Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition

(G)old game, replace .EXE File and use 4GB patch (found online) and there is no problem playing this in 2025.
Great game, they dont make them like these anymore; sadly

Look I love this game and series, but THIS APPLICATION is unplayable in its current state. Just check out any forum to see the gauntlet of fixes you'll need to attempt to get it to *maybe* launch. I personally never made it any farther than the character creator.

It's a shame, because I would love to replay this game.

game constantly crashes in the same area to the point i cant progress in the game. i tried many fixes i saw online, but nothing worked. waste of time and money.

Simply a masterpiece. Objectively one of the best RPG-s of all time, and also in my subjective opinion, a game that has its place in the all time hall of fame of gaming.
When it comes to the elite of the RPG genre, it's all very simple: you have Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Fallout and Witcher. These are the 4 best game series - in my opinion. You can't miss with buying these ( of course, if you like the genre ).

All the elements are top notch: the story is epic, fantastic, with a cast of many interesting companions to chose from and build friendships with. An incredible amount of main quests, secondary and side quests.
Bioware created a wonderful fantasy world - Thedas with a complex history ( lots of lore to read ), many kingdoms ( each with complex traditions, history, religion, politics...), races, factions, etc......
They should make movies about the Dragon Age games and they would be 100 times better then Lords of the Rings.
Your actions and choices shape the story and the world of Thedas, it's very rewarding to see the effects of your choices afterwords and the consequences of how you opted to resolve the problems and quests.

Combat is also brilliant: pure RPG old school style ( which means its "serious"/challenging, complex with dozens of skills to chose, very tactical ). It's real time, not turn based. You have to constantly pause the fights to issue commands to each companion. You can also program companions to have preset behaviours but I always played with total manual control of companions, which means I had to pause every few seconds.
The difficulty is as follows: those who aren't veterans of RPG-s should play at "normal", those experienced in the genre I recommend playing at hard. It's very challenging at times, especially when you fight bosses like dragons, but nontheless rewarding and epic.
The skill trees are interesting, you have classes with lots of different ways to build them, lots of gear to chose, all the elements are here.
The soundtrack is epic, the graphics was great at the time of release - which is 2009. Some youngsters will surely skip buying DA:Origins because the graphics is a little dated, but they should understand that gameplay is the most important element in the world of gaming, not graphics.

It should be stated for those who aren't familiar with this title - this Ultimate edition is actually comprised of 2 games, not 1!! It's Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakening. The latter is not just a DLC, is a standalone game. At the time they were selling the DVD and I bought it. Also all the dozens of DLCs are present here, that add many additional story quests, item packs and even 5 new mini campaigns.
So if you buy this game when they have big sales, it's a steal! You get so much for what you pay.

A classic. I enjoyed every second of it.

Amazing RPG with great characters, story, gameplay mechanics and high replayability, the DLC only makes the game even better and even more replayable.




Spoilers
Altho I do have to point out an interesting parallel with the Awakening DLC of this game and Inquisition, both have a talking Darkspawn as the main boss (Awakening has 3 if I remember), both have a mechanic based around closing Fade Portals and both have a Main Base that you upgrade and gain further benefits from the more you upgrade (altho Awakening you have a Helms Deep moment at the end). So I prefer Awakenings rendition of the Inquisiton story and gameplay the only thing Inquisition wins is the Dragon Boss fights.

Excellent game, but the steam version is unplayable due to constant crashes before the game even starts. GOG version works perfectly though

Peak Bioware, the Atlas that held RPG name on its shoulders back in the days
Still can whoop that Fraud called Veilguard even without mods

DO NOT BUY!!!

Dragon Age is a Fantastic game. Unfortunately the steam version is completely unplayable. To be clear by unplayable I mean that the game can't even launch! If you really want to play this game you can still play it through EA's launcher. That or PC Game-pass which still uses EA's launcher. But whatever you do, DO NOT BUY THE STEAM VERSION!

Also for anyone that does play it through the gamepass/EA if you are still having issues with crashing in game turn the graphics down one from the highest settings. This show fix any crashing and stuttering.

