Dragon Age - Seven Reasons to get Excited

Can you feel the Dragon Age tsunami developing? Bronte writes in with this blog preview in the form of Se7en Reasons to get Excited. It's a lengthy piece that's part preview, part editorial and obviously from a fan with some meticulous listing of various aspects of the game. I did get a smile from the humorous comic screens used to illustrate the piece. A partial snip:

Two: Storyline and Lore

The folks over at BioWare are master story tellers. These days I am going through my first playthrough of Mass Effect. My character now has access to the first tier of spectre weapons. This has essentially made firefights a joke. Where I would have to try a few reloads and approach the battlefield with revised strategy, I now walk blindly into every combat situation knowing I will decimate and humiliate anything that comes in my path. That being said, the storyline in the game is so exquisitely constructed and so well executed that I can’t help but push forward, waiting for the next bit of lore and plot twist.

Instead of cookie-cutter stories that have shallow two-dimensional characters and plot devices, every game I have played from BioWare offers an unprecedented level of depth, structure and non-linearity in the story. The world feels alive, rich with a complex back story and dynamic, conflicted, flawed characters, each with their own agendas.

More information.

"The folks over at BioWare are master story tellers."
Maybe… too bad their games of late have been all story, not much game.

"every game I have played from BioWare offers an unprecedented level of depth, structure and non-linearity in the story."

Non-linearity? Unprecedented depth and structure? Wha?

As I said, this writer is fan. I expected some disagreement.

Why should I get excited when DLC and MMO-follow ups are planned ?

I really hope Dragon Age will be a good single player role playing experience.
I care for nothing else.

If our expectations are pitched too high by the hype machine we could get easily disappointed.

Have any of you played TomeNET? It's a really nice 'roguelike' multiplayer RPG, old school with no graphics. If Dragon Age:Origins could do an MMO something like that where dungeons are randomly generated along with a wide variety of loot, items, etc then I'd really be all over that. So far, no MMO has come close to that (that I've seen). In the mean time, it looks like the single player game might be fun.

There's probably just one reason for "why not to read such previews?"

Seven: MMO Follow-up

Not confirmed. But I bet my bottom dollar they will make one. It is just too damn good to pass up.

So this game isn't released yet and still people want to turn it into an MMO. Can't people who enjoy single player games just have a few games to ourselves? It's not like they don't already have a thousand other MMOs to choose from. We may get one or two a year that are any good.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Can't people who enjoy single player games just have a few games to ourselves?

A big part of Age of Conan plays very much like a single player game. The big difference is that you have to compete with other players for certain kills which is actually worse than having it a single player game in the first place. So many MMO's, in being very quest based, are just single player games modded to support lots of players. They then become the worst of both worlds…

Originally Posted by Daroou
A big part of Age of Conan plays very much like a single player game. The big difference is that you have to compete with other players for certain kills which is actually worse than having it a single player game in the first place. So many MMO's, in being very quest based, are just single player games modded to support lots of players. They then become the worst of both worlds…

Have to agree with this. I wonder how SW:KotR will turn out since they are toting it as being story driven.

I played AoC for a year and enjoyed it a fair amount. In many ways you can play it like an SRPG (especially the later solo instances) or an MMORPG. But the one drawback, and the reason I cancelled finally, is you had a compromise that was watered down.

For the SRPG there wasn't enough story and heroic feeling. For the MMORPG it was rather quiet (course that is less the game than the population I suppose) and all the instances and loading took away from meeting people and immersion. I was bored in the SRPG mode and "lonely" in the MMORPG mode.

Dungeons and Dragons Online is a mmo that can play like a single player or a party based rpg (like playing with a group online in NWN) and is a really good game. It is one of the few mmorpgs that I have liked and it has much more depth and a better story then most other mmorpgs.

PS. It is free to play also.