to overlook past all that because the ADVENTURE is pretty damn sick. Bioware writing during this era had one best aspect coupled by the worst. KOTOR1's pacing is sublime and is likely the easiest to (re)play, but the story is so plattered with corn and cheese it makes some of the more awkward moments in the prequels and other Bioware titles become Shakespearian; Jade Empire has an immensely captivating and intricate world and villain, but it's dragged down by hollowed out moments with uncomplacent companions; Mass Effect 1 has the strongest sense of cohesion and scale, yet its lackluster side material holds it back. DAO, meanwhile, pretty comfortably captures that rampant and scattershot feel a TTRPG session has, especially since I recently dabbled into D&D and Pathfinder campaigns.

Despite all my rabbles and censures, David Gaider and his writing cohorts did a superb job at formulating the usual serial TV pacing into the sword and sorcery tale that takes you on wild and differing ventures, all to march and band factions to face against the Darkspawn’s Blight in the upcoming final battle. Sure, I could go for a random B-Movie horror montage about the rising dead seeking to overtake Redcliffe Castle and its village, all concocted from a mage tutorship gone awry. You mean to tell me that after that I have to deal with a random cult in a bygone temple to secure an ancient artifact too? Oh please, I can only handle so much excitement! Talking trees and mad hermits inhabiting Brecilian Forest, alongside a werewolf’s curse? What kind of Point And Click game did I stumble onto? All that political intrigue and history lesson Orzammar unfolds and lets you peruse is great and all, but maybe I just wanna go apeshit about connecting dungeons of time lost so lemme see that Deep Roads real quick. I fucking LOVE towers just like Tsutomu Nihei, so thank god I can climb this desolate institute the Mages and Templars occupy, lemme sidestep those creepy demons and their turmoil real quick. I don’t have anything funny to say about the Alienage. It really is that strange of a detour. Got a funny ass interaction though. My tolerance for BIG choices with HUGE consequences has ultimately simmered down to a cool ambivalence, but I’m glad this team had some restraint when it comes to leveling the impact and weight of this angle. There’s not a whole lot of Golden Options or one-sided ways, and the ones that do exist make enough sense to not feel intrusive such as how to resolve the Demon curse in Redcliffe, or finding the middleground for the Dalish/Werewolf feud, or picking Caridin’s side and dropping an ancient anvil because Branka’s a damn psychopath that lost it years before and thinks using it will somehow better the Dwarven society’s already grueling and trepidatious state. It also helps that being an evil bastard here actually fits the setting this time with various ways to do so, finally instilling that sense of roleplay that the studio has always been skewering with alongside all the reactive elements dependent on the Human, Mage, Elf, and Dwarf backgrounds, but admittedly that was a bit of a given. Not every dialog choice has something that will fit entirely with what you want, but there’s enough leeway available to not feel so limiting by comparison too. Couple that with said backgrounds providing insight to the world as much as they can like mentioned before, and even illuminating and strengthening the involvement in a few key areas (again, sans Dalish and City unfortunately), and it was an immediate bet I’d try out so many options in the future. All of this culminating into the Landsmeet, an event monumental in establishing order before the call of the final defense, with niggling ways to influence the outcome and all belaying upon who you are and what you’re about to do.

