Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[frogbeastegg]

All spoilers must go into spoiler tags!
However small you think the spoiler is, show consideration for your fellow org members and use the tags!
Mark the spoiler with a brief spoiler free description so people can tell whether they have seen that part of the game yet! Example below.

Spoiler for the game's box.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It has a dragon on it made out of pooled blood.

Some places in America have broken the street date and are selling the game early so it's time to start a gameplay thread.

[Jolt]

Looks like an awesome game.

[Beskar]

Pre-load is out on Steam. (for those who bought it electronically)

I am watching the game at http://evaxephon.com/stream/

It looks pretty much like Mass Effect style, but you can have 4 characters and the NPC's interact with eachother and other things in the party. Two of them sounded rather like one of Frogeggbeast's partnerships.

[Zenicetus]

I was going to wait for reviews because I wasn't sure it would run on my older PC/newer graphics card, but I broke down at the last minute and got the fancy Steam version.

I just played through part of the intro/tutorial as an Elfin Mage. I don't think there are any spoilers here, it's just a first impression.

I picked a mage to start, because I'm curious to see if the game can handle getting a party through a dungeon door with the mage leader protected at the back of the room, which was a frustration in NWN2. And if not, I'll re-start as a Rogue.

The intro/tutorial is specific to my mage character, which really makes me want to go back eventually, and see what the intro for the other classes are like! So far, it's very nicely done as an intro and tutorial for the game controls. If you've played the Flash game, the interface will be familiar and just more in-depth. Movement, camera controls, and combat are easy to pick up (at least for my mage, dunno about the other classes). Combat seems a little quick and twitchy, but there is a pause on the spacebar so you can do it in semi turn-based mode.

My first concern was how smoothly it would run on my old PC (Athlon 64 3800+, 2 Gigs RAM, GeForce 8800 GTS). So far, using default settings at 1280x1024 it's running smooth as silk through the tutorial intro, but the real test will be when a full party is fighting a room full of mages and the spells are flying. I can ramp it up to full 1600x1200 res, but I'm not sure it will handle things when the party and combats get larger, but we'll see. So far, it's encouraging for those of us with lower-spec PC's. All the cut scenes so far are running without hiccups.

The opening 2D artwork and the music is very good. First exposure to the writing isn't bad. It's throwing a lot of made-up words around to explain the background story, and there is a codex/journal to help organize that information. What I've seen so far leans heavily on generic Tolkein/D&D tropes (Elves! Dwarves! Bad things from the Bad Place!), but it's not too cringe-inducing. Could be worse.

With just a brief dipping of toe into the game, the engine looks solid. And now it will depend on the writing of the story, and how they're handling the RPG elements.

[Monk]

I was going to wait for reviews because I wasn't sure it would run on my older PC/newer graphics card, but I broke down at the last minute and got the fancy Steam version.

I just played through part of the intro/tutorial as an Elfin Mage. I don't think there are any spoilers here, it's just a first impression.

I picked a mage to start, because I'm curious to see if the game can handle getting a party through a dungeon door with the mage leader protected at the back of the room, which was a frustration in NWN2. And if not, I'll re-start as a Rogue.

The intro/tutorial is specific to my mage character, which really makes me want to go back eventually, and see what the intro for the other classes are like! So far, it's very nicely done as an intro and tutorial for the game controls. If you've played the Flash game, the interface will be familiar and just more in-depth. Movement, camera controls, and combat are easy to pick up (at least for my mage, dunno about the other classes). Combat seems a little quick and twitchy, but there is a pause on the spacebar so you can do it in semi turn-based mode.

My first concern was how smoothly it would run on my old PC (Athlon 64 3800+, 2 Gigs RAM, GeForce 8800 GTS). So far, using default settings at 1280x1024 it's running smooth as silk through the tutorial intro, but the real test will be when a full party is fighting a room full of mages and the spells are flying. I can ramp it up to full 1600x1200 res, but I'm not sure it will handle things when the party and combats get larger, but we'll see. So far, it's encouraging for those of us with lower-spec PC's. All the cut scenes so far are running without hiccups.

