Dragon Age: Origins

[MitchB1990]

Is anyone else playing this game other than I on the forum? I'm a huge BioWare fan and I think they've done an excellent job on this game, though as much as I love it I still have to say I love Mass Effect more. Anyway feel free to leave your opinion on their newest game

[Roquen]

I've been planning to getting it, but haven't got around to it yet.

[oh_brother]

Just looked it up on-line after I read this post. It looks great, I just know I would like it (BG and BGII were very special games). But I probably don't have the time these days, which is a pity. Maybe someday I will have time, e.g. if I lose my job (touch wood - actually I probably should not joke about that, things here are pretty ropey).

[linflas]

I tried it for a while, too much Baldur-ish, i don't like the tactic pause.

[MitchB1990]

I tried it for a while, too much Baldur-ish, i don't like the tactic pause.

Yeah not the biggest fan of this type of combat, wish they could've done it more like Oblivion or Mass effect. But it could get too twitchy. Another few gripes I got is the inventory system, like every other rpg you have an unrealistic amount of storage space, and the weapons look HUGE and disproportionate to the people. but other than that I'm digging the storyline. Kinda sucks though that I don't get a ton of time to play it since I started college.

[oh_brother]

Ameena mentioned this game in a different topic, and it made me think about it again. I have not bought or played a new game for a long time (last thing I did was finish CSB last year, have been playing Imprisoned Again on-and-off since then). Mainly it is a time issue, but I wanted to give a new game ago.

I decided on either Dragon Age or Mass Effect to get into PC games again. Anyone have any opinions? Played either/both?

[ian_scho]

You're not going to believe this but... I've just installed Baldur's Gate! So I think my computer can handle that, and most certainly not Dragon Origins

[Ameena]

I've never played (or even know much about) the Mass Effect games. About all I know is that they're Sci-Fi, and by the same people who made Dragon Age (and that the Blood Dragon Armour works in both DAO and ME2).
Did I mention I finally finished it (DAO) last week> Major woot! Hey, I've only been playing it since the middle of December . Mind you, there were times when I'd go for a couple of weeks without playing it at all :O. Having just had two weeks off I'd say that contributed to it a fair bit . But technically I'm still not done - there's more than one ending to the game and plenty of Achievements (called "Trophies" in the PS3 version, which my dad owns...presumably they're also Trophies in the 360 version but I don't know anyone who owns it) to get - I'm working my way through getting some of them now. A second run of the game will be much quicker than the first since I know what to expect, plus dialogue can be skipped once I know what's being said .
Mucho fun game, is my opinion . It will be keeping me busy for a while yet. Then I can start on the game my dad got me for Christmas (he's the one who got me DAO for my birthday, in the middle of December). And then I can get on with the other games in the queue which I have acquired since then. Oh yes, I have plenty to do, alright .

[T0Mi]

Strange somewhat, I've played BG I+II with great passion, it wore off in Ice Wind Dale / NWN I+II and then (even though the graphics/animations are soooo much better) didn't even get back into it with DA / Drakkensang. The chit-chat among the party members was new and fun, but not enough to keep me pressing onward. Maybe I'm just sick of leather armor and longswords and all that medivial stuff.

So I'd definitly recommend Mass Effect, or if you like it more fps-like: Bioshock. A game definitly worth going for (even though it wasn't praised much) is Dead Space. It has been the first game in years giving me real adrenaline rushs, providing a atmosphere so frightning and scary I feared continuing playing. It even haunted me in my dreams.

Then again: if you're short on time and on the run constantly: a Pocket PC / smart phone for 50 bucks (thats the kind of money you pay for a new game after all) with windows mobile on it is sufficient to play any CSBwin dungeon (even Conflux) smoothly and using the stylus/Dpad feels more natural than the mouse ever felt.

[oh_brother]

@Ian - Baldur's Gate, nice one, you will love it! Ah, takes me back to my time as Gorion's ward in Candlekeep...

