Tag: Dragon Age (page 2 of 2)

Replay Value

Dragon Age

So, in spite of some of the less than charitable things I’ve said about Dragon Age: Origins, I’m playing it again. And I know it won’t be the last time.

My wife and I like to discuss different things we like about the game, other ways we plan on playing it, and even toss dialog from the game back and forth at one another. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

I’m also starting up a new Mass Effect play-through, but I’ll probably finish my Orange Box review series as well as Assassin’s Creed 2 before I really dedicate myself to putting another Infiltrator through the paces of Insanity. There’s a lot to be said for a game’s design, though, if I’m willing to put myself through the stickier bits just to enjoy a particular scene or storyline again. Fallout 3 is another candidate for a repeat play-through, provided I can find a way to afford all of the DLC. I think I’d need a magic cauldron or something.

I’ve thought about the replay value of some older games, as well. StarCraft, Full Throttle, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, pretty much any of the Wing Commander games… they’re all games I’ve played multiple times, and even with the gift of hindsight and more advanced simulations at my disposal, I’d happily play any of them again.

Share your thoughts with me, folks. What games have you encountered that, after playing them through, maybe even years ago, you’d really enjoy playing again? What gives a game replay value for you?

Game Review: Dragon Age: Origins

Courtesy BioWare
All that blood means this game is totally dark and edgy. Totally.

I’ve ragged a bit on the length of Dragon Age: Origins as well as the infamous memory leak that completely devoured at least an entire day of my life. But how did I feel about the game overall? How does its writing compare to Mass Effect or even its spiritual ancestor, Baldur’s Gate? Read on, and find out.

Dragon Age is a fantasy setting based in the world of Thedas. Origins introduces us to this world through the nation of Ferelden, which is facing the threat of invasion by twisted creatures known as darkspawn. The only force with the knowledge and experience capable of ending this threat, before it becomes a full-blown contagion of violence and destruction called a Blight, is the elite order of the Gray Wardens. It is this order your character will be invited to join after you get to know the race and/or class you select at the opening of the game.

Stuff I Didn’t Like

Courtesy BioWare
“A little club soda will get those blood spatters out of your dress, sir.”

  • The game’s intent of being a ‘dark’ fantasy is apparently the reason even the briefest of melee encounters will see you and the members of your party spattered in blood. It’s as if Jackson Pollock runs from one member to the other armed with a brush dipped in red paint, giggling with childlike glee. Having this happen in the wake of a bloody close-up kill would work a lot better than having these people constantly covered in gore. It actually becomes kind of hilarious if you try to talk one of your party members after a fight. They will casually talk with you and even joke, without bothering to even wipe the blood out of their eyes. I know it’s foolish to expect complete realism in a fantasy setting, but this always struck me as a bit off.
  • There’s a lot of loading that happens in this game, at least in the PC version. Especially when playing for longer than an hour or two, due to the aforementioned memory leak. I started seeing the slowly spinning tribal-influenced loading graphic in my sleep.
  • The Codex of the game is very dry. I’ve started to get used to sparing glances at posted information or an overheard conversation dumping a ream of text into my journal, but in Mass Effect there was some narration on the major entries that helped convey some interesting and world-building information. Now, while Dragon Age’s Codex isn’t essential as most of the background and world-building happens in the course of conversation with others, but the fact remains that the full text presented in-game can be difficult to sift through. Browsing a wiki for the information outside of the game is more informative and interesting.
  • Quests in fantasy games can often feel a little contrived. Stationary NPCs, especially those who are reputed to be powerful or fearsome, often give tasks to the players that they could easily accomplish themselves if not for some plot-imposed restriction. And in the course of your travels, it’s easy to begin to lose sight of your motivation as you try to hurdle one obstacle after another in what should be a straightforward affair. The two biggest culprits in this area are the tower of the Circle of Magi, and the Deep Roads extending from the dwarven city of Orzammar. Unlike the optional side quests posted on various boards around Ferelden, these areas contain sequences that require you to move from one map to another in what I assume was an attempt to give the game scope but really just felt like they were trying to make a long game even longer. Now, as I said I’ve already had a gripe about the game’s length, but having finished the game it did feel like a sweeping epic which is something I’ll discuss more in a bit. But the Deep Roads in particular just felt overly tedious. When I finally reached Caridin at the end of the Roads, I half expected the big guy to take me through an exchange that’d go something like this:
  • Courtesy BioWare

