Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition

Dragon Age Origins is a good, albeit very flawed game. The FIRST thing you should know is how to run this game on modern hardware, since it likes to crash all the time. This is because the game's launcher can't use more than 2GB of RAM. However, the fix is INCREDIBLY simple. All you need to do is follow this guide and replace the default EXE with one that can utilize 4GB of RAM. It takes like 5 seconds to do and that'll fix the problem.

As for the game itself, let's start with the good. The writing is fantastic, as one would expect of 2000s Bioware. They really didn't pull any punches and things can get pretty dark (not in the tryhard edgy way). The companions are great, and hearing the banter between them is hilarious. I never get tired of listening to Alistair and Morrigan bully each other. The most unique thing about this game though is how it handles the different races. You only have three to choose from: human, elf and dwarf. If this were any other fantasy game, the only difference between the races would be stat differences. But in Origins, you actually get six different opening chapters depending on what you pick. A dwarf noble is going to have a completely different experience than a city elf. It doesn't make a HUGE difference on the broader story, but it helps flesh out the world and encourages multiple playthroughs.

Now onto the not so good...which is most of the gameplay. This game looks like a third person action RPG, but it plays like a traditional real-time-with-pause CRPG. In an attempt to alleviate the constant need to pause and micromanage, Origins implemented a system called Combat Tactics. These are essentially scripts that let you dictate your party members' AI. If your party member is below 50% health, make them use a health potion on themselves. If an enemy has strong armor, make them use an ability that breaks through that armor. This sounds great on paper, but there are two problems. Characters only have a limited amount of tactics slots (I think 10 is the max), so between consumable items and abilities you don't have much to work with. The other problem is that you actually need to spend skills to increase the amount of slots, which can take away from other things. Mages don't really benefit from the Cunning stat, but you'll still need to invest 16 points into Cunning if you want them to get all the slots. Final Fantasy XII greatly improved on this idea with the Gambit system.

The other problem with the gameplay is just good ol' fashioned jank. If you're walking up stairs, you WILL get stuck on the stair at the very top. This happens almost every single time. The AI, both friend and foe, can have real bad pathfinding. In fights where groups get clustered together, it's common to see an enemy jiggling in place as it tries to run past other enemies to get to you. This also happens to your allies, where they'll get stuck on someone and can't execute their attack. The absolute WORST instance of this was a "boss fight" down in an abandoned dwarven city. You're forced to fight in a small arena, and there's this giant statue thing in the middle of it. Your companions will target enemies, and then run face first into the statue and wiggle in place. Throughout the entire fight I was constantly having to switch to different party members and MANUALLY MOVE THEM around the statue, otherwise they'd be stuck in place and die. But even without those issues, the friendly AI isn't very smart. Your allies will have a lot more abilities than there are tactics slots, and the abilities that aren't assigned will go unused. They simply default to regular attacks. So you're going to be doing a lot of micromanaging whether you like it or not.

I really like this game...but to be perfectly honest, it hasn't aged very well. It's frustrating, clunky and janky. The writing is really the only thing that saves this game and makes it worth playing.

For a game that came out in 2009 this game easily holds up to this day. Despite the issues that need to be fixed before booting up the game and mods that is needed to be installed so the game doesn't crash this game is a masterpiece. Sucked in every second, felt that I needed to help all my companions and each choice I made had a big impact. The world and atmosphere will suck you in within the first hour of gameplay. 10/10

I can't recommend this game on the basis that it's unplayable. I've tried multiple fixes and every time it crashes while loading or shortly after. I'm surprised EA is just letting it die.

A legendary dark fantasy story with interesting companions and excellent world building.

Would be nice if it worked. Takes a TON of effort to get it to run at all, and even then it crashes constantly. TBH, it should be removed from the steam store.

game constantly crashes. you'll get stuck and frozen mid cut scenes, during fights the game will completely close out on you.

