I just read a fantastic Dragon Age: Origins review from CVG, and it’s gotten me even more excited to play the game. And although I’ve ben excited about a Baldur’s Gate-like pseudo-turn-based RPG for some time, what’s gotten me really excited about Dragon Age is the game’s setting.

Let me quote a couple sections from the CVG review I’m linking.

Humans are the dominant race in Ferelden. Dominant in some extremely unpleasant ways. Until a few hundred years ago elves were the slaves of humans. In theory they have been freed, but those who live in cities remain second-class citizens, forced to live in slums, either begging or finding menial work in human houses. A small number of elves broke away to live in the Dales; these ‘Dalish’ elves are attempting to recover their lost culture. Bitter and vengeful, they kill all humans who wander into their territory.

The dwarves live in the Frostback Mountains, fiercely independent and embroiled in their own complex politics and caste system. The treatment of the elves by humans is (if you’ll pardon the pun) dwarfed by the attitude this underground race show to their own casteless kin.

Mages are feared and loathed by all. Those demonstrating magical skills are separated from their families as children and sent to a Mages’ Circle. A mage is vulnerable to possession by demons, or to the allure of deadly Blood Magic. They must live under the control of the soldiers of the Chantry, the presiding human and city-elf religion, serving in the army.

…

Dwarven culture, incidentally, is fascinating. It has a caste system, where dwarves are born into the same role in life as their same-sex parent. Your family will be nobles, warriors, smith, artisans, miner, merchants or servants, and this will not change. Should a servant marry a noble woman, his son would remain a servant while his daughter would live in the upper echelons. And then, as mentioned earlier, there are the casteless. Either because of ancestral disgrace, or because they went above ground for too long, these dwarves are stripped of their identities, their ancestry removed from dwarven history. They are unrecognised by all society. It’s abhorrent. Exploring the city’s slums is distressing. But you’re an outsider (unless you’re playing a dwarf, of course) so how much is it your place to object?

Based on what I’m reading here, this world is more intriguing than Baldur’s Gate’s Forgotten Realms world that was cribbed from the associated Dungeons and Dragons setting. It would seem that Bioware has really done a fantastic job of creating a world with distinct races and cultures. And despite my own misgivings about dwarves and elves being present, I’m loving what I’ve heard about the game.

My copy of Dragon Age: Origins should arrive in the mail any day. Until then, I suppose I’m happy playing Borderlands and Trine. Definitely too many games this time of year.