If ever a game supported repeated playthroughs, Origins is it. Your origin story colours the experience of the entire game – and no superlatives here, it really does. Whichever one you eventually choose, the world will shape and re-order itself around it, often with a subtlety that belies deeper choice. The kinds of interactions we had with the huge amount of powerfully realised NPCs felt so natural in response to our origin story it felt that the game could not possibly have played out in any other way.

A quick load of another character with a different background shows quickly how masterful Bioware has been in painting a world that reacts sublimely to your choices. These changes can be small, such as in the context of a minor side-quest that can still play out in one of a dozen ways, or it can be huge, impacting shocking twists and changing how events play out across all Ferelden and the varying fates of nigh on all the characters you meet.

The plot changes aren't as simple as "that guy dies", either. These interactions are governed by an interestingly-employed moral compass – or rather, a lack of one. A stark contrast against other RPGs, Origins features no such alignment indicator of good or evil actions, simply throwing you to the wind to work things out yourself. Often there are no such clearly-aligned decisions; just a moment of hand-wringing as you struggle to decide which option presented is the one that hopefully won't backfire too badly.