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Dragon Age Origins; PS3/XBox360/PC
Topic Started: 17 Nov 2009, 20:44 (479 Views)
Ankhanu
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Dark Lord
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I picked up Dragon Age Origins for Kelyndra on Friday as a surprise gift (also ended up, to my surprise also buying an HD TV, but that's another situation :P ) and ended up putting a couple hours of play in myself over the weekend. I'm writing this based on not getting very far. Hopefully Kel will post her thoughts on the game as well.

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Dragon Age is yet another RPG title from Bioware thus far lives up to its pedigree... and perhaps then some. While KotOR, for example, offered a pretty good game experience, it was well supported by its setting alone, the quality of the game itself was partially eclipsed, or perhaps derived from the franchise. Dragon Age is taking its place based on quality of play and story alone... and it's coming out strong. As with the other Bioware titles, your gaming experience hinges heavily on the choices you make. Your choice of character race, sex and class will set the stage for what is to come, and your in-character choices, good/bad/neutral, aggressive/diplomatic, etc. influence how others react to you and how you get through various situations. In theory you could play the game several times and never have the same experience. The control, look and feel is fairly standard Bioware; which is nothing to complain about, imo.

The setting is a semi-standard fantasy deal with humans, elves and dwarves, with some nice twists on the classic roles of the races. Humans almost seem like noblemen and subjugators and conquerers... not so far off the mark from classic ideas of resourceful variability. Elves are still somewhat fey, but are also downtrodden, beaten down by humanity, rather than the classic haughty aloof creatures of other settings. Dwarves seem somewhat more political than in other settings, but retain the classic dwarven resistance to magics... they cannot be mages. Lots of intra and inter-racial tensions to go around. The world has historically been plagued by an evil hoarde, the Darkspawn, twisted, kinda demonic creatures. An order of knights formed in ages past to combat the Dark Spawn, the Grey Wardens, who can sense the taint of the Darkspawn and combat it. Your character, ultimately, joins the ranks of the Grey Wardens and your heroics ensue.

I'm playing the PS3 version of the game (it's also out for XBox360 and PC) as an elven rogue. Game play is smooth, with a third-person camera follow set-up, with the ability to alter camera angle 360deg and about 220deg or so vertically (haven't really tested the full range of this axis). Combat is quite intuitive, though a radial menu system that's offered can take some getting used to. For the most part, you set your actions and let your character carry them through automatically, choosing when to employ special attacks, etc. (again, familiar Bioware). Movement is smooth, though there is no ability to jump, so even small seeming ledges are hard in-game barriers... while it may look like you can walk to X, the game map says NO. Other than a sense of artificial barrier, it's not so bad. The story is fairly compelling (thus far), and the dialogue and action choices you have keep you considering your actions and the possible implications they might have. The non-player characters are fairly natural (as far as fantasy settings go) and the voice acting is delightfully real. The graphics are quite crisp, though at times fine details like tall grasses and the like don't look quite up to snuff. The game setting is dark, as are the times and events lending a certain flair of doom to the game.

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I've just completed my initiation into the Grey Wardens, which took about 2hr of game time, with some exploring and checking things out. It could go quicker, but that's not my style ;)

All in all, this is shaping up to be a super solid "play it again" sort of game. If you enjoy RPGs, like fantasy settings or just good stories, definitely pick this one up.
In Real Life ™, people who aim to maximize their potential for lethality are called "dangerous psychotics" and are typically avoided by everyone who isn't forced to endure their company until someone has the opportunity to put them away or else put them down. No one likes that guy. Don't play that guy.

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esoomian
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So far I'm 21 hours into the game on the PC version. I'm really enjoying it.

Early on some of the conversation options can be a little frustrating, often choosing one option ends up being only very slightly different to choosing another (I know I've saved before a conversation and then loaded several times just to see what can happen). This isn't really much of a criticism however as it's something all computer based RPGs have to deal with.

I'm really enjoying the way my NPCs will interact with each other if left to their own devices, they all have distinct personalities and some tend to clash.

The downloadible contect is worth getting as well, however the way the put a sales pitch directly into the game is somewhat suspect

I'm playing an Elven mage and I'd estimate I'm less than one third of the way through the game but I do have a tendency to take a very, very long time with these sort of games.
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Ankhanu
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I've a feeling you approach RPGs (and perhaps other games) in a fairly similar manner to my own; exploring every inch of the map as you go, saving and trying different tacks to see what happens... Takes a very long time to play a game that way :)
In Real Life ™, people who aim to maximize their potential for lethality are called "dangerous psychotics" and are typically avoided by everyone who isn't forced to endure their company until someone has the opportunity to put them away or else put them down. No one likes that guy. Don't play that guy.

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esoomian
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Yes, I get somewhat vexed if I'm unable to do everything within a game, I'm an explorer :)

One aspect I'm enjoying a lot is spell combinations, some spells have an additional effect when cast together. It's a nice touch and it show's they've put some thought into the game.

Other people I've talked to find (as I do) that the mage is quite possibly the most powerful build but locked chests can be incredibly frustrating if you don't have a rogue in the party.

What I find I'm relishing most in this game is some of the concepts. I enjoy the idea of the fade and the mechanics/story behind it. I keep thinking "Hmmm I need to incorporate this into an RPG" although seeing your other post I guess I don't need to.
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esoomian
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A friend of mine has just finished the game and has some thoughts on it's replayability.

Much of the fun of replayability comes from being a completely differect character, obviously you can make different choices at the 'pivot points' of the game but these can often be experienced by saving before hand and loading to see what changes with the different choices. In between the pivot points you're doing the same things (Kill darkspawn, recover items) and it's how the different classes achieve the same ends differently that give a game replayability.

With DAO there are only three classes (Fighter, Rogue, Mage) and each class has four specalizations (of which you can only choose two). The issue is that you end up with quite a large number of companions who cover almost all of the class possibilites. With the game being so long and experience so generous* that you often experience all the variations of the character classes within the first game.

He's finding the second time through the game somewhat tedious as he already knows the story and has experienced most of the character variation already. He did mention that going from mage, with the ability to rapidly deal with large masses of enemies to a combat class that has to focus on a single enemy at a time (for the most part) was likely to be a contributing factor.

Personally I haven't completed the game yet so it still holds my interest but the points he has raised do seem fairly valid.

*xp is not shared rather everyone in the party, even those back at camp get full xp for each drop. When a new companion joins you they are set to have a level equal to the highest level member of your party
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