Dragon Age How to Enjoy Dragon Age: Origins

[Butter]

I'm playing this game for the first time and it's boring as fuck. It feels like a single player MMO with the most boilerplate dark fantasy setting and absolute garbage combat. Am I supposed to be using mods? Is there a specific class that lets me blast through the hordes of trash mobs as fast as possible?

 

[Melcar]

You're not supposed to play it. Just watch Youtube videos and make a thread about how shity it is.

 

[KK1001]

Honestly the only way to enjoy it was to play it in 2008 or w/e

 

[agris]

To properly *appreciate* it you need to experience the 2000s famine where abominations such as 3e / 3.5 and NWN are heralded and fawned over, while the superior 2e systems and isometric games with prerendered backgrounds are abandoned.

 

[Oberon]

DA:O was mediocre even on release. Proto SJW trash.

To properly *appreciate* it you need to experience the 2000s famine where abominations such as 3e / 3.5 and NWN are heralded and fawned over, while the superior 2e systems and isometric games with prerendered backgrounds are abandoned.

NWN Official campaigns were pretty forgettable, but the toolset produced some absolute gems. One of the reasons I was so disapointed with DA:O was the lack of a proper toolset. I think it had an anemic editor that allowed you to add to the main game but meh.. So the only real option was to play the uninspired drivel shat out by Jennifer Heffer and David Gayder.
Leliana was a cutie though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Take your ADHD meds.

 

[Melcar]

It was the new shit.

Sent from my Redmi 4A using Tapatalk

 

[Decado]

I will go on record saying I liked it quite a bit when it came out, but you have to appreciate the era. It was 2008 and there was a shortage of decent new RPGs. This was before the popularity of Kickstarter and the ability to go right to gamers to appeal for cash and nostalgia. It is very much a product of its time. It was really easy to excite even Codexian grognards back then (though nobody will admit it).

The best build for a beginner is a dual wielding warrior. Alastair is your tank, the French chick is your thief, Morrigan is your mage. Get Qwinn's Ultimate DAO fixpack, it fixes a shitload of stupid bugs that BioWare missed (like making your abilities do what they say they will do). DW warriors can wear heavy armor and have their pick of weapons. You can off-tank if necessary on the normal/hard difficulty levels (though not on nightmare, as I recall. Just too squishy.) Set up your companion's AI and let your tank grab aggro for a second or two before going nuts.

It's really not a bad game, worth playing through at least once. And later on, there are some fun builds to play around with -- for example, tanking as an Arcane Warrior or a Shapeshifter (both mage specs). Once you learn how to manage your party, playing as a two handed warrior can be fun, because it is basically just managing your special abilities to stunlock opponents. Shit like that. It'll keep you occupied for a little bit.

The story is dumb, but BioWare were always full of themselves on their story-telling prowess, they were never that great. Baldur's Gate II was the best one they ever told, and they were leaning on 20+ years of established DnD lore.

 

[copebot]

Mages are extremely strong with numerous broken subclasses. There are like three good archetypes, with the rest being bad: DW rogue/fighter and wizard. 2H warrior is not good until the expansion, which adds some broken abilities for the archetype that make it good. Shield warrior is just for CC, but is also bad compared to just having another damage class. This is all from memory because I haven't played DA:O in a million years. The game is not hard no matter what difficulty you play on, but if you haven't played it before, it's not going to be clear that some classes are just awful because Bioware didn't have anyone that could do arithmetic. Almost all buffs stack, so if you have two wizards in your party, you can haste your party 2x. Blood mage is probably the most broken subclass, so skip it if you don't want to break the game entirely. There is a bug/unintended thing with the Regeneration spell and blood magic which effectively gives you endless mana.

 

[Keyboard Vomit]

I'm playing this game for the first time and it's boring as fuck. It feels like a single player MMO with the most boilerplate dark fantasy setting and absolute garbage combat. Am I supposed to be using mods? Is there a specific class that lets me blast through the hordes of trash mobs as fast as possible?

The combat and systems are terrible and there are no mods that fix that. Unless you really like banging husbandos and waifus or get stiff from coldly killing all the characters the writers want you to like then the game is unsalvageable.

 

[Drowed]

As many have cited here, DAO is a matter of perspective. If everything they served you in the last 3-4 years was garbage, McDonald's will look like a delicious meal in comparison. At the time, DAO seemed to go against the current that was turning RPGs into action games with cosmetic stats. In retrospect, DAO wasn't all that different in the end, but when it was released it was as close to a new Baldur's Gate-style game as you could get. It was that bad back then. A new RTWP game, with different classes, and still spiced up with a little C&C? Hell yeah everyone and their dog would try it.

