I think my fellow role-playing gamers know about those love/hate relationships a lot of us suffer from some of our favorite games. We can’t stop playing them, and they enter our thoughts and dreams more than we really want. If this is what defines a game as legendary, something we talk about years from now, then Dragon Age: Origins is definitely one of the most epic; I still can’t stop thinking about it.

The story of Dragon Age: Origins might not be the most original; in fact, there is a heavy dose of Tolkienesque tone to the entire world. In the game, you can start with one of six origin stories, and after your introduction, all the stories will meet at the same point. Duncan, a Grey Warden, will recruit you before a large defensive battle against the Dark Spawn horde, and you must prepare for a recruitment ritual before the battle. After surviving recruitment, you’ll be given instructions to head to the Tower of Ishal and give a signal to Teryn Loghain’s flanking army. Loghain deserts the battle and leaves King Cailan and his army in a hopeless situation; fortunately, you and one other Grey Warden, Alister, are saved by the witch Flemeth. The two of you must rebuild the Grey Wardens and regain the ancient allies before the Dark Spawn destroys everything.

Dragon Age: Origins is a significantly updated party-based RPG. The controls are point and click for movement and character selection, but combat can be hotkeyed and paused for better timing and accuracy. Combat is lighting fast, so you’ll learn to praise the pause button. There isn’t a whole lot new on the field of character advancement, and statistics and equipment are very traditional. Every few levels (depending on class), you’ll gain a talent point for non-combat related skills, and each level you gain a point for combat skills. Of the three classes (warrior, rogue, mage), each class can invest in skills geared specifically for that class, and each class has four specializations and three skill sets for weapon types to invest in. This makes a dual-wielding warrior completely different than a dual-welding rogue in terms of their roles on the field.

While combat in Dragon Age: Origins is very interesting, providing uncountable combinations, it is the characters you meet in your journey that make this game unforgettable. As you travel through the land of Ferelden, you’ll meet a large number of main and supporting characters. The developers have done an absolutely incredible job on character development; their personalities are just shallow enough so you don’t have to spend forever chatting with them, but they are also complex in their own ways. I would go so far as to say that this game is the characters.

You can play Dragon Age: Origins through three times, and if you pick different party members to adventure with, your experience will change each time. There are some party members that like each other, some that are simply tolerant, and some bicker constantly! When you confront certain situations, some characters may have views on the topic you are dealing with and can comment on them in the conversation. If you go against a character’s viewpoint in an extreme way, they may even turn on you, forcing you to kill them. Dragon Age: Origins also has some of the funniest lines and interactions I’ve seen in a game, from characters bickering to gossiping about their sexual performance; don’t be surprised if you pee a little from laughing too hard!

Dragon Age: Origins is one of the few games that I am truly impressed with on a technical level. It runs on a 3-year-old machine well and is absolutely gorgeous with all the options maxed out on a newer machine. The voice acting has to be addressed because even the worst of the cast is above average in terms of videogame voice acting. All the actors do a fantastic job and add to the already rich characters presented in the game, from the awkward voice of Alister to the sexy voice of Lelianna, this is the best voice acting in a game I’ve ever seen. I do have a single complaint, though; when you are in combat your non-selected characters follow a set of routines called tactics. Tactics are a bunch of if/or statements telling your characters how to fight; they can get quite complex, but few tactical situations are ever the same, and those rules just aren’t good enough. I tried but just couldn’t get my guys to attack the enemy I told them to without changing targets or refusing to move unless told to, and if you put it on auto movement, your spaced-out mages/archers will auto-move toward the character you select! That leads to the enemy pouncing on you with area effect spells! Aggravating.

I think I could write six pages about this Dragon Age: Origins. It really has a huge amount of content and features. While it doesn’t bring a whole lot new to RPGs, the game feels so smooth and polished that it is an absolute joy to play. It doesn’t even feel like a game; the transitions and dialogue are so well-written that this is an experience. My first playthrough was 90 hours long — absolutely crazy! I really couldn’t stop playing Dragon Age: Origins. It controlled my life for days, and at nights, it was there when I slept. There are so many possibilities of what Dragon Age: Origins will become in the future, it is hard to not recommend picking it up.