Dragon Age - Best RPG Ever? @ GamerZines

Nothing like a big statement to stir the pot. GameZines has a piece that asks Is Dragon Age: Origins the best RPG ever? A modern Baldur's Gate 2 is their response, so that's a "yes" for them:

The reviews are in, and almost everyone universally loves Dragon Age: Origins. As you might have guessed from the title, I agree. I was considering titling this piece "Is Dragon Age: Origins better than Baldur's Gate 2?" but I just decided to shoot for the whole prize.
Firstly, I'll lay my cards out - I am a huge Bioware fan. I've played every Bioware game (except last year's bizarre Sonic RPG that I couldn't take to) through to completion, in some cases, several times. For me, they were the ones who showed how RPGs should be done on console with the revolutionary KOTOR. There have been missteps - some disliked Jade Empire, though I still enjoyed it, and Mass Effect did feel limited and repetitive despite purporting to offer the whole galaxy to explore.
However, I've always loved that as developers, they seem to do what interested them - "KOTOR 2 - pass, we've other things to be doing".
So, it's not a surprise that I consider Baldur's Gate 2 to be the RPG crown holder until today. Possibly.

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More information.

I think this guy was drunk on Bioware kool-aid when he wrote this. Or maybe he's eaten too many Deep Mushrooms.

Is DA a great game? Yes, I don't think there's any doubt about that.

Greatest RPG of all time? No way…..

Agreed, it hasn't really drawn me in. I'm enjoying it but definitely not the greatest.

It's Bioware through and through. There's a lot of fed ex quests and I know that formula, better complete them before the big area quest or the quests won't be completable. Talk talk talk and talk again to your companions, pretend to give two craps about the story Bioware's created for them.

The story's rehashed you're the last of the kind, save the world! The people and organizations are cliche. The character skills and talents are pretty boring, there's no synergy between skill trees. There's not such thing as a clever character build. Pump up your main stat and focus on a single skill line to the end.

The tactics system has some potential but it should be more about fine tuning than making your companions not entirely retarded.

It's a good game, but it's no hot dogs for lunch.

LuckyCarbon said:

The character skills and talents are pretty boring, there's no synergy between skill trees. There's not such thing as a clever character build. Pump up your main stat and focus on a single skill line to the end.

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Are you sure you are playing the same game as the rest of us? There most certainly is synergy between various skills and spells.

I could see how some would regard this to be the greatest RPG.

I don't hold that opinion myself, there are quite a few that I would rank ahead of DA, but you can tell a lot of effort went into this game. It is without a doubt my favorite of Bioware's offerings, better than BG2 which I consider to be good but not great. DA I consider to be largely great though.

Which is really nice actually since I expected less from this game. Bioware really surprised me with DA and I can only hope they'll make more games with similar design decisions in the future.

Chalk this one up to new game experience euphoria. I felt the same way the first week, and then I realized I still liked some older games more. Is it the best RPG in the last 5 years? You might be able to argue that.

Melvil said:

Chalk this one up to new game experience euphoria. I felt the same way the first week, and then I realized I still liked some older games more. Is it the best RPG in the last 5 years? You might be able to argue that.

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To me, it's the best Bioware game since BG2. KotoR 1 held that position before it.
Better than BG2? hmm... in some aspects it's better (origin stories), in some not so good (list of spells). So I'd be hard pressed to say if it's overall better or not than BG2. Better than any other RPG I've played in the last 5 years or so? Yep, absolutely.

Melvil said:

Chalk this one up to new game experience euphoria.

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Bingo!

Melvil said:

Is it the best RPG in the last 5 years? You might be able to argue that.

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Nope. The Witcher.

Are you sure you are playing the same game as the rest of us? There most certainly is synergy between various skills and spells.

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Maybe there's more as a mage but I've dabbled with a rogue and with my main, a warrior, I choose my talent group and go to the end. I'm either a 2h, a dw, or a board'r. There's no incentive at all for me to mix and match between those "trees". I can't make a parry master or a warrior that dual wields 2hdrs or a stun master or a crit master.

Even the specializations don't benefit one style over the other. Possibly the templar drain mana ability is better for dual wielders, but I don't even know if that's true, I haven't tested it. From memory, the other specializations don't even offer anything else that complimentary.

