First game. Final victory.

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So, I finally got a PC that could actually play this game. I've been playing it every waking moment. Thankfully, my wife's also a gamer, so she understands. I just beat the game with my first character, a Dalish rogue archer/bard/duelist.

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!! I feel like a drug addict going through withdrawal who's just gotten a fix! Heck, maybe I am. Is there such a thing as RPG addiction? If so, withdrawal lasts for at least a decade. I love this game! I said that already, didn't I? The music is awesome! The decisions and consequences are great! The characters are incredible. Alistair! Sten! Morrigan and Sten! Shale!! I'm trying the rest in my next playthroughs. I like the skill system. I like the talents system. I like the spells. I like the specializations. The injury system worked great! And the ending! Oh, the ending! Hell, I made a special save just called 'Victory!' after the end.

I can't wait to get into my mage character! Time to try out blood magic (and Wynne at the same time)! Toodles.

 

Very good game. Got me hooked too. I think the last time I got hooked on a game was when I played...knights of the old republic, i think. And BGII before that. Good games are really becoming more and more rare.

 

Take Leliana along for her accent alone

 

Don't worry, grabbed Leliana first chance I got. And yeah, I've been waiting for this since BGII.

 

This is my favorite game of all time now. It is the only game other than BG1 where I have beaten it more than once. BG2 I liked but after 20 hours of gaming I had to start over; sort of like I do with DAO but DAO I always seem to get to the final fight or landsmeet before I start a new character.

 

It's a pity Awakening is so short and the DLCs don't bring much to the game.

 

Had to re-quote that, but I must rephrase:

It's a pity EA is so lame and it don't do anything good for bioware.

 

Yeah, I cringed when I heard what had happened there. At least DA:O managed to come out mostly unscathed. Can we hope for the same with DA2?

 

We can hope, at least obsidian doesn't have a role in DA2 (hopefully not anyway). I'm starting my 20th or so play-through of DA:O yesterday actually. I've gone through with a lot of warriors and a few rogues, gonna try a mage... Eventually I'll have to finish my dwarf noble campaign and do one with a dalish.

Gotta add... I love the overpowered items the DLC's let me start with, especially the golems one which is a near worthless mace replaceable by a non-magic tier 4 mace that sells for 850-900g in DA:O and again for 1.5k? in Awakening... Not sure who screwed the pooch on that one :-P, I'm fighting the urge to sell it to make my playthrough super-cake haha.

 

I just started a dwarf noble (warrior), and my first was a dalish rogue. After this, I'm gonna start with some odd party mixes. I've done two warriors (well, Sten and Shale, I count Shale as a warrior), two mages, and now I'll try two rogues. After that, I'm gonna go two rogues and two mages, no warriors, then maybe two rogues and two warriors, no mages, then maybe three mages and something.

 

Amen Brother. And I completely understand about RPG addiction. I was raised on Baldur's Gate, and due to an increased need to escape reality in my household, It has rubbed off on me in more ways than I think are healthy.

1) I am unable to flirt, instead i have the best luck with emotionally troubled girls who I give psychological advice to. Sound familiar?

2) I have identified that I have an "Experience addiction". In workplaces I value training over pay, I've learned how to use every weapon I can (Swords of all sizes, bows, quarterstaffs, crossbows, daggers, throwing knives, throwing axes, etc.), I love learning survival skills, first-aid, working out, and getting gear ready for something. I even have a boat license even though I hate water. I have made a suit of leather armour even though I have no use for it, and in my religious office, I literally have a "healing ability" involving the laying on of hands.

Currently I use the excuse that I'm preparing for a hypothetical Zombie apocalypse/world ending natural disaster, but deep down I know it has been in case I somehow get sucked into the past or something where I would actually need to have that.

I think playing Baldur's Gate in my childhood has partially unhinged me. O.o

 

Lmao. You need to add those to the 'You know you've played too much BGII when.." thread. We have one of those, right?

 

DA:O is a very good game indeed.
It has its flows but overall it is still great.
But the EA politics destroyed it a bit for me.
I remember some teaser trailers with the beautiful music of Inun Zur which later was withdrawn to be replaced by that awful blood & Marilyn Manson trailer.

Later these uncalled for DLCs or silly stuff like costumes/gimmicks for money, like in the sims.

Finally the decisions made with the results now seen in DA2 (I actually played the alpha in Gamescom).

Feels for me like EA has infiltrated Bioware like cancer which grows bigger and bigger until it devours the old Bioware completely, like it happened with other studios that were bought by EA before.


Well sorry for beeing so negative on your very positive thread ^^, but I really liked Bioware games in the past and DA:O seems like the last game of the 'old' Bioware.

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edit:

Now I feel at least obliged to say something about my first playthrough after just complaining before. .
I took the Human Noble Route who later specialized with twohanded weapons.

