Dragon age origins

[NathanielxWv4]

So i just purchased this, because i want to play Number 2, so i wanna start from begining, can you let me know what its like, as i have to wait for it to be delieverd from ebay, i did buy the Ultimate edition so i get all DLC. Whats peoples thoughts on this game? i will also write a review on it aswell, but i am aware its a lil old now . Thanks

[Switchblade]

Hey mate, I have this game a few dlc's and awakening. I also have number 2. It's a good game yes. I thoroughly enjoyed it yes. Love the deep conversations you can have with characters with so many choices throughout game gives it replay value right there. You can be good, neutral, bad etc with your decisions affecting gameplay. An example is an assassin comes to kill you, you cannsend him away, kill him, or have him join you etc, but be careful, as they may turn on you later etc. You can fall in love, or hate a character and both has consequences. It may not excel on the visuals but you will enjoy it trust me. Awakenings is an entire new story on from origins which again is really good. The Dlc's are ok, bit simple and easy, but then it's only extras.
Now we move in to Dragon age 2. Don't buy it. Dungeons are identical to each other so you are like 'I've been here before', you can't even equip your fellow team mates with armour as it's upgraded automatically at certain intervals in the game, and the interactions with your team mates can only happen at key times in the game, where as origins, you can talk at any time with them about things that have happened. It's a let down number 2 mate. Stick with origins and awakening as they are fantastic. I still play thm now while number 2 acts as a coaster! Enjoy!

[NathanielxWv4]

cheers mate, i cannot wait now

[ROFLBRYCE]

I loved the game itself. Play the in-game DLC as you go along, but don't play any of the "Start a new game DLC" (Witch hunt, hurlock chronicles, leliana's song, etc) until you beat the game.


There's so many different outcomes of the game, I just love it. Be careful of the decisions you make Best money I ever spent.

[Saph]

(Note that I'm not trying to say that all who like DAO have bad taste, I'm not, I'm just letting you know my opinion on it Disclaimer epicness right there)

I personally think that Dragon Age: Origins is one of the weakest wannabe RPGs out there, as it really only has the bare basics required to be an RPG, such as a lore, a storyline that greatly includes the character you play, and said character can be customized and named to your liking, even make it look like you! And you can interact with NPCs and kill NPCs etc. etc. all of this it has, but to me it LACKS so MUCH!

DAO is barely even an RPG to me, and here're my reasons why I really hated DAO:
(Note that I do also own all of the DLCs etc. and I have completed the entire game, since I REALLY wanted this game to be likeable, but alas, to no avail)

1) DAO is named after its tutorial style beginning, Origins. Each race and class has a set 'origin', some with only 1 choice(IE Mage) while most others have 2(Elves, dwarves). You can choose to be a dwarven prince destined to become king of the entire dwarven kingdom, or you can be an elf, and be a lower caste city elf living in squalor, OR you can be a low caste thug dwarf who works for a huge crime organization, or be a woodland elf who values freedom and lives in the forest. It is your choice to make, and this is really cool, as you decide how your game starts, and where it so does!

But here's where it sucks: Every origin has 1 set time span, meaning the total time it'll take to finish it. I have managed to complete every origin in the game in as little as 30-40 minutes. The sad part here is(And mind you the game is NAMED after the origins feature)that once you complete the 'origin tutorial' as I like to call the beginning of each game, you will be thrown into the standard game timeline, which all of the classes and races, no matter what you chose, you'll always end up with the same storyline after the first 40 min of gameplay. This sucks, as the game is actually NAMED after this, it should have a bigger impact on your game, and not just decide how your game begins.

2) A big part of enjoying an RPG to me, is freedom. There's a reason why its called an RPG(Role Playing Game) And it includes the ability to take FULL control over a customized avatar that you made yourself. And after said fully customizable avatar is made, I can walk into a world where I could literally walk for hours, seeing sights and cities and little villages and meet people and get mugged by highwaymen all just cause I'm taking a stroll on the main highway, or run into a forest and not be seen for months only to emerge as a forest dwelling beast. An RPG to me, is freedom, if I wanna go and do my own thing, or do a side story quest, or simply do the main quest and be done with it, that's my choice, rather than for example Call of Duty where your role, looks, and mission is set, and your only job is to complete it.

