Product Description

From the makers of Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, and Baldur's Gate comes an epic tale of violence, lust, and betrayal. The survival of humanity rests in the hands of those chosen by fate. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians who have defended the lands throughout the centuries. Betrayed by a trusted General in a critical battle, you must hunt down the traitor and bring him to justice.

As you fight your way towards the final confrontation with an evil nemesis, you will face monstrous foes and engage in epic quests to unite the disparate peoples of a world at war. A romance with a seductive shape-shifter may hold the key to victory, or she may be a dangerous diversion from the heart of your mission. To be a leader, you must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice your friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind

Game features:

• A Stunning World to Explore:
• BioWare's deepest universe to date with over 80 hours of gameplay and more than double the size and scope of Mass Effect
• Travel throughout dozens of environments and fully immerse yourself in a shattered world that is on the brink of utter annihilation
• An epic story that is completely shaped and reactive to your play style
• Complex Moral Choices:
• Tailor your Dragon Age: Origins experience from the very beginning by choose from six different Origin Stories
• Decide how to handle complex issues like murder, genocide, betrayal, and the possession/sacrificing of children without the security of a good/bad slider to tell you what to do
• Full Character Customisation:
• Sculpt your hero in your own image or fantasy
• Elaborate character creator allows you to create your own hero unique from anyone else
• Shape your character's personality and morality based on

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2009-11-06
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
From the Makers of Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate comes an epic tale of violence, lust, and betrayal. The survival of humanity rests in the hands of those chosen by fate. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians who have defended the lands throughout the centuries. Betrayed by a trusted general in a critical battle, you must hunt down the traitor and bring him to justice.

As you fight your way towards the final confrontation with an evil nemesis, you will face monstrous foes and engage in epic quests to unite the disparate peoples of a world at war. A romance with a seductive shapeshifter may hold the key to victory, or she may be a dangerous diversion from the heart of your mission. To be a leader, you must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice your friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind.

Customer Reviews

Baldur's Gate 3
I love Baldur's Gate 2 and still play it through quite regularly so I was somewhat dubious at the announcement that they were making a new contender. However, so far, my fears have been unfounded. The game is innately playable, and so addictive that I sit here at work twitching, waiting to get home so I can score another hit of DA:O.

I was always of the belief that it was the NPC (computer controlled) character interaction, both with you and with each other that made BG2 what it was, so I'm glad to see that they kept that part of it alive. The characters no longer stop to chat in text boxes as before, but instead you can hear them bickering with each other as you roam the villages and cities of the world. You can swap over which characters travel with you each time you go to a new quest area and in-between times a base `Camp' can be set up (by clicking the Camp icon on the world map screen). Your own relationship with each character is determined by your responses to them during quests but also around the campfire. Additional friendly points can be gained by giving characters items labelled `gifts' found throughout the game. Obviously your relationship stats with a character is going to change how they react to you in various situations. I'm a little disappointed that you can only max out your party to 4 rather than 6, which gives it more of a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic feel than a Baldur's Gate 2 feel, but you can't have everything!

For the most part though the fights are challenging and the methodology for killing bosses constantly fluctuates. You do need to pick which party members will be travelling with you quite soon though as it seems that failure to do so will result in you being a much higher level than your helpers, and some of those boss fights are hard!

Your party shares a joint inventory which also decreases the original's dragging and dropping as you pick up items with your main character (or rogue) and then move them over to the `mule' (strength maxed character) to carry around until you reach a shop. Buying backpacks increases your inventory space by 10 slots at a time too so there should be more than enough room to go around.

The humour of the original has translated well especially in the list of responses during conversations and the bickering between characters, and it made me laugh aloud when my faithful hound brought me dirty pantaloons! I'm glad to see that the pantaloon obsession is still kicking around.

The overhead camera view also translated well; I was very worried this game would turn out to be another generic first person game (Oblivion style) or chasing overhead camera (Sacred style) but it hasn't. A few people reviewing here have mentioned that they can't get the camera view to work in their favour, but using the scroll wheel (for zoom) and the Right Mouse Button (to spin the camera) I haven't had any problems at all - and somehow the general soft `feel' of BG2 permeates the graphics.

The only bad experience I've had so far was with The Attack at Nightfall quest. The quest involves defending the village from undead but you stand and wait, attack one mob, stand and wait, attack one mob, rinse and repeat until you get called away to defend another front; then attack, attack, attack, wait and wait and wait.... Finally I went for a wander (which you're obviously not meant to do) and found that one little undead had got stuck all by himself down at the docks - the moment he was killed the quest advanced. So perhaps the AI isn't so great on the mobs after all - but as with any new game I'm sure patches will be released swiftly to deal with the outstanding issues; so I'm not too bothered by an occasional glitch.

The spells now interact; ie. grease will catch fire leaving a flaming mass behind - but to be honest I've not really experimented too much with this. There are new skill sets like trap making, poison making and alchemy - for which you gather materials, usually from outside areas, and can then craft. Disarming traps seems to use your lockpick skill and in DA:O you actually get to see what the trap is (rather than a glowing purple mass), ie. a red tripwire (which your rogue will cut) or a red bear-trap which your rogue will trigger to disarm. You do still get XP for disarming traps too which was a good thing to keep - so many other games neglect this.

