Dragon Age Origins

[Windbrand]

I'm thinking if I should get Dragon Age Origins or not. I'm so used to Oblivion/Skyrim because there is a huge mod database for these games. I'm used to characters looking absolutely gorgeous with tons of armors to choose from and spice it up with some adult mods. I saw a walkthrough video of DA, and there were like...... 2 armors and 2 weapons (either that or all the armors and weapons look the same), and the animations were absolutely terrible. The character runs around like a frigging ogre and there are only like 2 melee animations. So in terms of eye candy, did any Oblivion/Skyrim players here like DA? I'd just stick to Skyrim, but the character development in Skyrim is way too shallow. I couldn't care less about any of the characters in the game, the jarls were about as interesting as a randomly-generated bandit ffs. In DA it's much more intimate and there are lots of cutscenes, due to being more linear. So yeah basically eye candy vs. character development...

[gregathit]

DA Origins is a story game. It is completely different from Oblivion\skyrim in basically every way possible. If you ever played any of the Diablo series games it is much like that. You play everything in a angled out 3rd person and while there are a few armors - weapons, it is mostly just different levels\specs of the same thing. What made Origins so popular was the story.

 

DA2 was a different animal altogether.

 

As to whether to buy it? Depends on what you are into. If you can just rent it or play the demo and if it floats your boat then pick it up.

[Siouliusn]

I would say closer to a Baldur'sGate than a Diablo.

 

You control a party of advuturer instead of a single character and it's all a team management.

 

As gregahit said it's a big storyline and most important : all characters have a big story to discover with quest related to their past.

Worth buyin' it for me

[radech]

It's a pretty decent for a bioware game(and probably the last decent game they'll make before ea completely devours them) since it doesn't seem like you are familiar with bioware, I'm not gonna bother with rants about their formulaic nature...

 

Bioware in general are all about followers, exploring their stories/characters while using them to define your own, and DA:O is probably their most refined effort(Mass Effect 1 a close contender) and combat is quite enjoyable(if you can keep your inner powergamer in check(mages are insanely OP)) the battle orders menu is also a quite interesting feature, even though i never really got it to work, opting instead to just manually control the entire party, making fights a lot longer but also waaaaaaaaaay more tactical than anything I've ever experienced in an elderscrolls game.

 

If tactical combat isn't your major draw(though the potions at least in TW1 adds another layer), and you want eyecandy and a more player centered story I'd recommend the Witcher series instead. DA:O had some mods last time i checked, nothing in terms of gameplay, but some cosmetic, and a couple spiced up cutscenes - things already in the witcher by default(though naturally the modded ones are quite a bit raunchier, but neither game has anything resembling what we have for oblivion/skyrim)

[gregathit]

I would say closer to a Baldur'sGate than a Diablo.

 

You control a party of advuturer instead of a single character and it's all a team management.

 

As gregahit said it's a big storyline and most important : all characters have a big story to discover with quest related to their past.

Worth buyin' it for me

 

True, Baldur's Gate is a more appropriate comparison. However, I used Diablo as it was more widely played and mainly was talking about how combat\spells were handled. I should have clarified more what I was trying to say. Good catch!

 

As all that have posted here have pointed out, story comes first in this game, then combat and all other things. Combat is more about rapidly clicking the mouse and hotkeys than really anything else.

 

I enjoyed it immensely (course I also enjoyed Baldur's Gate and Diablo as well!).

[FallenWarrior]

DA:O (Ultimate Edition) is the game I've played the most and I'm still playing it. One thing to remember though is that armor and weapons are divided into 7 tiers and armor goes from Light to Massive as with most rpg games, you always start with low tier weapons and armor and work your way up. While most of the armors remain the same (only made of different metals the higher tier you get), there's actually some really awesome armor sets. For example the Juggernaut armor set And weapons can get enchantments

 

Siouliusn is correct in the game being closer to Baldur's gate. And as it has been pointed out it's both a big and deep storyline game which also requires you to rely on the party members as well as their stories.

 

Here's a review on the game (xbox 360 version) by Angry Joe

[Mashi]

Well if you want to get the basic version(not ultimate) for nothing, today is your lucky day. Can't get much better than free. Just move quick, since they'll probably pull the promo in a few hours.

http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=12576

[FallenWarrior]

Well if you want to get the basic version(not ultimate) for nothing' date=' today is your lucky day. Can't get much better than free. Just move quick, since they'll probably pull the promo in a few hours.

http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=12576

[/quote']

 

True, but if Windbrand wants to explore the other added areas like Soldier's Peak then the Ultimate Edition is required (unless someone wants to pay for the dlcs). That said, the basic version is always a good start

[LifeandEd]

Like greg said, DAO's a game that's big on story. If you're looking for a good yarn in an interesting world with memorable characters, buy it. I got it on release day and loved it to pieces, even though the dinosaur of a computer I had at the time certainly did not.

 

On ultimate edition vs. regular, it depends. I recommend getting Soldier's Peak and The Stone Prisoner. They came with my boxed copy and are both excellent, but I don't know if a digital copy comes with them. Awakening is good, but buggy, and the rest of the DLC in the UE isn't worth it, in my opinion, at least. In the end, though, it's up to you.

