Were you disappointed with Dragon Age: Origins?

[Twitchy Racoon]

I got Dragon Age Origins 2 days ago and so far I'm not necessarily disappointed with it but I expected something slightly different.

First of all, before I got Dragon Age, the only 2 fantasy games I ever played were Fable1 and Torchlight and I loved them. The simple yet extremely flexible and very satisfying combat of Fable and the addictive looting of Torchlight are some of my fondest memories of gaming. On the other hand, the gameplay in DAO feels.... tranquil.

First I tried out playing as a mage and I couldn't believe how uninteresting the spells were, almost all of them were about slowing down your enemies or giving bonuses to your teammates. Isn't this game supposed to be some sort of bloody dark fantasy epic? Were are all the neat spells like summoning a squad of floating ghost swords to fight for you or creating giant exploding fireballs? All it has (so far) is a electric/flamethrower spell and this other one thats supposed to make your enemies blow up. When I saw the first cinematic trailer it showed Morrigan kicking ass left to right, I wasnt expecting the gameplay to be anything like the trailer but I was at least expected to feel like some sort of badass mage...

Then I tried playing as a warrior and that REALLY let me down. I equipped my elf with a longsword, gave him alot of points in strength and expected to send bad guys flying to air in little pieces, but instead all he does is stand in one place and repeat the animation while the enemy stands still and the only way I can tell he's getting damaged is by the little number that appear over his head, WTF!

So far the gameplay feels like something from an mmorpg with teamwork being essential and the fights being visually uninteresting, the only problem with that is that your playing with AIs not friends.

The story part I love, all the characters are really deep and interesting but they just wont STFU. I ask one question and they start pouring out all their life experiences and problems to me. This wouldn't be a problem if I could actually talk back instead of just picking a written response .

All in all I actually enjoy the game, its long and deep and when you work with your teammates it feels rather satisfying, but this wasn't the game I was advertised.

Do you feel similar?

 

[genericusername64]

No, I was dissapointed with dragon age 2, Dragon age origins was a good foundation for a series not a good game. It set up a universe that could be expanded upon in an infinite number of ways, but the actual game was lacking.

 

[RagnarokHybrid]

Then I tried playing as a warrior and that REALLY let me down. I equipped my elf with a longsword, gave him alot of points in strength and expected to send bad guys flying to air in little pieces, but instead all he does is stand in one place and repeat the animation while the enemy stands still and the only way I can tell he's getting damaged is by the little number that appear over his head, WTF!

So far the gameplay feels like something from an mmorpg with teamwork being essential and the fights being visually uninteresting, the only problem with that is that your playing with AIs not friends.

I felt the same way. The battles and magic have next to no aesthetic appeal but, story-wise and in terms of depth, DAO far surpasses DA2. I hope DA3 is going to be more fantastic but less tedious. Bioware said they're going to try to find some perfect balance between the two--that'd be freakin' sweat if they can pull it off.

Also... am I the only one who would like to turn into a dragon? Think about it: huge dragon vs. huge abomination in an awesome fight to the finish above the city of Kirkwall... or something.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

I just bought it used and, yeah, I'm disappointed. The graphics haven't aged well and why is everybody such a smartass?

 

[Zakarath]

Personally, I loved it. I prefer more tactical RPGs to the hack-and slash ones. Also

creating giant exploding fireballs

...have you tried the fireball spell? (Most of the starter spells are pretty meh (apart from winter's grasp) but the higher-tier spells will wreck armies. And if you're looking for some darker magic, there's a bunch of death magic spells that are pretty sweet too.

 

[ZeroMachine]

God no. Up until Human Revolution, it was my favorite current gen game.

creating giant exploding fireballs

...have you tried the fireball spell? (Most of the starter spells are pretty meh (apart from winter's grasp) but the higher-tier spells will wreck armies. And if you're looking for some darker magic, there's a bunch of death magic spells that are pretty sweet too.

Also, this. And it's pretty easy to get a higher-tier spell even by Lothering, thanks to the fact that most spells aren't level specific but magic specific.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Dragon Age Origins was probably the highlight game of the dreaded 2009 year. I loved it to death and still play it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well yes, because I was expecting Baldur's Gate level of depth and it never came.
But the issue is current market, people want pretty over complex and that is just how devs must roll to make the big bucks, DA2 was the next logic businessman step.

And it seem I'm one of the very few who will complain about depth as opposed to "needs more pretty"

 

[Llil]

No, I really enjoyed it.
You don't seem to like the combat system, but that's my favourite part of the game.

So far the gameplay feels like something from an mmorpg with teamwork being essential and the fights being visually uninteresting, the only problem with that is that your playing with AIs not friends.

You're playing all of four characters yourself, not leaving them to the AI. Or that's how I played at least, and that's how I think it's supposed to be played.

Also, I don't agree with the visually uninteresting part. However, I did use the top down perspective through the entire game, so I didn't even need overly flashy combat animations. They wouldn't have added much since I'd have seen them from a distance anyway.

 

[AugustFall]

I was disappointed by the lack of interest I had in the skills. I love NWN and KOTOR because the skills changed the gameplay. In DA:O I was bored almost immediately because I could see the endgame skills and they were... lame.

I don't think it's a bad game but I just can't bring myself to play it more. Not interested. In NWN I had cleave which made my guy waltz through minions which was awesome! It made me no more powerful against stronger bad guys but it removed the tedium of lesser enemies and made me feel awesome and powerful!
In KOTOR I had a myriad of skills to disable people and 2 lightsabers up close. The combat was fun because although I felt strong I didn't feel OP.

