Give me a good reason to finally play Dragon Age : Origins

[SoreWristed]

I just noticed I have had Dragon Age : Origins (ultimate edition) sitting in my steam library for over a year now. I have a record of 27 minutes playing it, despite not remembering buying it, playing it or subsequently removing it from my hard drive. (don't judge me, I have a tendency to blackout during steam sales)

So, any good reasons why I should download this massive 13 gig game again?

I've heard and read a lot of reviews, but they're all seemingly overhyping the game. Most of them are from a couple of weeks after the launch. So I can't make up my mind. So here's some of the specific questions I have about this game.

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?
Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?
How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?
If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?
Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?
What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?
Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?
Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?


Captcha says 'Sound out', so please do...

 

[Zhukov]

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?

No. It's pretty straight forward.
- Select character
- Select ability if you're using one.
- Select target/destination.

That's the core of it. Obviously there's more, but it's very standard RPG stuff. If you've played any party-based fanatasy RPG before then it will feel familiar.

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?

Not for me. Your mileage may vary as they say.

The pause-and-play approach isn't strictly necessary, although harder difficulties will be... well, difficult without it.

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?

Couldn't tell you, I only ever used a M+K. I can tell you that that works fine though.

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?

No, I don't think so. I'm not a fan of Bethesda RPGs, so I may be the wrong person to ask.

I can tell you that, beyond the generic fantasy setting, it's an altogether different game to those. It's not really open world. The stories are essentially linear, with some side quests and random encounters along the way. You just choose what order to do the main missions in, but you still have to do them all to progress.

The game is structured entirely around those main missions. You can't just wander off in a chosen direction and do whatever you want like you can in Skyrim.

Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?

None that come to mind.

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?

You can customize you're character's face.
Choose from three very same-y races (regular human, small human with pointy ears or short, stocky human)
Three classes (warrior, rogue, mage, oh my!),
Choose a voice (affects combat barks, not dialogue, your character is silent in dialogue, same as in Skyrim.)
Standard attribute system (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance etc etc.)
Decent skill trees for all characters, both the one you make and your party members.
Standard RPG equipment management. Mostly just a matter of swapping out the weapon that does 25 damage for the one that does 30 damage etc etc.

The main draw in this department is that depending on your choice of race and class your get one of sic different starting chapters (or origins if you will). They all converge at a common point about an hour or so in. After that the rest of the game is the same for all characters, barring occasional callbacks to their specific origin.

(Having played all of the origin stories, I suggest 'city elf', 'dwarf noble' and 'dwarf commoner'.)

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

Can't say, that depends on your standards for "overcustomization.'

As I recall there's an 'auto-level' option.

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?

Kinda.

You'll need to turn the difficulty down to easy and use the auto-level.

The AI have customizable behaviour parameters. If you leave them as they are then they will serve you well enough on easy mode.

...

Hopefully this is helpful.

 

[DementedSheep]

This isn?t really a game you can compare with Bethesda rpg?s. They're both rpgs but they're completely different types of rpgs.

Have you played any real time with pause party based rpg? It's nothing new. I don't find pausing to set things up breaks the flow but it might seem that way for someone who isn't use to it. I also didn't find the controls unintuitive or hard to master but I've played rpgs like it before. Still it's fairly simple. You select a charter, select an ability and select what to use it on.

I would not recommend trying to play with a controller in this game.

It?s nothing like Skyrim or Oblivion. You follow a linear (well you can technically do some stuff in a different order but there is an intended order) story and make dialogue and story choices for your character. You might get sucked into it by the story/characters but it?s not what I?d call immersive In the way Skyrim or Oblivion can be.

Unless they changed it since I last played you don?t need an EA/bioware account unless you want to purchase and download dlc and it has no additional drm to steam.

Customization in what way? It has decent appearance customization and 3 races to pick from (standard human, elf and dwarf). Your background isn't a blank before the events of the game like with skyrim and oblivion. You pick a background and it changes the start and influences things later on.
You pick one of 3 classes (again the standard mage, warrior, rouge) and it works like most rpgs with you picking skills and putting points in attributes as you level. You eventually pick some specializations (3 per class) which give you more skills to use and changes how the class plays a bit. You can?t cross class. A mage is a mage and a rogue is a rogue. The closest thing to cross classing is taking the arcane warrior spec as a mage. There are some balance issues with the skills which make some useless. However despite this I find I have a greater variety of ways to build a character in DA:O to Skyrim/oblivion where everything just tends to bleed together.