With modern OS', the game is unplayable with how glitchy and prone to crashing it is.

THIS GAME DOES NOT WORK ON MODERN HARDWARE. Even with the community patches that were a pain to install it just does not function.

one word !BROKEN! do not buy, i mean every time you try to start the game it crashes
and I'm still waiting for my refund to go through :C

DO NOT BUY THIS. It doesn't function on steam, if you want dragon age anything, go to EA

You would assume that when they made it so the game WILL NOT START unless you have steam running they would maybe you know fix it to be used on new OS's after hours of reddit and google the crashes persist. It will play when it wants to and when it doe's its a great fun game....but selling a broken game and leaving the users to find the fix should be a crime "its probably not" cant be bothered for a refund because someday I might get it working but this is ridiculous

Great game that holds up well despite it's age. Too bad you need to mod it to work due to memory leaks. The game shouldn't be sold in this state

Dragon Age was the first game I played all the way through--without any help from my older brother. I decided to revisit the game since it was so discounted and boy does it hold up. I love the complex decisions that affect the whole game world, while somehow not making the decisions so weighty I can't decide how to act. I'm barely back in the game yet but It's still just as good as I remembered and I can't wait to complete it again.

That said, obviously there are some bugs and other issues. If you're playing in 2025, I suggest quick saving often because the game has randomly closed out on me a few times without a clear cause. Oh well.

I'm certain all the great things I've heard about this game are true, and if I managed to play it perhaps I would've agreed. As it stands, the current ultimate edition is completely unplayable, I've spent hours trying small fixes to simply get the game to run past the launcher, and now at the Grey Warden camp I have simply not managed to progress any further because a crash is around every corner. I've seen a 4GB RAM patch available, but to be frank I do not care enough to bother.

I would have really liked to play this, but it seems impossible to do on more modern PCs, at least without a level of extra work on my end that I should not have to bother with. If this is ever fixed, I'd like to come back to it, the bits of the game I did manage to play were very enjoyable.

The game crashes at random times and the Gameplay is Trash and Tedious. but the story and characters are great and are the only reasons why I enjoyed this game. the DLC are great too especially Awakening and Witch Hunt.

sorry to inform anyone who really wants this game on steam but it crashes on start up. don't listen to the mostly positive reviews because they're all based off the xbox versions. PPL say you can mod this game and it will run, i'm fairly experienced in modding games and I was never able to fix 100% of the issues. EA puts this game on sale for very cheap, very often and its a total cash grab in hopes you forget about it and never request a refund.

This game is completely unplayable on steam. With or without mods. With or without patches. Its unconscionable that Steam would continue to sell a product that is unplayable on a PC setup made in this millennium. Bioware online support doesn't exist, so be prepared to search the web to access dlc YOU payed for. Once you finally get it working and running, you will inevitably run through a gauntlet of game breaking glitches and bugs that no forum, how-to list, mod, or anything can accurately diagnose or fix which leads you turning into a monkey and slapping things at random hoping against hope. Save files will no longer load for no reason. The game crashes and crashes and crashes and crashes and.... What an endless source of frustration that somehow I willingly payed 30 dollars for. Be more intelligent than me and buy this on another platform.

Great game ruined by multiple game-breaking bugs that were never fixed. It is also a pain to even get working properly on Steam.

It seems like a good game but i had so many crash/freeze/technical issues with it on my 3070 laptop... I gave up in the end.

This is one of my absolute favorite games, but the Steam version DOES NOT WORK.

It's really difficult to describe in a few words what Dragon Age: Origins means for the RPG genre. It's role-playing at its roots, with an incredible story arc, deep gameplay and an atmosphere no other game can deliver. You'll hope the game will last forever.

Dragon Age: Origins is still very much a masterpiece even in 2025. The replay-ability of the story is wild, the characters and companions are some of, if not the best in gaming. The gameplay, although dated by modern standards, is fun and enjoyable, especially if you are playing on a higher difficulty and you deep dive the in-depth tactics system.
One slight negative is this it isn't really optimised for modern hardware and you may run into a few crashes here and there however if you have even the slightest idea on how to mod games then this is an easy fix.