The opening 2D artwork and the music is very good. First exposure to the writing isn't bad. It's throwing a lot of made-up words around to explain the background story, and there is a codex/journal to help organize that information. What I've seen so far leans heavily on generic Tolkein/D&D tropes (Elves! Dwarves! Bad things from the Bad Place!), but it's not too cringe-inducing. Could be worse.

With just a brief dipping of toe into the game, the engine looks solid. And now it will depend on the writing of the story, and how they're handling the RPG elements.

Have to double this sentiment.

My relic P4 3ghz is able to run this game just fine, which is amazing considering most places tell you flat out if you don't have a dual core you cannot play the game. Granted, i've had to turn a few options down but it still looks great on my dinosaur cpu. I cannot wait until my new case comes and I can install this new motherboard/cpu I have sitting next to me.

I'm about five hours into the game and I have a few comments. First off is any notions of DA:O being a "frat boy RPG" have been woefully blown out of proportion. This is a very serious game, with a very serious narrative. Secondly is combat could be a bit tighter, it feels a bit loose and its easy to get bogged down into a single character mind-set. Not having a "healer" character is really starting to bug me as I'm chugging potions like spring-water. (I think i just havent met her yet). That being said, its still tons of fun and very challenging. I've died four times and i'm playing on Normal.

The Origin stories are not as long as I thought they would be, but they are still long enough to give you a glimpse into the past of your character. I like it, its short but it doesnt overstay its welcome - before you know it you're at the meat of the game.

That's all for now.

Oh, but one more thing:

EA are 'teh devil'. I have heard of tales of their systems before, but this? Wow. They nearly caused me to lose all chance of playing this game with their botched registration system. Basically, i registered my game on the Social site.. but then was asked for registration a second time in game. When i provided my key the game crossed its arms and informed me "sorry, that key is in use by someone else." ...

OF COURSE IT IS! I'M THE ONE WHO USED IT!

[FactionHeir]

How did you get around it?

Just so I know when I get back tonight.

[Vladimir]

Bugs! Bugs! Tell me if I should wait for the third patch please.

[Monk]

Bugs! Bugs! Tell me if I should wait for the third patch please.

Pretty stable actually. Had a CTD last night after six and a half hours of play and its been the one bug/crash i've experienced.

[Husar]

I've read there are clipping errors, arms that go into legs and the like...

May be nitpicking but that's sort of a bug. When will they ever get things like that right?

[frogbeastegg]

Mine's here! I'll post some impressions of the xbox version tomorrow.

I'm going human female mage. Quite a departure from my usual sword-wielding characters; the concept of mages in this world is too interesting to pass by. Hoping Bioware managed to do as good a job with the female protagonists as they did with the female Shepard in Mass Effect; she was outstanding and, unlike most of Bioware's older female types, not embarrassing to play as. I have no interest in walking around in a chain mail bikini while being harassed by whichever soppy idiot NPC is the designated love interest. The one who always, always has a dead wife in his past and/or other tedious angst that he will whine about for 70% of the conversations. Yep, if the female protagonist is a return to Baldur's Gate form I will be restarting as a male. I can't endure tens of hours of frostbite in sensitive locations and Carth-a-like stalkers.

[Zenicetus]

Bugs! Bugs! Tell me if I should wait for the third patch please.

I haven't seen anything I could label a bug so far, unless it's something deep in the combat stats that I'm not noticing due to unfamiliarity. It has a very solid feel, like a game that's been in development for a long time (which it has been). The 3D engine might have been state-of-the art a few years ago, but it looks a little behind the curve now (at least compared to high-end PC games), which is a good thing, for those of us with older computers.

I did get one brief moment of choppiness in a melee combat scene (no magic, 3 in my party against maybe 6 or 7 enemy fighters), but I don't know if that's the game or something my computer was trying to do in the background outside the game. Still feels nice and smooth overall.

A few more quick impressions and comments. These lean a little on the negative side but nothing too serious. Just some minor gripes, and I'm still enjoying the game very much with my Mage just past the start of the main plot.

