Pretty memorable first level, right?

So, as I was researching this list, I was filled with a desperate urge to replay (or play) every one of these games. That’s what a great opening level will do for you. No sitting through boring tutorials, no unnecessary exposition; just cut right to the heart of the game and never look back. Now due to the nature of this list, open-world games are severely lacking here (but not completely absent!). And whether it’s because game design has gotten better over the years or because “you just had to be there” to fully appreciate a game’s innovations, this list is largely populated by modern titles (sorry, Super Mario 64). Now I’ll acknowledge the irony of this mundane intro and let you get to that list!

BioShock – You know, sometimes I get sick of putting BioShock on every “best of” list I do, but it’s just that good. From the second that plane dives toward its fiery demise to the moment you wade out of the sea and into a mysterious lighthouse, that opening captivates me without so much as a “Would you kindly?” And then, to look up and see Andrew Ryan’s bronze hands holding Rapture’s iconic welcome message of “No gods or kings, only man”…Man, the first three minutes of that game create a more intriguing world than most games can manage in eight hours. Follow that up with the breath-taking reveal of the city under the sea, the horrifying first encounter with a splicer, desperately waiting for the door to unlock as Andrew Ryan’s recording condemns CIA and KGB scum such as yourself while a mob of splicers is bashing the windows in…sweet baby Jesus! Every part of that game’s opening level is perfect. The atmosphere of decay and chaos pulls you under as you learn the complicated systems of the world, and with the larger-than-life Mr. Ryan preaching his utopia around every corner, you have no hope of breaking the immersion and surfacing for air until the very end. Can Irrational possibly top their last effort when BioShock Infinite comes out?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Back when Treyarch was too amateur for anybody to notice that Call of Duty was an annual franchise, Infinity Ward was in the driver’s seat for a solid but stagnating series. Then they decided to take things to the modern setting. I don’t know if they could have made a better introduction than “Crew Expendable” (we’ll forget about the “F.N.G.” tutorial here), a high-octane SAS raid on the stormy seas that ends with a missing nuke and a sunken ship. What makes this level more memorable than the intense shoot-outs and heart-pounding set-pieces is the way it frames a disturbingly believable story of war in the age of terrorism. After the wetwork of this secret op is done, the game puts you in the shoes of a rather unfortunate Middle Eastern leader who’s executed on national television. These narrative innovations were far more profound than any persistent multiplayer leveling and they’re what Modern Warfare should be remembered for.

Deus Ex – I haven’t played more than 15 minutes of this myself (I know, I’m a terrible person), but in that brief time, I managed to see what everybody else raves about whenever they talk about this game and this level in particular. Setting things at the Statue of Liberty does a pretty good job of conveying the conspiratorial themes that make Deus Ex‘s narrative so memorable, but it’s the revolutionary freedom with which you’re allowed to complete your objective that earns it a spot on this list. Some people say it was extraordinary for the time, but I say that it still allows more freedom of approach than most games today. This game is the granddaddy of Shooter/Stealth/RPG hybrids and every developer could do themselves a service by looking at Deus Ex‘s opening level and striving to match its fundamental emphasis on player choice.

Dragon Age: Origins – Rather than dilly-dallying around with some amnesia non-sense like so many other RPGs, BioWare’s fantasy epic begins by giving you a very firm sense of your place in the world. You’re a noble dwarf in the subterranean city of Orzammar and you’re in line for the throne whenever your ailing father passes into the stone. Your two younger brothers are eager for power and frame you for a heinous crime that sees you sentenced to an inevitable death in the darkspawn-ridden Deep Roads. Seeing your only opportunity for escape, you join up with the fabled Grey Wardens and leave your home, your family, your reputation, and everything that you’ve ever known to save the world from some hardcore dragons. Oh, and this is just one of six unique “Origin Stories” in the game. No game feature has ever had some an impact on personal characterization for me. If people actually scratched their heads when they didn’t understand something, then BioWare’s decision to drop Origin Stories in Dragon Age II would probably have triggered an epidemic of deep head wounds and consequently, brain infections. That sounds like a sure-fire way to start up some sort of apocalypse, BioWare. What the hell were you thinking?

Fallout 3 – How is it that one of the most memorable parts of a game with one of the greatest open-worlds of all time is the beginning, where you’re confined to a cold and steely vault occupied by regular people with regular needs? Could it be that literally playing through your birth, toying around with lettered blocks as a toddler, and attending pathetic birthday parties as a young boy all contribute to forging an emotional attachment to your little vault? Could it be that the real sense of community makes leaving the scary and humbling experience it should be? Or maybe killing wasteland bandits just makes you yearn for the innocent days of beating a tunnel snake’s head in ’til the blood dries up. Either way, that first blurry glimpse of the world above wouldn’t be nearly as powerful if Fallout 3‘s opening vault weren’t such a well-developed community unto itself.

God of War III – The God of War series isn’t for everyone, but you just can’t argue with the epicness of its opening levels. The first game had the classic hydra battle. The second had the Colossus of Rhodes. And the third, well, that made a titan’s back into a level. Let me repeat: as the titan Gaia scales Mount Olypmus, you run around on her very earthly body slaying all sorts of baddies. Never before or since have I seen such an impressive use of scale in videogames.

The German dubbing makes it even more epic.