EDIT: 6 hours more into the game and i have found yet more game breaking bugs not fixed after countless years of being released.

setting my graphics on medium stopped a majority of the crashes. there is a glitch where NPC's get stuck and won't continue the quest story line. you have to forcefully move them with friendly fire ( if you have an ability that offers knockback) or change your resolution, reenter cut scene, and hope that fixes the bug. its worked twice for me now so far.

Loved the game when I played it on the Xbox 360 six years back, and wanted to buy it here to play through the DLCs I missed out on the first go around.
I'll open it up and play it for a few minutes, but every time it hits a loading screen it closes out and I have to restart. It'll get me through the loading screen it crashed on and just crash on the next one.

The game is also unable to register some inputs like the mouse wheel to scroll in and out, so when I can actually got through character creation and the first bits of dialogue I can't move past the first tutorial prompt. I look up the issue, get recommended to rebind the input, go into my settings to change it, and guess what? It crashes again.

My PC isn't the best but it should be more than enough to handle a game from fifteen years ago, as well as support controllers if the mouse wheel won't work.

Great game, but the Steam version is buggy trash. When I tried to play it would bring up the launcher, but then would crash when I tried to start the game. I tried a bunch of solutions from the forums, but none of them worked. I still couldn't get the game to start. I am running Windows 10, so maybe people with an older OS will have more luck.

I uninstalled the Steam version and tried getting it on the EA app. The game started immediately with no issues. No need to adjust anything. I can't speak for the GOG version, but the EA version seems significantly more stable than the Steam version. Do buy this game, but not on Steam.

A very fun game. Story, gameplay, and characters are excellent. Unfortunately you do have to mod it a little to have it work properly but the process isn't very hard.

If I could rate this game I would rate it 3/5 stars. Which has nothing to do with the game itself or the story but simply because the game is basically unplayable unless you go about patching it.
If you choose to purchase DAO I can't recommend enough installing:
-The 4 GB Patch (Found on https://ntcore.com/4gb-patch/)
-QUADO Fixpack (Found on Nexus)
It's very important you read the instructions in order to install properly, otherwise you will need to verify the integrity of the game files and you'll have to start the patching over.

I also highly recommend you set your graphics/texture settings to medium. It makes the game look pretty ugly and dated (not that it wasn't before) but if you treat is as a nostalgia trip is easy to ignore.

Dragon Age: Origins isn't a pretty game, it's poorly optimized for PC, and it doesn't hold up well to other games from its time but it's still an excellent game. I find the story interesting, especially the different paths you take depending on your race and upbringing. It makes the overall RPG experience that much more immersive and really allows you to get into the head of your character. The game play is nothing crazy, but it's still challenging even on the lowest difficulty. It's very much a game where choices matter as this can have an overall affect on the plot and on your chosen party and your relationships with your party members.

I can't recommend this game enough if you're willing to take the time to patch it.

So good very impressive for a 2009 game. Be warned the Port is very rough and may need some google searches to fix problems and may still crash every now and then. I was able to get the game in a stable condition and am enjoying it.

A classic all should play if you like RPGs. Be sure to look for the Memory Fix in the guides as it is very helpful. The writing, and companions really make this game and I would advise people play on higher difficulty to play with the use of poisons, potions, and traps.

Great game! It's sad none of the other titles in the series play like this one... Welp! Good to know my head cannon won't let me go past this first game, so I'm good.

Absolute classic. Unparalleled story-telling. Games like this one and Witcher 1 shows how good some of our childhood classics are. We had great taste oldies.

This is about the technical issues only, not about the game content or the story.

I'm sure this is a great game and I would really like to play it and get to know the series as Veilguard drops soon and I wanna dive into the lore but in 2024 it's simply unplayable.

First, the game just refused to even launch, crashing all the time at the point of clicking "Play" in the menu and kept redirecting me to a dead website for "DLC activation".

