Danger! Danger! This contains a few minor, character-specific spoilers – but nothing to do with DA’s main plot.
My first few hours with Bioware’s latest had more worried I wasn’t going to be entertained. Sure, I was having fun, but my party, the people I was travelling with, were pretty dry. Facetious holy warrior Alistair had a nice line in comic deflections, but arch sorceress Morrigan seemed a textbook line in sneery, sultry know-it-alls (though I’m sure there are many stings to be found in her self-confident tale) and, while the dog was sort of cute, it wasn’t exactly chatty. As for wide-eyed, pseudo-French bard Leilana – well, my cat could read those lines better than her. Sigh. Could I really make it through a couple of dozen hours with these ciphers, these stereotypes, these appalling cod-Euro accents? (Though, seriously, I like Alistair a lot). Then I met Shale, the golem – almost immediately the game’s bright, dazzling star.
Bioware tend to revisit a lot of themes and structures in their games (if this was snappier and funnier, it’d have been worth a post. It’s really not, but it gets the point across). That very much extends to its party members – for instance, Alistair isn’t KOTOR’s drippy Carth in as much he’s someone you can bear to have a conversation with, but he’s still the first guy you recruit, the one with the heart of gold and the key love interest if you’re playing a woman. (I’m not, but because of him wish I was – I’d much rather flirt against his cheery put-downs than Morrigan’s snide oh-I’m-bit-naughty-me line. Even more ideally, Alistair and Morrigan would get it on, as their constant, comedy bickering very much evokes sexual tension. JUST DO IT. You know you want each other). He’s Carth.
Shale is HK-47 through-and-through, and, I suspect, very self-consciously so on Bioware’s part. As KOTOR’s psycho-C3PO was, Shale is the guy who doesn’t quite fit the tone of the game, because he doesn’t take anything seriously. He’s its Rosencratz & Guildenstein, its Deadpool – creeping as close as the broadly po-faced dark fantasy comes to breaking the fourth wall. Which is why he’s the most welcome presence in the game. He’s also cheerfully homicidal, as was HK-47, and killed his master, as did HK-47. Maybe it’s lazy, but it’s hard to disagree with someone who ritually suggests solving moral dilemmas by stomping everyone involved into paste. Plus, he’s pathologically afraid of birds.
When Shale first spoke, after I’d completed a quest to earn the magic rod and codeword necessary to wake him from a long, petrified slumber in the centre of a human village, I sighed before he even finished his sentence. Another clipped English voice, reedy and weak, not the big, booming, stony golem-voice I’d expected. What is it with this game and its thin voices? Oh, wait. Wait wait wait. A few words in, the shock of his non-golemnity overcome, I listened to what he said and how he said it, and I realised what he was. He was, well, camp.
Is that an insulting way of putting it? It’s not intended as such, certainly. He’s prissy, he’s concerned that his gemstones (a neat way of applying weapon and armour upgrades) don’t complement each other and he regards the rest of the party as really rather grubby. Of course, he’s immensely likeable about it, off in his own little world rather than frowning about Darkspawn. He’s also beguiling childlike – there’s a great conversation between him and Leilana about shoes, him having essentially never heard of them before but loving the idea, and nervously suggesting what colour he’d prefer. He’s the NPC I’d choose to have a romance with, but it rather seems he’s not equipped for it.
Evidently, he’s a parody of/homage to the sort of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy figure that’s become a mainstay of popular culture, and maybe there’d be some discomfort about Bioware playing to broad stereotypes – except for the fact he’s clearly the best, most likeable and enthusiastically written character in the game. His abilities are splendid, too – lobbing boulders, a pair of Hellboy fists, or turning into a frozen obelisk that mega-buffs the rest of the party. You absolutely have to include him in your party – except, to bring up the big problem I foreshadowed earlier, you probably can’t.
There’s a wider issue here, which we’ll probably get into it a post of its own. Shale is only available to people who paid for the Collector’s Edition of DA, around £10 more than the standard. Edit! I’m a fool, as some non-fools have observed – I had presumed he was the same as the Warden’s Keep DLC, as the store pages are careful to only mention him in regard to the collector’s edition. Shale is available with all retail copies of DA – but you have to enter a code to download him. Pray ignore the following two paragraphs, but I leave them there for guilty posterity’s sake. I would say I’m puzzled as to why he has to be downloaded rather than simply included – is the idea indeed that we’re lured into thinking the forthcoming other DLC will be similarly excellent? Hmm… Is he included with standard Steam/D2D copies too, anyone know?
