Dragon age: origins: reviews. Review of the game Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Dragon age origins review

The ogre grabbed me with his paws somewhere in the lower back area, thoughtfully rubbed me, kneaded me - is it edible? No? doesn’t seem too much...” and slammed onto the floor in frustration.

“Get up, you idiot,” I groaned to myself. - It's an ogre, you know? Just an ogre. Not even a demon yet. He can certainly be defeated. Although the remains of your bones categorically disagree with this!”

Death to everyone, everyone, everyone!

You are not ready!!!

Illidan

Although our story is called “The Age of the Dragon. The beginning”, at first glance it looks more like the end. The army of Mora is pouring into the world in a wide stream. A creeping inhuman horror devours city after city, leaving bloody stains on the world map.

“Wake me up?!”

And people are people: in the impending nightmare, many bastards see prospects for themselves to rise to the top of the food chain. After all, titles and thrones are so fragile in these troubled times... If not now, then when?

When trouble comes, it's time to remember old grievances, isn't it?

The big scum is echoed by the small scum. Every bandit who had hitherto made a living by robbing tavern drunks decided that his lucky hour had come: after all, refugees were wandering along the roads, and they had carefully packed all the most valuable of their belongings into carts. And few people have a sword and chain mail, not to mention the ability to use them. Every merchant sees the ghost of a miracle profit, and is ready to risk his own life for it and starve the lives of others.

The humiliated and insulted sensed their chance to take revenge, and those who humiliated and insulted - a reason to squeeze out the last juice, because anyway, this rabble is no longer residents. When trouble comes, it's time to remember old grievances, isn't it? This is the whole person. However, elves and dwarves are no better.

And everyone, in words - everyone, even an elf in the ghetto, even a lord on the throne, has his own account for his neighbor. Not excluding the main character.

You are not ready!

Online lessons

Let's remember: who is a hero? Baldur's Gate? The adopted son (or maybe daughter) of a certain Gorion. Who is the protagonist in Neverwinter Nights 2 ? The adopted son (if, of course, not the daughter) of a certain Degun. Where does this predilection for “adopted sons” (or daughters) come from? Yes, it’s very simple: how else can you make such a biography so that it would suit even an elf mage, even a halfling thief, even a necromancer, even a paladin, even an elderly black man!

The alternative is where you can create heroes different races and occupations—as a rule, there was only one: no biography at all. Mister hero appeared out of nowhere. No parents, no other relatives, no friends... populated by robots.

Bodan Feddik, traveling dwarven merchant.

Oddly enough, here classic role-playing games can be given a lesson online. IN World of Warcraft, WAR, LotRO, Lineage we have a native village and mentors - by the way, different depending on our race and occupation. An orc grows and matures among the red clay of Durotar, a tauren among the green meadows of Mulgore, and a wight in the gloomy spruce forests of Tirisfal, and only then their paths may converge. Creating these very “starting zones” costs developers a lot, but the benefit of them is not only to make it more interesting to create new characters: a hero with his own, rather than a “general army” childhood, will stand more firmly on his feet in a foreign world.

As far as I remember, there has been nothing like this in single-player RPGs until now. Now it is.

In the story of a hero Dragon Age six different beginnings. An elf will experience a free forest life - or the difficult lot of a ghetto inhabitant, a gnome can be an outcast or a royal son, a person can entrust his fate to a circle of magicians or grow up youngest child nobles. And in this short but rich story you will have time to feel firsthand how difficult it is to live in this world, you will acquire relatives, friends, mortal enemies... and all this will not disappear into nowhere after the paths of the elf, the gnome and the man merge together.

It would seem, why try so hard? But the result of Dragon Age is not a “free tourist”, an adventurer, but a hero whom the world has already shaken hard. Who has his own goals in life, and not dictated by the quest. And needless to say, this part of the story is executed... somewhat better than the West Harbor beating from NWN 2?

Perhaps the parallel with online seemed far-fetched to you. Now I will try to prove that this is not so.

Of course, the “exclamation points” swaying over the plot heads are not an argument, like many other interface finds you know from where. Nowadays, whoever doesn’t borrow the “only true” management. But how will you like existence in this world? "elite" monsters? And they are: if the name or title of the character is highlighted in yellow, this is “elite”, if in orange - “super-elite”, or, if you like, “boss”.

While the fighters entertain the company, magicians from the far end of the hall provide music.

And the most curious thing is that here in full height used aggression system. Yes, yes, the same aggro that “tanks” accumulate and intercept enemies.

Therefore, most often the battle begins with a lone “tank”, while the rest - the hit-killers and the healer - smoke bamboo on the sidelines. Only after the enemies have already become imbued with the mighty iron woodcutter can violins and wind players enter... that is, shooters, magicians and masters of paired or two-handed blades. By the way, initially there is more aggression on the hero who has the most beautiful and impressive armor: apparently, innate masochism forces him to gnaw through the heaviest armor first. But since a self-respecting backbreaker or flamethrower is capable of destroying much more health per unit of time, the work of the “tank” is not easy, and the artillery team must moderate its ardor in time.

Of course, this system is very artificial - but in the end the battle looks good, and managing your team is not easy and interesting. What more? Perhaps eliminate routine from command?

Although in Dragon Age, as in Baldur's Gate, there is an “active pause”, constantly giving manual orders to four blockheads is tiring. And not very effective: sometimes your heroes see the situation more accurately than you.

Therefore, each hero has the opportunity to customize a set of automatic actions. How wide it is depends on your tactical skill, but for most cases it will be enough.

