Dragon Age? What the hell happened to you?

I wrote it on a sidenote.

EDIT:

BTW I am disappointed how rarely companions say anything during conversations, let alone react to what I do. Without gifts, I doubt I'd reach 100 points of approval with anyone in my team.

 

You ought to have figured that out about 2 hours into the game - what you do and what choices you make don't affect your relationships much, with 2 or 3 exceptions in the whole game. To get approval ratings up, talk to them in camp and be nice (which strangely doesn't affect other characters' reactions); then give them the "special" gifts they want to see (works just like a JRPG with the "approval" system if you ever played one - feels like it was copied almost directly from Sengoku Rance). Most personal stories are boring as hell, except perhaps Morrigan's. I never managed to figure out what Sten wants, but Oghden is a much better THW fighter anyway.

Oh, also affection points != bonuses; you have to do certain parts of their stories to get combat bonuses, which renders a lot of the affection system sort of useless.

 

How was I suppose to figure out how often the characters will say something during the entire game if I played it for two hours?

And yes, I know how approval points work, I have 6 party members nearly 100% approval. What I meant is that it's almost impossible to do it without showering them with appriopriate gifts, since if you won't hit the spot with what party member to have at the moment, they will mostly be passive or throw a meaningless one-liner. I didn't notice anyone approving for more than 7 points after I did something that they thought was right, they can only disapprove or even turn against me if I did something they didn't like. Kinda lame if you ask me, right now the best way to have everyone like you is to leave them at camp, give all the possible gifts and tell them they are wonderful.

 

Oh gawd, I'm seeing the ads for the Dragon Age guide or whatever on the top of the page... I can't believe anyone would NEED one for a game as straightforward as a stick, let alone spend money on one *facepalm*

 

I've actually got almost all of my gifts still saved away for later use and have raised the approval of all members in the party and camp to between 60 and 90. Just through dialogue.
edit - I need to get my eyes and/or brain checked, a lot are lower than that actually
The trick is to roleplay your character is a sycophantic yes-man who's weasel like words sway his companions minds by way of ass-kissing, flattery, and outright lies to get his way.
Yup, I am playing a manipulative evil guy. Of course one of the drawbacks of the game is that the companions left at camp seem to only get a vague idea of what I have been up to without them, as if nobody talks to one another. Perhaps they don't.

On the occasions when they do ask about something they overheard or discovered (Shale asks about the Anvil of the Void and Caradin, Leliana asks about the Urn of Sacred Ashes).
I lied so much to both of their gullible little faces, that not only do I keep them as companions, I actually gained approval (Shale appoves +1).

 

Roleplaying in Dragon Age feels unrewarding. I can't pin down an exact reason why. I try to roleplay a character in DA like I do in Fallout (opportunistic scoundrel, silver-tongued and yet barbed-tongued as well, amicable, mischievous, slightly hot tempered and vindictive at times but never overtly evil and more prone to doing the "right" thing than to being an unreasonable asshole) and it simply doesn't feel right, doesn't feel rewarding.

It feels like it wants to force me into either a "YOU ARE TEH EBIL" or "goody two shoes" role, and the former simply makes no sense when you're cast as a Grey Warden, the would-be savior of man/dwarf/elfkind. And the bickering between Alistair and Morrigan only amuses me for so long - I want to smack them both and tell them to get over themselves and at least PRETEND to get along, because initially I liked both of their characters (before I realized how close to one-dimensional they actually are).

 

I've really really liked this game, through most of it. Now having gone through ever city, getting people to side with me except for the dwarves, I find myself getting a little bored. Prior to this, I looked forward to the game. Now I just want to play L4D2 or The Witcher again.

Or maybe I just need a break from DA:O for a bit.

 

I hear ya, I'm taking a break for a few days now.

I played up until I got all my allies and headed for Denerim. did some stuff there too, but everything's become so easy now.

the balance in this game is really odd. it's obvious that some areas were intended to be harder than others, which is perfectly fine. but if you do like me and start with one of the hard areas, it sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the game which unfortunately doesn't really live up to it.

it's not like I want a constant increase in challenge either, you have to feel that you're actually getting more powerul and skilled. but for me, the challenge curve has pretty much gone downwards instead of up.

 

I kinda agree with you on that. I feel like I did some of the "towns" out of order. Yeah, some of them were difficult. But then I went to some and the "boss" battles were ridiculously easy.

