I’m currently playing three games that have at least one thing in common: loot. Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, and Torchlight are completely different experiences, with varying degrees of story and style, but all three require me to spend a large portion of my time scrounging up dropped money and weapons and various other geegaws, comparing them to stuff I’ve already got, and scampering off to vendors to sell what I don’t want or need.
Today I’m focusing on Dragon Age: Origins, because I’ve been playing it the most despite liking it the least of the three. It’s not a game I can really criticize, because it’s clearly a case of a high-quality game that was made for People Other Than Me. It’s an old-school, hardcore RPG, and I am simply not an old-school, hardcore RPG guy. I never got into Neverwinter Nights — in terms of RPGs, Mass Effect and Fallout 3 are more my style.
I knew going in that the combat in Dragon Age would be a complete bore to me, and it is. I don’t like having to micromanage four different characters in a fight, and I don’t like to pause the action because being able to pause the action means it’s not really action. I set it on easy, I only stop to heal, and aside from using my character’s special attacks, I let everyone do their thing and hope it all works out.
I can see how true fans of the genre would enjoy it — if you really want to delve into tactics and planning and manage a handful of characters down to the smallest detail, I imagine you’re in heaven. For me, it boils down to wanting to click a mouse button to swing a sword, not click a mouse button to activate an icon to swing a sword. If I hit someone or block a blow, I want it to be based on my reflexes, not on an invisible dice roll behind the scenes. Simple as that — it’s just not for me, and I knew that before I bought the game. I’m not criticizing it, it’s just not the style of combat I enjoy.
What I bought the game for was the characters and story. The last Bioware game I played, and the only Bioware game I loved, was Mass Effect. I loved Mass Effect so much that I never played it again: my first run-through was so enjoyable that I simply didn’t want to do it again with a different type of character. The overall story was sort of typical sci-fi, save the universe stuff, but the characters, including my own, were so fantastically done that I got swept up in it, so much so that I started the game with the intention of being a rude, souless jerk but completely turned myself around because I liked my party members so much I just couldn’t be mean to them. As someone who normally loves playing a complete bastard in games like Oblivion and Fallout 3, this was a first.
I’m finding the main storyline in Dragon Age quite generic: there’s a dreadful evil invading the world, and you can tell it’s dreadful evil because the enemies are scaly and have fangs and spiky armor and like to roar a lot. (Note to monsters: roaring does not make you fearsome. Standing silently and appearing to be coldly calculating would be far more off-putting. What’s more nerve-wracking: a dragon flying around roaring and spitting fire, or a dragon sitting calmly and silently and simply watching as you approach?)
Basically, you’ve got orcs from Mordor running wild and the “good” races must align to stop them from taking over Middle Earth. So, nothing really new in the main storyline. (Question: if the monsters ever did take over, what the hell would they do then? Stand around roaring? Do they have other marketable skills besides stabbing villagers and operating catapults? Can any of them grow crops or improve roads or manage an inn?)
What’s more interesting are the origins of the character you choose to play. I’ve started twice, the first time as a city elf, who are second-class citizens to the humans and occupy a dumpy little area of the city, living in squalor. The second time, I played a dwarf commoner, who are second-class citizens to the rest of the dwarves. I thought both origins were well-done and interesting, both have themes of class and rank and the desperation of the downtrodden to break free of the cycle of racism and poverty. I’m looking forward to checking out the other origins — while the main story is fairly generic the society it’s grounded in feels richly conceived.
I’m also enjoying some of the decisions you’re faced with that appear to have no bearing on the main story. They’re not even side-quests, really, just little situations you find yourself in from time to time that require a judgment call.
One example: Refugees have flooded a town, and supplies are dwindling. A vendor is charging a lot more than normal for his goods, and this has a woman very upset. She claims the vendor is a profiteer, making money off the desperate citizens to line his pockets. She’d like him driven off and his goods taken from him. The vendor has his own side of the story: these are terribly tough times and goods are hard to come by. If he doesn’t charge more he won’t be able to acquire more goods. He wants the woman driven off so he can sell his stuff. They both have a case. What do you do?
