14 DAY TRIAL // It's hard to choose a Game of the Year at the worst of times, when there are few good releases in a year, and even harder in a 2009, which has seen huge critical and commercial successes out, hence the use of “my” in this series of articles, suggesting both the subjective nature of the choices and the impossibility to actually have an opinion on all the releases of the last 12 months.
Dragon Age: Origins is the best game of the year for me because of the genre it belongs to, the old school nature of its gameplay, the beauty of the narrative and the choices that the BioWare title offers.
At first glance, Dragon Age might look like a role playing title by the numbers, a bit dumbed down for the modern gamer, made a little mature by the liberal use of gore and of a bit of adult material. But these first impressions, compounded by the somewhat mismatched marketing campaign focusing on the edginess of the game, are gone within less than ten hours from the beginning of the experience.
For sure, this might be long for those players who could actually finish the single player element of Modern Warfare 2 in the same time frame, but, as I have previously said, the worth of a gaming experience can be measured up to a point by the time a player is willing to invest to complete and then understand it. And by that measure, Dragon Age: Origins, having received more than 100 hours of my time, is certainly the best game since I sank the same amount of time in Fallout 3. A more detailed review of Dragon Age can be found elsewhere on Softpedia.
It helps that BioWare has moved pretty quickly to squash a potential game breaking bug having to do with Dexterity and that the player base on the PC has also quickly put together a wide range of mods that enable more complex gameplay options, open up all the tactics slots and enhance the looks of the game.
There are also bigger projects aiming to create new adventures using the rather potent game engine and even plans to recreate Baldur's Gate I and II employing it. BioWare and Electronic Arts also seem intent on offering long term support and downloadable content.
Dragon Age: Origins managed to combine well though combat systems with interesting choices in the narrative, deep and likable characters, funny dialog (just watch out for the bird talk from Shale or the exchanges between Morrigan and Alistair) and a genuine dedication to creating a new game world for the future. Get it now if you like role playing games and get it once it drops in price a little more if you are more inclined towards action-oriented experiences.