Dragon Age: Origins - Summary

-Choose Origin:
-Race:
-Human
-Elf
-Dwarf
-Class
-Warrior
-Mage
-Rogue
-Your race and class will majorly affect not only how you play the game, particularly in combat, but also how other characters treat you.
-Example: If you play an elf (Be it Dalish, mage, or city elf) many humans will treat you or mistaken you as a servant. New conversation options surrounding the tension between humans and elves are available.
-These different options allow the player to really create a personality for their character. They can choose to be a proud Dalish elf and reject all human ways or try to make a compromise or completely give up their heritage.
-The “moral” scale of good and evil for Dragon Age: Origins is how your companions see you and only if they are present with you during the decision. No matter what your choices you will always be the “Hero of Fereldon”
-So how can you be a “villain” in DA:O then?
-Although you will be called a “hero” your decisions will affect every place you go for better or worse.
-Some choices are obviously good and some are obviously more on the evil (Killing a prisoner who is just asking for food is one of those options). But some are more complex and you only really find out at the end of the game the repercussions of your actions.
-Example: I thought that promoting religious freedom in Orzammar was a good, heroic thing to do. However, in the epilogue we found out that Brother Burkel is killed and the Chantry is considering an exalted march against Orzammar
- By having your “morality” judged by your companions is interesting since each of the companions have different views on certain decisions, and because only the present companions judge a decision it is easy to manipulate your “moral scale.”
- Example: First play through I recruited Shale – this upset Alistair and gave me -8 disapproval. The next time I played I left Alistair back at the party camp, recruited Shale, and lost no approval points.
-Note: this changes in the Awakenings expansion pack – even if not present the player will receive approval or disapproval points.
-On the whole, most of the major repercussions of the player’s decisions come in the epilogue – giving them more freedom to be bad during the game without immediate consequences. This is very different from both Mass Effect 2 and to an extent Fallout 3.
-If you wish to play a straight no nonsense-killing villain not only in action but in name as well then I would recommend playing the DLC the Darkspawn Chronicles where you play the final battle of DA:O as a darkspawn. It’s more combat than story telling but then again, you aren’t the archdemon, just a member of the horde.
-When I played, my first two times I played as if I was actually the character – what I think I would do in that situation. This is what I felt most comfortable with, despite being a villainy major. I liked my companions and wanted them to like me too. But after playing through the game a couple of times I began to venture out and create characters that weren’t “my personality.”
-Examples: Casanova-like Rogue Human Noble and a ruthless Dalish Elf