GoldenEye 007 – Is there anybody who owned this N64 classic that didn’t replay “The Dam” 50 times? I haven’t touched the campaign in over ten years and I could probably still give a respectable speed run. I still remember being in awe of enemies’ body animations when I shot individual limbs with that sniper rifle stowed away up in the watch tower. And when we consider that GoldenEye is generally considered to be the first console FPS worthy of the genre’s rich legacy, it makes that first experience all the more meaningful. And then there’s that whole part at the end of the level where you jump off a dam! What a way to end an all-time classic level.

Half-Life 2 – Maybe if I’d played the original Half-Life that intro would be taking this spot on the list, but I guess I just have a more personal attachment to Gordon’s G-Man infused train ride into City 17. As the player, you don’t do much more than walk through security checkpoints until you meet up with your rebellious group of pals and head to their secret hideout, but the faceless, baton-wielding soldiers of the Combine and their cackling radio chatter do wonders to characterize City 17′s oppressive atmosphere. Barney does a mighty fine impression of the oppressors to boot. All of these foreboding vibes make the eventual escape from City 17 all the more intense.

Mass Effect 2 – The first Mass Effect certainly deserves an honorable mention for Eden Prime, an action-packed level that manages to show you the ropes of gameplay while skillfully introducing the game’s primary villain and Shepard’s motivations all while maintaining a healthy degree of mystery. But Mass Effect 2 has got to go down as one of the very best openings ever. Feeling full of confidence after saving the galaxy in the first game, Shepard and his companions are attacked out of the black by an unidentified vessel that cuts through the Normandy like a knife through warm butter. The ship that you called your home in the first game is a flaming wreck as you race to the bridge to save your trusty pilot. Your utter helplessness really sets in as you cross a section where the ceiling has been ripped away, leaving only the unforgiving embrace of outer-space. When you finally do manage to save Joker, rather than making the narrow escape typical of this kind of scene, you’re blasted into space with the rest of the Normandy’s floating shards. The galaxy’s only hope is dead, and we don’t even know who killed him. Too bad Harbinger didn’t account for Cerberus’ zombification program.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Regardless of what you think of MGS2, it’s hard to argue with its opening being the best in the series. Stunning graphics (for the time) set against Harry Gregson-Williams’ masterful score mix with a dramatically rainy night on the George Washington Bridge to blow you away before you’ve even taken control. Once the obligatory Kojima cut-scenes end and you’re on the USS Discovery (as Snake!), you’re treated to some of the finest tactical espionage action to ever grace a video game. Then you get to fight Ocelot, whose right arm has been replaced with that of your twin brother Liquid Snake, resulting in Liquid’s personality dominating Ocelot and using his body as a host. Before you can even stop to ask what the hell is going on, the tanker sinks, you fake your death, and Snake Plissken is born. Metal Gear Solid doesn’t get much better than this tanker level.

Medal of Honor: Frontline – With the decline the franchise has seen this generation, it’s hard to believe that Medal of Honor once led the pack when it came to Military Shooters. But if you’ve ever started up Frontline and found yourself trapped in what may as well have been a floating meat locker on its way to the beaches of Normandy, then you’ll remember the bar this series set. Surrounded by gray skies, vomiting soldiers, and whizzing MG42 rounds, Frontline‘s opening level manages to evoke a fraction of the futility soldiers must have felt that fateful day. As soon as the gate crashes open you stumble past walking corpses and fall into the cold sea, bullets piercing the surface with no remorse. As you claw your way from tank-stopper to tank-stopper and watch medics gunned down in the line of duty, air planes screaming over dual lines of erupting sand, and brave men running directly into it all, you get a sense of just how terrifying battle is. What Saving Private Ryan was for war films is what Frontline was for war video games.

Resident Evil 4 – While Gears of War has set the standard for Third-Person Shooters today, we mustn’t forget that Epic’s ultra-violent Shooter wouldn’t be what it is without borrowing from RE4‘s revolutionary over-the-shoulder shooting mechanics. Booting up Capcom’s gorgeous Survival-Horror masterpiece for the first time, you could pop zombies’ heads off with precision never before seen. But this game’s zombies aren’t really zombies; infected by the uroboros virus, RE4‘s enemies are regular villagers tending to their labors when you arrive at their humble Eastern European village. However, they quickly turn less than friendly and give you an opportunity to shoot weapons out of their hands or serve up a fist full of dynamite from the local church tower. But you won’t feel quite so tough the first time you hear a chainsaw revving and realize that, “Holy crap, that dude is going to cut my friggin’ head off with a chainsaw if I don’t dive out of this window and kick some zombies’ heads off!”

Shadow of the Colossus – In a game where every fight is a boss fight, the first one better make an impression. Luckily, the first colossus of Team Ico’s masterpiece lives up to the title’s billing by being just about the largest thing gamers had ever fought up to that point. Seeing it lumbering about in the distance never fails to evoke a majestic admiration for the creature you’re about to kill. And what a kill it is! Scaling a colossus for the first time and delivering that fatal blow was unlike anything gamers had ever done up to that point. Likewise for the superb animations of Wander and his loyal steed. The best part is that all of this superlative gameplay is supplemented by a minimalist story that gives you just enough motivation to keep going forward without fully understanding the consequences of your actions. The first colossus of Shadow of the Colossus stuns and awes from a gameplay perspective, a narrative perspective, and a visual perspective. It is the introduction to one of gaming’s few artistic gems.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – By my own admission, The Force Unleashed is not a very good game. But it does have a few shining moments, and one of those is the opening level, which puts you in the space-boots of none other than Darth Vader. What better way to give you a taste of the power to come than by letting you play as one of the most feared force-wielders of all time? Never has Kashyykk seen such wanton destruction.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The introduction to Drake’s second adventure is probably the best example of a video game capturing the feel of a good Adventure film’s best butterfly-inducing set-pieces. A battered and bloody Drake climbs a train that’s teetering off the edge of a snowy cliff before flashing back to the start of the wild adventure that got him there. Seriously, just go play it!