@Ameena, well done on finishing DAO! Mass Effect has the same "Achievements" system apparently, so it too would have a re-playability factor. Although since ME2 is out already it might make more sense just to continue with the series. Also I read somewhere that ME is more geared towards a casual gamer (which describes me at the moment), whereas DAO can be a bit of a grind combat-wise...

@Tomi, I had something a bit similar. I loved BG, I really loved BG 2, loved NWN. Then I played NWN2 and..I don't know...it was good but just did not grab me in the same way. Then again NWN2 was not that different to NWN, maybe DAO would do it for me.

Actually I would never have thought of Mass Effect except I did a silly quiz on IGN that was designed to see whether you should play DAO or ME2. I fully planned on getting DAO but this quiz recommended ME2...okay the questions were obvious, but I then did some research on Mass Effect and discovered that I wanted to play it.

[alandale]

I just spent 100 hours playing DA:O and loved every minute of it. I haven't had a game hook me like this in a long time. Good story, and I really enjoyed the companions and romance options.

Now I'm moving on to the Awakening expansion.

[Ameena]

I haven't got "Awakening" yet. I might do at some point, but it does look a bit expensive.
OB - I wouldn't call DAO a "grind". There is plenty of combat, yes, but also plenty (well, some) that can be avoided (through picking various options during conversations). There are tons of side-quests - if you just played through the main-storyline quests, the game would take you a fraction of the time to complete as opposed to if you went through and did every possible little quest. I was never bored whilst playing the game. Some fights were very tough, but you have the option to alter the difficulty level at any time - mob too tough? Just turn it down to "Easy", kill the thing, then turn it back up to "Normal" and get on with the game . I tended to do that with boss mobs (though not all of them - the final boss of the game I killed in Normal mode and mostly soloed it...that's not to say it was piss-easy or anything...actually I pressed something wrong at one point and my game crashed when the mob was half-dead so I had to reload and start the fight again but I still managed it ) who could smish my group pretty quickly.
The tactics thing is cool - you can set conditional tactics for each of your party members, including yourself since you can control any other party member during fights - it always switches back to you for conversations though, even if you're controlling someone else when you initiate dialogue. Tactics are stuff like "When an enemy is on this amount of health, use this ability", "If (a particular character)[/i] is being shot at, activate this mode", "When your health gets to this %age, use the least powerful health poultice in inventory", "If an enemy comes into melée range, switch wepon sets", etc, and you can move them around in the tactics list to set priority (tactics higher up the list have greater priority in combat). You can also set your party on "Hold", in which case they'll only move if you switch to them and control them directly. They still defend themselves if attacked (well, if they're equipped with melée weps they'll only twat something that comes close, and if they have a ranged attack they'll still shoot stuff), though. This is useful to leave your party in a doorway of a room while you go and loot all the chests and corpses and stuff without people getting in your way when you're trying to click on stuff .
Someone mentioned not liking the pause feature, I think. It bloody well saved me in combat a bunch of times . It's like the pause in NWN - you can't actively move or anything but you can pan the camera round, switch characters, and issue a single command. So, monster does an AE effect that puts the whole group on low health - pause the game, order your current party member to chug a health potion. Switch to the next person, do the same, etc. Unpause the game - everyone chugs a health pot and the fight goes on . Saves trying to do that in combat and having the other people die when you haven't got round to telling them to heal themselves yet - you can set in their tactics that they heal themselves when their health reaches a certain level, but sometimes they don't have time to do so or are in the middle of activating a long-cast ability/spell, so likewise may not have time (and can't do anything else whilst in the process of using another ability). And if you don't like the pause, don't use it .
Oh gawd, I could go on about this game all evening. There is so much stuff about it that I like . But I'll spare you any more, for now .

[oh_brother]

Hmmm...now I am confused again. I had pretty much decided on ME, but now I am not so sure. DAO does look good, I especially like what I hear about the origin stories.

Also, I was always more of a fantasy fan than a a sci-fi fan.