Whatever you choose, it’s nice that you don’t see a morality status bar go up or down. Some of your party members may have some input and let you know their feelings on the matter, but it’s not a black and white, right and wrong, good and evil type of situation. Ambiguity is something most games don’t muck around with, and it’s something gaming needs more of in general.
The only problem is, whichever way things swing, I find I don’t much give a shit. Part of it, I think, is due to my character never actually speaking (you just click the line of text you’d like to express), or changing his expression, or showing anything on his face but the blank stare I agreed upon during the character creation phase. I don’t feel much personal connection to anything happening. I enjoy much of the events outside of combat, and I like many of the other characters — several have made me genuinely laugh — but I don’t feel that involved in the game, or swept up in it, or engaged in any meaningful way. I like listening to most of my party members and many of the NPCs we run into, but I don’t really feel like a participant in the goings-on, more of a spectator.
Another example. In another town, I rescued a man hiding in his basement from some evil scaly roaring monsters. He said his daughter had fled into his father’s lab, which was full of magical traps and defenses. I hustled down to rescue the young girl, and, well, things didn’t really go so well. I liked the guy, and I felt bad for not saving his daughter from the horrible death she experienced. I certainly would have liked to have taken another crack at saving this poor, sweet girl from her agonizing end, but, well, my last save was, like, a few minutes ago, and I didn’t feel like fighting all those roaring monsters again, so screw it. Sorry, dead girl! I feel no personal responsibility because I feel detached from everything that’s happening, even the bits I like.
I don’t know what Bioware could really do, here — this isn’t Mass Effect, where there are only two characters to choose from, the male and female Shepard, who were fully voiced and animated. In Dragon Age, there’s a bunch of characters you can play as, each with a male and female representative. I can’t imagine having the voice work done for all those characters, though I think seeing something from my character, even a bit more animation, would help me feel more connected to him and thus more involved in the game.
At one point, while trying to awaken a golem, I tried something that I expected to work, and it didn’t. My character stared for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. It was the most expressive he’d ever been.
38 Comments
November 10, 2009
Yey, a new post!
November 10, 2009
Just as I’m about to give up hope, you always release a new post.
November 10, 2009
Same here, Lack
November 10, 2009
I’m interested that you thought the city elf origin was well done. It just seemed too pantomime-like to me - was it really necessary for the villains to preface every line they said with “Ha!”?
November 10, 2009
I feel oddly detached from it too - I’m no fan of clear black and white, but every quest takes such great pains to show you how grey it is that they all start to feel the same. When both options have merit, that’s an agonising moral choice if it’s a decision you really care about. If it’s not, it’s just a boring one - it doesn’t matter, they’re both good.
I like the combat, but in small doses. It doesn’t seem to come in small doses. Every leg of every leg of every leg of every sub-side-sub-part of every section of every stage of every quest along the way to your ultimate goal seems to have five to ten fights against five to ten enemies that each take five to ten minutes. Since I’m a rogue, I’ve taken to stealthing past half the game and teleporting the rest of my party to me using a semi-exploit. It feels like they shot so hard for ‘epic’ they went right through it and hit ‘arduous’.
November 10, 2009
Finally, a new post! I found the point about how there’s no
voice acting interesting - it’s the same in Oblivion and Fallout, yet you obviously have a great fondness for these 2 games (and rightly so!) I suppose what I’m asking is, why do you think oblivion and fallout are more engaging than dragon age?
November 10, 2009
Wow, a post.
What’s up with the gore in this game? All screenshots I see from it are characters spotted with blood. Looks a little disturbing.
Pentadact, what’s a semi exploit?
November 10, 2009
Nick — it may be the simple fact that I play a lot of Fallout & Oblivion in first-person mode, which lends itself a bit more to feeling like you’re in the game, and not just watching the game. Fallout & Oblivion’s open-world structure might have something to do with it, too — there’s not a whole lot of freedom to explore in Dragon Age, just some icons on a map you can click if you want to visit them.
And except for when you’re sleeping in Fallout/Oblivion, you never really take a break from your character or get out of his head, whereas in Dragon Age you see a lot of cutscenes of other events. But I really don’t know — I’m just not connecting with either of my characters for some reason.
