Mass Effect = Dragon Age

[LarenzoAOG]

I just want to say that I really like both Mass Effects and both Dragon Ages and that Bioware has done a good job making these games, but I have to wonder is the their cocaine bucket is running dry because they seem to be using a lot of repeating themes, especially in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, I'll present the similarities in list format because I'm lazy.

1- Both ME1 and DA:O are heavily story based, revolving mainly around the protagonist having to defeat a huge threat( Saren and the Archdemon) with special priveliges(spelling?) due to their position (SPECTRE and Grey Warden).

2- Both ME2 and DA2 are more personal stories, with the protagonist being special because of who they are rather than a specific title (Shepard because he is a famous space zombie who saved the Citadel, and Hawke because he is the Champion of Kirkwall).

3- Their is also a huge emphasis on fleshing out the individual members of your team, down the both games having "loyalty mission" that unlock alternate outfits for the specific team member.

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

5- DA2 stole ME's radial speech thing, though thats less of a similarity than Bioware just wanting to make Hawke more personable by giving him a voice.


6- Both sequels reduced the amount of NPC companion customization.

7- Both sequels have an import functions that affect the story and missions based on your actions from the previous games.

8- The Geth and shades have the same faces, if you're not sure please just google them I don't know how to embed pics.

9- The "order a drink" animation in DA2 is copy-pasted from ME2

10- Biotics and mages are kind of simialar in the way they are treated but the mages have it far worse off. Fixed it.

That's all I've got right now, I will update if I see anymore while playing. If you can think of any more than let me know and I'll stick them on the list.

EDIT: All right guys, point 10 doesn't really stand up. I was being a little overzealous with the comparison of mages and Biotics, it's fixed now.

 

[Aiden_the-Joker1]

Yes I agree with your points. I noticed this myself a few days ago. I think some gamers are becoming bored with bioware's repeated elements and "streamlining" hence the dragon age 2 sales.

 

[tlozoot]

I saw a Bioware story graph/chart/thing a while back which shows how Biowares stories follow a similar path. I pretty much agree.

Although I wouldn't really say that Biotics are the Mass Effect equivalent to Mages. There seems to be little hostility or fear towards biotics in the ME universe.

 

[CrashBang]

I saw a Bioware story graph/chart/thing a while back which shows how Biowares stories follow a similar path. I pretty much agree.

Although I wouldn't really say that Biotics are the Mass Effect equivalent to Mages. There seems to be little hostility or fear towards biotics in the ME universe.

Yeah, I agree on all points except this one, though adepts are still looked down on to some degree but not feared like mages are. I'm not really sure it's a bad thing that the games have these similarities, at least not at the moment, but it could become a problem if the pattern continues

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

You got a point there,of course I could not sit through all the talking in origins so I wouldn't be the best source of info.How about the dwarf religion and human religion versus the elephant peoples lives and the biosuit species lives in that both contrast as nearly opposite.(Sorry,I forget the names as I haven't played ME in a while)

 

[The Wykydtron]

I saw a Bioware story graph/chart/thing a while back which shows how Biowares stories follow a similar path. I pretty much agree.

Although I wouldn't really say that Biotics are the Mass Effect equivalent to Mages. There seems to be little hostility or fear towards biotics in the ME universe.

You do know that chart is basically the "every fantasy story ever" chart not just the Bioware story chart right?

[sub]That chart fills me with murder frenzy[/sub]

Anyway:

I think they do repeat somethings, since the basic outline of the story has been roughly the same since KOTOR, maybe even further back than that. Also the same with the in depth characters, it's just Bioware's thing

Although they do seem to be trying to do something new with the Dragonage 2 story. Pity that the copy pasted rooms kinda overshadowed everything else

 

[tlozoot]

http://rampantgames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/bwcliches.png

Here you go. I tried embedding it, but it ended up too small.

 

[tlozoot]

I saw a Bioware story graph/chart/thing a while back which shows how Biowares stories follow a similar path. I pretty much agree.

Although I wouldn't really say that Biotics are the Mass Effect equivalent to Mages. There seems to be little hostility or fear towards biotics in the ME universe.

