Dragon Age impressions

[Lesifoere]

I don't know, loot is so much better handled in BG games.

Oh and I just realized that you cannot stealth around enemies to complete objectives.

The game is fun, especially when Wyne joined, but now I am in the fade and it is simply too long. With my rogue there is barely any change in tactics and the loss of character interaction to mix things up. The fade itself is not very interesting, the codex entries about it are much better.

The Fade's actually the only "dungeon" section in the game that didn't make me want to quit forever and forget about this game. Have you been to the elven ruins and Deep Roads? Horrible, horrible stuff and much worse than this.

 

[Grifthin]

I liked the Elven ruins again. I'm a big fan of exploring temples. The Deep roads was cool purely from a 300 perspective 4 of you vs 17823479284 darkspawn, although caves where a bit drab. The Fade gave me a head ache after a while due to the slightly out of focus perspective - but then so did BloodOmen/Soul reaver series with their Spirit world bits. I did enjoy it though (love the perma stat boosts) and shape shifting.

Denerim was a bit underwhelming though. Didn't seem like there where enough npc's around for the BIGGEST CITY IN FERELDEN. Other than that the rest of the settings where passable.

 

[1eyedking]

The thing about the Fade is that its concept is not explored (and much less exploited) enough. It's just the typical zomg-crazy (perhaps not even) alternate plane.

See Gann-of-Dreams for some proper dreamwalking.

 

[Soulforged]

I'm not saying anything. At a first look it seems banal shit, just like Lesifoere thinks. It's VD who thinks it's "fucking brilliant".

You're saying that there's a difference between "good" and "brilliant" as in scale or degree, you're also implying that the general perception you get from the sentence is that it could fall in the first degree and not in the second.

And that's about all I can gather from most posters, a general perception, feeling if you must.

I also feel a lot of thinks are bad around me but I'm not always good at explaining why, that's because it's a feeling, not because I know it. Again I think most people here are only showing prejudice and that's why you say something like At a first look it seems banal shit and then make a reference to Lesifoere more developed answer to avoid thinking why do you hate it.

EDIT: Grammar.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The main thing that let BG2 down for me was the awful combat system. But I also found the quests rather lacking too. There wasn't enough choice for my taste.

I think Dragon Age is a far superior game.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Feelthe rads, i said planescape WAS unmatchable , i know my english isnt the best , but i think its past.

Dream on.

Also dragon age is dark fantasy(gore/sex/dark magic/check),

Again I think most people here are only showing prejudice and that's why you say something like At a first look it seems banal shit and then make a reference to Lesifoere more developed answer to avoid thinking why do you hate it.

I have not played the game. I'm saying how it sounds out of the context. It's just banal shit. Maybe in context it's better. Maybe not. Lesifoere and others don't think it is.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Why do people lie? I know why. They're liars. R00fles!

Oh, really? What game don't you think is better than BG2? Wait... it's probably KOTOR. The others are all better aren't they? Because BG2 is like so old and people should get over it, ain't that right, princess?

 

[entertainer]

codex is now like bethesda forums, instead of esftards we have new codextards

 

[Freelance Henchman]

 

[Hamster]

I played DA for 25 hours and i can remember only one good side quest - Stone Prisoner DLC.

Majority of side quests in DA look like this:

I like the game, but this aspect of DA is just shit compared to BG2.

 

[Lesifoere]

What, you mean you don't find "Deliver notices to five people" or "deliver letters of condolences to four people" or "gather fifteen toxin extracts" involving and creative?

 

[Hamster]

Yes, i for some reason enjoyed "finding a temple of forgotten god under the city" or "exploring the countryside to find the source of shadows and stumbling upon a dragon" or "travelling in a planar sphere" much more.

But i am sure it is just because i want to bash Dragon Age ang get some codex cool points.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Well, citing the coolest quests of A game while citing the shittiest quests of B game certainly isn't impartial

 

[Mortmal]

Feelthe rads, i said planescape WAS unmatchable , i know my english isnt the best , but i think its past.

Dream on.

Also dragon age is dark fantasy(gore/sex/dark magic/check),

Again I think most people here are only showing prejudice and that's why you say something like At a first look it seems banal shit and then make a reference to Lesifoere more developed answer to avoid thinking why do you hate it.

I have not played the game. I'm saying how it sounds out of the context. It's just banal shit. Maybe in context it's better. Maybe not. Lesifoere and others don't think it is.

*SPOILER*
first 10 min of the game, for the elven origin, the wedding is broken , the bride abducted by city "nobles" who are rapists, one of the girl in jail l has her throat slit cause she cry too much.. if its not dark fantasy what do you want....
In Mage origin , your friend escape the tower to avoid lobotomy by plunging his dagger in his own hand draw his blood and lay death on the templars..its dark magic no?