And that’s my 15 greatest opening levels of all time. If I had to pick favorites they’d probably be MGS2, Resident Evil 4, GoldenEye, and BioShock in no particular order. I’d love to hear everybody else’s favorites, but I think I’m going to go throw myself into some of these games for the next week. You should too.

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Some might think I’m making this list because I’m depressed about not being able to cover E3 in person. That would make for a very appropriate top ten list with E3 kicking off this upcoming week, but anybody with half a brain should be terrified at the prospect of covering E3 in any capacity, let alone in person. No, this melancholy musing is the result of life just being lifey. As they say, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find a video game capable of occupying your thoughts until what you want changes.

Crackdown – Admittedly, Crackdown is not a very good game. But, hey, those collectable orbs are as addictive as crazy core skittles crack. And what separates Crackdown from other practices in arbitrary Easter egg hunting is that you’re literally leaping tall buildings in a single bound in order to get to those hypnotically glowing orbs. There’s something immensely satisfying to it that can’t be found in collection-fests like Mario. I can think of few scenes as capable of taking my mind off of serious life stuff than an endless horizon of sky-scrapers ornamented with tasty, delicious, endorphin-releasing collectables.

Dragon Age: Origins – So maybe you’ve managed to drive every relationship you have so far into the ground that you’d need an emotional backhoe to restore any sort of healthy interactions. But I hear those things cost an arm and a leg in the currency of pride and dignity, so why not just devote your conversational impulses to a fictional world!?! If you do decide to retreat to 60+ hours of fantasy world, you’d be hard pressed to find a more satisfying one than Dragon Age: Origins‘. It’s got so many believable problems of its own fueled by hate and despair that you’ll be able to relate pretty easily. But lucky for you, there’s a giant demon jerk-wad that everybody hates collectively, and you’re the only one who can kill it. So while the world may still have some problems at the end, pretty much everybody will love you. That’s all that matters, right? Well, that and sweet, sweet loot. Maybe you should just go looting in real life and fill the hole in your being with faithful ole material objects.

Grand Theft Auto game of your choice – I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt like any healthy human being gets cheered up by seeing 1.) violence, 2.) the misery of others. The more I think about it, maybe the Houser brothers are just very depressed people; I sure as hell don’t know any happy people who consider planting car-bombs in random vehicles and returning them to their original locations to be a pleasant way of passing the time. Anyways, if I had to pick one, I’d probably go with Vice City (even though III is the best), simply because the assault of down-right awful music would make me feel superior to an entire generation, and consequently, better about myself.

Cruisin'.

Halo game of your choice – Single-player, competitive multiplayer, co-op, Firefight, and Forge: take your pick. Every single Halo title, and every mode offered in each title, is a blast in its own way. I know a lot of people seem to hate this series for some reason, but this guy right here never gets tired of the immense enemy, level, weapon, and objective variety. But if I were playing out of a desire to escape the clutches of depression, I’d probably take my game to the competitive arena (2‘s the best for this, but Reach wins out because it still exists in an online space). There’s something terribly therapeutic about competition (at least when you’re good at the event of choice), and Halo‘s supreme balance, along with a mix of objective and deathmatch game types makes it my go-to outlet for primal, mindless aggression.

Mass Effect series – Touching back on the themes of escapism present in Dragon Age‘s reasoning, Mass Effect provides an even better alternative because of the over-arching scope of the series. Humans have always been obsessed with heroes because they metaphorically defeat life’s everyday problems and give us hope in return. Now I find it highly unlikely that anybody reading this will be coping with the weight of the universe’s impending doom any time soon, but those irrational things we call emotions can certainly make it feel that way sometimes. So single-handedly saving all sentient life can give us a nice sense of power, even if we know it’s not real. But what makes the Mass Effect series extra special is that like in Dragon Age, you’re helping your fictional friends resolve very real, human problems along the way to saving the galaxy. At their core, video games are about solving problems, and RPGs give us the dialogue side of that puzzle that we never see in other games. Maybe after helping hundreds of other people with their problems over two (soon to be three) games, you’ll feel in control enough to tackle your own. You might also wish you had Charm or Intimidate options that work 80% of the time in your real life conversations…

Red Dead Redemption – Quite simply, Rockstar created the most authentic world video games have ever seen with Red Dead Redemption. If you’re noticing a theme of exiting our own world for the promise of another in this list, then I think you might be onto something. But RDR‘s spot on this list is less about metaphorical worlds with metaphorical problems and more about appreciating the sheer beauty of this world. No matter how down you’re feeling, it’s hard not to find a sense of peace and tranquility under the starry skies and indomitable moon of the great American Southwest. People can complicate things, but when your only company is the howl of a distant coyote and the majestic shape of the red rocks canyoning around you, you have to admit that there’s something good and beautiful in this world worth living for. I’m still astounded that a video game can elicit such feelings.

