User Summary: Dragon Age: Origins, developed by Bioware and published by EA, was conceived as the spiritual successor to Bioware's Baldur's Gate series. As a single-player dark heroic fantasy RPG, Dragon Age features a return to pause-and-play combat, a significant amount of interactions with NPCs, and several different origin stories to introduce you to the world of Ferelden. In Dragon Age, your character-- either a noble from one of Ferelden's honored families, an elf who is scarred by interactions with humans, a dwarf who only knew life in his or her native city, or a mage shunned by the outside-- is called to join the Grey Wardens to investigate an unusual appearance of darkspawn, who are soldiers tainted by demonic forces. A darkspawn invasion, also known as a Blight, has not occurred in centuries-- and the Grey Wardens have also long since been through their heyday, while Ferelden itself is a land sharply divided by its internal politics. As a squad-based RPG, your team of NPCs will be crucial for your victory-- but you have to balance an eclectic group of individuals and strive to win their loyalty, friendship, and possibly even love. A vast amount of content in DA is found in simply exploring the various cities, or talking to your companions in camp and discovering their motivations for joining you, as well as their own perspectives and views of Ferelden life.