Have you even played the game ?

 

[1eyedking]

Dragon Age has a cool quest?

first 10 min of the game, for the elven origin, the wedding is broken , the bride abducted by city "nobles" who are rapists, one of the girl in jail l has her throat slit cause she cry too much.. if its not dark fantasy what do you want....
In Mage origin , your friend escape the tower to avoid lobotomy by plunging his dagger in his own hand draw his blood and lay death on the templars..its dark magic no?

That's supposed to be dark?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Dragon Age has a cool quest?

Dunno, why don't you try playing it?

or you could keep on making shit up, it's funnier

or larping in The Witcher, where a quest to "guard these crates" becomes a door to an investigation about lies and intrigue about the content of said crates

 

[1eyedking]

I have played it. The only reasonably interesting quest so far was the one with the furries, except the dungeon was shit, and I roleplayed the stereotypical retard who doesn't have a single clue on what's going on.

So yes, there hasn't been a single cool quest so far, and the landsmeet was about to happen when I stopped playing.

 

[Mortmal]

Dragon Age has a cool quest?

first 10 min of the game, for the elven origin, the wedding is broken , the bride abducted by city "nobles" who are rapists, one of the girl in jail l has her throat slit cause she cry too much.. if its not dark fantasy what do you want....
In Mage origin , your friend escape the tower to avoid lobotomy by plunging his dagger in his own hand draw his blood and lay death on the templars..its dark magic no?

That's supposed to be dark?

For normal people its considered as dark yes. Not as dark as some pen and a paper rpgs , like KULT , and you wont dig holes in dead children heads to rape them, dont expect mainstream to cater to your needs...
but its much more dark than the usual rpg no ?

 

[Mareus]

Just started reading the few first pages of this topic and GOD!! It looks like Skyway cloned himself and turned the codex into a club for whiners!

I started playing the game a week ago and I must say that the game is much better than I was expecting after playing Mass Effect and KOTOR from Bioware. I would say that Dragon is best compared to NWN2 and those who liked NWN2 will like Dragon Age without a doubt.

Combat is pretty challenging on higher difficulty and since you can change the difficulty I really see no reason for complaint there. It requires a lot of tactic and preparation to win some battles and this certainly reminds me on the good old days when I played Baldur's Gate. The camera is done much better than in NWN2, animations are smooth and give you a sense of power. Magic is very useful and battles are not just about slashing through filler enemies, because even such enemies can kill you if you are not careful (at least on higher difficulties). Regenerating mana, stamina and health isn't that bad, because health doesn't regenerate during the battles, while mana and stamina regenerates much slower while in battle mode. This means you must plan your mana, stamina and health carefully while fighting and when you are not fighting you regenerate much faster. What people don't understand here is that regenerating occurs only so people would not be forced to use the fight/rest cheat like in NWN2 or some other similar games every now and then. Practically you fight and if you win, you regain your health, stamina and mana before the next fight. While I am also not a fan of this, it is certainly not a thing to kill the game for me and it is certainly better than giving you a cheat like in NWN2.

Dialogues and writing are decent and do their job, but of course nowhere near the quality of Planescape Torment. It's more or less of the same quality as the quality of dialogues in NWN2. There aren't too many choices and consequences, but every now and then You will have an opportunity to kill someone or solve a problem with persuasion or intimidation. There are even a few quests that allow you to solve them on different ways (I still haven't finished the game, but so far one such quest worth mentioning is with the possessed boy which you can kill, let his mother sacrifice herself for him or find an alternate solution). I would describe these choices and consequences as typically Bioware-ish. Sometimes the choices exist, sometimes they are false, sometimes they are good, sometimes they are simple and sometimes you have no choice, so to sum this up I would say it's not that bad, or to be more precise - if you plan to play a gray warden the game will give you the choices that the gray warden would use making your gaming experience very good, and if you want to play anything else, well... while it's not perfect it does a solid job.

Graphics are nice, sounds are excellent and the music while not as grandiose and epic as in Baldur's Gate, it does it's job.

Story is solid and a bit LOTR-ish, but I would say it's worth playing. There are some nice twists, I liked the dream world and the powers you can gain there. This dream world was certainly a nice touch and it wasn't expected.

To sum everything up - Dragon Age is perhaps the best RPG to come out in years and if you like NWN2, you will like Dragon Age... but Baldur's Gate still rules supreme when it comes to party based RPGs and Planescape Torment remains the king storywise.

you whiners!

 

[Hamster]

Well, citing the coolest quests of A game while citing the shittiest quests of B game certainly isn't impartial

I am pretty sure that i used the best side quest i encountered in DA so far as an example - Shale DLC. And compared to BG2 it's not impressive, to say the least.

