Dragon Age Origins: I want to want to love it

[Deshin]

Hello all, this is my first ever new topic post so please bare with me.

I like to think of myself as a pretty avid gamer, as I trust most of you are, so you might be able to help me with this dilemma or perhaps just empathise with where I'm coming from. I'll admit right now that my favourite genre is RPGs. Japanese, western, tactics, whatever subgenre you want to put them into, I've been around the block. From the biggest budget Final Fantasy titles to the obscure cult classics like Parasite Eve or Jade Cocoon (I'll be the first to argue how Legend of Dragoon was leagues ahead of Final Fantasy 8) they hold some of the deepest and fondest gaming memories for me.

I can't put my finger on it but something about the game just irks me and doesn't just draw me into it. Before buying it every review I read and watched all said the game was beautiful and immersive and was a shining pinnacle of what western RPGs have become. Naturally I had to buy it. So the game arrived and I created my little Rogue Noble and into the beautiful world of Fereldan I stepped. Yet after a few hours (around the time I left Lothering) I was fed up with the game.

I know many will disagree and call me crazy, but the game just feels incomplete and disjointed. Like a beta copy leaked from the studios before they added the finishing touches. I like the open-ended approach to the game and the multiple choice branches, but it just feels too patchwork. Unlike say Morrowind where the world was your oyster in DA:O I could never shake the feeling that every door I opened in the game closed another one elsewhere.

DA:O just seems to hammer away at my obsessive compulsive button constantly, I always find myself reloading when a convo happens and a random party member takes offence at my chivalry/wickedness; or I miss a dialouge option and a missable piece of treasure is locked away forever. These small things gnaw away at me for ages and make me think if I reload to a few minutes before I might be able to make things go better, and this usually makes the game feel like a chore instead of enjoyable. As it stands I think I've restarted the game a good 8 times but have never gotten past more than a couple of massive plot areas post-Lothering.

The one other thing that gets to me, and I know it shouldn't but it does... the characters feel so wooden and generic I just can't relate to them at all. I played DA:O shortly after I finished Mass Effect 2 and went in expecting more of the same. To me Mass Effect 2 defined story-telling in modern games. What the game threw away in RPG mechanics compared to the first, it more than made up for in making me feel immersed in the world.

I'm talking about characterisation and body language. In ME2 when you meet Aria you see her lying back on a sofa with leg's crossed and hardly looking at you, this body language just screams to me "I own this place and I want everyone to know it." Or that one batarian who mid-convo just lights up a cigarette and carries on talking; as a smoker this rang so true to me and made me believe that the NPC I'm speaking to is part of a living environment.

Even Shepard himself is characterised perfectly in he's still customised to you (looks, attitude, choices, etc) but at the same time is a believable hero of the tale because he is relatable and so are the other characters. In DA:O your character just sits there with a stupid look on his face as you hammer out walls of text at NPCs who all stand to attention like soldiers and only turn their heads (even at supposedly uncomfortable angles) to face you.

By now it seems pretty apparent that Dragon Age 2 will be what I'm looking for as it promises to fill up all the gripes I have, but I still want to want to love Dragon Age as it is. Does anyone have any words of wisdom to aid me or has perhaps felt the same but managed to overcome it somehow?

 

[ANImaniac89]

Same here I got the game a few months back played it for 3 hours the first day and haven't touched it since. Part of me not playing come from the fact that 2 days later I got God of War 3 and Fallout 3 GotY

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I felt the same way for the first 7 or 8 hours of the game.

But then once I got out into the world it suddenly sank its teeth into me.

Sure, the presentation sucks... fugly character models, awkward animations, too much disgusting reddish brown everywhere and Morrigan's wierd twig arm, but the story and characters grow on you over time.

By the time I was telling the lovestruck Dalish Elf to tell me his problems or I'd 'kick his head in' I was utterly hooked.

 

[Vhite]

I agree with you, I just couldnt have fun with that game. Looks perfect IN THEoRY but that isnt enough for me. Now Im having MUCH more fun with Sacred 2 which recieved MUCH lower ratings but its pretty MUCH different game but I has all those loveable details and its just fun, Dragon Age surely gets better later but for game that long Im not sure if I can take it and combat really bores me, Its not much different from Baldurs Gate 2 which I love but it just doesnt seem right here. And I also think characters in DA and really fake looking.

 

[skywalkerlion]

Well, I really liked it because of how long it was, it was a really nice time sink. It was a pretty good game at that as well. And all the quests were fun and none of them frustrated me in the least. They don't make enough games like that

 

[Judgement101]

Same. Also, very good first topic.

 

[lostzombies.com]

Hello all, this is my first ever new topic post so please bare with me.

I like to think of myself as a pretty avid gamer, as I trust most of you are, so you might be able to help me with this dilemma or perhaps just empathise with where I'm coming from. I'll admit right now that my favourite genre is RPGs. Japanese, western, tactics, whatever subgenre you want to put them into, I've been around the block. From the biggest budget Final Fantasy titles to the obscure cult classics like Parasite Eve or Jade Cocoon (I'll be the first to argue how Legend of Dragoon was leagues ahead of Final Fantasy 8) they hold some of the deepest and fondest gaming memories for me.