In DAO, it is more like CoD. Your 'world' is UNPARALELLED in its tinyness, and traveling is literally none existant(Instead of traveling on a road, you'll be staring at a map of this unaccessible world, your path taking on said map represented by a trail of droplets of blood leading from 1 accessible location to another, marked by little logos. Your goal is laid out, and there're very VERY few side quests to do, as everything you need to see, and do will happen as you do the main quest.

3) Combat in DAO is just like #2 on my list. I enjoy the freedom, and I enjoy being able to run up to ANY guy I want and start beating his face in. But in DAO you can't even pull out your sword and admire your combat moves. Combat is almost arena like in its style, you have yourself and a small group of companions that you choose yourself upon leaving your camp, and you can then control every 1 of them, and tell them what to do. You even have a pause button to give your companions orders before pushing play again. Only a few spells and abilities are capable of being used through a hotbar. Actually, it is EXACTLY like World of Warcraft in the combat UI and system. Automated, with only a few buttons to press to get a sense of freedom in a game genre based on the idea of freedom(Role playing anyone)

4) Incompatibility is a problem, as Bioware has gone crazy with advertising their games' abilities to transfer a character from 1 game to another, they even released a character creator before the game itself released, so people could customize their characters EXACTLY the way they wanted them, and then, when the game is out, they can transfer their month long project to the DAO game, and that was cool, but with the newer games that is no longer possible, and the huge advertising they made with this has fallen apart, and people are angry that they infact DO have to start all over again in the newer titles. Don't promise something you can't keep.

5) Lacks things to do, and everything looks the same. You can't take a job to make some extra bucks, you have a very limited supply of side quests to keep the game fresh and entertaining, and you can't really customize your avatars appearance, he can't get a hair cut or a shave or different hair color, and your clothes is not really that special, as all of the gear looks the same as other gear for its category(for example all leather gear has the same texture model, but different colors), so this means that your character will look almost EXACTLY the same throughout the game, only the color of your clothes changing as you go, and the colors aren't even that good either, from for example rust red, to bog green, to sick yellow, to faded blue. There's not a single black or white that I've seen, and there arent dyes available to customize alittle bit. You are literally stuck with whatever gear your character wears. Weapons also fall under this issue.

6) interest factor drops quickly in DAO. Your first play through is extremely entertaining and fun, and you have a great time doing it, I certainly did, I loved the game in the beginning, and I was a common appearance on the games forums. But then I completed the game only after about a week and a half on the 2nd hardest setting(Bioware swore up and down that the game was gonna get its length from its shere difficulty, and I found no such thing in it).
Note: The problem here is that the death system is overpowered, unless ALL of your characters die, all of your characters come back to life, and you dont have to try again, so its VERY rare that all your characters die, especially since the healer is seemingly ALWAYS the last to stand, who can then resurrect fallen companions
And after I completed it the first time, the only interesting things to do after was to try different classes and race combinations, and different origins to go with them. I completed the game 3 times, but I had like every possible class/race/origin combination possible(Not really that many at all :S), and I tried to complete every origin as every race with every class, and at this point I had done it all. After about 3 weeks of gaming in total, DAO had officially run out of gas, and the only thing left to do was to get the DLC. The DLCs are fun, but they're not completing to the game, they're just an extra few things to do untill the next Dragon Age game was released, but yet again Bioware seemed to miss calculate the time it'd take to complete them. I completed every DLC in a few days, and I was back where I began, even after spending ALOT of money on trying to get the game to be more fun than it actually is.



BUT, its not all doom and gloom, for the points above are solely my opinions, and as sure as I am that there're those who agree fully, and also only partially, there're also those who disagree fully, and also only partially. Some good points that I can say are for example:

1) Very interesting lore, and the storyline is flawless and draws you in like a good book. Despite the lacking freedom, you really do feel like a grey warden, and it is your destiny to give your life in order to save your world.

