spoiler No control can be dissapointing.

[Rixirite]

Do you ever have that feeling where you think you are powerful and everything that has tried to bite you in the arse fell before your blade, that there is no true way to sought a path of revenge, or justice? The game is awesome, well designed and balanced (Gameplay wise) but the story just made me feel like I had no control over the fates of certain characters and story points. For example, if you are an elf from the Alienage: the Arl's son comes to pick up elven victims to his drunk atrocities, you can't attack him or engage him in any way. No matter what you do, you cannot stop him from raping Shianni, etc. I know this might be a nit pick, but I have a hard time letting someone get raped, or someone tortured when you are there. You have to let the dialogue take its place, you cannot interrupt anything and it is just heavily dissapointing. The same applies to when Queen Anora betrays you to the Loghain's captain, when you arrive back at the estate you cannot kill her like you could kill someone in fallout 3, or oblivion if someone was to be of nuisance to you.

 

I know the story cannot be modulated to so many degrees but the fact that you cannot intervene even as a powerful warrior who killed a dragon, or slayed 20 people you have no saying or doing in other things. It is as if you start from being real powerful to becoming a weak peasent in the eyes of some scum character who betrays you, etc. For example, I know you can kill Arl howe, but you can only do it once at one time. You can't decide to kill him early when the landsmeet is being called upon, and even though it would be foolish to do so with all the witnesses and guards, why can't i draw blade? Again, I am a powerful warrior who has slayed two higher dragons, hundreds of people that got in my way, yet I have no ability to have control over what happens. The duty of a Grey Warden is to establish armies to fight the darkspawn, yet when you gather these armies you have to run on errands to get thier help, which is fine otherwise there would be no point in the game other than to fight darkspawn ultimately. But as a Grey warden you should have two choices of gaining help from someone. So if I have this tyrant Loghain and Arl Howe who can't even keep crime away from the city, and cause so much in the Warden's way: Why can't the Grey Warden do what he/she does to anyone else that stands in His/her way? Kill them. But no, you cannot kill. You have to go with the dialogue and hope that you can control what happens in the end, but you can't.

 

I, for one: love the way you can bond, or disband with your companions. If you like someone, you can inspire them and make then useful and then become romantically involved. If you hate someone, you can get rid of them. That is control I admire and the kind of control I am talking about that should have been implemented in non-companions. I know I am not supposed to be a god, and that I serve the lands of Ferelden but if I am so unstoppable with the help of my party members, what is to stop me from choosing someone's fate with the might and power that has proceeded within me? You are supposed to be the Grey Warden, you are the Grey Warden's mind.

 

Mass Effect, and KOTOR are similar in some ways to all that I have mentioned above, and maybe it is just the style of Bioware's art team to design the games that way. Deus Ex is a comparable game to these Bioware titles in the sense that if you didn't like someone, you have the option to whack them even if it is in front of tons of troops, or take out random individuals. Trust me, I do not have the animosity to do such things but that was the freedom of choice in the game. The freedom to choose fates of others good or bad. In Dragon Age: Origins, it is aggro attacking only. In DA:O There is only choices Green, and yellow; but not a single red light.

 

Well, that is all I have to say as far as criticism goes. The game is truely amazing with my critical attacks aside, but bioware: Can you please allow me to choose more willingly and be in more control over situations like those mentioned above?

 

Any thoughts?

 

BTW, Is anyone else angry with the random loot system? (I walk down a dungeon killing all these beasts to find a chest, which I unlock only to find a deep mushroom in this exquisite chest... What is that?

[DarkeWolf]

Anora- Anora can be a conniving little she-dog. There were many times when I wanted to grab her and shake her till her teeth rattled loose. However, just how much she backstabs you, is dependant on choices that you make in the game. Whether you have accomplished certain things, whether you have revealed things that she doesnt want revealed, what you tell her about your plans for her father, etc.

She's one of the characters that very heavily displays the consequences of your choices.

Not to mention that she can be a pivotal plot device on how the landsmeet goes. Killing her takes her out of the landsmeet. She's a storyline plot.

 

Howe- oh yes, I agree, there were MANY times that I wanted to kill Howe. There's a couple of lessons here tho. 1) There is a time and a place, for everything. 2) Revenge sometimes has to wait. 3) Some things are worth waiting for. Tho to be honest, he died way too easily for it to be satisfactory.

 

heh, yeah, I know what you mean. I was getting a serious case of deja vu on all the stuff that I had to do for people. It was a LOT like playing thru Guild Wars. I mean, here I am, a high ranking Sun Spear, who's killed two major bad guys, and still running on these piss-ant errands for little nobody's. The only thing I can say, is that without all those little errands, your character wouldnt be building up as many xp points. game mechanics man, game mechanics.

