jango
11-30-2009, 02:51 AM
Sometimes games are like Christmas when you were a child .. you wait around for weeks hoping that your family are picking up on the subtle hints about that awesome bike you really want, praying that you've done enough to make it happen. The hints start off very gently of course, then by the time December hits they mutate into a full-on onslaught without even the slightest air of subtlty, born from desperation. Sometimes, despite all that expectation, anticipation, and effort you still end up with .. socks. This was my only concern about Dragon Age Origins when it first came to my attention some months ago, and this feeling persisted until I got the chance to play it.
This my friends, this isn't socks ..
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/gallery/1_21_11_09_8_35_11.png
Dragon Age Origins is an RPG from Bioware, and follows a definite trend in gaming from the days of Baldurs Gate and NeverWinter Nights. So, given how massive those games were at the time, and how their legacy continues even today, it's understandable how so many people shared concerns about the hype. The game takes place just before a major battle where the Darkspawn (demonic creatures sent from a world between death and dreams) are about to kick some butt and begin stirring up trouble in the already troubled land of Ferelden. Your role, as one of the last remaining Grey Wardens, is to raise an army against this blight and defeat the arch-demon behind it all. No, this isn't a plot from Dynasty, honest .. although there are shoulderpads .. anyway, stay with me!
The origins of your .. er .. origins
In DAO you can start as one of 3 main races .. humans, dwarves, or elves. From this first choice you're then given other choices which define which of the 6 starting stories you play through leading up to the first imp-ending battle. Let's say you want to play a dwarf .. do you play as a common dwarf trying to carve a living out of the slums of Dust Town, or a noble dwarf trying to earn honour amongst a caste of people infected with in-fighting and threats of regicide? Each of the 6 starting stories are very distinct and immersive, and are referred to throughout the game rather than just being a tiny foot note in your character's past - this if anything gives you a sense of how the game plays out, whereby ALL choices you make have an effect somewhere along the line.
You're also presented with different classes, with the 3 base classes being warrior, rogue, and mage. As you progress through the game you can unlock other class specialisms to further enhance you main character, or your party members who you pick up during your adventures. These specialisms allow you to become a reaver, champion, berserker, ranger, blood mage to name just a few, each with their own skill set. These specialisms can be learnt from books, quests, or shared amongst members of your party, and once unlocked they are available to any other characters you create later on. Now, this might sound very intense, but it's really not .. even if you're not a heavy RPG fan and prefer the slightly more 'relaxed' approach to character development in games like World of Warcraft for example, you won't find the character progression or customisation too much of a headache. How your character progresses from their humble beginnings is up to you, and the game allows you more than enough space to tweak things to how you want to play with familiar tools like talent trees, spell bars, and inventory screens.
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/Images/1.jpeg
Quests .. super-size me baby
Now, most people who have experienced games like Diablo, Baldurs Gate, WoW or similar 'fantasy' games will be aware of the difference between quick quests and long quests. A lot of the time games give you a whole bunch of small quests to do, with perhaps one or maybe two more sizeable ones to get your teeth into, if you're so inclined. Dragon Age follows a similar line, but with one major difference. Yes, there are small quests, lots of them if you want to do them, but there are large quest-lines attached to each major city/area in Ferelden .. so in other words, you're effectively getting 6 times the depth of most other games of this type. This is a big step forward in gaming terms, and one of the things that sees Dragon Age setting a new benchmark for RPG games.
Some quests take the fairly straight forward form of collecting items, while others are a lot more open-ended .. and when I say a lot, I mean a LOT (in caps, yes). These more open-ended quests leads me to another aspect of what makes Dragon Age a remarkable game, choice-driven content. Back in the days of Deus Ex you would choose a good side or a bad side, and generally there would be a fairly straight forward pattern that future dialogues or events would play out, with both paths leading to the same ending. Dragon Age doesn't so much revolutionise that, but it extends the possibilities further. An simple example of this is romance. Regardless of which gender you play you can set about trying to 'get jiggy' with other NPCs by giving them gifts, buttering them up, and later just getting down to 'business'. Now, this might seem fairly gratuitous, but it impacts directly upon how others see you, what conversations are available, and whether that polite beggar chooses to spit on you (nice!). Now, if we extend this example of romance a little to something like playing double-agent in a battle over the dwarven throne on one character, and playing the same quests through by being Mr Goody-goody, with both ending differently then you start to see how massive and complex the game really is. There are a fair number of these pivotal moments in the game, each with their subsequent consequence, each with their rewards. Having been very active in this game and the community I've heard of so many different ways to do things, from the simple to the complex, each resulting in subtle and not so subtle ways for the story to proceed. I'm on my second playthrough for example, and there's so much I know I've not experienced.