I managed to launch the game after some manipulation with game files but it's still working very poorly.
Textures are messed up (and I've set the graphic settings to a minimum) and the game keeps crashing in the most random moments.

I'm extremely patient but it managed to drive me insane.

Very disappointed.

Only works with the fixes listed in the discussions/guides. Worth taking some time to add mods for improved visuals and gameplay. Took me a day of tracking down and getting all of the fixes and mods in place, but I'm enjoying the storytelling (and Alistair) just as much as when it came out. Not enjoying the casual misogyny but it hasn't driven me crazy yet. Neutral Female Armor and Practical Morrigan Robes are really must-haves to get through it.

Holds up wonderfully in 2024. I've only ever played inquisition but got this and DAII as part of a bundle. At the beginning I was having some crashing issues but after a quick youtube search I found a patch fix and now it works wonderfully. I am playing it on a 49inch widescreen monitor and it does have supporting resolution, looks beautiful. The characters and story has soul, a lost art in today's gaming landscape!

Just download the patch and it will run smooth as silk. The game is still a timeless classic, modern hardware just needs a helping hand. I love this game, play it or don't, the only person you are robbing of joy is yourself.

If you can look past the jankiness, bugs and performance issues on modern day hardware - you'll find the pinnacle of western RPG's. Fantastic storytelling, an amazing world to immerse yourself in, endless replay-ability and choices that not only matter but carry over to future titles. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

where you slay Darkspawn, save the world, and most importantly, try to charm Leliana, the rogue bard with a mysterious past and killer fashion sense. Forget the Archdemon—your real mission is winning her heart, which involves offering her random flowers and listening to stories about shoes. It’s an epic tale of battles, awkward flirting, and hoping the Maker helps you not embarrass yourself.

10/10 would try (and fail) to impress Leliana again.

Good game but unable to play on windows 11 due to EA being a shitty company.

Good story line, good combat, tons of side story as well. Gore is present making it part of the fun as you run around blood soaked from your glorious battles.

This game is a classic. Takes a bit of fixing with modern computers before you can play, but the story is beyond any of the Dragon Age games that came after it.

The core gameplay was a bit overwhelming at first, but it gradually pulled me in with its complex mechanics and strategic combat. However, it can become a little repetitive and less engaging after a while. [8/10]

Story [8/10] - As a Dalish rogue, I was deeply immersed in the story right from the start. The game offers an amazing narrative that varies depending on your starting character, making your journey feel unique. Each decision has a meaningful impact, and the branching paths make the story highly replayable. It’s one of those rare RPGs where your choices truly matter, and the rich lore of Thedas adds layers of depth to every conversation and quest.

Art [6/10] - Visually, the game shows its age. The character models and environments are not as detailed or polished as newer titles, but the distinct fantasy aesthetic and strong world-building compensate for it. Mods can significantly improve the textures and character designs, making the experience much more enjoyable for modern players.

Characters [9/10] - I personally think that the game shines in character development and interactions. Each companion has a unique backstory, personality, and quest line that make them feel real and relatable. The complex relationships and potential romances, along with the moral dilemmas they present, add a personal touch to the story. I found myself genuinely invested in my companions’ fates and motivations.

Sound [7/10] - The sound design is solid but not outstanding. The background music fits the dark fantasy atmosphere perfectly, and the voice acting is exceptional, especially considering the scope of dialogue in the game. However, some sound effects, like the repetitive combat grunts, can become a bit annoying over time.

Enjoyment [9/10] - This is a game you can easily get lost in. The land of Ferelden is full of quests, lore, and characters that are hard to forget. The satisfaction of building my own character and party tailored to my own playstyle, along with the freedom to shape the story through my choices, makes this an extremely enjoyable experience.

This is still one of the best games out there and though the graphics are a bit dated they look good on a modern computer with the highest graphic settings. Here is hundreds of hours of exploration, tactical combat and romance at a budget price!