Bioware did a nice job with the camera, the clipping of ceilings in tight spaces, and the amount of scenery you can see at one time. I haven't had much time in open spaces yet... looks like it might still be a little tight to make effective use of an archery-based character, but we'll see. The world isn't seamless; there are disk loads between areas, but nowhere near as annoying as the constant loads in NWN2. Game save and load operations are very fast, even on my older computer. The game itself boots up quickly, and unloads from memory quickly. It seems to have a fairly light footprint for something this complex. I haven't noticed the arm/leg clipping issue Husar mentioned (I'm playing on PC).

A low-level party self-heals and recovers mana after a combat encounter very quickly. I mean, like within seconds. You don't have to stock up on mana potions for a mage like you did in the Flash game, and I'm accumulating lots of healing potions I'm not using, except once in a while during combat. Maybe recovery takes longer once you get to higher levels with larger stat pools to fill? It keeps the encounters moving along with no need to rest, but I wonder how the hardcore D&D fans will feel about this.

I bought it on Steam and there is no local manual. You don't need a manual to get started playing the game, but I miss having a manual for getting an overview of the different character development trees. Choices I'm making during leveling now in the early stages, may restrict what I can do later. I feel like I'm flying blind here. I don't hang out on the Bioware forums so I haven't been keeping track of how the RPG/leveling system works. Of course, this could turn out to be an "RPG" like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect where the choices don't matter, because you'll have enough points to just buy almost every skill and talent by the time you reach the end of the game. I hope that isn't the case. Boo, hiss! Bioware, for not including a PDF manual and forcing us to go online to scrape up the character tree info.

Speaking of restricted choices.... I know this isn't D&D and I'm trying not to make too many direct comparisons... but I'm getting the impression that this is a fairly loose, streamlined system for character development. I played through the Rogue intro just to see what it's like (and yes, totally different from the Mage, nice!), but it was odd to see a Rogue clanking around in light metal armor and being able to dual-wield right from the start.

Very minor spoiler, you'll know this if you've played through the Rogue intro:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Apparently the Rogue type is also folded in with the iconic Ranger type, with an animal companion.

Part of the fun with a D&D-based game like Baldur's Gate and NWN is having to deal with so many restrictions on character development, which can lead to some interesting builds. Ignoring the way multi-classing tends to smear those categories, it's still something Ive enjoyed. At least at the beginning, this game feels maybe a little oversimplified... more like the way you make choices during leveling in WoW, or yes, Mass Effect. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Maybe I'm too conditioned by previous D&D licensed games. It's probably good for game sales to a wide audience anyway.

Is there a way to force the character to walk? Your lead character and your party run everywhere, which is sometimes appropriate but often looks silly in areas where it isn't necessary. With a full party, there's a lot of herky-jerky activity with the party running and stopping, running and stopping behind my party leader. It's a little distracting.

I don't quite have a handle on how aggro works, but it doesn't seem to "lock" most enemies on the nearest target, or first person through the door. If I send a melee member of my party through a doorway first, then the rest of the group, a large group of enemy melee fighters will still swarm everyone about equally. Attacking an enemy that isn't attacking you (the character you're directly controlling) will make them turn and attack you, which is an interesting challenge for mage characters. There is an AI control to force your party members to protect the leader, but I haven't had enough combat yet with a group to get a feel for how well it's working.

[Vladimir]

Excellent! Good news everyone, thank you. It's good to see a company take their time and get something right on the first time out. Hopefully that business model will become competitive some day. The rouge sounds interesting. They do love their dogs in that world. Let's see if the world can handle an opportunistic rogue.

[Monk]

I don't quite have a handle on how aggro works, but it doesn't seem to "lock" most enemies on the nearest target, or first person through the door. If I send a melee member of my party through a doorway first, then the rest of the group, a large group of enemy melee fighters will still swarm everyone about equally. Attacking an enemy that isn't attacking you (the character you're directly controlling) will make them turn and attack you, which is an interesting challenge for mage characters. There is an AI control to force your party members to protect the leader, but I haven't had enough combat yet with a group to get a feel for how well it's working.

I've noticed that too. Target acquisition when combat is engaged can be a little random, much more so than I'd like. Once battle starts going however it tends to follow more rational rules. Tossing a heal spell on a party member will attract unwanted attention if a monster doesnt have reason to be smacking your tank. Ect.