In short, this is a huge step forward in choice-driven content .. don't feed the monkeys, just sit back and enjoy them play!
I got skillz .. they're multiplyin'
Dragon Age sports a relatively modest number of skills (pretty similar to Baldur's Gate and NeverWinter Nights) which you can learn to help boost your group, your gear, and get the edge in encounters. For example, these range from trap making, alchemy, and poison making to pick-pocketing, coercion, and so on. Once you get into the game a little the importance of these become more apparent, but at the same time you can share these amongst your party rather than just on your main character. So, let's say you have 7 people at your party camp, now, you can only take 3 with you when you're out adventuring, so you might want to take a healer who can make potions, a rogue who can pick locks and pockets, and someone else to balance up the group. While you're out questing you can switch between the characters in your group anyway and use their abilities, so you don't feel excluded from trying out other classes despite it not being your main character. How you develop your party is up to you, what specialism you train them in is up to you .. shall I say 'up to you' again ? No. There are also other skills like weapon enchantment which are catered for back at your party camp so you can make your weapons bristle with fire, spark with electricity, crackle with cold as well as other enhancements .. and let's face it, everyone loves a weapon that glows *cough*.
And I'm losin' controoo-oool
This brings me to combat. Basically there are two modes of combat .. real time, or paused. In real time combat you can pretty much just get stuck in and kill things, without much thought about your other party member's spells or problems. However, for harder fights it can be good to use pause, which will aloow you to queue up the next spell or ability each party member uses. To help balance this a little Dragon Age has a pretty decent system which it refers to in-game as 'tactic slots'. 'Tactic slots' are effectively macros that tell each party member what to do, and when, and who to focus on, and why. So for example you can set one up so if your health dips below 25% in a fight your healer will heal you, or if a chracter you aren't currently controlling sees their mana drop they can pop a potion. These tactic slots can be configured even further so that you can get characters protecting other characters, or even special actions that take place when they're surrounded by certain enemies. There's a lot of depth to this, and regardless of how you want to handle combat in the game the tactics slot system really enhances your enjoyment of the game.
As you'd expect there's different view-points you can adopt while in combat from the close-up (splinter cell) view, or the overhead view. You can use terrain in fights too for cover, or for elevated attacks from your ranger for example. And, as if that wasn't enough .. as you move through the game and your proficiency with weapons increases the finishing moves (sometimes in slow motion) are something to behold. Combat is easy, fun, and doesn't break you out of the overall experience. Perhaps more importantly it pulls you further in as you learn how differnt spells/abilities work together to an often devastating effect on your unsuspecting enemies. In short, it's sexy, no matter how you cut it.
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/Images/2.jpg
Get down with your bad self
Dragon Age can be summed up in two words .. 'must have'. It's complexity, humour, diversity in how you can play it, as well as the already available DLCs and player-made content makes for an awesome experience. The basic game isn't short by any means, with most average playthrough times being from 50 to 60 hours. There's plenty to rock your rpg socks off about here.
Now, I'd be lying if there weren't some issues with the game - it's a massive game, and because of the complexity there are bound to be some bugs (these are mostly being fixed in the next patch). Having said that though the game doesn't suffer, and a lot of them are very, very minor - i.e. not game-breakers. There's already been some changes to the AI which at times was a little like asking a classroom of school children to explain Einstein's theory of relativity and watching them stand there baffled while you hurl big flaming balls of laughter in their direction. However, Bioware have already stated they intend to tighten this up. There's still occasionally a little of this, but again not enough to spoil the game for you, far from it.
Graphically the game is pretty awesome in more than a few ways, both in-game and cinematically. There are some slight glitches here and there if you look for them, but as with a lot of things in Dragon Age the negative points are vastly outweighed by the positives, and then some. The game has a way of maintaining the intensity of the gameplay, the graphical dynamism, and the evolving story while continually reminding you that your decisions are the driving force behind the events in front of you. Your choices, your way.
There's no way to review this game in a brief post .. it just doesn't do it justice. I can assure you that the game has much more depth than I can express here .. a depth that really needs to be experienced to be believed. It's an exceptional game, a real landmark.
Oh, and if you still believe in Santa Claus, tell him to forget the socks this year, and the bike, and get him to pop Dragon Age under the tree - because, in the words of L'Oreal, 'you're worth it'.
