Why do many Oblivion fans tend not to like Dragon Age?

[Deleted472477User]

Part of it is you either like sandboxes (or you flail around in them, lost) or you like more story driven, linear games (or you see it as railroading). I've seen only a few cases where fans of one style over the other try the other type of game and end up liking it.

 

My CRPG playing started off with the old school stuff: party of six, no automapping, there might be a paragraph book involved, crazy random encounters. then I discovered the TES games (Daggerfall) and had never played the single character, wide open sandbox before then, but I loved it. I haven't played DA yet, I'd be open to trying it, mind. I don't think I'd like it as much as I do Elder Scrolls, though.

[WeissYohji]

Good question, I'll answer from a Dragon Age hater perspective. When you have played games that have an incredible amount of freedom to move around, you tend to dislike games with invisible borders at every corner. When you've played games that allow you to swing your sword and cast spells in real time, you prefer those kinds of games. When you play games that allow you to modify it in its entirety -- that is to say landscapes, races, buildings, scripts, everything. -- you tend to stick with games like that.

 

Dragon age didn't appeal to me, it felt like KotOR II. I'm done with games that allow you to be skilless in order to win, like Dragon Age. It's heavily statistics, and little action. The choices are funny, and the characters are unique, but there is no freedom of movement. You're always chained to the main quest. I just can't get interested in a game with no landscape or exploration beyond the beaten path.

 

Once you become a slave of one of the best games in the known universe (In your own opinion, of course), you shun everything else. It's as simple as that.

 

^^ This. And I've never even played Dragon Age!

 

This is, however, the reason why I don't play JRPGs these days. I've still got the first two Xenosaga games and haven't touched them in six years now. Zelda? More of an action-adventure game than a traditional RPG but I still haven't played it since I got the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess. The formulaic ways that JRPGs are made are holding the medium back. Why the hell don't they allow customization like the Elder Scrolls games? What do they think is going to happen? Just once I'd like to see a Final Fantasy game with the same customization as Oblivon/Skyrim. (At least Skyrim's people don't look like monkeys but more realistic instead.)

 

Even Diablo has fallen victim to this. Why restrict the player this way? All these rules treat us like animals!

[Semtex]

It can be yet a little worse - we serve only as a grinder on the money. Indeed. >:(

Bethesda chop the branch, on which it sit. Why? Since - produces the Games, which will keep us on keyboard two hundred, maybe four hundred, and more hours.

It is not very good. "This is the business."

"The Right" game must entertained player for forty, maybe sixty hours, not more, and then may be throw in to trash and we have to bought an other *** "in shiny facades".

 

DA I buy and played to the end. It was not a bad game. But ... It has nothing more to offer for me.

 

From the days of when I played Morrowind and Gothic, I have one measure: It is possible to create "this one" in TESCS? If the answer is yes, comparing game is "weaker" than Morrowind or Oblivion.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Semtex

[mizdarby]

Saying it in a small timid voice...I actually liked Dragons Age Origins. There you go the cats out of the bag now.

[evenstargw]

Saying it in a small timid voice...I actually liked Dragons Age Origins. There you go the cats out of the bag now.

 

So did I. Played it quite a lot. I even enjoyed DA2, though it lacked a lot of things from Origins. It's a different experience, Oblivion draws you in with its vast world of freedom, DA draws you in with enjoyable companions, good voice acting, engaging storyline. At some point I had seen every corner in Tamriel, done every quest and could quote nearly every character. Something different was needed so DA filled in that gap. Now that I'm back to playing Oblivion, I've tried DA a few times but couldn't get into it again.

 

BTW, I wholeheartedly agree with your signature, lol.

[mizdarby]

Thanks.

 

Oblivion is certainly by far more immersive than Dragons' Age could ever be, which is why I am still playing Oblivion long after Dragon's Age has come and gone. But I would that for a quick fix of button bashing angst, and top line graphical experience (particularly in Origins case), Dragon's Age had enough to offer the player, to call it a decent enough game.

If I had to recommend a game to a friend, of the two, Oblivion would always be my recommendation for it's non-linear gameplay style and sheer depth (as well as the massive volume of mods that further enhance the game).

[Sarissi]

The only thing I don't like about Oblivion, is being forced to choose one of three specialties during character creation. Since you can do it all in game, the point of specialization escapes me. I prefer being a Generalist. As soon as I get done modding some leather armor, I am going to start a new game on my desktop and do mage's guild, fighter's guild, thieves' guild, and the Archeology Guild (Lost Spires Mod). with one character, and the main quest, even though I won't actually start the main quest for a bit. I am also going to do exploring. This is what it so nice about Oblivion.