Like any good 25 year old man, I take most of my life lessons from the cinematic masterpiece, Die Hard. One can live a well-rounded life guided by such an opus of the humanities. Sure, people have made movies about a cop in the wrong place at the wrong time before. Yeah, guys have jumped off exploding buildings and fought German terrorists since time was time. So what if there was nothing astoundingly new about Die Hard? It was an awesome movie because it did what it did very well, and didn’t try to be anything it wasn’t.

From my demo at GDC 2009, it’s easy to see that the folks at BioWare understand this. Dragon Age: Origins embodies the “if it ain’t broke” mentality, seeking to combine the best of traditional fantasy tropes with tweaks and twists to create an awesome game, even if not groundbreakingly innovative or original. I can say with certainty that they’ve brought over all the fantasy mainstays we’re familiar with, but the tweaks and twists, while very promising, may not be enough to win over gamers long jaded on the standard fantasy setting. The Baldur’s Gate references are justified, and as such, those looking for traditional RPG action will love the game. Other gamers that have spent their fill of time in the Faeldark or Underdamp or Myst Cavyrns fighting the demynspawn or caliginous scourge or whatever, might not find enough variety here to peak their interest.

The demo opened in grand fantasy tradition with the Blight (Dragon Age’s evil hellspawn) besieging humble town Redcliffe. You’re familiar with Redcliffe – this is a place where people enjoy the simple things in life. Little kids run around while giggling innocently and playing with that wheel-and-stick thing. Naturally, what’s a fantasy boy scout to do other than dive right in and offer to help?

Until this point Dragon Age looked about as generic a fantasy RPG as you could imagine, but here the hero’s party members did something they rarely do in games of this ilk – they disagreed. Sten (giant plate-mail clad warrior) and Morrigan (every bit the sexual temptress you might guess from her name) both piped up, more or less asking why the hell they should waste their time saving such a crappy town. These are questions I frequently ask aloud as a player, so it’s nice to have someone in the game echo my sentiment. The demo’s boisterous presenter – Dragon Age Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw – explained that party members will interject if they disagree with something you do, and may either leave the party or outright try to shank you if they disagree strongly enough with your actions. Managing a party of temperamental and self-interested characters could be very interesting, but we were also told that you’d be able to interrupt people’s dialogue in Mass Effect, so here’s hoping these features make it into the final game.