Overcustomize?

If you turn friendly fire off and play on lower difficulty it works well enough and default tactics set for companions aren't too bad. If you find a party member is doing something stupid (like trying to fight at close range with a bow) check what behaviour script they are on
The game is built around you flicking between and managing a party so if you don't want to do that it might be boring. The only thing that I can recall that is a real pain to manage is rouge backstabbing positions if you don't want to control them directly most of the time as the AI doesn't auto flank. There is mod for that or you could just use archer rouges.

If you looking for something like a bethesda RPG this is not for you. If you looking for something more like the old party based rpgs or just want to try something like that out it might be.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I mostly agree with what Zhukov said, although I didn't enjoy the combat very much and actually thought the flow was atrocious. This is not because of the pausing (I love Baldur's Gate, for the record) but because there are simply far too many skills with uninteresting effects, particularly for fighters, that lead to a lot of repetitious micro management every single fight. Maybe I should try replaying it on easy again myself, which would probably let you just control your main character and brute force your way though the combat without much strategy, but on normal you have to command your party rather precisely (in my experience at least).

 

[G00N3R7883]

Dragon Age Origins is my favourite game of all time. Sorry if that sounds like more overhyping but its just how I feel You really should play it.

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)? No. I found it difficult to begin with but that's because my party balance was wrong. I didn't have a good healer. After I found one, I thought the balance was perfect. If you've played any RPG where you control a party of characters, you should find alot of tactics are similar. Even playing stuff like Skyrim is fine. Its an RPG. You know what to do.

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game? Quite the opposite. This is the absolute BEST thing about the combat. Its tactical. You don't have to pause if you don't want to - you are in control of that - but it means you can stay in control of which of your characters should use which abilities at which time, which enemy is the biggest threat, etc.

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc? I've only ever played it with mouse and keyboard. I think a controller could be tricky, but the pause function should stop you from experiencing moments of "I died because the controls suck".

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game? More. DA:O has an absolutely amazing story and interesting characters - both friendly and enemies. I love Elder Scrolls too, but I don't think you'll find many people praising those games for its story and characters.

Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay? I think there is an online account that tracks achievements and screenshots but I don't know if its mandatory. I never had a problem with it though - I replayed DAO around September 2014 and I always logged in immediately.

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)? Classes are more restrictive than Skyrim (you can't mix warrior, mage and rogue skills) but there are lots of abilities to choose from within each class. DAO is a proper RPG.

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members? Don't know what this question means.

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye? There is a very deep tactics menu where you can create rules for your companions to follow. Such as "when health is below 50%, cast heal on self". I always tell my mage to cast petrify on a strong enemy, immediately followed by stonefist which shatters petrified targets for an instant kill. It takes a few minutes to set up but after that the AI is good at following your commands during a battle, if you absolutely only want to control your main character.

 

[Silence]

Disclaimer: I found DA:O to be a good to mediocre game. Most issues were about story and immersion though. I played mage.

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?

Easy to learn, not too hard to master. More difficult parts in the mid of the game.

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?

No, I found it to be a strength of the game. Made it very tactical.

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?

I did not use one and I would not recommend it at all. I think combat needs to be fought in overview-mode, and for that you need strategy-game controls.

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?

It's not worse than Skyrim, but it has a very different approach. No open-world the biggest difference. If you got high immersion out of Skyrim I think yoz can also get it out of DA:O.
It is VERY story-driven.

Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?

No.

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?

Three character classes, 4 underclasses of which you can choose two. Different approach than Skyrim, but not bad. Maybe 7 out of Skyrim.
You can choose origin story of your character, which is one of the best features of the game.

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

Not sure what you mean by that. If I understand it correctly - you can customize much but party members already have the start of a route, best you put more points in the particular skillset (There are categories and it is easy to navigate them).

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?

You should put at least some effort into micromanagement. Alternatively you can program the KI to some extent. I found the KI too dumb and micromanaged most of the game myself. But I think you can win without too much of it.

 

[DoPo]

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?

Not unintuitive. There is some mastering involved, especially if you want to automate your companions, but it's not that bad.

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?

Not much. As in, there isn't much of a momentum to speak of. Unless you pause, you won't be able to order your character and the rest of the people what to do, without that, they will just wail on an enemy until they die. That is, until your characters die - it's not just wailing on the enemy you need to do, some skills are needed.