November 10, 2009
It might also be the world itself — it’s very MMO-ish. I can’t leap on a table and kick shit around, I don’t have my own house to fill with loot, I can’t even drop items as far as I know — the environments are nice but save a barrel or chest to open, they’re static — I can’t muck with stuff the way you can in Oblivion or Fallout. I can’t even swing my sword around without an enemy present. I guess I just don’t feel a lot of freedom, and maybe that’s why I’m not feeling connected.
November 10, 2009
I thought the internet was gonna blow up…. irregardless.
I hate black aor white, i like differen shades of grey.
November 10, 2009
or* different*
November 10, 2009
The thing is,, with me, it takes me a while to get into RPGs. For Fallout, I played for about 3 hours on The Survival Guide and Those! and didn’t really get into it. Nearly 3 months later, I went back and have since racked up over 70 hours. My experience of Oblivion is similar. I bought it a week ago, and the KVatch Rebuilt mod has restrained the main quest (I didn’t get norman out of the church, which is now blocked because of the mod.) this means I have to do all the quests for Kvath Rebuilt, or uninstall the mod. It’s not overly captivating just doing side quests all the time, so I’m almost finding it boring…
Also, when I finish the main quest, would you suggest starting again as a civillian? Is it actually quite interesting to play?
November 10, 2009
Playing a civilian in Oblivion is interesting for a while. Then it becomes more boring than anything you can imagine.
November 10, 2009
Haha, I’ll bear that in mind.
November 10, 2009
The blood dots come off as really out of place, if only because nobody comments on them.
Combat is really MMO-ish and the story is kind of familiar. That said, the spins on the dwarfs and elves are interesting, and the game is incredibly addictive.
November 10, 2009
I read some of the Origins reviews, and they all made it sound great, but something just didn’t seem right. Also, I can only play so much of a given genre of games before I need to take a long break to recharge. I played Fallout 3 over the summer and loved every second of it until the crap ending, after which point I didn’t really play it much. I think I’ll wait for Mass Effect 2’s release in January to satiate my RPG needs.
In the meantime I’m playing Torchlight (my first action rpg since Titan Quest) and having a blast. I just wish I could pet my dog, or give him a treat or something. Sure you can give him fish, but I think in the end all he really wants is a rawhide.
November 10, 2009
I think I might get this game later, when it’s cheaper. I’m not sure if I’ll really like it an superamazing amount, but who knows.
November 10, 2009
Something I think a lot of games don’t acknowledge when voices are a restraint is doing everything via text. It can work even in a large-scale, epic game like this if done right. Phoenix Wright has epic, emotional moments done entirely in text. Granted, it takes some effects, but it works.
November 10, 2009
“Playing a civilian in Oblivion is interesting for a while. Then it becomes more boring than anything you can imagine.”
A good sign that Nondrick is gonna stay in a permanent state of indefinite suspension?
November 10, 2009
:’( Poor Nondrick.
November 10, 2009
Playing Origins at the moment enjoying it quite a bit (I’m into tactics and all that jazz) but have to agree with the feeling of not really being a part of it and the lack of expression/emotion is a bit of a bummer.
In saying that though, as a human noble my guy did pull a face once. Some guy gets stabbed in front of you and it’s almost ironically over the top, a sad face plus one of shock.
November 10, 2009
Hey Chris, glad to see you back. Didja get your new computer then?
You touch on an interesting point comparing DAO to NWN. While I enjoyed NWN, I got tired of the “die rolls” to the point where I’d go play an RTS (usually Starcraft) just to take a break from it. It was like playing Risk (compared to NWN, I mean) in that no matter how well you prepared or how clever you were, a spat of “bad rolls” -which you could do NOTHING about -would result in you losing a critical combat that could get you killed. Thus forcing you to go back to a save and do it all over or give up a boatload of XP in the form of a level (or two) to get right back on track. Really, really frustrating.
I can see how it works well for some (maybe even a lot of folks) but would it be to much for a team to develop an action/RPG where you could CHOOSE the combat system to play through the game?
On a related note, how are you enjoying Borderlands? I’m contemplating getting it. A vote of “It’s okay” or better from you will probably tip the balance for me.
November 10, 2009
CON-Troll:
I wouldn’t get Borderlands unless you have a good group of people to play Co-op with. I imagine single-player gets fairly boring, but I planned out and bought Borderlands in tandem with a few other people for the Co-op, and it chewed up all of our expectations and ate them. It is an absolutely excellent game in Co-op, but I really don’t know anything about the single-player experience.
