It's About Time :: Dragon Age: Origins

Stranger of Sorts

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Aug 23, 2009
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atol said:
Well, you said "...not epic, nor engaging," at the top, which I then assumed was a general statement about the game and not specifically the combat. I gathered that you simply enjoyed Oblivion, and not specifically its visceral combat. It wasn't a logic flaw in the review, but just in your personality that I felt. You could have probably mentioned that the storyline is disjointed throughout most of the game, since setting/lore is indeed part of a story.
I still believe it's impossible to go through the game in 20 hours and finish all the side quests, you most likely finsihed them in your subsequent playthroughs. Doing everything in the game can take well over 50 hours, and it's all far more detailed than anything in Oblivion.
Anyway, it just seems you went into the game expecting something else, and you are linking your disappointment with your actual opinion of the game, causing that flipfloping from "I don't like it because it's not what I wanted," to "It's a good game."
I have the book thing that tells me what to do, so that's probably why. There is some truth in me linking my disappointment with this review, I did nothing to try and hide it as otherwise you may as well be reading a review from a machine.
 

Camembert

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Stranger of Sorts said:
Wow I think I was confused by that. I bought up Oblivion with reference to gameplay and it was the gameplay that bore the adjective 'engaging'. The main story for Dragon Age: Origins was very weak but the 'lore' was very strong (i.e the background story for all the different elements of the game)

I have completed all the side quests and they are all very short, or at least would be if it weren't for the loading times (why didn't I bring up loading times in the review? Damn I forgot) The only one I remember distinctly is the one where you are paid to have a fight in a brothel.

Does that help?
If you completed the whole game including all side quests in 20 hours, then no wonder you thought it was 'pathetically short'... you must have skipped at least half the dialogue. Seriously. Fifty hours is considered a short playthrough for Dragon Age. I cannot imagine why you would run through an RPG like Dragon Age fast enough to finish it in 20 hours. Did you do the Slim Couldry quests? This game does not skimp on side-quests, not by a long way.

Apart from that, good review, not that I'm much of a critic myself. I do wish you had mentioned the game's best feature, though: the companions and the interaction between them. That is what made the game for me, although I imagine you didn't enjoy that element to its fullest having completed the game is such a short time.
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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Camembert said:
If you completed the whole game including all side quests in 20 hours, then no wonder you thought it was 'pathetically short'... you must have skipped at least half the dialogue. Seriously. Fifty hours is considered a short playthrough for Dragon Age. I cannot imagine why you would run through an RPG like Dragon Age fast enough to finish it in 20 hours. Did you do the Slim Couldry quests? This game does not skimp on side-quests, not by a long way.

Apart from that, good review, not that I'm much of a critic myself. I do wish you had mentioned the game's best feature, though: the companions and the interaction between them. That is what made the game for me, although I imagine you didn't enjoy that element to its fullest having completed the game is such a short time.
I'm afraid that's another thing I forgot to put, it's nice and adds some depth to the game but when you hear Alistair say 'let's talk about your mother' for the umpteenth time does cause it to wear a bit. I also didn't go into the 'approval system' either for fear of slipping into a fully fledged rant, it means to make your party great with the bonus' that come from your companions liking you, you can only have a select choice of parties.

The problem with reviewing RPG's is there will always be things that you miss, I'm very happy you liked the review as it is though.

How did I do it so quickly? *waves walkthrough book* - actually that was the main reason I compared this game to Oblivion, they're the only games I have books for so it's very easy for me to compare the content of the games as all I need to do is set them down beside each other.
 

darth jacen

Sith Reviewer
Jul 15, 2009
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I have this game but haven't gotten to it as I say in about half my posts now...Back logged gaming is a terrible place to be, but my pain aside well written review. It did feel shallow in the sense that though I appreciate no spoilers, you could have gone a little deeper into it. Also for a game that obviously has a great deal of time invested on your companions you did seem to leave that part a bit scarce as well. I read all your reviews and found this one a little in the lack luster category, but hey we all have an off day or two. I would just suggest a little deeper on some parts especially something as big, well, supposedly big as a BioWare RPG. Nevertheless good review, keep it up.
 

Camembert

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Oct 21, 2009
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Stranger of Sorts said:
I'm afraid that's another thing I forgot to put, it's nice and adds some depth to the game but when you hear Alistair say 'let's talk about your mother' for the umpteenth time does cause it to wear a bit. I also didn't go into the 'approval system' either for fear of slipping into a fully fledged rant, it means to make your party great with the bonus' that come from your companions liking you, you can only have a select choice of parties.