Unless, again, you choose to automate your companions. I'll expand on that - you can give them rules and conditions to determine their behaviour, like and when how to use their skills, when to drink potions, and so on. The behaviour system is fairly wide-covering and you could, if you tune them correctly, never need to pause, ever. It was a bit too finnicky for me, so I just paused and used manual orders. Both are fine. You could even opt for a mix of the two approaches, like, have your characters drink health potion when they reach certain amount of health but you control their skills or something other along those lines.

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?

No idea.

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim

They aren't similar. Think Neverwinter Nights, or Baldur's Gate or Mass Effect. Basically, it's like any other RPG made by BioWare. It's not open world exploration.

Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?

You don't need one.

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?

There is actually quite a bit but overall, it's uninspiring.

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

What do you mean? If you mean "does every party member have unique abilities", the answer is no. They have the exact same skill tree as what you get for choosing their class. There are a lot of skills, though, at least compared to the skill points you get - and you can't take all, even if you take three party members of the same class, you probably won't cover all the skills (well, you'd be close, though).

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?

If you turn down the difficulty, or if you set your party member's behaviour. You could also just pick a mage and wreck face - throw all the good abilities at enemies and for your party members pretty much set "use good abilities on bad guys, and don't forget to heal yourself". Mages wreck face. Actually, let me pull up something I wrote a long time ago.

Spoiler: Spoilered to conserve space

Too many people have said it but none have managed to state it properly. Here is how the game is played - you have a party of four people and you generally have the following roles - cannon fodder (warrior), beatstick (warrior), dead weight (rogues), God (mages). As for the party itself, you need:

- a dead weight - to open locks/disable traps. Since these can specialise in ranged or melee, maybe ranged is better, because they tend to survive longer in a fight. However, I've had several experiences with a melee dead weight that manages to use some of the more powerful abilities in the beginning and as such turns (very) briefly into a cannon fodder and a beatstick. Don't take more than one, it's a waste of space.
- beatstick - give them a weapon or two and give them the boring job - grind down the HP of the enemies. God should just stand back and do the actual work - buff/debuff and own the fight.
- cannon fodder - they are there to absorb damage, obviously. They can even turn into HP batteries for God later on (Blood Mages). You definitely need one to take the heat. Also try to keep him alive for a bit but he's not essential for the entire fight. Also, don't play a cannon fodder. Beatsticks and God should focus on finishing the battle, even the dead weight can be a more contributing factor there.
- God - one, preferably you, and maybe two to split the responsibility and double the effectiveness. The responsibility of God is to win. Pure and simple.

There are specialisations for God, that (unless those of lesser classes) actually matter - they are the following:
- Shapeshifter - useless. Worse than the dead weight.
- Spirit Healer - not too bad but one of your party members will already have that. It is still possible to pick it if you are God.
- Blood Mage - you have to get it. Period. You (or one of the other Gods) will absolutely troll the battlefield - the first ability, Blood Magic, will make you cast from HP. Not impressive but can give you extra juice to win a fight. The second ability, Blood Sacrifice, takes HP from those party members that don't need it (i.e., not Gods) and gives it to you. The third is Blood Wound. THIS IS WHY YOU PICKED A BLOOD MAGE. Is that clear? No? OK, here, let me rephrase: DOT and immobilisation for everyone in a huge AOE and neither is broken if the targets are attacked afterwards. Only works on enemies with blood, which means most of them. Oh and there is also Blood Control - pick an enemy and make it an ally. Or deal massive damage if it fails (although there was a bug that didn't deal the damage, IIRC).
- Arcane Warrior - if you want to take over the job of beatsticks and cannon fodder and be better at it. It does take some planning to use effectively but an Arcane Warrior Blood Mage (yes, you can have two specialisations) is probably the most powerful being you'll encounter. And you'll be that being if you're playing God.

As for what you play, you can take the role of the dead weight - it's actually fun and if you're doing the job, chances are you'll be able to considerably outdo the other dead weights. To the point where you're useful to the fight. It makes the whole party more effective because you don't need to drag a true dead weight with you.

