Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[al Roumi]

Ran into a bug in a new playthrough btw:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Went to Lothering, but figured I should rpobably go to Denerim first before doing anything since I wanted the Archivist belt that increased XP from codex by 50%. So I just did some small quests and off I went to camp first. Bought some stuff and sold DLC items I didn't need. Then went to Denerim, did some minor things and returned to Lothering.
After finishing Lothering (except Sten, because I want to train my persuade up first) and going to Camp I found that Bodahn had the same wares as if I had never met him before. As in he even restocked that skill tome I bought! Also, all my companion convos in Camp suggested I was never in Camp. Total deja-vu!

Re: Sten

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Be careful you don't do too much before going back to pick him up. I left it too late and Lothering had been destroyed by the blight -Sten too!

I had done the Redclife village, Redclife castle & circle of mages quest sections aswell as both Shale & Warden's keep DLC bits though. Not sure at what point it was deemed I'd left it too long, but I'm assuming the event trigger would be tied to main quest achievemnets... maybe even the CGI cutscenes.

Apparently, you can pick him up easily enough without persuade if you either:
1. Pick the lock (not sure how people in Lothering respond to that)
2. Have Leliana in the party (you may still need some persuade for this to work)

[Meneldil]

Finished the game. Overall I'm not sure whether I'm disappointed or not.

The game was advertised as the new Baldur's Gate, and well, it fails to deliver. Hard.
That, and the role playing part of the game is still very much Black&White (TM). Some dialogue options don't make sense at all.
Furthermore the whole "original fantasy setting inspired by G Martin's books" is a total fail. Sure, there are some original stuffs, such as the way dwarves and elves are regarded, but that's about it. At no point during the game I thought something like "Wow, that's cool" or "Really nice plot here". And the way the supposedly grimdark universe and useless gore are down on your throat is silly as hell. Please Bioware, do not do that anymore, ever.

But, the game looked so terribad in the trailers that I have to give it credit for being quite decent, or even good, despite many flaws. It still doesn't replace BG2 in my earth, but it was fun, though honestly less fun than NWN2+MotB.

[FactionHeir]

Re: Sten

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Be careful you don't do too much before going back to pick him up. I left it too late and Lothering had been destroyed by the blight -Sten too!

I had done the Redclife village, Redclife castle & circle of mages quest sections aswell as both Shale & Warden's keep DLC bits though. Not sure at what point it was deemed I'd left it too long, but I'm assuming the event trigger would be tied to main quest achievemnets... maybe even the CGI cutscenes.

Apparently, you can pick him up easily enough without persuade if you either:
1. Pick the lock (not sure how people in Lothering respond to that)
2. Have Leliana in the party (you may still need some persuade for this to work)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yeah I think its doing 2 main quests that destroys Lothering.
I got him with Lel in my first playthrough, but I wanted my PC to be able to sway the Mother this time around, just to see how the dialogue differs

[TinCow]

The game was advertised as the new Baldur's Gate, and well, it fails to deliver. Hard.
That, and the role playing part of the game is still very much Black&White (TM). Some dialogue options don't make sense at all.
Furthermore the whole "original fantasy setting inspired by G Martin's books" is a total fail. Sure, there are some original stuffs, such as the way dwarves and elves are regarded, but that's about it. At no point during the game I thought something like "Wow, that's cool" or "Really nice plot here". And the way the supposedly grimdark universe and useless gore are down on your throat is silly as hell. Please Bioware, do not do that anymore, ever.

I'm not finished with the game yet, so I'll have to wait and see what the ending is like before commenting, but so far I do feel like DA:O is worthy of being ranked with Baldur's Gate in the RPG Hall of Fame. No, the game does not have quite the same number of dialog options as, say, PS:T or FO1/2, but I do feel it's on-par with the BG series. There are a lot of different sides to take, a lot of morally ambiguous choices to make, and the game allows you to justify your actions in ways which are far, far more varied than most RPGs ever allow.

I'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.

The battles are very tactical in nature and remind me greatly of the BG series (I am doing a TON of reloading, and that's just in normal difficulty). The character classes can use a bit of polishing, but all in all its not too bad. The DA universe may not be George Martin, but it's certainly a nice change of pace from the usual Forgotten Realms setting, and I'm interested to see them explore it more. I'm also very impressed with the amount of dialog and backstory that we're provided with. This isn't a Bethsoft game, where every NPC reply is 5 words long. There are some meaty conversations in this game, and that doesn't even include the monstrous Codex entries, which are very interesting to read.

