Dragon Age:Origins and a question

I picked up DA:O today and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the game so far with about 5 hrs of game time logged. I'm playing through two characters right now; the first being a kind, honorable, and proud dwarven warrior who has little patience for Dwarven court intrigue and tradition if it gets in the way of doing what's right (to him anyways). The other is a prickish human mage who I fully intend to make a blood magician later in the game.

Here's my rundown of the game so far (in case anyone cares):


GAMEPLAY - 8/10

There are two camera positions you can have, top down or over the shoulder. The top down view is the one that I favor since it tends to make exploration and combat maneuvering easier. Over the shoulder is great for watching the action and for lining up shots for spells and arrows, but tends to be a bitch to walk around in (especially in the dwarven caverns).

The interface is similar to most MMORPGs - party and character portraits at the top left of the screen, hotbar on the bottom for quick access to skills and items, minimap in the top right, menu bars top center. It's quick to get a hang of and most of the keyboard shortcuts are intuitive. J will open your journal, I will open your inventory, and the like.

My only real gripes are the difficulty walking around in tunnels and I would have liked a more detailed quest journal (WoW spoiled me in that it tells you fucking everything you ever need to know about your quests).

Graphics - 10/10

Even with my 3 year old laptop which just barely passes the minimum specs, this game is beautiful. Detailed environments, smooth spell graphics, and wonderful combat animations make the game really stand out. There are a ton of cut scenes and facial animations when you are talking to people that you can grow tired of during longer speeches (and some slight hiccuping in the animation and timing on my older rig), but I find it's no worse than the length of some conversations found in games like Fallout.

Sound - 9/10

The sounds are top notch. Every single NPC is voiced and there are many well scripted interactions. Many are even highly amusing. For example my dwarf was able to convince two "noble hunters" (women who try to seduce noblemen) into a threesome, later when his friend asked if he was ready for battle and feeling refreshed and invigorated I chose the "You can't imagine" option to which he responded "Oh, believe me I did plenty of imagining last night. I can't believe you didn't invite me!"

The ambient sounds really add to the atmosphere as well. You can hear multiple conversations going on if you are walking through a city square (some are relly amusing), or if you're in a warcamp the dogs barking and the sound of the smith repairing armor makes the tension for the coming battle even greater.

The music is well conducted and adds further to the environment and battles.

REPLAY - 10/10

On both of the characters I have going I can see where my choices in the dialogue have altered the storyline as well as how my choice of sex and profession have determined my character's standing in the prologues. I can't wait until I beat the game and restart to see how the story will change.

OVERALL - 9/10

Go get this game now!!!



Question for everyone as well: Anyone here play Warhammer Online? I don't but preordering DA:O gave me a redemption code for an Adventurer's Handbook (10% XP Bonus) and a Skaven Skin Cloak (change appearance to a skaven - formerly only available at game day 2008) which you can have if you like. First come first serve.

 

Neither do I, but why anyone would want to be a rat when they could be fueled by the great WAAAGH! is beyond me. Well, that, and that they didnt go with order and dwarves in the first place. I dont know how the sides are set up, but having dwarves and high elves on the same one makes less sense to me too; Warhammer FB is where I learnt my hatred for the elves.

I did order a copy of DA:O yesterday though, and I'm looking forward to playing it (as I'm running dangerously low on various Telltale episodes).

 

Yeah, I hated all that babbling in Fallout and Arcanum. What were they thinking?!

 

Yeah, that may have come out wrong from my end (it's 4:30 am here and I can't sleep...). I enjoyed the conversations, but looking at the same face chatting you up for 3 or 4 minutes could get boring to some.

 

I have a Warhammer account which I haven't touched since week one of the launch, I hear its a decent game now after all the bugs were fixed etc. To write a review after only 5 hours though tells me you are still under the new game smell thrall. I'll wait a week or two before I look for some unbiased reviews.

 

I'm picking up DA:O at Friday (release date in Europe) and look forward to it.

It's supposed to be bugfree and have the most lore and history since BG II, according to Bioware.

 

For some reason I was thinking this was gonna be a PC-only MMO that I'd be unable to play on my weak laptop. Now I see it is available for the Xbox and PS3. So I'mma hafta go pick it up, just as soon as I get bored with Tekken 6. Then probably forget about it for a few weeks after I pick up Modern Warfare 2.

 

Blatant lies, obviously.

 

I like the talking heads, it was sifting through paragraph after paragraph of text that appeared over somebody's head that sucked. Especially when it ultimately meant nothing.

 

That is, the english reviewer for PC Gamer had come to at least 140 hours of bugfree gameplay.

 

That must be a source of problems in real life.

 

It's more of a side effect of working in retail.

 

Playing it right now. I gotta say, I love it. I had my doubts about the gameplay, but I guess I was proven wrong.

 

Oh GOD DAMN IT!

I want it so bad, but I'm stuck here untill tomorrow!

 

There's only one bug that I've encountered. If you enter all the promo codes during the Dwarf Noble origin story you will loose all the items when you arrive at Ostagar. However if you deselect all the downloaded content, force load your save, reselect the content and force load again you will gain it all back including the +3 stats tome (if you have the Steam Deluxe Version) again which means you'll get to use the tome twice.

 

But they make railroading feel good.

 

Well I'm up to about 30 hrs now and I can still be sure of wanting to go back and try alternate paths for quests, romances, and dialogue.

While I can tell I'm being railroaded, it doesn't actually feel like a railroad so I'm gonna agree with rosie, they make it feel good

 

It's like the industrial revolution all over again?

 

Just ended my first 5 hours of gameplay.

And what is there to say, it's a good game.