By Nelson Schneider - 09/18/16 at 02:14 PM CT
It has been quite some time since I gave the review treatment to Steam and Desura. I would like to do the same for GOG Galaxy, but I feel it’s a bit unfair to review software that’s still technically in Alpha. I could look at Uplay, but I don’t have it installed currently, as I have cleared the whopping two Ubisoft games I own from my backlog and don’t intend to buy any more…
That leaves EA’s Origin client. Recently, I intentionally installed this particular strain of malware on my Steambox and spent $40 on EA games. While this behavior is incredibly uncharacteristic for me, it stemmed from Sony really pissing me off lately (even before the PS4 Pro and PS+ price hike announcements), to the point of making me double-down on the idea of never owning a PS4, not even for the handful of EA games I would otherwise only be able to play if I installed Origin on my Steambox. I was further tipped over the edge by a week-long Origin sale, during which I was able to get “Dragon Age: Inquisition’s” Game of the Year Edition (with all DLC), “Dragon Age 2” (with NO DLC, unfortunately, due to the way that game handles DLC), and “Unravel” for 50% off, hence the $40 I spent.
After purchasing these three games through Origin’s website, I found myself in need of the Origin client, as it acts as a DRM scheme for all EA games. The download and install were both completely painless. Origin’s installer is tiny, as it downloads most of the client files during the actual install process. It’s also a shockingly friendly installer that, like Steam and GOG Galaxy, allows the user to install it wherever they want without pitching a fit. After I refreshed the OS install on my Steambox on a new SSD (which Matt insisted would drastically improve my gaming load times… but didn’t), I decided to start keeping my game clients in the Root directory of the Windows C: drive for the sake of simplicity and organization. Origin didn’t complain, even after I inadvertently installed it in its default location, uninstalled it, reinstalled it in Root, and then jiggered around with the directory it uses for game installs several times. I didn’t do this on purpose just to see if I could cause Origin to fail spectacularly, but it’s mildly impressive that it didn’t nonetheless.
Once installed, Origin behaves very much like Steam. It can be set to auto-login with saved credentials and to start-up as an icon in the Windows system tray. Aside from the ominous, orange “O” icon, one would never know they had EA malware running on their system, as it doesn’t overtly harass users (or course, that’s how malware works… users aren’t supposed to know it’s there).
Recently, Origin received a bit of a face lift, with an interface redesign. I barely used Origin before it got its new look, but I’m not seeing a particular difference after the update, aside from a feed-like ‘My Home’ section that lumps a bunch of stuff together much like popular Millennial blogging platform, Tumblr, whose cluttered interface drives me insane. Aside from that one section, though, the new Origin really doesn’t feel much different than using the old Origin with a slightly different Steam skin. Of course, Origin doesn’t support skins…
Origin features all of the things one would expect in a game-launching client and storefront. It has a section to show-off the user’s game library, a user profile section, a friend/chat list, a prominent link to EA’s storefront, sub-categories highlighting sales, as well as sections highlighting EA’s unique services. EA’s storefront is a bit bare-bones, though, as it doesn’t (and never has, as of yet) allow users to ‘wishlist’ products they want to save for later. Keeping an eye on Origin’s prices either involves a third-party website or tediously checking prices product-by-product. Likewise, Origin’s storefront is divided between an ass-backwards point-based system for buying DLC and a fully modern cash-based method. Some games in the store, like “Dragon Age: Inquisition,” simply list the DLCs as separate products and discounts them alongside their base game. Other games, though, like “Dragon Age 2,” use an archaic system of ‘BioWare’ points (obviously inspired by Xbox Live’s point system) for purchasing DLC. In such situations, there is absolutely no way to purchase said DLCs without BioWare points, and both the DLCs and the BioWare points needed to purchase them never go on sale.
The two things EA’s Origin does that other clients don’t are EA Access and On the House. EA Access is a detestable subscription service that, like its counterpart on the XBONE, offers subscribers ‘free’ access to a large swath of EA’s library without actually ‘buying’ the games (naturally, these ‘free’ games go *poof* if a subscriber stops paying). Like PS+ or Xbox Live Gold, this ‘service’ really offers nothing of value, as perpetually paying for access to games one might not (read: probably doesn’t) want is foolish. And unlike the console situation, EA hasn’t (yet) decided to require Access in order to use the online features of Origin-exclusive titles on PC. On the House, on the other hand, is a surprisingly generous feature via which EA places certain games or DLCs on a rolling schedule, and anyone with an Origin account is free to claim no-cost, permanent access to any On the House title while it’s on offer. In essence, On the House is like Steam’s Free Weekends, only permanent (though it does require some initiative from the user to claim their free games instead of just dumping them in everyone’s game list like Steam does).
In everyday use, Origin is not actually all that bad, which surprised me. It is reasonably unobtrusive, and features a variety of settings toggles that can be turned off in order to make it even less obtrusive. The biggest hang-up I still have about Origin, aside from the fact that it is still a redundant DRM scheme and client used only to access EA’s library of mainstream swill, is the fact that it doesn’t really play well with other clients. I have spent many hours of frustration trying to make “Dragon Age: Inquisition” accept inputs from my Steam controller. While I did eventually get it to work, the process was (and still is) somewhat glitchy. What should be a simple matter of adding a shortcut for DragonAgeInquisition.exe to Steam and launching it from there quickly devolves into a mess, as the multiple clients, wrappers, and bootstrappers get a bit tangled up with each other, as they merge together into a disgusting, rotting onionskin. I have to lay the blame entirely on Origin, here, as the Steam controller behaves fine with GOG games launched through custom Steam shortcuts. Maybe EA’s games wouldn’t be quite so problematic if they took a page from Ubisoft’s playbook and sold software on both Origin AND Steam.
When all the cards are down, though, the only reason Origin exists is because EA is greedy and couldn’t stand the idea of continuing to share revenue with Valve. All of the client’s features are purely redundant, while EA Access is predatory and On the House would work the same way if managed through an existing, established, and beloved storefront. For those who can’t live without EA’s drip-feed of mainstream swill, installing Origin is a small price to pay. However, it seems to me that, once I finish the tiny number of Origin games in my library, this particular client, much like Uplay before it, will be one of the first things I uninstall to free-up drive space.
