Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[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.

[FactionHeir]

Well my digital ended up working fine, not sure why I didn't run into the same problem as Monk. But then again he made me aware of it first!

Got all my DLC to work and am into the first mission outside camp now. Combat so far has been fairly easy even though I started the game on Hard. Playing as Human Noble Warrior. I should note that my henchies usually bite the dust fairly easily for some reason. I guess the DLC makes a huge difference in survivability.

A few bugs so far. When I wanted to use my pregenerated human noble Warrior from the chargen, the background story was listed as "Dwarf Noble"

So I had to recreate...at least they managed to fix the stubble = hollow cheek bug.

The other issues have mainly been around slight clipping issues and loads of spelling errors at various points. Mainly in one-liners.

Also notice that I really need to run V-Sync with DA:O, without, the screen gets rather messy in cutscenes especially.

Liked the intro story a lot, though it was a bit sad.

[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

[Vladimir]

I gotta stop watching the videos. They're too motivating. It's a pity that more of my friends don't get into PC games much; I could really geek out over this one.

I think I'll strap on the tin can to fight in Froggy's stead; pretend I'm a pally once again. We'll see. It depends on if there's more depth in playing a, flexible, character.

[Xiahou]

After seeing the tidal wave of glowing reviews, I decided to give the game a go. So far, so good.

For my first character, I finally settled on "vanilla"- a gruff, hardboiled human warrior. As soon as I had a skill point to do it with, I picked up dual wield and chucked the shield in favor of a dagger. It seems to be working pretty well for me so far- the stats tell me that my character does 54% of the party's total damage. I completed the "origins" segment without falling in battle and got a couple of nice achievements to show for it.

I'm really enjoying the storyline so far, even if it has been a bit predictable....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I could see both the betrayals coming from a mile off.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My father's bannerman's army is late and all he offers is some lame excuse? AND the castle will only be left with a skeleton force? I can't see anything bad coming from that.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The king's general just looked like a creep. I think the second time I saw his face I thought to myself "he's totally gonna betray us"

[Monk]

I'm really enjoying the storyline so far, even if it has been a bit predictable....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I could see both the betrayals coming from a mile off.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My father's bannerman's army is late and all he offers is some lame excuse? AND the castle will only be left with a skeleton force? I can't see anything bad coming from that.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The king's general just looked like a creep. I think the second time I saw his face I thought to myself "he's totally gonna betray us"

Spoil tastic! Don't read unless you're passed your origin story and at least 2 hours in game! (passed your origin story and the first plot quest)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sadly I know what you mean. They did go a bit cliche in the beginning, but hey, I will take cliche over complete any day. The story actually has me interested, I was on the edge of my seat when Duncan took down that Ogre single-handedly only to turn and see the King wasn't getting up.

It's not so much great writing as it has been amazing presentation and characterization. The king wasn't someone I was invested in, but Duncan certainly was a man I liked. If anything, that is what DA:O has impressed me with, I like these characters. Hey I even genuinely hate a couple two, and one of which is someone i've come to loathe... but oddly i find myself taking her advice a lot.

It's also good to hear you all aren't having massive trouble with the Digital Ed like I did on my first day.

[Zenicetus]

I gotta stop watching the videos. They're too motivating. It's a pity that more of my friends don't get into PC games much; I could really geek out over this one.

I think I'll strap on the tin can to fight in Froggy's stead; pretend I'm a pally once again. We'll see. It depends on if there's more depth in playing a, flexible, character.

FYI, there isn't a direct equivalent to Paladin in this game. The closest thing to a Paladin is a Templar, a warrior specialization that exists to keep the scary mages under control. Templars get bonuses against magic users, but they can't use magic as healers. The Templar/Mage conflict will affect many interactions in the game. I'm playing as a mage, and I'm starting to really hate those guys.

[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.