Dragon Age: Origins

[RCAF Brat]

Anyone else got this one?

It is really good, has a storyline that grabs you and just won't let go, and is more violent than any game that I've played save the Fallout series.

I've completed one of the origin stories so far, and have just started the main quest. It could be a while before I finish this one.

Unless I don't feel like sleeping much.

[Shadow Knight]

Tis awesome. I've been playing the Human noble since it came out. The game is long and the story is awesome. Although some of the side quests are predictable if you've played past Bioware games. (Actually it instills a bit of nostalgia to be honest.)

[RCAF Brat]

Originally Posted by Shadow Knight

Tis awesome. I've been playing the Human noble since it came out. The game is long and the story is awesome. Although some of the side quests are predictable if you've played past Bioware games. (Actually it instills a bit of nostalgia to be honest.)

I've been doing the Dalish Elf storyline... yes, it is long. I am at about 10% or so and I have been playing for hours, and have just completed the whole questline involving the first real battle against the Blight. As to how that quest ended, I sure didn't see it coming...

The amount of backstabbing and selfish behaviour seems realistic for once. Very few people are actually noble, and most will only help others if they are getting something out of the deal.

[Bulgaroktonos]

This game is destroying my life. I've already beat it once, and I'm already playing through it again.....

[RCAF Brat]

Originally Posted by Bulgaroktonos

This game is destroying my life. I've already beat it once, and I'm already playing through it again.....

I know the feeling... I haven't beaten it yet, but it is consuming my life.

Out of curiosity, did you ever notice the references to Joan of Arc and King Arthur (among many others) hidden the game?

[Alex]

Just started on it, playing as an Elf Mage... for once, I'm not playing as a "tank" character, so we'll see how that goes. Enjoying it so far!

[Admiral Canaris]

I was a little disappointed by the Origin stories actually... After all the hype I thought they'd be longer and have more of an effect on the actual campaign. And the game is fiendishly hard, even on "Easy".

Otherwise it's really good, Bioware seemingly can't turn out anything bad (even Mass Effect was at least decent). Especially nice that you can zoom out the camera for old-style Baldur's Gate combat. I'll withhold final judgement til I've played it through, but it looks like it could be better than Neverwinter Nights.

[Shadow Knight]

Originally Posted by Admiral Canaris

I was a little disappointed by the Origin stories actually... After all the hype I thought they'd be longer and have more of an effect on the actual campaign. And the game is fiendishly hard, even on "Easy".

I don't know about the others, yet, but with the human noble I know it can. I played a male noble, and I certainly had some dialogue options that I'm sure wouldn't have been there without that origin. I also know that if you play a female human noble one you can become queen.

[RCAF Brat]

Anyone got the creepy hot witch-chick's background quest yet? The one where she asks you to kill her mother for her?

Also, did any of the board's resident trekkies notice who voice some of the key characters in the game? Let's just say that there are an elven wizard and a witch who have voices that trekkies would find very familiar.

[RCAF Brat]

Well, this is one of the few games that provides a decent explanation both for how the monsters came to be (Mages tried to invade Heaven. God not only cast them out, but He also cursed them and transformed them into the Darkspawn. And in the game, The Fade is both Heaven and Hell. Demon come from there too. "Heaven" just happened to be the place where God lived. The mages managed to destroy it in their selfish attempt at usurping God.) and for why there are so many of them (they breed, duh!) and how the former happens. (In the game, you meet a Lovcraftian horror called the 'Brood Mother'. Brood Mothers are corrupted women (nasty in istelf) who have been mutated into tentacled freaked who give birth to dozens of Darkspawn at a time. You get to face one late in the Dwarven questline. Just rushing in is a good way to get your party annihilated, even on easy.)

I put the spoilers in white. The game is good, though parts of it have given me the creeps.

[Laiqualasse]

I played it through once, as an elven mage, and am playing it again, this time as a city elf rogue. It's certainly interesting and the best cRPG I've seen in a while, but it has its downsides as well - namely the fact that the protagonist is mute in dialogues. Also, with such ridiculous hardware requirements they could have had nicer cut-scene graphics.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Laiqualasse

I played it through once, as an elven mage, and am playing it again, this time as a city elf rogue. It's certainly interesting and the best cRPG I've seen in a while, but it has its downsides as well - namely the fact that the protagonist is mute in dialogues. Also, with such ridiculous hardware requirements they could have had nicer cut-scene graphics.

Ah well... that's why I'm playing it on PS3 Not many glitches, and the game still looks good enough to be highly enjoyable.

