Dragon Age: Origins: Why Put This Shit In?
- Thread starter Kikosemmek
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I love the game, I didn't mind the temples and it didn't get tedious for me until the Deep Roads. That got boring really quick, although the end boss fight was one of the more fun ones and the lead up to it was done creepily well. Yeah it got a little old fighting the same type of mobs again and again, but the creature designs were done really well, maybe they ran out of money and time? I did wish that we were able to explore a lot more though, even small secret areas with nice loot would encourage people to search around and is more satisfying than yet another spider or Darkspawn pack.
So you ground through the first temple and traveled to the second. Maybe we got different games, but in between them, I ran into a very large lizard that could fly and breathe fire. If that doesn't satisfy your need to escape the "grind," then I'm not even sure you're playing it right.
Dude, you've always got to keeping mind that a large part of playing RPGs is still in your imagination. Perhaps they may not be as sweet looking, and the game play might be like tentatively removing an infected piercing whilst fending off several rather small but very angry dogs, but it's the concept that drives the game. Look at Oblivion, that had some of the most repetative, God-awful game play ever concieved, but it didn't make it any less of a beaut. Your character has just battled through an imense arcane temple fending off an entire army of evil cultists, that's a pretty cool piece of escapism.
Sorta like the second stage of Resident Evil 4, but without the guns and the shit sequel.
Sorta like the second stage of Resident Evil 4, but without the guns and the shit sequel.
To me, the different sections of this game felt much like direct digital implementations of Dungeons and Dragons modules. Particularly 4th edition D&D. You had your dungeon plan layout, with several encounters here and there. Usually combat encounters have a particular "theme" of enemies (hence the 'samey' nature of some fights in a given area). Then there's a spattering of 'non-combat' encounters (traps, lite puzzles, conversations). I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing for me. I enjoy this type game progression. However, I could certainly understand how it doesn't 'click' with everyone.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing for me. I enjoy this type game progression. However, I could certainly understand how it doesn't 'click' with everyone.
Not necessarily. Some RPGs have leveling systems that are entirely based on quest completion. For example, Vampires: the Masquerade - Bloodlines (VtMB) gave you points to spend on skills and stats depending on how you finished main storyline quests as well as side quests. Every quest was heavily scripted with, sure, a fair deal of enemies, but there wasn't really any grind in it, per se.
And, just to be facetious, once you figured out the 'Damage Skill on Self' trick in Morrowind, grinding became optional too, lol.
Yeah, I do think the choice of just throwing more people at the PCs in living waves does rather suck from a design point. Only rarely do I even remotely sense some kind of AI at work, beyond "throw everything we got at them...RAWR!" It isn't as bad as JRPG grinding, but you can see it from where you're standing, if you know what I mean.
I play an Arcane Elementalist (i.e., Arcane Warrior with fire, ice, lightning, earth maxed) with Wynne as my supporter, so most of the combats have become pretty one-sided (Earthquake + Inferno + Tempest = chunky salsa). Anything left standing gets mopped up in HTH-combat; Wynne healing and increasing stats. Still, the game will throw me a surprise from time to time. The Deep Roads has been suitably crunchy.
Still, more variety and a better enemy AI would have been appreciated.
And yes... what the %$&^ is it with the elfroots/tin-foil armor in the locked crates?!
I play an Arcane Elementalist (i.e., Arcane Warrior with fire, ice, lightning, earth maxed) with Wynne as my supporter, so most of the combats have become pretty one-sided (Earthquake + Inferno + Tempest = chunky salsa). Anything left standing gets mopped up in HTH-combat; Wynne healing and increasing stats. Still, the game will throw me a surprise from time to time. The Deep Roads has been suitably crunchy.
Still, more variety and a better enemy AI would have been appreciated.
And yes... what the %$&^ is it with the elfroots/tin-foil armor in the locked crates?!
Sure there is. You get the blue slime and then the red slime (and then every color of the rainbow slimes). Rpgs have been trying to trick us like that for over 20 years. I guess it is offensive when they don't change the color along with the names.Mirroga said:
I like Dragon Age combat, actually, and I find the battles play out differently depending on your class and the environment. For instance, I played a mage on nightmare difficulty, which means lots of friendly fire and really tough monsters. This means I can't spam AoE spells in tight quarters. You have to think. Combat in this game is highly tactical, especially on higher difficulties. And the fights are challenging. I got through several by the skin of my teeth alone. The difficulty can be frustrating, yes, but in a good way. It gives you more of a feeling of accomplishment when you beat a tough level.
This game's not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be a challenge. You're saving the world, after all. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't hard. With everyone going on about how no one but you can stop this Blight, it'd be kind of cheap if all the battles were easy and straightforward and things like the Urn of Sacred Ashes were easy pickings. They're not supposed to be, and that's why no one else has accomplished this feat in Ferelden. So I have to say, I completely disagree with your assessment. And I don't know why you'd expect something different from BioWare. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights both played out similarly, and they're the closest to being like DA:O of all their titles.
This game's not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be a challenge. You're saving the world, after all. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't hard. With everyone going on about how no one but you can stop this Blight, it'd be kind of cheap if all the battles were easy and straightforward and things like the Urn of Sacred Ashes were easy pickings. They're not supposed to be, and that's why no one else has accomplished this feat in Ferelden. So I have to say, I completely disagree with your assessment. And I don't know why you'd expect something different from BioWare. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights both played out similarly, and they're the closest to being like DA:O of all their titles.
BioWare is dead, there is only EA now, I will explain why.Kikosemmek said:
Dragon Age sucks on many levels, all of which would be unthinkable in any pre-EA BioWare game:-
There is the blatant Lord of the Rings rip off opening.
There is the Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball gift giving minigame.
There is, as you said, endless corridors and rooms of generic badies dropping the same generic loot.
There is the fact that when you complete the game it doesn't fire you back to the start, so you can have a play through with your character, but back by about 5 minutes, meaning that if you want to continue with your character you need to buy some DLC from EA.
There is the fact that some of the content, in particular the golem (who was basically HK-47 in stone), was cut in order to bilk money out of the people who would do the right thing and buy the game, as opposed to those who pirate it.
There is the mountains and mountains of bugs this game has. BioWare used to have the best QA I can recollect in a game, but this one blows that apart. Waiting for 10 minutes after enemies die before they register as dead, leaving me standing there, gets old fast. Audio missing from certain scenes ruin immersion.
Fixed that for you.Kikosemmek said:
And the answer is simple: because making more content is much harder than simply programming the engine to deliver the same content to you over and over again in slightly different situations. It's pretty much the very first thing you get excited about as a developer when you're putting together an RPG: "OMG, we can string out relatively little content forever if we present it right."
So what level were you when you went here? If you were low it's pretty obvious you're going to fight the same guys for a while until you can take on dragons and stuff.
I would like to point out that you were in a temple controlled by cultists and complained that there were only cultists to fight