First Impression: Dragon Age Origins
Oh Bioware you feisty badgers.
It took me a lot of time to get through some of this game before I could say I had a good first impression. It's a better impression than Kingdom Hearts. But I've played a few of Bioware's titles by now.
One thing that sort of bugs me about Bioware games is that every title while has similar style game play always has different movement controls. For example, in NWN2 you can right click somewhere and the character will head to that spot. But in Knights of the Old Republic (KoToR) you can't do that. Dragon Age (DA:O) you can again. Must be something they reserve for fantasy games. *shrug* Granted every franchise should have its own control scheme but my beef is (and it's a small beef) that I will play K0ToR for awhile using NWN2 controls and screw up. But essentially it's still a dialog tree with some point and click battle systems.
The battle systems are all different but it's mostly background differences. NWN2 follows D&D dice roll logic. You can pick an action, invisible dice roll and the action is executed.
You do essentially the same thing in K0ToR, but the interface is different. DA:O is almost identical to W0W in interface and battle system. Except you can control party members. which is probably why I felt like I've played this game before.
Bioware games are kind of like JRPGs in that the game play formula doesn't change much but the story and characters are the draw to the game. And you get to essentially build your own character. Which granted I spent several hours doing trying to decide which origin story I liked best. And go Bioware that's awesome.
The characters in the Party were a bit more diverse (only a bit) than other games. In KoToR I was kind of seeing a lot of similarities to the NWN2 party.
*Whiny thief rogue girl: NWN2 - Neeska...check, KoToR - Mission...check. DA:O - Leilani(?) human cleric thing.
*Whiny moral, male buddy: NWN2 - um...probaby Casavir, but he doesn't whine, KoToR - oh GAWD CARTH!!!, DA:O - guess that's Alistar but he's significantly less whiny and bitchy than Carth. In fact I find him witty and charming. Huh.
*Snobby mage/magic user - NWN2 - that human wizard girl...I'm having a terrible time with names today. WAIT...Qara. KoToR - Bastila. Snobby Jedi. DA:O: Morrigan - add skanky as well as snobby. ...I like her.
*The guy who likes to fight - NWN2 - the dwarf...name...Kelgar! Wow...names suck. KoToR - HK-## numbers elude me. But he's a badass robot. DA:O: There's another dwarf guy I guess. *shrug*
What impresses me the most is the highly amusing dialog. More so than other games I find myself giggling at the responses or reactions. The characters are also more...likable than other games. They really succeeded in characterization in this game. The story is sort of engaging...I mean yeah it's fighting against the dark evil forces of...evil...wow not creative today...but they did a lot with what they had. The origin story really worked well because I could pick my battles so to speak and figure out where I came from and pick the one I liked best or related most to. I picked city elf. :) But I actually got to caring about the character I was controlling and the people she met.
The graphics are...improving, but I turned off the constant gore thing. (It looked silly). There is also successful HUMOR in the dialog. Nothing really forced. I mean, I laugh at Carth because it's pathetically funny. To the point that I enjoy him. which I guess is also good writing. (I hurt his man-feelings...that's still funny).
In this game I notice a ton more backdrop dialog that makes me chuckle. Like the drunk singing the song about a sailor cheating on his wife with a mermaid. Or the funny chemistry between characters in the party. Like Morrigan mocking Alistair and Alistair taking it like a champ. Or Alistair asking the various female characters for love advice. (I'm a girl I find that cute and usually it ends up very amusing. "Hey you...you're a woman. Can I ask you something?") And it doesn't interrupt GAMEPLAY. THANK YOU! KoToR suffers from this. They have the party members interact but it STOPS the game and has you interact too. I don't CARE okay. I'll actually stop and listen to banter when I don't have control.
In short, good stuff. I like this genre and I hope I enjoy the rest of the game as much as I enjoy beginnings.
EDIT: This game is awesome and I will replay it. It put some very tough choices in my hands and I really had to wrestle with it.