[Laiqualasse]

Since I play very few games, and the ones I play are mostly from Paradox Interactive, I would have no use for a games console, so I'm stuck with good old PCs (or laptops)

[RCAF Brat]

Originally Posted by Alex

Ah well... that's why I'm playing it on PS3 Not many glitches, and the game still looks good enough to be highly enjoyable.

Though I also have an X-box, I opted to upgrade my 4-year old PC with a new graphics card. My 'Frankensteined'* Dell can run the game with most everything set to medium.

I've had the odd glitch, including the odd one that requires a restart of my PC, but with 90 hours+ (split between five characters with one having the bulk of it) of gameplay, the annoying glitches are few and far between.

*The warranty had already run out, so why not? At the least I'll get another couple-three years out of it, though I'll have a new gaming PC in much less than that.

[Alex]

Well, I don't usually have a lot of free time, and the thought of messing around with PC settings and configurations could be daunting at times (not to mention it is about the last thing I want to be doing in a little bit of time I get between putting the kiddo to bed and going to bed myself - I'd much rather spend that hour and a half to two hours playing rather than messing around with settings). I'll do it for a strategy game or World of Warcraft, but for anything else, console just presents a better, more relaxing gaming experience. Not to mention that games tend to look better than they do on my mid-level PC, almost never crash, and don't glitch enough for it to be noticeable.

[Adam]

Hmm, is it a Good Thing (tm) to have chosen Rogue as a starting class? So far its been nothing much but talk, find puppy, talk to vile lady cook, get puppy and then fight Giant Rats From Beyond (the walls), but I sense that things are going to get worse from now on.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Adam

Hmm, is it a Good Thing (tm) to have chosen Rogue as a starting class? So far its been nothing much but talk, find puppy, talk to vile lady cook, get puppy and then fight Giant Rats From Beyond (the walls), but I sense that things are going to get worse from now on.

It sounds like you are just playing through a Human Noble origin story, which would happen whether you are a warrior or a rogue with that race and origin. Trust me, things will get more interesting pretty much right after that (oh, and you could bed the blonde girl if you want to, although if you didn't already, it's little too late in the storyline now - you need to start talking to her before you talk to your brother and such).

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Alex

It sounds like you are just playing through a Human Noble origin story, which would happen whether you are a warrior or a rogue with that race and origin. Trust me, things will get more interesting pretty much right after that (oh, and you could bed the blonde girl if you want to, although if you didn't already, it's little too late in the storyline now - you need to start talking to her before you talk to your brother and such).

I knew I was missing something when I rushed off to get that damn mutt. I shall remedy this by being an utter bastard in conversations from now on!

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by Adam

I knew I was missing something when I rushed off to get that damn mutt. I shall remedy this by being an utter bastard in conversations from now on!

Nah, getting the dog didn't make you miss anything, you still get to poke around everywhere.

Anyway, I got the game the day it came out for mac, and I love it. First game in a long time that I really want to replay over and over. I personally find it a shame that really, the Human Noble origin seems to be the one with the best opportunity for influencing the plot (you have the opportunity to be king or queen), so, after playing through once as a human noble, I'm going to have to play through that origin twice more to fully experience the possibilities. And I'm also disappointed that mages (arguably the best class) get stuck into one origin, not matter what. Not so bad in and of itself, but its going to make the other 2 classes a bit stale, after I play through them 6 more times (the 4 remaining origins, after my 2nd play through, and twice more as a human noble).

But enough griping, the game is incredible. Amazing writing and dialogue, excellent gameplay. And the atmosphere, so good. I remember wandering through the Deep Roads, and, after having to battle swarm after swarm of corrupted spiders, coming out of the woodwork (well, stonework), I come to one small winding tunnel where all the spiders started running away from me. That scared the shit out of me; something was up (the reason was not disappointing, happily).

I remember, when I was a kid, wishing that there were good western RPGs. As a devotee of all things final fantasy, I have to say: I was watching a trailer for FF XIII, and was totally unimpressed. Why must Square constantly try to screw around with the gameplay, while confining themselves to various forms of their ATS system? Go for the western RPG system, it works beautifully. Imagine if each Final Fantasy were built around the same engine as Dragon Age (or Baldur's Gate, or any Bioware RPG). Its a fantastic engine.

[CeJay]

Originally Posted by Alex

It sounds like you are just playing through a Human Noble origin story, which would happen whether you are a warrior or a rogue with that race and origin. Trust me, things will get more interesting pretty much right after that (oh, and you could bed the blonde girl if you want to, although if you didn't already, it's little too late in the storyline now - you need to start talking to her before you talk to your brother and such

also case in point that that young lady swings both ways so to speak

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by CeJay

also case in point that that young lady swings both ways so to speak

As far as I can tell, most of the women you can sleep with do.

