Roderick

Dragon Age

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I've read that Dragon Age has around 75 hours of gameplay in it, it's taken me over a week of continual playing to complete on a Human Noble Warrior, but I did thoroughly enjoy most of it.

I actually found I didn't really like the combat, mostly because I come from an FPS background and just sitting back while my character seemingly missed most of their attacks became frustrating, but eventually worked out for the better.

The character interactions were quite good though, a lot of talking, but it was quite interesting the first time.

Time to replay as an Elf I think.

Moelman, that's the second to last quest, the last being the final battle in Denerim I don't like the fact, like what BioWare did in Mass Effect, that once you finish the game, you cannot do anything with that character. I would have much preferred to go out, see the crowd that you can hear cheering and do other things. My only gripe really.

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Does that change your answer at all?

Well, no. Because it sounds like you seriously dislike RPGs.

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I've become addicted, spent the whole weekend playing it. I kind of dislike that each main location I go to pulls me into a 5-10 hour long quest in that location. I'm in the Dwarwen

deep roads

now and the combat starts feeling like filler. Not that I don't like it but it's just so time consuming. I'd like it a lot more if the game had 3+ times less combat.

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I'm in the Dwarwen

deep roads

now and the combat starts feeling like filler. Not that I don't like it but it's just so time consuming. I'd like it a lot more if the game had 3+ times less combat.

I started over last week and decided to go to the places where i hadn't been first, all I have to say is f@$#% F#$%ing dwarves. Jesus christ, the most incompetant race in this world, they can't do one damn thing for themselves. The dwarf city is literally an entire game on it's own with all these tasks that usually end up in a grueling 1-3 hour dungeon crawl where I'm getting the crap beaten out of me. Top that off with them not getting any new goods into the city(I've cleaned out the supply on health potions and crafting goods for health potions) and it's just endlessly going on.

I thought the other places I played in my previous game where a little more balanced, the dalish forest felt like a gauntlet, but the dwarves have them beat hands down. Also in context of the story, if i was a dwarf(was in my previous one) or at least a dwarf noble why would I be helping one of these guys do what they want to do when I'm doing all the work? I'll just do the work and take the prize for myself, because damn it, it's a lot of bloody work.

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Yeah, I hate that place. Also because if you want to go back to camp (to get injuries healed for example) you have to trudge your way back to the deep roads, can't quick-travel there. Also, where did you even find health potions on sale in Orzammar? I may have found a couple but no more. And no injury kits.

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Aargh... I'm now at the end of the Deep Roads. I'm facing what I think is the final boss and I'm out of useful supplies, including mana potions. My inventory is filled with crappy darkspawn weaponry.

Either I'll spend 6 times trying to beat the boss in my current state or I'll have to backtrace my steps to the next World Map exit, go to camp to heal injuries, probably go to another city to get supplies, and then make my way back into the end of the Deep Roads...

Neither option is something I'm looking forward to.

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massive deep roads spoilers

Did anyone else get confused because they thought the broodmother(?) tentacle thing was what Branka had been transformed into? I totally got that impression from the way her spooky girlfriend was going on about it.

non deep roads spoilery question re: black vials

Is there a walkthrough thingy anywhere or does someone know where they all are? I have 2,3,4, and I think maybe 5, but I'm clearly missing the first one.

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massive deep roads spoilers

Did anyone else get confused because they thought the broodmother(?) tentacle thing was what Branka had been transformed into? I totally got that impression from the way her spooky girlfriend was going on about it.

I thought the same thing until

I met Branka. The way that other dwarf was going on about whatever definitely gave that impression. I thought that after I beat the Broodmother that that was supposed to be it.

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Damn, I shouldn't have read those spoilers. I also thought she was

Branka (or the other one she named)

.

Anyway I tried to beat the

broodmother

several times, then thought: fuck the dwarves, I'm going to do something else for a while. But now I spent almost all the money I earned in the deep roads on potions and stuff, so I might as well head back there soon while I have them.

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Lol, Errik I just came on in the middle of my game to say fuck the dwarves but you beat me to it.

It's passed the point of not ending, it's actually pretty hilarious because they are consistently not helping me, getting me to do all the work, then taking credit or benefiting from the work I already do.

And yeah I think there were like 2 health potions and maybe(big maybe) injury kit in all of dwarf-ville, so cleaning them out wasn't hard. But I swapped out characters just so they don't all have 3 massive head injuries by the time we get out. I like the blood splatter, but a step further would have been to show my team just wrecked, a step further from that would be having them not be able to say their lines correctly and coughing up blood.

Somehow I think when I talk about this game 5 years from now it'll be,"Oh yeah, that one where your entire team dies in the deeproads... what a weird ending."

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So I did go back and finish the Dwarven quests. The last battles actually did make me use most of the potions I bought, so it was a good investment.

I used lyrium potions instead of the lyrium veins there because of something a dwarf said earlier of the effects of touching a vein, but I guess it doesn't really change anything if you use them. I could have saved a few potions there

I hope I won't have to go back to that stupid place again. Now perhaps I'll do some random side quests and then go looking for the elves.

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So I beat it. Clocked at 55 hours. I think I did a lot of stuff in a non-optimal way and the completionist in me wants to wait for walkthroughs to show up before going at it again.

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I just killed F. That felt both unclimatic and also had a slight taste of game over. I fear that for me, the most interesting parts of the game are over now.

IMHO Morrigan is the most interesting character and now it seems her side quest has ended and I probably won't get much dialogue with her, except her occasional banter with other characters.

Also I regret ending it with Alistair, as Wynne suggested, another mildly amusing aspect of the game seems to have disappeared.