I believe you can also pay for the DLC upgrade if you like. On the hand, his splendidness and how totally integrated he is with the core game is a rare triumph for DLC, something that so often sloppily sticks unnecessary bits on the side. On the other hand, that’s because he is quite clearly not DLC. He’s so core to the game, to its writing, to its world, to its other characters, that there’s no way he was designed as an add-on. I hate to tin-foil hat it, but he very much seems to have been created, removed and re-added, rather than created and added after the event.
But that’s me getting all Crazy Cynical Boy -who knows what Bioware planned or how they did it? All I know is that the game is a lesser thing without him, and I’m uncomfortable that it takes an extra £10 to bring him into things. If he’s a sign of things to come, of Bioware coming up with really slick, clever, enthusiastic DLC, I’m all for it. But their Mass Effect stuff didn’t set a great precedent for that. Perhaps Shale’s a seachange. Is he worth the extra tenner? Erm. Ah. Yes. He’s comfortably one of the best things about the game, and I’ve been enjoying it much more since he joined my party. But you shouldn’t have to pay for him. I’d imagine his writers would feel the same way, as they’d want such a grand creation to be seen by as many as possible. God knows this vast, preening man-mountain would think so too.
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Sometimes I feel like developers add skills simply because they’re supposed to … like Steal. Why would I ever pick a pocket in this game? It totally doesn’t fit.
Also, I really wish they would take the “dark” idea to the next level. I mean, being able to make hard decisions isn’t the same as being forced to make hard decisions. In the end I’ve found that there is always a way out, and there is absolutely no penalty in doing so. There is one situation in particular where there was a ridiculously hard decision to make, then I found out that I really didn’t have to make it at all, and it sort of took the drama out of it. Realizing I can just once again game the situation so everyone is happy and everyone lives is not very “dark” fantasy. I’m not trying to gripe though, I love the game, this is more directed at developers in general. If all things are equal, why would I ever choose to kill someone? Even evil people don’t do that, there is always a purpose, and I don’t generally choose to be a homicidal maniac in games because it just doesn’t make for a compelling storyline. Maybe I just haven’t hit the hard points of the game yet, but I’m under the impression that they won’t be there.
>Sometimes I feel like developers add skills simply because they’re supposed to … like Steal. Why would I ever pick a pocket in this game? It totally doesn’t fit.
I remember whilst testing out the dwarf commoner origin I really wanted some money, so I had to pickpocket items and sell them. I was delighted.
Regarding choices, I wanted to be a blood mage so badly, and within the first offering I refused because I didn’t like the implications. I’m sure there will be another chance down the road, I mean I chose to find another way to be a Shapeshifter rather than be friendly to Morrigan.
Also, I did try to murder that old man in woods.
“…in *the* woods.”
Could have sworn I checked everything.
You can obtain some sub-quest items through picking pockets. As well as being a good source of potions and money, especially early on. Haven’t swiped any golden pantaloons yet, but we’ll see.
Well that’s fair, I think perhaps it doesn’t make sense for my origin :) Although as a City Elf or a Dwarf Commoner I can see how that would fit a lot better, perhaps when I make my City Elf rogue, I will be more apt to pick pockets… but again, why waste a talent point on something that will be used only a few times? Better to load up on lock picking and get real loot :)
As for killing the guy in the woods… I had that option too, but what would have been the point? Items? Gear that really isn’t all that good anyway, a quest item that I can get by not fighting? It still isn’t a difficult moral decision, there’s nothing gray about choosing to murder a random guy in the woods. I’m more lamenting the fact that, in the end, there is always a way out of having to make those difficult choices. I’m talking about situations where saving one person necessarily leads another to die, or killing one person saves many… those are tough choices. Is killing one good person worth the lives of a village? Are you willing to bear the responsibility of killing someone to save a village that will hate you for having killed that person? In most games there is an option 3, where you’re the valiant courageous hero who has saved everyone, risking nothing. Time stops. Diseases stop spreading. Armies stop attacking. All until you’re done doing the thing that saves everyone, even if you have to travel to a mountain a continent away to retrieve a cure or kill a dragon. There was a situation that happened in Dragon Age where I had to leave a village, and I was just hoping to come back and have it be destroyed, or on fire, or at least being attacked. Alas, nothing had changed, the attacks had stopped, the disease no longer spread, time had stopped. Compelling choices are created by having dramatic consequences
I was really planning on murdering him because I needed the item to progress, and had no intention of playing mind games, riddles, trading or whatever he wanted. It was late, I was tired. I also considered his quest, and the ‘everyone lives’ solution, but he was *right* there and annoying.