Today, with the backlog of games we have with the releases of the last decade, there are undoubtedly several options, whatever your specific preference for RPG is. Honestly, I still don't think it's such a bad game, but unless you've played all the interesting games released in recent years, I see no reason to specifically choose DAO. Undoubtedly you can choose way worse that that, but you can also choose better. If the game seems boring to you in the first few hours, there is no shame in abandoning it and looking for something more interesting to use your time on.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Origins is a fucking MASTERPIECE compared to the sequels

Wait till you get to Inquisition, one of the highest rated "RPG's" of all time

 

[Decado]

Mages are extremely strong with numerous broken subclasses. There are like three good archetypes, with the rest being bad: DW rogue/fighter and wizard. 2H warrior is not good until the expansion, which adds some broken abilities for the archetype that make it good. Shield warrior is just for CC, but is also bad compared to just having another damage class. This is all from memory because I haven't played DA:O in a million years. The game is not hard no matter what difficulty you play on, but if you haven't played it before, it's not going to be clear that some classes are just awful because Bioware didn't have anyone that could do arithmetic. Almost all buffs stack, so if you have two wizards in your party, you can haste your party 2x. Blood mage is probably the most broken subclass, so skip it if you don't want to break the game entirely. There is a bug/unintended thing with the Regeneration spell and blood magic which effectively gives you endless mana.

It has been a long time since I played this game, but as I recall they did fix many of these issues and things like Qwinn's Fix Pack took care of a good portion (though not all) of the others.

I agree that Bloodmage is broken horseshit. Mages are too much in this game.

 

[Testownia]

Dragon Age: Origins is the last AAA classic RPG, at least until Baldur's Gate III: The Definitive, Lactating Edition is released.

 

[Sweeper]

It's not that bad and OP is a faggot.

 

[Lovely Feather Pillow]

The game is far from perfect but still enjoyable. Especially when compared to DA2 and Inquisition. In 2021 you should probably play the series backwards to appreciate Origins.

 

[Falksi]

I fucking thrive on the game, although I haven't played it in something like 5 years now, so may find it's aged wank on return.

All I'd say is that for me to enjoy it I followed the following guidelines:

• Play as mage or duel wield rogue
• Play on Hard or Nightmare, so that the trash mobs actually stimulate some response out of you
• Add the Shale DLC.
• Pick party members based more on personality than class (although obviously you do have to find a balance)

If you get past one of the first 3 selectable missions (woods, deep roads, mage tower) and still aren't enjoying it then rag it in.

I can see why it's not for everyone, there's a lot of flaws to it. But I found i could get past them no probs.

 

[Grunker]

Game is pretty great. Its main problem is difficulty, especially if you play as a mage, which is the most fun

 

[agris]

Pretty great is a stretch. Enemies spawn out of thin air and in waves, the cognitive dissonance of playing a mage vs how they're treated in-game is astounding, combat encounters are pretty blah, NPC "gift giving" really took root in in DA:O, as did the bioware formula. And it isn't hard enough, and some maps are pointlessly huge and a pain to get through.

It's really a poor-man's Baldur's Gate.

edit: itemization was.. ok I think shit?

 

[Nano]

edit: itemization was.. ok I think?

Best staff in the game can be bought for 6 gold at the start of the game. Good times.

 

[Grunker]

the cognitive dissonance of playing a mage vs how they're treated in-game is astounding

Curious criticism. If you're a simulationist, the game is definetely not for you. It has invisible walls and gameplay contrivances galore. It plays pretty great though.

 

[Falksi]

It's really a poor-man's Baldur's Gate.

That's one of the reasons I like it.

It's like getting a "fat bird's blowjob". Don't get me wrong I'd sooner it was Tessa Fowler sucking me off, but it's still along the right lines.

 

[Grunker]

edit: itemization was.. ok I think?

Heh, I think it's the game's worst gameplay aspect. It's incredibly weak IMO

 

[Andhaira]

I enjoyed DA: Origins. It has flaws true; one of the main being using retarded MMO like % abilities (i.e. this ability gives you a X% increase in doing Y) And ofcourse Bioware's trademark hollow C&C, and the ridiculous blood splatters. But still it was good for what it was and definately worth replaying today.

I never got around to playing DA: II, mainly due to the combat being fully real time. However I hear it can be fun...does anyone recommend it?

 

[agris]

the cognitive dissonance of playing a mage vs how they're treated in-game is astounding

Curious criticism. If you're a simulationist, the game is definetely not for you. It has invisible walls and gameplay contrivances galore. It plays pretty great though.

I don't think you need to recast my frame of reference as that of a "simulationist" to make the point that a huge pillar of the game's narrative is the role of mage's in society, and the templars being adverse to them. Then you waltz in as a mage, do mage shit and... ally with the templars?

It was just sloppy, pretty consistent with DAO as a whole.