PorkyThePaladin
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 5,103
I have to admit, when I first started playing DA:O, I was fairly impressed with the graphics, production values, what seemed like cool lore, and the way it felt as a definite step up from Neverwinter Nights at least. But as I kept playing it more and more, and it kept getting more and more unbearable (where only my obsession with completing games kept me at it), I became pretty shocked that it managed to land in the 30s on the top 70 list. We can do better, Codex.
This game is not just average, as some would have you believe, it is worse than that. Average means that while you won't be blown away by anything, you will still somewhat enjoy the game. DA:O is just one long grind that keeps getting more and more annoying with its endless procession of tedious combat and bland storylines.
If you break it down into the main elements of RPG gameplay, let's say combat, exploration, dialogue, and character development, each of these can be objectively shown to suck.
The combat is terrible for many reasons. The sameness of enemies (darkspawn/undead/humans on repeat). The way mages are ridiculously OP while warriors are completely underwhelming. Unlike a more balanced system like AD&D for example, here mages get damage+cc in same spells (cone of cold, fireball, snowflake, earthfist, etc), much of cc is irresistible (cone of cold, combo cc spell), massive nukes (entropic death/mana clash), no spell limitations (e.g. spells per day), so the end result is 0 challenge.
Conversely, warriors are completely shafted. Defense determines chance of avoidance, which is the only real defensive mechanism in DA:O, and only rogues can effectively invest into it. Warriors can only invest into armor, which is fairly useless. My main character had around 40 armor by the end of the game, and everyone above trash mobs would still be going through him like butter. So rogues end up being better tanks than warriors. Likewise, for 2 handers, it's very hard to hit a lot of things regularly outside of when Perfect Striking ability is off the CD.
Exploration is also terrible here in the true post-BG1 Bioware sense. Maps are all small and constricted, so whether you are in a dungeon or in an outdoor area, you will be traversing some corridors. Visible and invisible walls galore, so good luck feeling like you are free to explore.
Dialogue is the most painful element of all. Never have I been subjected to so much drivel, so painstakingly and slowly vomited into my ears, one pointless theatrical line at a time. Nobody in this world can just quickly say what they mean to, everyone must say it in the most slow and methodical way, which combined with the fact that none of them have anything interesting to say makes for a really bad combination. A very curious characteristic of DA:O is that it combines a very good background lore with some of the worst main story/dialogue writing of any RPG ever. They might have done better if they flipped the teams responsible for each with each other.
The game does have some nice things in it, but they are dwarfed by the amount of tedious crap one must trudge through. It is like an MMO but without both the social aspects and the Skinner box mechanics of such. Best part of it was uninstalling.