The problem with reviewing RPG's is there will always be things that you miss, I'm very happy you liked the review as it is though.

How did I do it so quickly? *waves walkthrough book* - actually that was the main reason I compared this game to Oblivion, they're the only games I have books for so it's very easy for me to compare the content of the games as all I need to do is set them down beside each other.
Yeah, I like buying game guides when I've already played much of the game. I have the Dragon Age one and the Oblivion one also, and I've got to say, the Dragon Age one is the worst game guide I have ever read. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend using a walkthrough from the moment you begin an RPG. Kind of ruins the game a bit, surely...?

And I didn't mind hearing Alistair talking about his mother too much because I kind of love Alistair ;)

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'd like to try my hand at reviewing myself (not reviewing myself, but myself reviewing games... you know what I mean) one of these days, if I ever get round to it... do you use a template for your reviews, or do you just write what you fancy?
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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Camembert said:
Anyway, keep up the good work. I'd like to try my hand at reviewing myself (not reviewing myself, but myself reviewing games... you know what I mean) one of these days, if I ever get round to it... do you use a template for your reviews, or do you just write what you fancy?
Nope I just sit in front of my laptop and start writing, I always have a picture on the right to start off with and a purple heading but that's just me. Have a look at some other reviews, everyone does it differently.
 

scnj

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Nov 10, 2008
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Hold on. You found DA:O's combat boring, despite the fact that you have control over all four party members and access to all of their different skills through the skill wheel? And you found Oblivion's combat engaging, despite the fact that it literally consisted of pressing a button to swing a sword?
 

Stranger of Sorts

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Aug 23, 2009
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scnj said:
Hold on. You found DA:O's combat boring, despite the fact that you have control over all four party members and access to all of their different skills through the skill wheel? And you found Oblivion's combat engaging, despite the fact that it literally consisted of pressing a button to swing a sword?
In Oblivion you couldn't put the controller down, go and make a sandwich and come back 5 minutes later to see you fully healed and victorious. And your judgement is vary one sided, you do not have full control, you control one at a time the other 3 are controlled by the computer, where as in Oblivion you also have a variety of skills. Don't all games boil down to pressing a button to do something?
 

scnj

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Stranger of Sorts said:
scnj said:
Hold on. You found DA:O's combat boring, despite the fact that you have control over all four party members and access to all of their different skills through the skill wheel? And you found Oblivion's combat engaging, despite the fact that it literally consisted of pressing a button to swing a sword?
In Oblivion you couldn't put the controller down, go and make a sandwich and come back 5 minutes later to see you fully healed and victorious. And your judgement is vary one sided, you do not have full control, you control one at a time the other 3 are controlled by the computer, where as in Oblivion you also have a variety of skills. Don't all games boil down to pressing a button to do something?
While what you say is true about the computer controlling the other 3 characters at any given time, you can set their tactics so they do what you want them to while you're not in command. And I'll grant you that Oblivion did have spells etc, but nowhere near the amount and variety that Dragon Age had. Also, I challenge you to put the controller down on the harder battles like the High Dragon, or even normal battles on nightmare difficulty setting.
 

Skoldpadda

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I don't have anything to add, I just want to say that the lack of a stash ruined the game for me. It's an RPG, and you can't stash loot. Unforgivable.
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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scnj said:
While what you say is true about the computer controlling the other 3 characters at any given time, you can set their tactics so they do what you want them to while you're not in command. And I'll grant you that Oblivion did have spells etc, but nowhere near the amount and variety that Dragon Age had. Also, I challenge you to put the controller down on the harder battles like the High Dragon, or even normal battles on nightmare difficulty setting.
My point still stands about your input into the battle. On Oblivion you could dodge attacks, block attacks, whatever but you can't do that on Dragon Age as it's all down to chance. Oh and Oblivion does have more spells, in fact it has a lot more; you can make your own you see.

Of course you can say 'try it on nightmare difficulty' but it should really be like that on all difficulties.
 

Knight Templar

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Dec 29, 2007
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veloper said:
Starting with the conclusion is not bad by all means...
I think it is. A conclusion concludes things, not starts them.

veloper said:
...but in this case you'd be doing something more important than that: you tell the reader where you come from.
So you want to know what he thinks of the game? Isn't that the point of the review?
 