 

[Hamster]

The only reasonably interesting quest so far was the one with the furries,

Furries were from the main quest line.

 

[Volourn]

"Oh, really? What game don't you think is better than BG2? Wait... it's probably KOTOR."

Oh hahahahahahahahahahahahah.


" The others are all better aren't they? Because BG2 is like so old and people should get over it, ain't that right, princess?"

DA > BG2



"I am pretty sure that i used the best side quest i encountered in DA so far as an example - Shale DLC."

If you think Shale DLC is the best quest in DA you are fuckin' retarded.



" I would say that Dragon is best compared to NWN2 and those who liked NWN2 will like Dragon Age without a doubt. "

Only a fool would suggets that DA is 'most like' NWN2. FFS That's just wrong.


" Baldur's Gate still rules supreme when it comes to party based RPGs "

No.

 

[Soulforged]

I have not played the game. I'm saying how it sounds out of the context. It's just banal shit. Maybe in context it's better. Maybe not. Lesifoere and others don't think it is.

FeelTheRads, I think this is the worst problem with your arguments, you simply talk out of impressions left in you by a glance. I wouldn't say that constitutes the necessary conditions to form a full expression of the game or one of its parts.

Many things out of context sound bad, but I would say that in most cases you cannot even form a reasonable opinion just by the perception of something out of context, it's necessary to experiment the whole context. I thought that Fallout and Fallout 2 were two of the most brilliant RPGs I've played, but if you quoted many dialogues fragments out of context they could sound stupid, bad or "average", both games also had moments of brilliance in the writing, but they wouldn't win any literary awards, it's not the purpose of a computer game, dialogue was brilliant because it was consistent with the world (in most situations), the characters and they were effective most of the time, the dialogue could describe the situation, your mission or the history with the minimal amount of text necessary and without losing any of that sweet personality conveyance it possesed.

I don't even know why you keep discussing this if all you've seen ar excerpts which are mostly provided out of context (though I know for certain that in the special case of that sentence VaultDweller has explained the context in which it happens), you can't reasonably expect to have an informed opinion of the quality.

 

[FeelTheRads]

you can't reasonably expect to have an informed opinion of the quality.

I have not claimed I do. All as I said is how it sounds and pointed out that for some people who HAVE played the game it sounds the same. That's all.

Plus, it's weird that for some it's banal shit and for others it's brilliant. But I suppose that's the Codex.

 

[Lesifoere]

Just started reading the few first pages of this topic and GOD!! It looks like Skyway cloned himself and turned the codex into a club for whiners!

And you're a Volourn clone. Except even princess thinks you're a tool, looks like.

I like how your comments can all be summed up as "well, it does its job." You don't even seem aware of how back-handed your praise is, which makes it that much funnier. Oh yeah, it does its job. It's good for what it is, amirite. Best RPG ever.

I finished the game finally, by the way. The long, long, long trudges through the tedious, pathetic excuses for dungeon crawls really were not worth the few good moments this game has to offer. The Landsmeet's pretty good, though, and finally getting the chance to betray Alistair was delicious. Gaining Loghain as a companion this late into the game was... odd. It made for a nice change, I guess, and from the player's perspective it was fun. For the story, though, it makes fuck-all sense and has no consistency. A man this paranoid and this proud gets beaten in a duel by my PC and suddenly he's her newest groupie, ready to sing her praises just like everyone else? Yeah, no.

The archdemon battle was dull and far more boring than encounters with other bosses throughout the game, which is ironic. You're given a chance to negotiate with the werewolf, the desire demon possessing Connor, Caridin/Branka... but here, nothing. Given how big-bad-powerful the archdemon is, I'd have thought it would at least be sentient or intelligent enough to initiate conversation. Instead, it's just another generic dragon, except it breathes purple fire instead of orange and has more spikes than usual. Do we need more final battles against generic dragons? At least give it some interesting mechanics. Blizzard, I miss you. Couldn't Bioware have ripped off Malygos or Sartharion if they really must have fucking dragons? God knows they ripped off everything else from just about everybody.

And I reiterate: Bioware's programmers are incompetent and can't be trusted to make their own engines. Memory leaks out the wazoo, though then again when they handle other people's engines like in Ass Effect, they don't do too good a job of it either ala texture loading. Hell, it took another group of developers entirely--CDP--to make their piece-of-shit Aurora bearable and good-looking. DA may be more polished than say TW at launch or NWN2, but whereas both of the latter games shine in some areas (writing/fairly good illusion of choice/cool ideas) while lacking in others, DA is just all-around mediocre with the rare bright spots.

The epilogue is the best part, though admittedly part of its goodness comes from breathing a sigh of relief that I won't have to grit my teeth through more Deep Roads. It could've been extended some more, but it's a fair effort at after-the-end slideshow.