9/10
Worth a look:
- The official site (http://dragonage.bioware.com/)
- One of the Dragon Age Origins trailers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e46Z7iFljk)
- Gamespot's DAO video review (http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/video/6238644/dragon-age-origins-video-review?tag=summary;watch-review)
Hope you enjoyed my first review for Gamers-Forum :)
This my friends, this isn't socks ..
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/gallery/1_21_11_09_8_35_11.png
Dragon Age Origins is an RPG from Bioware, and follows a definite trend in gaming from the days of Baldurs Gate and NeverWinter Nights. So, given how massive those games were at the time, and how their legacy continues even today, it's understandable how so many people shared concerns about the hype. The game takes place just before a major battle where the Darkspawn (demonic creatures sent from a world between death and dreams) are about to kick some butt and begin stirring up trouble in the already troubled land of Ferelden. Your role, as one of the last remaining Grey Wardens, is to raise an army against this blight and defeat the arch-demon behind it all. No, this isn't a plot from Dynasty, honest .. although there are shoulderpads .. anyway, stay with me!
The origins of your .. er .. origins
In DAO you can start as one of 3 main races .. humans, dwarves, or elves. From this first choice you're then given other choices which define which of the 6 starting stories you play through leading up to the first imp-ending battle. Let's say you want to play a dwarf .. do you play as a common dwarf trying to carve a living out of the slums of Dust Town, or a noble dwarf trying to earn honour amongst a caste of people infected with in-fighting and threats of regicide? Each of the 6 starting stories are very distinct and immersive, and are referred to throughout the game rather than just being a tiny foot note in your character's past - this if anything gives you a sense of how the game plays out, whereby ALL choices you make have an effect somewhere along the line.
You're also presented with different classes, with the 3 base classes being warrior, rogue, and mage. As you progress through the game you can unlock other class specialisms to further enhance you main character, or your party members who you pick up during your adventures. These specialisms allow you to become a reaver, champion, berserker, ranger, blood mage to name just a few, each with their own skill set. These specialisms can be learnt from books, quests, or shared amongst members of your party, and once unlocked they are available to any other characters you create later on. Now, this might sound very intense, but it's really not .. even if you're not a heavy RPG fan and prefer the slightly more 'relaxed' approach to character development in games like World of Warcraft for example, you won't find the character progression or customisation too much of a headache. How your character progresses from their humble beginnings is up to you, and the game allows you more than enough space to tweak things to how you want to play with familiar tools like talent trees, spell bars, and inventory screens.
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/Images/1.jpeg
Quests .. super-size me baby
Now, most people who have experienced games like Diablo, Baldurs Gate, WoW or similar 'fantasy' games will be aware of the difference between quick quests and long quests. A lot of the time games give you a whole bunch of small quests to do, with perhaps one or maybe two more sizeable ones to get your teeth into, if you're so inclined. Dragon Age follows a similar line, but with one major difference. Yes, there are small quests, lots of them if you want to do them, but there are large quest-lines attached to each major city/area in Ferelden .. so in other words, you're effectively getting 6 times the depth of most other games of this type. This is a big step forward in gaming terms, and one of the things that sees Dragon Age setting a new benchmark for RPG games.
Some quests take the fairly straight forward form of collecting items, while others are a lot more open-ended .. and when I say a lot, I mean a LOT (in caps, yes). These more open-ended quests leads me to another aspect of what makes Dragon Age a remarkable game, choice-driven content. Back in the days of Deus Ex you would choose a good side or a bad side, and generally there would be a fairly straight forward pattern that future dialogues or events would play out, with both paths leading to the same ending. Dragon Age doesn't so much revolutionise that, but it extends the possibilities further. An simple example of this is romance. Regardless of which gender you play you can set about trying to 'get jiggy' with other NPCs by giving them gifts, buttering them up, and later just getting down to 'business'. Now, this might seem fairly gratuitous, but it impacts directly upon how others see you, what conversations are available, and whether that polite beggar chooses to spit on you (nice!). Now, if we extend this example of romance a little to something like playing double-agent in a battle over the dwarven throne on one character, and playing the same quests through by being Mr Goody-goody, with both ending differently then you start to see how massive and complex the game really is. There are a fair number of these pivotal moments in the game, each with their subsequent consequence, each with their rewards. Having been very active in this game and the community I've heard of so many different ways to do things, from the simple to the complex, each resulting in subtle and not so subtle ways for the story to proceed. I'm on my second playthrough for example, and there's so much I know I've not experienced.
In short, this is a huge step forward in choice-driven content .. don't feed the monkeys, just sit back and enjoy them play!
