Dragon Age - official Codex verdict

[roll-a-die]

I don't know if I should be ashamed that I laughed at that picture or proud. Gave me a good chuckle. Thanks.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If you are enjoying this game please tell me how. I'm jealous and I want to enjoy this piece of shit that got a 9.5 on gamespot as well.

Sorry, no enjoyment for you. Guess you'll have to replay [insert game] for the umpteenth time. r00fles!

 

[Volourn]

If youa ren't enoying the game, stop playing it and move on. Not a difficult concept. Other people cannot make you enjoy a game. period.

 

[Grifthin]

QFT

 

[kris]

Yeah, I liked the Fade portion quite a bit. I do admit it was a bit on the lengthy side but it was a great change of pace from standard dungeon crawling and I loved the shape-changing aspect. It was almost like an homage to something like Metroid or Symphony of the Night.

So far my least favorite aspect of the game is traveling on the world map which, for some reason, takes FOREVER.

The only thing that really annoyed me about the fade was then handholding. The fact that it was very clear where and what you could do with the different shapes and that there were really no "secrets" to discover. Hell, even all the "rat-holes" was on the map.

 

[mondblut]

It's ok I guess, for these times. Looks pretty and runs better and faster than Twitcher on my rig. The setting is fine, no objection (other than in being a little bit more than completely ripped off from Song of Ice and Fire, with a pinch of Witcher thrown in). Plot is ok, the good old "do four things in arbitrary order and save the world from destruction" never tires on me (newfag novelty seekers may suck my dick). Some characters and dialogues are ok. Some cutscenes are awe-inspiring (the original darkspawn battle), others not so (poor Morrigan, it must have hurt being shagged by a man in full plate mail and kiss him through a closed helmet. A tribute to Ms. Bishop, perhaps? :D ). Ruleset is not quite transparent and reeks of MMO with its "+1.5% (out of 10000) to something".

Combat is messy shit where characters either do nothing unless you constantly hold their hands (i.e. tactics off) or do absolutely anything except what you want them to do (i.e. tactics on). Sometimes both at once - like, you order archers to shoot at enemy from maximum distance, but a grassblade happens to block their line of fire at a 10 feet high behemoth, so they start running across half a map seeking a more suitable position. In other words, realtime combat once again shows itself to be a sad failure and subhuman abomination, pausable or not. But it's still more fun than Drakensang or Kotor combat.

And of course, the morbid fascination with drenching everything in bucketloads of blood whenever somebody pricks a finger is annoying. Starts right from the company logos. EA in blood, Bioware in blood, DAO in blood, they have incessant menstruation or haemorrage or something? Even party path on a world map is shown as dripping blood. I mean, WTF?

All in all, it's one of the better party-based RPGs of the age when TOEEs are no longer being made. That is, if we ignore the indies. Clearly superior to KOTOR and whatever subhuman shooters and fighting games bioware did afterwards, way better than Drakensang too (although Drakensang ruleset is much better).

 

[coldcrow]

So it boils down to: it looks pretty, it sounds halfway decent but the gameplay is abysmal...
And I thought gameplay was the key part of a video-game.

Anyways I really tried to like the game. But I simply can't bring me to it. It is so boring. Once I listened to the dialogues and went for the wilds there is horrible combat where I always do the same which is dropping stun, dropping nuke, mop up. Stealing is broken... no repercussions whatsoever upon fail. I could cite alot more mainstreamed "rpg" features.

But my major gripe us this: the polished medieval "being worn" look. Even the most run down house looks like if it's coated with wood-polish. Same for the character models. And so on.

If people are seriously fapping over this, it just shows two things: what has happened to the developers and what has happened to our tastes.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Stealing is broken... no repercussions whatsoever upon fail

Manual says the target stops trusting you. But I don't think that would matter for everyone in the game. And the only consequences for stealing I can think of are people going hostile on you, which causes savescumming

 

[kris]

others not so (poor Morrigan, it must have hurt being shagged by a man in full plate mail and kiss him through a closed helmet. A tribute to Ms. Bishop, perhaps? :D ).

Watch the old excalibur movie and laugh.

 

[MasPingon]

So it boils down to: it looks pretty, it sounds halfway decent but the gameplay is abysmal...
And I thought gameplay was the key part of a video-game.

