Dragon Age impressions

[Monkeyfinger]

Nah, just plain old white-colored bandits.

 

[1eyedking]

Strange. I have consistently trapped everyone save for certain bosses. Maybe I'm lucky, just like that.

But I suspect BioWare treachery is afoot.

 

[Malakal]

Also Boss mobs are not immune to force field. That and constant cone of cold spam was the only way i managed to defeat goddamn ser Cauthrien. I mean seriously, wtf is wrong with DA and boss battles? Warrior dealing 150+ dmg a hit AND having massive health? Mages 10000 hp? This is plain stupid. At least in BG when you met a powertful mage he had crap hp and needed spells for protection. In DA he can take ballista to the head and shrug it off.
And yes, I think that all spells offer some kind of saving throw. Its just very rare for monsters to make them, even on higher difficulty levels. Instead they simply weaken the spell, so cone of cold now last 1.5 sec.

 

[Grifthin]

Depending on Difficulty, your magic attribute, and if the enemy has spell resistance your spells might succeed or fail.

Casual - No friendly fire. Easy AI
Normal - 50% (0% on X360) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Moderate AI.
Hard - 100% (50% on X360) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder.
Nightmare - 100% damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder and additional resistances.

For example I fought some templars with armor that gives 20% magic resistance, they allso have the skill that gives a large bonus to their will saves. I couldn't Stun any of them with my spells. They where a normal white mob. Reversely I got lots of gear and buffs to max my Magic/willpower and I could stun/freeze many high level enemies. Even if it only lasts for a second on bosses.

 

[1eyedking]

Force Field and Crushing Prison are an exception. The only way of avoiding them should be through pure x% spell resistance (not saves). Or cheese.

Mind you I don't think DA:O is thoroughly bad, just thoroughly mediocre. It does have its juicy bits of C&C here and there, and the occasional non-"we spawn behind your back!" encounters that are fun (pitty there's auto-regeneration keeping you from trying to tackle it again with fewer resource expenditure and/or damage), but I do miss the unique, frenetic mage-to-mage fights BG2 had to offer.

PS: LOL @ Hard being easier on X360.

 

[made]

Commendable effort, 1eyedk, but diminished by the amount of misinformation present, especially pertaining to character development and combat mechanics. I suggest a look at the official DA forums and the plethora of threads dealing with the various broken game mechanics to see what is actually wrong with the game.

We need a counterpoint based on solid facts that fanboys can't easily poke holes into to balance against VD's undoubtedly overly positive "best gaem since Arcanum" review.

 

[Data4]

Is it cheating that I played through the Dwarf Noble Origin just so I had a better understanding of who to support? It seems like you were kind of rushed into picking sides without really knowing anything about any of the parties. Soon as you get to Orzammar you got bastards for both Harrowmont and Bhelen begging you back them.

Only some dude in the tavern gave me info on the parties and it was vague at best. Did I miss something?

I didn't get too much info on them either. I'm guessing it was intentional, you had to choose who to support based on what the citizens said about them and what their representatives tell you when trying to get you on their sides (and they're not trustworthy at all); keeps you from being able to predict what type of king the person would actually end up being. I ended up siding with Bhelon because I didn't like all the false propaganda Harrowmont was spreading about me with those criers, thinking he was just a corrupt jackass.

Spoiler

Turned out to be totally wrong about the guy too and felt pretty bad for him when Bhelon made his first decision as king.

I picked Harrowmont based partly from what the representatives of each said, and partly on how they said it, which I attribute to good voice acting. Bhelan's representative just came across as a conniving asshole to me, and Harrowmont's seemed more sincere and... I dunno, noble. Harrowmont himself seemed like a pretty decent guy, too. In the end, it ended up being the wrong-- for lack of a better term-- choice.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I'm curious about something. The Chantry seems to like pointing out that the Old Gods stopped answering the calls of the Imperium in its later years, showing they were never really worthy of worship anyway.