It's really hard not to recommend this game, especially if you either enjoy older games or are looking to try out the Dragon Age franchise, if you can get passed the dated visuals (which were only really an issue to me for the first hour or so) then you have a genuine bargain on your hands, even in 2025.

One of the most well-written RPGs I've played. It's on Baldur's Gate 3's level of writing.

Companion characters have depth, it feels like I'm talking to an actual person instead of NPCs. They will doubt you, question you, logically challenge you. Some will look to you for comfort and allow themselves to be vulnerable near you. So very real and immersive.

The combat is unique among "real-time with pause" systems, thanks to its "coding" feature. Yes, you can literally setup conditions and response for almost every situation in combat for your characters. It saves you the hassle of micromanaging and instead makes you feel like a grand strategist.

The freedom of choice is real. The impact your choices have is immense, affecting the character development of your companions as well as the course of the whole story. You can choose who to ally, who to betray, who to please and who to provoke. Almost total control over the narrative.

I recommend this game to anyone looking for an immersive, personal, choice-heavy narrative experience.

Also Morrigan.

I have no idea what I could possibly be doing wrong, but this game does not run past the first cutscene. I've uninstalled it, started new files, even downloaded the LLA and the 4GB patch. Seems like this is an issue other people have had as well, really unfortunate because I've heard so many great things about this game and would love to play it.

For a game so old now, released 15 years ago, I wasn't expecting it to actually keep my attention very long and was convinced I'd flog the game after a dozen hours but that never happened. Instead I quickly played the entire thing in a week and was kept hooked. Solid 9/10 experience just for the surprise and great story. Game play while not easy wasn't overly difficult and not monotonous at all given it's slower nature but keeps itself engaging by giving you endless interesting encounters which make you carefully consider the choices made second to second.

Probably won't play the other games this one did it right.

As for whether or not I'd recommend this game, my answer would be yes with an asterisk at the end.

I'd like to call Dragon Age: Origins an absolutely timeless classic, but the graphics definitely show their age and there's the occasional glaring texture bug (like square shaped blood splatters and flickering textures) and crash. Not enough to make you want to jam a stake through your cranium out of sheer frustration, but certainly enough to be noticeable. You'll also probably want to install some bug fix mods depending on your interactions and choices involving certain characters: for example, in my first run through of this game, Alistair's dialogue towards the end had him talking as if he was the new king of Ferelden when he was very much not due to the choices I'd made, and that was more than a little immersion breaking. It can also be a right pain in the ass trying to get certain class specializations depending on the way you play the game. For example, if you choose not to take a deal offered by a demon at a specific point in the game, then you're just SOL if you wanted to play a Blood Mage. Makes sense in the context of the story, sure, but that doesn't make it any less of a bummer for players who wanted to experiment with one of the more broken class specializations in the game.

Obligatory f*ck the Fade, by the way. I'll shill for the Deep Roads until I look like the real life equivalent of the crying soyjack meme, but I'd rather sandpaper a crocodile's arsehole in a phone booth than go through that part of the game again. Play through it once normally and then just install a mod to skip it in any subsequent playthroughs unless you hate yourself.

Now that I've gotten my nitpicks with this game out of the way, I can start absolutely glazing it as our lord and savior Morrigan intended.

Dragon Age: Origins is the game that damn near ruined other RPGs for me as growing because of just how stellar its characters, world building, and story are. This game embodies the 'role-playing' part of role playing games perfectly. Almost every single one of your choices in this game impacts the plot greatly, and there is no greater example of this than the game's titular origin system. Depending on the race and class you pick, the dialogue options you have to choose from and the way other characters treat you varies wildly. Many of the choices you make will also impact not only Ferelden itself, but also how the game's last couple of hours and final battle plays out. Also, the characters. God, I love the characters in this game. Morrigan and Alistair are beloved fan favorites for a reason, and the rest of the party members are really interesting as well! I won't go too far into depth on them in case anyone who stumbles on this review wants to avoid spoilers, but even the lawful good old lady healer (Wynne my beloved. I would die for you) has some interesting bits of lore and party banter that make her feel very fleshed out.