[Ameena]

The origin stories are cool. There are six of them to play through (Dalish Elf, City Elf, Dwarf Noble, Dwarf Casteless, Human Noble, Mage...the latter of which is Human or Elf - Dwarves can't be Mages due to an innate magical resistance), and an Achievement available for completing each. Basically it's kind of a single quest (usually with a couple of mini side-quests) that serves as an intro and tutorial to the game - you get at least one party member besides yourself so can mess around with tactics and group positioning and stuff. There's also plenty of dialogue and all that. Basically you start the game in your life as whatever you chose, and then something happens to mess it up, you meet someone who brings you to the place where the game-proper starts, and that's the point at which all the origin stories converge and the "main story" of the game starts from there. Characters (and in most cases, locations) encountered in origin stories usually come up again later in the game, so you can meet people who were in your origin story adn they'll react to you a different way to if you'd played a different origin story. It's cool how it all interlinks together and stuff .
If there's any other way you think I can persuade you to play DAO, let me know and I'll tell you about it . Since you're a bloke, perhaps a mention that there are four shaggable companions might tweak your interest?

[oh_brother]

I finally got DAO a little while ago, and it was worth the wait! The first game in ages that really grabbed me. They described it as the spiritual successor to BG, and it is the most fun I have had with a game since BG2.

The story is great, and it is nice having a classic fantasy game that is not D&D (much more like medieval Europe, with the different nationalities and the conflicting religious beliefs). Characters are especially interesting and feel real, Alastair and Leliana being particular favourites. They can be very funny at times too. In fact most of the characters are well written, so I tend to rotate my group a lot.

Playing a human mage, but specialised in arcane warrior which is a really cool combination. About 25 hours in at the moment, so probably it will keep me going until Christmas or so at least.

@Ameena: thanks for the tip!

[Ameena]

Hehehe, I told you it was cool . Have you got Shale? Shale is 'king brilliant . My version of the game came with the Shale add-on ("The Stone Prisoner") for free, but I dunno whether later versions do because it was a redeemable code thingy that ran out back in April or something. Probably mentioned this, but only first play-through I took a Dalish Rogue - my regular party consisted of Alistair (Shield Bash, fook-yeah!), Shale (bloody brilliant in general, cool chat and backstory, pretty funny overall as well), and Scruff (what I named my Mabari - he's a dog, for starters, therefore I like him, and he's a cool dog, and kicks arse in combat too - was generally the only other person left standing with me in a tough battle...if my character ever went down I'd just reload my save and so managed to accidentally get the "no deaths" award for playing the whole game without my character getting beaten ). When I started playing through as a Mage I had to take a rogue with me in order to be able to actually open most of the chests, therefore I was stuck with Leliana...my other two were, I think, Alistair and Shale, with apologies to the doggy for not being able to come along this time .
Didn't finish the Mage run-through yet, might go back to it at some point but other games got in the way - most recently I've been replaying Titan Quest though I think I'm probably not too far off being done with that again .

[ian_scho]

Ohh, Ameena. PM me your thoughts on Titan Quest plz? I nearly picked that one up the other day. Thx!

I'd get Dragon Age, but there is no way it'd run on my current machine

[oh_brother]

^^Well by the time you have a new machine you will probably be able to pick up DAO for half nothing. And assuming you don't need games to have the most up-to-date tech to enjoy them (which, considering the fact that you are a regular on a forum dedicated to a 20 year old game, I guess you don't) then it should still be fun.

I have not got Shale yet, but I just started in the dwarven area. I got the free download with my copy of the game, and apparently it still works. My main party is Alistair, Leliana and Sten at the moment, but I would have no problem swapping Sten out if Shale looked interesting. Alistair is a must because of his build and his "comic relief" moments (he is a bit like a mixture between Aurek and Haynuus from the D&D game). Leliana too since she is a rogue and also has some good banter. The third position rotates a bit though. I never brought Shep (my dog) around much, not sure why. Wynne and Morrigan occasionally, Zevran hardly ever (no need for two rogues). So definitely room for Shale.

I am surprised that you managed your first play-through without any mage character. My warden does most of the damage in the party, especially with the arcane warrior specialisation. Cast a few crowd control spells, some offensive ones and then when mana is low switch on combat magic and wade in. I would have thought the game would be very difficult with just fighters and rogues.

