I am playing Dragon Age Origins

[DalekFlay]

I don't remember the plot as well as you super fans do but I vaguely recall thinking the "he's not really evil just ruthless!" thing at the end didn't work because they had him do blatantly evil things earlier. However someone a page ago or so made a good point that his main dude might have been the force behind those things. Hard to remember if that was made clear or not.

In any event I tend to love Dirty Harry style ruthless style characters and yet I didn't like Loghain at all.

 

[Cael]

No. Duncan was adamant it was a Blight. But he couldn't come up with any shred of evidence for it other than "just trust me, I'm a Grey Warden" without spilling GW secrets. Cailan believed it, but also believed he can solve it like some legendary warrior of old. Loghain knew that one fight wins all would never be the case, but was skeptical of the whole Blight thing because of Orlais plus GW were actually banned from Ferelden until Marek brought them back not 20 years ago. It was a complete clusterfuck right from the start.

 

[UsernamesAreOverrated]

Its just bad writing. They made him look like a bad guy for 90% of the game and then wanted to pull 180 but did not had good ideas how to do it.

Yes that's the problem, for most of the game he's directly or indirectly responsible for most of the problems the Warden runs into and then just as you can finally kill him the game asks if you want to recriut him in you party instead, and why don't you kick out the only other actual Grey Warden and someone who's been there from the start while you're at it. I don't think it's possible to recruit Loghain other than for metagaming reasons, or at least you'd need a very specific protagonist to have RP reasons to recruit him.

 

[Lacrymas]

The RP reason is that he's a veteran and an allegedly good strategist, he's also the father of the queen. Alistair is a nobody and a fool.

 

[alyvain]

The RP reason is that he's a veteran and an allegedly good strategist, he's also the father of the queen. Alistair is a nobody and a fool.

Alistair is royal blood in a country on the verge of collapse. Loghaine is an oath-breaker and psychotic isolationist who tried to kill the only people who know what the hell's going on. He is clearly incompetent and clueless. Supposedly he is a good strategist, but really, plotwise it's a very weird decision to support him

Unless you're planning to bang his daughter and keep the throne for yourself, ofk

 

[CyberWhale]

How is that any different to BG2 or TOEE or any other RPG?

It's a difference of degree. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I had two approaches to combat that carried me through the vast majority of the fights after the mage tower. I was always using the same powers and spells in the same manner over and over again and combined with the amount of combat in the game, it simply became tiresome.

To add insult to injury - even different spells have pretty much the same/similar effects so not only do you repeat the same strategy over and over again if you choose one build (which is bad enough), but you end up doing it even if you make a completely different character build. This, with shitty AI and a downright laughable main quest are my main critics against the first game. Even Deep Roads could have been improved by cutting a bunch of unnecessary filler by 90%.

Otherwise, it is a decent (even if pretty generic, especially setting wise) game.

 

[Neanderthal]

You've put more effort and thought into plot over last couple of pages than Bioware ever did.

 

[Cael]

Its just bad writing. They made him look like a bad guy for 90% of the game and then wanted to pull 180 but did not had good ideas how to do it.

Yes that's the problem, for most of the game he's directly or indirectly responsible for most of the problems the Warden runs into and then just as you can finally kill him the game asks if you want to recriut him in you party instead, and why don't you kick out the only other actual Grey Warden and someone who's been there from the start while you're at it. I don't think it's possible to recruit Loghain other than for metagaming reasons, or at least you'd need a very specific protagonist to have RP reasons to recruit him.

Because kicking out Alistair is metagaming. You don't know Alistair would actually leave or if he is just throwing another of his "but he killed Duncan!" tanties. On the other hand, recruiting a veteran and legendary tactician is an obvious plus for the Wardens. Remember the Warden creed and remember that Duncan always stressed that it is the Warden's duty to fight the darkspawn regardless of anything that had happened before. They recruit everyone, be they kings or murderers, whom they think has a chance of surviving the joining. Remember also that recruiting Loghain was suggested by the most senior Warden there at the time.

 

[zaper]

Dragon Age Origins was a game that I remember very well not in its plot or gameplay, but in the way it made me feel when I played it. Coming from a background of classic CRPGs, I felt that I was finally playing something modern that gave me the type of choices and possibilities I was so in need of.

I remember that after playing it for just a few days I had to stop in order to go to a distant relative's home for a couple of weeks, and how sad I was to not be able to continue playing it. I spent two entire afternoons convincing a cousin of mine (who never liked rpgs) about how awesome the game was, just so I could at least see him playing.

I remember taking two more days to download the game on his PC, and how frustrating it was that it simply didn't run well in it. It was like 10 fps or something.