For example, you can order a warrior to start the battle with a threat, heal if his health drops below 30%, and use increased damage techniques while the enemy has more than half of his “life line”; the robber can be ordered to attack first of all magicians and archers, or the same target as the “tank”, at the beginning of the battle to smear the blade with poison, and if it is attacked, to stun the enemy. As you can see, the set of actions is varied and takes into account many situations.

This chitinous creature is actually a lovely girl... Do you still want to court her?

Do you remember how infuriating in many games (I immediately remember Neverwinter Nights, both the first and the second) the obscene habit of the heroes to mind their own business? When the sorceress suddenly decides that her staff is indispensable in the front row, the archer draws his sword, and the paladin begins to frantically cast spells? And how does the warrior in the front row die meekly, not even thinking about drinking the potion, or, on the contrary, gulping blue bottles like water, even though the priest behind him is crying out to God about his severe wounds?

Well, this is not the case in Dragon Age. If you take a little care and adjust your tactics. And such precision of settings has never been seen in any computer role-playing game known to me.

However, I'm lying a little. I have already seen similar settings: for bots for online. In the same Lineage 2, for example; This is usually deeply illegal, but is practiced. Another lesson from a related genre?

Setting up the team's AI raises a natural question: what about the monsters? With combat - very much so, but adjusted for the aggression system. She, as you might guess, does not allow too reasonable actions. But the enemies do not forget to treat and be treated and try to take into account each other’s maneuvers.

With non-combat AI... it's business as usual. No one laid claim to the glory of the great, terrible Radiant AI: most NPCs simply stand in their place, listlessly waving their limbs. And, according to strange old traditions, you can clean the chests as if nothing had happened in front of the stunned owner (unless the forest elves have something to object to this). In Dragon Age, it is not the independent world that is primary, but the plot.

Alive among the living

Among “hardcore” roleplayers, it’s common to look down on graphics a little; and in vain, because if the game was made by real professionals, you can judge a lot by the level of graphics. First of all, about the priorities of developers.

If the leaves turn green so brightly, as if you just picked up new glasses, if you can see every vein on the petals and every crystal of a boulder, if the configuration of stars in the sky was not created by a random scattering, and if a woodcutter beetle is crawling along a fallen log, then expect a detailed world , quests in every village and lots and lots of freedom of action.

Dragon Age has the most lively and vibrant faces in the world. Even The Witcher is forced to step aside a little.

Well, dog, should we call you Rat Slayer?

If a knight can be distinguished from a militiaman by his gait, if the animation of swinging a sword makes you wonder how lousy the fencing is in a recently watched action movie, it means that the authors have focused maximum effort on the battle.

But in Dragon Age there are the most lively and vibrant faces in the world. Even The Witcher is forced to step aside a little. What do you think this is for?

With your first steps in this world, you are taught a delicate but very important lesson: this world is changed not only by your sword, but also by your word. The art of persuasion, if you have it, is a valuable thing, but whether you are a golden-eared man or a tongue-tied warrior, you will have to choose your remarks carefully. After all, others are interested not only in what you say, but also in how.

For example, a nobleman’s son’s dog found rats in the pantry. Having said “Fas!” to the dog, the owner (that is, you) goes out and meets the mother. She asks what happened there and whether the cook has calmed down. You choose the most natural answer (“There were huge rats in the pantry, but everything is fine now”) and... you receive an immediate scolding from your mother: “It’s time for my guests to hear about the rats in the pantry before dinner!”

No, long-term consequences of a long tongue in this case will not be. This is just a gentle warning: you need to watch your words. An awkward phrase - and your companion is offended, and the person who could become a new comrade draws a blade against you. Have you tried to keep... say, a knight, a witch and a cleric on one team?

And vice versa: a well-aimed phrase can sometimes save you from big troubles. And some of the squad may reward you for your insight. If you know the traditions of the series Baldur's Gate- herself famous game, made by this team - you can probably guess what I mean.

Perhaps, in terms of choice of replicas, Dragon Age has no competitors at all. Maybe plot forks " The Witcher» tougher, and in Fallout the links to skills are better hidden, but for the first time I found myself thinking about each phrase. The key question, of course, is how will comrades in arms perceive this?..

And the main thing worth knowing about companions is their character. Not at the level of “this one is bad, but that one is good,” but to imagine their views on life, their tastes, opinions. Study your companions to understand what they will react to, what they will tolerate, and what they will be happy about. And they provide every opportunity for this: just listen to the conversations they are having behind your back. By the way, they are almost never repeated!

In some ways, it’s even easier with those who didn’t make the team. And their characters are often painted on their faces with large strokes. Bioware “marked the rogue” from the bottom of their hearts, so when news of the betrayal arrives, you wonder: how did the others not realize it? With such a face, he simply had to turn out to be a traitor!

You must, you must wash your face in the mornings and evenings!

I have only one complaint about the game's appearance. And this is bloodshed. No, not the “dismemberment” beloved by some - the dead lie neatly in a crimson-red puddle and do not confuse the younger generation (by the way, this is not due to the ESRB ratings: Dragon Age does not even for a second claim to be a “teen” rating. It’s just that Bioware has taste... which many others lack).

It was not the artists who let us down, but the engine: the fact is that after any fight - at least with the same rats - the entire team is covered in blood up to their ears, as if they had been chopping up their opponents with chainsaws for half an hour. It looks, I tell you, couldn’t be more stupid. A couple of lunges, the enemy is dead... and four people are splashed in front and behind, from their boots to the top of their heads. Blood hits the fan.