[Ameena]

Nah, I didn't have much trouble. My Rogue went for all the dual-wieldy stuff. Combat would normally consist of Alistair Shield-bashing stuff and therefore knocking it down/stunning it. Shale could, of course, pound the crap out of stuff and stun them that way. Scruff has a really cool skill called Dread Howl which stuns everything in his immediate vicinity, and a higher-level skill called Overwhelm in which he leaps onto something, knocking it down in the process, and then chews its face off (giant spiders can do the same thing, the bastards ).
One of my skills was Coup-de-Grace, which lets you auto-backstab stuff which is incapacitated.
A stunned or knocked-down creature counts as incapacitated.
Therefore stuff died pretty quickly . I can't remember whether I'd try to have everyone take down the weaker creatures first and then the more powerful in a group (so the weaker ones weren't hacking away at us in the background), or whether I'd send everyone to pile onto the harder mob and then finish off the weaker ones afterwards. I think the former...probably would stick Shale or someone onto the harder creature so they could take it. Obviously, setting the AI of the other characters to drink health potions at the right moments is a good idea, or force-feed them if they're too busy using a skill to do so. The whole tactics set-up thing of that game was something I found pretty cool, the way you could customise exactly what everyone would do under certain circumstances in battle.
Btw OB, which version do you have? I mean, for which erm...machine? PC? My dad has the PS3 version and off the top of my head one of the most annoying things i can imagine about it would be the way you can't have more than four quick-skills selected at once - in the PC version you get a whole bar along the bottom into which you can put about...12 or so, I think.
Oh, if you've not got Shale yet, may I suggest that you go sort that out and then take said golem with you along the Orzammar path of the game? Every character has their own personal quest, and Shale's is down there...
One thing I've just thought of which annoys me about DAO is the way they pronounce "golem" as "gollum". But I suppose that's just a minor niggle, really...it is rather annoying, though. But Shale is cool - cool conversation, good as a party member, cool side-quest, etc. You get some nice loot along there too .

[oh_brother]

I am playing it on the PC. I don't have a PS3 or an Xbox. I am sure it would still be a great game on those platforms, but without the mouse it is bound to lose something. I cannot imagine a controller working as well. The quick bar at the the bottom saves time and helps the game flow, I wouldn't want to have to navigate radial menus to access all the skills. And the console versions do not have the tactical zoom mode, even in combat it is always the over-the-shoulder camera.

Maybe with the crowd control abilities of your companions stunning people you could survive without a mage. Still, so many fights were made easier by just throwing a forcefield or, better yet, a crushing prison around the most dangerous enemy. Sleep is also very useful since it is area effect but does not have friendly fire problems. I actually have not got very good at using the tactic slots, I tend to do a lot of micromanagement. Probably because normally the AI in these sort of games is awful, so I refuse to trust it. I will try and get into it.

I will take your advice and download Shale before I start in Orzammar, Sten can stay at camp for a while.

[Ameena]

Another good thing about Shale is, being a golem, doesn't wear armour. Like the Mabari hound, Shale has only two slots, which take unique Shale items - as the dog has a harness and warpaint, Shale has small and large crystals - the small are weapons, the large are armour - Shale has one slot for each crystal type, and each type is of an element - so there are large and small crystals for Nature, Lightning, Spirit, etc. The quality of the crystal is obviously how good the item is, a bit like gems in Diablo II - so a Flawed Small Nature Crystal isn't nearly as good as a Brilliant one. But better quality crystals don't really start dropping till you're a higher level, and as far as I can remember they seem to drop mostly in the Orzammar section of the game (so, that whole underground region)...but obviously they don't drop at all if you don't have the Shale content active, because they were only added in as part of that expanded content. So that's another reason to at least download (and activate) the Stone Prisoner stuff even if you don't actually head over to Honnleath and recruit said golem .
Personally I think Shale's personal story is really cool and interesting and stuff, and Shale as a character is just bloody brilliant - there's a very brief little cutscene that takes place shortly after Shale first joins the party which made me laugh quite a bit when I saw it .