We’re playing Dragon Age. Except for John, because he’s already finished it and reviewed it for PC Gamer. The rest of RPS were a bit later to the party, so to speak. Consequently we’re a little… distracted. We offer a few early thoughts below. It’s probably fair to say that there will be minor spoilers in this article.
Jim: Is everyone here? Hello? Well, I want to start anyway: the Dwarf Commoner origin was loads of fun, the story was just what I was hoping for – a subtle twist on standard dwarfisms. I like the idea of corrupt, criminal dwarf societies.
Kieron: You are, of course, from the East coast. It’s very homely for you. For me – also playing a Dwarf Commoner – is an exotic holiday to the land of ill-spirited shorties. Like visiting Alec’s house.
Alec: I haven’t finished the Mage origin yet, but like that it’s subverting the stereotype of wizardly sorts. The higher-ups seem to be aggressively forcing their acolytes to be certain things – one result of which is the Tranquils, these freaky types who’ve had all their emotions removed to become men of pure maths
John: Like the City Elf, the Commoner Dwarf is a surprisingly harsh and unpleasant beginning.
Jim: Do any of the origins begin pleasantly? I’m getting the impression that Dragon Age is DARK FANTASY, DO YOU SEE?
Alec: Yes, it’s very much “We’re not Tolkien, goddit?” Worth observing that the Witcher has already dabbled with a lot of similar stuff. And Risen too, though that’s a lot smaller in scale.
Jim: Yes, it does actually remind of The Witcher in a number of ways, particularly that aspiring to grimness.
Kieron: I suspect they’re damned-if-the-do-damned-if-they don’t, really. But yeah – racism as a theme overlaid over a fantasy environment is very much The Witcher’s terrain.
John: The Dalish Elf origin isn’t unending misery. Although it is themed around the death of a best friend.So, er, I take that back.
Alec: I can’t say I’m enjoying the voice acting, however.
Jim: Really? I think the voice acting is fine. Great, even.
John: Yes, me too. The only dodgy voice is Leliana, and I grew to realise you just know some people with weird voices.
Kieron: Yeah, it’s not exactly outstanding, but there’s nothing substandard about it.
Jim: At least into the main game, I guess the mages origin has its own characters and silly voices. The acting and story has been the strongest thing so far for me. I’m less keen on the combat.
John: Have you begun the Harrowing, Alec?
Alec: Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Risen’s array of Northern characters, but the blank plumminess of everyone is grating.
Alec: I have completed the Harrowing. I talked to a rat and a rotting bear in the process
John: Were you slightly let down by the simplicity of it, after the build-up it received?
Alec: Yes, it was very much MMO starting quest. With the demon at the end being laughably easy to kill. But then, I guess there was another point to it. OR WAS THERE? etc.
John: I don’t think any of the others are. Well, the Dalish Elf, maybe.
Jim: Yes, the dwarf commoner origin seems pretty dramatic. And even though you can see what’s going to happen, it’s a fun story: “My dwarf is in big trouble!” (A mountain of trouble, says someone on Twitter.)
Kieron: Yeah – seeing you twitter that, I was playing through the whole origin going “Oh – is NOW when I’m in big trouble?” Eventually the one it was which became clear. Dramatic is the word. It’s got a sort of archetypal energy to it… and its’ worth noting that compared to most fantasy games, I feel my character actually has motivation for whatever they end up doing. Which is neat for a set-up, I think.
John: Noble Dwarf has a similarly large scale origin, and brilliantly it ties into the Commoner one. In fact, when I played as a Human Warrior and visited Orzamarr there was something going on I didn’t fully understand, until I saw the Commoner Dwarf origin, which was a fantastic detail.
Jim: Going back to the combat: initially the balance seemed okay, but now I’m struggling to get through without spamming half a dozen heals. I’m a couple of hours in. And I’m not sure if I’ve just missed something – I’m sure I’m leveling up sensibly, in accordance with fantasy archetypes, and still seem weak. [See patch post, should render much of this part of the discussion irrelevant. Thanks Bioware! - RPS Editor Sub-brain]
Kieron: I’m only just past the start, so I’ve had relatively little combat. I have been eating the health though. I think that’s actually how the game works. You’re meant to use your resources. That’s why you have them, after all. Tom Chick’s written a lot about this over at Fidgit.
John: Same goes for the Mage story, actually. What class are you?
Jim: Warrior, I hope the balance does change. At the moment I’m only winning fights by dint of heals.
John: I played most the game on Easy. Don’t feel ashamed to lower it – they fucked up, not you. It doesn’t change. The difficulty is not set right.
Jim: Well I feel like it’s an okay challenge, I mean i don’t want to win every fight, but the balance seems odd. It’s like there should be some other aspect to it that I’m missing
Kieron: I admit, you chaps have lost me a little here. I mean, if you’re winning with the resources you have… you’re winning. It’s not as if you’re failing. Healing management has always been part of RPGs, hasn’t it?
John: Yeah – going back up to Normal is worthwhile when you realise you’re breezing through stuff.
Alec: I suspect I’m going to load my mage with heal spells, then.
Jim: I’ve played with the tactics stuff a fair bit, which does help.
Kieron: Does it really? I wish they’d intro’d it better. I ended up spending a character point on tactics thinking it’d actually give me something useful instead of actually of something that’s a waste of time If I’m micromanaging the orders. And having the Neverwinter Nights issue of the NPC character running off to fight enemies which I can’t even see yet and aren’t active is silly as hell to have on standard. Though I think I’m managed to make the tactics not do that any more.