Combat is tough in DA:O. Maybe i'm just used to simplified versions but I really got smacked around on the Redcliff mission. I had to bump the difficulty down to Easy until I could get the hang of managing the party, imho it's far more effective (once you get a healer) to focus your mico on your magic users and only direct your melee at what to hit, rather than what skills to use. Its been effective for me trying to learn the ropes.

Also a warning: If you guys are thinking about buying a digital edition, don't. Get a physical copy - the digital editions have some really messed up registration systems. (Basically what i outlined in a previous post. You can actually get locked out of your own game!) If you AT ALL have a choice, go to the store and grab a copy. Retail editions of the game only have a disk check as their copy protection (you can play without registration) from what i understand.

[Samurai Waki]

I rather like how difficult combat has been. I decided as a first character to play an elf rogue, I should have been comfortable with that, but I was constantly being the source for attention for every baddy, and would generally die within the first 30 seconds of combat.

Then I decided I'd have a go as a close combat character, so I picked the Dwarf Noble. And instead of tweaking my stats to mainly hover around Dexterity and Strength, I split them up between Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution. What a major difference that has been, I have to say so far it has been a nice change up from NWN and Baldur's Gate to actually make Constitution matter.

[Zenicetus]

One other tip here for those new to the game, if you haven't discovered this already. I don't think it's mentioned in a tutorial (and we don't get a stinkin' manual with online purchase... grrrr):

If you press and hold "Tab" (on the PC version), the game will highlight and show a text identifier for any interesting or lootable objects within view. Some things like books are small, and are easy to miss with a mouseover scan of the area. You get small amounts of XP for each discovery, so it's important to find everything and search all rooms, even for this minor loot. Things like crates and bodies have glowy bits that show they're lootable, but I would have missed some of the small stuff like individual books sitting on altars if I hadn't used the Tab key.

[seireikhaan]

Also a warning: If you guys are thinking about buying a digital edition, don't. Get a physical copy - the digital editions have some really messed up registration systems. (Basically what i outlined in a previous post. You can actually get locked out of your own game!) If you AT ALL have a choice, go to the store and grab a copy. Retail editions of the game only have a disk check as their copy protection (you can play without registration) from what i understand.

Oh, that's just super...

/crosses fingers that the durned thing works when he gets back from night class....

[Monk]

Oh, that's just super...

/crosses fingers that the durned thing works when he gets back from night class....

What causes the lockout:

As far as I can tell from piecing together experiences of my own and other users on the support forums, if you try to register on the social site before you start the game DA:O will see the registration you made but will not put 2 and 2 together. Instead it'll tell you that key is in use and lock you out. Instead, just input your keys on the game's start-up when prompted to. That's your best bet at getting it to work.

Other users have reported no problems (like FactionHeir), but this problem is wide-spread enough to get mentioned on our wonderful internets.

Is there a way to force the character to walk? Your lead character and your party run everywhere, which is sometimes appropriate but often looks silly in areas where it isn't necessary. With a full party, there's a lot of herky-jerky activity with the party running and stopping, running and stopping behind my party leader. It's a little distracting.

/ on the number pad. Go to options and then Controls, you should see it in the list of key bindings

[Krusader]

Also a warning: If you guys are thinking about buying a digital edition, don't. Get a physical copy - the digital editions have some really messed up registration systems. (Basically what i outlined in a previous post. You can actually get locked out of your own game!) If you AT ALL have a choice, go to the store and grab a copy. Retail editions of the game only have a disk check as their copy protection (you can play without registration) from what i understand.

No problems on my end, but thats because I checked Steam's Dragon Age forumboard. And couldn't write in codes for DLC and pre-order stuff after another, had to load up the Redeem Code page when I wanted to write the next code in. I think I'll go for physical copy next game over Steam though.

Started my Human Noble Warrior and really enjoy the game so far.

[Vladimir]

Arg! These camera controls! Death by 1,000 paper cuts.

[Beskar]

Arg! These camera controls! Death by 1,000 paper cuts.

What troubles? :P

I think we need to do two different threads, one for PC and other for Xbox version.

[FactionHeir]

Well I found something rather annoying (again).