 

[ObserverStatus]

Here's a good reason: The Murder Knife,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDL-hXZt5Q

 

[OpticalJunction]

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?
nah , it's fine

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?
pausing is optional, you can play it like an action game

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?
can't answer this, i only use keyboard + mouse for this game. it's quite good with kb+mouse,very intuitive (though not as much as dragon age 2)

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?
you can expect a lot more, this game is much deeper story wise than oblivion and skyrim, and it has some really good companion characters. if you expect open world though,you'll be disappointed.


Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?
not that i'm aware of

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?
skyrim's is definitely better

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?
not particularly

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?
definitely

overally it's a fun rpg, you'll like it a lot. definitely worth the massive download.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

The character classes are unbalanced. Unless you start off as a healer, you team will get their asses handed to them on a regular basis. Sure you just make you own healing potions, but mats are few and far between, and putting points in that skill means less points to put in your class skills. All my classes started of as mage (healer) that went for the tanking ghost armour (yeah I forgot the name). I tried starting as a bow user, but when my team died in a few seconds of combat, I soon followed.

The inter-character relationships, well it is a Bioware game. Their idea of a meaningful relationship is buying a few trinkets, a couple of kind words and bam. Sex while still wearing your underwear. After which, you don't really interact with them again.

The game's story; Not-orcs and Not-ogres, are being commanded by a Not-dragon to conquer the world. It is a serviceable story, but not particularly engaging. The Dwarves are mountain dwelling drunks and the elves are uppity snots.

The game's graphics; Have been run through the brown/grey filter that was so popularly pervasive at the time.

***

These are good reasons, not to play it.

 

[RobXSIQ]

Origins is the thing that made people become fanatical about Dragon Age (of course..given its the first) and why everyone complains about other dragon ages given the story was so good from the first game, and subpar moving up.

Definitely worth the playthrough

 

[Sarge034]

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?

The system is intuitive, but it'll take some time to learn synergies and the like and to unlock all of the advanced classes.

EDIT- Wolves are the "toughest" enemy in the game. Shield bash and AOE staggers are your friend here. Don't feel bad if you die to wolves, EVER.

Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?

No, like all Bioware games the combat isn't so much the flow of the game as the story is. Tactical mode does help A LOT, just so you know. Also, as a scummy tip, you can scout what's behind doors by going into tactical and sweeping an AOE spell around to see health bars. But you didn't hear it from me... ... <.<

How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?

Can't tell ya, played on the 360. The controller mapping was really nice and intuitive though. I don't see why it would be different on the pc.

If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?

DA:O is limited open world, so no. The story is a little more centered because of the "linier nature" of the game but you'll spend plenty of time in different places killing, looting, and story-ing it up. If the biggest draw to the elder scrolls is just getting lost in the countryside finding things to do you're gonna have a bad day.

EDIT- But you can go to different places in different orders and it'll change the story a bit, or at least might present more or fewer options to deal with stuff...

Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?

You did need an Origin account when I started, long time ago, but that mighta changed. They use it to keep track of your decisions if I remember correctly and it's the only way to have your decisions jump from the 360 to the xbone.

What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?

Let's see... You can be male or female. There's the normal Bioware level of facial customization. There are six backstories (if I remember correctly), some are race specific and others are class specific. Some races can't be some classes, IE no one but human can be the noble and dwarves can't be mages. And there are class upgrades down the line.

EDIT- So, defiantly a solid Mass Effect / Skyrim.

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

Over customize? I don't think so, but if you wanna win on harder difficulties you will be forced to take certain people and build them a certain way. For example, you only get one dedicated NPC healer in your party and if you're not a healing mage... well, let's just say you want a healer. If you try to make a DPS mage into a hybrid, yes we all did with Morrigan the first time, it doesn't end well.

Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?

You can, but it's not recommended. At least not until you unlock enough tactics slots to runs enough macros for it. It'll also take some time to learn exactly what types of macros you need and what order of importance they should be in. HOWEVER, on higher difficulties you will need to be in control 110% of the time.


Hope this helped, but if you're looking for a more "hands off" DA I would suggest DA2.

 

[SoreWristed]

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

What do you mean? If you mean "does every party member have unique abilities", the answer is no. They have the exact same skill tree as what you get for choosing their class. There are a lot of skills, though, at least compared to the skill points you get - and you can't take all, even if you take three party members of the same class, you probably won't cover all the skills (well, you'd be close, though).