[Guest]

IMHO, Dragon Age Orgins is the single best RPG since KoToR (which was the single best RPG since Baldur's Gate. All bioware games, although that isn't really surprising). It does pretty much everything it sets out to do perfectly. People complain that the story is too Tolkien-ish, but that's fine since the Tolkien set up is best and most used set-up anyways (it works, and people LOVE that kind of story, no doubt about it). Animations are fluid (although I do agree that the combat movement looks like they are ogres, however mods DO exist to alleviate that). The combat is that familiar RPG setup from years past, but mastered. The game is strategic (and plays so except for the times when the ai of your companions start acting wonky).

 

The main pros about this game are its story, companions, and lore. The companions in the game are excellent, with morals, goods and bads, and more. They feel alive (unlike companions in Skyrim). The lore is also intriguing. The story is well told and is full of moral choices to challenge you. In addition, the various Origin stories are excellent and varied, and each one allows you to experience the game at a different angle.

 

The game is certainly not elder scrolls. What it lacks in open world and explore-ability, it excels in story, companions, and writing.

 

As for modding. While Beth games are still king of the modding scene, Dragon Age Origins IS actually moddable to quite a degree. The most popular site being dragonagenexus.com (but I'm sure there are other places to find dragon age mods). You certainly won't find the eyecandy and adult content style of lovers/sexout/mini lovers and such in Dragon age, there still is sex and adult content for Dragon Age (even in the vanilla game). Mods do exist that add those skimpy armors, and add additional sex scenes.

 

As you can tell, I highly recommend this game. I'm pretty sure that the game, even the ultimate edition are cheap (20 bucks I believe) and the ultimate edition comes with most (if not all) DLC. And there is quite a bit of it.

[FallenWarrior]

the ultimate edition comes with most (if not all) DLC. And there is quite a bit of it.

 

The Ultimate Edition contains the following:

 

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Awakening

Stone Prisoner

Wardens Keep

Return to Ostagar

Darkspawn Chronicles

Leliana’s Song

Golems of Amgarrak

Witch Hunt

 

Which is all the DLC, base game and expansion

[Windbrand]

Ok got the game, good thing didn't get any of the DLC. Long story short... it is one of the worst games I've ever played. The story is so predictable, characters are so shallow, extremely limited amount of armors, weapons and spells, and the worst combat system I have EVER seen in a video game. Before you say anything... I actually read every word of the dialogue, so no I didn't "skip any content".

Let's see:

- Your character background is explained in a few sentences by narration. Result? I couldn't care less about who the character I'm choosing is, just some generic hero who is about to save the world, yawn

- For the first few hours of the game you're stuck with like 1-2 skills, WTF? This is a 2009 game ffs, not a 1990s retro RPG where you smash the A button to attack. The entire combat system so far = click to target an enemy then wait until it's dead, then MANUALLY click another target (and hope you don't miss since enemies are always moving, and there's no auto-target) then repeat the process

- Combat is SO slow-paced, I could literally fall asleep watching the SINGLE attack animation loop over and over and over and over again, and everything seems to be in slow motion, from the way my character swings the sword/fires a spell to how it takes her FOREVER to get up after being knocked down. This is worse than those point-and-click MMORPGs, because in those games AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FEW SPELLS which act as eyecandies, which this game certainly doesn't for the first few hours

- Combat is SO glitchy. Trying to dodge an attack by running away from enemies will basically never work, because the hit box of enemies is apparently infinite. The thrown boulder is about to land and hit you, so you run out of the way right? Nope you still get hit despite the fact you're 20 FEET AWAY from the impact point. Trying to dodge an enemy's sword swipe? Nope, despite the fact you're like 10 feet away, and the enemy's sword swipe clearly hit thin air, you magically still take damage

- Party members are SO f*cking retarded. I play as a mage so I kite the enemy hoping the 3 melee musclemachos in my party would tail the boss and damage him somewhat. NOPE, they just stand there watching me kite the monster like 3 f*cking morons at a baseball game while rotating on the spot

- My god this game has the most pathetic library of armors/weapons ever. Not only does everything look the same, but there are rarely ANY variety of armors. So you got a leather armor, then an hour later you find a chainmail armor which is just a recolor, then hours later you find splintmail which is yet ANOTHER recolor. All of them look like 3D models made in the last decade. Even the modders gave up on this game. I've spent an entire day at dragon age nexus browsing for armor mods, and found like 2-3 that didn't look retarded, oh and guess what, 2 of them were replacers, meaning the player can't wear it, nice job

- Absolutely terrible voice acting. Sometimes I'm wondering if they're speaking like that on purpose. It's painful to listen to Duncan talk, is he like a tranquil mage or something? His voice has NO emotions whatsoever, it's like listening to a vacuum. Seriously Bioware, go and hire some of Bethesda's voice actors

- None of the dialogue choices mean anything. Ok so I can choose to act like a complete bitch or an angel when speaking, none of it matters whatsoever, other than the NPC's pre-programmed response

- The fact that you need to be a rogue, or have one in your party, to open any chests. Seriously wtf

- It takes around 5 seconds for corpses to be loot-able, wtf? The only explanation for this is it has to be a bug

- Autosave points are absolutely stupid. Autosaves at random points in a dungeon with just regular enemies, yet NO AUTOSAVE after a friggingly hard boss fight that is joined with an area transition? Lol wtf

The ONE good thing that this game has, is that some of the characters look gorgeous, much better than the unmodded Skyrim (though not as good as modded Skyrim), like Morrigan and the player character.