Again, I'm not done with the game yet, so this is still a 'tentative' review, but so far this game gets two thumbs up for me. If it continues the way it has been so far, I do expect to end up ranking this game up there with the BG series. Keep in mind that this is just the first game in a planned series. It would be inappropriate to compare DA:O to BG/TotSC/BG2/ToB. To get a proper comparison, you should compare DA:O to BG1 vanilla. On that level, I might even put DA:O over the top.

[frogbeastegg]

DA:O is the subject of this week's Zero Punctuation. I have to agree with a lot he says, including the part about playing for 25 hours and liking the game even though you're complaining a lot. "Dragon Age is not dark fantasy, nor is it light grey, caffeine free or avocado fantasy. It's just straight fantasy classic."

I'm going to take a break from DA for a bit. Assassin's Creed II should arrive tomorrow, and I could use a change of virtual scenery.

[Vladimir]

II'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.

I guess you missed the anal sex scene in Final Fantasy VII.

Anyway, I believe this is more a result of their "dark" *yawn* motif. Incorporating realistic and morally flexible options. I hate to think that the incorporation of "controversial" content is a path designers will take to produce the next epic.

Besides, everyone knows elves are bi.

[TinCow]

DA:O is the subject of this week's Zero Punctuation. I have to agree with a lot he says, including the part about playing for 25 hours and liking the game even though you're complaining a lot. "Dragon Age is not dark fantasy, nor is it light grey, caffeine free or avocado fantasy. It's just straight fantasy classic."

My biggest complaint so far is the camera interface. On the PC version, there's a 'top down' camera angle, which is a nice throw-back to the IE games. It's a major improvement over NWN, but it still has some issues:

1) It doesn't zoom out quite far enough. Another few clicks of the mousewheel would have been nice.
2) There is no intermediate step between the furthest back 'third person' view and the top-down view. That shift is a huge one, and there are plenty of times when I wish I was somewhere in between.
3) The third person camera doesn't allow for easy pathfinding in a lot of places that high tight passageways. It's annoying to have to click all over the place just to find a spot that works.

Anyway, I believe this is more a result of their "dark" *yawn* motif. Incorporating realistic and morally flexible options. I hate to think that the incorporation of "controversial" content is a path designers will take to produce the next epic.

That alone does not make a good game, but dealing with mature subject matter in a mature manner certainly helps to make the game itself more mature. The somewhat extreme (for the time) nature of the Fallout games is one of the things most often cited when they are praised as paragons (HA!) of the RPG world. It would seem strange to give praise to FO for that, but deny it to DA:O for the same thing.

[Lemur]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yeah I think its doing 2 main quests that destroys Lothering.
I got him with Lel in my first playthrough, but I wanted my PC to be able to sway the Mother this time around, just to see how the dialogue differs

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I believe this is incorrect. Completing a single ally quest appears to destroy Lothering. That's what you get for going on a road trip in a blight, doofus.

[FactionHeir]

Lemur

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This time around I have done just about all the locales except for the final part that triggers the alliance proper. So much for roadtrip

Got a problem with Leliana with my Dalish female elf this time though

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For some reason I simply cannot get her personal quest to trigger (i.e. talk about bards/spies). I got her chantry talk and 2 romance talks and her influence on 92 and on adore, but no option to talk about bards...I can even get her to tell me stories.
Tried camping a lot. Doesn't do it either.

[Beskar]

Stumbled by pure chance over the fact that 1.01b is out for the PC now. Not sure what the difference to 1.01a is but I installed it and it runs.

They really need a better system of informing people regarding updates, like having an autoupdater in the launcher or so.

Steam?

[al Roumi]

I'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My male dwarf commoner rogue er, enjoyed, a "massage" from Zevran last night. Worse, I got the "Easy Lover" achievement for it....

oh man, that is so corny.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Zevran is also the only NPC to have fallen for my diminutive avatar, depsite me pestering Morrigan and Leliana as much as possible.

I've had Morrigan in my party consistently (only just killed Flemeth though) and admitedely not ever used Leliana but I've been gifting them and exhausting all avenues of discussion -apparently to no avail.

Any hints?

[Greyblades]

Gifts? There are afew gifts in the game that some characters want more than the others.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For example sten realy likes paintings for some reason.