John: How are you approaching fights? Are you pausing every few seconds?
Jim: Yes! You absolutely have to in order to manage heals and powers.
Alec: And are you sacrificing a calf to Hecate every 28 minutes?
Jim: I’m all outta calves.
Alec: That’ll be it, then
John: There’s a lot of tactics you can use. You can flank enemies, and you can make sure to focus on range for as long as possible.
Jim: Yeah, flanking seems tricky when there’s half a dozen adversaries, and you are three.
John: But what I found is I became really really good at taking advantage of my team’s specific abilities. It’s important to play as all three/four, not just as yourself.
Jim: Yeah, I’m using witch-woman a great deal.
John: You need a healer. And you need health poultices.
Jim: have you found yourself playing in top-down, or Warcraftian perspective?
Alec: I’ve been playing top-down for fighty-stuff, and over the shoulder for trudging about questy stuff.
Kieron: Me too. One for tactics, the other for getting a sense of place.
John: I used top-down very rarely, rather I scrolled out as far as possible before it. So what has surprised you both?
Alec: I was most suprised that you can make incredibly non-elfy elves. Mine looks like a black version of Him From Lost, with a ginger buzz-cut.
John: Poor thing.
Jim: I think I’ve been surprised by how much I got swept up in the story. I really find it tricky to get into RPGs as tales, but this has captured me quite proficiently
John: Have both of you finished the initial origin and reached Place Beginning With O I Can’t Remember?
Jim: Yeah, I’m well past that now,
Alec: No, I’m loads behind you lot due to being away,
John: Ah, so you’ve met Flemeth.
Jim: And that battle is ludicrously dramatic, despite your tangential involvement.
John: Without spoiling anything for Alec, crossing the battlements is remarkable. What’s so funny about the game is that bit you’ve finished, Alec? That’s the pre-titles sequence. You did say it went against wizard norms.
Alec: They’re very much not the pious mystic men you’d generally expect. I don’t know the whole tale yet, but it’s very much mages designed for killing rather than as intellectual types
John: The history of mages and their relationship with the Chantry is fascinating.
Jim: Right, I’m off, bye!
John: Bye!
Alec: I’ve not picked up too much of that yet – it’s just going into the perceived differences between mages and Normals (or whatever they call them), but there’s a nice sense of mages being sinister outcasts rather than a ruling elite, as far as I can tell.
John: Very much so. I shan’t spoil anything. But the key is, people are really scared of mages.
Alec: It seems less surprising to me after having played Risen, which plays with similar ideas and, to my mind, did class choice much more cleverly by having you make it based on how you agreed with instead of selecting a build upfront. but I’m obviously very curious to see what my place in the world is once I get out of mage HQ.
John: If you play the City Elf origin you’ll get even more of an idea what absolute dicks the Humans are. I’m interested to experience the game as a Mage. But even more as an Elf, who are the gay black Jews of the game. You’ve got all the prejudice stacked against you! One of the criticisms I make in my review is that I played as a black human, but somehow had white parents and siblings in an all-white castle.
Alec: I’m playing as an elf, but no-one’s mentioned it yet, a black elf, no less. No idea if I’m gay, however. I haven’t fancied anyone yet.
John: Go to the whorehouse when you get to Denerim and you’ll quickly decide.
What about you lot? Anyone playing? What origin are you playing? Any early impressions you want to share? Expect a more in-depth verdict from us as we get some more of it under our collective belt. (+1 vs eggmen.)
Related Stories:
I’m playing as a human magi mainly as a healer but with some damage and crowd control. I’m finding combat too straightforward at normal, doable at Hard but a bit too much of a consumable drain to be fun. I think healer as main character does seem the easiest option, healing is essential and the pc’s bonuses make you really powerful from early on.
Couple of big issues in the game – 1) very annoying camera issues in isometric, too centred on the PC and some zooming in problems 2) too much unnecessary dialogue at times from non party npcs, slows the game down too much. Having as much dialogue and as many cutscenes as possible doesn’t always add to the immersion and the atmosphere of the game.
What kind of battle strategy are people using that they need to keep using poultices and healing? Do you let your characters fight relying on the tactics you’ve chosen and then just observe them until the health drops? Or…
Uh, I don’t mean that to sound condescending or anything, I’ve died horribly lots of times. I’m genuinely curious as I find I can get through fights without relying on poultices or healing spells (or die trying then reload). But I also micromanage the battles mostly because I don’t want to spend time creating tactics for every situation.
That wasn’t actually meant as a reply. But, I’m going to shut up now because I’ve reached a fight where I’m getting totally slaughtered each time. Bah.
Playing as a human rogue. The origin was great – like I told my brother, it was something out of a George RR Martin novel.
I’m also finding the raw quantity of poultices needed to be on the exorbitant side, but once I got the hang of the witch-girl’s spells encounters became much easier.
I’m enjoying it a great deal. I just had a crash after about 7 hours play, so hopefully it’s just a random occurrance (or the heat, it’s 30+ degrees at the moment).
There are a few things that are minor annoyances or things that I just find a bit odd:
- No voice for the main character. A bit weird after Mass Effect.