Cone of Cold + anything that causes shatter is the most synergistic abilities I can think of and I wouldn't be shocked if CoC gets nerfed. In the attempt to make all character builds work well, Bioware's reduced the ability for any build to shine.

Now theres a good thought! I was very disappointed to one reviewer who gave the game under 90%. That like never happens unless I think the game is good in special way.

Of course the majority will say DA is the best game evar ... In a rush of all of that hype.

People also said so about Morrowind, about Oblivion ...

There is always a "best of" - until next time ...

Except PS:T, of course ...


On a more serious note, I think that DA has some elements which might very much take it into the top 10 of all RPGs made until today ... But time wil tell, as always ...

Except that PS:T did get plenty of high-scoring reviews it just didn't sell so well.

Uh, the hype again… Sure the game is great but there were better games before. Well, it's somewhat incredible that such a game was even created in the modern cRPG era (especially after the dull Mass Effect), but still…

If one would recognize DA:O as a sum of elements, some of those elements could be considered as "best so far", the character origin prelude stories, taking the initial immersion one step further from where TOEE left, being one of such elements. But then again some aspects are close to "worst ever", for instance the inventory system (though The Witcher seems to "win" this one).

As for the in-game mechanics, they're just too simple. There's not enough of anything. 3 character classes, even with specializations, is hardly enough, especially as most specializations are just a set of 4 additional talents. Sure, some of those talents (like Combat Magic, or Blood Magic) make a "different than usual" stat important for a given class, but that's all. So in terms of RPG even D&D with Greyhawk had 4(5) classes in 1975! But I think Bioware was somewhat prepared for oldschool gamers nagging, when they decided to drop the d20 system in favour of more casual gamers getting lost in character creation possibilities there. A shame IMO.

There is some synergy (I always went grease+fire or sleep+horror) but the possibilities are so limited I wonder how it's going to work with custom made adventures…

I'd like to see more people talk about the synergies. I am waiting to play this until the game is properly patched; however, when I looked at the skills, they seemed a bit drab. Hoping that I am wrong.

the quests (which are imo a (if not THE) great big part of defining an rpgs heart and soul) are kinda a bit too easily won and hand-holdy to be considered all that great. I could sense this right off the bat when I first got the Korcari Wilds quests (last will and testament, and the hidden cache one) I was almost writing down the directions to the descibed locations so I wouldnt have to go into the codex. I was excited at the prospect of a cool treasure hunt, I'd just follow my notes instead of bumbling around the codex looking for the entry.

To my dismay, I really didnt have to follow any clues at all to the locations - all I had to do was explore the map a bit. There was no secret locations or anything of the sort. I looked around after beating down some Darkspawn and realized that I'd just tripped over one of the treasures! A couple minutes later, I had the other one in my posession, just by sorta wandering around killing anything that moved. Ho hum, so much for the Sherlock Holmes thing…

I think you could *argue* it is the best in the last several years ... I don't necessarily agree, but I would cede it as an arguable point.

It is definitely the best Bioware game in a while!

better than Jade Empire and KOTOR imo, but as far as NWN2 goes…. the D&D loyalist in me still considers NWN2 a peerless game when it comes to party-based rpgs in the last few years, I'll have to get further into DA before I can call it an NWN2-Killer

What we get here is the jaded rpg fans where nothing is good enough….

Easily the best in the last 5 years(yes better then the witcher and gothics.) The funny thing is the half of you on here would luad it if it came from some european company like it was the next comming of god(these companies always get a walk when it comes to any faults.). Bioware is an easy target for some of you elitists.

EDIT: this comes across a bit strong, but I feel that alot of you dismiss it because it is a bioware game and vies games(ie the witcher) like they are the greatest thing. This game did alot of things right, many of which alot of you have complained about for years, things that were missing.

Well IMO it's not a true RPG in my mind but a story-driven RPG. There's a very heavy emphasis on dialog and also there isn't much free roaming exploration with random enounters like the early Ultima, Alternate Reality or Questron games. I personally tire of all the dialog in DA:O. I don't want to read an audio-book.

Then go play a shooter!! Story and dialogue are essential to a proper RPG IMHO!!