Take it in, cowboy.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – There’s a reason I’ve sunk over 185 hours into one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Combining the worldly beauty of Red Dead Redemption and the soul-soothing role-play of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, Oblivion has truly got the whole package. It’s a world that you can get lost in for a very long time, whether that be as a member of the secretive Dark Brotherhood, stealing things for the Thieves Guild, or just wandering around a fantastical world that rewards exploration with natural wonders. If Skyrim turns out to be as good as it looks and builds on this masterpiece, then heroin and other hard drugs may very well have some euphoric competition come November.

The Sims – I considered putting Minecraft on here, because throwing yourself into a major project is really one of the best ways to combat depression, but then I remembered how crippling the blues can be. Crafting an entire world might be a bit much to ask the sullen mind, so I figured The Sims would provide enough structure to spur productive construction. Go ahead and build the fortress of solitude you’ve been dreaming of; you’ve got the time. I suppose that the actual gameplay elements might just depress you more if you manage to screw your sims’ relationships up just as badly as your own, but in that event you can always just lock everybody in the same room until they go crazy and start peeing on each other. I’m pretty sure there’s a rule that whenever urine is involved, depression immediately takes a back seat to other, more important feelings.

Tony Hawk game of your choice – Putting aside some of the funnest gameplay to ever grace video games, this is a franchise that you can always count on for some good laughs and music. Add in score-based gameplay that’s conducive to hours of repeated play and the bird man is sure to take your mind off of whatever’s got you down for a while. THPS 3 is probably the series’ peak, but you can’t dress up like Spider-Man and ollie over homeless people in it, so 2 wins out for me.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter – It’s got the hair-standing sound design of Resident Evil‘s best, but you’re fighting dinosaurs instead of zombies. Let me repeat that: you’re fighting dinosaurs. If there’s one thing that can get you out of the dumps, it’s the sheer terror of a raptor ambush followed by the exhilaration of knifing a dinosaur to death. Yup, you da man.

Yup.

And that’s that. I think I might go take my own advice and play some of these games, probably as a self-serving megalomaniac who doesn’t “do the right thing” or “make self-sacrifices for others.” That seems like a good way to cheer up. And as always, reader suggestions are welcome!

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So being that Morrigan was my favorite character in my favorite game of 2009, I was understandably excited when BioWare announced the “Witch Hunt” DLC and promised answers to some of the mystery surrounding the outspoken Witch of the Wilds. In fact, I was so excited that I went ahead and purchased my first piece of downloadable content ever…yeah. Unfortunately, the $7 I paid for this brief add-on would have been better spent on just about anything.

“Witch Hunt” starts off right in the thick of things with you and your war hound coming upon a feisty Dalish Elf who also happens to be looking for the elusive Morrigan. Five minutes later and you’re leaving Morrigan’s abandoned home for the Circle of Magi and some Elvish books that might help you find your former companion. Here you befriend yet another stock-character that hardly differentiates himself from any other sarcastically quipping ally in your travels. The worst part is that we’re stuck with these three undeveloped goons for the duration of “Witch Hunt.” Frankly I would have rather gone about it alone and reminisced over the interesting and faithful companions of Dragon Age: Origins‘ main game.

But if the characters are underdeveloped then the combat may as well be non-existent. True, there is plenty of fighting across a nice sampling of areas already seen in the main game, but it’s just so pathetically easy that it’s nothing more than a tedious block in the road. The only boss fight of the add-on is lackluster to say the least.

After roughly an hour and a half you and your companions will have tracked down Morrigan and you’ll finally get to have the conversation you’ve been waiting to have. I suppose I’ll mention that these next few lines are spoilers if you haven’t beaten the main game, but if you haven’t gotten that far then you probably shouldn’t be looking into this DLC to begin with. So yeah, what’s up with that god-child you and I conceived, Morrigan? How’s he doing? Learning his ABCs? Oh, he has a destiny, you say? Wait, that’s it? You’re really going to charge me $7 for a big Dragon Age II tease? I busted my butt tracking you down all over Ferelden for a five-minute conversation that reveals nothing I didn’t already know? I can’t even affect the story? Bogus.

In short, “Witch Hunt” has scared me away from DLC for a while. It just wasn’t good. Maybe if it were free then I could appreciate it as a vehicle of hype for Dragon Age II and say I had a fair amount of fun playing more Dragon Age for free. But as it is, with no interesting loot, no new locations, no challenge, and nothing remotely interesting in terms of plot, it’s a waste of money. But on the bright side it has a few chuckles packed in there!

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Finally, some DLC I care about. If you know me then you know that I am loath to waste $5-$10 on forgettable, meaningless, tacked-on content. But $7 to find out what really happened to one of the most interesting characters in my favorite game of 2009? Sign me up! The description on BioWare’s website gives a vague idea of what to expect:

The dreaded Archdemon has been slain and the advance of the darkspawn halted by a lone, heroic Grey Warden. The kingdom rejoices, but at least one question remains: what happened to Morrigan? The sorceress joined the Wardens cause, but it is said her true purpose was not revealed until the eve of the last battle. She vanished into the shadows, and while rumors claimed she crossed over the mountains into Orlais no trace of her path could be found. She was never heard from again… until now. Nearly a year has passed since the Archdemon’s death, and word has reached the Wardens that Morrigan has returned to Ferelden. She has been sighted in the southern wilderness where she was first encountered. Is it truly her? If it is, then why has is she here and what secret does she carry with her? The Warden heads into the forest to find out and tie up this last loose end once and for all.