Moreover, five minutes after the fight, the hero turns to his companion, a charming girl - and she still hasn’t found the time to wipe off the blood from even her face! Splashes on the cheeks, on the forehead, on the lips... What the hell! Or is it fashionable in this world to mix epoxy into blood?

Rising Shadow

All heroes, villains, monsters are figures on the large-scale apocalyptic canvas “Pestilence”. Cities and fields in withered brown tones, blue-purple dungeons - everything reminds that the world is writhing from the Pestilence and is close to death.

Every experienced player has seen so many apocalypses in his lifetime that the severity of the sensations has somehow dulled. We killed orcs, undead, demons, dragons, arthropod creatures by the thousands. We hear the story of enemies who burned down their home four times a day. But Pestilence is, as you please, not just another fodder for our swords.

How many times have we already killed ogres... It usually looks like this: the hero and the ogre stand opposite each other and, like fighters in the “Irish romp,” they take turns beating each other with whatever God sent them. Whose health will run out first? And even simpler: fire ball, and half a dozen ogres are lying on the ground - bored...

“Just don’t be late. The kids will want to kiss you goodnight."

Do you remember the monster with which I began my story? This is what it looks like here the most ordinary ogre. A hefty bluish creature with horns like a mouflon, which our hero is just above the knee. She, naturally, grabs you, squeezes you, and throws what happened to the ground. Shall we bring down the reptile in droves? Excellent: one sweeping kick - and the whole team turns out to be picturesquely scattered on the floor, and the ogre, grinning, tramples on it.

It seems that for the first time I seriously thought: is it worth destroying the demon that has taken possession of a person...

Pestilence is not gopniks in armor, as all kinds of orcs are usually depicted, and not a crowd of tin soldiers, as hordes of the undead traditionally look like. This is universal evil incarnate... the same thing that sits in you and me. And it is no coincidence that the demons walking the earth find support in human meanness: they are born by it.

But here is one incident that I remember more than others...

The templar, who took vows not of his own free will (and they imply chastity and celibacy), was captured by the demon of desire (read - succubus). We find him and the succubus having sweet visions. And what do you think he is dreaming about? No, not what most of us would think. He sees how a succubus - a gentle, caring wife - helps him put his children into bed. And he promises her tomorrow to take his little son to look at the stars... Such is the family idyll, which he cannot see in the Order like his own ears - and, if we mercifully free him, the poor fellow will be tormented all his life with memories of what a wonderful thing this is - family .

Well, will you release me? Or will you leave the succubus alone, as he suggests? It seems that for the first time I seriously thought: is it worth destroying the demon that has taken possession of a person...

Grip handle

Dragon Age is surprisingly easy to play. And this is not just a “hands-on” control - there are many small useful finds in it. I don’t remember in another game such a “clumsy” location map that would be allowed to be moved and scaled; interface strip, which is conveniently replenished with new abilities and, if necessary, is expanded in width with a simple drag"n"drop; a magazine about the world that would be so easy and fun to read. And even the face editor works more predictably than usual, and with its help you can create not only a dull mug, but also something individual and pleasing to the eye. The editor of NWN 2 cares about this as much as a chicken cares about an ostrich.

If you choose a person of noble blood and do not modify the default face too much, you will have a slight family resemblance
with father and brother.

So you come home and load your saved game; it kindly reminds you where you are and what you are doing approximately. Not the name of the location, but the essence of the matter, briefly, but literary and through your eyes. Trifle? But who else can boast of such a trifle?

Throughout the entire game, only one detail of the interface upset me: believe it or not, there is no progress bar in the loading screen here. That is, some kind of bloody stain spreads around the seal, not allowing one to suspect that the game has frozen, but how much already passed and how much is left? Doesn't give an answer.

Imagine how convenient it is to play if This- the most compelling claim!

With a firm and ruthless hand, Bioware erased from the game all the “familiar standards”, from which there was no joy, but only a hindrance to the game.

So, for example, outside of combat, health and mana are restored quickly - you don’t have to worry about managing a camp hospital. Simplifying the game? Rather, cutting off unnecessary elements. And in addition, the enrichment of tactics: you can try to play without a healer. A little more complicated, but it will be possible to dramatically increase firepower.

More surprisingly, those “killed” in battle also rise some time after the survivors sheathe their blades. It's chilling; but, believe me, at a decent level of difficulty it won’t be too easy. In addition, after such a resurrection, a souvenir injury remains, which must be treated with an expensive first aid kit or rest in the camp (which is inaccessible in the dungeon).

Or here's a duffel bag; remember how in the same Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights you had to shuffle things between the backpacks of the heroes? Especially if you want to leave one of them in the camp and replace it with another? So: in Dragon Age there is one bag for everyone. You can switch between heroes, to see what suits whom and what to wear on whom, but there is no need to sort the loot into backpacks. Its volume is limited - also, in theory, an inconvenience, but these are game decisions: what to keep, what to throw away. And playing with things in Tetris. let it remain in the past.

And now in Russian

This riot of elements is just an ordinary fireball!

If the game should be lowered for something, it would be for the Russian translation. Not that he was terrible, rather decent, but not worthy of the game.