When I got back home, the first thing I did was to go back to playing it. Morrigan was one of my first virtual crushes, back when I was still a virgin and cared for such things as romance in games.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Most everything you've said is evidence of stupidity so profound that I question the existence of God, and even of myself.

But I share your unpopular opinion on the Fade. I think it's a fun bit of action.

 

[anvi]

I think I'm in the last quarter of the game now, mage tower done, redcliffe done, almost finished Deep Roads. The repetition is starting to happen but only because at high level you don't get much new stuff, and also there is so much trash in the deep roads and not enough bosses. Still, at least I'm not playing Pathfinder or Wiz8.... I played those two previous to this and they sucked so much.

I still think this game is totally under rated and deserved a proper sequel. And I think D&D is so boring and this is is way better. It just needed more stuff. Anyone who disagrees with this is really wrong.

 

[Cael]

I think I'm in the last quarter of the game now, mage tower done, redcliffe done, almost finished Deep Roads. The repetition is starting to happen but only because at high level you don't get much new stuff, and also there is so much trash in the deep roads and not enough bosses. Still, at least I'm not playing Pathfinder or Wiz8.... I played those two previous to this and they sucked so much.

I still think this game is totally under rated and deserved a proper sequel. And I think D&D is so boring and this is is way better. It just needed more stuff. Anyone who disagrees with this is really wrong.

You are less than halfway. You have the elves to do still and then you hit the halfway mark.

 

[Tavernking]

I like to pretend I've played this game

A real milestone in RPG history

 

[anvi]

I think I'm in the last quarter of the game now, mage tower done, redcliffe done, almost finished Deep Roads. The repetition is starting to happen but only because at high level you don't get much new stuff, and also there is so much trash in the deep roads and not enough bosses. Still, at least I'm not playing Pathfinder or Wiz8.... I played those two previous to this and they sucked so much.

I still think this game is totally under rated and deserved a proper sequel. And I think D&D is so boring and this is is way better. It just needed more stuff. Anyone who disagrees with this is really wrong.

You are less than halfway. You have the elves to do still and then you hit the halfway mark.

I did elves already, I forgot that one. I think all I've got is a few loose ends from the city.

I like to pretend I've played this game
A real milestone in RPG history

You never played this?! It is no milestone but it is worth a play. I like it about as much as any other RPG.

 

[Cael]

I think I'm in the last quarter of the game now, mage tower done, redcliffe done, almost finished Deep Roads. The repetition is starting to happen but only because at high level you don't get much new stuff, and also there is so much trash in the deep roads and not enough bosses. Still, at least I'm not playing Pathfinder or Wiz8.... I played those two previous to this and they sucked so much.

I still think this game is totally under rated and deserved a proper sequel. And I think D&D is so boring and this is is way better. It just needed more stuff. Anyone who disagrees with this is really wrong.

You are less than halfway. You have the elves to do still and then you hit the halfway mark.

I did elves already, I forgot that one. I think all I've got is a few loose ends from the city.

Then, you are close to halfway.

 

[anvi]

I remember it being really short... But half way is cool, I got all the spells I wanted, if I get more points I can get some bonus stuff.

 

[Falksi]

anvi This is possibly THE best opening post to a thread I've read on here, and I agree with a large amount of it.

DA:O is an absolutely LUSH experience all round and, whilst it gets deservedly criticized for some of the flaws which it has, it's positives are often brushed over and not given the credit they deserve.

it's great to see a list which highlights said positives, and cuts through such myths. The one which grips my shit particularly is the myth about "bad" combat. I absolutely thrive on DA:O's tactical combat, and think it finds a great balanced all round. If the Warrior class had a fiew AoE talents & was a bit more interesting it'd be spot on.

I'm gonna have to play this again soon.

 

[Master]

One thing that sucked was how static everything is. If i remember correctly, in BG and also Icewind Dale you could attack any Npc. You could at least to an extent stir some shit up in the city and taverns, be chased by guards and such. In DA, everyone is just scenery and can die only trough quests. If you lead a dozen of wolves and bears in the middle of town square, no one will give a shit; guards complain about robbers at the outskirts but when you kite those robbers in front of them, they just stand there; and so on. Verry dissapointing.

 

[Theldaran]

One thing that sucked was how static everything is. If i remember correctly, in BG and also Icewind Dale you could attack any Npc. You could at least to an extent stir some shit up in the city and taverns, be chased by guards and such. In DA, everyone is just scenery and can die only trough quests. If you lead a dozen of wolves and bears in the middle of town square, no one will give a shit; guards complain about robbers at the outskirts but when you kite those robbers in front of them, they just stand there; and so on. Verry dissapointing.

