|
Dragon age origins best game ever made?
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 |
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. |
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! |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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.
|
Had some good stuff, but not even remotely close to best game ever. I never even felt compelled enough to finish it.
|
It's one of my favorite games, but I'm not going to call it the best game ever made.
|
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. |
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. |
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.
|
Quote:
I suggest you check the forum a little bit more often. You missed about 4 years of gaming. |
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. |
It's true. DA:O is the best Dragon Age game ever made.
|
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. |
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.
|
Quote:
|
There was only ever one Dragon Age game, it was released in November of 2009, and it was pretty good. Still have it on the computer, maybe one day a true worthy sequel will happen.
|
Quote:
Remember, EA owns it. I'm not sure they even make games anymore, it seems all they make these days is software to sell, in order to sell you virtual goods. At best since it's now actually gambling since what you may get is an unknown (which likely has been balanced according to expected/desired possible profit, just like slot machines etc.) Even when Dragon Age came out and was so surprisingly good, I suspected it's because it flew under EA's own radar, the moment it was a success and got their attention look what happened to it, look at poor Dead Space from about the same time, that got off lightly by EA standards of today. |
The only BioWare games I've played are: BG, BGII, KotOR and ME1. The only ones I enjoyed were BG and BGII.
I also tried MotB, but the wonky controls and ugly art turned me off. (Also, I don't want to study and learn high level D&D 3.5.) |
Study and learn? I find D&D 3.5 fun, and like learning it while playing the game, but I don't stress complex rulesets in RPGs. I love to pore over character options, stats, etc., but I also just wing it, learn it a bit as I go and enjoy.
I've never had an RPG where I messed up the character building so bad I could not progress. Just use your RPG Sense skill. Life finds a way, etc.. :) |
I did not play, or at least pushed my self to continue with, BG and BGII as I am more of a visual person and dislike following an agglomeration of small pixels on the screen during combat.
DA:O was a master-piece for me in writing, dialog, choices and consequences, replayability, atmosphere, locations, characters, weapons, magic, gear and customisation, tactical and visceral combat, sound track, voice overs, and marvellous user interface and controls (on PC). What more can I ask for? |
I agree that DAO had many strengths, and it's a shame they didn't iterate upon it to create a real classic of a sequel. With the original, good as it was, I found myself getting pretty bored by about half way through, and I think the content could have been more interesting.
|
Quote:
I've tried to get thru Dragon Age twice and get too bored about half way thru. Would not make my top 100 RPG's. |
One of the best rpgs I've played. No doubt about this. As a whole there is very little to fault: Good gameplay, plenty of intresting quests, great characters, good choises, well writen dialog & lore and a memorable fantasy story. I don't get the complaints about generic setting. To me it was nothing but generic. Everything just made sense and the world felt very belivable. How the magic, demons and fade worked for instance was very orginal. And I also thought that religion and religious institutions seemed very real. Chantry was obviously the catholic church of Thedas.
And there was the politics side which I found really intriguing back then. Like how religious institutions such as Chantry tried to use their influence on rulers and common folk to mold the world as they see fit. And unlike Purpleblob for instance, I digged dwarven politics a lot. One of the most interesting moral choises I have had to make in rpgs was choosing a new king for dwarves. Ok few serious spoilers about the game and dwarven storyline & orgins story. Spoiler – spoilers |
Far from the best game in my experience, but still very good.
|
Quote:
Still, I'd probably play Drakensang or River of Time instead. NWN/NWN as well, with their large amounts of quality modules. Just installed an NWN 2 Planescape module, actually. Looks pretty interesting. :) |
Quote:
One way or the other, I became bored in the midst of it, in a way I didn't with Buldur's Gate and Friends. |
River of Time was also great but I think it was a little more clunky and more…"special" than Dragon Age: Origin, it just wasn't as polished. For example the AI in combat was a mess. Drakensang had an aggro system which often lead to a bad chain reaction.
You just moved one character by a meter and the enemies attacking him moved, the characters attacking that enemies moved and so on. And that in a way, as if you just poked into an ant hive. Also both games had one thing in common: Their DLCs were a horrible mess and a pure money grab without any good content (excluding the 2 Dragon Age DLCs which were available right at release which in itself doesn't speak in favor of the game either though.). But is Dragon Age Origins the best game? Meh…I wouldn't think so. Well, personally I am not a fan of RTwP, but that's just a personal opinion. But the combat often included exploiting the AI or spells with oversights. E.g. casting a spell which didn't require LOS to the enemy. Or you stayed outide of LOS in another room and killed everyone in the door, and then killed the archers which stayed in the other room with AOEs. The character system wasn't really good either. While you had some decisions in the beginning, near the end you just had every single talent for a character. I remember taking 2h skills for a guy with sword&shield, because there wasnt any other option anymore. The item system wasn't that interesting either. Mostly replacing a +2 sword with a +3 sword. And while the story and quests weren't bad, they were too much "as expected" following a clear blueprint. E.g. I remember there were often or always only good or evil/bad decisions. Do you want to let the mother sacrifice herself in a blood ritual for her very important son? If you were reasonable and wanted to guarantee the survival of the son, you might have agreed. But the game considered this as the bad or evil decision. Personally I'd consider Divinity Original Sin 2 as the clearly better RPG now. Before that, well, maybe Pillars, though it would be a close race. Also I prefered Mass Effect 2 over Dragon Age Origin, but as they are very different games, it's rather hard to be objective in that comparison. |
Drakensang and River of Time are much lower budget games, so sure, they are "clunkier" and less-produced than Origins. I'd still likely play them both before revisiting Origins. :)
I really liked Drakensang the first time through, and it was more memorable for me than Origins. I didn't have a problem with the combat in Drakensang, but it wasn't quite as Action-RTWP as I remember Origins being. The character system was also vastly superior for my tastes, and just an overall more interesting ruleset and stat system. It also felt like a 3rd-person Baldur's Gate to me, in a weird way even more so than Origins did. And it has a strong storybook fantasy magic feel. Haven't played River of Time yet, though. Need to get working on that. :) |
I do think DA:O has some of the best writing in the genre, though. I particularly liked all the "Fade" stuff - which is probably why I enjoyed that sequence in the game. Not in terms of gameplay (which was incredibly tedious) - but because the lore regarding all the demons and their relationship with magic was fascinating.
|
I found DA:O decent in the beginning and towards the ending. Middle chunk is so boring, I keep stop playing once I get to either Brecilian Forest or Orzamma.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
That's however exactly what makes DA:O a great game as it has combines different elements for different tastes under it's hood. Quote:
Drakensang games and DA:O share two things in common. Both are epic RPGs and both are musthave/mustplay. I love(d) them equally. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
But I never did finish Drakensang, either. I am very far in the game, basically in the last area. Still have my save there from a year or two ago. Would like to finish it at least and then play River of Time. |
| All times are GMT +2. The time now is 02:51. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
vBulletin Security provided by
DragonByte Security (Pro) -
vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2022 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
User Alert System provided by
Advanced User Tagging (Lite) -
vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2022 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Copyright by RPGWatch