Dragon Age Poll: RPG-ness

[Meneldil]

I think the Baldur's Gate series is somewhat unique in that it truly is epic. Other games have claimed to be 'epic' in scale, but they rarely are. In BG, you start as a kid who's never left a glorified library and eventually become a God. Not a 'minor' God either, one of the big ones. The final Throne of Bhaal campaign actually represents these very well, by throwing massive hordes of enemies at you that barely slow you down. You truly feel like you're nearing God-hood when you carve your way through actual armies almost single-handedly. The challenges aren't the mortals you're fighting, they are your fellow competitors for the vacant God seat, and they are also essentially demi-gods themselves.

As for the game being about tactics... there are few games in existence that have ever done tactical combat as well as the BG series. Indeed, by the end of the final campaign, your enemies are so difficult that you often have to use very precisely timed and coordinated tactics to bring down their defenses and eliminate them before they overwhelm you. And that's with the nerfed battles that the game shipped with. The designers later released unofficial mods which restored the final battles to their original difficulty level. Those battles are some of the hardest parts I have ever experienced in any game ever, regardless of genre... and that's WHILE you're essentially a god.

This is one of the reasons people revere the BG series so much: not only a great storyline, but absolutely superb combat from beginning to end.

Two words : Durlag's tower. The best freaking video game dungeon ever.

To my shame, I don't remember that much BG2 expansion. I'd have to replay all the serie just to get to it. I might very well do it if I find the time someday.

[al Roumi]

I always enjoy the game more when you don't need to level, so all you have to worry about is having fun and doing the storyline. Nothing is more annoying to me than having to grind, grind, grind just to get access to snippets of that. A reason I really dislike MMORPG's.

At first I thought I'm more with Zeneticus on this, but then I thought that it shouldn't really be about grinding out out xp to be able to play, the most fun is when you are developing and accessing those new/fresh skills/weapons/tools and using new tactics or options. If you can't play without the skills and your options are limited (i.e. the very early levels as a biotic in ME, or in FO3 trying to fight in VATS without commando or sniper perks), then it can be frustrating and will lead me to play with the primary wish of upping my xp and skills.

[Beskar]

At first I thought I'm more with Zeneticus on this, but then I thought that it shouldn't really be about grinding out out xp to be able to play, the most fun is when you are developing and accessing those new/fresh skills/weapons/tools and using new tactics or options. If you can't play without the skills and your options are limited (i.e. the very early levels as a biotic in ME, or in FO3 trying to fight in VATS without commando or sniper perks), then it can be frustrating and will lead me to play with the primary wish of upping my xp and skills.

I have no problems with psuedo-leveling, which happens in a large part in Dragon Age. Where when you go along playing, you level up at the right pace, so you don't have to grind, but mobs don't become overly easy either.

I dislike the whole MMORPG-esque experience where you have to run around in circles upon circles just to get experience to level up, just to continue the game. The grind-fest style games.

[al Roumi]

I have no problems with psuedo-leveling, which happens in a large part in Dragon Age. Where when you go along playing, you level up at the right pace, so you don't have to grind, but mobs don't become overly easy either.

I dislike the whole MMORPG-esque experience where you have to run around in circles upon circles just to get experience to level up, just to continue the game. The grind-fest style games.

OK, well at this point I should admit I've never played a MMORPG - the very concept of paying for time/xp played put me off. So maybe you are refering to a much greater evil than i imagine :)

[Meneldil]

I always enjoy the game more when you don't need to level, so all you have to worry about is having fun and doing the storyline. Nothing is more annoying to me than having to grind, grind, grind just to get access to snippets of that. A reason I really dislike MMORPG's.

I've played several MMO's and leveled a dozen of characters to the level cap, and I never ever had to grind.
WoW probably has enough quest to level up the same character to the cap three or four times, and both WAR Online and LotRO can be leveled through questing only. And it's most of the time faster and more rewarding than grinding.