So, how do you like Dragon Age?

[tagos]

Loving it. I've been playing CRPG's since the old 8-bit AD&D Gold Box games and I'm getting the same thrill I had playing the original Pool of Radiance and a decade or so later, Baldur's Gate via Arena/Daggerfall.

 

This is the first single-player game I've got into since joining Lord of the Rings Online and it has reminded me what I've been missing. Complex, detailed, shades of grey world and plot, NPC's with real personality and in-depth tactical combat.

 

I enjoyed Oblivion as an action/rpg but DA-O is the sort of Old School Hardcore CRPG.

 

Brilliant.

[Monolithic0117]

except for issues with the online progress system, which hasn't shown my progress for over a week now.

 

 

I don't understand what this is? Does it tell ever1 your progress? Or does it just keep it for you to see?

 

I have a real hard time with things that keep tabs on you. It is why I don't use things like Xfire and Gamespies little deal. Also Valve or Steam irritate me as well becasue it keeps tabs on you too. If you do not understand what I am talking about here is an example. Say you want to play a game with a friend and your other firneds want to play with you too. Well you can't just play the game with one friend without catching flack from the others for not playing with them. Or if you just want to play by yourself because you are in a bad mood... Yeah you have to take extra steps to not appear online. Just bugs me. Sorry I digressed it's just I don't like anything that tracks you or keeps tabs on anything you do, it happens enough in real life.

 

It just keeps tabs on your achievements, screenshots, character progress, etc. , and displays them on your character profile in the Social Network.

It's not a mandatory feature, just optional.

[Astrolopolis]

I just ordered a copy from Amazon, just couldn't face the drive to get one. This way it comes to me.

 

Lazy to the end.

 

Buddah

 

 

I just gotta' say, me too; aside from the lazy part, which I definitely am, I also believe more in Amazon.com than I do MobilOil.com, thus I purchase all my games online and save the gasoline for real road trips (something I love almost as much as gaming)...

 

Uh, to stay on topic, let me say that I've got maybe 24 hours into the game and each hour that goes by has me enjoying it more. It's a deep, rich world and my spouse is a saint for letting me have all this fun without her... :whistling:

 

Astro

[CWardUSC]

There's definitely no deviation from the standard formula -- pretty obvious good/bad dialogue, click-based ability combat, intensive use of voice acting. No deviation from the standard lore maxims either for that matter -- dwarves are short and live underground; elves are tall, immortal, and live in woodlands; humans are malign lesser races come to take over the world. Though even if this could pass as an elaborate KOTOR mod, it's still damned good when all the pieces come together, largely because of the old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

 

There's a few things which are wanting in the game, in my opinion, but they're minor things.

 

1) Better loot system. One thing Oblivion has right that BioWare hasn't caught on with yet is that most everything on an NPC is lootable. If you see some awesome armor being worn by a bandit in Oblivion, normally you can strip them bare and gank it. In DA you get a random assortment of largely useless sell or craft items, sometimes that have no relevance to the enemy you were fighting. Since the majority of loot ends up pawned, as you get good quest armor and weapons pretty early so generic "Leather Armor" or "Darkspawn Waraxe" are pittance, you'd hope for a better system to get those lootables into $. Personally the backpack system is already farfetched and unrealistic, which is fine, but then why not just take the next step and let you convert lootables into gold on the spot so you don't have to micromanage selling useless garbage.

 

2) Quest markers. When you're in an area where you have a quest, there's actually a pretty good marking system that shows all quest locations even if they aren't "active". The same is not true however of how quests operate between local maps and city or world maps. If you have to meet someone in "a tavern in Denerim", you won't necessarily know that tavern is in the Market District, The Pearl, or maybe elsewhere since the City map doesn't show an indicator. Then if you get to the market district, I'm fairly certain it won't have a marker over the tavern either. The only time the marker will show is if you're in the location 'local map'. It's fine for some quests that encourage more exploration, but others are just a waste of time. I thought we perfected the map-to-map quest tracking by now.

 

3) Little incentive to be 'bad'. In KOTOR, you'd either be dark side or light side of the force. Both sides had powerful abilities, and your companions would change based on your choices. There were definite incentives throughout to choose both sides, be it lucrative quest rewards or special abilities. In Dragon Age it seems to be less about good and evil, and more about nice guy or douche. Most of the 'evil' options are just plain rude, and the only thing it gets you is low approval ratings, which in turn lose you companions and don't get you any nifty plot bonus abilities. There's a few situations, like a quest

where you can side with the more malevolent party and in return you get a Golem contingent for the final battle.

