I picked up Dragon Age Origins again lately to break in my new rig and it has been a breath of fresh air. It's really the last time Bioware was in proper form as far as I'm concerned and it's a grand send off. The whole siege at Ostagar just has this classic feel of an epic to it, from the rain to the drums to that one guy who falters and the guy behind him steadying him as they prepare to face the oncoming horde. I can't say that it's a game devoid of the mind virus of the current age, but it's nice to see a high fantasy setting that's just overbearingly white in essence and in depiction. Hell even the characterization of Ferelden as a country that adores its dogs is just quintessentially European. It's a quirk that's uniquely pronounced in white people and I don't think they even realized they were leaning into that. Then we've got Sten, who has long been a favorite of mine. He is resolute and unabashedly opposed to the very concept of women being warriors to the point where he will chide your companions and even the player for trying to be men. His dead pan delivery of it all is just the icing on the cake. He knows what is true and does not hesitate to state it plainly.
It's just been nice to go back and remember what a AAA game can be when it isn't completely overflowing with poison.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dragon Age 2 one of the first games that went woke? I remember it getting murdered online by actual gamers.
It's why I never bought Dragon Age Origins during Steam sales.
You're saying I should grab it on sale and give Origins a playthrough?
DA2 just built off a lot of the setups that DAO already had. Like, the wierd "Mages are Jews" to "Elves are niggers" thing is a DAO creation and DA2 just ran it into nightmarish levels.
You can actually trace Woke as a whole through the original three DA games, as each one reflects how Wokeness was at its time. So while DAO is pretty standard and offers a lot of rebuttals to the Woke talking points (like Sten and his entire race), a lot of it is being set up there for DA2 to run with it.
But, DA2 is also one of the funniest uber woke games. Because its still very early in that culture, so its super clumsy and almost every time proves the "racist/bigot" completely right by accident.
Like the mages are oppressed and watched because people are afraid they'll mess with blood magic (demon shit), which is "bad." But then almost every mage you meet from random rabble to their leader uses blood magic the moment they stub their toe (meaning they were messing with it before). So they are 100% in the wrong and belong in their camps being oppressed.
Origins is a good game on its own and it mostly completes its own story so you can play it and not engage further with the trainwreck.
Maybe my favorite thing in DA is that demons 100% always hose you. No matter what they offer, you come out behind if you deal with them. The objectively best course of action is kill on sight.
And because of that, anyone dealing with blood magic must be dealt with in the exact same way. And because mages just can't fucking stop messing with the blood, mages need to be permanently dealt with themselves.
The "Tranquil Solution" wasn't just a funny holocaust reference, it was legitimately the best thing for everyone in the country.
There are plenty of mages that don't mess with demons and such. It doesn't help that they have natural affinity to be able to become massive nukes if they simply wished for it. Only takes one guy to mess everything up. Which is why mages are on a very short leash.