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Dragon Age.. should I play it?

T

TechBoyJK

Lifer
I like WOW, and was a big fan of the earlier Final Fantasy games (II, III, IV, VII, VIII). I don't have all the time in the world, but wouldn't mind a nice new fantasy game to spend some time on. Worth it?
 
While it's somewhat linear, it's not an interactive book like the Final Fantasies so your hand won't be held through the entire story.

I guess it depends on what you're looking for. The action in Dragon Age isn't all-out, but more measured like a strategy game. You can pause and queue up skills for your party members, set up tactics for specific situations for the AI, or just let them go at it on default and focus only on your character. The class and skill customization can be as involved as you want, with the option of taking up to 3 sub-classes, or letting the game autolevel you and choose skills and abilities.

The story is standard Bioware fare - here is the bad guy, go to these places in any order and recruit allies.

The expansion, Awakening, is also worth it, though somewhat below the quality of the original campaign.
 
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Have you played Baldur's Gate II? You might enjoy that and it's probably cheaper than Dragon Age while having similar game play (I think). If you like that, then perhaps consider getting Dragon Age.

Do note that by purchasing Dragon Age you are supporting the consolization of PC gaming and the destruction of online multiplayer and custom content. (Dragon Age's immediate predecessor, Neverwinter Nights, allowed for modding, free custom content, and online multplayer, all of which were absent from Dragon Age.)
 
WhipperSnapper said:
(Dragon Age's immediate predecessor, Neverwinter Nights, allowed for modding, free custom content, and online multplayer, all of which were absent from Dragon Age.)
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You do know Bioware released the Dragon Age toolset and there is quite an active modding community, right? Full campaigns have already been released by the community. http://www.dragonagenexus.com/

I'll never understood this mindset. People become far too emotionally invested in what is essentially a leisure activity, a form of entertainment. I don't own a console, but I understand that a majority of a game's profits derive from its console sales. Without consoles, there would not have been a Mass Effect or Dragon Age, because the cost of making them would never have been returned by PC sales alone. Top tier developers (Valve, Bioware) still care about their PC customers, developing the PC version of games separately from the console version. Of course that all takes a pragmatic view, and it's much easier to bleat "da consolez runed ma pc gamez!" than to look at a situation objectively.
 
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I was unaware that Bioware had released a toolset allowing for modding. That's good news and it increases the chances that I'll pick up the game one day. I hope someone makes an online multiplayer mod.

I understand what you're saying about development costs, but we had PC games, including first-rate FPS and RPG, long before the current generation of consoles came along. Perhaps without the consoles we would have fewer PC games but better PC games.

Are you at all open to the possibility that consolization may have negative affected some games? It certainly killed the Unreal Tournament franchise, and with the demise of UT came the death of arena-style FPS.
 
Nah. There's no aliens invading NYC while bogging down your framerate because of sub-par engine coding... it's not your type of game. 😛
 
Describe what you like about each of those games and we will be able to more accurately help you. Dragon Age is pretty much right in between WoW and FF. DA is one of those games that isn't going to hold your hand and tell you what to do all the time (FF), but it's not like WoW where you don't really have any direction after you get started.
 
Too many Barbie Doll mods, too few quest mods. I would say if you can find Dragon Age for a low price then go for it. It would have been nice to actually get the 2 years of DLC we were promised originally by Bio.
 
natsfan99 said:
I found travel in DA a little to confining for me. I like at open world where I can go where I want.
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Pretty much all of Bioware's RPGs are like this. It works alright for a science fiction RPG like KOTOR, but for most medieval fantasy RPGs, I also like to have an open world that you can explore endlessly without loading until you go into a dungeon or something.
 
SunnyD said:
You can go where you want... as long as it's on the map. 🙂
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More like the map is just an interface to load what ever level you want to play next. 😉
For some reason Dragon Age didn't feel like traveling to other parts of the game world for me.
The gameworld just never felt "whole".
It seemed like i just loaded one map/level after the next.
Heck there were even levels inside other levels that loaded. LOL
 
I actually picked it back up after about a year and a half. I put it down because ME2 came out, and I heard there were some issues with DA that needed patching etc, so I decided to wait. Thing is, I just downloaded a bunch of high resolution mods, and now I'm going to wait to finish until I get a new computer in a couple of months. lol. I'm like 25% finished and have put in 60 hours if that tells you anything.
 