Aside from those occasional situations, the dialogue itself, and some occasional extra $$, there's little reason to choose to be an anti-hero.

 

4) Some collision/pathfinding issues. Especially if you're trying to play the game more fluidly, as close to an action-rpg as you can manage rather than a pseudo turn-based rpg, you often run into collision problems. Characters look mighty awkward maneuvering to flank an enemy when they make for him and run into the backs of their companions or other enemies. Overall this is a very minor issue, but occasionally it can be a real pain if you aren't using top-down view.

 

5) Various. A better fast travel system would have been nice, where you could go from any location. It might make sense to have you run back through an area if there were enemy respawns to contend with, but in the current format it just involves more incessant running. The system could be better if you were able to fast travel anywhere in the 'region' from anywhere in an 'area' map, assuming you weren't in battle or locked in the area, since the running around to exits wastes time and loading screens(you go through like 4 trying to get from the slums to the Palace in Orzammar). The potential for a voiced main character is something to consider, it worked really well for 'The Witcher', and while it'd be harder to achieve with PC customization, BioWare is revolutionary in voice-acting technology, so should be able to pull something off that's usable.

 

These are all relatively minor critiques in the scope of the game, and they don't detract a lot from the gameplay experience, but are part of the reason the game is really good but not quite perfect. I still love the game, and think BioWare did a fantastic job with it.

[Aria C]

I cant make up my mind wether I love DA or hate it, had I not played every other Bioware title I would say without a doubt that I love it. In many ways though DA was a let down to me and I am even more dissapointed in the DLC content. I am definately going to wait and see what others have to say before wasting any more money on it.

 

What I am extremely excited about however is the toolset, once learned it's really amazing and it not all that hard to learn. The tutorials found on the socail site and the wiki are well done and will speed any one on there way. So no doubt that some of DA's short comings can be fixed by the community. I just wish that it was capable of importing.

[HarryJoy]

I'm having a ball with it. I played the heck out of Baldur's Gate. I played NWN until it seemed no one else was playing - I think I downloaded pretty much every major mod and many, many minor ones. Even ventured online and played with the kids of the world for a while. But NWNII left me utterly cold. I couldn't get into it at all.

 

Dragon Age on the other hand... I can see myself playing this for a long, long time.

[Curious002]

I think the only fair answer is : its great.

 

Of course there are faults in the details. I dont like parts of the rulesystem, though the basics structure is all right, but the balance is still way off.

 

But storywise its the full package, and contentwise its just huge.

[deadnerzhul]

Best RPG I've ever played since KOTOR. Eons ahead of Oblivion (which, according to my opinion, was utterly terrible due to pitiful storytelling, endless handholding, laughable combat that isn't fun, voice acting that is terrible, graphics that suck yet it is still a PC hog... I can go on for a while).

 

Dragon Age: Origins has REALLY fun combat, awesome storytelling that really does draw you in, characters that aren't made of cardboard, and Shale... Shale, Shale, Shale. Best companion since HK-47. Oh, and the music is astounding! Good thing the soundtrack came with my Digital Deluxe Edition of the game.

[kevinwastaken]

Best RPG I've ever played since KOTOR. Eons ahead of Oblivion (which, according to my opinion, was utterly terrible due to pitiful storytelling, endless handholding, laughable combat that isn't fun, voice acting that is terrible, graphics that suck yet it is still a PC hog... I can go on for a while).

 

Dragon Age: Origins has REALLY fun combat, awesome storytelling that really does draw you in, characters that aren't made of cardboard, and Shale... Shale, Shale, Shale. Best companion since HK-47. Oh, and the music is astounding! Good thing the soundtrack came with my Digital Deluxe Edition of the game.

You can argue the RPG merits of Oblivion all day long, and I tend to agree that they suck, but to say the graphics sucked is just a lie. 3 years ago there were no other RPGs that came anywhere close to Oblivion graphically. If it looked like crap it was because your computer sucked. Don't blame Bethesda, blame your jobless/poor ass. ;)

[dree74]

I loved it, but too short and somewhat repetive in terms of combat. but still, it was worth it.