I waited years to play this for the first time, and I am glad i finally have! If you can get past the crashes, one of the best games I've every played!

~may 2024 i picked this up for the first time, obviously it has taken me a few months of occasional play to warm up to it, but now i am a full blown addict. gameplay is difficult to get used to after playing exclusively modern games for years, but Magpie Corvidae's videos on yt helped me a lot.

10/10 in terms of everything but combat; warrior feels stale and mage feels boring-OP, so i find that dual wield rogue is the most interactive and satisfying way to play by a landslide (plus lots of handy skills on the side like lockpicking and coercion). story and characters are great! i will be playing from multiple origins and rping characters from all walks.

PS the Fade can be fun if you follow a walkthrough lmfao

does not run when you click play nor when you try to configure the graphics stuff. it just crashes every time.

Once you get the controls all situated on Steam Deck, it's amazing being able to play this masterpiece on the go. Absolutely amazing game, got me back into gaming, 10000/10 RPG experience even with the slight BioWare optimization jank. Definitely look up guides on what to do to minimize crashes, btw.

I loved this game so much. It seriously was the only game I played for 5 years during a very lonely time in my life. It makes me sad that the game is in such a state I cannot even play it on my pc. Constantly crashes, says there is no video card when there clearly is.

Positives:
- Great story and characters
- Plenty of meaningful choice
- Although dated and a bit simple, combat feels fun and has some interesting tactical elements to it
- Fun zones and quests
- Lots of replayability due to branching story choices and various character origins

Negatives:
- Game will crash often in Denerim
- Most DLCs add a laughably low amount of content
- Some areas feel too small and lack interesting side quests
- Balance is not that great, with even some completely useless specs like the archer/arcane warrior/shapeshifter

Great game that is unplayable due to continual crashing. When it isn't crashing, it says it can't find the graphics card.

Any game that crashes upon launch is not recommended. Steam needs to stop selling games that require third-party fixes to run properly.

I still had a great amusement playing this game. The world & the story, overall it's delightful. Yes it is an old game which will have some aspects that is kinda pale in comparison with today's games. However, I realize that when this game came out (2009), it surely was significantly ahead of its time.

It is year 2024 and I play this game for the 1st time.
In my opinion it is the best RPG i've played before.
Story is very captivating.
Conversations with NPC are way better than in Witcher/Skyrim/Fallout.
Team fights are interesting and require strategic and tactical thinking.
Your choices matter, and it's often a hard choice:
will you save an innocent child and loose a chance to get a great deal of money?
pick a team member that you will keep:
a dog that saved your life many times but won't help you much in future because it doesn't level that good?
a good looking, bitchy, young mage girl which has rather useless set of skills for the start?
an old ugly witch that good skillset but to whom you can not trust?

Minor things:
No boring endless cave/corridor walking, you are never bored.
Graphics is good and visual effects are fun.
Music is also good.

A classic, that is incredible to play now as it was years ago, drenched in nostalgia. Sets up a very immersive world and lore, the race/class origins are still not beaten to this day in length and detail.

Needs a couple of mods to work well on modern systems and to be a little more comfortable to play. I used:

- No helmet hack
- Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack
- 4GB LAA Patch
- Qunari DA2 design

Don't let my 48 minutes fool you (I'm trying to learn how to mod it, you don't need to to enjoy it though) I have countless hours in this game back in my xbox days it is great. The story, characters, atmosphere, world are just perfect.
10/10 a BioWare classic

get to the point where i gotta load into the dead trenchs and poof crashes everytime i boot it up

To play this game or make it work you have to mod it or at least turn down the graphics setting to medium with a newer system it still runs on old software otherwise you will crash the game all the time

Probably the best single player RPG ever, has tons of bugs and doesn't hold up to today's standards when it comes to performance but I'm sure u can mod it to make it better and then it becomes a better optimized game than any AAA games released since 2015 (except DOOM Eternal).

