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Dragon Age: Origins OST

Format:
OST

Genre:
Adventuring

Style:
Thirdperson

Buy/Support:
Support Cat, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Scared Gamer (360)
Frugal Gamer (360)
Mousey Gamer (360)
Intimate Gamer (PS3)

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Dragon Age: Origins serves its purpose, sparkles once or twice, but its lack of defined motifs and melodies gave me a largely unremarkable experience save for two outstanding tracks. It is a fairly typical example of incidental music and vague themes without any one element tying them all together.

The standout tracks come from the opening cinematic and deeper parts of the end-game. The title track is a strong, thumping piece of work that successfully works a memorable theme amongst the sultry sounds of the soprano voice. These add to the epic feel of the game when playing and are handled expertly by Bioware.

Lelianna's Song and the final track of the album, I Am The One, are both beautiful. I frequently found myself coming back to them away from the game and it's hard not to be moved by the alluring voice of Aubrey Ashburn in Lelianna's Song, or feel a sense of longing for Ferelden.

Aside from these few tracks the whole album feels a little weak though. There are some sections that reminded me of the Mass Effect soundtrack in Mage's In Their Chantry, where I swear I could hear Sovereign Theme amongst the ethereal voices and strings. But many of the other pieces are distinctly unmemorable, feeling like mere background noise compared to the penultimate Ferelden At War track which accompanies one of the more dramatic cut scenes building up to the game's climax.

In terms of its effectiveness within the video game, Dragon Age: Origins Soundtrack works well, the music never overpowered my experience as I played but neither did it sound particularly memorable. But as a stand alone musical release it does quite have the weight to carry you through. The four tracks I liked the most I'll throw into a play list for future listening, but as a whole the album lacks any real substance to stand on its own.

Written by Cat Spencer

You can support Cat by buying Dragon Age: Origins



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Cat Spencer writes the Soundtrack Gamer column.

"Video game soundtracks are often overlooked and frequently missunderstood. For me though, they are as much a part of my gaming experience as the games themsevles."

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