Dragon Age: Origins - Anyone playing?

[OdoWanKenobi]

Shale is hilarious, though, so it's worth it.

And in the Sacred Ashes quest if you do it the bad way, you can still keep Leliana (albeit with a large approval penalty) if she's in your party, or you can lie to her at camp if she wasn't. Wynne however, will leave no matter what.

 

[Sheep]

Finally finished the game last night. I stand by my assessment that the game's difficulty is completely broken when playing as a warrior; for that, I can't rate this game anything higher than an 8 out of 10. Maybe it works fine with a mage who can do a ton of area damage or a ton of damage to one enemy, but it's AWFUL with a dual-wielding warrior regardless of who you have in your party (my preferred team was Shale, my mabari and Morrigan). I'd be shocked if anyone could get through the Xbox 360 version without turning the difficulty at multiple points.

That said, the story is great, with a ton of twists I didn't see coming. My own actions were perfectly consistent with my character interactions although I triggered one thing I never saw coming:

Spoiler: Who leaves, who stays

I was pretty middle of the road with Alistair, but thought he would make a shit king so I picked Arona to be queen, which promptly drove him off for good. In turn, that triggered a sequence in which I got to make Loghain a Grey Warden by going through the Joining. I thought that would be a death sentence that would piss off Arona. Not in a million years did I think he'd actually survive it and join my party as a Grey Warden. I wound up doing the "dark deed" with Morrigan to spare my own life. Awkward video game baby making FTL. I hope the sequel somehow takes that into account, although I'm guessing it won't.

Spoiler: Who left, who got some

In completely unrelated spoilers, I wound up asking Sten to leave--he was useless as a tank and was completely overshadowed by Shale once I figured out the little card in the package had a code on the back too. Zevran wound up turning on me, so I killed him and his Crow buddies. I was trying to chat up Morrigan but wound up with Leliana who was somehow completely enamored with me despite my not really putting forth any effort. Awkward video game hookups FTL too.

I'd probably play through as another class and gender and pick all the paths I didn't choose, although the thought of romancing with Zevran or Alistair doesn't really do much for me.

 

[firehawk12]

I found the warrior shield path to be great for tanking. But if you don't play mage, Wynne is basically completely necessary to play through the game (either that, or someone with high potion making skills).

 

[AdAstra]

Just finished my first playthrough, as a mage. I ended as a level 20 Arcane Warrior/Shapeshifter. I think I played on normal difficulty, and never had to lower the difficulty to pass battles. I usually had Wynne, one of the warriors and either Morrigan or Zevran, and they were able to get past most encounters.

Great game, and I had to make some tough choices which actually made me uncomfortable. That said, I didn't lose a single one of my party, even though I had a few close calls.

 

[Kegg]

Well, I did a complete playthrough. As a Dwarf Noble rogue. Bard/Assassin speciality, on the basis of why the hell not, I usually go with whatever I find interesting.

Played on easy; so the game was something I could always master once I got Wynne and an insane number of potions (which I usually did).

The story was great and a particularly liked my character's origin story. Dragon Age doesn't pull any surprises, it's basically the same RPG kind of story I've seen a dozen times over, but it just does it generally really well. Some sequences are better than others, naturally - even as a starter area, Lothering soon felt rather pointless, but the Orzammar arc was suitably epic.

. My own actions were perfectly consistent with my character interactions although I triggered one thing I never saw coming:

Spoiler: Who leaves, who stays

I was pretty middle of the road with Alistair, but thought he would make a shit king so I picked Arona to be queen, which promptly drove him off for good. In turn, that triggered a sequence in which I got to make Loghain a Grey Warden by going through the Joining. I thought that would be a death sentence that would piss off Arona. Not in a million years did I think he'd actually survive it and join my party as a Grey Warden. I wound up doing the "dark deed" with Morrigan to spare my own life. Awkward video game baby making FTL. I hope the sequel somehow takes that into account, although I'm guessing it won't.

Spoiler: same thing

You think yours was awkward? I was a female Grey Warden, and I also had Loghain. So I got to see the ex-Teyrn make some hot marsh witch action.

Actually I kinda liked that, it had a Crais/Aeryn vibe to it for some reason. I'm also curious as to how the sequel will pan out, since the ending scroll implies that maybe my character will be back.

As far as I handled the rest of the characters, well, it was a mixed bundle.

Spoiler: The rest

I never really hit it off with Alistair, even before turfing the guy for Loghain. I molly-coddled the whiny, Carth Onasi-esque brat, but he just could not get over me using blood magic to sacrifice his precious Isalt. Sheesh, kid, it's not like I was going to run off to the Tower of Mages, I'm on a schedule here.

Combined with that and how cool Teyrn Loghain was as a character (if you get him, have some conversations with the guy - interesting fellow, that) it was a painfully easy choice to ditch him. I never got along well with Morrigan either because although my Dwarf Noble tended to be painfully self-serving, she also did Right Thing if given a chance, and Morrigan wasn't keen on that. Despite this I did maintain a reasonable if slightly frosty rapport with Officer Sun and she stuck around throughout the game.

I was more succesful with... well, everybody else, actually. They all mostly warmed to me (though Oghren not so much) and I got to do most I think of their quests. This is because I habitually court the approval of my characters as much as possible whenever I play an RPG, I tend to bring them aside for multiple chats and say whatever it is I think they want to hear. In my defence story-wise, my characters tend to be duplicituous, politically-minded bastards, so it makes sense. Took me a while to recognise the all encompassing power of Gifts, but once I did I sort of aggressively went after those too. I think gifts and potions were about the only things that stayed in my bags.