Anyways I really tried to like the game. But I simply can't bring me to it. It is so boring. Once I listened to the dialogues and went for the wilds there is horrible combat where I always do the same which is dropping stun, dropping nuke, mop up. Stealing is broken... no repercussions whatsoever upon fail. I could cite alot more mainstreamed "rpg" features.

But my major gripe us this: the polished medieval "being worn" look. Even the most run down house looks like if it's coated with wood-polish. Same for the character models. And so on.

If people are seriously fapping over this, it just shows two things: what has happened to the developers and what has happened to our tastes.

Sir, you are dumb if you judge this game after playing it couple of hours, it's not fucking Escapist magazine. After 70+h I can say it's probably the best Bioware game. Plot is getting better, dialogs are fun, there are some nice C&C, combat is hard and dungeons are really nice done. Everything gets better after a while. For sure the best crpg since Bloodlines

 

[coldcrow]

Only that I do not compare it to Oblivion, BG and whatever. Even if this seems being labelled as dwelling in the past I do compare it to my favourite rpgs. Also I finished 2 army gathering missions already in DA, so I think I can judge it a bit. I can only repeat what I said in another thread: this is a carefully engineered product targetted at 14-18 year old players.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Only that I do not compare it to Oblivion, BG and whatever. Even if this seems being labelled as dwelling in the past I do compare it to my favourite rpgs. Also I finished 2 army gathering missions already in DA, so I think I can judge it a bit. I can only repeat what I said in another thread: this is a carefully engineered product targetted at 14-18 year old players.

Bwahaha. The old "targetted at kiddies" argument. Well played sir, well played.

 

[MasPingon]

Only that I do not compare it to Oblivion, BG and whatever.

You are truly hardcore rpg gamer

 

[coldcrow]

Explain some of the design choices then:
-mmo skills, party design, combat
-juvenile npc/pc banters
-art direction straight out from LotR

Imho it is employing the broadest common fantasy denominator. Maybe the age group was a bit off.

Also don't get me wrong; I am bashing this crap, because in my opinion it destroys unique and engrossing pc games; not because it is a bad game per se.

 

[Grifthin]

Also don't get me wrong; I am bashing this crap, because in my opinion it destroys unique and engrossing pc games; not because it is a bad game per se.

How is this destroying unique and engrossing pc games ? If something truely original comes out wont it just look even more awesome because of all the game before it that looked similiar ?

 

[1eyedking]

Sir, you are dumb if you judge this game after playing it couple of hours, it's not fucking Escapist magazine. After 70+h I can say it's probably the best Bioware game. Plot is getting better, dialogs are fun, there are some nice C&C, combat is hard and dungeons are really nice done. Everything gets better after a while. For sure the best crpg since Bloodlines

There's no need to play for more than 6 hours to find out what DA:O is all about. Plot is weak and lacking in tension (considered there's a civil war and a blight going on everything is pretty calm), dialog is abysmal (Fallout 3 with bigger words gimmickry - and most lines consist of at most two sentences of small talk), C&C is weak but at least it's there I guess, combat is stupid (just set characters to cast Force Field on bosses and drink potions at <50% health and enjoy your screensaver), dungeons are boring and repetitive, without any solid lore behind them (Codex entries are always vague - you guessed it - written small talk), camera is fucking annoying (welcome to top-down view with confined walls - have fun endlessly rotating your view), inventory suffers from insufferable scrolling and is composed of diminute icons, and a big, long etc.

 

[Vibalist]

But on the other hand, one could argue there's no need to do anything original if you can just do this.

I'm not bashing the game mind you, as I really don't care if it's original, but I see coldcrow's point.

 

[Korgan]

The combat is definitely the best bit of DA for me. Sleep, cone, forcefield, mind blast, horror for nightmare, cone, shock, HELP ME YOU FUCKS, winter's grasp, cone, shock, winter's grasp, MIND BLAST, oh shit I'm dry, blood mode, cone, leech, shock, sleep, horror, leech, cone. By then you usually notice that the there's no-one left to fight, but it feels alls absolutely gripping on Hard.

 

[Grunker]

There's no need to play for more than 6 hours to find out what DA:O is all about.(...) combat is stupid (...) camera is fucking annoying (...) inventory suffers from insufferable scrolling and is composed of diminute icons, and a big, long etc.

