Customer Reviews

Dragon Age: Origins

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved DAO, and was particularly taken with the music. I found myself hearing it in my head often when I was not playing the game, as the music becomes such an atmospheric part of the experience and lingers with you. More than a few times I returned to certain locations, such as the Dalish camp when I did not need to, just to hear the music. Many tracks here could have easily been the score for The Lord of the Rings or another epic blockbuster, such is the quality, emotional impact and resonance of it. A real bonus here, the song your lovely bard sings for you only once, a memorable surprise in the game, can be listened to at your leisure. There is a real feeling of weight and consequence reflected in the scoring here, as well as great cross section of themes and styles that reflect the different cultures in the game. Listening to some of the tracks now, it's amazing how it brings back the feeling of sadness, or maybe it is more of a mourning for all the blood being spilled in the story, that was part of why this game had such an emotional impact on me. That and Bioware's stellar writing and characters, of course. Even if you've never played the game, you may really enjoy this soundtrack as an aural trip through an epic adventure.

I don't usually write reviews, but to respond to your comment, Miguel Carvajal, I shall write.

I for one have always loved movie and video game soundtracks. They create the atmosphere of the story just as much as words, images, or gameplay -- or perhaps more depending on the perspective. One of my all-time favorite video game composers would have to be Martin O'Donnell who created the Halo soundtrack for those three games. Whether or not you like Halo itself as a game, the music is integral to giving the game that "epic" feel that the fans of it talk about. So is it true with this game. This soundtrack gives Dragon Age it's own epic feel.

As the Grey Wardens say:
"For centuries we have watched, and waited, for the darkspawn to return. In peace, vigilance. In war, victory. In death, sacrifice. This is what it means to be a Grey Warden."

That is what the story is about, and the music helps tell that story. Gore isn't the point of the game, and to avoid it simply because of this is most certainly your loss. The music is only a part of the story. And what makes it better than any movie is that YOU get to write that story in your own way, it's interactive. I agree with you, gore for gore's sake alone or just for the shock-value is boring and possibly distasteful to some people. But it's part of the artwork. The darkspawn wouldn't be so fearsomely evil if they just kind of took over the land with having cartoony deaths. No, the darkspawn are viciously driven to destroy, by the relentless corrupting hatred of the taint, and the call of an archdemon urging the horde onward to kill (the Blight). And then when all seems lost, in come the Grey Wardens, a group of unlikely heroes and heroines who unite to stop the Blight and restore hope. It's a classic storytelling structure that can be found in dozens of famous pieces of literature -- often times it's in some of our favorite films that (ironically) often have epic music of their own. Avoiding the game simply because of the gore is like avoiding looking at classic art simply because some of the figures are nude. It's rather silly, and seems quite narrow-minded.

Games are simply a new medium of entertainment, and of the RPG genre, this game is one of the best told stories to date. So if you enjoy the music, you really, REALLY should give Dragon Age: Origins (the game) an honest try. See this intro video to see what I mean about how the music and storytelling combine to make the story have that "epic feel:

[...]

:-)

I enjoyed quite a few songs from Dragon Age, and I got the itch to search for a soundtrack. While I would prefer a hard copy this is quite acceptable. But this soundtrack, like most game soundtracks, is far from complete. With the exception of two or three songs what you get is a generalized versions of the songs, meaning you don't get all the variations that were used in the game, and some tracks cut off before they get started (The Party Camp comes to mind). But all in all, for eight bucks, you can't really go wrong.

loved the game--the music was the icing on the cake --now that i can listen to the music without the game --STILL AWESOME

As much as I love the score for Dragon Age: Origins, I really don't care for the soundtrack.

The first thing that really bothers me is that the track "Party Camp" is only half as long as it is in the game. This is probably one of the most beautiful musical pieces I have ever heard. Does it bother me that, in-game, it's only a minute and a half long track that repeats itself? A little bit, but that's what the repeat button is for.

Yes, that's right: in the game, the track is about a minute and a half long. It may sound like a repeating 44-second track, but one 44-second portion gets a little deeper towards the end.

But that's just a tip of the iceberg, because 90% of the other tracks are the same!

They cut off half (or more) of each track that plays in the game, and packaged it as the soundtrack.

Why?! Give 100% of each track from the game, not 50%. You could've charged twice as much, and it's likely that anyone who loved the music of the game would have still bought it.

I was interested in buying the video game Dragon Age: Origins up until I watched the trailers and saw all the blood and gory battle scenes in it...instead, I purchased this music soundtrack.

I have a couple of hundred movie and video game soundtracks in my collection and this soundtrack stands tall in it. I like the first two songs, complete with Celtic lyrics (very appropriate for a tale involving dragons) even though I don't speak Celtic. The rest of the songs have a sense of mystery, darkness, and they're sometimes bombastic, but they never fail to inspire a sense of majesty and grandeur.

My favorite track is No. 11, Enter The Kocari Wilds.

I bought this soundtrack for the song "Leliana's Theme" and the title track. They are really great songs, some subtle female vocals with some celtic backdrops. There are a couple of other standout tracks, but other than those, the album on a whole is fairly mediocre.

All the songs are pretty standard "soundtrack" songs; orchestral pieces with some sort of buildup with an extra instrument or two for good measure. I love the game to death, but with that being said the soundtrack left me feeling like their could have done more. Take the Guild Wars soundtracks, some of the best I've heard, but this is just average.

If you're a fan of the game and just want to collect every little piece of dragon age you can, at 8 bucks you can't go wrong. But if you're looking to be blown away get the Guild Wars soundtrack instead.

If you are a fan of open world RPGs like Fallout 3, where you can go anywhere you want and do anything you want at any time, then this game may not be for you. But if you love great writing, deep character interactions, difficult moral choices, intense tactical combat and a ton of gameplay, don't miss this game. This is the closest I've ever felt to playing a novel instead of a game, where you get to make decisions on how the story develops. Fans of Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights, don't wait. Get this game now.