I fantastic game that has been lost to time.

I managed to play this game for about 4 hours, and I spent about that much time trying to resolve issues with the game to make it work, and at this point, my machine can no longer play the game.

First, to play the game even when it is working, you're going to have to jump through a few hoops. you HAVE to configure this game before you play it. Luckily, the built in configuration tool makes this pretty painless. I suggest running the game with medium or lower graphics options, run it in windowed mode, and disable all the network stuff.
If you run the game in full screen, you're likely to be unable to read your dialogue options, which really sucks in a choice heavy game.
If you run with better than medium graphics, you're likely to encounter a lot of random crashes because apparently these advanced graphical options were added on later and not optimized.

Helpfully, the community has several guides you can follow to trouble shoot and hopefully solve your issues.

For me, it took me about 30 minutes to figure out why I couldn't read any dialogue. Then, I finally got the game running, and it started crashing every 10 to 15 minutes I played. I tried several different solutions to this, but nothing helped. I gave up and continued playing until I lost about a half hour of progress and decided to really fix the game.

I followed a very robust community guide as well as installed the recommended mod for fixing a lot of the games bugs. However, after doing this, suddenly the game wouldn't start.

So, over the course of several hours, I uninstalled and reinstalled the whole game twice, I reset all the game settings to default, I removed several installations of other programs, I restarted my computer, I attempted to install the game on a whole different drive, and I did several other things and the game will no longer run on my machine.

I've never had this much trouble trying to play a game, and I got Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City running on this thing.

I really would have liked to continue my journey through this game. It's obviously worth playing, even in 2024. But, with all the massive issues the game has, and the fact that I can't even run it anymore, I cannot recommend this game.

If you want to play it, I highly recommend playing it on console, as it runs well enough there.
Edit: I purchased the game through GOG and it runs just fine, so it really is the steam version that is completely borked

Don't look at my play time as this is probably my 4th time replaying this game and the third time I'm buying the game so I could replay the Ultimate Edition on Steam. With out a doubt the best game in the series (Inquisition is also great but felt quite different with regards to gameplay for me). This game is a must for the story and the characters. I'm a bit of a sucker for the goofiness of Alistair but he grows on you and wears you down with humour. Unfortunately the steam version had some major memory leak issues and caused crashing of my game and my PC around the point of approaching the large bridge in the beginning of the game. There is a fix and I have made a video to help anybody who may struggle with this same issue:
https://youtu.be/3m2cOx-r6f8?si=pLe6tJwiS0FxnsAx

First off-- I love this game. I love the world that is created and introduced. I'm one of those weirdos who likes to read papers and poke my nose into everything. This game has some issues though and not just content wise. For example the steam version is VERY unstable. I found that keeping my settings at a Medium helped avoid the majority of crashes. There are also some very nice and helpful folks with other solutions that help as well. I don't think that one should have to perform such solutions though. Particularly not on an older game. (Also why is the file size so big???? Inquisition- a much newer bulkier game is 39Gb and this is nearly the same size! I'm certain something is wrong here but to heck if I know what)

Now that my whining about the program/background issues is done on to a review of the game itself. (I know my time played is a bit low-- most of my old saves are on my Xbox.)
This is a pretty solid game even in 2024. Graphic wise it certainly shows its age and the combat system feels a little clunky to me (more so since this PC version doesn't have a controller mode???) but if you're playing this old game for those aspects then you're in the wrong place. It's the story where this game really shines in my opinion. You play as 'The Warden' with any number of backgrounds. Your enemy is a combination of unnatural illness (aka The Blight), political intrigue, religion, and hubris. (I'm joking about that last part. Kind of.) It has a bit of a heavy hand at showing the world from a (sometimes subjugated) race's point of view but I don't necessarily find that to be a bad thing. (There are certainly some edgelord writing angles to this early game however. You don't have to witness anything graphic-- you just hear or read about the aftermath. If implications of rape bother you then you may want to steer clear as it's wildly implied that a female in the city elf beginning storyline is victimised. It is also implied-- least this is my impression-- that certain darkspawn are created via doing horrific things to women which includes both the above and forced cannibalism???? So... yeah. It can be gross and they were heavy handed with their edgelord tendencies here. This would be my least favorite aspect of the game.)