Like BG2 there is no linear play line; you have a mass of areas to pick from with more opening from subsequent play. In each area there are also places you can specifically go to (ie. the Chantry board) to collect short missions for extra cash. You have a quest log to help you remember which quest you were in the middle of and which ones you have as yet to hand in - and also markers on the map which show you where you should be heading to complete the missions or hand them in, which can be incredibly helpful, especially in the larger maps. Also, like in BG2, there are often multiple ways to complete missions - even more so than before giving the game the possibility of playing the game through multiple times and never doing it quite the same.

In all: I think this game is going to have the replayability of the original. It is an addictive, immersive, fun and sometimes frustrating game which will keep your interest for hours at a time. I would very much recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed any of the games I mentioned in this review; especially BG2 and SW:KOTOR.

I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

A fair review me thinks
God where do I start, since the reviews on here are all great I should probably comment on the few bad ones.
First of all, the game was made by Bioware... and we all know their games, humans, dwarfs, elfs and yes orcs
I will jump straight and say why you get picked to be a warden, well because you show exceptional attitude and determination in certain situations and because if Duncan wouldn't help you, you would probably die. So you become a warden because of your skills and because you don't really have much choice.
Point and click, yeah sure, but I use WASD keys to move round.
The companions will not do anything silly if you setup their tactics correctly and that's about it, they are all very good, Alistair is main tank and he does a great job, so no wondering off dying unless you set them up to do that.
I have to agree that you do seem underpowered, after all what powers does a Grey Warden have? Apparently not much... you don't really have any extra spells or skills than any other character of same class. This is a shame since it does make you feel a little cheated by becoming a Grey Warden in the first place (talking from an RP point of view there is no advantage to be a GW but quite a few disadvantages). Tho, to some extent, you get your explanation on why the Grey Wardens are so important for when a Blight is threatening the lands near the end of the game and it may make-up for the lack of a special grey Warden skill/spell.
Yeah the game is quite linear but what game driven by storyline isn't? You want an open world play a mmo because an open world in a single player can get rather boring fast. DAO lets you take different paths to that end goal so you do get some variation. I do wish that there was an option not to fast travel and walk the roads.
I also have to agree with some of the bloody comments, I actually turned the blood persistence off as I didn't really like it, felt more like someone was throwing a bucket of blood on you after killing anything, be it a mouse or a dragon.
Camera wise I never had any problems yet. Video... great, and you can get HD texture patches for it to increase the pleasure of your viewing. I didn't bother as I lost a few fps and I wasn't really looking at the floor and around me that much. Loading times? slower than an OS... wow didn't know some people load their OS in about 2 3 seconds...

So my summary:
I like and am still enjoying the game and one reason is that you get immersed in it, like watching a movie. No point adding what the others have said but remember, it might be worth doing every origin before adventuring into the game, it will help tie things together and even help you with certain choices later on.


**UPDATED**
I am not really sure what the people that gave it under 3 stars really want... but I will hit these also:

One fact I dislike about reviews is when reviews are total rubbish. All right, let's say I do agree on SOME pointers that Acis said but to full heartedly digest everything is a huge mistake. 1.Yes, the HOLD position aspect is rather annoying, 2.yes you only have 4 characters, 3.yes there is repetitive dialogue, 4.yes there is only a fast travel mode...but let me put it this way - 1. there is no game out there that is completely flawless, and I'm quite sure I won't live to see one either. 2. Is this really necessary? To compare past experiences/game mechanics with something brand new? Why not compare it to any other RPG which allows maybe just 1 companion or a maximum of 2? Your complaint falls short of a well-grounded argument. 3. So, I take it when you go to a store around the corner and buy some chips, you simply go in, put the money on the counter, point at the bag of chips and then the vendor simply takes it and hands it over, right? You do know that by hitting the SPACE bar once you automatically get your choices available so it takes about 2 seconds to see his/her wares. 4. This is not an open world RPG, and I'm pretty sure no one claimed that - it is a story driven RPG, and whenever you travel you get to fight on the way with those that ambush you. This is not Fallout 3 with unknown locations, having you to travel by foot to uncover the map. That is an open-world RPG.

Hit pause, hit pause, hit pause - unless you cannot manage even the weakest enemies, I'm not sure why you "scare" people off by telling how DAO has very little to offer other than strong lore. It's sad to see how people have no idea how to write a proper review, because almost every argument of yours has another side attached to it - a good side. So, please, try not to be so narrow minded when writing a review.

Awesomesauce!
This could easily have been another Jade Empire, but in fact it's turned out rather well. It takes the successful Baldur's Gate formula and adds a number of touches from the mmo genre, with an over-the-shoulder camera to the horizon, herb nodes which you can pick, loot drops direct off corpses, and customisable action bars. Anyone who has spent any time in one of those games will feel instantly at home, as will Baldur's Gate veterans.

But really I love this game for its storytelling, its drama, and its voice acting. It takes all the lessons on how to combine cinematic experience and RPG mechanics from games like Mass Effect, and brings them to a gritty fantasy setting with a mature, morally complex story. Then it adds a metric ton of graphical polish, excellent real-time combat which allows you to go to the old pause-go mode under pressure, and some crafting mechanics, just to spice things up even more. The gore and blood spatter feels a little over-done, but it doesn't detract too much.

Overall, the best fantasy RPG in years, and the closest I've yet seen any game come to the experience of literally stepping into a high-quality fantasy novel.