So you're basically saying this is true, and a perfectly legitimate way of doing reviews?

 

[Bluebottle]

Plot is getting better, dialogs are fun, there are some nice C&C, combat is hard and dungeons are really nice done.

The game is pretty damn good, all said. Much better than any of the other Bioware games I've played, and it does feel like a successor to Baldur's Gate, which seem to have been the aim.

However, I found that while the plot is decent to begin with, its quality is deflated a little when you realise a big chunk is [Go to get allies help] -> [Ally in trouble] -> [Do Dungeon to Help Ally] -> [Repeat]. Once you spot the pattern, it makes much of the story feel like filler and, as such, it isn't nearly as interesting as it could have been. It similarly affects your perception of the dungeon quality. Though the dungeons are pretty much excellent, the story relies on spending too much time in them and you burn out on them after a couple. The mages tower was really enjoyable (did that first), Werewolf lair was okay (second), was getting tired by the end of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade dungeon (third), and I'm not sure I'm up for whatever the dwarves are going to make me do. It would have benefited much from adding some variety to its story, both in making much of it seem less like "Get the four McGuffins" filler, and by breaking up its over reliance on dungeon crawling. I'm not there yet though, so maybe there a whole bunch of the game I've yet to see, that will change my mind.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

It's a lot better than Mass Effect, that's for sure.

 

[Grunker]

Plot is getting better, dialogs are fun, there are some nice C&C, combat is hard and dungeons are really nice done.

The game is pretty damn good, all said. Much better than any of the other Bioware games I've played, and it does feel like a successor to Baldur's Gate, which seem to have been the aim.

However, I found that while the plot is decent to begin with, its quality is deflated a little when you realise a big chunk is [Go to get allies help] -> [Ally in trouble] -> [Do Dungeon to Help Ally] -> [Repeat]. Once you spot the pattern, it makes much of the story feel like filler and, as such, it isn't nearly as interesting as it could have been. It similarly affects your perception of the dungeon quality. Though the dungeons are pretty much excellent, the story relies on spending too much time in them and you burn out on them after a couple. The mages tower was really enjoyable (did that first), Werewolf lair was okay (second), was getting tired by the end of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade dungeon (third), and I'm not sure I'm up for whatever the dwarves are going to make me do. It would have benefited much from adding some variety to its story, both in making much of it seem less like "Get the four McGuffins" filler, and by breaking up its over reliance on dungeon crawling. I'm not there yet though, so maybe there a whole bunch of the game I've yet to see, that will change my mind.

You're out of luck then

The Deep Roads in Orzammar is easily the longest dungeon in the game.

 

[Vibalist]

Plot is getting better, dialogs are fun, there are some nice C&C, combat is hard and dungeons are really nice done.

The game is pretty damn good, all said. Much better than any of the other Bioware games I've played, and it does feel like a successor to Baldur's Gate, which seem to have been the aim.

However, I found that while the plot is decent to begin with, its quality is deflated a little when you realise a big chunk is [Go to get allies help] -> [Ally in trouble] -> [Do Dungeon to Help Ally] -> [Repeat]. Once you spot the pattern, it makes much of the story feel like filler and, as such, it isn't nearly as interesting as it could have been. It similarly affects your perception of the dungeon quality. Though the dungeons are pretty much excellent, the story relies on spending too much time in them and you burn out on them after a couple. The mages tower was really enjoyable (did that first), Werewolf lair was okay (second), was getting tired by the end of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade dungeon (third), and I'm not sure I'm up for whatever the dwarves are going to make me do. It would have benefited much from adding some variety to its story, both in making much of it seem less like "Get the four McGuffins" filler, and by breaking up its over reliance on dungeon crawling. I'm not there yet though, so maybe there a whole bunch of the game I've yet to see, that will change my mind.

This is true. The reason I liked Redcliffe was because, aside from the attack on the city, it avoided being too combat heavy. You also went to the castle, but that part was all about the demon/son thing and not so much about fighting. The game did send you to Haven afterwards, but Redcliffe still kind of broke the pattern.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Ah, fuck it, imma try the new shit :declineofDarthRoxor:

 

[toro]

Finished. Warrior. Took ~62hours. Most quests done.
I'm not a native English speaker therefore I cannot say anything about the quality of the dialogues. But the game is really good.