Review Dargon Age is the best RPG ever

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Dragon Age

<a href="http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/blogs/dragon-age-best-rpg-ever.html">GOGO Gameerzines</a>:
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<blockquote>Dragon Age: Origins offers all of these, but with today's standards. Where I feel a little uneasy is in locating something unique, something to hold up and say this is why you should play the game. In truth, while the engine and graphics are all new, and that's great, Dragon Age: Origins succeeds by excelling in all the areas an RPG needs. It's fine tuned to oblivion, and I choose my words carefully.
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So, is this the best RPG ever? Yes, I think so. It's basically Baldur's Gate 2 but done today, and for that it has my vote. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, do so immediately! And if you disagree, I'd love to know why.</blockquote>
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Agree / Disagree? DISCUSS!
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Meanwhile in Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation review, <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1096-Dragon-Age-Origins">Cue: standard fantasy setting</a>.
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Choices include: Jerk, Twat, Areshole, Prick, Berk, Elf.
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Thanks <b>Fens</b> & <b>Brother None</b>!

 

[entertainer]

by ever you mean evar amirite

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think it is the best RPG since Mass Effect, which was the best RPG since The Witcher, which was the best RPG since MotB, which was the best RPG since...

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I think it is the best RPG since Mass Effect, which was the best RPG since The Witcher, which was the best RPG since MotB, which was the best RPG since...

 

[thesheeep]

DA is the best RPG since years. No doubt. Really. No shit.

 

[entertainer]

 

[thesheeep]

I win.

 

[Inziladun]

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I win.

How to put it...

No.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Sheep versus giant dick out of the ground.

Discuss.

 

[Shannow]

Dicksmoker vs. his phallic fetish.
Discuss.

 

[aboyd]

It's basically Baldur's Gate 2 but done today, and for that it has my vote.

You know, I haven't played Dragon Age yet, and in fact have fully intended to never buy it. But I'll take the quote above at face value, and ask some questions.

Here are things I like about BG 2. Does Dragon Age have an equivalent feature?

1. In Baldur's Gate 2, I played the game three times before I ever went to Trademeet. That was an entirely optional part of the game that was huge -- joinable NPCs, lengthy plot lines, a stronghold, a couple of interesting villains (frankly the skinner was more interesting to me than the corrupted druids, but both were quality IMHO). Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

2. In BG 2, I enjoyed an isometric view that allowed me to treat the game more like chess than something visceral in 3D. Does Dragon Age allow me to pull back and play the whole thing from an eagle's eye viewpoint?

3. In BG 2, there were probably 15 pause triggers. I could pause when a character's health dropped below 30% of the normal total. I could pause on enemy sighted, weapon lost, spell cast, etc. What pause options does Dragon Age provide? And can you queue up commands while paused?

4. I really enjoyed the joinable NPCs in BG 2. They were varied, and the potential for conflict was interesting. Keldorn & Viconia? Bad combo. But putting Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Haer'Dalis, and Jan or Yoshi together and having a very wicked adventure? Quite fun. How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral?

5. I loved the way you could end up with 20 quests after 30 minutes of exploration. You needed a good quest log to remind you what was unfinished. As I often get tired of a particular quest and desire to jump to another for a while, does DA have a similar swell of quests, piled up? And are they well organized in a journal of some kind? Or is it one monolithic quest line that doesn't branch or offer any distractions?

6. In BG 2, I rarely reloaded. I tried to play cautiously, and if my team was decimated by an encounter, I diligently purchased resurrections, suffered the financial loss, and tried to find ways to recover and proceed. Are the Dragon Age battles suitably challenging? Is there a consequence for poor tactics, or does the game sorta kiss the player's butt? Would playing Iron Man style be pointless and easy?

7. In BG 1, if I kept Monty in my party, I could bypass a later fight with the Red Wizards of Thay. In BG 2, if I romanced Jahiera, I would end up speaking to Khalid's ghost. Also, I could choose to side with the vampires and have a completely different progress though Chapter 2. In DA, are there tangible changes in outcome, based upon your choices? Would someone give me a simple example that doesn't spoil the whole plot of the game (spoiling the plot of one small quest would be fine)?

Thanks!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Dargon Age sounds cooler than Dragon Age

 

[Freelance Henchman]

That sandworm looks like it's going

 

[Jaesun]

 

[thesheeep]

1. Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

AFAIK (still on my 1st playthrough), the beginning (around 2 hours) is different for each class and/or race.
Other than that, there are optional areas, but big ones? Not sure...

2. Does Dragon Age allow me to pull back and play the whole thing from an eagle's eye viewpoint?

Yep. And it works quite well.