To summarize... I should've played this FIRST, and then Oblivion/Skyrim, because Oblivion/Skyrim set my standards up too high. Besides having a dungeon crawler style camera angle, and more intimate conversations with certain NPCs (which is a major letdown in Oblivion/Skyrim since I didn't give a f*ck about any of the NPCs), DAO is pretty much inferior to Oblivion/Skyrim in ever other way.

[Guest ThatOne]

Well, I kind of have to disagree with you.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like DA:O much myself, but it's not as bad as you make it out to be. It is a different type of game from Oblivion\Skyrim, true enough, but it's not a bad game.

 

How is it different? Well, for example in the way combat works. You are expecting collision based combat (dodging the boulder) whereas DA:O uses a targeting-based system (So, you were targeted equals you took damage, even if visually the attack didn't connect).

 

Party members have bad AI? Set the controls to manual and direct their movements yourself. It's not too difficult to control four characters with their abilities. And surely it's more interesting than playing one character in Oblivion.

This also answers your "slow paced" complaint; it's not THAT slow when you have to manage four characters. Sure, it's not IWD2 or Aion, but it's still more than Oblivion by far.

 

About the dialog: some of it was funny, some was just bad.

 

Auto-saves: You've played Oblivion with mods, and you rely on an auto-save system?

[The Irreverend]

Ok got the game' date=' good thing didn't get any of the DLC. Long story short... it is one of the worst games I've ever played. The story is so predictable, characters are so shallow, extremely limited amount of armors, weapons and spells, and the worst combat system I have EVER seen in a video game. Before you say anything... I actually read every word of the dialogue, so no I didn't "skip any content".

Let's see:

- Your character background is explained in a few sentences by narration. Result? I couldn't care less about who the character I'm choosing is, just some generic hero who is about to save the world, yawn

[/quote']

 

Did you talk to the companions in the camp? That is where their characters are developed more.

 

The main character was supposed to be a blank slate, so your problem could be extended to all games where you make your own character, including the Elder Scrolls games. It seems like you thought the backgrounds would define your character more than they did.

 

You were expecting the wrong thing when you played the game. You were expecting something similar to the Elder Scrolls, where Dragon Age is nothing like it. Basically the only similarity is they are both fantasy video games.

[gregathit]

While I respect your opinion I find that I disagree greatly with you on many things. I thoroughly enjoyed Origins and have played it through at least 5 times. Just reading about it makes me want to start a new game.

 

Being as you hated Origins I recommend you don't play DA2! Even the most die hard DA fanboy agrees that DA2 sucks compared to Origins....

[The Irreverend]

Being as you hated Origins I recommend you don't play DA2! Even the most die hard DA fanboy agrees that DA2 sucks compared to Origins....

 

I was actually thinking that Windbrand might like the second one more. The combat is much flashier.

[gregathit]

Being as you hated Origins I recommend you don't play DA2! Even the most die hard DA fanboy agrees that DA2 sucks compared to Origins....

 

I was actually thinking that Windbrand might like the second one more. The combat is much flashier.

 

True, it is flashier. However it is still just button pushing. That seemed to be one of his gripes, so nothing really changed.

 

Besides, I would hate to think about how mad the caves all having the exact same textures\layout would make him! or the enemies waves that insta-spawn from thin air.....

[The Irreverend]

Being as you hated Origins I recommend you don't play DA2! Even the most die hard DA fanboy agrees that DA2 sucks compared to Origins....

 

I was actually thinking that Windbrand might like the second one more. The combat is much flashier.

 

True' date=' it is flashier. However it is still just button pushing. That seemed to be one of his gripes, so nothing really changed.

 

Besides, I would hate to think about how mad the caves all having the exact same textures\layout would make him! or the enemies waves that insta-spawn from thin air.....

[/quote']

 

Now I'm interested in reading his impressions of DA2.

[Emily]

Da.2 sucks.

[TheoryoftheDead]

Dragon Age Origins was a fairly good game - if you haven't played it, I would really recommend it.

As for Dragon age 2, as many people have already pointed out - stay away from it.

[Emily]

Dragon age.2 are hardly close to Dungeon & Dragons relevancy.

It destroy Everything and EVERYTHING we love on Dragon age:Origins.

 

Save your time and Money on other game.

[Queen Bee]

Y'know, I've never finished this game. I'd made it pretty far on my old computer, and then it crashed and I lost my save. I just haven't felt like starting all over again. I really should someday, just to see how it ends.