by Brian Perry

Dragon’s Age: Origins is a game that is sure to disappoint many of Bioware’s newer fans. Those looking for a KOTOR or Mass Effect should look elsewhere. Instead, Bioware is hearkening back to its older roots with Baulder’s Gate series as inspiration for its latest adventure.

Graphically, Dragon’s Age continues to excel, and is an excellent show of their art team’s skill; however other technical aspects seem to have suffered in favor of the dazzle. During the closed-door demo, the most jarring aspect had to have been the voice acting. Each line uttered appeared to be read in a void with no regard to the scene at hand, making “romance” lines fall flat, and a jilted lover seem indifferent to betrayal. To add to this deficiency was a total lack of expressiveness from the character models themselves. After the efforts put into their other games, it is disappointing to see emotionless mannequins on screen instead of the dynamic characters we’ve grown to expect from the folks at Bioware.

While we discuss missing innovations, gone are Mass Effect’s dynamic conversation options, instead the “pick a sentence” system returns with the mute protagonist, who doesn’t even bother to read his lines.

With more time I’m sure Dragon’s Age: Origins would be a triple A title, however based on the E3 showing, I can’t imagine it meeting the expectations of the fans.