Went to my player profile this morning and as I named my new character the same as my character creator one, the avatar didn't update while the stats did. So I deleted that character off my char page. Now its past midnight and the char isn't reappearing and the achieves I got through the day aren't either. No stats being reported and I am logged in.

Funny enough my profile avatar has changed to the look of the new one somehow. Weird.

In Orzammar now after doing the DLC quests today and getting killed rather easily (though avoidable if I let my party members take the brunt). Things seem to tear through my massive armor. I guess I should have gone to Redcliffe first? Figure when I get there everyone will be effortless?

Shale's tactics are also left wanting. His default tactics set him up for using stuff as needed, but without a separate slot for engaging in a specific mode, he doesn't actually do anything other than precise hit

[Vladimir]

Mom is H-O-T.

The camera controls for PC are horrible. I need to use my left hand for rotation, the mouse is only good for zoom. It basically means I need to pause the game to scan the room as I'm trying I use Tab+A to get a 360. It's very annoying. As annoying as the .org now because it's loading slow. This is a persistent problem that will bother me though the entire game.

I perfected my two-hand technique during high school. No, not that. I mean while playing Doom. This current setup is...annoying.

[TinCow]

Apologizes if this has already been discussed, but I'm wary of reading this thread in detail for fear of spoiling myself. Essentially, I feel like the specialization options available for Mages are pretty poor. I just got to level 7 and I've been trying to figure out which specialization I wanted to pursue, so I looked up the options here.

Of the four options, two of them make the mage better at melee. From playing around with Morrigan, it seems you cannot cast while shapeshifted... so that's only useful for making you better at melee. The Arcane Warrior class peaks my interest a bit, but it looks like using it will vastly limit my spellcasting ability due to sky-high fatigue, and that's not taking into account using the actual abilities of the Arcane Warrior, which are essentially pure-melee. Thus, since it seems ridiculous to play a mage that isn't doing much spellcasting, both of these specializations are unappealing to me.

So, I'm left with two specialization classes that boost spellcasting. The Blood Mage has serious problems because you have to power your spells with your health and the only effective way to heal yourself to refill potentially kills your allies. All that is compensated for by a single damage spell and a charm person spell. Seems like more trouble than it’s worth, considering there are already plenty of mega-damage spells and incapacitating spells in the regular mage list.

Thus, the only mage specialization that adds any ‘new’ magic to the mage is the healer class, which lets me raise dead people in the middle of a battle. Not a bad option, and that's clearly going to be my choice, but I'm rather irked that the only serious choice for someone who wants to play a spellcaster essentially turns me into a cleric. What happened to the concept of the mega-damage specialist? Or the mind-control specialist? Or the necromancer? Or the illusionist? Gah... seems like such poor options.

[Beskar]

Go with Arcane Warrior, for at least the first option. That alone allows you to wear heavy armour using magic as the modifier and not strength.

Spirit healer is good if you got healing skills. Blood Magic best offensive. Shapeshifter is for the lulz.

[LeftEyeNine]

I heard there is some "Ishal Tower" in the game, is that true ? I really can't imagine what they do in that "Diarrhea Tower". Will be some scenery indeed.

[Beskar]

I heard there is some "Ishal Tower" in the game, is that true ? I really can't imagine what they do in that "Diarrhea Tower". Will be some scenery indeed.

Says the guy who comes from a Big Bird.

[LeftEyeNine]

Says the guy who comes from a Big Bird.

It had been quite some time since someone had made teh epic "turkey" joke. I was quite worried actually, thought of the probability that the matrix had shifted was depriving me of sleep. Thank you.

Oh, the last joke was Wayne Rooney's.

[al Roumi]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Apologizes if this has already been discussed, but I'm wary of reading this thread in detail for fear of spoiling myself. Essentially, I feel like the specialization options available for Mages are pretty poor. I just got to level 7 and I've been trying to figure out which specialization I wanted to pursue, so I looked up the options here.

