Dragon Age - official Codex verdict

[Krash]

Lurking?

Been lurking since end 04

 

[godsend1989]

I'm at a loss as to what would convince you blind morons that DA:O is banal shit. Maybe if Ser Donald came to your house, recruited you into the Ghey Wardens, and then gutted you while stroking your hair and whispering "sorry" in your ear.

You didn't convinced me, your just angry because u cant afford the game.(financially)

It's a fucking ultra-generic MMORPG masquerading as a single-player game with a system that's so far away from AD&D it's not even in the same galaxy cluster. The writing is horrifying bad. You want specific instances of banality and shit? How the fuck am I suppose to give them to you? THE WHOLE THING STINKS.

The game its called Dragon Age not Baldur's Gate 3 it was never intended for AD&D rules.

OK. Imagine your favourite game. It's fucking awesome, right? You probably can't enumerate all the things that make it awesome in gross detail. Now imagine the complete opposite. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'VE IMAGINED DRAGON AGE!

Someone didn't take their medicine today.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

So let me get this straight, all RTS games suck? - ok

I didn't say that. Having a few good games (and Starcraft sure isn't one with it's emphasis on petty micromanagement) doesn't make a worthwhile genre. The same goes for fighting games. Or, say, pop music.

I've played all the IE games and that's not my experience, controls may respond but your characters don't, and I rather like the animations in DA.

Which is why it should be turnbased, but in any case it isn't as bad as DA. You don't find DA sluggish in comparison to IE games? IE games let you scroll around the map much faster, and let you scatter your party for scouting and other purposes (or does DA allow that but I have missed that somehow?).

The IE games are not turn-based and that's what we were talking about.

No, I'm pretty sure you said D&D sucks ass for CRPG's. But whatever, even in realtime format it beats DA's MMORPG system, just as KOTOR managed to have better combat than Mass Effect even though it was pretty lame by any standards.

 

[Volourn]

"just as KOTOR managed to have better combat than Mass Effect even though it was pretty lame by any standards."


That's utter fuckin' bullshit. KOTOR's combat was subpar. ME combat was awesome. So, in essence, FUCK YOU.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

You don't have to tell me, as you are somebody who claims to like that horrible gravity-defying deathtrap tank.

 

[kosie99]

Every few months I decide to look in on the codex to see how they rate a new game and every time I realize that it does not matter what they say, because they are all a bunch of dicks.

Well, this it,I AM LEAVING THE VILLAGE!

A pox on all of you and your families and may you all develop severe cases of Chlamydia.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

No, don't go, dicks need pussies like you!

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AUTO REGEN, MY GUYS ARE REGENERATING HOW DO I STOP IT?

EDIT: I mean fuck, health potions totally dry up in the game, and there is one dedicated healer NPC. I really don't see the massive improvement over them fixing the real mistake (unavailability of items, and crafting items) and removing autoregen, rather than leaving in autoregen to offset the fact that they forgot to put in potion vendors.

I would rather have some form of auto regen than the umpteenth game with potion IVs.

 

[HanoverF]

ME combat was awesome.

I believe the word you're looking for is awful

It's nearly FO3 bad.

 

[godsend1989]

ME combat was awesome.

I believe the word you're looking for is awful

It's nearly FO3 bad.

how about the witcher ? click click die, i hate that game.

 

[1eyedking]

Fucking piece of shit game all of a sudden starts providing multiple solution paths.

I am confuse

 

[1eyedking]

Whatever. It's still a piece of crap since combat is bad, story is bad, camera is bad, characters are bad, art direction is very bad, writing very bad, and The Witcher carbon-copying is too obvious.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

So let me get this straight, all RTS games suck? - ok

I didn't say that. Having a few good games (and Starcraft sure isn't one with it's emphasis on petty micromanagement) doesn't make a worthwhile genre. The same goes for fighting games. Or, say, pop music.

Ok, so because you're not into RTS then the whole genre is not worthwhile - mate, that's just your opinion. I'm not into FPS's, but I don't discount the whole genre just because I'm not particularly into it.

I've played all the IE games and that's not my experience, controls may respond but your characters don't, and I rather like the animations in DA.

