Considering Dragon Age has pretty much dominated my past week I thought appropriate to write up my final thoughts about. As of last night I finally finished my first play-through of the game. I took my sweet time and unlock all kinds of achievements in my travels.
Apparently I cannot link to my online profile however since it seems to require validation. Oh well.
So where to begin. I really enjoyed the story and world that Bioware has crafted. Sure, it had its “here comes the ultimate world ending evil, save everyone”, but it included a lot of other story elements as well. Solving civil wars, amassing an army, and things like that. The world didn’t feel as seamless as in Oblivion where you could travel across the world map without a load screen.
Owning an ogre!
That would probably be my biggest complaint for the game. Far too much loading. And I am sure there are plenty of technical reasons for it but after being spoiled by things like WoW and Oblivion, the “healthy” amount of times I spent looking at a loading screen was an annoyance.
One common occurring bug popping up on the forums is that load times get increasing long the longer your play session is. A minor problem compared to the constant crashing many people experienced with Mass Effect.
Combat felt like the happy marriage between Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic. There was the micro-managing you found a little heavier in KOTOR but incorporated some of the tactical elements you found in Mass Effect, such as using line of sight and character positioning. More than once I placed my party around a corner in a doorway and pulled mobs to them to help protect my casters.
Dealing with soldiers.
One addition to the combat system is what Bioware called “Tactics.” Essentially these are simple conditional statements that you can configure for each of your party members. Things such as telling your healer to heal any party member below a certain health percentage, tell your DPS to use an AoE ability when surrounded by 3 or more mobs, and other things like that. It was fairly robust with commands ranging from distance checks, party health, their personal health status, and many others.
If there is one thing I truly loved in this game was the dialogue. Not just your dialogue options during story progression, but the hilarious banter between your companions while you travel. There are so many gems hidden in these sound files that people already had made threads on the Dragon Age forums about what their favorite lines were so far.
Some of my favorites were references to Star Wars and the Princess Bride. But there were many times I would stop moving just so I could hear the conversations easier because they were so hilarious.
Morrigan and Aratar.
I played through the game on hard difficulty and it was a challenge, especially early on in the game. There were some fights I actually had to leave and come back to once I had leveled up some more and unlocked some more abilities and armor. Similar to Oblivion, every encounter is “epic” fight, for better or worse. Every thug hits like a truck and they come with tons of friends. Every wolf travels in a pack of like . . . . a bajillion. I swear.
Sure, it felt great to mow down a group of 20 or 25 guys, but sometimes you would think to yourself “Man, if every thug is this strong, let’s get them all together to save the world.”
Another difference between what you found in Mass Effect or KOTOR was the lack of a “alignment” bar. In KOTOR you either leaned dark side or light side unless you remained neutral, and Mass Effect had a similar system. In Dragon Age, rather than one encompassing alignment, you had a reputation bar with each individual party member. Any action you did could influence them to like you more or hate you. And some decisions could catastrophically alter your party members.
Dragon. Pwned.
With that being said, not everyone will enjoy Dragon Age Origins. You would have to have really enjoyed the playstyle found in games like Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, or Mass Effect. If you enjoyed any of the games on that list, I highly recommend it. Dragon Age doesn’t have the most cutting edge graphics, but it still takes a bit of a beast to run. Especially since some fights will have 20-30 characters on screen actually participating in a battle.
I had a blast playing through it. I plan on doing it again, except with a spellcaster this time. Should be fun. Thoughts, comments, or your own Dragon Age experiences, share them in the comments. Try to avoid spoilers though.
Drotara (or BehemothDan) considers himself a geek on many levels. A web developer and programmer by trade, he has no shortage of geeky hobbies. Whether it's trying to stay current in World of Warcraft raiding, playing competitively in the WoW TCG, Magic: The Gathering with friends, or a night at the local shop playing DnD, it's all good to him!