It took me a lot of time to get through some of this game before I could say I had a good first impression. It's a better impression than Kingdom Hearts. But I've played a few of Bioware's titles by now.
One thing that sort of bugs me about Bioware games is that every title while has similar style game play always has different movement controls. For example, in NWN2 you can right click somewhere and the character will head to that spot. But in Knights of the Old Republic (KoToR) you can't do that. Dragon Age (DA:O) you can again. Must be something they reserve for fantasy games. *shrug* Granted every franchise should have its own control scheme but my beef is (and it's a small beef) that I will play K0ToR for awhile using NWN2 controls and screw up. But essentially it's still a dialog tree with some point and click battle systems.
The battle systems are all different but it's mostly background differences. NWN2 follows D&D dice roll logic. You can pick an action, invisible dice roll and the action is executed.
You do essentially the same thing in K0ToR, but the interface is different. DA:O is almost identical to W0W in interface and battle system. Except you can control party members. which is probably why I felt like I've played this game before.
Bioware games are kind of like JRPGs in that the game play formula doesn't change much but the story and characters are the draw to the game. And you get to essentially build your own character. Which granted I spent several hours doing trying to decide which origin story I liked best. And go Bioware that's awesome.
The characters in the Party were a bit more diverse (only a bit) than other games. In KoToR I was kind of seeing a lot of similarities to the NWN2 party.
*Whiny thief rogue girl: NWN2 - Neeska...check, KoToR - Mission...check. DA:O - Leilani(?) human cleric thing.
*Whiny moral, male buddy: NWN2 - um...probaby Casavir, but he doesn't whine, KoToR - oh GAWD CARTH!!!, DA:O - guess that's Alistar but he's significantly less whiny and bitchy than Carth. In fact I find him witty and charming. Huh.
*Snobby mage/magic user - NWN2 - that human wizard girl...I'm having a terrible time with names today. WAIT...Qara. KoToR - Bastila. Snobby Jedi. DA:O: Morrigan - add skanky as well as snobby. ...I like her.
*The guy who likes to fight - NWN2 - the dwarf...name...Kelgar! Wow...names suck. KoToR - HK-## numbers elude me. But he's a badass robot. DA:O: There's another dwarf guy I guess. *shrug*
What impresses me the most is the highly amusing dialog. More so than other games I find myself giggling at the responses or reactions. The characters are also more...likable than other games. They really succeeded in characterization in this game. The story is sort of engaging...I mean yeah it's fighting against the dark evil forces of...evil...wow not creative today...but they did a lot with what they had. The origin story really worked well because I could pick my battles so to speak and figure out where I came from and pick the one I liked best or related most to. I picked city elf. :) But I actually got to caring about the character I was controlling and the people she met.
The graphics are...improving, but I turned off the constant gore thing. (It looked silly). There is also successful HUMOR in the dialog. Nothing really forced. I mean, I laugh at Carth because it's pathetically funny. To the point that I enjoy him. which I guess is also good writing. (I hurt his man-feelings...that's still funny).
In this game I notice a ton more backdrop dialog that makes me chuckle. Like the drunk singing the song about a sailor cheating on his wife with a mermaid. Or the funny chemistry between characters in the party. Like Morrigan mocking Alistair and Alistair taking it like a champ. Or Alistair asking the various female characters for love advice. (I'm a girl I find that cute and usually it ends up very amusing. "Hey you...you're a woman. Can I ask you something?") And it doesn't interrupt GAMEPLAY. THANK YOU! KoToR suffers from this. They have the party members interact but it STOPS the game and has you interact too. I don't CARE okay. I'll actually stop and listen to banter when I don't have control.
In short, good stuff. I like this genre and I hope I enjoy the rest of the game as much as I enjoy beginnings.
EDIT: This game is awesome and I will replay it. It put some very tough choices in my hands and I really had to wrestle with it.
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