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I just killed F. That felt both unclimatic and also had a slight taste of game over. I fear that for me, the most interesting parts of the game are over now.

IMHO Morrigan is the most interesting character and now it seems her side quest has ended and I probably won't get much dialogue with her, except her occasional banter with other characters.

Also I regret ending it with Alistair, as Wynne suggested, another mildly amusing aspect of the game seems to have disappeared.

It gets interesting with her at the end of the game, but at the same time it pissed me off because of the choice you're forced to make. I agree with you about being the most interesting character though, I definitely looked forward to new dialog with her the most.

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So, question for anyone who's played both: should I get this or Uncharted 2?

I don't usually play RPGs, but this one looks OK. I guess the writing will put me off, but if it's fun enough, maybe the 50 hour play time will keep me sustained till my next batch of games?

As long as it's fun I'll take it, I suppose. I'll just button through the talkey parts if I can't stand them.

So...which one do you guys recommend?

and

Well, it's not like the writing in Uncharted is exactly top class either. I mean, sure, some of it amusing, but I was put-off by the predictable plot, as well as the undeveloped side characters (Elena's handling of a gun, as well as her fighting level and no remorse for blowing a billion people's heads off, being a good example).

Good writing is still a rarity, so its absence won't completely water-down the experience if the game is fun...Does that change your answer at all?

This is confusing. So are you saying you value good writing as a really important aspect to the game you want to buy, or are you saying that you really don't care because you're just going to skip all the dialogue anyway?

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Dwarf City done.

Wow, it's finally over, my character had somewhere around 6-7 injurys by the time I got out of there, honestly, that could have been the game I would have came out pretty happy.

We walked outside for the first time in a week and the dwarf felt a little weird about the sky, after the cut scene was over I looked up and felt frightened... I was down there for far too long.

Also, on the technical side about the DLC golem after the dwarf city

I seemed to have broke him, he doesn't talk and when I go to talk to him I get launched into the skybox and on some maps it's hard to get back to the game map because of collision(at least I don't endlessly fall in the void) but I'm pretty sure it has to do with killing David Carradine.

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Murdoc I am enjoying your posts and I hope you continue to experience more pain and turmoil as you play but just enough so you don't stop playing.

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The Elven forest is a bit better than the Dwarwen mines, but I still dislike that it's a closed off area where you can't go to your camp or eslewhere without walking through several maps.

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This is confusing. So are you saying you value good writing as a really important aspect to the game you want to buy, or are you saying that you really don't care because you're just going to skip all the dialogue anyway?

When it's there, good writing adds a lot to a game (see Portal, Schafer, Telltale etc). But I won't kid myself: it's not a requirement. If the writing is bad but the gameplay is fun, I'll either tolerate it or skip it. My question was, basically, whether Dragon Age is fun enough to play for 50 < hours, because what little I've seen of the writing has been bad. (By "writing" I mean characters, dialogue, the story, etc.)

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My question was, basically, whether Dragon Age is fun enough to play for 50 < hours, because what little I've seen of the writing has been bad. (By "writing" I mean characters, dialogue, the story, etc.)

Well, the combat and other stuff is fun if you like other BioWare games. The writing is not all bad, although rather generic and full of stereotypes. There is at least one really interesting character.

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what little I've seen of the writing has been bad. (By "writing" I mean characters, dialogue, the story, etc.)

The dialogue is a large part of the gameplay. Not knowing which parts you've seen of the writing, it's impossible to say whether that's representative of the whole or not, but IMO the writing in DA:O, while not the best ever, is certainly pretty decent. But then I also think the writing in Uncharted 2 is pretty good (which you also mentioned you thought was poor). I think DA:O is not really worth it if you just want to skip the dialogue/story and kill stuff, level up a character and collect loot. Torchlight or Borderlands are both stronger in that regard (and Torchlight is a lot cheaper to boot). Uncharted 2 is still worthwhile if you skip the dialogue/story.

But again, I like the story in DA:O and have spent more time with it than the time I've spent with Torchlight and Borderlands combined. Your mileage may vary.

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When it's there, good writing adds a lot to a game (see Portal, Schafer, Telltale etc). But I won't kid myself: it's not a requirement. If the writing is bad but the gameplay is fun, I'll either tolerate it or skip it. My question was, basically, whether Dragon Age is fun enough to play for 50 < hours, because what little I've seen of the writing has been bad. (By "writing" I mean characters, dialogue, the story, etc.)
It definitely fits the "BioWare Template". Behold:

dgnbxk.png

So did you enjoy the writing in BioWare's other games? :mock:

Honestly though I thought the writing was fine, there are definitely a few very well done characters. I definitely skipped through some dialog throughout the game if it was boring or not important though.

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Thanks for the responses and the help, everyone. I think I'll hold-out and wait for the price to drop.

Uncharted 2 is pretty good (which you also mentioned you thought was poor).

I haven't played Uncharted 2 yet, but I thought the writing in the original was OK at certain times, needing work at others.

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Is anyone else having performance problems with the PC version? I noticed earlier that it must have a memory leak or something: after a couple of hours of playing, things slow down. So I restarted the game after every couple of hours. But now, after being to the Alienage, this happens after every couple of minutes and it slows down so much that it becomes unplayable. The alienage started it, but after that it happens everywhere.

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Erkki: I haven't encountered anything like that, and i've played for some truly mammoth sessions.

although like murdoc, my DLC Golem is broken too. Sometimes when I talk to him the game kills itself. Also, later on his model changed into the standard golem one and exploded itself.

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