[Meneldil]

After spending more than one hour trying to improve my influence with all my party members, I left the game to discover that my gf had been spamming me over MSN for all that time.

Alistair approves (+4)
Girlfriend disapproves (-10)

I'm still somewhat baffled by the way influence works, especially with Morrigan. You can lose 10 influence by simply asking a question and then gain 7 or so even though it looks like you're annoying her.
As for Sten, he's so annoying I'm not sure I want to improve my relations with him during this second playthrough. I don't feel like going through half a billion of "No."'s once again. First time ever I feel like a video game character is making fun of me.

[FactionHeir]

Sten is quite interesting. At the start, you get mainly +1-+3, with chances of big minuses.
Once you get him to around 25 influence via gifts, you can raise his influence by 15+ with each dialogue.

[Beskar]

I'm still somewhat baffled by the way influence works, especially with Morrigan. You can lose 10 influence by simply asking a question and then gain 7 or so even though it looks like you're annoying her.

Because you are asking her why she is here and why won't she go. She sees it as an insult.

In short:
"Why are YOU here Meneldil? Don't you have some where else better to go?"

[Monk]

Sten is quite interesting. At the start, you get mainly +1-+3, with chances of big minuses.
Once you get him to around 25 influence via gifts, you can raise his influence by 15+ with each dialogue.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the first two dialogues you have with him laugh at his "jokes", you get +8 each time. Also when he says he can't report back to his homeland tell him "Well, you can stay with us then" for a +12 boost. That should push you very close to the 25 mark, if not hit it.

An example:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What were you doing in that cage?
Sitting. As you observed.
Ha ha. Very funny.
Thank you.
Just give me an answer.
I did. We should move on.

Sten approves +8

[FactionHeir]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yeah, I got the stay with us part, I never managed to get the sitting part right. I thought Haha very funny would alienate him

[Monk]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yeah, I got the stay with us part, I never managed to get the sitting part right. I thought Haha very funny would alienate him

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I thought that at first too, but apparently (where Sten is concerend) all the parts where you compliment his sense of humor are meant as serious. Or at least he takes them as serious comments, maybe he just doesn't understand Sarcasm?

Telling Sten he's funny is the best way to get his approval rating up, barring gifts and his companion quest.

[rajpoot]

I found Sten one of the most interesting characters....I mean he was done far better than the Krogan in ME.
Morrigan was nice and mysterious, but I found Sten better.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I can never forget what he liks most about Ferelden.....Cookies?!
"You have these small sweet things here, we have no name for it...."
"....Something must be done about that"
And the scene with the dog, at the camp. Sten was the only companion who actually took a fancy to the dog.

Edit :
Sequel-

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Somehow I feel that the child they mentioned at the end, that Morrigan was carrying, will play a big part. Maybe the villen.....
And the brother, Fergus, I don't know why, but his coming back at the very end makes me think he'll be there too, again.

[Monk]

I found Sten one of the most interesting characters....I mean he was done far better than the Krogan in ME.
Morrigan was nice and mysterious, but I found Sten better.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I can never forget what he liks most about Ferelden.....Cookies?!
"You have these small sweet things here, we have no name for it...."
"....Something must be done about that"
And the scene with the dog, at the camp. Sten was the only companion who actually took a fancy to the dog.

I disagree, but I am heavily biased. Wrex is my all time favorite Bioware character, but I do like Sten.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He strikes me as Canderous (from KOTOR) without all the war stories, he's definitely a man out of place in Fereldan. The scene with Dog was priceless, however, I never would have expected Sten to bond with him. If you recover the Qunari's sword, they have more dialogue together.

As for Morrigan:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What is even more interesting is if you don't agree to the deal.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

She leaves and heads to Orlais, managing to join the court of the Empress.

I think its safe to say no matter what ends up as the canonical ending for DA:O (or if they take a ME2 route, now THAT i'd love to see!) Morrigan will play a big role in the sequel.

[FactionHeir]

Morrigan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Huh Orlais? I thought that was Leliana? Morrigan (even without Ritual) always ends up seen somewhere and then disappearing with child. During that playthrough, my main was romantically involved with her and I tried both ritual and no ritual with same ending.

[rajpoot]

As for Morrigan:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What is even more interesting is if you don't agree to the deal.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

She leaves and heads to Orlais, managing to join the court of the Empress.

