Dragon Age impressions

[made]

PROS: Huge depth in terms of both combat and customisation. Wide range of abilities and lengthy adventure.

CONS: The fantasy world is sadly generic with an often risible script. Weak graphics and lots of minor bugs.

SCORE: 7/10

Fair?

Pretty much spot on.

For a story and dialogue driven game the story and dialogue are overall extremely poor. I find myself skipping like 70% of the text, but luckily the game has enough redeeming qualities to make up for it.

 

[Silellak]

It's pretty clear that Dragon Age was meant to be viewed and played primarily from an isometric perspective. From there, it is - at times - almost as pretty as an Infinity Engine game. Not always, but sometimes, which is an impressive enough achievement for me.

Once you go into OTS mode though (which consoles are locked in), it sort of falls apart. The game just isn't pretty enough up-close to compete with most modern games, so I understand why reviewers gave the game a hard time when talking about the console graphics. I'm okay with that though, because I only use OTS when taking in a new area. Otherwise it's isometric all the way - the way it was clearly meant to be. I'm also pretty sure they used NWN2 as a reference on "how NOT to implement a 3D camera in an RPG."

Performance wise, the game runs like a dream. My rig can handle Witcher and NWN2 on max settings, but it still struggles when things start getting too chaotic. No such trouble in DA. I'll take smooth, consistent performance over graphic quality any day of the week.

PROS: Huge depth in terms of both combat and customisation. Wide range of abilities and lengthy adventure.

CONS: The fantasy world is sadly generic with an often risible script. Weak graphics and lots of minor bugs.

SCORE: 7/10

Fair?

Pretty much spot on.

For a story and dialogue driven game the story and dialogue are overall extremely poor. I find myself skipping like 70% of the text, but luckily the game has enough redeeming qualities to make up for it.

I dunno, the world is generic on the surface, but there's clearly been a lot of love into it and some of the ideas you find - if you dig deeper - are pretty original from what I've seen. I also must have retardedly low standards, because I have no issue with the characters, voice acting, or writing. Also, I haven't encountered more than a handful of bugs - the experience so far has been incredibly polished.

 

[relootz]

Snip

Well i didnt have healing yet at that point but i do know.

The game does seem to be a bit unbalanced in the area of opponentdesign, i am currently stuck trying to catch the werewolves becauses in the lair the 8 skeletons that come at me are just too much.

The game doesnt appear to have a good build up in difficulty. The first opponents are stupidly easy, the bosses very hard but now the mobs are very hard too. That last part could be because of level scaling. There should be a more gradual buildup.

I am enoying the game though, i just dont like it when i have to stop a quest because it is too difficult and i need to level up.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Didn't you claim that you uninstalled the game when you reached the first location on the world map?

And why should have I persisted? There's zero guarantee that the darkspawn will get explained properly. After all, Bio didn't tell what the Reapers' motivations in ME were, saving them for the sequel instead.

I think the Witcher was boring as fuck, way too heavy on the railroading side, held my hand so tight I had bruises, and I had to force myself to play it, but you don't see me calling it shit, do you?

Why are you so ticked off about my choice of words?

Sounds too me that you tried too hard not to find them interesting. To what high standards do you compare the party members? PST? What else? Fallout? Wizardry?

KotOR and JE.

For fuck's sakes... The party members help you fight/explore. If you don't want to talk to them, don't talk to them.

Don't like some content, pretend it's not there?

You have plenty of different NPCs, I'm pretty fucking sure you can find 2 you can actually like (if you stop role-playing someone you never were before). Some party members I like a lot (like Sten), some I don't like, which is how it should be.

I checked the DA wiki. None of the companions seemed interesting.

It took you 8 hours to play through the origin, the tower battle, and the small village? Really?

Really. Didn't skip any voice acting, read every codex entry, spent a lot of time browsing shops.

The game has a slow start, that's true, but it doesn't take 8 hours to reach the world map and at this point every retard should know that the quality goes way, way up after the slow part is done.

How am I supposed to know that the slow part's over?

"Anyway, the elves tell you that they can't stick with the treaty because they have a problem with werewolves and as a result most warriors are wounded and would most likely die or turn into beasts. So, if you really want their help, I need to help them (as expected). Being somewhat disappointed by the "kill werewolves" quest, I went to the forest, killed some beasts and soon ran into a welcome party. A werewolf named Swiftrunner and his two buddies told me to turn back, pointed out that I know shit, possibly less, and that I am being manipulated. It looks like Swiftrunner has a big issue with the Dalish elves and it goes a lot deeper than some recent attacks. Well, that's a relief.
...
When you finally reach the lair, you're told that the curse was originally created by Zathrian, the elven leader who sent you to end it. The Lady (the 'wolves leader) wants to talk to Zathrian to convince him to lift the curse. Your options are:

- stick with the original deal, kill the Lady (very tough fight) and all werewolves, bring her heart to Zathrian
- try to help the Lady, bring her to Zathrian, who refuses to lift up the curse and starts a fight. After a battle when he's dying, talk to him and he'll lift the curse, which kills both him and the Lady. The elves pick a new keeper (leader).
- if you have high Persuasion, convince the Lady to attack the elves and assist her. The elves ended up dead, but the Lady promises you her werewolves to aid you in the final battle."