 

This answer may have been influenced by having read the Dragon Age novels, and due to some of the things that King Maric had to deal with. But being a good leader doesn't always mean having a strong swordarm. Leaders always at some point in time, also have be a politician. And many times, words fail. Politics fail.

 

I guess, I can sum it all up by saying that BioWare has made this game to be a lot more than just a HackNSlash. The sword and spell is not the solution to every problem, and if you've played it thru to the end, that all problems just can't be solved.

[Rixirite]

I see what you mean, but they should at least let me torture the arl's son for raping the elves, that really set me on fire. It shouldn't though because it's just a game.. But it did.

[DarkeWolf]

I actually dont know of the event that you're talking about. It sounds like it would have been an Origin plot for the elves maybe?

But I have to agree. Rape is something that I cannot abide. Not in the least. They'd have been scraping the guy off the walls. So I guess that in a way, I'm glad I don't know about the scene you're talking about.

 

Like I said, I totally agree that it was very wrong. But in the game world, elves really are helpless against that kind of thing. They live on reservations, as the lowest of the low, and are pretty much victims to the predations of the humans. Its actually very similar to the way thatsome of the american indians were treated for a few years after they were put on the reservations.

 

I think, that it would have been better if at that end we would have been given a choice to liberate them from the Alienations, and send them out to the Dalish.

 

heh, yeah...the loot system was pretty bogus.

[Rixirite]

You don't see it happen, but Shianni is one of the Elven woman at the Alienage who smashed the drunk with a vase to knock him out to protect you from him. Then the next day he returns and has her taken to his chambers where he rapes her. The only thing you can really do is kill him. But I want to see him suffer. I want the Arl's son to be tortured, and shown no mercy. His screams of pain would have been great too considering the look on Shianni's face, a expression of brutality and rape just enraged me.

 

That is how pissed off I was. This is one of the things I really get upset about, because I am passionate about these things and even though it is a game it seems to real to me and I object the lack of intervention. If I had the choice I'd simply kill him right when get comes back to get Shianni, but again: Can't do that. No control.

 

I am requesting a mod where Shianni can be saved before she is raped, thus preserving her life and happiness before it dims.

[rebalious]

Even my elves of ultimate evil (if this were me2 they would be terminators) wont take that bribe, he is always turned into a thin paste. Even evil has standards. Also he never gets out of prison in other origins.

 

The lack of control for that is especially jarring if the PC is female since they would be raped too.

[brokenergy]

Some things are meant to happen in order to set the larger wheels in motion. Shianni gets rape and there is nothing you can do to stop it, but if that didn't happen the city elf (if played) would never leave the Alienage and become a Grey Warden. Some things are just preordained and meant to happen e.g. Alistair becoming king even though he doesn't want to, Duncan dieing etc. You could make a mod to save Shianni before the rape but in what about the other origins where she does get raped, you can't leave the forest or Highever or underground to save her. Howe betrays your family, Trian dies, Leske is eventually caught again, Jowan leaves the Circle of Magi and Tamlen becomes infected. No matter how badly you want to stop these things, it still happens and I for one an happy for the outcomes for the Origins.

 

Btw, the looting system needs to be improved; wolves cannot carry Lyrium potions and a mage only having lifestones.

 

Edit: This wiki page should help with what I mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

[Rixirite]

Not true, the Grey wardens would still see your fighting valor when you fight your way out of prison, and in to kill the arl. The arl hasn't raped her and I killed him, etc. Duncan would still see me as a potential.

[brokenergy]

Question: You personally wouldn't fight a group of armed men with your bare hands when you have no hand to hand expertise would you? You where already between a rock and a hard place in the first place, you would not waste your own life and cause more hassle for your own people when their lives are already miserable. It was the Arl's actions that was the turning point for you and caused the events. It might sound harsh but do note that I'm only stating this because we as the observer are only seeing this and wish to do what is right, but when you live it out daily your only wish is to stay alive for one more day.

 

Duncan already knew your potential before doing anything major. In all of the origin plots he knew the person he was looking for, you could see it in a way and he knew your parents. I know you couldn't save Shianni and it pissed me off too but if the Arl dies before the rape certain things would not happen such as the Guardian's question (he would as the question but it would not be correct).

[rebalious]

Understand the neccesity of it, just a minor annoyance is all.

 

You personally wouldn't fight a group of armed men with your bare hands when you have no hand to hand expertise would you?

Below the belt spam? :)

Depends how badass your PC is. If someone was going to rape your friends or relatives would you really consider your own safety anyway?