November 10, 2009
@ S-Guy / CON-Troll:
Borderlands is absolutely, completely, 100% worse if you play by yourself, you need AT LEAST one friend to play with, otherwise it’s lonely, boring, overwhelming, and you have no one else to borrow money from, yet never pay it back.
November 10, 2009
I’m curious to think of what your opinions on KOTOR were, since the dialogue system is basically copy-pasted from that game, as well as some of the combat mechanics. For me, I never found the lack of VO to inhibit immersion.
That said, I completely agree with your comments on the character’s complete lack of emotion. I can’t recall ever seeing my character every display anything other than the slight frown he always wore. I wish they’d put at least some effort into your facial animations…
November 10, 2009
Yeah, I’ve been playing Borderlands. It’s pretty damn good, although I do have a few complaints.
Haven’t gotten far, but so far, the plot seems a tiny bit ho-hum. And it lacks the voicework that makes Fallout 3 so bloody fantastic. And I really wish they just made it open instead of the travel system. Don’t really care for that. Really makes the world seem so much smaller. Look at Fable 2. God, I hated Fable 2. How can people even compare that fable crap with bethesda?
Oh yeah, there’s not much music. That swelling music playing as the dawn breaks over a lake in Oblivion…or seeing the washington momument in Fallout…those moments are just amazing. And you need good music to have them.
And the vehicles arent exactly great.
But, hey, on the bright side, it’s really cool. If nothing else, shooting stuff and leveling up is just plain fun, so I got my moneys worth.
November 11, 2009
I’ve seen a lot of the hype for Dragon Age, and I was considering buying it. Though it seems by the way you describe it, it’s not really a game for me.
Also, YAY! New blog post! It took me a while to notice, because my RSS feed didn’t update.
November 11, 2009
Hey guys, i just thought of something awesome!
What if….Chris updated REGULARLY! It sounds insane, I know, but I think it has a chance of never working.
November 11, 2009
@Putzy patience is a virtue, but waiting fr a year + does knda take he piss…
November 11, 2009
the*
November 11, 2009
I liked NWN, because it was basically DnD.
Except in DnD the computer is actually a person, and you have a lot more freedom…
November 11, 2009
I like how the character wielding the sword is sprayed with blood after each battle, while the enemy receiveing the unfriendly sharp end of the weapon somehow manages to keep his attire all nice and clean.
That being said, I’m completely enthralled by this game. Then again, I’ve always been a fan of D&D-titles like Neverwinter Nights, Baldurs Gate, Planescape: Torment and the Fallout series (both pre- and post-turnbased style).
November 11, 2009
I just decided to cheat in Dragon Age and activate the “budda” cheat if you will, where you take damage normally (and your party members can die) but you can only be reduced to 1hp minimum. Reasons for:
1) I don’t want to have a commitee meeting each time I charge to battle. “Hey Doug, I think our best chance this battle is if you’re buffing on a 75% variable whilst Lisa formulates a +5dps stat advantage. I need you both to fill out paperwork on the economical advantages this brings and have it in my treasure chest by tuesday ok?”
2) For a casual player only interested in the story progression the rigmaroll of “Fight through several or more mobs of a dozen men each time”.
Have to say, I’m enjoying the Dwarf Commoner especially as I returned to Ozrammar as soon as possible, where my previous ties to the place actually lent some attachment to proceedings. I just bloody wish my avatar wouldn’t just stand there impassively staring all the time. Whenever I hear him speak the generic voice I gave him at the start of the game during combat it startles me.
And to this: “Playing a civilian in Oblivion is interesting for a while. Then it becomes more boring than anything you can imagine.” Couldn’t agree more. I tried doing so by writing a coward in Fallout 3. Fun for a while subverting things by acting a civilian, but things soon become stale or unable to progress if you stay roleplaying. And it was an almighty bugger to end, which I didn’t have the heart to do and think you’re suffering from too. Nondrick’s gone on so long, it’d feel dirty to finish without a natural narritive end (even if that end turns out to be cut down whilst innocently picking herbs). You’ve explored and done your best to humorously narrate the fallacies of the gaming world and there’s nowhere to go now really, other than death or ending with Nondrick accidentally starting the main quest and leave on that point. Or meta. Ok there’s other options available, but I don’t think you have the energy to be arsed with any of them.