    “YOU WILL GO TO THE WAYOVERTHERE MOUNTAINS, TO THE VERY PEAK OF MOUNT NOOBDEATH, AND BRING ME THE TEN HAMMERS OF AWESOMENESS TO PROPERLY DISPOSE OF THE ANVIL OF THE VOID.”
    “Is the anvil bolted down?”
    “…WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?”
    “Well, if isn’t bolted to the stone, why don’t we all pick it up and heave the thing into the molten lava flowing below us? Hell, even if it is bolted down, I’m a mage, Oghren’s a mighty beer-drinking dwarf, Alistair’s pretty badass when he stops whining and snarking, and both you and Shale are immortal super-strong golems. Why don’t we eliminate the bolts, THEN hurl it into the lava? That’d do the job nicely, right?”
    “…YOUR SOLUTION IS NOT EPIC ENOUGH.”
    “But it just makes more sense to use what we’ve got here than to wander all the way out and up into the mountains…”
    “EPIC SOLUTIONS DO NOT MEAN LOGICAL SOLUTIONS. GET ON WITH THE QUESTING.”
    “…”
    “THERE’S EPIC GEAR IN IT FOR YOU.”
    “Fine, whatever.”

  • Speaking of Shale, it boggles my mind that one of the best characters in the game is only available via DLC. Shale is interesting, useful, deep and absolutely hysterical, but if you didn’t get the right retail copy or don’t have the $15 necessary to download her, you’re shit outta luck, friend.

Stuff I Liked

Courtesy BioWare
This view is why the PC version works very well for me.

  • Regarding the game’s length, while some of the sequences did feel a bit long in the tooth, the overall arc of the game is like that of Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia, in that we have a sojourn across a foreign land in the name of an epic quest. Seeing the story through to the end, while a frustrating slog at times, is very satisfying. It was like the first time I finally finished all three Lord of the Rings novels. I didn’t really care about Tom Bombadil’s hat or how green the grass is in the Shire, but it was pretty damn awesome to see how everything resolved in the end.
  • There’s a lot of replay value here. Beyond the different origin stories, there are a lot of choices to make with a given character both in terms of dialog and specialization. No two playthroughs are guaranteed to be the same. In fact, I’ve thought of going back to an earlier save of my mage and tweaking his build just a bit, to make him more of a magic knight and less of an armored healer. Hell, I could change his build entirely and just nuke everything in sight.
  • The politics and religions of Thedas in general and Ferelden in particular feel three-dimensional. The main NPCs you’ll encounter in your travels also come across as more than cardboard cut-outs, despite their somewhat stiff uncanny valley appearance.

Stuff I Loved

Courtesy BioWare
Oghren: “You as sick of runnin’ hither an’ yon for these lazy sodding rutters as I am?”

  • The speaking characters in your party, while requiring some of BioWare’s trademark micromanagement, are a diverse and well-realized bunch. Shale, as I’ve mentioned, is a stand-out character, and Oghren the dwarf had me rolling pretty much any time he spoke. I mentioned Alistair’s penchant for being whiny and snarky, but for the most part it’s more endearing than annoying. I even found myself warming up to Sten, the extremely stoic Qunari warrior. Another reason I want to play through this game again is to further explore some of the stories behind the party members I didn’t hang out with as often. Your mileage may vary, of course. However, the only reason I imagine someone might not like the character of the Dog is if they just plain hate dogs. Otherwise, I would be very surprised if you played this game and didn’t find yourself wanting a mabari war hound of your own.
  • It would be easy for this game, billed as a dark fantasy and covered in blood, to focus entirely on combat as a means to resolve all its situations. But there’s diplomacy, puzzle-solving and even some politicing involved as well. Allowing the game’s storylines to expand beyond the combat engine makes it feel less like a straight hack and slash affair and more like an honest-to-whomever role playing game. Solid writing that compliments the action instead of existing solely for the purpose of shepherding us from one combat encounter to the next makes the game more interesting, immersive and fun. Dragon Age: Origins definitely delivers on that score.
  • There’s a definite feeling that your actions (or inaction in some cases) have long-reaching ramifications in this world. From party members deserting you over a given choice to whole parties of pilgrims getting wiped out in the epilogue because you skipped something, Dragon Age: Origins reminds you that Thedas is much bigger than the microcosm of you and your party. The world is built in this way to such a degree that the Codex feels even more superfluous. Thedas is a rich, deep and rewarding world to explore, and I found myself wanting to spend more time there, darkspawn and ogres notwithstanding.

