Before Dragon Age: Origins there was Dragon Age: Journeys. A highly polished 2D flash game from a new addition to the EA family; EA2D. Made as both an introduction to the Dragon Age lore and as a marketing tool Dragon Age: Journeys is a flash game well worth giving a shot. It has a lovely bonus in giving you items for use in Dragon Ag: Origins too.
Lasting around 2-3 hours to complete it gives you a side scrolling party based RPG. It pulls assets from the main game giving DA:O players a familiar interface, and for people starting fresh should help them move on into DA:Os more complex interface if they choose to delve into the more full bodied game.
The game is mostly set in Orzammar, you’ll be completing quests, mostly of the ‘kill X amount’ or ‘collect x amount’ type. As you play you’ll expand your party, level up and be able to learn a fragment of Origins skill tree. The story isn’t too shabby either, you get to see the dwarfs desperate push in the Deep Roads in their eternal battle with the blight.
The main difference between Origins and Journeys are the battles. Battles are carried out in turn based fashion on a hexagonal grid, different attacks have different ranges, so make sure to keep an eye on the range when equipping new items. Some grids have obstacles requiring a fair bit of manoeuvring to get into a decent position for an attack. I found the short range of the warrior made her mostly useless except counter-attacks.
For a completely free flash game Dragon Age Journeys sets a new bar. It’s a great play for anyone wanting to break into the Dragon Age Universe, a DA:O fan wanting some filler(and items) while waiting on DA2, or anyone wanting to see the debut act of the promising EA2D studio.