I can't put my finger on it but something about the game just irks me and doesn't just draw me into it. Before buying it every review I read and watched all said the game was beautiful and immersive and was a shining pinnacle of what western RPGs have become. Naturally I had to buy it. So the game arrived and I created my little Rogue Noble and into the beautiful world of Fereldan I stepped. Yet after a few hours (around the time I left Lothering) I was fed up with the game.

that's the problem right there. The game takes a good 5 hours to get going into full swing, ie 2+ hours after you have left Lothering. I've played through twice now and both games lasted around 60 hours.

 

[Heatray]

I bought it and played it up to the same point the OP did before setting it aside. I think it's the kind of game that you either love or just meh, becuase I bought it for computer a few months later and got totally sucked into it.

Hopefully Dragon Age 2 will be more a Mass Effect 2 clone, and I mean that in the best way.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

I feel exactly the same way. I thought it was a brilliant achievement what with all the origins and stuff, and I did play for a fair bit of time (maybe 15 hours) but honestly I couldn't say I was enjoying myself much in that time. Put it down and sold it less than a month after it's purchase. I think it was probably the Tolkien fantasy aspect I couldn't get past, I think I'm just burned up on the elf, dwarf, orc, dickhead humans combo. It's dominated geek culture for decades and I find it hard to believe people still find it interesting.

 

[Deshin]

that's the problem right there. The game takes a good 5 hours to get going into full swing, ie 2+ hours after you have left Lothering. I've played through twice now and both games lasted around 60 hours.

I think my total Dragon Age playtime has added up to the 30 - 40 range. After restarting multiple times (did all the origin stories, those I really liked for some reason)

So far I have...

Spoiler

I've done redcliff twice, recruited Shale half a dozen times, done the Magi Tower (including the mist part) about 3 - 4 times

I'd say I've gotten into the part that's meant to be swinging.

Another think I dislike, the weapon and armor system that is designed on constant saving/loading to glitch shopkeepers/storage chest in order to level up your equipment. Another example of immersion-shattering mechanics.

 

[Gennadios]

I loved the game for the first 3 hours or so, up until I got to the obligatory Bioware "3 main story quest" section where BW gives you the false choice of doing 3 mandatory quests before the endgame... (In the order you choose!)

Problem with the "3 main story quest" section was that every damn simple task took forever. Do you need to talk to a noble? Well, not before you fight through a small town, fight through a castle, fight through a dreamscape, fight through a wooded hamlet, fight through a ruined temple, fight a dragon, and solve puzzles through another stretch ruined temple.

I swear I spent the most time muttering under my breath for the ******* game to get to the ******* point more than any Bioware game in memory. Got so bad that I stopped playing the game for a 3 month period.

I would normally appreciate alot of content, but all of it was back-to-back with no options to change your party at any point, so you'd spend the entire 4-5 hour stretches with the same tired party that may or may not suck for the given task.

Funny thing through, picked it up later, loved the endgame, and then got Awakening and had a blast, so it kind of redeemed itself in the end. Still, not the most satisfying Bioware gaming experience.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I did not have a problem like the OP did, but then I also played the game on PC. A friend with similar tastes in games played the 360 version and lodged a similar complaint so I am forced to wonder if the interface itself is to blame perhaps. The game looks like an action RPG on a console but controls like an MMO and indeed even maintains many of the MMO roles and archetypes.

I do not believe the game is above rebuke even on the PC version. The combat system for example proves quite shallow once you get far enough into it. Hell, if one plays right they can literally breeze through the game on the hardest difficulty without so much as a close call from beginning to end. I also absolutely hated the entire circle tower fade sequence. Were it not for the lure of those silly little +1 to stat bonuses you get I may have called it quits right then and there.

Still, on the whole it was my favorite game of last year even if I have found the DLC to be disappointing at best.

As a brief aside however, I found myself compelled to play the game without reloading. My first play through remains the only honest one. Morrigan left because I refused her ritual. Alistair left because I reasoned Loghain deserved a chance at redemption, especially when it would almost certainly kill him anyhow. I lost the support of the Mages because I didn't remember to pick up the mcguffin required to save them. It wasn't the ideal story. It wasn't even the story I thought my character deserved. But it is the one that I earned through my actions.

Of course this time around I won't be making those mistakes. I figured I'd go through again with all the DLC before the game is retired forever into the hefty tome of old PC games that follows me around the country.

 

[FlikViktor]

Well the game is with it's glitches, but you can't really compare it to a game like Mass Effect 2. One game has a silent main character like many other RPGs, and they other has a fulled voiced main character, so naturally your going to establish more of a connection, especially since Mass Effect is a series built around the same main character.

Dragon Age is a game meant to be played threw more then 1 time. There's a reason that it feels like doors close when you make certain choices, that's because that's how it's supposed to be. The game isn't effected to the standards of like Alpha Protocol where things change drastically. However the game has small tweeks pending your choices. It's kinda dumb to have a RPG that allows choices and still allows you to do everything in the same play threw.