3. What pause options does Dragon Age provide? And can you queue up commands while paused?

If there is queueing (correct?o.O) up of commands, I have not discovered it so far. Not that I searched for it. You can give commands while paused, of course.

How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral?

Not THAT much, afaik.
No.
Errrhhh... no idea. Doesn't seem like it so far. I mean, they have backgrounds, and quite interesting ones, but no real quests associated to that.
Yes.

5. As I often get tired of a particular quest and desire to jump to another for a while, does DA have a similar swell of quests, piled up? And are they well organized in a journal of some kind? Or is it one monolithic quest line that doesn't branch or offer any distractions?

You can definitely pile up quests, though not THAT many I think.
And they are VERY well organized in a journal.

6. Are the Dragon Age battles suitably challenging? Is there a consequence for poor tactics, or does the game sorta kiss the player's butt? Would playing Iron Man style be pointless and easy?

There seem to be very different opinions about this. IMHO, and I play on normal, they are rather easy on normal, but with suitable boss fights. And simply rushing through every encounter will get you ending up with loads of injuries that influence your stats quite a lot.

7. In DA, are there tangible changes in outcome, based upon your choices? Would someone give me a simple example that doesn't spoil the whole plot of the game (spoiling the plot of one small quest would be fine)?

Outcomes definitely change based on your choices, but I really doubt that it will reach Witcher/Fallout levels.

 

[Castanova]

I'm looking for homework to do.

Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

Not really, no, but the game itself is rather large so I wouldn't be super concerned about this aspect.

Does Dragon Age allow me to pull back and play the whole thing from an eagle's eye viewpoint?

Yes, if you play on the PC. Sometimes the distance it lets you pull back to is not quite sufficient but overall it's good.

What pause options does Dragon Age provide? And can you queue up commands while paused?

None. No.

How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral?

Maybe like 6-8 or so. No, they're not all goody-two-shoes. They all have backgrounds and quests associated with them but I don't think the quests are of the same depth as BG2. You can influence NPCs to some degree but mostly it's just a matter of convincing them to sleep with you or not.

As I often get tired of a particular quest and desire to jump to another for a while, does DA have a similar swell of quests, piled up? And are they well organized in a journal of some kind? Or is it one monolithic quest line that doesn't branch or offer any distractions?

Yes, there are lots of random, minor quests. Yes, there is a well organized journal although I think it sometimes provides less information than the BG2 journal did. There are four branches of the main quest that can be done in any order, each spawning a host of minor, non-required quests.

Are the Dragon Age battles suitably challenging? Is there a consequence for poor tactics, or does the game sorta kiss the player's butt? Would playing Iron Man style be pointless and easy?

Yes, the battles are very challenging although it is possible to min/max your party/character builds such that it minimizes the challenge. If your characters "die" they get right back up after the battle is over but they have injuries which debuff them until healed with injury kits, somewhat uncommon items. Ironman, I think, would be doable but you would need to be intimately familiar with certain battles and EXTREMELY careful throughout the game.

In DA, are there tangible changes in outcome, based upon your choices? Would someone give me a simple example that doesn't spoil the whole plot of the game (spoiling the plot of one small quest would be fine)?

This kind of stuff doesn't interest me much so I haven't been paying attention to it. One example, I guess, is depending on your choice you may or may not get a certain NPC. Then depending on your relationship with this NPC, he may or may not turn on you much later in the game and try to kill you with his old friends.

Thanks!

Welcome.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Never knew VD writes stuff for Gamerzines

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

In Baldur's Gate 2, I played the game three times before I ever went to Trademeet.

Wtf is wrong with you ?

 

[Hamster]

Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

It has optional areas, but they are not big. Oh, and you will have to pay for them separately :wink:

 

[aboyd]

Well, Hamster or others, what do you think the odds are that there will be a "Dragon Age: Origins + mods" product to hit the store shelves in a year (or less)? I mean, is anyone reading their forums and seeing the developers talk of such a thing? Is there any evidence that there may be a super-duper release at some point soon?

If so, I might wait. I don't do DLC really -- although I paid for some of the new adventures that came out for NWN. So whatever I buy will be the one thing that I play and make judgments about. If that thing feels gimped because it's missing tons of DLC, then screw it, I won't bother.

Thank you thesheeep and Castanova for bothering to answer my large number of questions. I appreciate the help.

 

[Weresloth]

"4. I really enjoyed the joinable NPCs in BG 2. They were varied, and the potential for conflict was interesting. Keldorn & Viconia? Bad combo. But putting Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Haer'Dalis, and Jan or Yoshi together and having a very wicked adventure? Quite fun. How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral? "

There are 9 joinable npcs. Out of the 9 I'd classify 3 of them as being goody too shoes.
There is quite good banter between party members at times. They all have storylines, some more in depth than others. (Dog really doesn't have much of a storyline though he's still a good companion.) There is no good or evil per say but you can influence them by actions and gifts. The gifts aspect was overdone a bit in my opinion.

