Spoiler Alert: If you haven't completed DA:O, this does contain ending spoilers.

Moral choice systems are such bullshit. Well, most of the time. Sometimes, they can get in the way of a good story (Bioshock) or are too black and white (Fallout 3, Mass Effect.) But actually, sometimes, they can be a good idea. Such is the case of Dragon Age. When reading the bullet points on the back of the box, Bioware promised a complicated moral system, where nothing is as it seems (Or something along those lines, the box is currently at a friends house).

The reality, is a little different.

As no doubt you remember, in Redcliffe, when helping out the villagers, you have to enter the castle and find Arl Eamon. I won't synopsize the events for you, but eventually, after a little dungeon, you confront Connor, the demon possessed child of the Arl, and he runs off. You are then confronted with what seems 2 choices. You can either kill the child thereby ridding the castle of the demons curse, or you can use taboo blood magic, and by sacrificing Isolde, the child's mother, you can enter the Fade and kill the demon from within, saving Connor.

Now this, is the perfect idea of what Moral choices should be. Do you kill a child or kill it's mother? Do you rid the castle of the possessed apostate, or do you banish the desire demon forever?

Oh, but wait. There is a third, much less hard option



Instead, if you completed the quest for the Magi "Broken Circle" earlier in the game, you don't have to kill anyone and can use their help to finish the quest peacefully, with no deaths or repercussions. And this wouldn't be such a big deal for me, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm supposed to playing a game in a Dark Fantasy Universe, with a complicated moral choice system which has no inherent good or evil.

And maybe, it isn't such a big deal. That seems to be the only decision which lacks weight. The games finale, for example, offsets that. You can either sacrifice yourself, your best friend, or give a power hungry bitch a demon baby. Now that's more like it!



Infact, I probably wouldn't have joined this site and posted this blog if it wasn't for the news about Dragon Age: Awakening. Like Mass Effect 2, Bioware will let you import your character, with all choices and decisions intact. Whether Alistair married Anora, or if you killed Leliana and Wynne, most will feature in the game whether it has direct plot altering effects or a simple nod of the head and an odd line changed.

But what about the Dead Warden? Players who sacrificed themselves in defense of Ferelden? Instead of doing the logical thing, of letting them import their characters decisions and letting them play as a new Warden Commander, they are instead hand waiving the decision. Yup. If it's alright for you to ignore the most weighty of decisions in the game to play the expansion, it's alright with them to ignore it too!

Oh, that's alright then.