Which is why it should be turnbased, but in any case it isn't as bad as DA. You don't find DA sluggish in comparison to IE games? IE games let you scroll around the map much faster, and let you scatter your party for scouting and other purposes (or does DA allow that but I have missed that somehow?).

WTF? Haven't you played the game? I use scouting and split groups all the time. I've had my archer roque on one side of a ravine, my mage on the other raining death from above while my fighters met the enemy head on in the middle. Other examples is entering rooms via different doors ala rainbow 6. You can even assign groups to hotkeys, just like you can in the IE games.

And no, I find the combat in DA much more fluid, free-flowing and responsive than any of the IE games.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Whatever. It's still a piece of crap since combat is bad, story is bad, camera is bad, characters are bad, art direction is very bad, writing very bad, and The Witcher carbon-copying is too obvious.

Bullshit. You've got be just going off youtube vids and/or hearsay.

Combat is ok to good, story is pretty standard fare which is ok, I don't have any problems with the camera, characters are standard Bioware fare, art direction is fine, writing is no better or worse than anything else bar PS:T and I see no similarity with TW.

Look, it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but It's the best effort Bioware (or any other major dev I can think of) has put in for a number of years, with the exception of possibly TW and Risen. (assuming you even consider CDP or PB major devs). Personally, I think it's better than either of those.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Demo'ed it up to the point of arrival at Lothering.
Unfortunately, my standards are too high to have a valid opinion on the game.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Demo'ed it up to the point of arrival at Lothering.
Unfortunately, my standards are too high to have a valid opinion on the game.

:smugcodex:

 

[1eyedking]

Combat is ok to good

No. It's disastrous single-player MMO.
Autoregen? Fuck off.
Autoresurrect? Fuck off.
Three classes, two of them very much alike? Fuck off.
Aggro? Sort of fuck off.

story is pretty standard fare which is ok

Story is typical, boring "evil rising". It's forced upon you. There are no alternate intentions for your actions (save for the mediocre "If there's profit to be had then yes!" line).

I don't have any problems with the camera

No problems at all? Right-click and left-click commands are quite fucked up. You can't pan the camera when in isometric mode. No rotation options (yaw speed, how smooth, etc.). You can't order your characters to move somewhere in the minimap so you always have to navigate them through dungeons and towns. No mouselook toggle.

characters are standard Bioware fare

They're even worse. They're all sedated freaks of various shades of generic personalities. At least Minsc, Edwin, Jaheira, et al sounded like actual people.

art direction is fine

Hah. No comments.

writing is no better or worse than anything else bar PS:T and I see no similarity with TW

Are you kidding? Have you listened to party banters? Read some journal entries? It's very generic, filler stuff. David Gaider is, quite frankly, devoid of talent.

Where are the witty responses? Where's the clever use of in-game culture? Self-references? Interesting discourses? Insidious double-talking and lying?

Look, it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but It's the best effort Bioware (or any other major dev I can think of) has put in for a number of years, with the exception of possibly TW and Risen. (assuming you even consider CDP or PB major devs).

It's the best effort BioWare has put into the multiple solution paths department, but it's still sorely lacking everywhere else. TW is an adventure game, and really shouldn't be compared. It's C&C is very mild, solution paths can be counted with one's balls, and the combat is downright atrocious. But it's a very clever game, nonetheless.

Risen is OK. The game could have been much better, but they completely, royally, utterly, indisputably fucked up the game after Chapter 2. Usual PB stuff, of course, but it does leave a bad after-taste. Also you can't make an exploration game so minute and expect players to be satisfied.

Personally, I think it's better than either of those.

And thus it'll remain an opinion unless you bring solid arguments to the table. I should include myself here since we're barely scratching the surface when it comes to combat mechanics discussion, precise dialogue citations, and general judging.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

No. It's disastrous single-player MMO.

Hmm, I don't know of too many MMO's in which I control more than one character, can pause and issue commands to each and can play from either an iso or 3rd person OTS perspective.

Autoregen? Fuck off.

What the hell is the difference between spamming pots and/or resting after each battle and autoregen after each battle?

Autoresurrect? Fuck off.

Autoresurrect (with stacking injuries) only if at least one party member stays alive - otherwise it's game over. I've been wiped plenty of times on hard.

