I almost hate to admit it but I may have reached that quitting point about six hours into Dragon Age: Origins.
Spoiler alert. You may want to not read this. For courtesy’s sake, I’m putting in a cut and all story related issues will be afterwards.
It’s not that I dislike Dragon Age: Origins. In fact, I really like the decision making. They have done a great job with setting up options that do not fall into the Moralistic Good and Diabolically Evil categories. Most of the time, they merely present you with possible solutions.
And it’s hard to say where the paths will lead. Sure, you could solve a problem the most expedient way, but there may have to be sacrifices. Alternatively, you could solve the problem in a Chantry approved fashion and, well, there may still have to be sacrifices, but at least you did it in such a way that the Maker approves.
I applaud them for that. It makes the virtual decisions feel like they have true impact in the virtual world.
All right. It’s going to get very “in game” with terms and story so don’t continue if you’ve got a thing for spoilers.
The case I’m referring to is this particular scenario. A demon has crossed over from the Fade to take control of a ten year old boy. The demon is already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the village. All this came about because the boy had magical ability and all potential mages are taken away by the Circle of Magi and kept prisoner taught how to control their powers. Except in this case where the mother used her influence to hire a secret tutor for the boy in the hopes that he could hide his power from the Circle of Magi.
Your options are:
- Kill the boy.
- Use forbidden magic that will kill the mother, but possibly save the boy by facing the demon in its home realm.
- Go to the Circle of Magi who can perform a ritual to send someone to face the demon in its home realm, but there and back is two days of travel.
While this may be my stopping point in the game, I will admit that this this is a fun decision to have to make in the game.
Clearly, killing the boy doesn’t actually kill the demon, but it gets the job done and you’ve saved the village. On the other hand, you’ve killed the only son of one of the nobles that you need to enlist to fight the Darkspawn.
Saving the boy but killing the mother saves the village, but might possibly get you into trouble with the Chantry for using FORBIDDEN BLOOD MAGIC.
And of course, doing things the “right” way would mean that the demon is running loose for another two nights. The village only survived the night through your incredibly well timed intervention.
So, I ask myself, “What would Han Solo do?”
And then I remembered that Han shot first, so that means my decision is clear. I’m probably going to take the expedient route and save more lives right away.