Preview Dragon Age preview at ComputerGames.ro

[Lesifoere]

Amazing; they don't even try with that shitty backstory. Also, Crystal Dragon Jesus for the lose. :/

 

[JarlFrank]

I kinda liked the backstory. Right until all the mages got corrupted and turned into demons WHAT THE FUCK

 

[aries202]

-ehm-

the backstory is what the Chantry teaches. It doesn't have the be truth what happened. The dwarfs and the elves might have a different version of what happened.

The mages went to heaven and were cast out and fell to the Earth because of their mortal sin (or so the chantry teaches). They corrupted anyone who they came into contact with after they had fallen.
They fell down to pits of the earth, met the dragons, corrupted them and such the first Archdemon arose. (or so the chantry teaches).

The Chantry could be seen as something similar to the Catholic Church making up things, saying things that could be the truth, part of the truth or not the truth of all.

What if during the game the player gets the option of finding out the the cath-ehm- I mean the Chantry was behind the Blight all the time?

The only point I'm still a bit worried about is that the story is way to similar to that of Mass Effect's with Darkspawn replacing the Reapers as the main enemy monstes for Dragon Age.

 

[Warden]

The chantry knows the truth! Divine interventshionz!

 

[yes plz]

Oh, I see. Yeah, religion being full of lies and corruption is <b>so</b> much more original.

 

[ushdugery]

Maybe not more original but at least more believable.

 

[Volourn]

Originality is overrated.

Afterall, I could be more 'original' than the average joe and have sex with a snake.. but, I won't...

 

[Warden]

Originality is overrated.

Afterall, I could be more 'original' than the average joe and have sex with a snake.. but, I won't...

Raping animals =/= originality.

 

[kris]

The mages went to heaven and were cast out and fell to the Earth because of their mortal sin (or so the chantry teaches). They corrupted anyone who they came into contact with after they had fallen.
They fell down to pits of the earth, met the dragons, corrupted them and such the first Archdemon arose. (or so the chantry teaches).

"I am the archdemon Lucifer, with me you get much more money and booty than with that whine grey warden Gabriel"

[Join Lucifer yes or no?]

Names just taken out of thin air.

Anyway, originality is so hard to achieve nowadays. I don't care that much, more interested if it is a good game and if the story unfold in a good way.

 

[Radisshu]

In DAO, everything revolves around the battle against the Blight and the Dark Spawn. A very long time ago, mages were the undisputed rulers of the Dragon Age world, but in their arrogance they decided to create a portal to the celestial home of the Creator in order to take his place. Unfortunately for them, the Golden City, as Heaven was known at the time, became corrupted and was transformed in the Dark City, while the mages that attempted this celestial coup became corrupted themselves, thus becoming the first Dark Spawn.

Furious at their insolence, the Creator banished the mages back to earth, and they were forced underground due to their aversion to light. Then they started worshiping dragons, which were themselves banished by the Creator as punishment for lying to the humans and pretending to be Gods. This is why the Dark Spawn are relentlessly looking for dragons, and when they find one, it becomes corrupted, so much so that it transforms into an Arch Demon, which then leads his minions to the surface in a campaign of conquest and destruction. This is known as the Blight. To counter this menace, the humans formed the order of the Grey Wardens, whose primary objective is to battle the Blight. However, after the last invasion was repelled, the humans believed that the Dark Spawn are no longer a threat, so at the beginning of the game, when a new Arch Demon appears, the number of Grey Wardens is greatly reduced.

What the fuck is this shit? It's tripe, probably some designer putting on paper everything that came into his head and sounded cool.
If you're creating a fantasy world, you have limitless possibilities. Try to put some actual meaning into it all rather than just coming up with random incoherent bullshit.

Previously, some devs on the DA forums have stated that what the biggest religion says (e.g that myth) isn't necessarily what happened. I dunno if they changed that, though. Hopefully not.

-ehm-
-
The only point I'm still a bit worried about is that the story is way to similar to that of Mass Effect's with Darkspawn replacing the Reapers as the main enemy monstes for Dragon Age.

Yeah, so am I. I hope the plot gets more complex as the game goes on.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Previously, some devs on the DA forums have stated that what the biggest religion says (e.g that myth) isn't necessarily what happened.

This is exactly what the problem is. I see an inept ZOMG PLOT TWIST on its way.

 

[Longshanks]

Dragons as gods..

The Dragons are not gods. The banished mages went underground and started worshiping Dragons, who were in turn banished by the creator for pretending to be gods.

I'm not too fussed by the specifics of the back-story, but the writing is really bad. Seems it's the work of the preview's author rather than Bioware though.

 

[Bossman]

OMG. Did DGaider really write the backstory? Seems like Bioware continues on its quest for genericness.

“I’m a Grey Warden and I don’t have to justify myself to you”

did he grab collar?

Heh, no, he didn't, the dialogues don't have the Mass Effect awshum collar grabbing© in them.

I also included the Chantry reference in the backstory part, don't know how I missed that, thanks for pointing it out.

As for the killing of the prisoner, I assume you would do it so he wouldn't spill the beans that you double-crossed him and took the key.

 

[Hamster]

-ehm-

the backstory is what the Chantry teaches. It doesn't have the be truth what happened. The dwarfs and the elves might have a different version of what happened.

The mages went to heaven and were cast out and fell to the Earth because of their mortal sin (or so the chantry teaches). They corrupted anyone who they came into contact with after they had fallen.
They fell down to pits of the earth, met the dragons, corrupted them and such the first Archdemon arose. (or so the chantry teaches).

