Dragon Age Origins

[Bos_hybrid]

Dragon Age Review from German Magazine PCAction Rates 91%

[Morgoth]

I watched a 30 min gameplay video today, and for some reason I completely lost any interest for DA. Combat reminds me a bit too much of WoW, and it takes too long to even take down a simple Orc. I don't think I have the patience for that anymore.

[Purkake]

Apparently the videos contain some sort opinion inverter and it seems to work both ways. Will I be safe if I'm neutral on DA?

Edited October 10, 2009 by Purkake

[Monte Carlo]

The combat, to me, looked like it had plenty of options and properly implemented pause and play. I take the point that the guys were playing like complete tools, but nonetheless it was a very early part of the game. I'm cranking up the difficulty slider anyway.

 

I also liked the shield bash options, dirty fighting, hey even the combat magic looked like fun (friendly fire = ON). I strongly suspect that the patient, more experienced gamer will have a lot of fun solo-ing or PC +1 NPC'ing the game.

 

Criticism seems to be too tactical, not tactical enough, too console-ish... like the three bears, to me it's the last bowl of porridge that feels just about right. Mana doesn't trouble me in the slightest, either, in fact the mages look like even at low-level they are bringing something to the party which is a common criticism of D&D.

 

Lasty, the death-as-a-minor inconvenience style Bio has brought in is rubbish. I hate it in NWN2 and I hate it in DA. It should be a simple option to switch on perma-death until raised in a temple.

 

Cheers

MC

[Morgoth]

Just to run all the way to a temple to raise a dead? Talk about fun interruption.

[Purkake]

Both options are pretty stupid IMO.

[Monte Carlo]

Just to run all the way to a temple to raise a dead? Talk about fun interruption.

 

Sure, and hey, why not do away with hit points and armour and like... every combat mechanic? They just get in the way of my progression to the final cutscene.

 

Just have a quick slot marked WIN.

 

I just think it should be an option.

[Morgoth]

Don't be stupid MC. I just don't want use 90% of all time running back and forth.

[Pidesco]

How about a gameplay mechanic where dead is dead outside of reloading, and party NPC death has definite effects on the relationship between the player and the rest of the party? Heck, it will even help create an empathetic bond between the player and the NPCs, thus giving weight to the narrative and its characters through gameplay. After all, if Bioware are the self-proclaimed champions of storytelling in games, they could starting acting like it, instead holding the development of narrative in games back.

[Morgoth]

I'm curios if the Bioware name alone will save DA's backwardness (sorry, I mean old-skoolness). They have some big plans for the franchise, so I wonder if the mass market doen't accept DA's old formula, Bio will turn DA2 into a Mass Effect clone.

[Aristes]

Hey, it could be like Fallout. No running back to the temple in those games. Probably the most jarring feature of recent games is the lack of death consequences. Hell, it should be hard to bring someone back from death. It shouldn't be a matter of going to the local temple and dropping fifty ducats in the hand of the parish priest.

[Maria Caliban]

... Bioware included the now standard, dying is meaningless mechanic...

 

Being knocked down in combat results in an injury that reduces your stats or abilities until you're treated.

 

Just to run all the way to a temple to raise a dead? Talk about fun interruption.

 

You can't raise someone from the dead in DA. Though a demon could enter their body and you'd get a rotting vampire thingy.

Edited October 10, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Volourn]

Which will be basically meaningless.

[Syraxis]

... Bioware included the now standard, dying is meaningless mechanic...

 

Why oh why did anyone think this was a good idea? Between that and... regenerating health.

[Pidesco]

... Bioware included the now standard, dying is meaningless mechanic...

 

Being knocked down in combat results in an injury that reduces your stats or abilities until you're treated.

 

 

Meaning they just stopped calling "death" what, patently, already wasn't death. It's treating the symptom, but not the disease.

[Maria Caliban]

Yes, you don't die in DA unless you get a full party wipe. As you can't raise dead as in DnD, you'd have to reload every battle when someone fell, which means the developers would have to reduce the overall difficulty.

[alanschu]

I'd love to see some people progress through this game with permadeath

[Aristes]

As a design decision, I don't like how combat handles death, but it's certainly not a deal breaker. I liked the way Fallout worked in that your NPCs who die are just plain gone. On the other hand, it does lead to a lot of reloading, especially when you're first getting used to the game.

[Tigranes]

I think it's the second best thing we can get, really. The BG system of 'two real deaths' (temporary / chunky) was great, but the fact that you had to pick up all the dead guy's loot and equipment afterwards was a chore - on the other hand, if 'dying' in the middle of a battle does have lasting consequences afterwards, that does present consequences, just not as significant. I'd' also be happy to see the 'aggro' zone become significantly larger than, say, NWN2, where the dead guys would pop back to life when you ran away far enough.

 

I've only seen the first 5 mimutes of teh giant bomb video so far, and I'm not sure if I can stand the terminally retarded narrators, but the gameplay does look solid and fun, with good RTwP and a lot of options. Which alone makes me excited. I do think it's stupid if you can't turn those big glowing circles off (I even turned the green ones off in BG); on the other hand, in higher zoom it seems hard to make out the difference between various models due to the 'gritty' art direction, so they might turn out to be necessary a lot of the time.

[Pidesco]

I'd love to see some people progress through this game with permadeath

 

Was the bit played in that video not indicative of DA's overall difficulty?

[Pop]

I think what he means is that the game is that hard, and that it would be amusing to see people trying to get through the game with permadeath. They wouldn't get very far.

[Pidesco]

But the part of the game shown in the video didn't seem particularly hard at all.

[Deraldin]

I'd love to see some people progress through this game with permadeath

 

You're on!

[213374U]

Don't be stupid MC. I just don't want use 90% of all time running back and forth.

90% of the time?

 

Um, learn to play? Or, failing that, learn to spam potions.

 

 

Yes, you don't die in DA unless you get a full party wipe. As you can't raise dead as in DnD, you'd have to reload every battle when someone fell, which means the developers would have to reduce the overall difficulty.

Let the player make that call.

[Hurlshort]

Yes, you don't die in DA unless you get a full party wipe. As you can't raise dead as in DnD, you'd have to reload every battle when someone fell, which means the developers would have to reduce the overall difficulty.

Let the player make that call.

 

You can make that call. Feel free to boot anyone that dies from the party.