Editing Bioware (section)

====Dragon Age: Origins====
The original, Dragon Age: Origins, was a game six years in the making, which shows in good ways (immense depth and craft to the situations encountered) and bad (wonky graphics that looked worse than ''Mass Effect'''s, despite coming out nearly two years later.). While far from being the grimdark spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate that Bioware hyped it as, the story of Dragon Age: Origins was above average and possessed an interesting character creation mechanic where your background changed numerous parts of the storyline. 

The premise is that your character is a Grey Warden, one of the last of a legendary order of guardians in the world, and the story takes place on the continent of Thedas ('''The''' '''D'''ragon '''A'''ge '''S'''etting) in a nameless world.  Start your adventure by picking your race as a Human, Elf, or Dwarf, then your class as a Warrior, Mage, or Rogue. The story begins with an explanation of the Blight and the Darkspawn who both caused it and arose from it according to Scriptures from the in-universe religion Andrastianism (a deistic religion centered around a woman called Andraste, whose essentially a combination of The Virgin Mary, Jesus, Muhammad and Joan of Arc).  Darkspawn are Orc-like beings similar to Tolkien Orcs who were mutated by a contagious supernatural corruption (which may or may not be a divine punishment) called the Blight; they're even described as a "living plague".  This originated from a group of powerful mages who travelled through the Fade (a spirit realm like the [[Warp]], but connected to dreams and easier to enter and safely leave) who entered the Golden City (Dragon Age's version of Heaven) then tried and failed to overthrow the Maker (the setting's Creator God who may or may not exist - this ambiguity a deliberate move by the writers).  The mages actions turned it into the Black City, a place so dangerous no one who's gone there since them has ever come out, [[Malal|including demons, who actively avoid it]].  According to the Chantry (Dragon Age's Catholic Church analogue for the religion Andrastianism) this was a punishment from the Maker.

The Darkspawn are normally roving bands, but sometimes they rally under one leader, an archdemon - Blight-infected ancient and powerful spirits whose physical forms look like dragons, and when this happens it causes an invasion/natural disaster/epidemic also called a Blight.  During the first one, after much bloodshed and trial and error, the Grey Wardens were created and successfully stopped the first Blight by killing the Archdemon leading it and have been a revered order of protectors ever since. However, cultural, political and religious differences have divided the peoples of the world and do so between each Blight, and things are coming to a head in the first game.  You play through the intro which establishes who you are and what your lot in life is and varies based on what you made your character.  Then the life you knew gets upended in various grimdark ways (ranging from being the elf peasant who killed a human nobleman for raping your friend to being Dwarf royalty framed for fratricide by your younger brother). When a Grey Warden leader rescues you, you've proven your mettle and get inducted into the Grey Wardens to stop the Darkspawn in the human kingdom of Ferelden.  Things later go really pear-shaped when the king's general/father-in-law abandoned him to die in battle then framed the Grey Wardens for his death, making Ferelden's best hope outlaws or exiles.  With the nations threatened by a Blight and most of the realms engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen to unite the shattered lands and slay the current archdemon once and for all. The setting itself has a few notable differences from your standard run-of-the-mill High Fantasy world, including [[Inquisition|a clerical order of Templars hell-bent on keeping mages in line]], [[Skaven|cutthroat Dwarven politics]], [[Witcher|Elves being second-class citizens and a shadow of their former selves]] and an interesting threat in the form of the aformentioned Darkspawn.

The character development was good - there are some squadmates who are optional but have fully-fleshed out stories and character arcs.  Evidence that things were starting to fall apart were obvious right when you met the questgiver who forced you to buy a DLC pack if you actually wanted to do the quest, but only after giving you the sales pitch. The "expansion pack" Awakening wasn't too bad either, at least if you ignored the fact that it had been visibly rushed and was loaded with gamebreaking bugs.