Dragon Age: Origins takes place in the country Ferelden. This is on the continent Thelas. The world is, roughly speaking, similar to the fantasy setting of the books of The Lord Of The Rings. So you have people like dwarves, elves and various evil beings. At the beginning of the game you choose a character. You choose a human, elf or dwarf, and adjust the face and hair of him or her. Also choose a class, namely the warrior, mage or thief. Based on this choice you can choose 1 or 2 background stories. This choice is especially important for the first 1 to 1.5 hours of the game. In total there are six of these aperture settings, making the different for some else to play. One example is an elf. You can choose to play as a elf with a background as a nomad travelling around or an elf who lives as a slave in the city.

Dragon Age: Origins looks rather old-fashioned. It looks like all the Middle Ages. You can find some stones and wooden settlements in the world. You visit frozen ruins, a castle, dark caves, dangerous forests, etc. By means of a map can be reasonably travel freely between these locations. So you can largely choose where you first go and often you can also revert to an earlier location. These sites can be populated with enemies, but also normal people where you can accept assignments, trade with or get information.

A major difference between the PC and console versions is the camera. On the console version, the camera is behind your character. The PC version you can also do this, but the camera is above you, and you can also zoom in and out. The PC version has for me a better view during battles. You start with a single character, but you'll meet several characters who for various reasons want to go with you. Some may refuse you now or later, only one character is always with them during the story. You can take up to four characters at once when you are on the go. The rest sit in the waiting room. You can choose who you take with you, but a good balance between mage, warrior and thief and a character from 1 of these three classes is useful.

You can change the game play in various modes. With the easiest mode it is possible that you focus especially on your own character and let the computer automatically control allies to do their thing. Harder settings require more tactics. First you have to choose what a character who you do not control can't or can do during the game. For example you can say that a magician should always keep his distance and a magician can also be set as a healer and a warrior should be more aggressive.

You have mainly traditional weapons such as swords, clubs, knives and bows and arrows. Magicians sometimes use staffs. A good mix of weapons for near and far is recommended, though any character sets carry two types of weapons. For protection, various types of armor can be found or purchased, but also lighter clothing such as a garment care. The fighting may well be chaotic, because you will sometimes have about 20 enemies against you. Especially the little magician with life energy and little protective clothing can quickly die.

There are several types of enemies in the Dragon Age world, like bandits from the different races can come, but also demonic creatures, skeletons, ghosts, dragons and giant spiders. These enemies have their strengths and weaknesses, such as sensitivity to heat, ice, etc. This allows you to choose the right weapons and items to defeat an enemy. Some enemies are fairly easy, others difficult.

Dragon Age: Origins is more than just fighting. Whole sections of the game you're talking. Unfortunately the main character during the dialogues does not use his own voice, but you see in the form of texts several options. These options are very noble or even malicious. Also your speech skill affects the dialogues with the characters in the world. Choices you take during the dialogues, can affect parts of the story, as if some characters no longer want to be with you if you're too evil. On the other hand, your characters fall in love, while another character then gets jealous.

Besides the main story there are several small stories you find particularly by exploring the world. They can provide hours of extra playing time. Around 50 hours in total you can play this game I would say. Since the game can be replayed with a different race, background and style of play you can easily play the game again and again.

It took years before I finally bought Dragon Age: Origins. The game has a good and compelling story, with good dialogues with the characters which can affect the story. I noticed that I often used the same characters because they are more my style with their skills. There are some minor setbacks. So the world looks a bit old, but fortunately diverse. I had also wanted the main character had a voice during the dialogues. Also I find that sometimes you have to fight too long or dialogues are too long. Overall four stars.