- The voice acting in the human noble intro is a bit poor. It picks up once the main quest has started.
- The blood spatter. I look like I’ve been wielding a blender that’s missing it’s lid rather than a great sword.
- Getting the DLC. It seems overly complicated. Plus I have somehow merged my old Bioware account and my EA account into the “social” account, but depending what I’m logging into I have two different passwords.
- The difficulty spikes (Post patch). I’ve had a couple of fights that involved Hurlock Emissaries that required a number of reloads to win. (The first one where he basically aggros the party back through traps and a dozen other darkspawn before making a stand took me 15 attempts maybe, he seems to be able to cast and run at the same speed you can chase. At least the second one was in a confined area and so took less retries)
- Odd fights. I’ve had a few fights that didn’t make a whole lot of game world sense. I was about 10 seconds walk from the gate of a village, and standing next to a farm and I was attacked by about 17 wolves.
I find it interesting that they are aware enough of some of the more complained about stock tropes of CRPGs to hang lampshades on them, but they’re still using them. (someone mentioned the rats in the Human Noble origin story, I also had Morrigan complain about whether we we’re going to intervene in every problem in the village personally after walking up and getting involved in some complete stranger’s moral dilemma)
I wonder whether that’s because they personally like those tropes, or there just isn’t necessarily a better way to do it.
Also, is it just me, or have they textured camel toe into the underwear of the female party members?
You get used to the fights – there have been battles that ended as a total party kill for me multiple times before I formulated a strategy, got everything set up, and cleared it with barely a scratch.
…and another thing:
I think the only thing that has really vexed me thus far is the lack of an info/status panel for enemies.
I really want to be able to get clearer, more detailed information – similar to that of your party – when I target them.
Something that clearly shows me hit-points and any status effects, both positive and negative, along with a timer for them…
Really essential for deeper level tactics IMO – just having info pop up above them during combat can be confusing and hard to see in a large, heated battle.
Hmm..
yeah, I've been getting quite annoyed that I have status effects I can cast on the enemy. 'reduce enemy attack'. But for how long, and by how much, I do not know. I don't know when I need to cast it again to keep them debuffed. Also, I have to guess when my characters cooldowns have passed so I can use their spells again. It's a gripe given how tough the games combat is.
Taillefer: enemies deal a crazy amount of damage relative to you, so unless you can leverage some significant superiority over them, in any protracted battle, lots of potions become necessary. Not during the origins though – it starts fairly gentle then ramps up big time.
So far, I like how tough it is. I'm so unused to a challenge that isn't just the AI completely cheating that it's actually somewhat refreshing, and gives a feeling of accomplishment. My only main gripe is the above one about not knowing what my spells are actually achieving.
Managed to win my impossi-battle (no healing, tehe).That took more retries than Kangaxx. To be rewarded with what seems like a measly 145xp, but some nice armour. Stepped on a trap and killed my whole party. Hadn’t saved immediately after the fight because I’m an idiot.
Managed to win again, and the corpse was empty. Annoyed. But saved this time. Killed by a horde of skeletons shortly afterwards. And so it goes on.
Ugh, that wasn’t supposed to end up there.
About 7 hours in, mostly enjoying the game, but I have to say, setting up camp and having an NPC try and sell me some DLC was really goddamn annoying, and fairly indicative of where gaming is at these days. I hope there were some blowouts at BioWare over this, or at least a dev making snide comments under his breath.
People seem pretty familiar with the tactics system? I can’t figure it out. I’ve invested some skill points in archery skills for my City Elf, but I noticed he’d keep switching to dagger and using Below the Belt, so I went to tactics and turned his tactics off, and he’d still do it, so I went to the part where it said Below the Belt and chose Clear out of the menu so that the spot is empty now, and I still notice him doing it.
I agree that the DLC selling is annoying.
I downloaded the game to check it out before buying and fell in love. I literally had my card out and was ready to buy off Steam. For some reason (let’s call it douchebag/moneywhoring spidey-sense), I delayed.
Very glad I did. 15$ for a DLC? Oh, so I can’t find the lost HQ of the Grey Wardens unless I pay extra for it? Fuck that.
Bioware just lost 65$ because of that shit. And that’s coming from a legit owner of Mass Effect, all NWN/NWN2, KOTRO etc – I have absolutely no problem paying for great games. However, this level of nickel and diming is just plain stupid.
Anyway, great game. I’ll wait a week or so until the official DLC’s are cracked, not to mention all the player made content sure to be coming.
I’m about 10 hours in – Does the storyline ever pick up some nuances or subtleties? Pretty much everywhere I go, I have to resolve a problem Teryn Loghain has caused. For all the crowing about it being like A Song of Ice and Fire, theres a definite “Heres the bad guy, stop him or else he will do more bad things” theme to the story.
Really not a fan of the NPC who tries to sell you DLC either.
I’m just wondering, why do the skeletons and moving trees bleed blood? After a fight with dusty skeletons my group is splattered in blood… That’s even more ridiculous than getting totally covered in blood after killing a few slightly larger than normal rats.