2) Huge selection of companions, each with their own unique personality. The voice acting in DAO is amazing, and really helps the realism set in.

3) Social freedom. Gay? Bi? Straight? Doesn't matter, you can have a relationship with pretty much any of the companions you meet(except the old and those made out of stone, duh )

4) Thrilling combat. Despite the combat NOT being my taste, I could see how the strategic aspect to the idea of 1 brain trying to make a handful of minions work as a team, it gives a sense of control, kind of like a general on a battlefield. Bioware successfully combined a 3rd person RPG, with a birds eye view Strategy game, almost as if it was mated with League of Legends or something, really, but where you control the whole team. It is a good combination that I can understand why it got so popular with the fans.


That's my opinion on DAO, and even though I personally dislike it, the game is such a crossroads of prefference, that there're those who like it one way, those who dislike it another, and those who both like and dislike it in yet another, plus a complete fourth that I can't wrap my brain around at the moment XD

So I'd say that if you like games such as Oblivion or Fallout, and expecting DAO to be something like it? You'll be gravely disappointed.

If you however enjoy strategy games, and more streamlined 3rd person RPGs(Sortof like the first Fable Game, not so much Fable II or III as they're both much more open worldish)Then I'd say you're gonna love it.

And yes, DAO does explain pretty much the entire lore, so I'd say to ANYONE who're thinking about trying the Dragon Age games, start with the Origins game, and work your way up, using the release dates as a guide to what order to get them in.

[NathanielxWv4]

thanks for the reply, it will arrive tommorow, and i have the day off, so i get a whole day at it, ive seen so many reviews that i cannot wait, but i need to finish this before i evan think about getting number 2. CANNOT WAIT!

[Saph]

thanks for the reply, it will arrive tommorow, and i have the day off, so i get a whole day at it, ive seen so many reviews that i cannot wait, but i need to finish this before i evan think about getting number 2. CANNOT WAIT!

Is it safe to assume that you probably got discouraged by the length of my reply and decided to just give a default reply to it instead?

If you truely did read it? Hope you enjoy it!

If you didn't? I'd really read it all, cause there's some pretty important and pretty true points in there.

[paecmaker]

Is it safe to assume that you probably got discouraged by the length of my reply and decided to just give a default reply to it instead?

If you truely did read it? Hope you enjoy it!

If you didn't? I'd really read it all, cause there's some pretty important and pretty true points in there.

I read it, and even if I liked the game some points made me think.

[Saph]

I know right? Normally people who dont like a game just spew profanities at it and think everyone who likes it suck(try out Black Ops on various forums :S Damn thats nasty)

But seriously DAO is an awesome game, hands down, BUT, there're so many cons that I can think of that I think DAO had loads of potential, possibly potential to become bigger than Oblivion on some fronts(thats putting the marker high, Oblivion was the closest to perfection I've seen). But Bioware, in my opinion, took the game in a direction that didn't FIT with it...It just felt ODD and staged and out of place throughout the game...Only the origins made me feel like I was playing an RPG, but the rest to me...well...just felt like a glorified game of Warcraft III really...

[NathanielxWv4]

Well i recieved it yesterday, and got to play it for about an hour, and my first impressions are WOW..... Like really. I did read your post properly and yes ive already spotted a few cons, but overall for my first hour it has been pretty amazing. The voice acting, the movement, the combat. ( although press X too many times makes him say "do you want a ladder to get off my back" is rather annoying. But so far it is awesome and i cant wait to put in some serious hours. I never played oblivion, it didnt look all that, and it was first person right? not for me.


But overall i love it, i can see me losing my week holiday in cornwall to it. You will have to play through it 10 times i can see to actually get 100% out of the game. 5 back grounds + doing all 5 as good and bad.

I need to get some more game time in it, but i will have a review for it by the end of the week, now i know number 2 is out, but i like to write reviews for every game i play so i will be doing one and i will post it, if an admin lets me get review status.

Overall i am really enjoying it so far.