You do know that chart is basically the "every fantasy story ever" chart not just the Bioware story chart right?

[sub]That chart fills me with murder frenzy[/sub]

Anyway:

I think they do repeat somethings, since the basic outline of the story has been roughly the same since KOTOR, maybe even further back than that. Also the same with the in depth characters, it's just Bioware's thing

Although they do seem to be trying to do something new with the Dragonage 2 story. Pity that the copy pasted rooms kinda overshadowed everything else

Yes, that's true. A lot of the overarching plot of fantasy is usually pretty generic. Most of the differences in the stories comes from sub-plots and details though, which is where Biowares games differ from one another. There's nothing essentially wrong with something being generic though, especially if we remember that 'generic' really just means 'pertaining to its genre'.

 

[rsvp42]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

As for the rest of your points, you are correct in a lot of them, but I think they're just signs of having come from the same studio. Oh and the drink animation is the same because they probably have one library of mocap data and updating optional side animations like that for each game probably isn't high on the priority list.

 

[sir.rutthed]

I think a lot of this just comes down to Bioware's new style for franchises. Some of the later points don't really stand up though, Biotics and Mages really don't have much in common other than they can do a couple of the same things. You could say they're trying to transition what it is to make an epic RPG with their sequels to more old school but hugely successful games like ME and DAO, and I think that would be fair. There's definitely a specific direction they want to take the western RPG, so I think we'll have to stand by and see what they do.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

 

[Saviordd1]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

 

[Nfritzappa]

more like Dragon Age = Mass Effect, considering ME came first.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

Huh? I never said anything about dumbing it down, and I actually used the words "action oriented" so then I guess you weren't talking to me?

 

[Saviordd1]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

Huh? I never said anything about dumbing it down, and I actually used the words "action oriented" so then I guess you weren't talking to me?

Yeah sorry normally when people on here say action oriented they mean dumbed down

 

[LarenzoAOG]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

Huh? I never said anything about dumbing it down, and I actually used the words "action oriented" so then I guess you weren't talking to me?

Yeah sorry normally when people on here say action oriented they mean dumbed down

Ah I see, no biggie.

 

[Saviordd1]

4- Both ME1 and DA:O were more about tactical RPG combat, while ME2 and DA2 both were geared more twoards actiony type combat.

What? Combat in ME1 and ME2 are almost identical. ME2 just added some more unique abilities and changed how points are awarded when leveling.

The combat in ME2 is ALOT more action oriented, to the point where it had alot more in common with a third person shooter rather than an RPG game, but then again these are just my opinions and I may be wrong or overlooked something.

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

Huh? I never said anything about dumbing it down, and I actually used the words "action oriented" so then I guess you weren't talking to me?

Yeah sorry normally when people on here say action oriented they mean dumbed down

Ah I see, no biggie.

I think my biggest complaint with your argument though is that im annoyed by how many times it shows up.

Some people loved the game, some people thought it was an EA caused abortion.

But its just up to you, love it, hate it, whatever works. But I havent gone one day on this site without seeing a "DA2 sucks because ____" or "Mass effect and DA2 are the same" or "Bioware fucked up" It just gets to a point where they all enter one huge singularity that makes me wanna claw my eyes out

 

[EHKOS]

Yeah I felt the same thing. Now I only played about an hour into each game but I felt like I just installed a texture pack.

 

[kuyo]

*Head desk*

Just because they changed the way you level up slightly and took away some useless skills doesn't mean the game was "dumbed down" and made way more action oriented. Practically the only difference is the maps were better designed and they took away weapon specialization (How they hell are you a trained soldier and don't know how to use a shotgun anyway)

They also changed the individual ability cooldowns, the infinite ammo weapons that were only improve in the case of the sniper rifle, Shepard being plot integral by way of his Prothean mind, the Normandy that actually looks like a stealth ship (white with logos all over it? It's the perfect disguise!) and the open worlds. the game was dumbed down, but not in the way that makes it more accessible. Though you're right that ME2's linear corridors looked better than the large open areas of the first game.