Players will be able to import their Origins or Awakening characters for this final confrontation with the dark sorceress come September 7th on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. And while BioWare promised two years of DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, “Witch Hunt” is being billed as the “dramatic conclusion to the Origins storyline.” Pair that with the March release of Dragon Age II and I’d say BioWare should be a little more cautious about public commitments in the future. Still, I’m totally buying this.

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Hello, fans of Dragon Age. Finished with the Awakening expansion? Well, BioWare has been kind enough to prepare another piece of post-release content for you to consume. Titled “Leliana’s Song,” the latest DLC for the acclaimed RPG puts the player in the foxy shoes of Leliana, everybody’s favorite bard from Origins. We get to play through her mysterious past. Oooh. Look for “Leliana’s Song” on July 6th for the low, low price of $7 (560 MS Points).

And if bad games are more up your alley, then Alan Wake‘s freshly priced episodes might suit you. For the high, high price of $7, you’ll be able to play through roughly 90 minutes of “The Signal” sometime next month. If you bought the game new then you received a redemption code that will grant the DLC to you for free. But even with that code, you’ll still have to pony up the $7 for “The Writer” pack, which is set to come out sometime after “The Signal.”

And lastly, 1UP is reporting that the free “Outlaws to the End” co-op DLC for Red Dead Redemption will release this Tuesday. That should be fun. And if you just can’t wait ’til then, the Crackdown 2 demo is coming on Monday. But you’re probably crazy if you want to play that, considering how atrocious the first game was. There’s also a whole bunch of other arcade games and DLC packs detailed in the above link if you’re looking for something to tide you over in the lean months of summer.

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Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is an expansion for Dragon Age: Origins that is available through download or retail disc. Awakening requires an active Origins save file in order to play. If you’re interested in the Dragon Age franchise but haven’t played Origins, check out this review.

It wasn’t too long ago that when a developer put out post-release content for a game, it was more than an hour long DLC mission. Sadly, that’s what most post-release support has come to these days. But BioWare has done PC RPGs of yore justice with a proper expansion pack for my 2009 Game of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins, subtitled Awakening. This meaty add-on features a full-fledged story of its own and sucks you in just as much as its parent game with in-depth character building and more loot than you can shake an enchanted stick at. Unfortunately, it still suffers from some of the same problems as Origins and is missing some of the elements that made that game so memorable. Still, if you loved the main game then you’re sure to enjoy Awakening and it’s $40 price point.

One of the most disappointing aspects of Awakening is that it doesn’t feature the unique “Origin Stories” found in Origins. So instead of playing through an individual character prologue for a couple of hours, we’re thrown right into the thick of things with a counter-assault on Vigil’s Keep, the Grey Warden stronghold which has been overrun with Darkspawn. We are greeted as the new Commander of the Wardens, which is sort of annoying if you’re importing your character from the main game and nobody instantly recognizes you as the hero of Ferelden. And as a side note, it was simultaneously hilarious and frustrating that my Blood Dragon Armor DLC didn’t seem to register with Awakening, leaving my mighty warrior with nothing but his skivvies to do battle in until I found some suitable replacements. My point here is that it might be a better idea to just start the expansion as a new character with the Orlesian Grey Warden background, which was specifically crafted for Awakening.

Regardless of who you take into battle, you’ll soon find yourself commanding the depleted Grey Wardens in a desperate struggle against mysteriously intelligent Darkspawn who are rather fond of the English language. You’ll quickly gather a few allies and a cart-load of side-quests to go along with the main narrative’s leads. One of those allies returns from Origins‘ adventure and gives a nice sense of comfort in a foreign land, even if he is a bumbling drunk. The other allies, while new, are liable to bring back memories of old friends. Awakening makes it readily apparent that BioWare recycles the same dozen or so archetypes, which leads to these comrades being a little less memorable than the rag-tag crew of Origins. There definitely are a couple interesting and unique party members this time around, but it’s no coincidence that I was glad to see the very few (read: not enough) cameos from the main game.

Oh, Oghren, you so crazy!

Another familiar sight from Origins are the dated graphics. Awakening is running on the same engine as the main game, so the visuals are pretty much the same on a technical level. What that means is that this expansion looks and runs smooth enough, but that you’ll never be left in awe of the world around you. Where Awakening does make some visual advances is in the art department. Environments in this game seem much more varied and detailed than in its predecessor, and they really add to the atmosphere of the ominous story. The sinister art direction also applies to the few new enemies in the game, as well as more unique and visually appealing armaments. Awakening‘s visuals certainly aren’t on par with BioWare’s other recent RPG, Mass Effect 2, but the improved artistic design and increased environmental/character variety makes them more intriguing than Origins‘.