Anyway, I love the game. Anyone who complains about the poor quality of writing hasn’t obviously play all the other CRPGs out there. And those fantasy books some of you praise, most of them are poorly written trash, when it comes to _real_ literature. ;o)
Bonemarrow makes blood, also its syrupy tree sap. H2H
Im playing as a human noble warrior, atm. The game, so far, has been absolutely brilliant. It’s like KOTOR with a story thats closer to me (not much of a Star Wars fan). Im suprised at how long the game seems to be, i’ve been playing for a week straight and im on like 20% of the game. Took me more than a day to finnish one quest (the Redcliffe arn guy, and the search for the urn of ashes), and now im on the second ‘main’ quest, trying to get the mage asshats to join my fight. I dont think the games difficulty level is all that hard, but the game has got an annoying habit of making you going back to town all the time to heal up your injuries and get more health potions (its especially annoying when your entire party is severely injured and fresh out of potions RIGHT before a boss fight, so you have to run all the way back to the start of the dungeoun. Well, atleast the enemies dont respawn).
So far so good, but the mage tower mission is kinda boring, so im taking a bit of a break from the game.
You do know about the injury kits, right?
Interesting which things people agree on/disagree on. I have recently switched down to easy, and I’m enjoying it much more. It’s not that I mind the occasional hard combat, but on Normal (even post-patch) every single fight is a test of endurance and micro-management. Now I can take it easier, only pause from time to time, and more quickly move on to the story and dialogue sections, which is where the game really shines. I love the voice acting, and I have to take issue with you, John, for not liking Leliana’s voice. I find it absolutely spell-binding! I barely hear what she’s saying– not because she has a “dodgy” voice, but because I’m so busy shivering in the gorgeousness of her accent. I want her bad.
One oof the things I’m missing is a sort of a battle log like in Baldur’s Gate – who hit whom for how much damage, and how much XP was gained. I’d like to peruse it to my leisure after the fight, and not have all those delicious numbers just float away into the oblivion.
Otherwise, I like it more than I expected to. Story/characters/world are so far more interesting and engrossing than I thought they would be; voice acting is quite solid; and battles… I’m not sure why I’m enjoying them so much – I’m playing on Normal and everything just seems to be the way it should: if I’m careless I get my arse handed to me, if I use my characters abilities and think about tactics for a bit, I usually breeze through the fights.
It’s been a while since I enjoyed an RPG this much.
Btw, I’m playing a Human Noble, female rogue, going for archery.
Regarding healing, it took me a while to think of this, but it’s fairly simple to automate the healing process with the tactics function – Self -> health use health potion. That goes for mages healing allies too. Much better than having to watch all the bars like a hawk. Loving the game so far by the way.
Comment got a little butchered but you know what I mean.
There’s an option called “behavior” I think it is. Make sure he’s set to ranged otherwise he’ll continue to prefer melee weapons.
Ah, thanks. Will try.
Apologies for the double post, my earlier comment was intended as a reply to someone whos name I can no longer find. Regarding the tactics system, if you spend time with it I think you’ll find it is really quite amazing. Honestly, I nearly have my party at the point where they can handle a fight on normal with no management.
One thing that strikes me about this game – no one element is stand-out great, but there isn’t a single thing really wrong with it either. It’s slightly more than the sum of its parts, and its parts are uniformly good, which adds up to a great overall package.
Also, thank god they did away with the classic Bioware Alignment Slider. Not once have I been asked to choose between any ridiculously polarized moral options, and the choices I HAVE had to make all seem to have multiple pros and cons that have to be weighed up against each other.
The move away from D&D and to something resembling 80s pulp fantasy was a good one, too.
Yeah, having various party members approve or disapprove is much more interesting than the slider, and a lot less world-breaking.
Yeah, the lack of signposted moral decisions is most welcome. I have come across a few doozys – the Urn/Ashes one being a great example with a – for my game anyway – horrible consequence of choosing a particular path.
I’m playing.
The game I enjoyed the most, rpg tactically, in the last few years was Knights of the Chalice. And before that, Avernum 5. These games are also 4-people-party, but they’re proper turn-based, and proper grid-based. And this makes them better at being tactical rpgs than the pause system all these bioware games are based on. If you have played, and you disagree, then I guess the text below is not meant to represent your tastes. However I do believe there is a group of PC party RPG players that want more tactics in their games, and Dragon Age: Origins has been marketed as having that aspect to it. Perhaps this post will serve as a due warning before purchase for them.
(I’ll try to keep this brief, because I have to be inking not talking about videogames)
1. without a visible grid, formation tactics do not work. You cannot hold a line, enemies just slide through it and go after your mage or whatever. This is ridiculous. Without engagement rules where attacks of opportunity happen when a character passes through your threat zone, even holding a line in the first place becomes even more useless. Just awful choices for an rpg that prides itself on having a tactical aspect. Sometimes basics stuff like keeping your fighters in front of a doorway and your mage behind keeps enemies at bay, sometimes, inexplicably, not. In say, Knights of the Chalice it made sense to have a line and your spellcasters behind even without a bottleneck in the terrain to hold your flanks because if people tried to run around you they’d get hacked because of attacks of opportunity. There’s no such thing here, it feels like WOW combat.
2. without clear, visible turns you do not have visual feedback when your characters have done their attack or power. Of course you have the Tactics AI turned off because that’s a handholding device for people playing on easy that want to breeze through it, so when your character is done attacking (which takes a second) you have to manually repause, give him a new command, and then unpause. This then should be a proper turn-based system if I’m pausing so much. If you’re thinking ‘why are you whining then, you little baby? For pressing spacebar every second?’ I am whining because when I press spacebar and issue orders and then upause *everything happens all at once* and I can’t keep track of what powers worked, what was resisted, what I need to prioritize. It’s just a chaotic mess. It’s even worse that people seem to have attack animations that do not directly correspond to actual in-game rules checks for attacks (just eye candy to make it look more ‘realistic’ I guess). This has been a long enduring problem with these types of games, but then again they haven’t been priding themselves on being TACTICAL rpgs before.
