It's not surprising to appreciate why the RPG scene has such a stereotypical following of geeky types (particularly the ones that don't shower) when understanding the fundamental aspect of a Role Playing Game, which is to act out some other life where you're ultimately more respected than your greasy-haired, cheesy-puff eating self. I for one am somewhat of an anomaly as I both enjoy RPG's and I can get laid - which is typically an oxymoronic lifestyle as far as the general Role Playing Community is concerned. Of course, you'll have to take my word for it...but the distinct difference between those that have read that paragraph and thought nothing of it and those that have scoffed is that those that thought nothing of it won't be living in their parents basement with wankers cramp and crumbs in that bum-fluff they call a beard - when in reality they haven't learnt how to shave yet.

Right, now I'm done ostracising a high percentage of RPG lovers everywhere I'd best get on with the review.

Other than perhaps scaling up the violence and including a small percentage of the softest core porn you'll find in a game – Dragon Age Origins breaks very little new ground in the RPG scene. It's effectively Mass Effect with a different wrapper. So much so that you can get Dragon Age armour for Mass Effect 2. A great way to pimp up your own title before it's even released. Of course, it has to be said that generally speaking we've come to expect certain aspects of our RPG / MMORPG to remain the same and when they don't, while we show a certain amount of enthusiasm for the changes, it always boils down to “...it didn't have elves. It had some dudes with pointy ears called Erls, but they weren't Elves...” - so on the whole, stating that a game hasn't leapt forward with innovation in it's fantasy setting is like trying to make beer with potatoes (sorry Idaho).

Long and short of it is that it doesn't actually matter. Generally people are thinking “Ooh shiny new RPG” rather than “So what's new in this one?”. That's of course not to say that this hasn't got anything new, but it's certainly going to reliably tick all of the RPG boxes as best it can before thinking about anything else. So, lots of dialogue in an epic storyline, classes, races, skills and a Dragon – there's usually always a Dragon it's just that this time it's fairly important what with the game being called “Dragon Age” - bit of a give-away.

Usually I'd want to waffle on about the storyline for a bit, but seeing as depending on which class / race combination you go with depends on how you start off. It should be sufficient to say that the overarching story revolves around you and your ability to fend off the Blight – a horde of nasties running amok destroying everything in their path all thanks to the commands of some archdemon. Regardless of where you start you'll always end up being a Grey Warden. They've been about some time now keeping a check on the blight, which inevitably comes into your life and thus signing up is kind of a mandatory storyline point.

While Mass Effect might be the most obvious choice as far as comparisons go, the party management aspect of Dragon Age feels more at home sat next to Dungeon Siege. Particularly the PC version which can zoom right out to a more top-down view of the party. Anyway, it becomes a case of semantics when comparing most of BioWare's games as they're of course going to run with any of the good ideas they develop while making these top titles. At least this time around you feel somewhat more attached to any member of your party due to their involvement in your group, how you meet them and what their back story is. To add to this they can leave at any time if they're unhappy with how you're running things. Keeping the ones you want happy is a matter of giving them gifts and how you interact with characters in the story. As an example, one of your party members is an ex-Templar so threatening someone of a religious disposition wasn't the best ideas of mine. Still, a simple statue kept him happy and redeemed me of any past discretions. Games are great like that.
While there are numerous people you'll run into who want to hook up, getting a part balance sorted for most fights is pretty much a must. The party walks around in a group of 4 and so having a couple to cause some serious damage, one perhaps to heal and then maybe a ranged class to throw into the mix is a good example of trying to cover as many situations as possible. It's also another reason to keep the party you want to keep sweet or they'll up and leave the group and put you in a difficult situation. On the bright side it would seem the banter that happens between party members won't cause any permanent friction to their love for you although your choices of dialogue will, which makes a mixed moral compass party, tough to play at times.

Mixing the party up might need doing from one situation to another regardless as each may call for a different set of skills. Thankfully, while you're off gallivanting with whoever you can leave the other members to chill out around the camp-fire. Which is a bonus as I really don't want to have a bunch of whining members sod off because they're not getting used.

While the class / race combination is one way they've diversified the storyline, another aspect is not only the people that you can choose to kill but certain locations that might get completely wiped off the map if you're not prepared to stay and help defend them. That, I have to say is one thing that I commend any RPG for doing as we do like our choices and what better way to show that off than by killing off an entire city – downside of course is just how far back you might have to reload if you don't like the outcome.

On a completely separate note, only related due to whole 'reloading' thing that reminded me how often I had to in certain sections. The difficulty spike was like getting on the back of a bull and punching it in the head – it went up and down all-over-the-shop from one situation where I could quite happily wipe out 10 people to another situation where 3 would kill my entire party. Not saying that I couldn't handle that, or in fact that it was a bad point it was perhaps a little unexpected - although that's probably down to playing and loving games like Morrowind where the difficulty that exists through the scaling of it's entities is fundamentally broken. So no, the challenge is there to give us the gratification of a successful encounter.

Dragon Age: Origins is probably one of the strongest RPG titles we've seen. It's well rounded, well presented title and while I might whine a bit about the lack of multiplayer, the game holds up so well as a singleplayer that I might even let that go – this time...