Y'know, a few people have responded like this, do you want to be the first to give some examples of what you mean? For extra points only use DA:O.Hader said:
Dear Darkspawn, You just don't do 'it' for me anymore.
- Thread starter Zechnophobe
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I never read the codex regarding Darkspawn, and I realize that they aren't "boring" or "generic." And I also know that they have a true "drive."
The whole point of the Darkspawn is that they personify humanity's thirst for power. The Tevinter Mages already had unspeakable powers over the elements and such, yet they wanted more. As a result, they tried to move on God's domain. However, they were too weak-willed to actually be able to take God's powers, and were thus turned into the Darkspawn. This also lead to the corruption of the Fade.
Now they are driven to search out Old Gods to awaken and corrupt, so that they can gain more power.
That seems pretty damn deep to me...
Long description =/= deep.
The whole point of the Darkspawn is that they personify humanity's thirst for power. The Tevinter Mages already had unspeakable powers over the elements and such, yet they wanted more. As a result, they tried to move on God's domain. However, they were too weak-willed to actually be able to take God's powers, and were thus turned into the Darkspawn. This also lead to the corruption of the Fade.
Now they are driven to search out Old Gods to awaken and corrupt, so that they can gain more power.
That seems pretty damn deep to me...
Long description =/= deep.
I agree with this. I'll add on that I felt everything DA:O did make interesting was left out of the actual game. You read about it in the codex or listened to someone talk about it. I read about the demons, the locations, the lore, and that was it. It was if Bioware was saying, "Man, this would be such a cool addition to the game... Well, let's add more generic stuff instead."Axolotl said:
Backstory also =/= drive. While their origins might be somewhat better thought-out, the actual motivations of the darkspawn are pretty basic-hivemind of evil zombie-orc drones that want to take over everything. This doesn't strike me as particularly deep. As mentioned before, many of the characteristics of the darkspwn are not unique and were taken from other sources. plagiarism =/= deep. Hubris and greed are not unique motivations for their creators either, as those are rather stock as far as motivations go. A splinter group of darkspawn does not add much in the way of depth when the majority of the race is incapable of speaking or having individual drives or goals.
They do seem par for the course. Maybe it's is a "throwback" thing, but they're hardly a blight on a shining gem of a setting.mexicola said:
....See what I did there?
I gave you the opportunity to explain, and you have returned to rhetoric. This makes me sad. Perhaps someone else will have the gumption.Hader said:
Perhaps because I don't make it habit to go around yapping spoilers? I can tell you haven't played Awakening so I figured if I told you at least that it builds on the story of the darkspawn, you might be inclined to play it yourself.Zechnophobe said:
If you're that damn sad then you could surely use one of these darkspawn happy pills anyways.
I played most of the way
I played awakenings up until about 80% through. Changed computers, and didn't reinstall.Hader said:
Side note on this topic: But this could totally work. Imagine a Magicka type first person shooter based on Wheel of Time. Sound a bit more feasible now? I don't think that WAS what the wheel of time game was, but I could totally see it.CrimsonAssassin said:
I actually like how things are handled in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It allowed you to delve into their history as much or as little as you want. If you just wanted to experience the gameplay and the story, its okay. If you wanted to learn about the minutiae of the all the species, that was also an option.
The spell variety was indeed very nice, ranging from various shields, to your standard fireballs, puzzle solving spells, etc. Boss fights with other channelers were always challenging, because you had to be ready to switch between offensive spells, shields, and healing spells. It's unfortunate the genre did not catch on.Zechnophobe said:
More on topic, I found it extremely disheartening to see a good rpg maker like Bioware stoop to hackwork. Hopefully they won't do more of the same in their future games, but then again, not a whole lot of people seem to have played DA and read Wheel of Time, so they didn't really get a lot of flack for it to dissuade them from doing something similar in the future.
I felt like the entire game was foreshadowing. There's a big reveal right before the last boss (literally "right before" as in the cinematic then boss battle).Zechnophobe said:
Reveals at the end are pretty standard and if you really want to know it's
that the architect is a mutated, sentient darkspawn who is trying to "awaken" the other darkspawn to stop the blights. He tried to awaken the arch deamon with the theory that with a freed old god then he would free all the darkspawn it commanded at once. It backfired and led to a blight... The blight. The Mother, the ugly broodmother in most of the cinematics, referred to the architect as The Father. She was one of his attempts to free a broodmother who would give birth to free darkspawn, but she was mental and ended up making the free darkspawn do shitty stuff anyway. (like kill the guy who's body gets inhabited by justice) and this essentially shows the human element that some people wanted, the architect does want something more for the darkspawn but unfortunately The Mother is mental and ruins it for everyone.
Seriously, go finish awakening. It's worth it.