To sum it up, while Dragon Age: Origins is certainly not without its flaws, I'd still give this game a solid 9/10. It's a game so good that I still find myself coming back to it fifteen years after its initial release. If you can look past its issues and don't mind not so great graphics, this is still hands down one of the best RPGs ever made. No, that is not an exaggeration. I genuinely enjoy this game's story and characters more than Baldur's Gate 3, and I absolutely adore BG3. That's how darn good Origins is.

Forth time playing this game and even with how old as it is I enjoyed it better than whatever Bioware did in most recent times.

The best CRPG till date. Fantastic writing, meaningful choices, a rich world, an engaging and believable story, and real characters. And all of this with voice acting?

Bioware has always crafted brilliant character driven stories that felt comparable to some of the best written novels. The problem is that the game simply does not work. I went through a fair amount of effort playing with the settings to get it optimized in order to play it, pro tip stick to the 1980 x 1020 resolution or less or it will say their is no supporting graphics card, but upon launching, creating my character, and going through the intro story, I tried to save my game and it just crashes to desktop. No clue how to fix this. I know it is an older game, which I somewhat understand as games are not always compatible with newer systems, especially for 16 year old game, but if you are willing to update or remaster it and have a defunct version on the store, allowing people to pay for a non-working product, that is just wrong in my opinion. I'm fairly new to PC gaming so I'm only becoming aware this is an ongoing issue as I play more games, but this sucks to have payed for a game, built up the hype to replay it after so many years (was hoping to play all 4 games in order), only to find out I wasted my money. This leaves me rather frustrated and disappointed.

If you plan to buy it despite the warning, do yourself a favor and play test it right away so you can get a refund if there are issues. Don't make the same mistake I made.

Too broken, even with 5 hours of screwing around I still cannot get it to work for more than an hour. If the game requires work to play then it shouldn't be for sale. The Devs are too fat and lazy to fix a good game and instead spend millions making a trash heep.

Between XBox, Normal edition, and now Ultimate Edition, I've played Dragon Age: Origins at least 200 hours. It sits in the back of my brain actually. I love how they took fantasy tropes and twisted them. The lore in this game is vast, but not overwhelming. You get Codex entries that you can read if you want to, or you can just go complete quests. I've played most of this series, but I keep replaying this game.

Perhaps it's simply the fact the game's dated, but... It doesn't exactly run. After many crashes via Steam, Game Pass, and EA Play, including at least two reinstalls on each platform, I must admit my defeat. Perhaps in the future the came could get a re-release, but alas I'll have to make due with fan wikis for what I've missed out on.

Can I get you a ladder.

My opinions on this are pretty conflicted, as half I really enjoyed and the other half I didn't. I won't mention much about the PC port which does have issues like a mandatory 4gb patch and a UI scale mod being essential. But instead I want to focus more on the game itself. The main reason why I'm so conflicted on Dragon Age Origins is because of the gameplay/combat. It's really really boring. I could compare the combat in this game to a MMORPG where you click on an enemy and wait for it to die. You have various skills but they lack any variety from one another and feel like they're just small damage multipliers. The only time combat ever requires much of any involvement is noticing that a party members health is low, pausing, and commanding them to drink a health potion. Adding onto this the multitude of stunlocks and outright busted abilities that some of the enemies can do (overwhelm how I hate you) and it just makes the combat in this an unenjoyable slog.

So why do I still recommend this game? The writing. Everything from the world to the characters that inhabit it are very well written and is easily the part where the game shines the most. I could not care at all for going into dungeons to fight for hours but if the dwarves are having an internal political conflict that needs resolving then sign me up immediately. Talking my way through situations so that I can avoid getting into fights and battles (because they suck) ended up being the strongest part about my character not because it made the game easier but because it was simply the more enjoyable option. The companions are very strongly written (Oghren my beloved) and I really enjoyed putting time aside in the camp to get to know their stories better. It's not a perfect story by any means but its the driving force of this game and easily carries it.

I would still recommend this game but with a heavy warning that in order to get to what makes this game great, you have to put up with very uninteresting combat and a wonky PC port.