Bolstering this is far and away my favorite Bioware cast of this era. Suddenly their desire of Whedonisms and outwardly quips are now tied into peeling layers behind some compatriots’ face, or at least utilized in a way that it doesn’t feel as garishly droning as before. Alistair tends to get the brunt of the criticisms regarding this, but considering the dude’s still a fresh-faced recruit who’s still upholding the view of the world always containing clears good/evil, his way of hiding this turmoil behind bad jokes and snarky comebacks are warranted… mostly. He could stand to cut it out a little. Conversing with Zevran and Leliana has always been a delight, the former bearing all of his assassination background for all to know and slowly starting to unveil his reservation regarding where and how he ended up where he is now, and the latter being someone just now finally getting their life figured out after many hardships and a toxic relationship with one they used to call a partner. It’s kind of astounding to me I missed these two out initially cause they’re sort of the answer to something I had wanted Bioware to actually do, that being about writing (as close as they could to) making normal ass people without feeling like a plank of wood about it, and I always make room for them in the party even if I pick the Rogue build myself. Sten’s ideology and conversations are endlessly fascinating to me, his opposition and confrontational attitude giving way to someone to argue and debate over, which immensely helps give him and this worldstate some much needed variety and spice to keep it refreshing. Being able to fully get along with him and be treated in such a way he considers you worthy of respect has consistently been one of the highlights of my play. Wynne’s great in being the tutoring grandma with a magical girl-ass power coinciding with her flaw of letting down someone due to her arrogant youth, Shale’s equally likable for reasons I already touched upon in their accompanying DLC, Morrigan’s someone I want to gush about when I hit the Witch Hunt DLC but I very much consider her one of my all time favorites with an extraordinary look as to how and why she became the way she is now, really the only character I don’t really like all that much is Oghren. I love Steve Blum and Dwarf Jokes as much as the next guy, but he’s kind of a hunk of wood in this respect with a few occasional cool stuff going on. Then there’s Loghain who’s effectively your main antagonist - not villain, that’s the Archdemon - and he’s also someone I’m fascinated by. A heroic and idolized general, so paranoid and distraught over an enemy country potentially allying themself with his home turf and what King Cailin has been attempting to do, that he succumbs to his overemotional outburst, harming both the kingdom and the Grey Wardens solely to drive his desire of vengeance. So many codices and inferences to pick up on, and different states to delve into his psyche, it’s the studio’s biggest throughline into trying out an ambiguous angle, and for the most part it passes all the marks.

It’s a kind of weird feeling to discuss why I enjoy this as much as I do now, cause it bears all the highs and lows of what makes Bioware, well, Bioware. Sure, I’d like it if they cut it out and actually design enemy encounters that aren’t just peekaboo room holdouts and give me a reason as to why I should bother with all my salves and elemental resources, but I can also do this shit to enemies and guide them along my trap-filled layouts so eh. I wish I had more reasons to use the innate skillset that you’d typically find in these fantasy RPGs, but being able to pickpocket so many people with ease is devilishly sickening. They really need to get a handle on their friendly AI patterns, but this being so easy to fine tune and take control of yourself at least means I don't have to suffer the wrath of stupidity like all their other titles I tried out, though they could do with a lesson on "enemy variety" I'm snoozin from all these same types even if that's the intent. I appreciate this being so busted that a synergy involving dual-wielding rogue with specced out Cunning and Dexterity, a dodge-tanking warrior that draws in all the aggro amongst foes, with a mage that does all my support and cast big “FUCK OFF” spell combinations never truly gets old. They could cut it out with the romances but… actually there’s no but. In fairness DAO does is at least the closest it got to maintaining a sense of a gradual kinship and closeness, even if it’s troubling to sell since the options pertaining to this are pretty easy to please and can yet again be maxed way earlier than intended. Overall it’s just an easy game for me to get lost in, despite again, its gangrene state being so blatant that it can understandably harm others’ enjoyment.

A common thread I see amongst all the arcs available is this sensation of something once thought to be lost in the ages, now coming back to us in unexpected, gratuitous, and downright cataclysmic ways. Something that sort of emboldens our hunger for knowledge or for a path to make things right, or at least confide in as we lose ourselves to our internal pain and suffering. Considering that I coincidentally started going through old Bioware titles (and KOTOR2 but that’s not quite as relevant here) around the time they’re finally at the risk of collapsing, along with the fact that I'm now seeing a lot of people call this their "last good game" if not for ME2 which is increasingly growing my cracked (again, all from what I'm seeing, doesn't mean I believe it), maybe that was just the sort of thing I needed a refresher on, a hallmark and reminder on the type of adventure they used to deliver in my youth. Either that or I just wanted another excuse to pour a hundred and so hours into this title I like a lot, considering it's been on my docket since replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy two years ago. Maybe it’s both! It’s probably both. Perhaps more experience of cRPGs could impact what I gain from this but uhhhhhhhhh idc about that it's kinda lame to think so. Doesn't mean I won't neglect my homework though.

Anyway I gotta do something about this strange rock I found... wonder what I can make from it.