Must be the shitty, old engine. I forgot which it is.

 

[DalekFlay]

Because kicking out Alistair is metagaming.

If there's one thing I've learned about the Codex in years of lurking and a decade of posting it's that people metagame the shit out of their RPGs.

 

[alyvain]

One thing that sucked was how static everything is. If i remember correctly, in BG and also Icewind Dale you could attack any Npc. You could at least to an extent stir some shit up in the city and taverns, be chased by guards and such. In DA, everyone is just scenery and can die only trough quests. If you lead a dozen of wolves and bears in the middle of town square, no one will give a shit; guards complain about robbers at the outskirts but when you kite those robbers in front of them, they just stand there; and so on. Verry dissapointing.

This is one of the reason why DA seems somewhat bland to me. The whole game is like halfway to being a more linear story-driven experience (such as ME2 or DA2, which is basically Call of Duty with choices and some options to roleplay) compared with a relatively loose approach of Baldur's Gate

 

[sullynathan]

DAO is really long with all the DLC.

 

[JDR13]

DAO is really long with all the DLC.

Even without the DLC, I thought it was almost a little too long. I couldn't wait for it to be over towards the end.

 

[DalekFlay]

DAO is really long with all the DLC.

Only DLC worth a damn is the actual expansion, and that plays like a separate story so you can and should take a long break between. Because yes the game is repetitive and turns into a real slog.

 

[Falksi]

I love the main game, but the actual expansion really started to show signs of lazyness, and what was to come in DA:2.

I played through the main game 5 times, and thrived on each playthrough, with it never getting boring. But I only played through the expansion twice, first time I was bored after about 2/3rd, 2nd time I quit halfway through.

The seperate DLC's were a mixed bag. If you're thinking of buying them here's what I reckon........

Warden's Keep
This is a nice side quest that will net you a couple of pluses for your overall game. There is a nice armor set and a a robe that improves Blood Magic. Also, there is something called a "Party Storage Chest" that will allow you to keep excess items you don't want to sell (very useful). Finally, there is a smith there who sells the highest grades of weapons and armors (without bonuses) so you can get really good equipment early in the game, assuming you have enough money for it. An advantage of this is that sometimes (not always) when you sell the smith a lowered-tier weapon or piece of armor, he'll upgrade it to a tier 6 or tier seven. Only drawback is that you'll have to purchase it back at a much higher cost. Lastly, the story is pretty good too.

The Stone Prisoner
I'd get this just for the fact that the playable character Shale (a golem) is really funny. Also, they managed to integrate Shale into the main storyline almost flawlessly. I've had one play through where the golem was my main tank for the entire game and I didn't notice any glaring errors where the programmers "forgot" to include him/her/it in a scene. The quest to find Shale is ho-hum however, the voice acting and the dialog are wonderful. I can't see myself playing Dragon Age without this DLC.

Return to Ostagar
This one isn't bad either. You return to the battleground from the battle where Loghain deserted the Grey Wardens. You collect King Cailian's armor, which were distributed amongst the Darkspawn generals and eventually fight the Ogre that killed the king. This fits right into the main story and the armor, sword and shield from the king are very nice.

Feastday Gifts and Pranks
You don't need this. All this allows you to do is to easily manipulate the approval rating of your party members. Each gift or prank can heavily influence, positively or negatively, the approval ratings of each party member. It does 0 for the story and only makes a tiny difference to the game play.

Darkspawn Chronicles
This one is a lot of fun. You get to play as the Darkspawn and can eventually control every different type there is. Genlock's, Hurlock's, Ogre's, Shrieks, to name a few. Also, you get to fight the Grey Warden's companions. So, if you've ever wanted to play as the bad guy, you should get this.

Leliana's Song
Too short for my taste, but a nice addition and gives some good backstory to Leliana and experience the events that inspired her to join the Chantry, several years before Orgins. It also has a transferable reward for both Origins and Awakening. Even though I want it to be longer, I like this one too.

The Golems of Amgarrak
I am not a fan of this one. There is almost no story and the entire thing was made to challenge the better players out there. I am not one of the better players out there and as such, I found this to be very difficult on the Normal setting to the point where I eventually gave up. If I ever decide to improve my skills, maybe I'll take another crack at it, but I play games to have fun, not to rip my hair out.

Witch Hunt
I am not of fan of this either. Again, this is too short and the story is pretty bland. In this one, you investigate Morrigan after the events of Origins. Like in Leliana's Song, rewards that transfer into Origins and Awakening, and that it is the final DLC to be released for Origins. This is supposed to bring closure to Morrigan's storyline, but the whole thing feels rushed and unsatisfying.