Gameplay - 1/5
Music - serviceable/5
Appearance - 3/5
Story - 5/5
Difficulty - Moderate (Death Count: 10+)

Skeleton Rating: 3/5 - great variety of skeletons
Overall Rating: 3/5 - Good

Dragon Age: Origins is a shockingly well-aged game that holds up very well against the very best RPGs I have ever played. It is probably the most consistently well-written RPG I have played. I love this game's companions, worldbuilding, main story, DLC, and even all the jank-ass aspects feel good in their own way. I so adore this game, I think it's the best BioWare game I have played, and I think anyone who enjoys RPGs needs to play it.

And it pains me to not recommend this game because it's a technical mess. First off, the game is highly unstable and crashes frequently. There's a great YouTube video I watched that directed me to fixes that helped, including a 4 GB RAM patch. It also has physics issues at certain framerates, I frequently got caught on geometry at 120 and 240 FPS. This is fixed with forcing 60 FPS in the GPU driver, though not exactly ideal it is fixable. However, I ran into a colossal issue where the Steam version was not redeeming the DLC. This game has a ton of DLC content, and I wanted it. Nothing I did worked. The only thing that worked for me was installing the game on EA App instead. It pains me to recommend the game there instead, but I genuinely do because the experience has been better. Even then, I don't recommend this to people who have no experience modding PC games (though the modding is simple,) and it shouldn't be our job as consumers to fix the products we buy.

Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPGs I have ever played, soured only by my complete and utter lack of enjoyment in its gameplay, so much so that I dropped the game entirely my first go around. Despite that experience, I came back to the game and was rewarded immensely in all things writing, tone, and presentation.

I want to begin talking about the gameplay since that's my only real complaint about the game and I want to get it out of the way. The combat, the puzzles, and the movement in this game all feel incredibly clunky and unfun to me. The real time with pause combat breaks up the pacing that combat might otherwise have and feels sub-optimal if pause isn't used. The actual skills and gearing aspect of combat is useful but it doesn't feel that way, lending to a rather unengaging experience that fails to reward any sort of skill expression. The puzzles are always tedious and one of either overly simple or needless trial-and-error. The movement feels akin to that of an MMO which, while not really all that bad, ages poorly to modern day action RPGs.

Beyond the gameplay aspects, the game is nothing short of absolutely incredible, with a very minuscule but not negligible amount of weak points. The world and lore are established very well through music, visuals, character, dialogue, codex entries, and narrative progression. All of these elements are woven and interact together beautifully to sell a strong dark fantasy setting with a rich history. The companions, with the exception of 2 or 3 total from the base game and DLCs, are varied and thoughtfully written. They come bundled with humor, internal and external conflict, important narrative implications, short but meaningful story arcs, and overall great dialogue.

The narrative as a whole, both main and side stories of all length, are morally grey, thought-provoking, and consistently intriguing. It felt like every place the game allowed me to make a decision, I was given at minimum 3 options whose effects were compounded and impactful beyond the quest I made the choice. The world evolved and reacted to my actions, from the measly NPCs with no strong bearing on the story to major players in the narrative to the companions that traveled in my party. No small part of the story in this game was inconsequential and even if an element of it did not directly add to the main plot line, it augmented my understanding of the world as a whole, impacting the implications of choices I had made both beforehand and moving forward.

The music and art direction of Dragon Age: Origins were also very strong, although not nearly to the extent that the writing stood out to me. The graphical fidelity did not age the best but the atmosphere and tone of the game were set phenomenally before I even spoke to characters or understood the state of the world. As far as I'm concerned, these elements did what they set out to do perfectly, even if I wouldn't describe them as mind-blowing or jaw-dropping.

Despite what I would describe as absolutely abysmal gameplay, the writing and world of Dragon Age: Origins got me absolutely hooked, eventually. It took my until my second attempt to get into the game but focusing on the dialogue and how the story unfurled as a result of my choices led me to one of my new all time favorite RPG experiences. While I do now understand why this game is considered a masterpiece, I'd still recommend it cautiously. Gameplay is a massive part of the experience of any game but this game's gameplay may be some of the worst I have experienced in any big name title, although others may enjoy it where I couldn't. The Awakening expansion, in my opinion, upholds a level of quality akin to the base game but I feel it could have used a bit of a longer runtime to flesh out the companions more, as I felt about half of them were comparable in quality to the best of the base game. The Witch Hunt DLC was rather short with companions that basically didn't have any development but it gave my characters that I took across these campaigns some much needed closure which I appreciated.