Sten was a goddamn monster on the field as a tank and a preferred character for a long time, though I occasionally alternated him with Shale - Alistair I found comparatively useless, because I was lazy and set all the characters to autolevel and guess who never got taunt? That feckless brat...

And I wound up falling in with Zevran in the end, more or less by accident - I was courting the appeal of just about everybody but he seemed to be the only one I activated the romance story for. That romance didn't really seem to go anywhere for my Aeducan cutpurse, but ne'er mind. She's now back in Orzammar lording it over her house and awaiting the sequel where she probably will not be mentioned.

Amusingly, I found this blog spot which rather accurately sums up - better than I could - the gaming experience I had. Really, aside from me not working out with Alistair, this is pretty much what I did.

 

[John Clark]

For my first complete playthrough, I didn't mind Alistair so much.

My second playthrough so far seems to be going out of her way to annoy him completely though.

(Was going to post details, but the spoiler code seems to have entirely deleted what I said?)

 

[donners22]

This game would be so much better if you could just skip some of the combats, a la Disgaea. I've had horrible trouble on the Deep Roads, and there's only so many times you can reload before it gets tiresome.

 

[omegaone]

I've just completed a play through myself, and I really hope they show what becomes of Morrigan in the sequel and that thread isn’t left dangling. I surprisingly managed to keep everyone.

 

[Hitman]

Maybe it works fine with a mage who can do a ton of area damage or a ton of damage to one enemy, but it's AWFUL with a dual-wielding warrior regardless of who you have in your party (my preferred team was Shale, my mabari and Morrigan). I'd be shocked if anyone could get through the Xbox 360 version without turning the difficulty at multiple points.

Don't know about the 360 version, but on the PC, playing with a dual-wielding warrior is easy if you have a mage in your group. In fact the only problem I have with this game is how powerful the mages are.

I'm on my second playthough, as a mage, and playing on normal. After completing the origins story, I had to bump the difficulty to hard because it was just too easy. Even with the weak spells, the fights ended quickly and in carnage for the enemies. Sometimes, enemies did not even came close to me before being obliterated.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Finally finished the game last night. I stand by my assessment that the game's difficulty is completely broken when playing as a warrior; for that, I can't rate this game anything higher than an 8 out of 10. Maybe it works fine with a mage who can do a ton of area damage or a ton of damage to one enemy, but it's AWFUL with a dual-wielding warrior regardless of who you have in your party (my preferred team was Shale, my mabari and Morrigan). I'd be shocked if anyone could get through the Xbox 360 version without turning the difficulty at multiple points.

A dual wielding Berserker is a hurricane of carnage. Berserk+momentum= everything dead in seconds. I loved playing as that. Also, may I recommend replacing the dog with either Leliana or Zevran? Shale should be more than enough for your tanking/DPS needs. Also, how did you set up Morrigan? I find I prefered her as a healer to a bomber.

 

[Commander Vaughn]

I definitely had to turn the difficulty down at multiple points in order to make it through the game. I played as a rogue the first time through, and quickly decided that was not a good class. My party was usually Shale, Morrigan, Wynne, and myself.

Mages are very powerful compared to the other classes. Rogues are weak, and warriors don't seem to be much better.

 

[John Clark]

Besides the DLC (some of which I'm thinking about), I'll probably get the add on pack that they're talking about

Just to be on the safe side, there may be some spoilers below.

Trailer can be found here
http://uk.media.xbox360.ign.com/media/056/056423/vids_1.html

General Description:-
http://dragonage.bioware.com/awakening

 

[Kegg]

I got Shale on DLC, which I do strongly recommend. He's pretty much Dragon Age's answer to KOTOR's HK-47, and is about as fun as that sounds.

As far as that expansion pack goes... well, I'm intrigued. One thing I did want to see was more origin stories (I love those), and I'd heard about cut origin stories - the Avvar barbarian, the human commoner. Orlais is a pretty decent place to have an origin; I do hope we get to see the Notre Dame-esque Val Royeux. It balances out the humans as well, who are a little short when it comes to origin stories.

Interesting is this:

Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins

Are they saying we'll get one of the existing characters in-game as a party member? I'm interested as to who the new party members will be, also.

 

[firehawk12]

So is this in Orlais or Ferelden?

 

[Arrqh]

So is this in Orlais or Ferelden?

It takes place in the area around Amaranthine, which is in Ferelden.

 

[firehawk12]

Ah, boo. I guess it wouldn't make sense to recreate medieval France for an expansion pack though. I'm just tired of British accents and English design.

 

[John Clark]

Ah, boo. I guess it wouldn't make sense to recreate medieval France for an expansion pack though. I'm just tired of British accents and English design.

Indeed. I'd have liked to see Val Royeux
Antiva might have been nice too.

 

[clint g]

Well I guess they have to save something for the sequel right?

 

[The Evil Dead]

I could see them adopt the Elder Scrolls method of each new sequel taking us to a new nation within the continent. We get Ferelden now and over the next 2 years see it fully fleshed out with DLC and expansions, then in 2011 or something we get to go to Orlais. Orlais seems to be the one we hear about the most at this point. Thedas is a big place and I can't wait to explore more of it over the years.

 

[Kegg]

Ah, boo. I guess it wouldn't make sense to recreate medieval France for an expansion pack though. I'm just tired of British accents and English design.

A lot of American accents in your Britland. Honestly I'd rather check out Tevinter; a nation of Byzantine Mages. How cool is that?

Anyway, presumably we get to see some of Orlais in the origin story.