The translator of the texts did a good job, although he didn’t figure out what was what everywhere (as a result, you can find in the game, for example, a locker called “Armor” - apparently, armoire was confused with armour?). The translations of terms are also quite decent, the only major mistake is rogue, which turned out to be a “robber”. In fact, this translation sometimes works (for example, in WoW), but certainly not in Dragon Age. A rogue man, for example, is offered a single origin option: nobleman. Just imagine: the youngest son of Teirn (that is, the count) is a robber... And also a temple servant, a bard, an assassin... They are all robbers. What are you doing, gentlemen?

But the main disadvantage is the voice acting. Actors' voices in English and Russian are heaven and earth. In addition, the localizer did not bother to place accents for the actors; As a result, the blank verse conceived by the translator turns into the devil. And in some places the logical stresses have “moved out”, changing the meaning of the phrase. Sloppy!

In a mediocre game you could get away with this. But here, where every phrase is written with love, and every companion becomes a good friend to the player, this is not possible.

For many years, Bioware has been embroidering on other people's canvases: Baldur's Gate, MDK 2, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ... Debuting in 1996, the relatively little-known Shattered Steel, she worked on other people’s worlds for nine years, giving them gaming embodiment.

New life began in 2005, with the release Jade Empire. "Jade Empire", like its follow-up Mass Effect , were an attempt to make a broad leap away from their own past - to drive themselves into completely different frameworks and start from scratch. So sometimes in tabletop role-playing games a player who has been playing paladins for several years decides to “change his image” and become a necromancer or assassin. But it soon becomes clear that such a somersault does not bring liberation.

Dragon Age is a project of a completely different class. After jumping through Shaolin and space bases, after flirting with action films, Bioware decided not just to return to canonical fantasy, but to create the world of its dreams. But she did not mean a world in which life is pleasant and sweet, but a world in which one can live a difficult, full of events and strong feelings life.

In the Forgotten Realms, the flight of imagination, on the one hand, is limitless - after all, this is a universe in which “there is everything,” from the “Aztecs” to the “Slavs,” from genies and flying carpets to ninjas and samurai. On the other hand, he is shackled: a role-playing system, a rather “gingerbread” world, famous heroes... Remember the recent Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate? According to the logic of events, God himself ordered to end this game by destroying the vampire - but this is impossible. Because he is a Forgotten Realms Signature Character. And it’s not up to ordinary computer developers to make such changes to the world!

Bioware wanted to become the masters of their world, the only ones who would determine what should be in it and what should not be. Yes, in the new world it will not be possible to casually please experts with a meeting with Drizzt Do-Urden or Marco Volo; no one will find old acquaintances there. That is why the book was published even before the completion of the game. Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, and the game is chock-full of well-written “historical information” and stories about how people generally live in these parts. No one would do this if they were thinking of a “one-off” project that would then be given to another team (like Neverwinter Nights) or abandoned.

Unlike Jade Empire, Dragon Age is not an experiment, but a frontier. Bioware intends to live there happily ever after, to make many stories, to make it home to both itself and us. So that we worry about the heroes of this world and even in our dreams remember how a genlock differs from a garlock.

And, in my opinion, they will succeed.

But the more words you pile up, the clearer it becomes: only the game itself can convey the impression of this game. It has everything: an epic story - and against its background the personal tragedies of the hero and his friends; the opportunity to go down to the very bottom - or try on the crown; wealth of tactics in battle - and in conversations; majestic cities - and the darkness of decline; the joy of victory - and the bitterness of the price.

great story, lively and unique characters

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening game review

Dragon Age: Origins(translated into Russian means Age of Dragons: the Beginning.) is a computer single-player RPG game from 3rd person. Developed the game in Canada at studios BioWare. What became the spiritual heritage of such games as Baldurs Gate And Neverwinter Nights.

Thanks to the new game engine Eclipse Engine, Dragon Age has many awards and is rightfully called the largest RPG in the world. The gameplay takes at least 60 hours with one character, so (pay attention to the completion time in the picture below) in order to complete the game with all the characters you will have to go on vacation or vacation.

The essence of the game is to gather an army and cleanse the world from the fifth invasion of hordes of evil spirits, popularly called pestilence. Every 400 years, a pestilence comes to the world, the first four pestilences were overcome, but the 5th pestilence will be the most bloodthirsty and will threaten the extinction of all life in the world. Therefore, all hopes are placed on you to save the world from pestilence.

The main features of the game are 6 pre-stories that will influence storyline your game. Also in the game you will have access to 3 races (dwarf, elf or human) and 3 combat classes (mage, robber, or warrior). You can also create groups of three companions; there are many of them in the game. Companions in the game will make your gameplay easier, and you will have someone to chat with when you stop to rest.

The battle with evil spirits takes place in real time. This means that you can stop the game and assign a team who will attack the enemy from your group and with what. Well, the most attractive thing about this game is the additional content that will complement Dragon Age Origins, new quests and tasks. They can be downloaded completely free of charge if you have not downloaded full version games. Down-load a game Dragon Age: Origins and addition Awakening Can .

Official trailer, video review and screenshots for the game Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

On this positive note I end the review of the game. Dragon Age Origins – Awakening. After completing the game, save your character, because you can transfer it to the sequel Dragon Age 2 or Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. I received a lot of positive emotions from the game, I defeated 5 pestilence, and I wish the same for you.

What is it about?

The plot of Dragon Age: Origins is perhaps the most brutal in the history of BioWare. If we draw an analogy with literature, then the history of the game is closest to the so-called realistic fantasy like “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George Martin or “The Witcher” by Sapkowski, so revered in our area. Before us is far from a fairy tale, where good always triumphs over evil, where the heroes are noble, and a reward is required for a feat. The world of Dragon Age is much more complex, and many seemingly logical actions here lead to completely different consequences than were expected. Surprisingly, this world is most similar to our harsh reality, simply played out in a fantasy setting. Hence the term “realistic fantasy”, by the way.