 

[Grunker]

I've given thoughts to writing an essay trying to find out whether it does actually live up to the whole "spiritual successor"-thing. It doesn't, for a number of reasons:

Here are things I like about BG 2. Does Dragon Age have an equivalent feature?

1. In Baldur's Gate 2, I played the game three times before I ever went to Trademeet. That was an entirely optional part of the game that was huge -- joinable NPCs, lengthy plot lines, a stronghold, a couple of interesting villains (frankly the skinner was more interesting to me than the corrupted druids, but both were quality IMHO). Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

No. Not at all.

2. In BG 2, I enjoyed an isometric view that allowed me to treat the game more like chess than something visceral in 3D. Does Dragon Age allow me to pull back and play the whole thing from an eagle's eye viewpoint?

Yes. Completely.

3. In BG 2, there were probably 15 pause triggers. I could pause when a character's health dropped below 30% of the normal total. I could pause on enemy sighted, weapon lost, spell cast, etc. What pause options does Dragon Age provide? And can you queue up commands while paused?

No, but the tactical system more than makes up on this. It's sort of an evolved pause-trigger - instead of pausing upon an action, you make the character do what you wanted him to do upon this action.

4. I really enjoyed the joinable NPCs in BG 2. They were varied, and the potential for conflict was interesting. Keldorn & Viconia? Bad combo. But putting Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Haer'Dalis, and Jan or Yoshi together and having a very wicked adventure? Quite fun. How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral?

The banters is the biggest reason of all this game fails to carry the spiritual successor-emblem. The only banters, of which there are very few, comes as hovering text that will break if you enter a new area while the banters goes on. For the general quality of the companions, it is on par with Baldur's Gate 2.

Also, there are fewer interjections.

5. I loved the way you could end up with 20 quests after 30 minutes of exploration. You needed a good quest log to remind you what was unfinished. As I often get tired of a particular quest and desire to jump to another for a while, does DA have a similar swell of quests, piled up? And are they well organized in a journal of some kind? Or is it one monolithic quest line that doesn't branch or offer any distractions?

No. It does have lots of quests, but no near the number in Baldur's Gate 2.

6. In BG 2, I rarely reloaded. I tried to play cautiously, and if my team was decimated by an encounter, I diligently purchased resurrections, suffered the financial loss, and tried to find ways to recover and proceed. Are the Dragon Age battles suitably challenging? Is there a consequence for poor tactics, or does the game sorta kiss the player's butt? Would playing Iron Man style be pointless and easy?

Depends highly on the difficulty and the number of mages in your party. But in regards to your question, there is a huge consequence for poor tactics, and good tactics will simply crush your opponent. In this regard, it is like Baldur's Gate 2.

7. In BG 1, if I kept Monty in my party, I could bypass a later fight with the Red Wizards of Thay. In BG 2, if I romanced Jahiera, I would end up speaking to Khalid's ghost. Also, I could choose to side with the vampires and have a completely different progress though Chapter 2. In DA, are there tangible changes in outcome, based upon your choices? Would someone give me a simple example that doesn't spoil the whole plot of the game (spoiling the plot of one small quest would be fine)?

Thanks!

No and yes. Nothing like BG2's vampires and thieves BUT the origins more than makes up for this. It is forgiveable that there was no main plot division when you think of the amount of content the Origins make out. There is C&C, and what is there is on par with BG2's, which incidentally, isn't that much.

Hope that answers your questions.

In my mind, it would have to answer yes to all questions except the last, to be a spiritual successor.

Anyway:

Well, Hamster or others, what do you think the odds are that there will be a "Dragon Age: Origins + mods" product to hit the store shelves in a year (or less)? I mean, is anyone reading their forums and seeing the developers talk of such a thing? Is there any evidence that there may be a super-duper release at some point soon?

We don't know much yet. They seem eager to continue support, and the ambition of modding projects seem high. Don't they always, though?

What I like about the modding-scene so far, is that there are a lot of projects devoted to adding content to the original game. I like the far more than total conversions. Few TC's have kept my attension, with the exception of the Deus Ex-one (The Nameless Mod) and Classic Adventures for BG2.

 

[Lesifoere]

You know, I haven't played Dragon Age yet, and in fact have fully intended to never buy it. But I'll take the quote above at face value, and ask some questions.

Here are things I like about BG 2. Does Dragon Age have an equivalent feature?

1. Does Dragon Age have vast optional areas that I won't discover until my fourth play through?

Not unless you count buying DLC as unlocking vast optional... wait, no. Even then it's not vast, though you have to pay 5-7 USD for it.