The auditory aspect of Awakening is just as great as it was in Origins, and following suit with the visuals, there are some minor but noticeable improvements. All NPCs are still fully voiced with an acceptable level of believability, your questing companions still steal the show with their witty background banter, and your character is still communicating through some telepathic means and a few grunts. What makes everything better this time around is that the lip-syncing is always right and there are no immersion-breaking glitches that have characters moving their mouths without any words coming out. The battle cries and ferocious clangs of combat are still just as intense and the score complements the action just as splendidly as before. Awakening is a pleasure to listen to.

Gameplay is where this game ultimately suffers, simply because it has less of what made Origins so great and fails to fix the many issues that plagued our first adventure. The ridiculously unintuitive menus and combat interface of Origins are only strained more by the addition of new spells, talents, and skills. One thing I’ll give the radial menus of the main game is that they managed to fit just enough hot keys in there to cover all of your most useful combat actions. In Awakening, the user interface is overloaded with useful attacks and talents, meaning that one has to pause the action and navigate through up to three tiers of radial combat menus to utilize a character to his full potential. Granted, you’ll quickly get used to this (especially if you’re already used to the poor interface of the main game) and battle will be a breeze, but menu navigation completely kills the visceral nature that all hostile encounters should strive for.

Yet another unwelcome recurrence is how unexplained and hidden useful crafting skills are. Where as the herbalism, poison-making, and trap-making of Origins were all moderately cool features that had no significant impact on gameplay, the new rune crafting skill in Awakening is extremely beneficial once you figure out how to utilize it. As with the other skills, it is hidden in the radial menus of combat, but this one is even more complicated because you need to find or buy rune tracings before you can even attempt to create the magical stones. You then need to purchase the crafting materials and go through a tedious process of creating enough low-level runes to combine into medium-level runes to then combine into high-level runes and so on. None of this is ever clearly explained either. But once you do figure the feature out you can make some really helpful enchantments for your weapons and armor. And if you’re anything like me then you love to see your stats boosting before your eyes.

You'll probably want to craft some runes to help against this thing.

Hey, speaking of stat boosting, that reminds me of a really innovative and engrossing quest from Awakening that sends your party to a fantastical dream realm that’s littered with permanent attribute upgrades for your character…oh, wait, that was actually from Origins, the expansion just rips it off. But all sarcasm aside, Awakening truly does suffer from unoriginal and uninspired mission-design. Most of the side-quests are forgettable collection quests and the main quests’ high-lights typically feel lifted from the parent game. There are certainly a few tasks that stand out (a devilishly punishing puzzle comes to mind), but most of them just lack the daring ingenuity of those in Origins. And it doesn’t help that Awakening completely side-steps the socially-conscious narratives of its predecessor, instead opting for purely entertainment-driven fantasy.

All of those complaints are secondary to the game’s difficulty, though. Where as Origins straddled the fine line between satisfying challenge and frustrating waste of time, Awakening tones things down to the point where I never had to fear death. In over 20 hours of gameplay I only succumbed to my foes twice, and some simple equipment optimization remedied both trials. In fact, the game is so easy that I never bothered to adjust my party’s tactics which saved me the hassle of navigating those horrendous menus but was extremely disappointing at the same time. Awakening‘s balance of rewards and struggles is way too slanted for my tastes.

Still, fans of Dragon Age are most likely invested in this franchise for the rich universe and exciting tales of might and magic. Awakening‘s story isn’t as epic and apocalyptic as Origins‘, but it makes up for it with foreboding mystery and dark atmosphere. It’s a tale that will keep you coming back for more until it ends all too soon. The shorter length of Awakening‘s campaign provides less time for character development and you’ll likely feel less attached to these allies than those of your Blight fighting days, but it’s still an intriguing narrative worth playing through. The only bad part is the abrupt ending, which cheats the player out of proper resolution for every character. Of course, the text summaries seen at the end of the main game return here and clear up everybody’s fate, but I felt like I was robbed of an epic battle and emotional reunion. I was also extremely upset that the game implied I could double cross my temporary ally down the road, only to end things after we defeated our mutual enemy together. I definitely expected the story to keep going when the end rolled around, but I suppose the climax was satisfactory.

The roughly 20 hours netted by your $40 are a pretty good value when you consider some people pay $60 for 7 hour campaigns, but there’s no question that this expansion doesn’t give as much bang for the buck as Origins. The lack of “Origin Stories” makes replaying the campaign much less appealing and there is much less player-choice to significantly affect the narrative’s direction in this game. Add that with the fact that Awakening is only about a third the size of its parent game and you might feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick. But we have to remember that Origins was a rare value and that all things considered, this expansion is probably worth the money.

This guy would have you believe his game is worth $40.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is a pretty darn good expansion when all is said and done. It’s easy to get lost in the game world for hours on end and there’s so much unique booty to be had that I didn’t even mind spending a half-hour outfitting my party in inventory menus every play-session. It’s just as funny as the game it supplements and is even more immersiive after undergoing minor technical improvements. It’s just too bad that we still have to tolerate such a perilous interface when we aren’t even rewarded with socially relevant scenarios and lovable characters this time. But still, if you loved Origins, then it’s a safe bet that you’ll enjoy Awakening too.

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Playing as the Darkspawn actually sounds like a pretty cool idea, and at $5, it doesn’t really seem like a bad value. Of course, I still need to beat the Awakening expansion, but, you know…I should really go play that right now. Regardless, the new “Darkspawn Chronicles” DLC is coming to the 360 and PC May 18th, with no PS3 release date confirmed as of yet.

