The Fade, and the hate thereof

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AD-Stu

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Oct 13, 2011
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Personally I found it a little tedious (especially after the first time), but nowhere near as bad as the Deep Roads. That section bored me to tears the first time I played through it, it just went on for damned ever...
 

Garland

Sincere Ruffian
Aug 24, 2012
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I didn't mind it on my first and subsequent (probably around five) playthroughs. The only issue I had was the lethality of the mages inside, but it makes perfect sense that mages would be more powerful within the Fade.
 

Souplex

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Jul 29, 2008
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Fade hate in Dragon Age is like Mako hate in Space Wizards: A very small, very vocal minority.
 

Zefyrix

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Feb 11, 2013
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Yeah, it's been mentioned a lot of times. It was long and tedious. And I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat in the game in first place, and playing with only one character made it even worse.
 

Eliwood10

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Feb 4, 2013
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Pretty much what everyone else has been saying. The first time it's fun, but after that it's easily the worst part of the game. I've started multiple new characters in DA:O, but never completed the game more than once because of the Fade alone.
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

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Sep 10, 2008
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Believe it or not, the fade is very similar to part of The Hordes of the Underdark module released by Bioware back before EA ate them.

It can be fun and gives you a substantial point boost but as others have said its long and tedious with lots of backtracking to find everything. Being forced to solo it can be a bit of a nightmare as well, I remember abandoning a Archer walkthrough when I found out you couldn't summon any ranger pets to tank for me.
 

TheRookie8

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Nov 19, 2009
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Not too bad. I enjoy seeing our favorite dual-wielding ogre-killer at the start, as well as the little glimpses into the histories of your companions.

And as some say, it's cool when you take down some of these bosses solo...if only to show that your Grey Warden is capable when they're alone.

The puzzle bit is different, and may grow tedious for some sooner than others. You could argue that the level is filler, but I did like how different it was.
 

Risingblade

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Mar 15, 2010
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Most people who hate this level are those who do more than one playtrough. Sure it's kinda neat the first time around but it feels repetitive the 2nd 3rd and 4th time. More so than the rest of the game.
 

templar1138a

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Dec 1, 2010
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I don't hate the Fade or the Deep Roads, but they certainly do drag on. I put up with the Fade because of the Spirits you find that drastically give your stats a permanent boost. One reason I like Dragon Age 2 better is because I can't currently recall any sequences that drag on like it. Sure, settings got recycled frequently, but at least they weren't overly convoluted and were well-paced.

Besides which, revisiting old locations built a sense of sentiment for the story.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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sneakypenguin said:
Thats why I got it on PC, fade skip mod. Its just out of place and tedious. The deep road section was almost as bad though.
nail on the head. the skip fade mod is amazing and actually makes the circle part not too bad/kind of fun.

i don't mind the deep road section as much for some odd reason, although i do plow through that shit in lightning speed.

i should probably do my 15 playthrough of dragon age here soon...

time to finally finish the origin stories, i'll finally be a dwarf commoner!
 

Terminal Blue

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Feb 18, 2010
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It strips you of your party members, with a consequent drop in difficulty and that weird shapeshifting thing so you can tackle all the enemies yourself. In essence, the game stops being a tactical RPG for a few hours and becomes really dull sort of hybrid action game. Also, the visuals are surprisingly boring. I know this is Origins and recycling the same art assets 50 times in the same map is kind of normal, but still.. we're in a fantastic world of dreams and it looks.. like a grey castle. Epic!

Okay, it's a great idea, it's just really poorly implemented. The mini boss fight at the end is pretty cool and some of the scenes with the party trapped in their own dreams are kind of funny. Really, it just gets a lot of hate because it's tedious and really incongruous with the rest of the game.

Also, what was up with all the stat bonuses hidden in random objects? That was just kind of random and never explained.
 

Seanfall

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May 3, 2011
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It's not really bad...just annoying how you have to keep going back and forth between areas. Once is fine but...I replay games a lot so...after the first time it just gets old.
 

bug_of_war

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Nov 30, 2012
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I think everyone has got it covered. It's not bad the first or second time through, but once you get up to that third play through it really starts to grate up against enjoyment. My personal dislike for the Fade section is the constant back tracking. I just don't like having to go through 4 dungeons twice to then slowly get my whole team back to then kill a boss that has 10 forms or how ever many it has. In short, the repetetive nature of that section in the game sucks after the first 2 playthroughs.
 

Ulquiorra4sama

Saviour In the Clockwork
Feb 2, 2010
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Yeah, i tried to keep it alive by bringing different people along for the ride on my second playthrough. It made it a little bit more interesting at least. The section that earns most of my ire is definitely the Deep Roads. Actually i found the whole Orzammar plot line to be pretty fucking tedious.

Off topic: Funny i should see this thread pop up on the same night as i finally beat my first (and second) playthroughs of the game.
 

Mylinkay Asdara

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Nov 28, 2010
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Atbird said:
So, I've been playing through Dragon Age: Origins for the first time, and I've recently finished the Fade portion of the circle tower questline. And it was awesome. Normally I can kind of see where people are coming from when they say that they dislike something in a game, but this one just baffles me. Why is the Fade so hated?
Meh. I am a bit of the exception here: I hated the Fade my first play through. I was on Normal and I was a Mage and I went straight back to the Tower out of Lothering and I died a lot like, I'm talking constant do a room, save, die in the next room 4 times, clear the room, save, die in the next room... you get the picture.

On subsequent replays - and there have been so many of them I had to move characters to a thumb drive to make room for more - I'm much more accepting of the Fade, because I don't die 100 times going through it anymore. Sure, it's tedious, but it isn't long once you've got the hang of it through repeats. Going a little later than immediately after Lothering is a good way to keep from being too weak on your own to manage.

I've still never quite been happy with the explanation of the whole ordeal though. Only Mages are supposed to be aware of being in the Fade, for starters, which you can write off as the Sloth Demon throwing you there I guess. Wynne is a total wet blanket and basically proves she's not a capable Mage by being suckered there. Morrigan, for all her awareness of her illusion is too lazy or incapable to come get YOU instead of the other way around. Oghren being there is ridiculous because he's a Dwarf (and freaks out in Awakenings about being in the Fade later, but not in Origins so much)... it's just a bit of a giant hole in what makes sense to game canon that you have to ignore the whole time.
 

Kurt Cristal

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Mar 31, 2010
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Eh it was fine but long, I haven't played the game more than once. I played DA2 about three times but I'm the minority on that part...
 

ClockworkUniverse

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Nov 15, 2012
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My problem with the Fade isn't so much that it's bad in and of itself. It's a bit of a slog, sure, but hey, could be worse. You get some interesting powers to play with. My issue is that it conceptually should have been the highlight of the entire game, and it's...not.