Dragon Age: Origins
I haven't finished the game yet, but I think I've been through the bulk of it. There are things I want to say about it, though I suppose I'll tuck it all behind a cut. I'll try to avoid any specific spoilers, but there may still be some details that people playing it may not want to see yet.
I think saying that I'm just entering the Alienage at the Landsmeet places my progress without actually spoiling anything. So, where to start?
The gameplay is decent, with ups and downs.
The NPC AI is pretty good most of the time, and the settable tactics are useful. It can be a hassle sometimes, though. Setting characters to 'use the lowest rank health poultice' when 'at 50% or less health' is often good. 25% is often a little late, and that helps keep people on their. Unfortuntely, I've been through a series of painful fights lately and my supply of poultices has dropped to nothing without my even noticing it.
And while the AI is functional, I found early on that Easy is really the only difficulty setting you can get away with unless you want to be frequently pausing and micromanaging all your party actions every "turn." For me, I didn't want to play that way - so Easy it is.
Combat moves well, with various abilities you can use or have sustained. There are areas in which it's a slogging annoyance, though - particularly with spiders and other creatures that spawn around you in packs. Perhaps on higher difficulties, the tactical interest of these fights would appeal to people, but they often struck me as unimportant filler.
The game looks good. The constant blood splatter over characters is almost silly, though, and I do wish I could view some things closer in. Still, everything moves well and looks detailed. Cut scenes are doubly-cool, of course.
The party NPCs range from okay to great. I find Alistair's awkwardness a bit charming, really. Leliana has a nice background (though I really expected some sort of caster/priest when I recruited her, not a bard - surprise!) and story. Morrigan's attitude is... endearingly annoying. That's the main trio I've worked with. The dog has some cute scenes. Sten seems the token gruff traditionalist. The dwarf, elf, and circle mage are characters I would like to see more of in another play-through probably.
It also sounds good. The only complaint I have is there seems to be an audio cue for when a party member enters and/or leaves my main character's Rally effect. When running around, they'll often slip and in out of range, so I hear this a lot and it distracts a little from other things. There's one part that's really very creepy as you hear someone talking even though they're a ways off. The effect would have been lessened in only text.
I have some problems with the online aspect. I know downloadable content is all the rage. It's a nifty idea in offering additional stuff to players as well as making additional money along the way. But I've been harassed while playing with "could not connect to the server" messages. I've seen warnings when starting the game that I will have problems continuing a game that uses downloaded content (because the game hadn't logged on to the server yet). I activated the "Stone Prisoner" quest, visited the first guy who sent me to a town for the next part - and the town doesn't exist on my map (which seems to be an error others have encountered).
I think the game will run entirely offline, but it doesn't seem to be happy about it. And I feel a single-player game like this really should be able to work without an active internet connection.
The setting stands out. Through codex entries and conversations, the world appears very richly detailed. And it seems realistic (for a fantasy world) in how a lot of the politics and personal biases are involved. Things like mages and lyrium and demons are all woven together interestingly. The darkspawn are kind of generic in general, but there are even some points to their existence that stand out.
As said, the story is pretty dark. There are a lot of losses before any gains. There are situations where there isn't a good (in the terms of "all parties are happy with the outcome") choice - or there is, but you can miss it easily. I'm okay with that, generally. I can strive to be a good guy when there isn't always a moral high ground.
It gets overdone, however. Maybe it's the jaded gamer in me, but what I perceive as the "body" of the storyline got repetitive real fast. Okay, you have four main factions to seek alliance from. Yay. Each one you go to cannot immediately help you because they have their own problems. I guess this does give you plenty to do, and adds to the sense of impending doom unless the "good guys" unite, but...
The second time, I said "Ugh, that figures. Okay, how do I help?" By the third time, I was expecting it, and it felt almost comical. My attitude had become a more blase "Yeah, yeah, overwhelming problems, point me at the fix that you can't do yourselves and let's get this over with."
I understand it's a design choice: opening up multiple quest lines that run parallel and don't require a specific order, thus offering the sense of freedom. But compared to the rest of the setting and story, it falls flat. You complete one faction/area and move on to the next, immediately losing any sense of accomplishment. I can only think of one event that might play out differently if you did one of the other branches first, otherwise it really doesn't seem to matter at all. And in a world with such detail, you'd expect some repercussions.
So I'm glad to be past that section, even if it means I'm at a more linear segment of the plot.
For all the little flaws of note, it does more right than wrong. It's a good game that delivers a lot of play time.