In 'The History of the Chantry: Chapter 1' it mentions that citizens of the Imperium partially revolted because their Gods no longer answered, and they started killing priests and ransacking temples. This helped along the downfall of the Imperiums majority rule, etc, etc.



But...the reason for all of this is due to the Chantry's own divine figure! The Maker was the one who imprisoned the Old Gods underground, and in some form of suspended animation. That's why they were down there when the Darkspawn, another result of the Maker punishing someone, stumbled along.

Why worship this guy? He practically tailor made the situation for the Blight.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Wasn't the idea that the Maker would bring back paradise again if the Chant of Andraste would be preached from all corners of the world? :neckbeard:

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Wasn't the idea that the Maker would bring back paradise again if the Chant of Andraste would be preached from all corners of the world? :neckbeard:

I thought that was just something they dreamed up as a 'there's no way he can ignore this' type of thing.


IOW; Excuse to try and convert everyone, either through missionaries or Holy Marches. Like they keep trying to do with the Qunari, and failing horribly.

 

[Grunker]

That has got to be one of the worst reviews I have ever read. You can smell the bias - it's so thick it fills your nostrils and nauseates you.

It's so packed with simple untruths that cannot be intrepreted as anything but.

 

[1eyedking]

Commendable effort, 1eyedk, but diminished by the amount of misinformation present, especially pertaining to character development and combat mechanics. I suggest a look at the official DA forums and the plethora of threads dealing with the various broken game mechanics to see what is actually wrong with the game.

We need a counterpoint based on solid facts that fanboys can't easily poke holes into to balance against VD's undoubtedly overly positive "best gaem since Arcanum" review.

Then give me a goddamn hand! PM me juicy info, I sincerely can't stand playing the game much longer, even if only to finish the review.

I'm also shocked at the amount of people that say I'm making stuff up. I was quite frank with everything, I believe.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Wasn't the idea that the Maker would bring back paradise again if the Chant of Andraste would be preached from all corners of the world? :neckbeard:

I thought that was just something they dreamed up as a 'there's no way he can ignore this' type of thing.

IOW; Excuse to try and convert everyone, either through missionaries or Holy Marches. Like they keep trying to do with the Qunari, and failing horribly.

Someone explains the Black City at some point, I mean about how the first darkspawn were cursed mages who entered the Maker's city in the fade and got punished and sent back to the real world, and then the Maker ignored humanity from then on. You can ask whoever it says (Wynne possibly) if that's actually true, and the answer was along the lines of "thats what the Chantry claims at least, but nobody really knows if that story's not just an allegory". So it seemed to me that not everyone necessarily takes that story as "gospel".

 

[RK47]

I don't know about forcefield because I never use it on enemies, but mooks can save against crushing prison. It's rare but it does happen.

force field is too cheap imo. Either for a superb crowd control or saving a dying member. It lasts too damn long and red names get affected too. I basically rotated FF-ing the boss while i deal with the yellow trash or white swarms .

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Wasn't the idea that the Maker would bring back paradise again if the Chant of Andraste would be preached from all corners of the world? :neckbeard:

I thought that was just something they dreamed up as a 'there's no way he can ignore this' type of thing.

IOW; Excuse to try and convert everyone, either through missionaries or Holy Marches. Like they keep trying to do with the Qunari, and failing horribly.

Someone explains the Black City at some point, I mean about how the first darkspawn were cursed mages who entered the Maker's city in the fade and got punished and sent back to the real world, and then the Maker ignored humanity from then on. You can ask whoever it says (Wynne possibly) if that's actually true, and the answer was along the lines of "thats what the Chantry claims at least, but nobody really knows if that story's not just an allegory". So it seemed to me that not everyone necessarily takes that story as "gospel".

Well, I know the Dwarves don't. They call the whole tale drivel.