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With titles like Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect, a certain degree of quality has come to be expected of BioWare games. Dragon Age: Origins is the latest RPG to follow the formula of morally-conscious, character-driven epics, and for the most part, it does the BioWare pedigree justice. While the game doesn’t really push any mechanical boundaries and needlessly suffers from poor interface design and technical issues, the engrossing world of Ferelden is full of strikingly relevant scenarios and a bevy of characters you’ll come to love. It all adds up to a memorable role-playing experience that leaves you wanting more.

The way your journey begins is actually a first for video games, as far as I know. Depending on the race, class, and social standing you select while building your character, the first few hours of your story will play out in six very different ways. These unique intros are called “Origin Stories” and have a very profound effect on how you’ll perceive the world around you and the actions you’ll be inclined to take later on in the game. In the case of my exiled Dwarven Noble, my return to Orzammar (the underground Dwarven Kingdom) saw me hell-bent on sabotaging a particular royal heir in favor of a candidate outside the royal family. I wondered to myself why anyone would support the proper heir in his bid for the throne before realizing that this story was only personal to me. Had I been some foreign Mage traveling to Orzammar, I might have supported the blood-heir gladly. It’s also interesting to play through multiple Origin Stories and see how seemingly irrelevant characters in one origin play major roles in another.

Regardless of your character’s beginnings, you’ll be swept into a monumental battle against the evil Darkspawn soon enough. It is here that your character is inducted into the fabled Grey Wardens, nationless men and women from every caste who swear to defend the land from Darkspawn at all costs. One terrible defeat later, and your perilous quest to gather ancient allies and unite Ferelden against an unstoppable force is set into motion. If this story sounds very Lord of the Rings so far, that’s because it is. But that grandiose scale is a good thing that gives your objectives a sense of importance.

What’s not a good thing however, are the rather un-Lord of the Rings-ish production values. Where as Peter Jackson’s motion-picture classics built a believable and entertaining world through visually stunning sets and costumes, Dragon Age suffers from undeniably bland art-direction and graphics. RPGs of the past couple years look noticeably better and run smoother as well. Nor do they endure the excessive loading times of BioWare’s latest. Character models and animations are a stark step back from Mass Effect, and while the core-quests feature a nice variety of environments at first glance, extended time in any one place reveals far too much repeated geometry and identical character models.

I've seen prettier dwarves.

Another aspect of Mass Effect that out-shines its newest BioWare sibling is the inclusion of a fully-voiced protagonist. Shephard’s voice gives him a real personality that’s contributed to his iconic status, while your Grey Warden in Dragon Age feels stuck in the last generation. It’s a minor inconvenience that is soon forgotten, but one that’s quite jarring at first and probably robs the game of an extra layer of immersion.

Otherwise, the voice acting is generally good, if not great. Most NPCs read their lines adequately and your recruitable party-members tend to speak with an endearing conviction that actually makes you consider their feelings. And it certainly helps that the writing is so routinely funny and touching with the exception of some occasional artificiality. My only gripes with the voice acting (besides the lack of a fully-voiced protagonist) are some infrequent, yet really annoying glitches. It just breaks the immersion when you’re in the middle of a major plot-conversation and the person you’re talking to starts moving their lips with no words coming out. It happened to me a few times, so I’d suggest playing with sub-titles on. There are some minor lip-synching issues as well.

As for the rest of the audio design, the clash of steel on steel sounds just as it should, magical effects have an appropriately booming quality to them, and the sound of tearing flesh that proceeds gory spurts of blood is immensely satisfying. The score enhances the action just as well, with symphonies that always seem to fit the situation. The audio in this game easily defeats the feeble and out-dated visuals, like a mighty warrior beheading an ancient dragon.

When it comes to the gameplay in Dragon Age, things are a bit uneven. On the one hand, a constant flow of useful loot makes exploring every inch of an area and slaying every last foe irresistible. The variety of enemies is nearly as vast as the number of ways you can outfit and upgrade your party, and the bosses can be punishingly difficult, but always manageable and extremely rewarding given you properly adjust your tactics. Plus, a wagon-load of different side-quests ensures that you’ll always have something to do and that you’re always progressing.

You will be happy to defeat this boss.

But the actual combat feels like it was ripped straight out of D&D with no real regard for the strengths and weaknesses of the video game medium. Perhaps the grander control-scheme offered by the PC negates some of my issues with this, but on the Xbox 360, I couldn’t help but think how sloppy fighting feels in comparison to recent RPGs like Fable II. I suppose the game’s multi-tiered radial menus do as good a job as they can in managing a character’s skills, talents, and special abilities, but it really just feels like too much is going on at once. You’ll undoubtedly get used to the complex system after a while, but it just isn’t intuitive.

What’s even less intuitive is trying to manage your comrades in combat. Forget about real-time coordination like in Mass Effect because that would require constantly taking control of individual party members, issuing commands through a series of radial menus (assuming you’ve memorized all their talents etc), and trying to maintain a coherent picture of the battlefield as you juggle four different characters, all the while leaving your personal character at the mercy of the AI. Instead, Dragon Age offers a special “Tactics” section for each party member that you can calibrate before battles. This section gives each character a specific number of action slots depending on their stats where you can essentially program what you want said character to do in a given situation. And when I say program, I mean it. It’s pretty much all “If/And” statements. I thought I was supposed to be playing the game.