Story is typical, boring "evil rising". It's forced upon you. There are no alternate intentions for your actions (save for the mediocre "If there's profit to be had then yes!" line).

Story is a little meh when it comes to originality, but it's told well enough. However, there's plenty of branching paths and alternate approaches/outcomes to questlines. Go back and have a look at the example VD posted.

Three classes, two of them very much alike? Fuck off..

WTF? You start with three classes, then get to specialise at levels 7 and 14 - offers plenty of scope for diversity - not up to DnD standards perhaps, but enough.

No problems at all? Right-click and left-click commands are quite fucked up.

What that's got to do with the camera I don't know - but anyway, I don't even know what you mean, mouse control seem fine to me. They give you a couple of options - either right-click an enemy to target them and then select the ability with a left-click, or left-click the ability and then left-click the enemy to cast/use. Too complicated?

You can't pan the camera when in isometric mode. No rotation options (yaw speed, how smooth, etc.). You can't order your characters to move somewhere in the minimap so you always have to navigate them through dungeons and towns. No mouselook toggle.

Can't pan - wut? You can pan the camera in iso view, but only as far as you character can see which seems perfectly logical to me. So the further spread out your characters are the further the camera pans due to their combined viewing distance. Your other points are valid, though I really never noticed - might be added in a patch.

They're even worse. They're all sedated freaks of various shades of generic personalities. At least Minsc, Edwin, Jaheira, et al sounded like actual people.

That again is just personal taste and a very minor thing, I again don't have a problem.

art direction is fine

Hah. No comments.

Game really does look fine to me - but again, very minor point and down to personal taste.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

What the hell is the difference between spamming pots and/or resting after each battle and autoregen after each battle?

Yeah, I think I prefer the DA way really. At least in the NWN games the resting mechanic was completely fucked. There were nearly no "no rest" areas at all, so the only way to really make use of the "balancing factor" of resting to get your spells and other per-day abilities back you basically had to LARP yet again, the games simply didn't enforce it. You could rest in the middle of some orc cave or cutthroat-infested house or whatever. I also hate that stuff like Paladin's Smite is ALSO like 2 times per day, a sub-par ability that is ridiculously overshadowed by the mages with their kill-everything-everywhere-ever spells that they can spam like 10x as often per day.

In conclusion, "real time" D&D can fuck right off, give me the "MMO" abilities with cooldown system any day over that.

 

[roll-a-die]

First off you mean sorcerers when you say mages, correct? Wizards had a lesser amount of spells per a day more variety though. Secondly most good mods for NWN had logical rest rules. The OC's not that much you still couldn't rest if there were enemies nearby.

I agree with the whole DnD doesn't work at all in a RT stand point.

 

[GarfunkeL]

What the hell is the difference between spamming pots and/or resting after each battle and autoregen after each battle?

Nothing really - both are shitty mechanism. Potions should not be like candy and resting should not be available all the time. But don't defend stupidity in DA with stupidity from NWN.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

How was it in vanilla BG2 and such games? It's been so long I've totally forgotten. You only got back 1d6 HP from resting or something?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

BG2 you got normal resting health back, but had the option of having "Auto-cast heal on rest" or some such. So healers would burn all their healing spells so when you rested you'd get fully healed and they'd get their spells back. However, every time you rested you got a chance of wandering monsters if you were in a dungeon, which could cause a cascade of shit as each time you rest you burn up more of your resources healing, only to get woken up before getting spells back and have to burn up even more.

Of course, that's only good if you're not a big baby like me and rest while you still have tons of spells so every dungeon takes you a month of game-time because you're constantly resting. I kind of prefer Dragon Age's system. Kind of.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Resting wasn't allowed if monsters were near and there was always the possibility of random monsters - some areas had quite high percentages for it. Resting 8 hours gave you 1 HP + CON modifier IIRC but since it also gave you spells back, healing was quicker. BG2 automatised it, so when you pressed rest you automagically had 16 hours of sleep and full spells if not interrupted - similar to the fix command in Gold Box.

BG1 didn't spam you with healing potions unless you bought them from stores - BG2 in the other hand gave you quite a lot, though with higher HP's the consumption was bigger as well. System wasn't perfect.

Edit: fucking pussies resting after every encounter. No wonder you guys love the regen thingy

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Hey, let's not get personal here.