DA:O Dragon Age: Origins -- best game ever made?

Dragon Age: Origins

Lord Gumblert

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April 11, 2012
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IS DRAGON AGE ORIGINS THE BEST GAME EVER MADE? I THINK SO


discuss your thoughts and opinions on this masterpieceof gaming

pros: good combat
cons: storys kinda bland
pros: p. good and convincing characters
cons: the game drags on a bit
pros: good replay value 'cause different origins, parties and decisions alter how the game plays
cons: the items are kinda bland, armor looks kinda bland, need more stuff and stats
pros: origins are good my favourites are dwarves
cons: no gnomes or halflings
pros: you cant finish the game by resolving the dramas that began in the origins. my dwarf is always sad during the game because she got thrown out of her underground home, when rightfully with my newfound powers i should be able to kill the bad guys and take over the city

all in all i say 4 thumbs up out of 5 for bioware. one of their finest games of the decade in my opinion.

"gumblert what r your thoughts on the dlc?"

well, the only worthwhile dlc is the one that comes with the game, shale. the other two that are integrated into the main plot are buggy and just give the player free items, not worth the purchase. i havent tried any of the standalone ones.

"what about awakening?"

hi. i've tried playing awakening twice but i cant find the attention span to get very far. one day i will finish it. i have finished dragon age origins 3 times.

I HOPE THIS SHORT REVIEW WAS HELPFUL TO ANYONE STILL ON THE FENCE ABOUT BUYING THIS GAME. IT'S BRILLIANT AND WORTH THE 18.99 (THATS WHAT IT COSTS AT JBHIFI AND GET THIS, IT COMES WITH ALL THE DLC AND AWAKENING ALL ON 1 DISKETTE
 
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this is a follow up post on how i think dragon age could've been better.

heres my new plot design for future dragon ages:

the reptilitrons, lizard-like bronze-age extraterrestrials invade earth by combining mirrors and glass to 'bend time and space'

they'd basically replace the darkspawn which look like the orcs from the lord of the rings movie which i hate.
 
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Just the other day I decided to start a new game of Dragon Age. I spent most of the day loading the sucker up with mods. It's pretty sweet to revisit with all the fresh content on it! It's too bad Bioware doesn't support modding of the Mass Effect games. The whole universe set-up would be great for adding new missions and content.

To address your question, no, it's not the greatest game ever made (in my opinion of course). It's still very good though. In fact, it gave me a sense of satisfaction and wonderment that I hadn't experienced from a game in a long, long time the first time I beat it. For me:

Strengths:

Great characters
Great writing
Memorable choices

Weaknesses:

Moments of grinding
Generic setting

It's an 'A' quality game to me. I highly suggest people revisit this game with some mods!
 
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Huh, I wouldn't even give it an A. To me it's decent at best. Why?

Three classes, few choices. Way inferior to for example Neverwinter Nights 2 which utilize the 3,5 rules of D&D, which are bloody brilliant. Harder to balance of course, but oh them wonderful choices.

Combat was pretty ok, but I would have liked to see more tactical depth instead of spamming certain abilities.

Scaled enemies. I HATE scaling with a passion.

The story was so-so, I thought it started off great but lost interest towards the end.

I want to be able to choose my party, not just who I go into battle with but with who I travel. It increases replay value and simply makes the game more interesting. I don't want followers forced upon me. It works alright in Mass Effect, but that's a halfbreed. DA:O was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate, a full-blown hardcore party RPG.

To me, it failed utterly in that regard. I actually think I would have enjoyed it more if they'd never mentioned anything about Baldurs Gate in their advertising.
 
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One of my top 5 best games. But it was clearly a PC game - on consoles it was completely different experience. Also, the class balance was wrong with mages seeing too much love and other classes way too hard to build in comparison (two handed, archer).

Pity Brent Knowles and Dan Tudge are no longer at BioWare, and Gaider seems quite happy to turn it into some comic for the cosplay teen audience. That makes DA:O the last of its kind. Rest in Peace, Dragon Age - but - maybe in 20 years time someone will do an Enhanced Edition on a new engine with new content.
 
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It's one of my favourite but definitely not a best game ever made (let alone best rpg).

pros: well-written companions/minor NPCs/dialogues, interesting origins story, interesting lore/new universe, fairly good C&C

cons: some areas were absolutely long and tedious (for me, Orzamma and Fade comes in mind), plot was cliched and lame (seriously, darkspawn?), too simplified class, dragged on plot

I actually liked Awakening better than Origins - shorter (without dragging on), out of 6 NPCs I liked 4, and story was more interesting imo. 4/5 from me.
 
