Dragon Age impressions

I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins (henceforth referred to as Dragon Age because "Origins" is the most cliched video game title ever) a whole lot lately.

I'm not a big fantasy fan, mainly due to just how cliched and derivitave the whole genre is. This goes double for video games, where your usual Tolkien/ Dungeons and Dragons archetypes seem to rule the day (the big exception being the two World of Warcraft expansions). At first glance Dragon Age seems to follow the same template- elves, check, underground dwarves, check, medieval human kingdoms, check. But the more I play the more the game seems to be using these worn out cliches in new and interesting ways. The elves are former slaves who live in run down "alienages" in cities and in no way resemble the usual glowy immortal ethereal beings. There are Dalish elves who live in forests and stick more closely to the old ways, but even they're way more down to earth than usual. The dwarves really get a unique angle, in that they're portrayed as a pile of scheming political backstabbers. Which, when you think about it, makes sense for an insular, enclosed community.

This attention to detail extends throughout the game. The world feels fully fleshed out and real- characters from Orlais, the nation that ruled Ferelden for centuries, have distinct accents, a unique culture and even distinct styles of clothes. The religion of Ferelden seems like something that could actually exist in real life. As I play the game I keep noticing little details, like the way Chantry priest's robes have more sun-like details with increasing rank, or the way most commoner women don'ty cover their shoulders. None of this is explicitly pointed out and explained (although most things are, by way of an extensive automatically updating codex), they just sink into your subconscious as you play. It feels as if every detail was included because it makes sense for it to be there, not because the developers just thought it would be cool.

I'm playing as an elf, and the game provides one of the best examples of "fantastic racism" I've ever seen in fiction. The way this usually goes is that the story will be peppered with straw-man parodies of racism, almost always on the evil side. Everyone is either a bleeding-heart progressive or totally and irredeemably consumed with irrational hatred. There is no in between*. In Dragon Age the whole situation is almost startilingly more realistic and nuanced. You very rarely meet people who are out and out hostile, but you do frequently encounter completely freindly and helpful characters who are extremely prejudiced, and don't realise they are. In one particularly hilarious moment, one of my party members- probably the kindest and most friendly in the group- started telling me about elven servants in Orlais and came out with a stream of unknowingly racist comments. As she obliviously dug herself in deeper my character's choice of non-hostile responses dwindled until there was no diplomatic way to end the conversation.

That's another thing I love about Dragin Age: it has a sense of humour. Far too often fantasy writers seem to think the invention of humour coincided with the discovery of electricity.

I've still got a ways to go- I'm not even halfway through the game and I've been playing for over 30 hours- so I'll leave off any comments about the combat and gameplay until I've finished the game.



* this is one of my only really big gripes with Harry Potter series, although to be fair Rowling was a bit more subtle when it came to non-human species like house elves and werewolves.