I think the first problem is you listened to reviews and got yourself all hyped up for a great game. And honestly you got one, but you need to really just wipe from your mind the reviews you read and all the hype you've heard.

Play the game just to play it and you will enjoy it, and for the love of it all stop restarting the game. How anyone could sit threw doing the Magi Tower more then twice without pulling out there hair is beyond me. Doing the same missions over and over again doesn't mean you got to the part where the game starts swinging.

 

[Soylent Dave]

I have the same problem. I feel like I should like the game, and I've put several hours into it (played all the origins, and carried one of the characters on a good few hours into the game proper) but I've come to the realisation that it's just not a very good game.

I've tried to put my finger on it, and come up with the following :

1. Naff Writing

Not universally (the Dwarf commoner one was quite good), but the vast majority of the writing I've encountered has been atrocious. Formulaic plots with predictable twists, hackneyed dialogue (often delivered badly), dialogue trees that only pretend to branch.

(okay, so that last part is fairly typical of Bioware, but it seems particularly egregious in DA:O)


2. Crappy Characters

None of the NPCs (or PCs) are remotely interesting or engaging. I don't have the energy to prise the backstory out of them - particularly when their backstories are uniformly clichéd and almost as cheesy as the character design.

And I'm getting sick of having Carth Onasi [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Carth_Onasi] in my party (Alistair. See Also : Kaidan in Mass Effect, and Jacob in Mass Effect 2)


3. Rubbish Combat

I really enjoyed KoTOR, which on the surface of things has the same combat system (i.e. you point your character at the bad guys and click a button now and again to use a power. If you can be bothered). But KoTOR was 7 years ago, and I've come to expect a bit more from my RPG combat.

And I've played Mass Effect since then, too. The wind-him-up-and-watch-him-go nature of Dragon Age combat just isn't any fun for me - I feel like too much of a spectator.

-

But there's still a part of me that keeps thinking "give it another go, it might suddenly get really good", and I have no idea why...

 

[octafish]

First thing you need to do is to stop savescumming your conversations. Moving through the game will help you enjoy it more that reliving each conversation. That is for starters. I too played DA after completing ME2, and I found a lack of voice disturbing, play something stupid fun like Just Cause 2 or something for awhile and come back to it.

 

[Free Thinker]

Sub-par graphics, decent combat system, easy to pick up if you are a RPG regular, but the Story! Dwarf Noble returning to Orzammar! EPIC!!!!

 

[Skoldpadda]

Right up to and including Lothering, it's pretty boring, but it rrrreally picks up after that.

I felt the exact same way, and now I love it.

 

[Gennadios]

And I'm getting sick of having Carth Onasi [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Carth_Onasi] in my party (Alistair. See Also : Kaidan in Mass Effect, and Jacob in Mass Effect 2)

Props on noticing that, Anomen [http://www.gamebanshee.com/baldursgateii/npcs/anomen.php] is indeed becoming a bit of an overused character type. There's only so many grown men with daddy issues in so many parties that one can stand.

On the plus side, we've been getting alot of Viconia [http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Viconia_DeVir] and Ravel Puzzlewell [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Planescape:_Torment#Ravel_Puzzlewell] lately, I wouldn't really mind if either of them were in every single game I pick up from now on.

 

[Gyrefalcon]

You might try a different character. Try a mage, there are more puzzles involved in it. Or a female dwarf. THAT had some hilarious dialogue.

Secondly...I think it's the lack of fast travel. The grindiness of Dragon Age can wear on you. It takes awhile to get drawn in when you feel like all you are doing is hiking for an hour.

Thirdly: Look at your choices not as "I didn't get the optimal choice" but rather interesting splits for you to go back and explore like a "choose your own adventure" book. Or in this case: Replay value. Don't be afraid to give your character a personality. You don't HAVE to make everyone like you if you DON'T WANT TO! Have fun with it!

And finally, once you get a little farther in you get more tactics slots for your compatriots. At that point you can change what powers they use and make them a lot more effective by matching them to your play style. (Oh, and remember to go to camp for free healing which is in the upper right-hand corner looking like some sort of island. You don't waste supplies as much and get more personalized dialogue. And once you get the dwarves there for trading whatever you sell them won't disappear.) Good luck, and kudos to knowing what Jade Cocoon was!

 

[Irridium]

I felt the same way for the first 7 or 8 hours of the game.

But then once I got out into the world it suddenly sank its teeth into me.

Sure, the presentation sucks... fugly character models, awkward animations, too much disgusting reddish brown everywhere and Morrigan's wierd twig arm, but the story and characters grow on you over time.

By the time I was telling the lovestruck Dalish Elf to tell me his problems or I'd 'kick his head in' I was utterly hooked.

I fell in love when it let me use 'sausage' as a password to get into a door. It was an ambush, but I didn't care. Sausage was my password.

OT: OP, try not reloading after every conversation. That does really slow things down and make it tedious. Just let it flow, its supposed to be about decisions and consequences. Yes you'll miss some things, but you'll most likely be able to come back to them, or replay them a different way in another save. Reloading so much just takes a big chunk of the experience from the game.

I'd say more, but others above me have stated everything I wanted to.