Well, what I meant by that question was basically 'does it have a skill tree clusterfuck-up like Path of Exile for instance'. I wanted to know wether I was going to have to check a million bazillion boxes, just to make sure I was assigning health points to my tank and magic skills to my healer. The question is moot now anyways, since i've already put in about 8 hours and it's just as straightforward as it should be for me. I don't have to worry about it, it's just there and it's great.

If you don't know what a PoE skill tree looks like => http://webcdn.pathofexile.com/public/PassiveSkillTree.0.10.0.jpg

Here's a good reason: The Murder Knife,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDL-hXZt5Q

NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NOOOOOOO.
I was quietly enjoying that killing spree, right up until that guy killed the dog. YOU DO NOT KILL MUFFIN. Muffin is love, Muffin is life. I have muffin for about an hour into the game now and I already know he's never ever EVER leaving my party.

Who needs bellywubs? Who's a good boy? Who wants some leftover bodyparts? There's my boy, now fetch the leg!

ahem...

I was quite insulted by the game though. I had a character, was playing on normal difficulty for about four hours and just could not get into the tactical pausing thing. Tactical pausing sounds like a swat team calling in backup to bring the picknick basket. So I started over and I can't skip this part of the combat without resorting to easy difficulty. And easy is just... Easy.

Now you can blame me for not being intelligent enough or not determined or not open enough to try and get into the combat system. But I simply don't want complicated combat systems convoluting my game experience. I used to deal with expansive, convoluted systems at work more than enough. I just want to be that guy that most adventurers would call a cliche.

The guy that, when he holds something that could be construed as a two handed weapon like a broom or a mop, just shuts down all higher brain functions and runs in screaming bloody bloody rage.

But maybe I have the wrong game for that.

 

[laggyteabag]

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?
I would say that it is pretty easy to pick up. If you have ever played an MMO, it is pretty much that kind of thing.
Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?
I wouldn't really use the words "flow" or "momentum" to describe Dragon Age at all. Whilst you can just run around playing in real time, pausing the game to issue commands to your characters is the core of the game, and I found a lot of enjoyment doing that.
How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?
It works well enough, but I would seriously recommend a mouse and keyboard for this game. It is a lot easier to manage your party that way, I feel.
If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?
The draw of Dragon Age comes from it's story and characters, whereas the draw for TES games comes from the world. I wouldn't say it is similar, but I was a lot more invested in DA:O.
Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?
Nope. You can sign in using an EA account, but it isn't needed.
What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?
There is a lot more variety in terms of loot and ability customisation, but when it comes to actual character creation, I found it to be fairly lacking as most of the characters ended up looking the same as each other anyway.
Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?
If party customisation isn't your thing, you can auto-level them, otherwise, there is a lot of micromanaging that can be done, but it certainly isn't needed to do well in the game.
Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?
You can, but I would say that fighting some of the bosses will be more difficult if you do not, but most of the game will be absolutely fine if you are just cruising along letting your companions control themselves.

 

[Fox12]

Ugh, don't. It's not good, and it doesn't get better. If you really need a reason, then... because you already bought it? Personally I think you should cut your losses, but if you want to get your moneys worth then go ahead. The only reason to play the game is to check off your fantasy cliche's bingo card. Dwarves live in mines? Check. Elves live in woods? Check. Men live everywhere else? Check. The different races must unite to defeat a dark lord after a last alliance of men and elves defeated it before? Free space.

"Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?"

Well, there's this lovely exchange:
"Grey Warden, our homes are under siege and our people our dying! Will you help us?"
"Hell yeah!"
"Good, now by the DLC."
"Fuck no!"

Not even an exaggeration, that's basically how it goes down.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Here's a good reason: The Murder Knife,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDL-hXZt5Q

The heck! This has spoilers for major plot points!

OT: Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favourite games, the story and characters are phenomenal and this is probably one of my favourite interpretations of the standard fantasy setting. I don't have too much to say that others haven't already, well not without spoiling anything.

 

[Zhukov]

Here's a good reason: The Murder Knife,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDL-hXZt5Q

Jesus, I'd forgotten just how ugly that game was to look at.

I've seen 2004 games that looked better.

 

[DoPo]

Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?

What do you mean? If you mean "does every party member have unique abilities", the answer is no. They have the exact same skill tree as what you get for choosing their class. There are a lot of skills, though, at least compared to the skill points you get - and you can't take all, even if you take three party members of the same class, you probably won't cover all the skills (well, you'd be close, though).