So far I have been able to circumvent most gray choices, however there isn’t anything really stopping you from selecting them. During the Redcliffe Castle situation, had I known I would have to do all that other stuff to avoid the gray solution I would have probably took Eamon’s wife up on her offer. If time weren’t static, children would be lost for ages, Sten would have died of hunger, Alastair would never fulfill his ‘character quest,’ etc.
I don’t think I’ve done the quest you’re mentioning yet (because I keep starting over) , so I can’t say much about it.
Stealing is a skill not a talent, therefore you can do both. :P
I’m a kleptomaniac (and in the game) and pick the pockets of just about everybody I see. I never choose the tactics skill, and the survival skill seems of limited use since the sight range is longer than enemy reaction range and I just reload if I die from the combat anyway, so I know what to expect, so somebody may as well be stealing.
there is not always a good choice, alot of it depends on what you have done previously. It affects choices in the future.
Anonymous Coward? Is it not showing my user name?
“Anonymous Coward” is a leftover of the old forum software. If you’re not logged in, and someone quotes you from the forum, that’s what shows up.
He?
yes, time does stop for certain quests, others it does not. You are judging everything the game based on 1 choice.
That 1 choice though changes based on your actions though. I dont want to spoil it, but i know the part you are talking about and there are several outcomes possible.
I am not judging the entire game on that, I really do love the game and have enjoyed the story line and the characters, etc. I know that there are plenty of outcomes based on dialogue, but the game offers you no valid reason to choose any of them other than to see how the different options play out. It’s not that there aren’t differences in the conversations and the world as a result, it just gives me no real reason to choose between them. It’s just a limitation of gaming in general, not a specific attack on Dragon Age.
this is kinda an origin spoiler for the city elf.
as a city elf you get the choice to seek revenge on a guy for raping your friend even though this could flare up the situation for the elf’s, it’s quite a complicated situation with no clear right and wrong, there’s been a bunch of things like this in the game, at least as i’ve played it, the wardens keep quest is another good example.
Thanks for the spoiler Sombrero.
Not so much a spoiler, as it says practically as much in the text for the City Elf origin before the game even starts.
I wasn’t planning on checking the other origin stories until I’d completed my first playthrough, so yeah, not a “strict” spoiler, but still a dick move.
ehh didn’t you read the line, “this is kinda an origin spoiler for the city elf.”? that is why i wrote it and separated it off for emphasis.
WHAAA
(I may have just completed Shale’s sidequest.)
Shale’s quest is awesome ain’t it? Makes a lot of things make more sense…and get’s you a whole huge amount of rep with the golem. Makes for an even more impressive party member.
And now of course, I have to play around with Shale and Leilana in my part to hear about the shoes. I have to say, when I was talking with her in the camp, and she suddenly started going on and on about shoes? I couldn’t stop laughing. I like Shale and Dog’s interactions as well.
How do you define “cod-Euro accents” …?
Shale’s available as DLC to stop you from lending the game to your friends, or buying it second hand – that’s why you have to either enter a one-use code or pay for the DLC.
I’d rage about how we don’t really own the games we buy anymore, but I’m having too much fun with the game to stay mad at it for long.
As much as I enjoy having Shale in my team, I found Zevran to be the most interesting. The voice over is perfect, his attitude towards everything just seems to… well…fit. Not since BG2 have I kept a companion along for his/her personality rather than skills (I just HAD to keep MInsc around).
Alec, I find your desire to play a woman in order to have a romance with Alistair slightly disturbing. :/
Apart, of course, from the fact that I think he is a whinny wuss, much more so that Carth ever was. I wanted to like him, I tried to like him, but I simply couldn’t. He’s just ok enough that I bring him along occasionally.
But I did like Morrigan. Yeah she overdoes the bad girl routine, but at least she isn’t a one-sided character. There are nice tiny things to her personality, like the way she every now and then roots for the underdog in some situations. It’s also refreshing how the goes out of her way to be unpleasant, and succeeds. Most evil NPCs in games end up coming across as comic relief.