Of course, I haven't finished yet, so I may need to append an opinion. RPGs have a notoriously difficult time with endings. All too often, they don't measure up or evoke a genuine "WTF?!" response.
I think saying that I'm just entering the Alienage at the Landsmeet places my progress without actually spoiling anything. So, where to start?
The gameplay is decent, with ups and downs.
The NPC AI is pretty good most of the time, and the settable tactics are useful. It can be a hassle sometimes, though. Setting characters to 'use the lowest rank health poultice' when 'at 50% or less health' is often good. 25% is often a little late, and that helps keep people on their. Unfortuntely, I've been through a series of painful fights lately and my supply of poultices has dropped to nothing without my even noticing it.
And while the AI is functional, I found early on that Easy is really the only difficulty setting you can get away with unless you want to be frequently pausing and micromanaging all your party actions every "turn." For me, I didn't want to play that way - so Easy it is.
Combat moves well, with various abilities you can use or have sustained. There are areas in which it's a slogging annoyance, though - particularly with spiders and other creatures that spawn around you in packs. Perhaps on higher difficulties, the tactical interest of these fights would appeal to people, but they often struck me as unimportant filler.
The game looks good. The constant blood splatter over characters is almost silly, though, and I do wish I could view some things closer in. Still, everything moves well and looks detailed. Cut scenes are doubly-cool, of course.
The party NPCs range from okay to great. I find Alistair's awkwardness a bit charming, really. Leliana has a nice background (though I really expected some sort of caster/priest when I recruited her, not a bard - surprise!) and story. Morrigan's attitude is... endearingly annoying. That's the main trio I've worked with. The dog has some cute scenes. Sten seems the token gruff traditionalist. The dwarf, elf, and circle mage are characters I would like to see more of in another play-through probably.
It also sounds good. The only complaint I have is there seems to be an audio cue for when a party member enters and/or leaves my main character's Rally effect. When running around, they'll often slip and in out of range, so I hear this a lot and it distracts a little from other things. There's one part that's really very creepy as you hear someone talking even though they're a ways off. The effect would have been lessened in only text.
I have some problems with the online aspect. I know downloadable content is all the rage. It's a nifty idea in offering additional stuff to players as well as making additional money along the way. But I've been harassed while playing with "could not connect to the server" messages. I've seen warnings when starting the game that I will have problems continuing a game that uses downloaded content (because the game hadn't logged on to the server yet). I activated the "Stone Prisoner" quest, visited the first guy who sent me to a town for the next part - and the town doesn't exist on my map (which seems to be an error others have encountered).
I think the game will run entirely offline, but it doesn't seem to be happy about it. And I feel a single-player game like this really should be able to work without an active internet connection.
The setting stands out. Through codex entries and conversations, the world appears very richly detailed. And it seems realistic (for a fantasy world) in how a lot of the politics and personal biases are involved. Things like mages and lyrium and demons are all woven together interestingly. The darkspawn are kind of generic in general, but there are even some points to their existence that stand out.
As said, the story is pretty dark. There are a lot of losses before any gains. There are situations where there isn't a good (in the terms of "all parties are happy with the outcome") choice - or there is, but you can miss it easily. I'm okay with that, generally. I can strive to be a good guy when there isn't always a moral high ground.
It gets overdone, however. Maybe it's the jaded gamer in me, but what I perceive as the "body" of the storyline got repetitive real fast. Okay, you have four main factions to seek alliance from. Yay. Each one you go to cannot immediately help you because they have their own problems. I guess this does give you plenty to do, and adds to the sense of impending doom unless the "good guys" unite, but...
The second time, I said "Ugh, that figures. Okay, how do I help?" By the third time, I was expecting it, and it felt almost comical. My attitude had become a more blase "Yeah, yeah, overwhelming problems, point me at the fix that you can't do yourselves and let's get this over with."
I understand it's a design choice: opening up multiple quest lines that run parallel and don't require a specific order, thus offering the sense of freedom. But compared to the rest of the setting and story, it falls flat. You complete one faction/area and move on to the next, immediately losing any sense of accomplishment. I can only think of one event that might play out differently if you did one of the other branches first, otherwise it really doesn't seem to matter at all. And in a world with such detail, you'd expect some repercussions.
So I'm glad to be past that section, even if it means I'm at a more linear segment of the plot.
For all the little flaws of note, it does more right than wrong. It's a good game that delivers a lot of play time.
Of course, I haven't finished yet, so I may need to append an opinion. RPGs have a notoriously difficult time with endings. All too often, they don't measure up or evoke a genuine "WTF?!" response.
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