Well, what I meant by that question was basically 'does it have a skill tree clusterfuck-up like Path of Exile for instance'. I wanted to know wether I was going to have to check a million bazillion boxes, just to make sure I was assigning health points to my tank and magic skills to my healer. The question is moot now anyways, since i've already put in about 8 hours and it's just as straightforward as it should be for me. I don't have to worry about it, it's just there and it's great.

If you don't know what a PoE skill tree looks like => http://webcdn.pathofexile.com/public/PassiveSkillTree.0.10.0.jpg

Ah, right, in that case - no. The skill tree is fairly normal - it is closer to a Diablo 2 style of a skill tree.

 

[Redryhno]

Because it gives more roleplay value than the sequels with the lack of a conversation wheel that gives you Saint, SnarkLord, and Demon. Instead it gives you upwards of 6 answers for nearly every interaction, allowing you to give your character the voice you want that fits your appearance instead of the voice thrust on you no matter what you look like.

Because you can program your companions to fend for themselves in nearly every situation. In addition it gives you the replay value when you crank up the difficulty by not just making mages OP in every situation.

The story, while the plot is somewhat generic, really spends time letting you learn about the world and villains instead of just two bits of exposition and nothing else.

The Origins starting point of every character lets you test out your character for a while as you establish who they are instead of just being thrown into savior of the world role.

The cons:

-Mage hats have to simultaneously be the worst and funniest looking items in the games that give the best stats.
-Animations are rudimentary and repetitive
-The Fade section, great idea, but a slog to go through


I'm probably missing things, but Origins is well worth it if you like old-school RPGs and darker high fantasy. It gives you choices and they've got consequences ranging from the terrible to the lolrrible.

 

[BarryMcCociner]

I just noticed I have had Dragon Age : Origins (ultimate edition) sitting in my steam library for over a year now. I have a record of 27 minutes playing it, despite not remembering buying it, playing it or subsequently removing it from my hard drive. (don't judge me, I have a tendency to blackout during steam sales)

We've all been victim to Steam sales, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. You lucked out here, Origins is a great game.

So, any good reasons why I should download this massive 13 gig game again?

Your own personal enjoyment!

Really, this game has everything you could want out of a decent RPG. Good character system, combat that's not too 'diceroll-ish' yet still has an element of it, a good selection of difficulties, interesting abilities for all classes, an amazing class specialization system that makes you really feel as if you're beefing up your character to fulfill a useful role in the party.

On the other side of the coin, interesting lore, likable characters, a good monomyth cycle in terms of the main plot and believable writing. Believable writing being something I feel BioWare is kind of unfortunately falling out of touch with.

I've heard and read a lot of reviews, but they're all seemingly overhyping the game. Most of them are from a couple of weeks after the launch. So I can't make up my mind. So here's some of the specific questions I have about this game.

Is the combat system as unintuitive as they say (hard to master)?
Does the constant pausing during combat take away from the flow/momentum of the game?
How well does it work with a 360 controller on my pc?
If I was way, way, waaaayy into oblivion and skyrim, can I expect a similar level of immersion and 'suck' from this game?
Any 'fuck no' features like always-on or needing yet another account from some service or site like Origin or Uplay?
What's the level of character customisation (on a scale of one to skyrim)?
Does it tend to 'overcustomize' on skills and magic and party members?
Can I skip micromanagement and just focus on throwing fireballs and punching dragons in the eye?

Unintuitive and hard to master are two incredibly separate things, something that's hard to master can be incredibly intuitive. I would say that the combat is fairly straightforward, it becomes a breeze if you know how to use hotkeys.

The game is kind of meant to be paused a lot, it's one of those games where you have to pause take a look back and survey the action. That's how the momentum is meant to go.

Don't use a 360 controller. You'll get no advantage from using peasant sticks here. You're meant to be click click clicking away.

You can expect immersion in a different way, rather than trying to 'simulate' a fantasy world, this game attempts to suck you in through a story.

Nah, the EA account thing is totally optional, don't worry.

On a scale of one to Skyrim? Slightly below Morrowind I guess, you've got dwarf (best race, magic users mad) elf and human, male or female, use sliders on your face, that's about it.

As for overcustomizing I'm going to assume you mean will you be overwhelmed by the choices in the ability screen. Nah, it's far from the most complex RPG out there.

You can mostly 'skip' micromanagement, but that's going to have a direct and obvious effect on how combat effective your party is ingame.