Dragon Age: Origins FAQ

What is Dragon Age: Origins?

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark heroic fantasy set in a unique world. As the spiritual successor of BioWare’s popular Baldur’s Gate series of games, it uses a pause-and-play tactical combat system. Play in over-the-shoulder mode, or the more tactical top-down view. Dragon Age: Origins features a stunning amount of cinematic dialog. Players will be able to acquire unique party members. These party members will have their own motivations for accompanying the player.

Dragon Age is set in a dark, heroic, fantasy world. What does that mean?

It means that Dragon Age: Origins is a very gritty, often bloody adventure with mature themes. It has elements of traditional fantasy like heroes, villains, and magic, but we’re not pulling any punches – you’re going to be immersed in a brutal, dangerous, and sometimes shocking world.

Why is the game called Dragon Age: Origins?

The game offers a unique new feature called Origin Stories that shapes the way the world sees you and the way you will see the world. Each origin determines the player’s motivations, shapes his or her experience, and renders a unique prelude, path, and ending to the game. We also chose “Origins” because it symbolises BioWare’s return to its roots.

"Dragon Age" is the name given to the time period in which the game takes place. It was named so because, at the beginning of the age, dragons re-appeared in the world after being thought extinct. The game is not all about dragons, though of course dragons do play a role in the story. Dragons are rare and dangerous creatures, and their fantastical nature is evocative of what our game is all about – hence the title.

Is all the dialogue in the game voice-acted?

Every non-player character is fully recorded. The player character's dialogue options are not recorded, but each combination of race and gender includes six possible voices for the player's battle-cries. Imposing a dialog voice on the player character would have significantly limited the possible number of player options.

Explain the Dragon Age:Origins player experience

When you start a new game of Dragon Age Origins you choose your “origin story”. There are different stories available for different classes and races. So you get to choose your gender, your race and your class. You can even customise your hairstyle, eye color and facial structure.

The story for Dragon Age: Origins takes place in the kingdom of Ferelden. The kingdom lies in the far southeast portion of the continent known as Thedas. For the bulk of the game, players will be able to choose where they want to go and the order they wish to complete the various plots. There are also many side-quests scattered throughout the game.

The more you explore, the more story and quests you go on, the more enemies you defeat, the more experience points you will gain. The total number of abilities you will be able to give to your character will depend on how much you play through in the game.

There are many different endings to the game based on the origin story of the character and the choices you make as you play through the game. We will not give out the exact number as we want our fans to have the fun and surprise of experiencing them all for themselves.

The player can have up to four active party members, including the main hero. The number of followers depends on the player’s choices throughout the game. Dragon Age uses a special tactics system that lets players configure actions and reactions on their individual party members and you can take direct control of your party or let the AI manage them.

Each party member has a class and core abilities assigned to them when they join the party. The player can choose to take control of their leveling, customisation, and progression like they do with their main hero or they can choose to let the system auto-level up.

Members of the player’s party do not always agree with the choices the player makes. You can try to play Dragon Age: Origins without party members, but you’ll probably die.

If a party member’s health reaches zero while in combat, they are considered injured and cannot continue to aid you until combat is over. Once combat is over, they will remain injured with lower health, stamina, or mana until either they are rested or healed. Some party members can die based on specific story events and choices that you make.

One of staples of BioWare stories is romance, which you can choose to pursue or not. You might find a potential love interest that you can choose to develop a relationship with. As always, we approach romance plots tastefully and maturely.

How does combat work in Dragon Age:Origins?

Combat in Dragon Age: Origins takes place in real-time. In addition, we included a pause-and-play system that allows players to take a more tactical approach to the game.There will also be an auto-pause available for those players who like to use it.

Dual-wielding is one of a number of customisable options open to the player when they create or level up their character. Anyone can hold two weapons at a time, but without dual-wielding skills, the character will not be proficient.

Magic in Dragon Age works on a mana based system. Each spell cast will use some of a mage’s mana. In addition, some spell effects will continue to drain mana while they are in use. Mana regenerates slowly over time and maximum mana grows with each level the mage gains. Mages choose from new spells as they gain levels. There are a wide range of spells to choose from, allowing players to specialise their mage.

In order to advance deeper into a school of magic, the mage has to understand the basics of that school, progressing along a tree of spells. It’ll be up to you whether your mage will take a mix of diverse spells, or really focus down on a single tree of magic. Specialisations let you further customise your character, opening a new, thematic tree of spells for you to pick from.

Dragon Age: Origins doesn’t require the party to rest, since mana and health recovery are relatively quick outside of battle the game has no concept of memorising spells. There is, however, a party camp where your party can patch up any long-term injuries they’ve sustained. Will the party camp always be a safe haven? You’ll have to play and see!

Describe the Dragon Age:Origins environment.

The art team on Dragon Age Origins has provided a wide selection of different environments to explore. Some will be dark are foreboding, others will be bright and full of life.

The kingdom of Ferelden is a “real” world with the standard animals you would encounter in both rural and urban environments.

There are instances in the game where you will be given the opportunity to bash down doors, and it’s pretty spectacular when you do. Other doors will require a specific key or password. The majority of the time, though, you’ll want to ensure that you have someone in your party who can pick locks (hint: a rogue!) if you want to explore every nook and cranny in the game.

Once an area is revealed on your world map, you will be able to travel to and from that area to other world map areas quickly. However, it is possible that your travels between destinations may be interrupted by unexpected events.