Dragon Age: Origins
Ooh... where to begin? Well, how about character creation. I went to pick a race and was surprised to see there were 3 races and only 3 classes. Again, I blamed Skyrim for actually giving me a choice on how to play a RP'ing game. But anyway, I decided to pick a nice little Elf. I made him a Dalish Elf (The elven options being City and Dalish. That's it.) and I named the Elf, Toegoff (some of you may get the YouTube reference.) So anyway, I make my character a Rogue and give him some points in places I think he deserves and then I get the game started.
Here comes the long narration that tells me what I think of my Dalish Clan and what my livelihood is. Meanwhile, I'm thinking "Is this the Legend of Zelda? Telling me how I feel about my life?" but anyway, life continues. So the first time I actually get to do anything is when me and some friend of mine (anyone with half a brain knew he'd die) caught two humans in our land. Yadda yadda, boring conversation ensued. So me and that friend start walking our merry way to some ruins which had apparently been undiscovered by both the humans in the area and my Clan.
So we get to the ruin (which was rather unimpressive) and start walking through its tunnels and such. We're fighting some skeletons and other things, nothing too scary, while trying to dodge all the traps (which magically appeared in a previously unexplored area but I digress.) So we get to the end of the ruin where we kill this weird bear-dog creature that was possessed. And that's when we found the mirror. My friend was like "I must touch the mirror! I MUST!" and I was thinking "Wow... brilliant story development." Of course, the guy touches the mirror and a weird explosion follows. Genius story writing, I must say. (Did I mention we were forced to go to the ruin and forced to touch the mirror? Yea, real option choice there.)
Ok, so then I wake up back in my clan (apparently with a headache) and I walk around trying to find the Clan Elder. When I find her, she tells me I was brought back by the Grey Warden Duncan. Blah blah blah, going back to the ruin with some girl named Merrill, blah blah blah, find the Grey Warden. Then he tells me that I have some of the Darkspawn plague inside of me and that I must become a Grey Warden to save myself. And apparently, my friend died. But that's beside the point. So now I'm forced to leave my clan (which was supposed to be some deeply emotional thing even though I personally had only known them for perhaps an hour.) Then I travel with Duncan to the ruins of Ostegar.
At Ostegar, I meet another Grey Warden and other recruits. Blah blah blah, they tell me that I must take the other Grey Warden and the recruits out and we must gather 3 viles of Darkspawn blood.Then we must find the Grey Warden archives which had the Grey Wardens as allies with the Dalish, Mages, and Dwarves. (apparently Duncan, destroyer of evil, couldn't jog out the Ruin for 5 minutes and get them)
So yea, walk out the ruin and then easily kill some Darkspawn (which look like Gothic-Emo midgets with a bad attitude and a sword), collect the 3 Viles of blood and then find the archives. Talk to a witch and such, then appear back at the Ruins. Talk to Duncan. Oh goodie, time for the Grey Warden ritual. One recruit drinks the Darkspawn blood (yea, that's the ritual) and he does all sorts of weird things before dying. The other one refuses and Duncan kills him (all the time looking like a Cultist leader) and then I drink it and then, of course, I survive. Wake up sometime soon and BAM! instant Grey Wardenship. And then the game gets really rant-worthy. More to follow.