Overall, I believe Dragon Age: Origins, including its Awakening expansion, is an incredible experience that not only stands the test of time, but stands above most games that have come out after it. As long as you can get past the gameplay.

The game is fun but it crash constantly, There is a unfixed memory leak that make the game unplayable.

first and best game in the franchise sadly. don't touch that sorry and pathetic excuse for a game "veilguard" with a 100 ft pole

Bought on a steep sale.
Runs and hangs up on my Windows 11 with my NVIDIA 2080 super graphics card.
May be work arounds but is it worth the trouble?

I'd love to be able to review this game, but it just crashes constantly as soon as I finished character creation. At least it's EA, so we know they're hard at work on a fix. /s

old but amazing. Get some of the recommended mods on nexus and gamestegy.com/post/dragon-age-origins/228/best-dao-modlist

I'd love to play this game. Unfortunately it crashes and exits at a set point very early in the game, making it entirely unplayable.

At first, I was skeptical bcos the game is kinda old and I thought I wouldn't enjoy it BUT now here i am lol. My first DA game was Inquisition and I loved it so much (thanks to Solas btw) that I bought the book 'Tevinter Nights".

Wanted to learn more about the lore and the world so I decided to play Origins. I now understand why people say this is the best DA game. The story, combined with excellent voice acting, memorable companions.. The banters!! I loooooooveee the banters lmaooo

Also, I bought Veilguard bcos of Origins. I feel like I'll be disappointed but I guess I just want to be in DA world again.

100/10 would recommend if you're a RPG fan.

I had a really fun time playing through the game and all the dlc, I should have played it sooner. The combat took me a while to really grasp but the story, characters and dialogue hooked me from the start.
I did have to some finagling and download two patches it could run properly however.
Still a fantastic game and well worth it! Old BioWare is best.

Great game as I remember it from years ago on the 360. Only issue I have with the game is the stuttering during cut scenes which can be a bit jarring. Other than that this is perfect palette cleanser after DA:V

The world building, character and item design are just incredible in this game. It is now 16 years old and still one of the finest gems out there. Played through it all having a blast including all DLC, which were also really great (except for Golems of Amgarrak, that one is just terrible)

A Timeless Classic

Dragon Age: Origins is not just the best game in the series—it might be BioWare’s finest work. Its greatest strength lies in its deep immersion, where choices truly matter and shape the world around you. The gameplay is solid, though it can be challenging for newcomers unless the difficulty is lowered. While the graphics and animations have aged, a wealth of mods can enhance the experience. Despite its age, Origins remains a must-play RPG. Highly recommended!

Dragon Age Origins on PC is unbelievably BROKEN! The game crashes every chance it gets and anytime you wanna play you are fighting just to keep the game open and playable.

The story and game play itself is good, but it is massively impacted by the unstable experience. I know this is an older game but I just wish it ran better.

Rating: 10/10
Playtime: ~30 hours (I haven't done very much side stuff or any DLC yet)

Wow. Dragon Age: Origins is genuinely one of the best stories I’ve ever experienced in a game. By the time the credits rolled, I almost wanted to cry because I just didn’t want it to end. I had grown so attached to the world and its characters, and I truly cared about the outcomes of their stories. It’s rare for a game to create that level of emotional investment.

While I didn’t particularly enjoy the combat or mechanics, this game’s story alone earns a 10/10. The narrative is simple in scope, but its execution is masterful. It strikes the perfect balance between choice-driven storytelling, deep worldbuilding, and meaningful companionship. Even for a game of its age, it feels timeless in how it immerses you and makes you feel like your decisions matter.

If you enjoy rich stories and unforgettable characters, Dragon Age: Origins is a journey worth taking.