So, despite the unrealistic nature of having a medieval, pre-industrial, largely gender-blind society, I like their views.

[RCAF Brat]

Well, I found the Holy Grail, or at least this world's version of it.

And then I got to kill a dragon. Well, getting through that temple required that I kill a couple dozen dragons, but they were all little ones, about the size of a horse or so. The big one was their mother. Didn't need to reload on this one, and I didn't lose anybody either. Still a tough fight, but not losing anyone is quite the accomplishment... (Lvl 19 High Dragon vs lvl 17ish party. Went through a lot of health and mana potions...)

After you kill the dragon, you can get the scales, and then go to this guy who makes armour. He'll make you a suit out of them for free, because he really, really wants to be able to use dragon scales. If you are nice, and have also got some (needs three) drake (male dragon, flightless and about the size of a horse) scales, he'll make you a second suit using those, also for free. His business partner will then show you to the door and ban you from the shop...

Now just to wrap up a bunch of side quests and then set the end game in motion...

[DominusNovus]

Originally Posted by RCAF Brat

Well, I found the Holy Grail, or at least this world's version of it.

And then I got to kill a dragon. Well, getting through that temple required that I kill a couple dozen dragons, but they were all little ones, about the size of a horse or so. The big one was their mother. Didn't need to reload on this one, and I didn't lose anybody either. Still a tough fight, but not losing anyone is quite the accomplishment... (Lvl 19 High Dragon vs lvl 17ish party. Went through a lot of health and mana potions...)

After you kill the dragon, you can get the scales, and then go to this guy who makes armour. He'll make you a suit out of them for free, because he really, really wants to be able to use dragon scales. If you are nice, and have also got some (needs three) drake (male dragon, flightless and about the size of a horse) scales, he'll make you a second suit using those, also for free. His business partner will then show you to the door and ban you from the shop...

Now just to wrap up a bunch of side quests and then set the end game in motion...

Did you get the cinematic deathblow for it? I didnt, was very disappointed (but then, I was real cheap in beating it, so I can't complain too much).

There's also supposedly a glitch with the armor quest where you can get unlimited armors, gotta try to pull that off at some point.

[RCAF Brat]

Originally Posted by DominusNovus

Did you get the cinematic deathblow for it? I didnt, was very disappointed (but then, I was real cheap in beating it, so I can't complain too much).

There's also supposedly a glitch with the armor quest where you can get unlimited armors, gotta try to pull that off at some point.

Yes, I got one. Alistair got in the killing strike, with an axe, so I got a slow motion of him climbing up onto the dragon's head and beating on it with his axe.

You probably had a magic user or an archer land the killing blow, in which case you don't get the cool animation.

Didn't see the glitch with the armours. Got one drakeskin suit for my main character and one good quality plate armour for one of my hack-n-slash tanks. And then I got kicked out of the store...

[Admiral Canaris]

Originally Posted by DominusNovus

As far as I can tell, most of the women you can sleep with do.

Lesbians, homosexuals and transvestite whores. Bioware has become more PC with time I guess. Not surprisingly it coincides with their games getting worse, though the two are not really that directly corrected.

Fuck, with all the "gritty realistic and GRIMDARK!!" marketing I'd have thought they'd dare to show some reasonably realistic gender dynamics in their society. But like the racism against elves any hint of that is stuck in the Origin prequel chapters (when at least some idiot can SAY women soldiers are unusual). Fattynerds need their lipstick lesbian Wonder Woman fantasies. (Oh, and did anyone else thinks the sex scenes were awful?)

Overall Dragon Age was a huge disappointment to me. At no point (except in the Elf and Noble origins) did I feel much personally involved in anything that was happening. The plot was ultra-generic with Gray Watchmen standing in for Witchers/Space Marines/Jedi, the bad guys are even worse and the henchmen were either uninspired or had "flaws" and "realistic characters" (read: they're assholes). Deep characters like Jaheira or Viconia from BGII were completely absent - what we're left with was caricatures. What's worse, they used the "Influence" system which Obsidian invented for KOTOR II for boring and totally nonrealistic interactions (or basically, lick the boots of every NPC and you'll get rewarded for it, and penalized if you don't).

Seems Bioware's ability to make good games peaked with BGII and has been steadily declining since KOTOR and Jade Empire. Though I'll say in its defense at least Dragon Age has a suitably nice epic ending. Fighting your way through the darkspawn hordes in the end is actually something. Oh, and not using the "cinematic" dialog system from Mass Effect was a plus.