I got skillz .. they're multiplyin'
Dragon Age sports a relatively modest number of skills (pretty similar to Baldur's Gate and NeverWinter Nights) which you can learn to help boost your group, your gear, and get the edge in encounters. For example, these range from trap making, alchemy, and poison making to pick-pocketing, coercion, and so on. Once you get into the game a little the importance of these become more apparent, but at the same time you can share these amongst your party rather than just on your main character. So, let's say you have 7 people at your party camp, now, you can only take 3 with you when you're out adventuring, so you might want to take a healer who can make potions, a rogue who can pick locks and pockets, and someone else to balance up the group. While you're out questing you can switch between the characters in your group anyway and use their abilities, so you don't feel excluded from trying out other classes despite it not being your main character. How you develop your party is up to you, what specialism you train them in is up to you .. shall I say 'up to you' again ? No. There are also other skills like weapon enchantment which are catered for back at your party camp so you can make your weapons bristle with fire, spark with electricity, crackle with cold as well as other enhancements .. and let's face it, everyone loves a weapon that glows *cough*.
And I'm losin' controoo-oool
This brings me to combat. Basically there are two modes of combat .. real time, or paused. In real time combat you can pretty much just get stuck in and kill things, without much thought about your other party member's spells or problems. However, for harder fights it can be good to use pause, which will aloow you to queue up the next spell or ability each party member uses. To help balance this a little Dragon Age has a pretty decent system which it refers to in-game as 'tactic slots'. 'Tactic slots' are effectively macros that tell each party member what to do, and when, and who to focus on, and why. So for example you can set one up so if your health dips below 25% in a fight your healer will heal you, or if a chracter you aren't currently controlling sees their mana drop they can pop a potion. These tactic slots can be configured even further so that you can get characters protecting other characters, or even special actions that take place when they're surrounded by certain enemies. There's a lot of depth to this, and regardless of how you want to handle combat in the game the tactics slot system really enhances your enjoyment of the game.
As you'd expect there's different view-points you can adopt while in combat from the close-up (splinter cell) view, or the overhead view. You can use terrain in fights too for cover, or for elevated attacks from your ranger for example. And, as if that wasn't enough .. as you move through the game and your proficiency with weapons increases the finishing moves (sometimes in slow motion) are something to behold. Combat is easy, fun, and doesn't break you out of the overall experience. Perhaps more importantly it pulls you further in as you learn how differnt spells/abilities work together to an often devastating effect on your unsuspecting enemies. In short, it's sexy, no matter how you cut it.
http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/Images/2.jpg
Get down with your bad self
Dragon Age can be summed up in two words .. 'must have'. It's complexity, humour, diversity in how you can play it, as well as the already available DLCs and player-made content makes for an awesome experience. The basic game isn't short by any means, with most average playthrough times being from 50 to 60 hours. There's plenty to rock your rpg socks off about here.
Now, I'd be lying if there weren't some issues with the game - it's a massive game, and because of the complexity there are bound to be some bugs (these are mostly being fixed in the next patch). Having said that though the game doesn't suffer, and a lot of them are very, very minor - i.e. not game-breakers. There's already been some changes to the AI which at times was a little like asking a classroom of school children to explain Einstein's theory of relativity and watching them stand there baffled while you hurl big flaming balls of laughter in their direction. However, Bioware have already stated they intend to tighten this up. There's still occasionally a little of this, but again not enough to spoil the game for you, far from it.
Graphically the game is pretty awesome in more than a few ways, both in-game and cinematically. There are some slight glitches here and there if you look for them, but as with a lot of things in Dragon Age the negative points are vastly outweighed by the positives, and then some. The game has a way of maintaining the intensity of the gameplay, the graphical dynamism, and the evolving story while continually reminding you that your decisions are the driving force behind the events in front of you. Your choices, your way.
There's no way to review this game in a brief post .. it just doesn't do it justice. I can assure you that the game has much more depth than I can express here .. a depth that really needs to be experienced to be believed. It's an exceptional game, a real landmark.
Oh, and if you still believe in Santa Claus, tell him to forget the socks this year, and the bike, and get him to pop Dragon Age under the tree - because, in the words of L'Oreal, 'you're worth it'.
9/10
Worth a look:
- The official site (http://dragonage.bioware.com/)
- One of the Dragon Age Origins trailers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e46Z7iFljk)
- Gamespot's DAO video review (http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/video/6238644/dragon-age-origins-video-review?tag=summary;watch-review)
Hope you enjoyed my first review for Gamers-Forum :)