Bottom Line: If you have any interest in a high fantasy role-playing game that evokes the likes of Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins is worth the investment of both time and money. Fans of straight-forward hack’n’slashers might be better off buying Torchlight or saving up for the upcoming Diablo III. I plan on playing this plenty in the weeks and months to come, which means that for me, Dragon Age: Origins is a great success.

One At A Time

Courtesy BioWare

I hate Dragon Age: Origins right now.

There’s apparently a memory leak in the PC version of the game that causes load times to last longer and longer the more you play it. If you play for, say, an hour, you might not notice. But in my fervor to finish my first play-through I spent the bulk of my time this past weekend playing it, and the bulk of that time was spent looking at the spinning “loading…” graphic at the bottom of a parchment-colored screen stained with blood. I finally stopped and turned to other games in the middle of the evening yesterday, occupying myself instead with a little BioShock 2 and starting a game of Mass Effect 2.

But if I’m honest, I’m apprehensive. I want to finish Dragon Age for a variety of reasons, including posting a review here and over at the Escapist. The biggest one is something Chuck talked about this morning. Like writing projects, it’s probably best to focus on one game at a time. Of course it doesn’t help that I’m also trying to keep up with folks in Star Trek Online but that is somewhat beside my point.

I didn’t post a continuation of my Farraday fiction project because in comparison to The Project, it isn’t that important. I should probably make time to write some articles to pitch to the Escapist, but I feel that as much as I might get paid for them, it’s still taking writing time away from the aforementioned Big P. And if you look up at the little column-spanning block towards the top of this webspace, the first thing listed there is ‘aspiring novelist.’ I feel that, when I’m not distracting myself with games, carving out a little time to post here so you all don’t lose interest in me, or doing real-life things like taking my wife places or doing laundry or herding cats, I should be focused on that first and foremost.

Granted, things are still in progress with Polymancer Studios, there are a couple other things I’m waiting to hear about and I do adore everybody at the Escapist and working with them. But the fact remains that my dream has been to get a novel out to someone who can put it into print, and wandering past a bookstore to see something with my name on the cover displayed at the front of the store for people to purchase, take home and enjoy.

I’ve also dreamed of travelling to space and driving an Aston Martin, but like writing projects and games, I should take my dreams one at a time.

Oh, Just End Already!

Talking to Caridin

I’ve been playing Dragon Age: Origins when I’m not playing Star Trek Online. As much as I want to return to Mass Effect to prepare Shepard for the impending arrival of the sequel and write a review for Dragon Age, I think I should finish at least one play-through of the fantasy RPG first.

The problem is that Dragon Age is, for me, long.

Maybe it’s because I’m playing a mage and further complicated my life by going for the Arcane Warrior specialization rather than focusing on big high-damage “OH CHRIST MY FLESH IS MELTING OFF YOU BASTARD” spells, which can make some of the boss fights pretty frustrating affairs. I’ve rearranged my party a couple times and I think I’ve gotten it down now, though. It could also be due to the fact that I’m conversing with my party members because I have this weird notion that I should get to know the people willing to lay down their lives for my somewhat bland-expressioned protagonist. And maybe I’m just playing in the wrong order, since I’m over 20 hours in and have only just now picked up the spirit healer NPC, who is awesome in her magic skills but considering that I’m going for something a bit like a D&D CoDzilla, she’s a bit redundant at this point.

I’m already thinking of playing through again at least twice, once as the Dalish elf I created before the game even came out, and once as a human noble because I hear that backstory’s pretty interesting. My darling paramour (in real life, not the one I picked in the game) has played the City Elf & Dwarf Noble backstories but has been sucked in completely by the Mass Effect universe which is part of the reason I’ll be picking it up next week. But the point is I can’t start a new game quite yet because the old game isn’t done and I’m not inexcusably stuck.

Anyway, I need to shovel out my car, but suffice it to say that I hope to have my Dragon Age review up soon. I’m hoping there will be more moments like the one pictured above. In case you don’t know, you meet the person responsible for the creation of golems, and that story, along with all the peripheral stuff around it, is pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

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