Great Game Yes, But!

[Chiramu]

I don't think there are that many pointless encounters, a video game needs to have fighting otherwise it would be boring.

It in a novel that you are reading and it had as many fight scenes as a video game had and the running around that you do in the game; then THAT would be pointless.

 

Though all video games need to have these type of encounters, think of Final Fantasy with the random battles. It's annoying, but if you were running around with no fighting you wouldn't level and you'd be too low.

 

So for me the fight scenes were never an annoyance, because the video game medium NEEDS them.

 

 

There are other things that vex me when I play though, most particularly is the voice acting. It would be nice if all the voices had more ANIMATION to them, especially since most of the time you are looking at a bust shot of the character you are talking to.

But then there's nothing we the consumers can do to make the voice acting more animated.

 

But for myself as a avid player of Dragon Age, the fight scenes are not in any way annoying. The only thing annoying I've found about the fights, is the fact that the enemy always has WAY more tactic slots than any of my own characters :/. Still that is not a fault on the flow of the game.

[Elrandhir]

As DarkeWolf said, or well mobs is just a nickname for any monster/Enemy in the game, I picked that up whan playing an MMORPG called Daoc for about 7 years or so :P

 

And sure, few random encounters here and there is a must I guess, or it would get very empty, but when you more or less can guess whats around the next corner it gets abit annoying.

 

And when saying random I did'nt mean as in if to spawn there or not, but that they just popped out of nowhere, Darkspawn/Ghost ans such things sure why not, but not ordinary creatures (Don't ask me were, because I don't exactly remember that but it has happened and I aint useing any other mod then the HD one.)

 

Morrowind was boring I give you that, one or the worst games I have ever played tbh, sure you could explore as you wanted, but to what purpose, and also places you visited was more or less identical a lot of the times, and also after clearing some cave you usually got nada for it, you could aswell have skipped it all together.

 

If I get the time I will write what has been good and what I belive could be improved a lot in Dragon Age, but as I said earlier, a thing like that takes a lot of time and I do want to finish the game first.

 

So far tho, Planescape Torment is still highest up on my list.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Elrandhir

[Herculine]

I'm still early in my first playthrough so maybe this topic is out of my league, but...

 

...I've grown accustomed to (and perhaps spoiled by) Bethesda games like Oblivion and Fallout 3/New Vegas which are more open-ended and flexible, so one of the first things I really miss while playing Dragon Age is that I can't just wander around the countryside killing monsters until I finally decide to go do a quest. I'm not as fond of games where I feel like I'm just being dragged along by the story. One of the things that turned me against the Final Fantasy franchise starting around game number 8 or 9 was that they began feeling a lot like just watching a series of fancy cut-scenes rather than actually playing (i. e. participating in) a game. I'm not saying that I totally feel this way about DA, but I am saying that I would actually like to see more of what Elrandhir is calling "meaningless encounters".

 

But as I said, I'm still in my first playthrough and can already tell that the storyline has plenty of options and alternate paths, so I'm still giving it a chance rather than putting it down.

Glad you're "giving it a chance." I think more than any other CRPG I've ever played, DA rewards patience and multiple playthroughs. You won't see/feel it as much the first time around, but if you expand your mental horizon a little beyond what's usual for a game, you discover that the "flexibilty" and "player control" is on a much broader scale (within the "narrative arc" structure.) You do "have a mission", and certain things do need to occur/be accomplished before you can achieve the goal(s). Along that main storyline, eventually you do get down to having only "what must be done" to move forward.

 

There's a lot of choice about the ORDER in which you do even those required things, and the number and timing of side-quests is almost entirely up to you. But DA is very much a story-and-character-driven adventure, as opposed to a "wander-and-wonder at the world" one. (Although there is plenty of world to wander AND wonder at!) Since decisions DO have consequences in this game, many paths get closed off, but other ones open that would still be closed if you hadn't done this-or-that.

 

So the NEXT time around, you might try something different and be totally surprised at what happens. Things you didn't even know existed might appear. People you might not have traded three words with become companions. Ferelden is a a BIG place. You can't see it all in one trip! :thumbsup:

 

All very good examples of why I'm still playing. It is indeed a good game, and I didn't mean to make it sound like I'm not enjoying it. I was merely making comparisons with other games in response to the original post. It's just that recently I've been accustomed to playing games that are different from this one in many regards, so it's just taking me some time to re-adjust back to this style of gameplay. For example, what bothers me perhaps the most about Dragon Age Origins is that I'm constantly looking at my character from the outside, even during dialog scenes, as opposed to looking at the world through her eyes. It makes me feel like I'm watching a movie about someone else's adventures rather than having these adventures myself. Of course I understand some of the technical aspects of why the developers had to set it up this way given the party and combat setup, and it's not totally a bad thing, it's just as I said me having to get used to it again. But overall it's been good so far and I have no intention of discarding the game before I've played through it at least once with each race, class and gender since those seem to be among the main factors predisposing how the game progresses, at least in the beginning.

