"Each of us are extras in another man's movie, but we decide if it's a speaking part." - B. Karratti

I think that each of us plays games for many different reasons. We do it to unwind. Some of us may do it to actually get ourselves more riled up. We game to cooperate with others. We game to dominate others with our unbelievable skill. We game because while we can't exactly live the stories on a film or be the heroes in the stories that we read in books, comic books or watch on TV, we can feel like we're doing those things in a game (at least to some degree).

It's a surreal kind of escapism; the ability to become another person, to say those things and do those deeds that we don't have the opportunities to say or do in real life. We can blow a helicopter out of the sky, we can destroy legions of the undead, and we can save the world, get the girl, and when it's all said and done, we can do it all over again.

But for me, it's not only the "Holy Sh**!" moments that keep me locked into a game. Sure, there's plenty of times where a certain jaw-dropping sequence will nearly make me drop the controller as I jump out of my chair in unbelievable, mind-bending amazement at what has just happened on the screen. But more often than not, those little moments fade over time to become more of a triviality.

What keeps me playing, especially in a single-player game, is the story. It's the experience. And it seems that, while I've been annoyed about the perceived absence of good storytelling in many of the games in recent years, the past few months have been a divine plethora of choice storytelling game experiences. From Ghostbusters, to Batman: Arkham Asylum, to Brutal Legend, and most recently Uncharted 2 and even Modern Warfare 2, the storytelling in games has just been getting better and better.

But my most recent game took it all to a whole new level.

I just finished Dragon Age: Origins this morning, after a lengthy campaign of many, many hours. Immediately, however, I started from a different origin story, and I'm going to do it all over again. It's been quite some time since I was last pulled into a game so deeply, especially in ways that made me think about my choices, made me question my decisions, and forced me to live with the consequences.

I don't really want to go into a spoilerific stream of things, so let me be general in my praise here. The gameplay is excellent. There are a number of difficulty settings for all different play tastes. There's the super-meticulous turn-based strategy experts who understand all the nuances of Mana and damage types and how each point will affect each character... And then there's the setting for guys like me who only wants to worry about keeping my character alive while I'm hacking a couple of lightning swords at a dragon's feet. But the most important part about the gameplay is, to me, that it doesn't get in the way of the story.

And what an experience this story is. There's themes of loyalty, themes of passion, lust, greed, honor, respect, hatred and fear, as well as hundreds of variations of it all. As the pivotal character of the story, your decisions affect everything, from the way that history will reflect on your adventures, to your relationships with your characters, to who will stand by your side at the end of it all. And what makes the whole thing so engaging is how deep and intimate so many of these little moments can be.

SPOILER

For example - I spent a lot of my attention, at least in the camp, with Morrigan. I wanted to know her stories, understand her history. I think I eventually ended up exhausting all of the dialog options for her, actually. But early on, she related a story about the fact that she had once found a golden mirror that she cherished as a child, but later her mother shattered it as a lesson to her.

The story disappeared into the recesses of my mind, until a few days later, when I was playing again, and I happened to spot the gift of a "Mirror" in one of the shops in Orzammar. I bought it immediately, thinking of Morrigan's story, and gave it to her at the camp. It created a very powerful little scene where she was very appreciative of the gift. It was a very interesting, "thoughtful gift moment", one that only served to deepen the immersion of the player in the story. That attention to detail is just amazing to me.

END SPOILERS

I haven't had this kind of experience since I played Fallout 3, or even Oblivion, which is an easy comparison, but Dragon Age is so much more polished, so much more rich in character and depth, that I would hasten to say that they've surpassed both of those games completely. This is an open-world RPG done right, and I can't wait to play it again.

Well, this has gone on longer than I anticipated, so let me just end it like this - If you haven't played this game, you should. But this isn't a kids' game. This is a story that requires some maturity, some thought, and some patience and curiosity to truly appreciate. If you have the time and patience to allow yourself to be drawn into an unbelievably rich, yet richly believable gameworld, than this is the game for you.

Trust me, you'll love it.

- Karratti