*MINOR ROMANCE SUBPLOT SPOILER*
I was quite annoyed and disapointed that she became clingy after I slept with her. I was into the romance with Leliana (a character that I enjoy despite the terrible faux-french accent) and I got into it because she basically said this would be a one-night stand and that was fine with her. Right after that she demands that I break up with Leliana, and if I don’t, massive affinity loss and consequent loss of bonuses. Geeez. So ok, I was being a bastard, but it was supposed to be ok because she was a bastardess as well. :P Now suddenly the ice-cold witch has a heart to be broken. Baaah.
*END OF SPOILER*
Oh, and I quite like Sten. More than the quiet, strong, surly time, he has an air of mystery around him and his culture and people that I find fascinating, and the exchanges with him, albeit brief, always leave me wanting more. He was easily the character I found more gratifying to bond with.
Alec, I find your desire to play a woman in order to have a romance with Alistair slightly disturbing. :/
That’s what I did. Alastair was much more interesting than Morrigan, and still is. Only after getting to ‘know’ her- as a female character -, did she become interesting. Her personality at first was annoying, and I was wondering why she kept traveling under my banner being such a staunch individualist, and a Darwinist (in the loosest sense). I find her to be something of a hypocrite, not that I took her Darwinist spiel seriously. To my knowledge, she lived under her mother’s protection, and then mine.
On playing as a male, she offered to sleep with me right after I gave her a gift. I know it’s just the game mechanics, but it’s not a good impression.
The only thing I find funny about Alastair is his hero worship of Duncan. He didn’t seem to know him that long, after all.
Sten. as I said before, is great. Not quite the bastard I thought him to be. Wynne teeters just on the edge of annoying, sometimes she says things I agree with and/or makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, then she behaves self-righteously. Meh.
I am only 8% in, but my mind keeps going back to that scene where that female General just meekly took her army away, allowing her King to die. Didn’t seem plausible. Then, later on, despite a whole army seeing what went on, nobody’s sure what happened, allowing the Wardens to be outlawed! Didn’t about 1,000 soldiers in the retreating army see that beacon light up? It seems unrealistic that the secret of went on that night would be kept.
I am hoping things will change, but currently I continue to think back to that cutscene of that general meekly retiring her army from a battle she knew her king was fighting in.
She’s loyal to Lohgain, not the king. This becomes obvious if you read the codex, or just when you meet her later.
spoilers in bound for john.
Spoilers GTFO!!!!!!!!
Loghain has been a hero for longer than the king has been alive. He was peasant who became an arl. People that are his age, see him as a hero and what they can accomplish. He gives them hope, the young hear the stories and want to grow up just like him. That is why it works. Also, loghain is playing people against thier own people based on the good in thier hearts, they act out because they want to save thier country. This is different from your average evil dictactor that simply hires assasains, which loghain reluctantly does do. So basically its either people believe a long standing hero and master general, or some mystical group of soldiers they have never met. I am actually personally suprised at how many people do still trust the grey wardens.
I don’t know if anyone is still monitoring this post, but does the camera angles in this game bother anyone else? I don’t understand why, if I’m zoomed in to the over the shoulder view, I can’t look up and down. They’ve built a nice world, but failed to provide the tools to observe it. Seems like a serious flaw. Or maybe I’m just an idiot who can’t figure it out.
Use Home and End keys to look up and down.
Yeah, I’m just an idiot. Holding right mouse button while moving the mouse allows you to look around, too.
And why have a picklocks skill if not ALL doors are pick-able and require a key?
I fully understand a magically sealed door requiring so key/trigger device, but a mechanical door should not require a key in any RPG with a lockpicking skill (less your skills are weak sauce).
SPOILER Sort of
The original article kept referring to Shale as a he. Shale is a she. And that makes all the banter about shoes and looking tin make much more sense.
BIG SPOILERS
During the final battle part choice save and don’t pick Shale. Listen to the very funny line about you getting eaten by the dragon. Finally, if you live talk to Shale during the celebration. It fills in the ending script about a dwarf women killing pigeons and makes sense of that part.
Corinne Kempa, the voice actress for Lelliana, is French. Parisian if I recall. So I think her accent is probably just fine.
If you go to her profile page at her agency http://www.excellentvoice.co.uk/voiceartist.php?id=134# and listen to her english showreel you can see that is her accent. A real accent of a parisian woman.
So all of this about her “terrible french accent” everywhere seems pretty goddamn ridiculous.
FYI, new DLC announced today: Return to Ostagar. According to Devs, it takes about an hour to play through and costs $5.