Nevertheless, in this world there is a place for its heroes. Gray guards are the name given to the chosen ones who fight evil spirits. In their free time from work, they try to maintain neutrality, although this is not always possible - after all, each guard is a person with his own past, not always prosperous and bright.

The main character does not immediately become a Gray Guardian - first there is a certain path to go through. At the beginning of the game, you can choose your race, class and origin - the start of the plot depends on this. For example, playing as a city elf begins in an elven ghetto, where a drunken gentleman bursts into a wedding and takes several girls to the castle. Yes, yes, as in The Witcher, the elves here are a humiliated and despised people. And even when the elf becomes a Gray Guardian, the attitude towards her will still not completely change.

How is it played?

The gameplay in Dragon Age is a logical continuation of the plot. The most interesting thing in this game is built on role-playing elements - quests, relationships within the party, and so on. The plot is nonlinear, tasks can be completed in different ways, and their choice is made not only from the point of view of convenience (this will probably be easier), but also from the point of view of morality (but this is more honest and fair). However, it is morality in Dragon Age that is very ambiguous. On the way to the village, did you meet bandits who were collecting tribute for travel? Killed them and expect gratitude? There will be nothing like this - it turns out that refugees have been pouring into the village lately, and the bandits are acting as a kind of cordon. It’s unfair, of course, but the villagers don’t even think about justice.

A party in Dragon Age consists of four people, each of whom has their own story, their own skeletons in the closet and their own role in battle. The attitude of your comrades towards you will change depending on your actions - and if it gets much worse, they will leave the squad. If, on the contrary, you improve your attitude, you can get some kind of bonus.

Combat in Dragon Age is fairly standard. Depending on your specialization, you can fight up close, shoot with a bow, or use a variety of magic. The artificial intelligence of your comrades is quite smart, but in difficult situations you can pause the game and give orders - fortunately, the tactical control in the game is done just fine, it has commands for almost any situation.

We didn’t find anything particularly outstanding in character leveling either. The developers abandoned the D&D rules, but the system as a whole is still similar to them - similar parameters, skills and methods of using them. A little simpler and more convenient, perhaps.

pros

• Great, mature story
• Many quests are not as simple as they seem
• Spectacular fights

Minuses

• The role-playing system could be a little more complex

They didn’t remember, and thank you for that) in the hope that at least something potential buyer I liked it at the time, but it started to irritate me long before release. Literally a few days before it, theses in the spirit of “this is not BG, this is better” began to appear in the press. An additional irritant and a seed of doubt on the fertile soil of hope - what if it’s true?

Dragon Age: Childhood.

Close combat is not a problem for an archer.
If only I had the skills...​

In 2004, Dragon Age appeared before journalists as a project that had been in the works for a year and a half, with an eye exclusively on PC. The announcement pleased fans of Bioware's work - and the authors and the Baldur's Gate duology must have crowds of admirers - with promises of a "return to roots", a camera that could be positioned in the typical "three-quarters" position of the 90s, and a couple heroes in blue suits running somewhere along a long and narrow bridge.

Then the game disappeared to no one knows where: Bioware could not find a publisher for its ambitious project, but in the end EA bought talented doctors and made it clear to everyone that the project was going to happen. It must be that in places inaccessible to the eyes of mere mortals, a secret protocol was signed, according to which Dragon Age sold its soul to the devil and became another role-playing NON-exclusive. But then no one knew about it yet: Origins appeared only in 2008 with the firm intention of being released in early 2009.

Then EA, which was allegedly forced by public opinion to abandon the idea of ​​protection using an Internet connection, delayed the game's release until the end of the year. Moreover, it became known that the game not only ceased to be PC-only, but also console versions will be released simultaneously with Dragon Age for personal computers. It seems that this is precisely the reason why the release was postponed - the game was already ready, but for some reason EA wanted to release all three editions at once.

No matter how the rope twists, it will still end. For such a long development time Dragon world Age has acquired a lot of in-game details: Board games, books, other little things in life, joyfully received by fans of a game that has not yet been released. Where is the world heading: the project begins to generate any income BEFORE its release. The surprising statements of EA and Bioware that some of the content was not included in the game did not seem to upset the Western player, because after the release of the game, EA, about a week after the start of sales, reported more than a million in profit from sales of cheap downloadable add-ons. Do you think the add-ons and expansion packs we are used to have a good chance of surviving the fight against a “location for 3 bucks” or a “ring for 50 cents”?

However, my skepticism is regarding Dragon Age was partially able to overcome due to the fact that the game looks quite good even without downloadable add-ons. It seems that the main project of the current decade for Bioware was Dragon Age, and all other games - Jade Empire, Mass Effect - served as a testing ground on which Canadians tested some of their ideas and ideas. Not without borrowing ideas from colleagues on the other side of the Pacific Ocean... But first things first. Did the developers manage to surpass their own hit of more than ten years ago? Since this is a game that the West, which has mostly ignored, will almost certainly call the best role-playing game of the decade (at least five years), the answer will be complex and detailed.

Cursed lands.