3. Cooldown on powers and effects means I have to pause even MORE and cycle through all my units to see if their power has gone up again to reuse. Again, like WOW and also, ridiculous tactically. How much should I be pausing in this reportedly fast-paced real-time combat game anyway?
This game, in a ‘tactics mode’ at least (read: hard and over) should be a proper turn-based game. That it’s not makes it pretty grating to go through. The game actually punishes careful players with tedium, it doesn’t reward them with a clockwork turn system. Of course there ARE tactics that can be exploited in this game to do better but they are not *sensible* tactics, they are ‘gaming the system’ tactics. Stuff like making a troll run around chasing the one character he’s locked on to while the rest of the group peppers its ridiculously large HP bar with arrows (which could never work in a proper turn-based/grid based system because a troll would move more than you and take up more grid space so just running around would at least require passing certain checks. Or the ridiculous health potions spam. Both Knights of the Chalice and Avernum 5 aren’t balanced so that combat situations should be overcome through healing spam. Instead they are balanced against an optimal level of characters that have specific capabilities that need to be used during the combats. This way there is no wildcard of ‘how many health potions did you bring in the battle’ (none of this at all in Knights of the Chalice, and a little in Avernum) to have to worry about. Either a group is in the correct level and the combat scenario has been playtested to be possible to overcome with them, or they need to level up a bit. In Dragon Age I never feel as if I am in the right level because what happens in combat is chaotic enough to not know if I overcame it just because I spammed my spells fast enough or I failed because I wasn’t drinking enough health potions. Tactics awful.
Woo! Shout out to Avernum! There was a game that could do area of effect spells right. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of laying down a wall of flame in front of an advancing wolf pack, then listening to them ‘arf!’ in pain as they try to cross each square.
Yeah, I like to torture dogs. What? Anyway Avernum’s cool. Go Spidweb.com!
There have certainly been several battles that resulted in a quick massacre of my party time and again. But none of these have been the sort where I actually need to leave and come back later (as in Risen). As several have mentioned, taking some time and getting one’s strategy in order – even if only as a result of rage-inducing, chucking-monitor-out-the-window moments – can mean steamrolling over the opposition. Also, freezing spells are absolutely necessary in my experience. I get the feeling that if I had chosen different spells or the “wrong” party members for a given encounter I would need to reload 4 saves back to do it differently. Nice to have some challenge (and the monitor-chucking rage is an issue for Freud, not the devs), and I hesitate to hurl accusations of imbalance until I can say unreservedly that combat difficulty isn’t due to my infantile, moronically inept understanding of basic combat strategy.
This is my first-ever post of any comment, anywhere on the internets, in over 10 years of online-y-ness. Ah, the introspection and passion of gaming, blah blah, etc.
I played as a Dwarf Warrior and found the opening absolutely fantastic, very gritty, almost like a fantasy version of The Wire or something. However after a while the fact that my guy was taking half an hour to swing his bloody great axe really started to annoy me so I switched to a rogue and tried the city elf (I’m a sucker for class warrior origins) which had a less good origin (although still rather good) but was much more fun in combat, slots of positioning myself for flanking and high speed attacks.
Also Alaister is my favourite NPC so far (although I do miss Leskey from the Dwarf Origin)
Alistair is definitely a step in the right direction as the Bioware “dishy male/righteous hero/obvious potential love interest” character – he doesn’t actively annoy me, unlike that drippy prat in Mass Effect…
Shale is probably my favourite, though Morrigan is pretty entertaining.
One detail I like is that in almost all dialogues with Alistair where he’s on a smartarse tangent, there’s an option to keep the joke running by riffing off him. Does a lot to make even the voiceless (understandable, given that there’s about 8 voices per gender) protagonist seem a bit more likeable.
Leske’s great. Still rather peeved I wasn’t able to seel my teeth to that fine upstanding merchant.
Just met the hu-man king, and he’ seems to be SOOOOOOOOO dead. All-in-all, marvellous fun. Let out a little yelp of delight when I did my first shield bash.
And blood splatters all over your armour for conversations after battle are fantastic. Dwarf commoner warryor mini-Rollins loves it.
Which gender should we be playing in Dragon Age?
When Mass Effect ported to PC the PC Gamer UK review advised us to play as female, and having subsequently played through with a male protagonist, I realise just how good that advice was. The voice acting, tone and, erm, aesthetic experience were vastly superior with a female lead.
So is there similar advice to be had for Dragon Age?
The lead is mute.
Mostly I wouldn’t go with someone who looks weird (see: the RPS competition) if you want to take the story seriously at all, as all the other characters’ emotional beats are bounced off of endless shots of your character’s silent impassive face.
My advice, if you want to take it seriously, is go for the more old, haggard, hollow eyed look as this more ‘battered by the world’ face has visual sympathy for the ‘it’s a cruel world’ emotional nastiness of the story. It certainly worked for my low born Dwarf dude.