November 12, 2009
One thing I’ve noticed nobody has mentioned is Baulders Gate. I loved those games but for some reason never got into NWN the way I got into those games (the stupid meaningless quests to get you up to level 5 probably is what did it for me). I actually love the battles where you walk into a room and if it’s 10 crappy enemies you let your AI party have at it and see what happens. But then you wander in to the next room and fuck it’s a liche or a beholder or something and you quickly pound spacebar to pause and get out the big spells unpause for your guys to cast and quickly repause before the beholder even has a chance to go “bwuah?” and load up the next few spells you want to get out and then you die and go DAMN and have to run back in a few more times before you figure out some ultimate strategy such as dumping fireballs into the room while invisible and then sending a a uber-buffed mage in there to finish him off. Love that stuff.
So, yeah, totally looking forward to getting this game and your review has only made me want it even more. Oh, and I also found myself not caring about the NWN characters I loved the Baulders Gate 2 guys and even though you main character again didn’t speak and neither did most of the NPC’s I found myself saddened when I had my main character sleep with a drow to get or her good side and escape their evil city only to find out that the chick in my party (that both I and my main character liked) had found out and was pissed at me.
November 12, 2009
Wow, I just realized my grammar in that comment was terrible. Whoops, my bad if you can’t read it :P
November 13, 2009
TehMightyPirate: also, I mentioned BG II.
November 16, 2009
@Chris: Pretty pissed, actually
November 17, 2009
I agree with chris for the most part, the character you play lacks a personality, admittedly, I bought it for the same reasons as chris, hey, I liked Mass effect! This should be alright story wise!
It’s a role playing game, but I feel like I’m just there to guide the rest of the awesome characters around with my soulless ugly guy, the ambiguity of the choice system worked pretty well. I ended up just choosing certain options I thought would please certain characters the most.
Biggest gripe is still the lack of interactivity, it’s all very static, it’s like a movie where I have to hold down w and press a mouse button occasionally. The thing I loved most about oblivion is the world was really engaging, anything could happen, you could wander around and you’d have no idea what you were going to find, this game, you’re just going to find enemies. Lots of them.
I didn’t have much trouble with the combat, I quickly got morrigan to get the first heal spell and set her tactics to heal ally as soon as their health goes below 75% and that’s it, I rarely died after that. I played an archer, and for the life of me I could not figure out where to find the archer specialization training (i had no internet for google). I found the duelist person in the main city, no dice on the rest. So I finished the game without a specialization. I really liked Alistair, and I was a fan of Sten until he decided to perform a mutiny, I never invited him back to my adventures after that.
I did like the urn quest however, the puzzles were quite engaging and the reward of getting naked and running through fire was nice. Actually now that I think about it, there’s a few parts of the game I found quite enjoyable, another one is the time you spend in the fade at the mage tower, you get to turn into a golem, etc, quite fun. Also agree on the start of each race/class, they’re really well done. After that it gets pretty boring. I dreaded doing the dwarves main quest, as soon as I got there and knew I was going to have to sort out the whole election thing I foresaw a long annoying boring chain, and it’s exactly what I got. I managed to finish the game, the last boss was so easy, I let the npcs run around doing whatever while I just shot at it until it died. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t free roam after the game ended, it’d only let me travel to places where dlc was available for purchase.
The hardest part I can remember was the brood mother, I think she’s called, part of the dwarven chain. I had to constantly pause and move characters. Very tedious.
The combat was pretty boring, most of the time I just ran around looting chests while the AI characters took care of everything, it became a chore too quickly to constantly fight every npc. Also a lack of interesting skills, I think making big numbers is fun, I got one skill that’d make my arrow cause 300+ damage, but it had such a long cooldown and I could only use it twice before I was out of stamina, and then I couldn’t use anything else, use it, stare at screen, fight is over before I can use it again.
Either way, it was a good waste of time while I had no net.
By the end of the game I had 96% of the world explored, and I did about 5 side quests the entire game.
tldr I could think of worse ways to spend a weekend.
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