Jaded Scribe

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Mar 29, 2010
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A few problems I have with this review:

Your discussion on combat says nothing to the availability of combat tactics, or friendly fire (hard and nightmare modes), or the variety of spell combos that produce tactically interesting effects.

Also, your claim of 20 hours of gameplay for a first time through seems to be overstated as GameInformer offered this tidbit: "Record QA speed playthough was over 12 hours using cheats on skipping all dialogue.". Clearly, the QA not only had cheats, but also an intense knowledge of the game and it's quests and had the added speed of having played the game dozens, if not hundreds, of times over.

I myself spent a good 40+ hours on my first playthrough (Easy mode, PS3) and skipped virtually all side quests, and only had any real troubles with the Lost in Dreams quest.

I also wouldn't compare this to LotR all that much. Yes, there are similarities, but these similarities are found throughout the fantasy genre.
 

imaloony

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Nov 19, 2009
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Personally, I'm tempted to give Dragon Age: Origins my pick for Game of the Year 2009.

While the main plot wasn't really super original, it was the side plots and incredible characterization based around your companions that really drew me in.
The writing is fantastic, bringing each character's personality to life beautifully.
The voice acting is great, and I never feel taken out of the experience due to a particularly bad part, unlike another certain RPG. (COUGHoblivionCOUGH)
While the combat isn't quite as tuned as I'd like it to be, it eventually gets very engaging and has you using your abilities as effectively as possible.

I've stayed away from the higher difficulties so far for several reasons:
1. The game is already pretty damn hard.
2. On higher difficulties, I assume your whole party needs to be under your puppet strings, and I much prefer using my own character.
3. I feel it'll bring more of the flaws of combat to light.

As it is, play though the game on Normal or Casual, and you'll have a blast.
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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Cleril said:
Overall a good review but your missing some stuff.

Music, graphics, and DLC (at least mention that it exists) go unmentioned in this review. Also, you never mentioned the difficulty levels which I feel were fucked up, just saying.

Your language could be much better as I didn't many if any advanced words used in this review. Or at least, I wasn't engaged enough. This could be due to the tone of the review as it goes from informative to a tad rant-like, only slightly though.

Basically your missing details but have a solid review pretty much regardless.
It's funny how my shittier reviews get more attention.

Jaded Scribe said:
Your discussion on combat says nothing to the availability of combat tactics, or friendly fire (hard and nightmare modes), or the variety of spell combos that produce tactically interesting effects.
The tactics system and tactics available are really nothing special, I would point you toward Final Fantasy XII which has an almost identical system but the spell combos are a lot more interesting thanks to the huge variety of spells.
 

veloper

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Jan 20, 2009
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Knight Templar said:
veloper said:
Starting with the conclusion is not bad by all means...
I think it is. A conclusion concludes things, not starts them.
A review is not a detective novel.

In many fields starting with the conclusion and then follow up with how you came to that conclusion is actually the preferred method.

In a game review you can do both and starting wih the conclusion is simply more convenient for the reader.
If you don't, many readers will scroll to the last paragraph anyway, before deciding if the piece is worth reading.

veloper said:
...but in this case you'd be doing something more important than that: you tell the reader where you come from.
So you want to know what he thinks of the game? Isn't that the point of the review?
No, a considerate reviewer let's the reader know WHERE he comes from. This is not the same thing as the conclusion.
Example: when Yahtzee reviews a JRPG, he tells his audience fair and direct that he hates JRPGs in general.
All reviewers should to be honest about their general preferences.
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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veloper said:
Example: when Yahtzee reviews a JRPG, he tells his audience fair and direct that he hates JRPGs in general.
All reviewers should to be honest about their general preferences.
The problem with that is that Yahtzee doesn't write reviews, he writes rants. Do you watch him for the quality of his reviews?
 

veloper

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Jan 20, 2009
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Stranger of Sorts said:
veloper said:
Example: when Yahtzee reviews a JRPG, he tells his audience fair and direct that he hates JRPGs in general.
All reviewers should to be honest about their general preferences.
The problem with that is that Yahtzee doesn't write reviews, he writes rants. Do you watch him for the quality of his reviews?
That's totally beside the point.
Being fair to your audience is a good thing regardless of who you are or what you do.