Excerpt from "list of things that can kill silver surfer with minimal trouble"
-frogs
-ducks
-turtles
-various small fish
-eyeballs
-cartoon ghosts
-pumpkins
-small hands
-any wall in the known universe
-hats
-the green giant

A while ago, I was talking to a friend about RPGs we liked, and Dragon Age: Origins came up as one of mine. They replied that they tried playing it once and found it too dated. I had just started a new playthrough then, and thought that that absolutely couldn't be the case, as it had felt groundbreaking back when it was released. However, as I continued that playthrough in the days that followed, with each main quest I completed, with each DLC I played, I felt myself eating my words.

DA:O's unevenness definitely shows in this decade. Its visuals, which already weren't great for the PS3 at the time, feel dated and are sometimes hard to make out, and they accompany numerous bugs and performance issues, especially on the console version. The gameplay systems also feature a myriad odd design choices that, among other things, make it shockingly hostile to a new player more in tune with modern gaming experiences, or even to one coming from BioWare's other flagship series at the time, Mass Effect.

In the realm of character development alone, we can see a few of those: between hard to understand equipment mechanics, missable items and upgrades, limited supplies of money and consumables and the inability to respec builds, there are multiple ways one can permanently screw themselves. And then there comes the balance (or lack thereof), with multiple, severe difficulty spikes, confusingly priced shop items and the presence of bugged and/or useless abilities and traits in the skill tree. Add all of that together, and simply saving at a bad time can brick an entire playthrough.

So yes, as of 2024, DA:O is huge pile of jank. My pile of jank, which I absolutely adore, regardless of its age. Having played it so many times way back in 2010, somehow, when playing it again now, I still found new outcomes to explore: the fact that the writers were able to weave such a complex narrative, with so many moving parts and possibilities, and still walk out with something coherent is a real achievement. All those years back, I had also never truly appreciated the nuances of some of the moral choices, like the crowning of a Dwarf King.

The large cast of characters shines, being packed with some truly detestable antagonists: Arl Howe is a despicable human being who, if playing as Human Noble (which, let's face it, you probably are), provides a personal motivation for the Warden character to chase him down. Loghain, on the other hand, is such a layered and complicated character, a foul man who truly, deeply believes to be doing the right thing, and facing him down in the Landsmeet brings chills to my spine every time.

The lovable sidekicks don't leave anything to be desired, either: the canon party of Leliana, Alistair and Morrigan is my favorite, with there being so much chemistry (often of the explosive kind) between the three, but the rest of the cast delivers as well. This was my first exposure to Bioware's writing, its intricate character personalities and settings, and even though, having seen more of their games since, the formula for those interactions is now evident, it does not dim their brilliance, and I still get lost in the dialogue just as much.

"That was uncharacteristically wise of you."
"Yeah, yeah, don't let that get around, I have a reputation."

Having bought the original game near its release, I had never had access to most of the (outrageously expensive) DLC packs, all of which were bundled into the Ultimate Edition. Surprisingly, all of them ranged from mid to bad: I suppose it's hard to make DLC campaigns for a game with such massive scale, where the big picture matters so much, but it's still shocking how short, rushed and uninvolving most of these extra adventures were. The BioWare touch is almost completely lost on them.

Speaking of which, as of 2024, BioWare has been repeatedly gutted by the dreaded publisher, and the future of the Dragon Age series is uncertain, with much of BioWare's original staff gone and Dreadwolf having been stuck in development hell for a while. Without the talent that made the original Dragon Age great, it's hard to see BioWare pushing the envelope again, so maybe, just maybe, they'd be willing to give Origins a Legendary Edition treatment, and polish up some bits in the process? One can only hope.