Can I also say, that after BGII (especially with some of the mods), that the party interactions suck ass, especially the "romantic" encounters? It seems like with BGII, it actually took some time... I mean, I do like the some of it, like when Alistair and Morrigan bicker. Sure, that's fun. But, once again, these newer RPG's just don't match up against the classics.

Sure DA:O is probably one of the best RPG's in awhile, but compared to the classics, it's just not that good.

I wish I could go back to a time before I played BGII, or PS:T for the first time, and experience them like I did.

 

haha, that thought crosses my mind over and over again, pretty much every time I think about any of the IE games and Fallout 1+2.

and you're right about the party interaction. some of the bickering is indeed fun, but it never has the same effect the bickering in BGII had. I'm sure part of it is because in BGII the game actually paused and you were put in dialogue mode, whereas here you can easily miss it. but BGII did a much better job of painting up personalities and really showing how these can clash. in DA:O everyone can still stand each other, no matter how much they seem to dislike each other.

hell, even BG did it better. some of the npc's there left a much deeper impression on me than anyone from DA:O. and I loved how some people just couldn't work together. last time I played I got screwed pretty far in because I forgot that Xar and Montaron don't really get along with Khalid and Jaheira... lots of blood was spilled that day.

 

I have never tried baldurs gate. Is it worth checking up on?

 

I found BG1 to be really slow with too much treading the wilderness on foot stuff, so I never finished it. BG2 was a lot of fun, but as I ultimately found out it's not very replayable. Still, it's a game worth checking out. Although, if you're looking for some complex stories and deep moral choices, the stuff just ain't there, wrong game. The quests and dialogues are well done and fairly complex, but still "Bioware style".

 

well, those are the games that started the "Bioware style" and were actually a lot of fun before the concept got so damn streamlined.

like Ausdoerrt says, BG1 had a lot more exploring and big wilderness areas that weren't even tied to the story in any way. and that's one of the reasons I love the game and prefer it over BG2. but to others, as you can se, that part was just tiresome. for me it really added to the whole fantasy adventure feel. some of the encounters in those areas can be quite the challenge and some even have humorous dialogue tied to them.

and that's also one thing about the BG games - they have a lot of humor. in almost every dialogue there will be a line that will make you smile and sometime even laugh out loud. can't really compare to the Fallout games, but the truth is that that's how I figured out BG and Fallout 2 were from the same developers: they had such similar humor.

 

Didn't JE and KotOR have some parts of development outsourced?

KotOR obviously was bioware trying to please Lucasarts as much as possible.

 

yeah, I'm starting to grow pretty sick of the Bioware formula too. like I said, I enjoyed it until they streamlined it so much that now pretty much every game feels the same. biggest change between them seem to be graphics and story.

the biggest flaws in my opinion aren't the linear storytelling, the cliché characters or the boring same-old npc influence system, but the never-ending dungeon crawls with never-ending loot and the tendancy of the games to get really easy if you just do things "right".

one of the biggest challenges in DA:O for me has been to fit all the loot into my bags. it starts off as annoying and soon becomes very tiresome and finally it's one of the main reasons I put off finishing the game at the moment. I know, it sounds silly. but I've had economical problems throughout the entire game (that's one of the parts I like about it, money doesn't just pour into your pockets) and I really need to gather and sell as much loot as I can. but my inventory fills up quickly and in every dungeon I spend way too much time just deciding what to keep and what to throw away.

one of the reasons I love BG1 so much is because (before the expansion at least) you didn't get your inventory filled with loads of gear that was there just for you to sell to the nearest vendor. you really had to go out and hunt for most of your treasure, it wasn't simply scattered along your path in various chests and cupboards. and when you finally found a nice enchanted weapon for example, you really noticed the difference. and the long dungeon crawls were really kept to a minimum.

 

I got the point where all I really looted was health potions. I made so much money off of looting earlier in the game, that I can pretty much buy whatever I want.

This makes the dungeon crawling aspects a bit more boring than they already were. And I still have to do whatever that Deep Roads thing is. Sounds like a dungeon crawl.

 

I'm not through the game yet, but this sums up as what I see as biggest flaws of DA:O.
Otherwise I like the game and it has (at least at the start) a very BG-like feel to it. But the inventory management is driving me nuts.

 

Okay guys. I might want to spend my money on this game. But my question is: Does the game have memorable characters and a good story? Is the story good enough to suck me in?
How is the story and the setting compared to a game like The Witcher for example? Because i really loved The Witcher game.