I can’t ever fault you for going for a bland young hottie, though. Strip them to their undies for conversations? While still covered in blood? Couldn’t fault you at all. No.
I’m not sure how I feel about some of the trap/battle setups. On the one hand they do have the feeling of being a well crafted and deadly setup and I’m left going “Wow, I really walked into that! Now I’m screwed”.
On the other hand, the combat system is already so deadly it means I die in fairly short order and then end up avoiding the trap and winning the fight using my amazing save game psychic powers. There just doesn’t seem to be enough wiggle room to allow for pulling a win from that sort of setback…
not sure how that comment ended up there?
ok, I take back a lot of the more critical things I said earlier … this game kicks ass. PC, through and through.
I’m about 8 hours into the game, playing a elvish Mage. As many others have remarked, the silent main character is somewhat confusing (then again, he/she is left silent for good reasons). The story of the battle at Ostagar is great. The boss fight at the top of the tower was fiendishly hard (on “Hard”), but after many reloads I simply poured all potions/salves that I had collected so far over my characters and persisted. I’ve just arrived in Lothering and my party is a little bit unbalanced (fighter, two mages, a dog), but I guess I’ll run into the other party members pretty fast.
The conversation options between the elf main character and human NPCs are sometimes odd. The start out by the NPCs insulting you, then the elf threatens/clarifies that he is not a slave or servant and after two more lines, you’ve reached the common branches in the dialog tree and all is well.
The DLC system with mandatory registration at yet another web site is mildly annoying, but probably unavoidable with triple-A titles in the year 2009. The interface in-game is well-done, although the fonts get a little small in 1680×1050. The codex is a nice idea, although come to think of it, I’m not sure you can search through it. As for camera view, I adapted the same mode of switching between top-down for fighting and over-the-shoulder for exploring—otherwise, you lose all the great visuals.
This does indeed appear to be the new shit.
Though I imagine it will be the old shit when I get around to playing it – hopefully at a better price and with less DLC / DRM / WTF hoop-jumping required.
“Like a fantasy version of The Wire”, someone quipped. Which excites and worries. We all know what happens when “gritty” games are made without the requisite maturity in the writing. With Bioware, it could go either way.
Which is why I’m concerned having just seen the Meet Morrigan trailer. She’s evil! She’s sexy! She frowns! And by the way, hanging a lampshade on a cliche does not absolve one from using that cliche in the first place, particularly if the cliche is as stupid as “sexy witch”.
Pardon me: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging
Just had a look at Amazon and was pretty surprised that the price for the regular edition has dropped to 24,99£. Over here in Germany, it is still at <i>69,90</i>€ and even the imported UK-version costs about 49,90€. So importing the game yourself, you save around 15€ (tax and delivery rates already included).
Edit: I just checked some further retailers and realised that in this particular case, Amazon.de is much more expensive than usually. Most regional retailers charge around 41€ for the regular edition. Still cheaper to import the (original voiced) UK-version though. :P
I made a healer/buffer from the start and have yet to have any problem fights. I made sure Alistair was tanked to the teeth as soon as I had control of his levelling up and gear. About 5-7 hours in I think on normal difficulty. No lost fights but I did have a few NPC guards incapped until I got the ‘protection from missiles’ buff sorted on them.
Oh I should note that I was very annoyed by the lack of UI scaling. It’s unplayable at 2560×1600, painful to read at 1920×1200 and just about bearable at 1680×1050.
What kind of monitor do you have?
Humm?
On my copy everyone thinks Alaister is idiot. He and Morrigan have some debates about this, where he lost all.
Gross.
Got a bit further into it now and the difficulty of the combat has amped up nicely. Will be sticking with normal through the first playthrough, unless things become a bit imbalanced at the end.
Anyone know what key skips dialogue? A few merchants etc. have a welcome patter that goes on a bit long after the first hearing.
The escape key serves the function of escaping, for once.
Urgh why did this game have to come out a week before I need to do some proper uni work? I played it ALL Saturday and nearly all of today.
Brilliant game, two things.
I hate the loot system bioware has been using since Mass Effect. Each weapon/armour/staff etc is made out of a type of material which has a “level”. These level up with you you just end up with loads of identikit loot thats very hard to distinguish between each other. Theres very few unique items even in areas you feel should contain decent loot.
I mean in Baldurs Gate you opened a chest and pretty much immediatly knew what was worth taking for you, what was worth taking for loot (magic items generally) and what was getting left.
Secondly. I’m fine with the difficulty level, I usually play every game on the hardest setting and its good to have a challenge even on normal. Some fights have been plenty tough and I’m glad to have the option to go up to hard on the second playthrough. What I’m more concerned about is the paucity of options with regard to party balance.
As most characters come preloaded with a lot of skills etc you can either develop them down that route, or change them, wasting a load of pre-recorded talent. For example, having a healing mage in the party is pretty much a neccesity. So unless you ARE a healer mage, its either Wynn whose amazing at it. Or Morrigan who because shes already leveled as other things, is far worse. Hell she can’t cast when shes in shapeshift form anyway.
With the difficultly level being what it is you need am optimised party, that means either, Healer Mage, DPS Mage, Rogue, Tank. Healer Mage/Rogue/DPS Warrior/Tank or swap the rogue out for something else if you want to miss out on lots of loot.