The graphics haven't made a qualitative leap.
But it still looks nice.​

When the forces of evil fall on Ferelden, the Order of the Gray Guardians - people (formally - not only people) who devote themselves to fighting monsters from the underground depths - rise to protect humanity. For the last few hundred years, the Guardians had little work: rare fiends of corruption reached the city gates of the capital city of Denerim, but everything changed when He came. Archdemon, a powerful monster who raised a horde of vile creatures behind him and marked the beginning of a new Pestilence with his appearance. Reasonably deciding that it is necessary to fight the monsters now, when there is still a chance to stop the emerging Blight, the king of Ferelden, with the support of a few Guardians, gives battle to the forces of darkness. But the sudden betrayal of the commander closest to the king, the hero of the state, who had his own idea of ​​​​how to save the country, destroyed the monarch, his army and almost all of the Fereldan Gray Guardians. Only two managed to survive: the young Guardian Alistair and the newcomer to the order...

However, the plot of the game begins a little earlier - about 2-4 hours before the tragic death of the king. It is these first hours that will determine some of the subtleties of the plot development in the game: despite the fact that in general we are moving from A to B, we can arrive at our destination in different ways. So, for example, people despise elves - second-class citizens, a people divided by centuries-old troubles and injustices: some of the pointy-eared ones live in the poor quarter of Denerim - the elfinage, other once immortal creatures went to travel through the forests in the hope of one day taking revenge on people. Dwarves - it’s simply impossible to come up with anything more standard - live in the mountains, despise all “ground-dwellers” and are afraid to go to the surface, because the sky seems to them not stable enough. Divided into clans with a clearly defined hierarchy, the gnomes are constantly at war with the creatures of darkness, which are a great disaster for people and elves two or three times every thousand years, but in the advanced detachments of the gnomes, a day is considered unsuccessful if you have not broken several dozen enemy skulls in the morning .

It is clear that in this situation, the starting conditions for different races will be somewhat... different. However, they will be affected not only by race, but also by class, as well as the gender of the main character. With classes, as well as with the entire role-playing system as a whole, Bioware decided not to tinker for a long time, and therefore a gentleman’s set of almost any RPG is offered to choose from: warrior, mage, thief. In the future, each class receives two points for the development of some special skills: if you manage to find the right book or your drunken party member, in a rare state of sobriety, decides to teach you berserker skills, then another one will appear among the skill chains - so to speak, advanced. However, in general, there are quite a few skills and spells: each level the magician chooses one spell, the warrior chooses a skill, but all of them have either been encountered before in other Bioware games, or do not find much use during the game.

Judge for yourself. Magicians in Dragon Age are a symbiosis of D&D clerics and sorcerers: they heal, cripple, and should not buy spells. Without such a character (or better yet, two), the passage will become much more difficult: a “healer” who freezes enemies and sweeps away entire squads of weak creatures with one movement of his hand is an important and useful fighter. Without warriors, of course, there is no way either, and it is desirable that one, “hiding behind” defensive skills, distracts the opponents, and the second beats everyone in a row, and the harder the better, even to the detriment of defense. It turns out that there are already four characters who will make the passage much easier. That's all, in fact, there are no more vacant places in the party, and a whole class of robbers/thieves/bards remains behind - useful comrades, of course, but if you consider that in the Fereldan chests (for some reason unopened by force) a mouse hanged itself, and All the troubles that another trap causes on your way are leveled out by the regeneration of health and mana/stamina, then the need to use dagger priestesses and backstab preachers comes into question.

And in the end I want to remind you: Carthage must be destroyed.

However, all of the above is a matter of taste and personal preference. If a person went through the entire BG with one magician, then Dragon Age will probably submit to him, even if he is a sorcerer, even a wandering minstrel with a lute. Ultimately, the main thing that all those who were even slightly involved in the promotion of Dragon Age emphasized was the “adultness” of the setting in general and the game in particular. No matter how much I dug into my memory, I still couldn’t remember which one. role-playing game elves danced in the meadows, but Bioware's PR people continued to persist: you've never seen anything like this. In fact, the bomb turned out to be a blast, a cracker, a cracker, but in no way a transition from, by the way, the very dark Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal to a truly “dark” fantasy. Dragon Age showers everyone with all their hearts characters blood, relishes killing another ogre in a slo-mo sucked from his finger, demonstrates spectacular piercings/cuttings/cutting. However, even in BG, a critical hit could lead to tearing the enemy into pieces, and DA differs from its relative only in the quality of graphics and camera position.

Truly, all the “adultness” had to be manifested in dialogues and quests, the authors of which, obviously, do not have the slightest idea about “The Witcher,” although the Poles worked very closely with the Canadians during the development of their project. Dialogue language typical for such a plot, regular tasks“kill” and “bring” - before us is the purest epic fantasy, the same one in which the elf first chops up an orc... excuse me, a creature of darkness with a sword, and then wipes the blood from his face and goes to dance in the meadows.

In almost every situation there are more than two possible outcomes. This, by the way, is not news even for Bioware itself, but is taught by some journalists as if either this has never happened before, or none of us have played and. Will you accept money from the clutches of a demon if you know that nothing will happen to you for it? In the future, he will probably kill someone, eat someone, or, in extreme cases, persuade someone to commit same-sex marriage, but all these undoubtedly dangerous prospects did not stop me from making a deal with the monster, who otherwise would have taken quite painful revenge on my party. And now the game is over, and the “bad” choice never comes back to haunt me. Even if something depended on my decision in this case, I did not find out about it, which means I have the right to believe that in this case you can do whatever you want and not be afraid of getting into trouble in the future.