I'm actually replaying it right now. Not sure how many times I've played through it, but I'm probably nearing 10 or so.

It is definitely an excellent game, one of the best in recent years. I still don't place it above gems like BG or Gothic though. Still, it's not far off. Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas and Origins (+ Awakening) are probably the only games in the last 5 years or so that I might have to squeeze into my top 10 RPG list.
 
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Good game, but the character builds ended up pretty dull with limited variety (mage exempted). Character building was one of few things that were significantly improved in DA2.
 
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Had some good stuff, but not even remotely close to best game ever. I never even felt compelled enough to finish it.
 
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I think its a bit too grindy. I just started to play it again after two years of pause and now Im allready starting to feel the grind. Just yesterday I killed atleast hundred enemies. If I would sum it up I would propably have killed entire armies in this game. Need to check the kill-counter.

Dragon Age goes like this:

1. Go to next room
2. Kill all enemies
3. Loot all shiney
3. Go back to 1.

Single quest can have dozens if not hundred repeats of this loop. It just gets too old. I think i should go back to playing ultima underworld or ultima 7. Those had interesting beliavable locations and battles were not endless.

Or maybe even betrayal at krondor? Hmm. Maybe yes. I never played the sequels.

If I would have to name good modern rpg I would say return to shadowrun. Its not filled with endless encounter-loops. Just wish it had working save-function.
 
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Neither is Dragon Age: Origins filled with endless encounter loops. I'd say the structure is more like:

1. Enter hub. Talk to people.
2. Find out problem and go to solve it.
3. Que combat encounters.
4. Complete sub-plot and make a major decision about who you're going to side with.

Rinse, repeat. Although I can understand people who hated the long grinding combat of the Deep Roads and The Circle Tower. That wasn't all Origins was composed of however and you could spend as much time talking to people in Ostagar, Ozarmmar or Redcliffe as you could fighting there. For me it was a fair balance save for the Deep Roads and Circle Tower.

While there are three classes, each have several specializations with more added with Awakening allowing for sub classes. I've literally created four different warriors who are each different from one another. My first one was a two handed warrior focusing on damage who eventually leveled up in the templar spec becoming an effective warrior against mages. My second was a sword and shield warrior focusing mainly on being defense. My third was a sword and shield warrior who was a damage dealer and distractor and my forth was an AoE two handed warrior who eventually became a spirit warrior unlocking some rather magical abilities which would deal spirit damage as well as make him immune to most attacks and also enhancing his combat speed with the addition of Blood Thirst. He was based mainly on buffs and activated abilities though.
 
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I hated Deep Roads for constant grinding and also the politics - this can be a compliment, I suppose. I hate politics and dwarves in Dragon Age universe is all about the politics. There's one dialogue I really enjoyed - I think it happens when you side with the prince... one of the town guy says something bad about Lord Harromont (sp?) then says "epic fail". I remember pausing the game, thinking "did I hear that correctly???"
 
No way DAO is best RPG, for combats and companions it could postulate, never as a whole.
 
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No way DAO is best RPG, for combats and companions it could postulate, never as a whole.

Welcome to 2017 Dasale :)
I suggest you check the forum a little bit more often. You missed about 4 years of gaming.
 
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Good necro =) Thread title should draw our zombie killers like moths to flame.

On topic… It was good enough that I finished it, which is a somewhat rare for me. I haven't ever been back though so there's some content I've yet to play.
 
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holy necro :lol:, tho i would say its definitely in top5 rpgs for me
 
Holds up after years, the dialogue is funny but can be serious when it wants to be, the story is a little bit generic...(unite the free people to combat the darkness effectively) but the political thriller aspect of the game makes the story refreshing.

The Characters are cool (although the voice-acting can be better.) and they all have different morals and ideals so your choices actually matter in that way.

The Combat is very much a niche taste for modern rpgs but I like it since its easy to understand and its tactical, its relaxing and its not to hard, although I may inform that playing this game on harder difficulties is not really fun...Since all it does it make the enemies hit harder and become health sponges.

The Quests can be a little bit repetitive if you do multiple playthroughs but you can of course get different outcomes based on your choices, however, some of the quest choices are more-or-less very narrow in terms of morality (Defile Jesus's grave or do not...Kill all the Mages or Save all the mages..)

I must say that they're a lot of details that make the game, almost every companion has a comment about a choice or quest, each one of them have their own personal quest, you can have romances and even have love triangles, its hilarious.
 
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Funny how this thread keeps getting necroed... especially because I don't see anything that makes DA:O so great. It was mediocre game for me, easily forgettable.
 
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