 

[DreadMessiah]

Black city is explained in the opening, codex entry, by wyne. Force Field I use on bosses on nightmare pc version with it only being resisted very rarely. The old gods were imprisoned by the maker as punishment for teaching the magisters blood magic which allowed them to gain access to the fade with their physical bodies. Those magisters that sinned returned as the first dark spawn according to chantry lore. Yes boss battles I find silly. Many enemies stand still even while getting damaged from long range while others when you blizzard them know right where you are even when out of line of sight and mutiple rooms your mage could be in. :D

 

[Vault Dweller]

We need a counterpoint based on solid facts that fanboys can't easily poke holes into to balance against VD's undoubtedly overly positive "best gaem since Arcanum" review.

I think that people misunderstood my comment, reading it as "second best RPG evar!"

Arcanum was released in 2001. Since then we were blessed with:

- Bloodlines
- ToEE
- NWN with sequels
- NWN2 with sequels
- Jade Empire
- Mass Effect
- KOTOR 1
- KOTOR 2
- Gothic 2
- Gothic 3
- Risen
- Witcher

We can safely reduce the list to Bloodlines, KOTOR games, Witcher, and MotB.

My Bloodlines impressions
My KOTOR2 impressions

Witcher had a great atmosphere and some C&C but the game was painfully boring and painfully linear. They really overdid the "talk to this guy, now talk to that guy, now talk to this guy" thing.

For example, to learn about the Salamandra I need to talk to the Reverend, who wants me to kill monsters for 3 people. Then the Reverend tells you where the bandits are, but the house is locked, so you need to talk to Olaf. You run to Olaf, but he's dead. You get the key from his corpse, and only then you can deal with the bandits. Painful.

MotB is the only real candidate for the "best since Arcanum" RPG and it's a great game, but overall, as a complete package, DA is better. I think that the weak character system (DnD falls apart when it hits epic "more of the same" levels) and mediocre, way too easy combat bring MotB down and make it more of a well written adventure game, similar to PST.

In my opinion, of course.

 

[Serious_Business]

Crossing off Gothic 2 without a second thought is asking for it, it could easily be a better game than DA (but is it a better rpg??? oh fuck off)

Edit : You forgot the spiderweb games, for what its worth

 

[Volourn]

"I'm also shocked at the amount of people that say I'm making stuff up. I was quite frank with everything, I believe."

Yeah, that's true. you were frnakly wrong as people showed repeatedly.


Anyways, i don't know why people repeatedly bash sword and sheild style. It's awesome. My chyaracter who has S&S is a friggin' tank. Mnay melee based enemies only do 1 or 2 points of damage to me while 2 hander friends (currently Oghren the Pervy Dwarf) take way more damage and simple won't last long if they're the taget hence I have to usde taunt to keep on the enemies on me since he tends to do a little more damage (I do 50ish, he does 70ish) on a typical attack.

This game is awesome. Plain, and simple. I gots to see the Deepsawn Dragon Master. That was cool. Then she flew away.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Crossing off Gothic 2 without a second thought is asking for it, it could easily be a better game than DA (but is it a better rpg??? oh fuck off)

It's too actiony and full of flaws. It's a good game (solid 8/10) that gives you plenty of stuff to kill, but it's hardly a top RPG. You spend most of the game running around, grinding, and killing everything that gets in your way.

Anyways, i don't know why people repeatedly bash sword and sheild style. It's awesome. My chyaracter who has S&S is a friggin' tank. Mnay melee based enemies only do 1 or 2 points of damage to me while 2 hander friends (currently Oghren the Pervy Dwarf) take way more damage and simple won't last long if they're the taget hence I have to usde taunt to keep on the enemies on me since he tends to do a little more damage (I do 50ish, he does 70ish) on a typical attack.

That's what I like about the character system. The different combat styles are very distinctive and require some figuring out how to play them right.

 

[Monocause]

What difficulty level have you chosen, 1eyed? I'm pretty sure that on hard crushing prison wouldn't always work. Sometimes it just dealt spirit damage without the hold effect. It worked like that always on 'big' enemies too (like ogres, dragons etc) and sometimes would fail on smaller ones, even the whites. I also remember that one of my party members also received spirit damage from it without being held. I'd guess that it has something to do with magical resistance stat.