Of the four options, two of them make the mage better at melee. From playing around with Morrigan, it seems you cannot cast while shapeshifted... so that's only useful for making you better at melee. The Arcane Warrior class peaks my interest a bit, but it looks like using it will vastly limit my spellcasting ability due to sky-high fatigue, and that's not taking into account using the actual abilities of the Arcane Warrior, which are essentially pure-melee. Thus, since it seems ridiculous to play a mage that isn't doing much spellcasting, both of these specializations are unappealing to me.

So, I'm left with two specialization classes that boost spellcasting. The Blood Mage has serious problems because you have to power your spells with your health and the only effective way to heal yourself to refill potentially kills your allies. All that is compensated for by a single damage spell and a charm person spell. Seems like more trouble than it’s worth, considering there are already plenty of mega-damage spells and incapacitating spells in the regular mage list.

Thus, the only mage specialization that adds any ‘new’ magic to the mage is the healer class, which lets me raise dead people in the middle of a battle. Not a bad option, and that's clearly going to be my choice, but I'm rather irked that the only serious choice for someone who wants to play a spellcaster essentially turns me into a cleric. What happened to the concept of the mega-damage specialist? Or the mind-control specialist? Or the necromancer? Or the illusionist? Gah... seems like such poor options.

Yeah, I agree. The increased accessibility doesn't immediately look like it offers the same degree of specialisation and variety in spells or tactics as in say BG. Happy to be set right by someone who is playing as a mage and feels differently though.

[Beskar]

Camp Storage mod, released by one of the Bioware lot for free -
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/8/index/132134

Download here -
http://social.bioware.com/project/463/#details

[frogbeastegg]

Since I'm waiting on the game to reinstall, I have a question, since I'm a bit of a pansy and I was pretty frustrated with it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

How do I unlock the Arcane warrior specialization for mages? I know its somewhere in the elfen areas out east, but I for the life of me can't find it...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Have you been to the Elven forest yet? In that quest line there's a big ruin you enter, and on the 3rd (IIRC) floor of that ruin there's a phalacory (or however it’s spelt!) buried in the rubble in a smallish room which also contains a small altar. Treat the phalactory gently and follow the conversation choices which let you view it's memories, then pick the line which allows you to gain the specialisation in exchange for placing the phalactory on the altar and destroying it.

The Arcane Warrior class peaks my interest a bit, but it looks like using it will vastly limit my spellcasting ability due to sky-high fatigue, and that's not taking into account using the actual abilities of the Arcane Warrior, which are essentially pure-melee.

I picked that one and I'm stomping things to death with boots of stomping +4. I could have built a far stronger version of the character too; I made a lot of mistakes with point allocation and spell choices.

The ability which places a high drain on your mana and boosts your combat rating is a toggle off/on jobby so you can stand back with your staff and fling spells until matters require you to get closer, then turn it on and swap your weapon set to your sword (or whatever). Until you turn that ability on the only difference compared to a standard mage is your ability to equip heavy weapons and armour thanks to subbing your magic stat for strength.

The final ability in the skill tree is a bit good too. Boosted mana rengen plus better chance to dodge attacks! The tier 3 spell is a high powered defensive model that will keep you alive through nearly anything - for a short time, as it burns through mana like there's no tomorrow. Perfect for those battles where things go badly wrong and you need to scramble ASAP for anything that might keep you alive long enough to pull things back.

Note: You don't want to load up in heavy armour if you go this route. The heavier your armour the more enemy attention your character gets. High level weapons, that's another matter. I use the best quality light leather armour and a high end long sword. When it comes to close combat I can kill faster with a blade than Alistair or Sten, and toss in close range flame and lightning bursts as and when they recharge. However I reckon I spend 75% of my time at a range playing traditional mage.

I picked up healer as my second specialisation. Meh. Powerful healing spells and resurrection. If you use Wynne it's useless, if not then it's a lot more valuable.

Be wary of blood mages. From the way the world treats them I expect choosing that option will put you in for a lot of pain. It's hard to see good party members sticking with you for a start.

Time to spend the excess gold on tomes eh?

Better yet, save before you buy the tome and then reload. That way you get the specialisation and keep the gold. Same applies for places where you need to make a decision you don't want in order to get it as a reward; save, make the choice and wait for the pop up box, reload.

I'm only missing two warrior specialisations now. I got all of the mage ones a while ago, and picked up the final rouge one last night.