First Impressions

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Damn! 43? You look good dmc! Judging from your pic, I assumed you were only a year or two my senior.

EDIT: Unless that picture was from 2002, in which case, you were... back then.

 

You can swap them in and out as you see fit. I have a total of 6+ NPC in the party plus the main character. Whenver you leave camp you select up to three NPC to come with you and the rest stay behind.

Please see the spoiler below for inside information on one of the NPC stories...

Spoiler

After the king died and I found out that Alister was alive I thought hmmm...I bet he is the heir to the throne... One of my conversations with Alister made my hunch right...Some times games are so predictable...

 

First of all, long time no see.

Secondly, I'm playing this game on the Xbox360 and I'm really enjoying it. The controls and such may be more akin to Mass Effect or KOTOR, but the mood of this game is most definitely BG.
And that's its greatest strength by far. I'm completely enthralled by this game (so much, in fact, that I decided to come back to this site after being gone for a long, long time). I haven't found a game which could give me the same satisfaction and urge to play, as those old games gave me back in the day.

I haven't made it that far yet, I'm only level 8, but I can say already, that I will most definitely play this game through more than once.
A large recommendation for anyone who still hasn't gotten this game.

 

I resemble that remark!

 

@Firestorm: it sure has been a long time since I read one of your posts.

@the "fossils": guys, I'm catching up but I can only wish that I'll still be a player in ten years!

Having to wait until Thursday for Dragon Age Origins sucks.

 

@Caradhras: Yeah, it's been quite a while. A couple of years at least.

But you say you have to wait until Thursday? It didn't get released where you live, or you just haven't picked it up yet?

I must say, my initial reaction (despite still not having had much time to play , Ah the days of youth where the amount of gaming you could do were measured in hours per day, how I miss you) is still proving true. Even though I'm playing one of the most plain characters ever (human noble sword'n'board warrior) it's still proving challenging and interesting, especially story-wise. There are a lot of little twists and grey areas in the quests, and I was pretty surprised at some of them. Which also means that I'm avoiding spoilers like the plague. Already had a few major things spoiled (*grumbles* stupid GameFAQs boards) but I'm really trying not to.

Anyone else who've been playing it for a bit care to share their thoughts?

 

I only encountered one DLC (Wardens Keep), the rest were free from my Collector's Edition (mostly just items, plus one bonus quest + RPC). I think the game is polished and good enough to warrant DLC, as long as said DLC is of high quality.

I think gone are the days when big production single player PC games can get by just on boxed sales alone.

 

The DVD version has just been released in France and I got a copy from the shop next door this morning but I won't have much time to get into it before the week end.

Rogue city elf sounds rather cool.

 

Just finished my first run through. Absolutely brilliant game. I feel it could have done with another 5-10 hours or so of length, as I don't quite feel the climax was built up to properly. Would have been good if it went into more detail with the Landsmeet and the politicking in the capital. But with that said, still certainly a 9.5/10.

Loved the feel of the end of the dwarf quest (after the excessive amount of dungeon crawling) and the entire mage quest. Very enjoyable.

The worst thing about it was Alistair. With my name been Alistair in RL, and my complete lack of creativity, I tend to name most of my
characters Alistair. Left me confused quite a few times.

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Focus on a handful. Three is all you'll need for most of it. There are the occasional time that others will be needed, but it's rare enough not to worry. My only advice would be to make sure ALL have equipment - weapons, armor etc, because

Spoiler

in the final show down, there is a scene where you have to act out the NPCs who were not with you. They will level up to the correct level, but won't get any equipment

 

Elves in general rocks in DA:O, they are basically the jews of this world. and the city elf origin is nice

 

Definitely. I have just started and it's great so far. The only thing is that my elf looks like an albino and he seems older than his father and only a bit younger than the elder...

I want to preserve the bloom so I'm fighting my chronic restarter syndrome and the urge to give all the prologues a try.

On a side note the unlocking of extra content somewhat breaks the immersion... I've been playing a bit of Dragon Age Journeys and it's a rather nice diversion when you can't play the regular game. But unlocking stuff by playing the flash game? That's a bit like collecting game cards. I'm not convinced all that stuff and the achievements really bring much to a single player game.

I wanted to register as Caradhras but it was already taken... So I had to pick another alias.

 

First impressions are very favorable. I really enjoy the fact that on basic trash you can die if you dont think about what you want to do. And a buncha thug bad guys arent a picnic either. Better use the terrain to your advantage and duck behind the building. Heck, one encounter I paused the instant combat began to run all my toons into the room we jsut came out of. Otherwise we'd be toast.(and were the times I tried other strats)

The customization seems to be just fine as well. Unlike the character generator you get one default talent and skill based on race/class and get to choose two more talents and one more skill at level 1. The fact that you can take two specializations gives some unique combinations.

The story has been lauded to high heaven and there is nothing I can add. Some of the origins seem cliche, or at least parts of them do, but all are very well done.

 

My first impressions are mixed. Overall, the game is good, but it's basically a fantasy KOTOR. The gameplay is almost the same.