There are many such examples. Kill a gnome infected with corruption, and then tell his mother that he is still alive - the reward is guaranteed, his mother will perish in the dark tunnels under Orzammar. Perform a dark ritual that will probably echo in the future (somewhere in Dragon Age 2 or 3 - no sooner), but this moment capable of saving the lives of you and your comrades? Easily. Execute a surrendered villain? Easily. In such cases, a conscience awakens in one of the squad members, and he begins to argue with the main character. However, most conflicts do not pose a particular threat to the cohesion of the squad, many rough edges can be smoothed out on the spot (thanks to the skills of persuasion), but if they are completely offended at you, just like it couldn’t be worse, then give your alcoholic friend a bottle of wine, and the holy bard - a figurine of Andraste, and life will become a little warmer.

Funny boys.

The ogre is spectacular in everything.
Kills effectively, dies effectively.​

The candidates for the party were the most typical for Bioware. Oddly enough, the most unusual character is the witch Morrigan. However, behind the cynical views on life and an unusual female type for Bioware, there is a guest from the witch Lulu. She, however, was a much deeper and more complex personality, and did not slide into vulgar nihilism, but the external similarity of the heroines is obvious. Hidden in the downloadable content (almost a quote from the statement of the publishers/developers of Dragon Age: “...Sheila is an integral part of the plot of DA:O...”) the golem Sheila, who hates the birds that have been shitting on her for the last thirty years, and also names all animate things, is also not news. objects of the neuter gender. Old HK-47, is that you?

The following can be listed without decoding: Leliana-Imoen, Wynn - a “light” symbiosis of the main bad guy from and the girl from Jade Empire, Alistair - a character found in any Bioware game, a gloomy warrior of the mysterious Qunari race and an assassin - no news, in general . Fortunately, giving different comrades various gifts, as well as intimate conversations and joint trips to dungeons and fortresses bring the main character closer to his party members. They start telling interesting stories, give exciting tasks, and Leliana once even sang a great song around the fire. Despite the possibility of having (even) interracial sex, including with a character of the same gender as main character(no comments), as well as the abundance of options for the ending of the game, Dragon Age still did not live up to the chaste and linear tenth “final”, in which every scene seems to have been cut out of a movie, every death is a real tragedy.

Many years later.

One way or another, Morrigan will obviously have her say.
In future.​

Bioware has partially moved away from the concept of “talking heads”, and therefore the dialogues of Dragon Age are now more or less similar to the conversation of living people, and not dummies nailed to the floor. Characters frown, look at the furnishings, move away to show something to the character... In general, Dragon Age 2004 looked like a very powerful toy in terms of graphics, but what we have now... Do you often look at ceilings in RPGs? In isometric games, of course, never, but in the PC version of Dragon Age, with one movement of the mouse wheel you can remove the camera from behind the character’s back and hang it from the ceiling. And vice versa. Then you will see a truly majestic picture of objects floating in the air (we are talking about a specific location, not game glitches), magnificent battle scenes, seasoned with excellent special effects, and much, much more.

At the same time, the game is surprisingly light-guzzling and runs noticeably faster than Mass Effect, although the latter is obviously more of a shooter than an RPG, and therefore has a drop in FPS for gameplay especially critical. Dragon Age is in no hurry: like its predecessors on Infinity, the game allows you to pause yourself, and then calculate the characters’ further actions for as long as you like, rummage through a backpack (one for the whole squad!) and cast spells. The developers made conscious simplifications - what are there simplifications, we’re not playing D&D after all - and therefore death, excuse me, is non-lethal, wounds heal on their own, and spells and skills are not “forgotten” after activation - you just have to wait a little. The only drawback of the "death" state is getting injured after being revived. Broken arms and legs, a broken eye and a split skull quite obviously do not make the character stronger, faster or smarter, and therefore such unpleasant... “statuses” must be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. First aid kits. However, throughout the game, there is an obvious shortage of not only first aid kits and poultices (read: replacements for healing elixirs), but also the ingredients for their manufacture. All this goodness in huge quantities will be provided to the player closer to the end, before that - no, no.

And the battles, I must say, are not sugar. The developers got rid of the anecdotal and idiotic brawls from Neverwinter, and we were presented with *almost* Baldur's Gate: almost as complex, interesting and deep, in which the next boss or mini-boss cannot be overwhelmed by the banal selection of everyone with a frame and then clicking on the enemy's face . Enemies skillfully cripple party members, in which they are supported artificial intelligence partners. Although the behavior of party members can be customized in the manner of FFXII, they do not always complete assigned tasks in the right order. In order to throw a fireball, Morrigan can run into the next room, Alistair begins to hit the wrong person, and Wynn, instead of sucking the life out of the enemy, begins to trivially heal herself. We tear out our hair and get into the settings of our intellect: we have to be very good tactician, to set the conditions optimally, once and for all. This is probably impossible, but in the days of BG, no one was particularly concerned with the behavior of the characters, and manually managing four characters, in my opinion, is not as difficult as steering a horde of six people.

Difficulties in translation.

Faces that are unpleasant in all respects.​

and - the glorious history of EA Russia, Dragon Age - its harsh present. Even if you take a full lungful of air, you still won’t be able to list at once all the localization flaws that I had to encounter during the game. But I haven’t tried all the possible (Lord, how many are there?) options for the composition of the parties, taking into account the origin of the main character... This localization is one of the most shameful events in the history of not only EA, but the entire Russian video game market as a whole. Having no alternative Russian voice acting and Russian texts is a minor problem for owners of the PC version, because you can always *get* an English fixer somewhere and play for fun. Bad luck for those who don't know in English. I sympathize with the console players: for them the game is three times more expensive, while they still get the same “bonuses” from domestic translators. By the way, if additional content is also not included in the console editions, this means that it must be downloaded separately, and Xbox Live in Russia it still *seems* not.

