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Just completed Dragon Age: Origins

Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
:dead:

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.
 

pippin

Guest
Awakenings has smaller areas, less gay banter (in fact, companions don't stop you to talk to you), no romances, and you actually have something to do for your own good rather than trying to help everyone, which is building the defense of your city and stronghold. However, character builds get ridiculously OP and every fight is completely banal as a result. Oh, and they also change the fat zerg mother into a slim goth chick with many pairs of tits.
 

Jarpie

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
6,603
Codex 2012 MCA
I agree, I can't understand how the fuck Derp Age Origins got into 'codex top 70-list. From the very start DAO is just so fucking mindnumbingly boring and tedious.
 

A horse of course

Guest
uj1A5Oq.jpg
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,824
Game has a great 2-3 first hours, then falls appart.

Deep roads is the only place where the feeling of grind and having to endure fits thematically and as such getting to the end of it feels rewarding.
Other than that its not worth remembering.

Retards keep saying that this game was good and better than ME, but its wrong on both accounts. Codex gonna codex i guess. On top of that they actually gave this mediocre borefest GOTY in the same year we got KotC, pre 2010 account owners should be fucking ashamed.
 

Skittles

He ruins the fun.
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
983
I'm sorry.

...I became pretty shocked that it managed to land in the 30s on the top 70 list. We can do better, Codex.

Hah.

What are its actual redeeming qualities? Opening vignettes to create interest? A "good" RTwP system for people who enjoy that? I'm genuinely curious about what landed it so high.
 

donkeymong

Scholar
Joined
Nov 23, 2012
Messages
210
I agree, I can't understand how the fuck Derp Age Origins got into 'codex top 70-list. From the very start DAO is just so fucking mindnumbingly boring and tedious.
Well ,I actually liked Stan, Shale and Loghain.
Characters that were interesting even without so called loyalty missions involving daddy issues.
And the different backgrounds for races/classes.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Absolutely loved and still love DA:O. I even found the combat very satisfying, although granted you really have to play it on nightmare to appreciate it.
Would thrive on a proper sequel, and hated DA:2 & DA:I
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
What are its actual redeeming qualities? Opening vignettes to create interest? A "good" RTwP system for people who enjoy that? I'm genuinely curious about what landed it so high.

My theory is that what landed it so high is the fact that many members haven't played many RPGs, especially older ones. When your barometer is Oblivion, Mass Effect, Two Worlds and so on, some of these crappy games don't seem so bad.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
What are its actual redeeming qualities? Opening vignettes to create interest? A "good" RTwP system for people who enjoy that? I'm genuinely curious about what landed it so high.

Lowered standards from a shortage of playable western RPGs before it, mostly. Vault Dweller had a rather positive review of DAO back in the day.
 

Moink

Cipher
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
669
I've always felt it suffers from the issue of 30% of the game being unplayable boring garbage coughtfadecough coughdwarfbitcough.
 

Potato Canon

Novice
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Messages
47
The game was absolutely horrible. I expected mediocrity, had low expectations, but the game was terrible enough that I was genuinely surprised and annoyed.

The tiny horrible cramped maps were a joke. It had the worst loot in just about any game ever, zero sense of progression, sloppy combat. Inventory management was hideous. The mind-numbingly generic setting and factions did not help at all. I could go on.

The party-based combat was somewhat interesting, it was just not enough of a redeeming factor to make it worthwhile tolerating the rest of the garbage.

Clearly 95% of development effort went into the companions, and the "game" itself was tacked on as an afterthought. It overall was actually worse than a Bethesda game, which is the only thing I could really compare such a horrible sprawling mess of wasted effort at that scale. I don't know how something so bad was allowed to be released, it had to be the end result of some sort of gigantic corporate clusterfuck. I certainly wouldn't go near anything else in the franchise ever.
 

ThoseDeafMutes

Learned
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
239
I've always felt it suffers from the issue of 30% of the game being unplayable boring garbage coughtfadecough coughdwarfbitcough.

The fade isn't great but it's at least conceptually interesting and changes it up from the rest of the game with its shapeshifting stuff. The Deep Roads are just unbearably dull and drag out way too long.
 

DemonKing

Arcane
Joined
Dec 5, 2003
Messages
5,958
I actually like the first Dragon Age and its expansion - it wasn't perfect and there were some tedious bits like the Deep Roads but it was worth playing. It was still following the tried and tested pre-EA Bioware "4 hubs with a twist" structure, which wasn't perfect but worked well enough. Romances were there but weren't the main focus.

Compared to DA2 and DA:I its a masterpiece.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
I were surprised by how fuckin ugly it were compared to Witcher that came out two years earlier, how shit Denerim were as a city when compared to Britain, Athkatla or Vizima, an how clumsily forced into plot you were as a Grey Warden. Other than that it were alright.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

SO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS.
Patron
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Messages
3,348
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
I couldn't get through it for a lot of the reasons mentioned. I did find the encounter design decent for the sections I saw. Use of elevation and terrain was interesting, they put some thought into that.
 

Drew

Savant
Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
338
Location
Syracuse, New York
I were surprised by how fuckin ugly it were compared to Witcher that came out two years earlier, how shit Denerim were as a city when compared to Britain, Athkatla or Vizima, an how clumsily forced into plot you were as a Grey Warden. Other than that it were alright.

At least Denerim felt like a city.
This is directly aimed at Bethesda.
 

purpleblob

Savant
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
564
Location
Sydney
I actually like the first Dragon Age and its expansion - it wasn't perfect and there were some tedious bits like the Deep Roads but it was worth playing. It was still following the tried and tested pre-EA Bioware "4 hubs with a twist" structure, which wasn't perfect but worked well enough. Romances were there but weren't the main focus.

Compared to DA2 and DA:I its a masterpiece.

I enjoyed DA:O + Awakening far more than DA2 and DA:I but I would NEVER call it a masterpiece - yes I understand it's for the comparison sake but still the word "masterpiece" should never be used with DA:O.

First playthrough was alright but I couldn't get past Ostigar from second playthrough. And yes, Denerim was one of the most boring city I've ever visited.
 
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