Alister is the only character specced out from the start to be a tank, Wynne is the only one specced out to be a healer mage. If you want two mages and you aren’t one you need Moriggan and Wynne every time. This wouldn’t be such a problem but the characters are so interesting I would like to take a different party along on every playthrough.
I don’t have Wynne as an option and haven’t got any healing spells at all. Still going strong.
You are clearly not playing the same game everyone else is. You’re trying to micromanage the entire game, a playstyle which is (a) not fun, and which (b) the game does not promote. Selecting AI tactics is part of the game. You can create clear, interesting tactics.that fix the problems you’re complaining about.
Dragon Age discourages micromanagement? What?
Similarly, I've managed to muddle on so far without a single healing spell at my disposal, and am actually managing successfully enough that I'm building up a nice little backlog of healing poultices. (I don't even know what a poultice is…) I've found that things like traps are really useful, unlike every other RPG I've ever played where they were duff, and that having a nice supply of them on hand really makes combat easier.
I'm thinking, perhaps this game could use a 'tactics and strategy' thread specifically for discussing peoples preferred combat approach – it'd be interesting to hear how people are making 'unorthodox' combinations work, or even just a few tips for people who are finding the going a bit tough but would rather adapt to normal than tone it down to easy.
I’m not very far in yet, overall I’m loving it, but it’s certainly not perfect. [Loading..]
The back story and depth of the world are massive and yet it feels like [Loading..] everything is there for a good reason, the codex in Mass Effect seemed like an encyclopaedia for those who wanted to know more, but the DA codex is often fun to read and has some really useful info in it. [Loading...]
I’ll try not to spoil anything, but if you haven’t finished Redcliffe you might want to skip this paragraph. The big decision you get to make in the castle was a perfect example of how to do it right. It’s a tough choice and there’s no clear indication of what’s the “best” way to deal with it. My character is a dwarf commoner warrior, so she ended up making the choice that didn’t rely on magic I was amazed that the game actually let me do this, as a sensible choice which didn’t brand me a complete bastard. I was honestly a little shocked and surprised at the turn of events, in a good way. [Loading...]
On the bad side, I had to turn off the persistent blood, I know it’s supposed to add to realism, but it just felt stupid to have my characters constantly run around covered in blood spatters. A lot of the “adult” stuff in the game feels a bit gratuitous, but I can live with it.
Visually, it feels a bit “off” as well. Unlike Mass Effect, lower resolution textures stick out like a sore thumb here [Loading...] and the lighting they’re using seems to only make it worse. Interestingly, the look of the game seems to make a lot more sense in the isometric view. Maybe it’s the engine being a bit poo, but there seems to be some really dodgy texture work and poor art design going on. Perhaps it’s just nitpicking, I don’t play a game like this for the visuals after all, but it does pull me out of the feeling sometimes when things just look “wrong”. [Loading...]
My only major complaint about the combat is the amazing amounts of setup and micro you have to go through to have your party not act like a bunch of total idiots. I’m fine with microing spell casts and abilities, but things like half my party running through fire to get to a lone enemy on the other side is.. well stupid. And if I run them out without babysitting them they’ll just run into it again. I really like the combat overall, but when my party nearly kills themselves due to stupid AI behaviour it just gets frustrating.
Yeah, the constant loading is a tad on the annoying side as well.
Wow.
I have an incidental question: In the cinematic from a few weeks ago (the one where a party fought some Darkspawn and a dragon), the main character’s eyes glow blue just before he finishes off the dragon. (And he emits a distinctly dragon-like roar).
Does that actually happen? Was that an ability/skill restricted to some class? Or is the blue-eye dragon-scream a plot element?
I’m having a great time with it so far. Playing as a Dalish Elf – Rogue (haven’t specialised yet, not got that far).
Origin story was decent enough fun and John was certainly right about the fantastic feeling created by running across the battlements in the battle at the start.
The one issue I’ve developed, and this is not unique to this particular rpg, is that it’s occasionally impossible to avoid pissing off one of your companions. Usually due to being trapped in a conversation tree that was innocuous enough to begin with but suddenly all you’re presented with a horrible remarks or even insults.
It’s a small complaint but I feel I’d be more diplomatic in the same situation and the choice wasn’t there for me.
Hasn’t detracted from the game much at all though. Tons of fun.
I’ve played up until Redcliffe (where I’m now, just past the first night) on my first character, a Dalish elf rogue (going for archery). First of all, I really really like the game. It’s good fun. However..
1) Controlling party members is awkward. Instead of just the tactic slots or some unexplained role I’d rather have more RTS-type things like ’stay there’, ‘defend character I designate’ and ranged mode/melee mode (ideally powered by switching sets). I’m sure the tactic slots could prove useful, but I like controlling my party members and honestly I expect to at least give the simplest of orders. Indeed, if not used as intended (which I’m not, probably) they’re better left out of the game altogether. And then they charge skill slots for it (or was it abilities) for those who like to use them? I can understand getting more as you level, but I don’t think anyone feels like they need them as much as just about any alternative.
2) DLC advertisement. I’m fine with the DLC option from the main menu, but there’s really no need to put any of that in game. If I want to play my game without any of that I’d still be bothered all the time by that wanker (who is probably a GM PC, smug and conceited as he is. The worst-written and voice-acted NPC character I’ve met so far. And oh yeah, he’s apparently Duncan’s big chum, too.). Appearing out of nowhere in character he sounds more like a con than anything else. A bad one.