Many actors have difficulty reading the text, which quite often does not coincide with the credits. Cases when the voice behind the scenes suddenly stumbles on a word and starts all over again, or says something completely different from what is needed, or even better - with a different intonation and a generally DIFFERENT (!) voice, are not uncommon. The texts are replete with typos, the characters (both in the credits and in the voice acting) constantly confuse the gender of the main character. In general, for 900 rubles we are offered a consumer translation of quality, God forgive me, worse than that of Fargus in his best years. At the same time, localization, of course, is not capable of completely ruining the attitude towards the game, and some of the voices - Morrigan, Wynn, Leliana - are simply perfectly chosen. But, but, but... In general, it’s not very clear: the creators of the game invited linguists to create languages ​​for local residents - this is not the first time this has happened with Bioware, by the way - but decent translators and people responsible for localization, EA in Russia Apparently it was not possible to find it.

There were some mistakes from relatives: incorrect entries about already completed quests in the diary, broken scripts, the opportunity to talk with the corpses of some key characters (this activates a scene with all the surroundings: opponents, the environment, and the like). Once I met an elf in the corridor of Eamon's palace. I talked. She went into another room. I followed her and talked. At the end of the conversation, an unknown force teleported us back to the corridor.

This is just the beginning.

Under open air fewer fights take place
however, this does not prevent magicians from casting their spells anywhere,
without fear of messages that claim that at home
You won't be able to incinerate an enemy with lightning.​

The fact that this is just the beginning is clear not only from the title, but also from the numerous remarks of most of the characters at the end of the game, as well as from the afterword made in the style of Fallout 2 with pictures and sparse text in the spirit of “after the battle, everyone scattered wherever they looked” .

Of course, I am immensely annoyed by the NPC who stands in the party camp and asks for help with “one important matter, by the way, it still needs to be downloaded, ten bucks from you, please.” Of course, the jumping, unjustified complexity is annoying: why is it easy at the beginning, difficult in the middle, and easier at the end? It’s annoying that there are few items, it’s annoying that there’s only one full-fledged city, and even that one is not comparable in size to the capital city of Baldurs Gate. There are many irritants. But the main thing is the fact that the game is over.

This is not a substitute for Baldur's Gate, but against the backdrop of Bioware's latest experiments, it is a more than worthy toy. It is more exciting than Nevewinter Nights, more complex than Knights of the Old Republic, it has a decent role-playing system by the standards of Jade Empire, and the game itself, unlike Mass Effect, is a role-playing game. You won’t find such events in the genre in modern times, except that Drakensang comes to mind, but Dragon Age, unfortunately, is not a competitor. And all the negativity, as a close acquaintance with the game showed, accumulated precisely thanks to the inept efforts of EA and Bioware to promote Dragon Age: EA is for last years I’ve already forgotten that she sometimes has great games, so I began to traditionally promote DA as the last slag. And then suddenly this...

When there will be a sequel is absolutely unclear, but it is already clear that between DA and DA2 there will be a whole string of mini-add-ons at essentially extortionate prices. If you don’t mind playing a game that has been mutilated by localizers, which, even if you buy it, is, in fact, not fully sold to you, then Dragon Age is your choice. Well, you need to keep yourself occupied with something in between the next playthroughs of Baldur’s Gate...

Just the mention of Bioware makes a role-playing gamer lean back in his chair, uncover a cup of tea and, with sparkling eyes, remember the most atmospheric and best role-playing adventures of his years. The company donated RPG genre themselves - from their pens came the masterpieces Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: KOTOR and more. In 2009, they were very hungry for fantasy themes, and...Dragon Age Origins appeared.

Elves and dragons

The point was not to create a classic adventure, but to reinvent the entire genre, discarding stereotypes and darkening everything into the grim realities of everyday life. Here elves engage in prostitution, are the dregs of society, wander through the forests, ambushing people. Here, magicians are treated with caution, but they also pose a danger not only to others, but also to themselves.

For players familiar with the mechanics of Neverwinter Nights, this will be familiar and understandable: as before, the isometric camera can be brought closer to the characters, an active pause helps distribute actions, be it spells or an attack on one enemy. A sort of hello from the 2000s. But let's get started.

Pestilence

The Great Pestilence has descended on this world. Hordes of creatures of darkness ravage villages, kill people, and threaten entire cities and civilizations. That's not the worst part. The Archdemon is terrible - the dragon that characterizes the coming of Pestilence. Only the Gray Wardens are able to counter this threat - an ancient clan trained and created to fight the creatures of darkness.

The problem is that not everyone can become a Gray Warden. Their initiation rite is kept in the strictest confidence, knowledge of which can easily lead you to lose your head. And according to all the canons of the genre, the Gray Guardian will turn out to be...you.

Already at character creation, the game offers you variability - standard classes, standard races, but... everyone will have a different beginning. And the attitude towards each character will proceed according to his origin. Throughout the game. For examples: a hero who lost his entire family; a magician who lives within the strict framework of established rules.

Over time, the player acquires companions with whom he needs to maintain good relationships, and, over time, they can even develop into something more. A witch who lives in the swamps? A templar with unshakable principles? The local equivalent of a barbarian with a code of honor? And every character is not as simple from the very beginning as you think.