Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark fantasy role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. Set in the kingdom of Ferelden, the plot follows a player character recruited by the Grey Wardens, an ancient order dedicated to combat the evil Darkspawn as they invade the known world.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) A very interesting setting that isn't super high fantasy like Lord of the Rings nor low fantasy like Game of Thrones. Instead, it's a pretty interesting mix of both. There's also a great deal of detail put into the world, with certain countries having different accents and so on.
 * 2) When creating your character, you can also choose your background for certain races that changes how you start out in the game. For example, as an elf, you can be one who was in an illegal marriage and had their spouse unjustly killed. All this immediately increases replay value exponentially.
 * 3) An interesting combat system reminiscent of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, only with more input from the player to make the combat more engaging. You can also use special moves that don't take up much magic and help in combat. You can also switch between characters if one is incapacitated. You also have a top-down view and the ability to pause the combat so you can instruct specific characters to take specific actions.
 * 4) *The game's approach to controlling the party's tactics is very detailed and advanced (taking cues from Final Fantasy XII's Gambits), even when taking the game's age into account. Each party member can have a role in the player's strategies and can be configured to react to certain inputs, like being at low health or being attacked by an attack they're vulnerable to.
 * 5) *The game has very few class restrictions for weapons - there's nothing preventing you from equipping a mage with a greatsword or dressing up an archer in plate armor. This creates lots of unique and interesting builds for each class.
 * 6) A very well-written story with tons of lore in the world concerning its history, politics, and so on. It also takes a very dark tone and realistically portrays medieval times, with all the brutal violence, narcissistic people in power, and so on.
 * 7) *Many, many classic elements of fantasy literature are also examined and shaken up in unique and creative ways. For example, mages are feared by the people and segregated in closely-guarded towers to practice their spells, and elves have lost their once-great culture and are discriminated and forcefully assimilated by humans.
 * 8) A likable and interesting cast of characters who feel very much like real people and interact with each other in realistic ways, being much more complex and realistic by comparison to most heroic fantasy games. The villains are also more sympathetic and have pretty good reasons for their actions, which makes them arguably more interesting than in some of the Mass Effect series.
 * 9) The lack of a morality-tracking system like the Mass Effect series means that the choices in this game are very nuanced and there is no right and wrong way to tackle a situation - each character will react in a different way according to their personality, and the choice you make will affect the ending. The game has faction-specific endings (similar to the Fallout games) that change based on the decisions you've made and the sidequests you completed. The choices can even be imported to the game's sequels, where they will have visible effects.
 * 10) *Speaking of, the sheer variety in terms of outcomes that can result out of a situation is such that the series requires a separate website with the purpose of tracking each player's choice path and determine the consequences.
 * 11) LOADS of content, with tons of side quests in addition to the main story, bringing it up to about 100 hours.
 * 12) Awesome soundtrack by Inon Zur, the composer of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series.
 * 13) Great voice acting from a sizable cast of characters, and plenty of memorable lines from your party members and villains.
 * 14) Your choices actually make a lot of difference throughout. For example, by the final battle, the people you made alliances with, the choices you made throughout, and so on, determine not only the ending, but also how the battle unfolds and who participates in it.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The graphics are quite outdated for it's time, looking more like a pre-2005 game than 2009.
 * 2) The combat system may not be to everyone's taste as you start out with very few skills and have to earn them by leveling up each character.
 * 3) Like plenty of RPGs, there will be parts that are difficult and you'll regret not stocking up on health potions and the like since there isn't a shop to purchase them from at that time.
 * 4) There is no way to reroll your characters in case you want to try out a new build for them in the base game, though this feature was introduced in the Awakening expansion.