My biggest beef is the difficulty. I'm not necessarily a push over in CRPG, but damn, I'm on normal and I get my bum handed to me in half the fights! (even fights against rag-tag bands of bandits who apparently are good enought to kill a couple of level 10 Grey Wardens...). The enemies individually are as strong as my characters and they usually outnumber my party 2 to 1. You have to micromanage each battle and be ready to use the reload option. There were several moments where I got really angry of constant reloading and trying to find a combination of items and NPC that would actually *do* something... (*cough* Revenants *cough cough*).

The graphics could have been better. I think Oblivion was at least equal in that aspect, and that game is a few years old...

The story is a little bit too linear in the main quests (4 things to do, 4 places to go). There are, at least in the quest I'm currently doing, several ways of completing it, which is cool and making choices is what RPGs are all about!

Overall, like I said, I have mixed feelings. For all the negative things I've said, the story is good, and the game is still enjoyable!

 

I really like that it seems to be a bit difficult. One of the biggest problems with all modern games is that they have been too easy. Very few fights have been truly challenging. The game can start out a bit risky but as soon as you have levelled up and gotten some decent gear everything is a push over. Seems like DO isnt like that. I am looking forward to shouting obscenities at my computer screen.

 

I had enough problems with the DLC for that . Nothing that isn't fixed but for something that could just as easily be on the disc it was infuriating.

 

The difficulty is good. I haven't completed my first run so I can't really say but it looks like there are different ways to deal with quests and that is a good thing.

If there was no respawn for party members and no regeneration (like in BG) the game would be too hard but as it is you have to keep at least one party member alive to get through a fight (just like KotOR) and it works.

I don't think the graphics are bad, I like them the way they are and since I use the top view most of the time it feels a lot like playing an infinity engine game. IMO it looks better than Oblivion and I think it's comparable to the Witcher but there could be more variety as far as models are concerned.

I've been thinking about linearity a lot and I have to say that it can be fine if you don't feel that it is (too) linear. If you don't have any linearity then it seems the plot ends up being watered down. The Witcher is a good example, you play only one character through a series of chapters that are quite linear but the game is still a lot of fun. Dragon Age is linear in the same way but you get many more options on the way so it isn't that bad.

Non linearity was one of the great assets of games like Fallout and Might and Magic VI. Even the first Baldur's Gate had a division into chapters that made it linear at some points (especially towards the end). Let's face it, if you have to move from point A to point Z in a game it is necessarily linear. It becomes too linear when you have to move from A to Z in sequence going through B then C and D and so on and so forth. It is acceptably linear if you can move from A to say H and then go back to C. Very few games handle that in a satisfactory way.

The thing that annoys me in Dragon Age is the premium content thing. It is a major immersion breaker as you've got quests listed in a "premium content" category... There is also the Warden's Keep DLC which is advertised in game. That is lame. I bought the freaking DLC because I just couldn't stand that guy but it didn't make me happy. How utterly silly is it to have a dialogue option going like this: [download DLC].
I should have opened the toolset and figured a way to get rid of that NPC once and for all.

I also was annoyed by the way the game took screenshots of my progress and then uploaded them to my online account and then deleted them from my computer...
The screenshot thing is rather good but why can't you enable it and disable the uploading thing? All that came from actually logging in my account to get the DLC content so I'll be playing logged off from now on thank you very much.

One last thing that is not that annoying but rather silly is the achievement list. What is the point of achievements in a single player game?

Apart from those points the game is really addictive and enjoyable and I'm currently fighting my chronic restarter syndrome (I'm already thinking about all the fun I'll have picking other options with a different character).

 

I believe you can turn this of in the options. I think there is a checkbox for screenshots and uploading them, which you have to uncheck. as for the achivement, I tend to ignore them. Its a bit wow'ish and I agree, they serve no point in a singleplayergame.
But i suppose really sad people can use some of them to brag on the official fora...and lets face it, you have to be sad little person to brag about computer gaming skills
by the way, did you get the achivement for not dieing during your origin story? cause I did

 

I sure did.

I'll try unchecking the box, I thought it would disable screenshots altogether. I don't mind keeping track of my game with screenshots, in fact I'd like to keep them in my Bioware folder.

 

I'm having real trouble with the difficulty, and it's mostly because of the lack of mage in my party.

Spoiler

I intended to take Wynne, and to side with the mages, and took Morrigan with me to the tower. When I met Wynne, Morrigan and I had a nice conversation:

Mo: "Bah, these mages brought all this on themselves!"
Me: "I agree. Stupid mages!"
Mo: "Well that settles it, let's kill them all!"
Me: "Wait, at what point did I say I wanted them all dead? Let's not do that."

Actually, that last line was said by me as the player, while Morrigan proceeded to start a combat with all nearby mages, and promptly killed the only other mage NPC in the game. Morrigan is now banned from the party for being a psycho *****.

Hence no mage NPC for me.

The only other bit I don't get is how Duncan is apparently considered a great man by Alistair, who was

Spoiler

actually present when Duncan murdered a man just because he couldn't get his own way. Duncan also says he'll only save your life in the intro if you agree to serve him... Is there something I'm missing? He seems like a bit of a dick to me.

Oh, and Duncan's excuse for the murder?

"I told him that there was no backing down beforehand."

Oh, that's alright then. What a dick.

 

Mages are really powerful.

You should use spoiler tags as you have many spoilers in your post (at least for people who haven't played the beginning of the game.

I totally agree though

Spoiler

I was really happy when Duncan died. He was such a fanatic that I would have liked my character to have a hand in his demise.