What’s worse is that the menus involved with the tactics menu are bad. Unless you’ve memorized all of your party members dozens of abilities, you’re forced to constantly switch between different tabs in search of information before you finalize your tactics. There are a few pre-set tactics options, but they don’t seem to adapt to the greater abilities a character gains through leveling up, leaving custom tactics as your only option if you wish to utilize a character’s full potential. Confused yet?

Sometimes I just wish a dragon would destroy all these menus.

Yet another interface faux pas is the inexplicable nature of skill use. For example, I couldn’t figure out how to use my herbalism skill until many, many hours had passed. Instead of allowing me to simply access the potion creating menu by selecting the herbs in my inventory, the game hides the skill in one of the character’s combat radial menus. Considering my main character didn’t possess the skill and I was trying to use a party member for the potion mixing, it was some time before I discovered this secret. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so lost had I read the dozens of tutorial codexes hidden in yet another menu, but I’m just crazy enough to assume that a game should convey any important information through in-game tutorials rather than digital pamphlets.

Luckily, all of these interface issues are things that you get used to. Once you’ve devised your own little ritual for properly outfitting your party members in the best equipment and organizing their tactics in a helpful manner, you’ll finally be able to appreciate the superb mission-design. The side-quests aren’t quite as deep as the main ones, but they’re certainly fun to pursue and have some interesting fiction behind them if you’re willing to read. What really shines are the core-quests though. Not only do the narratives deftly deal with relevant social issues like religion, racism, slavery, politics, and so on, the actual objective structure comes together to make for some truly memorable journeys. One quest in particular, through a masterful mix of dialogue, puzzles, combat, and the most beautiful stream of permanent attribute upgrades you’ve ever seen, stands out as a stroke of true genius. The final quest is almost as innovative and even more intense.

Now even though I’ve thoroughly bashed a lot of Dragon Age‘s core gameplay, and rightfully so, I can’t tell you how much fun I had with this game. The fun comes from the deep and mature world BioWare has created, with an epic story full of despisable villains, scandalous plot-twists, and a totally satisfying conclusion. Most importantly, your actions throughout the game radically affect the conclusion’s outcome and make your story feel unique. The characters you encounter along the way are interesting and multi-dimensional people who make something as under-appreciated as background party-chatter a joy to listen to. The petty and judgmental morality meter found in so many other WRPGs is replaced by a system of individual party-member approval that makes actual role-playing a much more realistic possibility for those of us who are swayed by meter-specific achievements or powers. Overall, the story, characters, and world BioWare has created in this game are so deep that the mechanical short-comings are easy to over-look.

"Hey, guys! Have I told you lately that I care about you?"

The total package is a very lengthy one that stays fun throughout, making it worth every penny you paid (although the $40 I got it for made it extra sweet). I sought out as many side-quests as I could and ended with around 65 hours of play-time, so I’d estimate that the main story-line alone probably clocks in around 25-30 hours. And that’s only one play-through. The six different origin stories make this a game with a ton of value that you won’t regret buying. That’s not to mention what looks to be a steady flow of DLC that will hopefully answer some of the questions left by an ending that wraps things up in the perfect way, by resolving enough disputes to feel satisfying while leaving enough loose-ends to make you want more.

Dragon Age: Origins is an incredibly deep game that’s fun to play because of its fantastic sense of progression and a memorable story inhabited by charismatic characters. The moral situations are still a little too black and white to constitute an evolution of story-telling in video games, and BioWare still insists on including poorly executed romances, but the whole of the experience is simply engrossing. If you can look past some technical short-comings and out-of-date combat mechanics, you’ll be treated to a deep and engaging RPG that encourages real role-playing and introduces a great new concept with “Origin Stories.”

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It’s official. Dragon Age: Origins will be receiving a full-blown expansion titled Dragon Age: Awakening come March 16th. And as the rumors indicated, it will retail for $40 (possibly $30 on the PC) and require Origins to play. The expansion will be available in both packaged and digital forms.

Awakening‘s all-new storyline deals with the rebuilding of the Grey Wardens after the events of Origins. It also delves deeper into the backstory of the Darkspawn and their new, Arch-Demonless goals. Players will have the option to import their original characters or start over as an all-new new Grey Warden from the land of sweet perfumes, Orlais. The plot takes place in the all-new realm of Amaranthine.

In terms of game-play, the add-on will raise the level cap and add new enemies, such as the Inferno Golem, Spectral Dragon, and a hyper-intelligent sub-race of Darkspawn. It will also add new spells, abilities, and five all-new, recruitable party members.

Personally, I’m very happy to see the stories started in Origins continuing so soon. Hopefully this expansion will help to tie up some of the loose ends still lingering after the events of the main game (like Morrigan, for instance).

But there’s too much happiness going around right now, so I need to throw a little disappointment into this post to balance things out. BioWare pulled the “Return to Ostagar” DLC at the last second last night without giving a reason for the delay. Guess you’ll just have to wait a bit longer to scavenge the battlefield for fallen comrades’ loot.

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I’ll most likely be putting up my Dragon Age review sometime tomorrow, so until then, enjoy State Radio performing “Indian Moon.”

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