[Thandal]

..., it's just as I said me having to get used to it again...

LoL! I feel the same way about any FP view. I always WANT to see my PC "in action". Too hard to get the panoramic view of RL through a screen, so being able to "pull back and look around" is crucial to me. I loved the NWN hak that made the camera free-floating!

 

... But overall it's been good so far and I have no intention of discarding the game before I've played through it at least once with each race, class and gender since those seem to be among the main factors predisposing how the game progresses, at least in the beginning.

Yup, all seven origins are fun. And while your gender does impact some (but only a few) plot options, it has much LESS impact if you add the "Equal Love" mod. That removes the "gender check" from most (all?) of the NPC dialogue branches and BOTH of the otherwise restricted romance options. (In those two cases, your Warden is seen as the "appropriate" gender for that particular companion during romance-specific dialogue.)

 

The only downside is that occasionally your Warden is referred to by the "other" personal pronoun during conversations and Party Banter. :laugh:

[ell46]

DarkWolf - thank you for the explanation, I understand now. As soon as I read "Oh sweet! Combat!! Grrrr it's one of those damned ugly flying birds!! I thought OMG I remember that game, I loved it apart from those damned flying prehistoric things, birds make me think of little robins and sparrows not those massive pain in the neck things.

 

Herculine - I felt the same as you about only have fast travel and no freedom and I played Oblivion again recently and I used fast travel which is something I didn't when I played years ago, personally I would like a bit more freedom to walk around maybe not as much as Oblivion, but I want the option to fast travel as well. I think there was a discussion about fast travel v open travel, a lot of the technical stuff was explained in that.

 

If you think you are being rushed along on a given path in DAO wait until you play Awakening (if you plan on doing that) I felt really pressured playing that, huge spoiler for me, they should have had the soundtrack from Keystone cops in the background in parts. :laugh:

Edited December 10, 2010 by ell46

[DarkeWolf]

Ell- never a problem at all ;)

LOL yeah, I hated those things with a flaming fiery passion. I had a special crossbow with special bolts JUST so I could snipe those things before I got close enough to aggro them. (Aggro= cause them to go into combat mode. Aggrivate.).

I'm not a huge fan of massive cheat items, but for those things my bolts had para (paralysis) with constant fire, electrical, and poison damage. Took um down after about 4 seconds :D

Yeah... I know that there was a mod that made them non-hostile, but I enjoyed getting the ugly bug gers off my landscape :D

 

On topic- Yeah the freedom to do as you will IS kinda limited in DA, but at least you can choose what parts of the story you want to head into first, after you get past Lothering. And choose how you want to take the story from there.

[Elrandhir]

Played to the last Encounter/Encounters, when you march to the Town to rid it of darkspawn and the Archdemon, and well, even tho it has been okay, Im still somewhat dissapointed, Nice GFX, few really good quests, but Im already at this point and haven't even played for a very long time, I doubht the final encounters will change my mind.

 

Planescape Torment and Baldursgate 2 is still the best.

 

Well anyhow thats my conclusion up till now, there was some great quests(void dream quest being great), but now at the end or atleast it feels close to the end everything rushes to fast forward.

 

actuallly stopped playing because of the fast road it took in the end to be able to get to the final steps, but Il try to continue the game when I feel up to it.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Elrandhir

[Herculine]

Oh, and another thing...

 

I don't like the fact that many (though not all) of the add-on adventures are set up as if they are part of a different game or perhaps a sequel, in other words they must be played with a new character "starting over" rather than the character I've already created in the main game. Again maybe I'm just spoiled by other games or I'm just too picky, but in a game like Oblivion for example if I install The Shivering Isles expansion I can then almost immediately take the character that I've already spent so much time leveling up and gathering equipment for (not to mention crafting her face) and take her as-is straight into the additional content. In Dragon Age Origins I'm not seeing any way to do that with Awakening, and it disappoints me.

 

As I said earlier, I'm not trying to be a "DA basher", really I'm not. The game has plenty of good qualities that will keep me playing it. I'm just noting my observations and opinions, manifestations of my own personal preferences.

[Thandal]

@herculine; Well... Leliana's Song doesn't allow you to use "Your Warden", but that story happened "before your time", and there is a very particular reason it's told the way it is.

 

All the others, (DA:A, TSP, RtO, WK, GoA, and WH) either occur "inside" the main DA:O campaign with your Warden as the PC, or allow you to "Import" your Warden at the start.

 

(Oh, except for "The DLC Which Must Not Be Named", of course! :tongue: But we don't like to talk about that one.)

[Herculine]

Ha... I stand corrected! Thanks.

 

(Geez... how do you guys put up with us noobs?)