Seriously, I’ll probably end up getting the keep, but it’ll be despite all the attempts to reel me in. It ticks me off every time I think about it.
3) Sten. Really, even Morrigan wants him out of that cage. Although that could be because she likes the idea of a murderer in the party. Basically the game wanting me to feel bad about him rotting in that cage when a) he prefers a slow to a quick death b) nothing points towards his innocence. Sod off, really.
4) No in depth (stressing the in depth part) information whatsoever about things like specialisations, skills, tradeskills and such.
5) Combat feels rewarding but a bit lacking for the simple reason that you always seem to be behind. Enemies are always stronger or greater in number so you feel like you’re scraping by using ‘cheap options’ like tons of potions or the like. I wonder if things would have been better if (for example) they had removed willpower and added mana/stamina gains for every point spent in a class’ main attribute. I mean, just to make it a bit more action-packed rather than.. frantic, which is what it can easily turn into. Add to that lower mana/stamina cost for abilities and I’ll feel far less limited in my options (even if they up the difficulty slightly with it).
5) Not being able to turn off helmet graphics.
The intent seems to micromanage your characters but the tactics allows some automation. There is a tiny button to flip everyone to hold position under the character portraits on the left. That came in handy when my melee guys kept trying to run through a burning trap. So far I use the tactics to trigger abilites, like flame burst when multiple bad guys are clustered, under attack by ranged turn on shield defense, and use a potion when health is below <25%. I imagine levelling up tactics allows for more granularity since it opens up more slots.
Someone needs to write up a guide with good example tactics.
“3) Sten. Really, even Morrigan wants him out of that cage. Although that could be because she likes the idea of a murderer in the party. Basically the game wanting me to feel bad about him rotting in that cage when a) he prefers a slow to a quick death b) nothing points towards his innocence. Sod off, really.”
Sten *is* guilty. That’s why he’s waiting for death there and not trying to escape. However, there is an ENTIRE ENORMOUS ARMY OF EVIL going to destroy everything and kill everyone, and you have the right to conscript pretty much anyone to fight against it, being a Grey Warden, so you recruit him because Qunari are enormous badasses.
He’s also actually a pretty nuanced character once you get past your initial issues.
Recruit him? I could, if I wanted him in my party more than Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana and my doggie. Oh I would’ve released him had I wanted him in my party as ICly you can keep an eye on him. But since I had no intention to get him in my party he’d just be wandering around freely and meeting me every once in a while (camp)
I just had my way with Morrigan, she seemed to enjoy my taint.
Just a thought – is it worth making a Rock Paper Shotgun group on the Bioware Social site? It might be an easy way to take a nose at each other’s characters.
I’m suffering from characcter creation paralysis at the moment. I usually buy an RPG, procrastinate for a week and then just go for a stabby-stabby warrior.
I’m playing as a Human Noble Warrior specializing in 2-handed weapons. The game was plenty difficult for the first 10 or 15 hours, but now that I’ve got my blood dragon armor I’m breezing right through everything. Also sleep/waking nightmare are extremely useful spells for morrigan, along with that hex that makes an enemy unable to hit you. Aside from her I have Alistair set up for sword/shield tanking and Leliana to open locked chests and doors.
So, I, uhm, bought Dragon Age: Origins. And I'm enjoying it greatly.
Of course, fantasy-sucker that I am, I just had to play through all six origin stories. Several surprises there that really took me unawares. Great stuff. I expected least from the dwarf commoner story, but he's now my main character. It felt a tiny little bit like the movie Gladiator!
Anyway, I suck at combat. Had to push the slider to Easy because I couldn't get past the ogre. And I don't know how to get money. Always scraping by just so. Also, I've got one part of the dragon armour in my backpack, but I can't use it! What a tease is that? The other parts are available but way too expensive for me.
Hmm.. sounds like I'm complaining. Actualy I'm very thrilled with the game. It's just that I'm probably missing many things, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Instead of heaping praise I will just share one moment I experienced yesterday that really convinced me how much value is in DA:O.
I just returned to my camp after finishing the Redcliffe story with a, let's say very unorhodox solution. (Hey, I'm just a common dwarf! What does I know about the ways of the world? Right!)
When Alistair approached me and asked me: "May I have a word with you?" "Of course." And then proceeded to explode into my face! "How could you? Are you insane? That was horrible! We should have tried harder! etc." I really was a little bit shocked, because I didn't expect this at all. I knew that he was not happy with my decision. And I expected just an "Alistair disapproves! (-5)" and be done with it. And now I got this. I really sat a while and stared at the screen in disbelief. The voice acting here was also very well done. Bravo, Bioware!
Errm, no. Wardens Keep is $7 (~£4.50), and if you don't want it, don't buy it. Shale comes free with all new copies of the game.
Seriously, how is one piece of DLC, nickel and diming? I sometimes think folk are just looking for excuses to pirate.
Top game so far. The game became alot easier when I started using taunt at the right times on my tank, and moving Zevran around the back of the enemy being ff. He tears people apart when he can flank. As soon as I started doing this I managed to kill those sodding Revenants which seemed seriously overpowered. Oh, and dont u just luv a perfectly timed and placed Cone of GG!
This game is awesome. Small world for my taste, but there is plenty space for a whole saga I think.
Yeah, what happened to the battle log!?
Can someone please create an addon:)