I'd like you to post your source on no-save crushing prison to substantiate your claims. I'll also check it out myself in-game tomorrow.

I'd also be glad if you either gave counterarguments about other things or admitted that you're wrong.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Anyways, i don't know why people repeatedly bash sword and sheild style. It's awesome. My chyaracter who has S&S is a friggin' tank. Mnay melee based enemies only do 1 or 2 points of damage to me while 2 hander friends (currently Oghren the Pervy Dwarf) take way more damage and simple won't last long if they're the taget hence I have to usde taunt to keep on the enemies on me since he tends to do a little more damage (I do 50ish, he does 70ish) on a typical attack.

That's what I like about the character system. The different combat styles are very distinctive and require some figuring out how to play them right.

You mean "Trial and Error". Because the way the game is set up, you have no idea how powerful each ability is, only general notions of what it does. If it weren't for the respec mod you would have to play the entire game again to figure out what each set of abilities is worth. DA has a ridiculously horrible set of ability descriptions.

I haven't played warrior (have a rogue about 1/4th through and a mage who breezed through not doing many side quests), but from what I have seen the abilities are not balanced at all. Especially for mages, there are a certain set of spells that rape hard, some that are ok, many that are mediocre.

 

[Volourn]

"You mean "Trial and Error". Because the way the game is set up, you have no idea how powerful each ability is, only general notions of what it does. If it weren't for the respec mod you would have to play the entire game again to figure out what each set of abilities is worth. DA has a ridiculously horrible set of ability descriptions. "


Bullshit. If you use common sense, read, and pay attention you have enough information to know what's up. I'm a D&D stat whore more than most; but it's nice to have as system that doesn't make it as easy to mix and match.

Majority of talents are so obviously what they do, it should be obvious what your character should atke. Who gives a fuck if fireball doesn't tell you exactly how much damage it'll do. Who cares if crushing prison doens't exactly state what the saving throw is. FFS People want to have their hand held so no mistake will ever be made. FFS


"Especially for mages, there are a certain set of spells that rape hard, some that are ok, many that are mediocre."

OMFG OMFG OMFG Like every other magic system fuckin' ever. On top of this, like always, a spell you may think is 'weak'; I guarnatee you somebody else has likely found a use for. I also guarantee that a spell you love and swear by, someone else doesn't care. There are exeptions but for the most part this is true in every magic system (or character system that gives you choices) ever. Including BG, FO, ARC, or any other shit system out there. yes, that includes DA.

FFS

 

[Krash]

Anyways, i don't know why people repeatedly bash sword and sheild style. It's awesome. My chyaracter who has S&S is a friggin' tank. Mnay melee based enemies only do 1 or 2 points of damage to me while 2 hander friends (currently Oghren the Pervy Dwarf) take way more damage and simple won't last long if they're the taget hence I have to usde taunt to keep on the enemies on me since he tends to do a little more damage (I do 50ish, he does 70ish) on a typical attack.

That's what I like about the character system. The different combat styles are very distinctive and require some figuring out how to play them right.

You mean "Trial and Error". Because the way the game is set up, you have no idea how powerful each ability is, only general notions of what it does. If it weren't for the respec mod you would have to play the entire game again to figure out what each set of abilities is worth. DA has a ridiculously horrible set of ability descriptions.

I haven't played warrior (have a rogue about 1/4th through and a mage who breezed through not doing many side quests), but from what I have seen the abilities are not balanced at all. Especially for mages, there are a certain set of spells that rape hard, some that are ok, many that are mediocre.

Haven't some codexers praised older RPGs for being just as (probably quite a lot more) unforgiving?

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Volourn, we have already had the discussion on the shitty DA descriptions. Your weak defense of it was flat out retarded and unconvincing before, and it isn't any better now.

Games that are hard because they force you to play well are an example of good difficulty.
Games that are hard because they expect you to deal with an obfuscated combat system are not.