In DA:O I feel weak, really weak. I made sure to consider every point I placed and every skill I chose and yet I still felt like I had to cheese enemies to beat them. I don't want to exploit the game's AI to play the single player.

I don't think it's a bad game but I just don't see anything I liked from NWN and KOTOR in it to the same degree.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Not at all, on the contrary I loved it. I expect many others on here will say the same.

 

[AlternatePFG]

It was pretty good. The claims BioWare made about it being a successor to Baldur's Gate were bullshit, but on it's own merits it was a good game. It isn't amazing though, there are serious glaring flaws in the game's core. I'm slowly beginning to prefer Dragon Age 2, in all honesty. It's just more fun to play.

 

[Hyper-space]

snip

When I first heard about the game, Baldurs Gate came to mind. I was expecting them to take all the good things from old-school gaming and leave the bad things behind (Demon's Souls is an excellent example of that). But nope, it was a straight-up copy of the Baldurs Gate games, even the characters were the same.

So yeah, really hoped they would have combined the best of both worlds (old gaming and new gaming).

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

It was pretty good. The claims BioWare made about it being a successor to Baldur's Gate were bullshit, but on it's own merits it was a good game. It isn't amazing though, there are serious glaring flaws in the game's core. I'm slowly beginning to prefer Dragon Age 2, in all honesty. It's just more fun to play.

I'll agree with you about the combat on DA:2. It felt more realistic.
Dragon Age Origins felt more like 3.5 ed DnD. I like 3.5, but it isn't the most enthraling gameplay.

So no, I liked DA:O quite a bit.

 

[Erana]

First of all, before I got Dragon Age, the only 2 fantasy games I ever played were Fable1 and Torchlight and I loved them. The simple yet extremely flexible and very satisfying combat of Fable and the addictive looting of Torchlight are some of my fondest memories of gaming. On the other hand, the gameplay in DAO feels.... tranquil.

Well, this might be part of your problem.

DA:O is a complete throwback to the NeverWinter Nights and Baldur's Gate video games, which themselves are based on tabletop things from DND. Few RPGs these days focus so much on draw so directly from tabletop gaming, and in turn stop to quietly take the time to get to know the other characters.

Fable, on the other hand, is a game that is derived from its contemporaries at the time- much more interested in hacky-slashy action and convention formed in the decades that video games and the video game RPGs have been around.

Torchlight, on the other hand, is pure dungeon crawler, which in some ways is a genre unto itself.

Dragon Age isn't a freak RPG, its just from a different tradition than the other ones you've played. Now you know what you do and don't like with fantasy RPGs, so you can more easily make future choices that fit your preferences.

And if you like dungeon crawling, might I suggest giving roguelikes a try?

 

[theevilgenius60]

I love Dragon Age: Origin. When I play it I lose all track of myself(Ed) in the room playing a game and feel immersed in the game(as Magnus, my rogue warden). The trick is to know which party members to keep with you. Morrigan, for one, minds the camp the whole game. I can understand her being selfish as she was raised alone, but if you don't take side quests, you don't get as much xp. I just want to sit her down and ask her what she has against leveling up. " You know that virulent walking bomb spell we got you? I know you like it because you cast it at the beginning of every fight. We were able to get it because of all those random people we helped out, so stop bitching about that. No, I'm not doing it to help them, I'm doing it to help us." Other than that, no qualms about the game. It plays like it's supposed to, and is one of my top five. Where is that game again?...

 

[DanielBrown]

A bit. It kept me entertained, but I expected a 100+ hour long game. Think I beat it in 27 hours or less(easiest setting, but that's how I roll, damnit!).

 

[ZeroMachine]

I love Dragon Age: Origin. When I play it I lose all track of myself(Ed) in the room playing a game and feel immersed in the game(as Magnus, my rogue warden). The trick is to know which party members to keep with you. Morrigan, for one, minds the camp the whole game. I can understand her being selfish as she was raised alone, but if you don't take side quests, you don't get as much xp. I just want to sit her down and ask her what she has against leveling up. " You know that virulent walking bomb spell we got you? I know you like it because you cast it at the beginning of every fight. We were able to get it because of all those random people we helped out, so stop bitching about that. No, I'm not doing it to help them, I'm doing it to help us." Other than that, no qualms about the game. It plays like it's supposed to, and is one of my top five. Where is that game again?...

You get yourself fully immersed in the game, and yet you do things for gameplay reasons rather than for character reasons?

Huh. Your version of immersion and my version of immersion are two very different things.

Heh... version of immersion... lolrhymes.

Anyways, I keep Morrigan with me because it makes sense for the character I built. He's a dwarf, so he has this morbid curiosity on all forms of magic, a curiosity that sometimes gets the better of him (the final choice to make with Morrigan). Plus, he respects her on combat. Everything else, he just tells her to shut it. Though they do end on a very bittersweet note in the end.

 

[ZeroMachine]

A bit. It kept me entertained, but I expected a 100+ hour long game. Think I beat it in 27 hours or less(easiest setting, but that's how I roll, damnit!).

Holy fuck.

If I do everything available for that game, it takes me 80+ hours. Either you have literally NO DLC, or you're just doing something wrong.

Try it on normal or hard. It's a lot more fun.