There is a little problem here: just how wrong can Chantry be if those mages in fact really do run around the countryside with hordes of demonic orcs slaying everyone?

 

[sabishii]

-ehm-

the backstory is what the Chantry teaches. It doesn't have the be truth what happened. The dwarfs and the elves might have a different version of what happened.

The mages went to heaven and were cast out and fell to the Earth because of their mortal sin (or so the chantry teaches). They corrupted anyone who they came into contact with after they had fallen.
They fell down to pits of the earth, met the dragons, corrupted them and such the first Archdemon arose. (or so the chantry teaches).

There is a little problem here: just how wrong can Chantry be if those mages in fact really do run around the countryside with hordes of demonic orcs slaying everyone?

ZOMG PLOT TWIST

 

[Dgaider]

I know the names aren't the most important thing in any plot, but the ones here scream GENERIC_PLACEHOLDER_LOCATION_NAME too much.

Well, the previewer didn't get all the names quite right... but even so, what kind of names would work better for you? In my experience, people tend to dislike "new" names until they begin to associate that name with something tangible.

After all, had I used more fantastical-sounding names are you really going to tell me that you wouldn't then complain about how very fantasy-ish and silly said names would be? I kind of doubt it.

The idea of dragons pretending to be gods in order to fool the humans is pretty nice. I wonder whether there'll be any explanation of the corruption of the, eh, Golden City.

Most of what's written in the preview is backstory for the world (written with an incomplete understanding of the material, but I suppose it could be worse... it's a complicated backstory, though, so I can't really complain much) as opposed to the actual plot of the game. Certainly the Blight is the Main Event that drives the story forward, but there's considerably more going on insofar as what the player is doing.

It's nice that the idea of vignettes seems to be catching on. The preview contains two examples of the introductory chapters.

Do you mean "vignettes" as the variable opening bit that ToEE did? If so, I guess there's a comparison insofar as the variety goes, but the origin stories are full chapters that have considerably more influence later down the line. Not to knock ToEE, but there's a magnitude of difference there.

I'm not sure what "quest" they are talking about; and why would we kill the prisoner after finding out the location of the key and the chest?

That was less a quest and more an ambient encounter that was used in the demo because it was simplistic and a quick way to show the effects of dialogue. You could kill the prisoner in order to take the key (he refused to give it up otherwise), not afterwards. It's not really indicative of the way most dialogues go in DA, as they would have said during the demo, but worked for their purposes.

Also, please let this "grand scheme of things" NOT be just a meter whose level would vary throughout the game, but the endgame would contain a choice for the player to tip it upside down so that the former choices would become irrelevant. This is not criticism, just preemptive bitching.

Agreed... and there is no good/evil meter of any kind. Your actions have appropriate consequences, which includes your relationships with your followers as they react to your decisions. Not having a good/evil meter as part of the gameplay means that we can avoid inserting the dichotomy into every quest solution and instead focus on providing more logical solutions that aren't always immediately assigned to a clear "good" or "evil" path.

 

[Radisshu]

-ehm-

the backstory is what the Chantry teaches. It doesn't have the be truth what happened. The dwarfs and the elves might have a different version of what happened.

The mages went to heaven and were cast out and fell to the Earth because of their mortal sin (or so the chantry teaches). They corrupted anyone who they came into contact with after they had fallen.
They fell down to pits of the earth, met the dragons, corrupted them and such the first Archdemon arose. (or so the chantry teaches).

There is a little problem here: just how wrong can Chantry be if those mages in fact really do run around the countryside with hordes of demonic orcs slaying everyone?

That whole story about the wizards being evil is probably just fabricated by the clergy because they ph33r their powers.

 

[Bossman]

Most of what's written in the preview is backstory for the world (written with an incomplete understanding of the material, but I suppose it could be worse... it's a complicated backstory, though, so I can't really complain much) as opposed to the actual plot of the game. Certainly the Blight is the Main Event that drives the story forward, but there's considerably more going on insofar as what the player is doing.

What we wrote about the game's backstory was checked against what you said in the Crispy Gamer interview: http://www.crispygamer.com/interviews/2 ... enses.aspx

If there are any other materials out on the net which further explain the story, we didn't find them.

 

[MetalCraze]

DGaider's post didn't make backstory sound any less shitty

 

[Oarfish]

Bioware's good / punk rock / I'll do it for money morality systems have been a long standing criticism. Good to see them try something less starwars.

 

[elander_]

DA looks very good in theory. Relationships between factions instead of an evil/good barometer it's what modern PnPs have evolved into. It gives quest writers more freedom to create interesting quests and allows for better faction reactions. Also the lore being an attribute of npcs and not something that is a given fact is a good sign of an evolved crpg. This game is sounding even better than the old BG.

 

[Mareus]

The game sounds better than 99% of other games that are coming out these days, but I doubt it will top BG. 3D camera vs 2D camera and you have an obvious winner, since 3D camera can never simulate party based combat so precise as 2D camera. As for the story being better... well I guess that depends on the sequels. I only hope you will be able to import your party from the Origins.

 

[Darth Roxor]

99%

You really like this number, don't you?

 

[Pastel]

but I doubt it will top BG.

Aw, come on, it can't possibly be that shitty.

 

[Mareus]

99%

You really like this number, don't you?

98%. Happy?