TechBoyJK said:
I like WOW, and was a big fan of the earlier Final Fantasy games (II, III, IV, VII, VIII). I don't have all the time in the world, but wouldn't mind a nice new fantasy game to spend some time on. Worth it?
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If you do not have time to invest in the game, you had better be okay with taking a year or so to beat the game. I played the game over a period of 10 months or so and did not complete every side quest. I played for over 100 hours but 10 hours or so was probably just idling on menu while eating etc.

Very good game IMO. One of the best RPGs of our time.

It is linear to some degree in that it is not a sandbox like Oblivion. But compared to FF games it has more choices. However I have not played a FF game since 8 as I felt that 8 had too much cutscene and not enough game play. FF3 was my favorite.
 
Yeah, I thought there was more choice than an FF game. I put about 50 hours into my longest playthrough after numerous failed "do-over" playthroughs and then lost my save. I haven't been able to get as far again, and will probably never finish it. It sucks because I left off at Orzammar and now the game feels dead to me as I start over.
 
WhipperSnapper said:
Have you played Baldur's Gate II? You might enjoy that and it's probably cheaper than Dragon Age while having similar game play (I think). If you like that, then perhaps consider getting Dragon Age.
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You make me sad. Similar game play from Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate II? BG II is superior in all ways except graphics. I have played Dragon Age, beat it even, and enjoyed it. But it has nothing on BG II.
 
MTDEW said:
More like the map is just an interface to load what ever level you want to play next. 😉
For some reason Dragon Age didn't feel like traveling to other parts of the game world for me.
The gameworld just never felt "whole".
It seemed like i just loaded one map/level after the next.
Heck there were even levels inside other levels that loaded. LOL
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I guess i should add that i finished the game and liked it a lot.
It was great, i just wish it was more of an open world, but that is apersonal preference.
 
MTDEW said:
More like the map is just an interface to load what ever level you want to play next. 😉
For some reason Dragon Age didn't feel like traveling to other parts of the game world for me.
The gameworld just never felt "whole".
It seemed like i just loaded one map/level after the next.
Heck there were even levels inside other levels that loaded. LOL
Click to expand...

This is why I stopped playing it. Every time I got to the map screen, I didn't feel free at all. I felt like I had a few different stages to go check out, and half of them had reasons why I shouldn't go there yet - not wanting to advance the story and miss out on a party member, wanting to get the best loot possible, etc. I haven't finished it, so I can't give my full opinion, but I definitely agree that I felt far too confined - which is fine if the rest of the game play makes up for it, but I found combat to be fairly mundane rather than hair-raising. Either I pause constantly to use various strategies (yawn), or I let everyone just go to town and end up getting slaughtered.

If Dragon Age had combat that was anything like Mount & Blade, I'd be all over it.
 
i played DA about half way through (no expansion) and lost interest. but recently i've been playing NWN2 (got it during the steam holiday sale) and i have to say i actually like it a whole lot more. i felt like DA was trying really hard to capture the D&D vibe... but simplified it way too much. i just felt like i was expected to pour too much time into leveling characters only to have superficial choices as far as character advancement.


then again i really like spending time planning out characters' spells and abilities. and nothing will ever top D&D as far as that goes.
 
If you want a single-player RPG on the PC you don't have much choice. Look at the last year in RPG's: Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 and Fallout. The rest were MMO's and/or shitty.
 
WhipperSnapper said:
I was unaware that Bioware had released a toolset allowing for modding. That's good news and it increases the chances that I'll pick up the game one day. I hope someone makes an online multiplayer mod.

I understand what you're saying about development costs, but we had PC games, including first-rate FPS and RPG, long before the current generation of consoles came along. Perhaps without the consoles we would have fewer PC games but better PC games.

Are you at all open to the possibility that consolization may have negative affected some games? It certainly killed the Unreal Tournament franchise, and with the demise of UT came the death of arena-style FPS.
Click to expand...

What's really strange is I hate consoles and I found DA to be a refreshing change from the direction PC gaming is going as I felt it wasn't consolized at all....

And maybe it's just me but I didn't find the story lineal. Sure you didn't have 15 choices, but the choices you make did have an effect on things. I don't play many RPGs but this one was the best for me as far as story line goes.
 
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