Yesterday, for Father’s Day, Terri got me the new Aliens versus Predator game.  The same game that I bought myself a few months back.

So, we returned it, and I picked up the Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe + Awakenings package on Steam.

I played Dragon Age through to completion a few months ago, but I didn’t purchase it.  I’d pirated the game.  But it was a good game, and I’ve enjoyed BioWare’s games in the past, so I wanted to support them.  And now I’ve not only purchased Dragon Age: Origins, but also a pile of DLC and the Awakenings expansion.  All of which are sales that they would not have made if I’d never pirated and played the game.

Once again, piracy winds up benefiting the content creators.

As you play through Dragon Age there are various specializations you can unlock.  These are refinements of the three basic classes.  Rather than just be some generic warrior, you can be a champion, or a templar, or a berserker.

Some of those specializations take a good amount of time and effort to unlock…  Which means that you won’t generally get them until towards the end of the game, making them rather useless.  In order to combat this, a specialization isn’t unlocked just for that one character – they’re unlocked on your computer in general.  So you can roll up a new character and use those specializations from the start.

A side-affect of this is that you can game the system a bit…  You can save your game, purchase a specialization book for 15 gold, and then go back to your previous save.  You’ve still got the specialization unlocked, but you also have your money back.

This is handy for the specializations you can buy with gold, because it saves you some money…  But it’s insanely helpful for the specializations that require you to take dramatic action.

Over the weekend, I was given the opportunity to unlock the reaver specialization.

This requires you to do a very bad thing.  I won’t say much more than this, as my wife reads this blog, and I don’t want to be gutted with a rusty fish knife…

But, before I did the very bad thing I saved my game, because I didn’t want to live with the consequences of my actions.

At the time my party consisted of Wynne, Leliana, Alister, and myself…  When I did the very bad thing both Wynne and Leliana were horrified.  So horrified, in fact, that they drew their weapons and attacked me.

Frankly, I’m surprised Alister stayed by my side…  I can only assume that he’s required for some event or cinematic later in the game.

Well, I fought back…  And killed both Leliana and Wynne…

They did not get up after the battle.  Which makes sense, because they’re enemies.  It’d be a pretty annoying game if your enemies kept getting back up after you killed them.

But that’s kind of the point.

The fact that they didn’t get back up after the battle was a clearer indication of their rebellion than their shouted words and drawn swords.  Whatever magical protection allowed my party members to get back up after being felled in battle no longer applied to them.  They were now, officially, badguys.

Seeing them lying there after the fight was truly odd.  Especially when their bodies started sparkling.  And when I looted them, I was able to remove all the gear I had equipped them with.  It was so strange to see a character go from a trusted member of my party to an enemy – no different than all the swarms of darkspawn I’ve killed.

That, more than anything else, conveyed the awfulness of my actions.

More than the horrified looks on their faces…  More than their shouted objections…  More than the monsters appearing to punish me for my transgressions…  More than the dramatic cinematic sequences…

The fact that those two characters had changed from being party members to just another enemy to kill spoke volumes.

I realize I’m a bit behind the times…  Dragon Age has been out for several months now.  There’s DLC available.  There’s an expansion on the way.  Most people have moved on to other things.

But I’ve been busy with work, and EVE, and AvP, and life…  And I’ve just gotten around to playing Dragon Age: Origins.

So…  Gameplay-wise, it’s another RPG from BioWare.  If it weren’t for the conspicuous lack of a WotC logo and familiar characters they could call it Baldur’s Gate III.

It’s a little more action-oriented and real-time than the Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights games…  But it was obviously built by the same folks.  There are a lot of things that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever played one of BioWare’s D&D titles.

The setting reminds me a lot of Robert Jordan‘s Wheel of Time books…  You’ve got darkspawn that are the result of some prideful magic-users tainting the source of their power.  You’ve got magic-users that have to go through a potentially fatal test before they’re even allowed to live.  You’ve got a force of soldiers who are devoted to tracking down and eliminating rogue magic-users.  Magic-users who can’t handle the test are made tranquil by stilling their thoughts and feelings.  You’ve got wardens devoted to tracking down and eliminating darkspawn.  You’ve got a foreign force of mighty warriors encroaching on the land.

It isn’t officially a WoT game…  But it’s fairly obvious that folks on the development team were at least familiar with Robert Jordan’s books…  Either that, or it’s one hell of a coincidence.

So, gameplay-wise, Dragon Age is a pretty solid title.  But that’s not what has impressed me the most about it…

Dragon Age: Origins is the first game I have ever played that genuinely deserves an “M” rating.

This is the first game I’ve played that is genuinely aimed at mature audiences.

I don’t just mean that there’s bloodshed and violence…  Nor am I talking about some nudity and sex scenes…  I’m talking about the substance of the game.  The storyline, the characters, the plot – none of which is simple or straightforward.

The first character I rolled up was a city-elf rogue…  Within about 15 minutes of starting up the game I was introduced to a life of squalor and oppression.  The elves are “free” in name only.  They’re second-class citizens in every way.  They’re mistreated, abused, and discriminated-against at every turn.

A human noble shows up with some friends and kidnaps a number of elven women with the intent to rape them.

During my rescue attempt one of those women gets cut down in cold blood…  And another innocent dies as well…  And at least one of those women does get raped before I can rescue them…

Then, after the survivors make it back to town, the guards show up.  They’re here to arrest who elf who killed the nobles – nobody cares about the elves who were kidnapped, raped, and murdered.  I wind up having to join the Grey Wardens and leave my home behind just to make it out alive.

Later I see a mighty general betray his king, resulting in the death of hundreds.

Later still I have to eliminate a demon.  I can kill the child that the demon has possessed…  Or I can have a renegade mage, an admitted assassin, attempt to sacrifice the kid’s mom to preserve the child’s life…  Or I can run to the mages for help, several days away, and hope that nothing horrible happens while I’m gone.

And, whatever you do, one of the characters in your party is going to call you out on it.  Somebody is going to disapprove of your actions.  Somebody is going to be unhappy with your choices.

This is the first game I’ve ever played where there was real moral ambiguity.  Where it wasn’t obvious which was the good choice and which was the evil choice.  Where being a good person wasn’t simply a matter of picking the nice dialogue option every time.

It’s a little intimidating, to be honest.  Now that I’ve finished up in that town I’m actually pondering where to go next.  I’m wondering if I really made the right choice back there…  If there was some way that I could have saved more lives…  If maybe I would have done better had I been a mage, or if I’d had different people in my party.

Deciding whether to go to the humans, or the elves, or the dwarves next isn’t just a simple matter of which one sounds like the most fun.  I’m actually contemplating which is most likely to give me help quickly, so that fewer people are harmed while I waste time.  I’m wondering whether I can get a couple groups behind me quickly, and if that will make it easier to convince some others…  Or whether that matters at all.

In short, this is the first game that’s actually making me contemplate the consequences of my actions.