2. In BG 2, I enjoyed an isometric view that allowed me to treat the game more like chess than something visceral in 3D. Does Dragon Age allow me to pull back and play the whole thing from an eagle's eye viewpoint?

No. Yes, there's an isometric view. Is it comfortable? Not in the least. Does it allow you to have a clear, informative view of the battlefield? Again no, because it's very difficult to distinguish your own party members from one another (unless you mark them by shoulderpads) and enemies are pretty much a mess of bad textures in that view. DA combat can be all right, but not in isometric.

3. In BG 2, there were probably 15 pause triggers. I could pause when a character's health dropped below 30% of the normal total. I could pause on enemy sighted, weapon lost, spell cast, etc. What pause options does Dragon Age provide? And can you queue up commands while paused?

Don't know about pause triggers as I don't bother with them, but no, you can't queue up commands while paused. An odd step down from the KotOR/NWN games and even ME.

4. I really enjoyed the joinable NPCs in BG 2. They were varied, and the potential for conflict was interesting. Keldorn & Viconia? Bad combo. But putting Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Haer'Dalis, and Jan or Yoshi together and having a very wicked adventure? Quite fun. How many NPCs are available in DA? Are they all goody-two-shoes? Do they have storylines or backgrounds or quests associated with them? Can you influence them, similar to the way I convinced Vicky to turn neutral?

Oh, you'll love it. Viconia is back in the guise of Morrigan. Imoen has a look-alike. Haer'Dalis has been repackaged as a bisexual elven assassin with a dash of Yoshimo. There're party members who will disagree with each other and with your decisions, but never to the point that they come to blows with each other (though they may come to blows with you). Not all are goody-two-shoes. You can't influence them to the extent of turning Viconia neutral. They're nowhere as talkative as their BG2 counterparts, and some have much fewer contributions to dialogue and plot than others, as if Bioware intended only a certain party makeup to be played.

5. I loved the way you could end up with 20 quests after 30 minutes of exploration. You needed a good quest log to remind you what was unfinished. As I often get tired of a particular quest and desire to jump to another for a while, does DA have a similar swell of quests, piled up? And are they well organized in a journal of some kind? Or is it one monolithic quest line that doesn't branch or offer any distractions?

There're a lot of side quests. Unfortunately, most of them will be through chanter's boards and similar devices--in toto, you go to an NPC or a board, pick up quests (which are all of the "go fetch/deliver/kill this" variety) and then go back when you complete them. The quests are handled, in other word, quite like in MMORPGs. None is as involved as, say, going to Trademeet or Firkraag's dungeon or the Shadow Temple.

6. Are the Dragon Age battles suitably challenging? Is there a consequence for poor tactics, or does the game sorta kiss the player's butt? Would playing Iron Man style be pointless and easy?

There's an abundance of potions and injury kits which you can augment by crafting even more. Difficulty varies. There are vast amounts of pointless encounters with cannon fodder. Boss fights can be made silly with certain spells/spell combinations (disabling ones, if they land, pretty much win the fight for you. Here's an orange-named ogre coming! Paralyze it and the party promptly shoves glass up its asshole), and some early combat can be grueling as you don't have access to such spells yet.

7. In BG 1, if I kept Monty in my party, I could bypass a later fight with the Red Wizards of Thay. In BG 2, if I romanced Jahiera, I would end up speaking to Khalid's ghost. Also, I could choose to side with the vampires and have a completely different progress though Chapter 2. In DA, are there tangible changes in outcome, based upon your choices? Would someone give me a simple example that doesn't spoil the whole plot of the game (spoiling the plot of one small quest would be fine)?

Not really. It's pretty limited.

 

[Silellak]

The banters is the biggest reason of all this game fails to carry the spiritual successor-emblem. The only banters, of which there are very few, comes as hovering text that will break if you enter a new area while the banters goes on. For the general quality of the companions, it is on par with Baldur's Gate 2.

I have to disagree here. I have seen a lot of banter - more than half a dozen (in fact probably closer to a dozen) exchanges per character "paring". This even includes Shale, the DLC companion, who has specific interjections during dialog with NPCs and comments on what's happened so far in the game (ie, with romances and such) - just like every other companion. Shale and Shen's exchanges, in particular, have been priceless. I certainly haven't felt like certain party combinations are more "intended" than others, though depending on the area, some characters will obviously be more likely to comment than others. For instance, take the Elf with you and he'll get pissy if you badmouth or mistreat NPC Elves.

I also like that certain companions comment when you enter certain areas or go near certain buildings. Shen commented on a Chantry once, and I was even able to ask him about it later in dialog. I don't remember anything like that in BG2.

I agree that the hovering-text implementation is annoying, though, for all the reasons you've stated.