I just picked this up the other day and I’m VERY early in the game, but I’m digging it pretty well so far. I started as a caster, but I defiantly want to try a few different classes to see how they feel. I’m running the Xbox version as I’m typically not a huge fan of PC gaming, and just prefer the feel of sitting on my couch with a remote in hand. The console version certainly limits you to how many spells you can hotkey (6) and the graphics are even less sexy, but the overall experience so far is pretty fun. Combat is smoother and requires a LOT less management on the console version, so if you are looking to micro manage, the pc version is probably more along the lines of what you are looking for. I’m looking forward to putting a decent dent in this game over the weekend. One thing I was really impressed with is each class appears to have a separate tutorial level giving you a wealth of background information before it throws you into the main story line. It really ties the story together and is a great way to promote playing multiple classes.
Early on I didn’t have a need for micro-managing. But as fights get progressively harder and introduce other elements, you will find yourself moving your party around and making sure certain buffs are maintained.
An interesting tidbit I read on the forums was the difficulty difference between the PC and the console. Apparently some are saying that the console’s “Normal” is the PC’s version of Easy, and that the console has no equivalent of the PC’s “Nightmare.” Part of this might be due to control restrictions and what not. I was constantly making my action bars bigger as all my party members learned new abilities.
ok i just read someone saying : the pcs Hard is the consoles Nightmare?
now ur just bsing everyone, i happen to have my bro playing on Hard right next to me, while im playing on Nightmare on my xbox so i can clearly see differences. both versions have their pro’s and cons (like pc u have to literally Search for codexes and other stuff while they just sparkle on the console version) but the pc version is easier to manage ur party and u can tell all ur guys what to do at the same time, anyeway about the difficulties: ??
i just beat the demon that possessed connor in the fade, as jowan.. wich was a really tough battle, the demon used all sorts of spells and resisted a shit load of spells, battle took like 20 minutes.
Now on hard on the PC, that battle lasted like 1 minute? didnt even take 1 full mana bar. plus he didnt cast arcane shield nor did he resist a shitload of spells that mine did.
So as far as ur little theory goes … i would call it Busted, and i am the MYTH BUSTER ! >_< XD
Actually there are a number of evidences to support it according to other posters. For example, the normal mode on consoles has no friendly fire. If you want that luxury on the PC you have to go to easy. Even on hard mode on the consoles you only affect your team mates with 50% friendly fire.
The drop rate on potions and gold also supports the adjusted difficulty theory. In addition, there have been side-by-side comparisons on other sites and forums arguing about this showing the decreased number of spawn monsters during fights.
Your busted myth is unbusted. :)
I love this game! In the past week I played only Dragon Age, 55 hours playtime atm. Playing it on normal, its very challenging and I love the dialogs between the NPC-s. I didnt played Fallout 1-2, nor Planescape Torment, so for me this is the 2nd best RPG I ever played, right after Baldur’s Gate.
My only problem is, that I dont feel the “dark” part of dark fantasy in the game. I mean, all this stuff happens in other games. And you can always choose the “good” dialog. I have never been forced to choose the less bad option. For example: – SPOILER – In Redcliffe Castle you had 3 options to defeat the demon, kill Connor, sacrifice his mother or the good one, go to the circle to ask for help. – SPOILER END -
But some of those bad options you can choose can be really bad.
*** SPOILER***
During the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest you can straight up choose to defile the temple and Leliana will turn on you and you will have to kill her. Such are the consequences of defiling the most precious relic her religion knows.
*** END SPOILER ***
My choices always deviate from side to side. I have no problems killing highwaymen who attempt to rob me, showing no mercy to Lohgaine, etc. But in the grand scheme of things I usually end up being a pretty good guy. :)
All in all a great game. I was feeling brainless so I worked through the “normal” version on the Xbox(which is super easy btw) in about 35 hours, now I’m going to attempt it on Nightmare, though I wish I would have known about the difficulty disparity, as I would have chosen to get the PC version. Oh, btw Drot, how are you? Long time no hear.
Hey hey Lunch. Doing alright. No real complaints other than my second monitor just bust on me! Multi-tasking went RIGHT out the window. :(
How does the dialogue compare to The Bard’s Tale? Crappy game, but the most hilarious dialogue I’ve ever heard.
I have thought the dialog is utterly fantastic. There have been more and more occasions where I switch party members and walk around just to hear their funny banter. I never played Bard’s Tale so I can’t do a direct comparison.
It’s not as self-mocking as bard’s tale, but I would definitely say they are similiar. Bard’s Tale breaks the 4th wall quite a bit, and DA remains in character always, but it’s hilarious…