I think its safe to say no matter what ends up as the canonical ending for DA:O (or if they take a ME2 route, now THAT i'd love to see!) Morrigan will play a big role in the sequel.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I did some relaoding of old saves, and Morrigan's ending is always the same. If you did not kill Flemeth, I think it says that Morrigan was killed or something. If you did kill Flemeth, it will always be that she went and vanished in the mountains and was never heard from again, though someone of her description was seen with a child, rumoured to be that of the Grey Warden himself.

Most mysteriously, at the very end, if you let Alister kill the dragon, you reach the court and are talking with all your companions and everything, then, right behind Sten, there is this fox kind of animal, looking ALOT like the thing into which Morrigan turns, as she leaves Redcliffe castle at night, once you refuse her offer......I tried to talk to it, but it seemed to just stand there and do nothing.....Did anyone else find out what that is?

[Meneldil]

New DLC announced.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You get to go back to Ostragar, find the (retard) King's armor, and the dog if you don't already have him. I hope it will be more exciting than WD :-(

[Monk]

Morrigan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Huh Orlais? I thought that was Leliana? Morrigan (even without Ritual) always ends up seen somewhere and then disappearing with child. During that playthrough, my main was romantically involved with her and I tried both ritual and no ritual with same ending.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

No It wasn't Leliana, in my last play through Leli simply "disappeared". Probably because I didn't kill her old lover/boss, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's dead.

I coulda swore i saw an addendum to Morrigan's ending, having sacrificed myself as a female warden that said she ended up in the imperial courts.

[FactionHeir]

Morrigan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'll let you know how it goes this time then. Playing female dalish rogue.

Re DLC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well the warmor wouldn't really be worth it I imagine with some many top armors already available and only 2 characters really needing it. Final part of the game is a pushover where you don't need any armor almost as just about everything dies in 1 hit or 2.

As for the dog, anyone already gets it, no? Human noble in origin, rest after Ostagar if you picked the flower.

[Monk]

Morrigan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'll let you know how it goes this time then. Playing female dalish rogue.

Re DLC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well the warmor wouldn't really be worth it I imagine with some many top armors already available and only 2 characters really needing it. Final part of the game is a pushover where you don't need any armor almost as just about everything dies in 1 hit or 2.

As for the dog, anyone already gets it, no? Human noble in origin, rest after Ostagar if you picked the flower.

Please do. It was 5 am afterall, maybe I was seeing things. If so I will gladly retract my statement!

On the new DLC -

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's gonna be $5 for another loot crawl, probably shorter or on par with WK. Personally I think I will save my money and stear clear. Unless they release more DLC akin to "stone prisoner" i doubt i will be buying much Dragon Age DLC. A trip back to Ostagar? Yawn..

As someone on RPS said "A chance to get the King's armor? Yes, because his armor worked so well for him, why in the world would I want it?"

edit: also i feel like I am spamming up this thread, time to bury myself in l4d2 for a little bit. Sorry for rapid fire posting!

[frogbeastegg]

Have you Sven and Morrigon fans heard the pair of 'wandering around' banters where she (minor spoilers)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Makes a pass at him, and gets rejected. Then later on he changes his mind and starts listing all the armour she'd need and keeps warning her she's probably going to die, whereupon she loses interest and practically starts running in the opposite direction.

He's such a straightly played character that I couldn't decide if he was serious or not.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I coulda swore i saw an addendum to Morrigan's ending, having sacrificed myself as a female warden that said she ended up in the imperial courts.

You aren't going mad; I saw that too. It's presence or absence must be determined by your character's gender and ending choice. My female character (ending spoilers)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

rejected the offer and was forced to watch Alistair sacrifice himself because he was in love with my character and wouldn't let her die.

[Krusader]

Have you Sven and Morrigon fans heard the pair of 'wandering around' banters where she (minor spoilers)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Makes a pass at him, and gets rejected. Then later on he changes his mind and starts listing all the armour she'd need and keeps warning her she's probably going to die, whereupon she loses interest and practically starts running in the opposite direction.

I linked two Youtube videos showing that earlier in thread

Playing a Dalish Elf Rogue now and using Alistair as tank. Working like a charm.

[frogbeastegg]

I linked two Youtube videos showing that earlier in thread

Heh, is that what they were? I didn't watch them because I'd rather see things play out in-game.

[LeftEyeNine]

Am I just ignorant or is this the thread to smash the records of concealed content on teh interwebz ?