BioWare gave us an early look of Dragon Age Origins at this year’s GDC during a private event. Dubbed as a “spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate 2″, the game is dark, gritty, and more realistic than previous titles.

There are six different origins stories that you can begin the game with as you take on the role of a Grey Warden to stop the spread of Blite, an evil force in the world. There is extensive character customization you can do before starting the game, as is expected with RPG’s or this caliper. You’ll journey with a group of three followers to aid in your quests. In the demo shown, we got to see Morrigan, a seductive sorceress, Sten, an 8 foot tall Canary warrior, and Leliana, a “hot chick who likes everyone”.

The demo started off with the village of Redcliffe being assaulted and you needing to help out. What’s cool is that you can just say no and watch Redcliffe burn to the ground. Granted, this will have adverse affects on your play down the line, but the choices are there. Every choice you make affects the approval rating of each member of your group. Piss someone off enough and they’ll leave your ass.

With the game able to be played as either an RTS style or RPG style as pan the camera in and out, it’s nice to have a Tactics system added. In this menu, you can setup various conditions and actions for each character when they are controlled by the AI. You can take full control of your party if you wish, use the game’s presets for party tactics, or fully customize how every acts. What’s nice is that presets will change automatically as your characters level up and gain new abilities.

Dragon Age Origins looks to be a solid RPG, which is what we expect out of BioWare. The graphics, even in this early build, were very solid. They used the same type of facial animations seen in Mass Effect to convey emotion and had some solid voice talent in the game. Shipping late 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, this should be a solid title, as long as it doesn’t get overshadowed by Mass Effect 2.