Moving on, you have a number of companions that you can gather to your side and run with. Each companion has their own personal story and quests that effect who they become not just in THIS game but later games as well. In fact nearly all your decisions matter in some way and this series of games does a great job calling back to a lot of decisions (even ones that seem minor). You can, technically, even romance some of your companions. (Assuming gender requirements are met, sadly. I personally have a tendency to romance Zev, but... lets be real I'd marry Shale if they let me.)

The story drags you around a kingdom called Fereldan in the world of Thedas which is a country only a generation or so out of a past war. Your actions are on a ticking clock and how/when you do things effect your results. The game has the normal fantasy trappings of elves, humans, and dwarves but they've done a decent job and putting an interesting spin on it. Those also aren't the only races (though they're the only playable ones in this game) as you can encounter qunari as well (and spirits/demons which theoretically could count as a race themselves as well...) There's also magic but once again it has a unique spin.

I could go on but overall If you're looking for an older game (or wanting to do a full playthrough of the various dragon age games) I think this game is a must play if you want to see how your choices effect things in the later games.

It's a Bioware rpg, it's very good for it's time, it's a shame that i didn't play this game earlier.
Overall very good, but after like 20-30 hours the combat started to get to me, became a bit boring, but the story pulled me to finish it.

A generic start builds to a great game with amazing lore, story, and characters. You begin the game by creating your own hero to battle the Darkspawn, which are a monstrous threat to the land of Ferelden. The game features multiple choices which leads to different endings depending on the choices you have made thorough the game, which means each play through feels unique and interesting to play.

This is one of the best rpgs of all time. It is a little broken but you can get it for so cheap and if you know basic PC troubleshooting you should be fine with mods. Unfortunately this is the best one in the series and nothing has really felt the same as DA:O, but Dragon Age 2 is pretty solid.

treat this game as a rescue. it has special needs, needs a patch or two, lots of patience, and yeah maybe it's a little ugly. but it's also fucking awesome. pet dog kiss rogue, 10/10

Great game. to bad about all the bugs and crashes. for me setting textures to lowest in graphic settings seems to work out the problems with crashes and so forth. i also recommend to install some mods which is very easy to do. just download, unzip and drag into DAO updater in your steam folder. all in all still worth playing in 2024.

Dragon Age: Origins is extraordinary, easily one of the best-written fantasy universes in games and one of the best RPGs I've ever played. The game gives you so many smart opportunities to roleplay your character, and the cast that joins your quest is one of Bioware's best. The story is outstanding, in large part because it bucks the trend of having a stereotypical Big Bad who wants to destroy the world because Evil Reasons (something that Bioware itself would lean on a bit too heavily after this game). Instead, Dragon Age: Origins deals in political intrigue, cultural conflict, historical reckonings, and societies dealing with the catastrophic mistakes of the past. And the game's combat nicely blends overhead tactics with real-time action.

You'll likely have to do a bit of work to get it running well on a modern PC--there are some crazy visual glitches that will happen after an hour or so of playing (I believe related to a memory leak though I haven't delved too much into it) and some nasty crashes in the town of Denerim that can mostly be solved by changing one of the graphics settings. There are some mods and community patches for the game that aim to solve these problems, so seek those out. The game is absolutely worth your time.

Game is great but is practically unplayable due to constant crashing from an unfixed memory leak issue. Issue has existed for years but Bioware doesn't care enough to fix it and continues to sell it for 30 bucks. Only buy this if you're ready for an hour of trouble shooting and mod downloading to get it to work.