I second that the music is great. For the most part the design of the different areas are well done, and the characters are fleshed out though the 'romance' with Leliana felt awkward, but hey, the romances in BG2 weren't that much better.
The gay attitude of Zevran felt pretty fitted as if to appease the community but otherwise he was one of the more fun characters.
I mostly went with him, Wynne and Leliana (who I will ditch in my next full play through if I will do one).
The overall story plot i a bit dull though and not a strong point.
The final opponent is a joke, pops up in the end, is simply declared a boss of the blight and then you kill him (I did it heroically by giving the protagonists life ^^).

In the end my playthrough remains in good memory as well.

 

I agree. EA is a real pain and makes life very difficult. Many of the DLCs are not worth the money. I found Watcher's Keep very disappointing.

I think dialogue between player character and companions and companions with other companions could be improved. I was also disappointed with the CAMP. I thought the companions would be more active. The best thing there were the merchants.

I did enjoy the game and will probably get DA II. However I may wait until you guys play it and report on it.

 

I agree. BG2 is still at the top of my list, but DA managed to climb to the number 2 spot. I had all but lost faith that I'd ever see such a good CRPG again. DA truly was the spiritual sucessor to BG that I had been waiting so long for.

I maintain high hopes for DA2. I have some concerns based on some of what's been shared so far, but as long as the depth of strategy, gameplay and story isn't sacrificed in the effort to appeal to a larger audience, I think we'll be in for a treat.

 

I disagree with a few things here. I think Zevran's bisexuality was well fitted and developed. If anything, it was Leliana's that felt forced to me. I also think the main plot is just loose and shallow enough to allow deeper inter-party relationships to flourish without constantly being squashed, while not so shallow as to make the game seem pointless. And I thought the final boss was perfect! It hardly just 'pops up in the end'. You've been having nightmares of it and been shadowing it's tail all through the game. I thought it was perfect buildup, and if you were trying to say it was easy, were you playing on easy?

Oh, and next time through, use Shale. Definitely use Shale.

 

Sorry Nog, but the Archdemon is a joke even on very hard and it's still true with mods that make the game more difficult.

IMO difficulty is not that well balanced in DAO and that gets even worse with Awakening talents. The first ogre you fight in the tower of Ishal may have been challenging the first time but the game becomes rather easy once you learn the ropes.

Spoiler

The Harvester

from the Golems DLC was supposed to be a really hard boss and it is hard but IMO it is hard for the wrong reasons, killing it is in fact rather tedious.

My favourite fight was in Awakening though:

Spoiler

the Baroness

is a great boss. In comparison the Archdemon is a joke.

 

DA:O has also, in the last month, become one of my favourite games. Top3 easily.
The thing i love most about it is the freedom to act out a conceptual character. Having a clear vision of what kind of a person i'm playing, i immensely enjoy the possibilities, the choices i get to make. That's easily half the enjoyment i get out of it. Conversely, while not far into it, i find Awakening a great disappointment after the brilliance and polish of Origins.

Funny thing though, i've tried it 2 years ago and gave up after taking Brecilian Forest as first mainplot fork and encountering Revenants as frost&nature level 7 or 8 mage.
I recommended it to a few people, 2 of which told me they've also started, tried it and stopped playing really early in, not being drawn in very much.
I think it takes fairly long for DA:O to grab hold of a player. Isn't all that much on first sight.

Difficulty really is extremely varying. If you're unfamiliar with spells and enemies, you can get slapped around on Easy difficulty. Elemental types of damage are also very unbalanced. Every undead, with plenty of them around, being immune to nature and resistant to frost is BS. Fire reigning supreme. The few select spells being overpowered is common knowledge of course. I ended up not using many of them, since they made everything a non-issue, even on Nightmare.
I do think difficulty lessens the longer you play, even if you don't utilize the overpowered spells. Better equipment, stats,... I guess the game doesn't scale enemies a lot.

I did find Archdemon fight difficult. Though i probably took the hardest approach to it on Nightmare.

Spoiler

3 melee characters that kept getting slapped around, no rogue to fix ballistas, no Spirit Healer, no armies called to help, limited to 5 potions per fight. With the mage that had Heal and Rejuvenate having base Willpower. I also didn't want anyone to die during it. So it did take me more than an hour to accomplish it. I think having even a single specialized ranged character halves the difficulty. Melee barely get a swing or two in before taking a buffet or eating a 80dmg claw.

So basically... difficulty is what you make of it. Once you learn what's too powerful for your tastes, you can simply stop using it and go for a different approach.

 

If you enjoyed DAO save your self the time and skip DAII unless you want at game that medicore at best.

 

I'm currently planning an uberpowered playthrough. My char as a blood mage, Wynne to heal, Morrigan for the control spells, and Shale to take the hits. It should be great fun