Bad options? Bad design?

It really does sounds good. Not good enough to make up for the soulless setting, unfortunately.

Cool Kid Achievement unlocked! Congrats.

I'm not trying to be cool. Want some proof? HEY, EVERYONE, I REALLY, REALLY LOVED NWN 2 OC, REPLAYED IT TWICE AND PROBABLY WILL REPLAY IT AGAIN THIS YEAR!

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Let me get this straight. If you don't like something, it's shit?

Amazing, just

Amazing

Shut the fuck up, will ya? You add nothing to this discussion (and probably to the forum), so I'd appreciate if you stop role-playing a stupid bitch for an hour or so, and let me have a conversation with more intelligent people. Kthxbye.

Why do you blame me for your shortcomings?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I actually had a funny moment where I was facing off against Kolgrim, and during the dialogue I could only see the top of his head due to my MASSIVE SHOULDER ARMOR OF POEWR!!!1!

 

[Volourn]

"becauses in the lair the 8 skeletons"

fUCK. I hate them bastards. Thgis is the time the difficulty seemed to go into overdrive. Now, almost every battle is tough. L0LZ


"game doesnt appear to have a good build up in difficulty. The first opponents are stupidly easy, the bosses very hard but now the mobs are very hard too. That last part could be because of level scaling. There should be a more gradual buildup. "

I don't think the level sclaing is the problem. The problem here is that pretty much every opponent has a knockdown/stun type of talent so when you are facing 6+, yopu pretty much gonna have one of your characters constantly stunned/being useless. There's no way that I know off that you can constantly repeatly resist these special attacks.

Urghj.

 

[relootz]

^ what difficulty are you playing Volourn? Also does anyone have a notion what the difference is between difficulties?

 

[Volourn]

Hard.. ... and, for me, it lives up to its name. L0L

 

[relootz]

Hard.. ... and, for me, it lives up to its name. L0L

Same allthough most of the time its only the special encounters that are hard. What level did you face those 8 skeletons at? I am currently level 8.

 

[Volourn]

Level 7-8. I'm level 8-9 now. I'm not that far past them myself. I just worked my way back into the actual werewolf lair (the whole purpose of being there heh).

Before the dragon, I didn't find the game supe rhard. Challenging at times, yes, but that's it. Now, every battle is a chore to get through (not counting fights with like 3 random skeles as that's nothing).

 

[GarfunkeL]

Do rest of your "party members" level up along with you, even though they are hanging around campfire?

 

[relootz]

Do rest of your "party members" level up along with you, even though they are hanging around campfire?

I believe so yes.

 

[Lumpy]

Vault Dweller is trying to hard to win ITS Cool Points by throwing the "Codex Cool Points" mantra around.

 

[Silellak]

Hard.. ... and, for me, it lives up to its name. L0L

Just sucks that you're stuck playing on a console. I can't imagine it's anywhere near the same experience. If you get a chance, play it through again on the PC some time in the future - it just seems like the OTS view doesn't do the game or the combat justice.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

is this game having potato truck

 

[Melcar]

Kodex Kool Kunts

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Vault Douchebag is still defending Humping Age, i see.

R00fles L0L generic Volourn expression

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

There are no codex cool points since it's not an actual stat, that's just larping. There's only post count an join date.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

The companions are funny.

 

[Stalin]

Vault Douchebag is still defending Humping Age, i see.

R00fles L0L generic Volourn expression

Lol at Bryce's new sock puppet
Oh i meant you Stereotypical Villain

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The companions are funny.

You are easily amused Marcelo. I personally prefer my comedy to be of a more cereberal nature.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

^ :D

It's a blessing really

 

[Pablosdog]

I don't find the game to be THAT hard( i'm playing it on hard difficulty) but ditto with the skeletons and the stun abilities. What's also annoying is that blood mages tend to use the grease/fireball combination on you over and over.

The A.I can be downright atrocious sometimes. I'm currently level 17 at the moment, and i've done all the treaty quests except for finishing off the arl quest( i still have to do urn of sacred ashes)

There's a surprising amount of disconnectivity between areas and the main quest. They feel connected yet...not.

 

[Worm]

The order you play in really determines the difficulty. I think. Enemies scale within a range, so a level minimum and maximum exists, and the scaling is limited by that. At least that's what I was told.