Dragon Age Franchise?

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techie81

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Hey I saw that this game is 75% off today on steam. Is it any good?
 
The first one with DLC's would certainly be worth the price.

I would steer clear of DA2. Or play DA2 as a standalone game first and then play DAO. DA2 is not a horrible game by itself but it is a horrifically bad sequel, it may as well be set in outer space.
 
DAO is definitely a worth play game.

Like someone already mention, don't consider DA2 to be a sequel, because it's obviously not and horrible compare to DAO.
Let it be a fan-made game, you will feel better...
 
The first one with DLC's would certainly be worth the price.

I would steer clear of DA2. Or play DA2 as a standalone game first and then play DAO. DA2 is not a horrible game by itself but it is a horrifically bad sequel, it may as well be set in outer space.

Would concur with this.

DA2 is not as bad as many people say. I thought it had an interesting, if myopic story, and some great dialog and voice acting. Can't be compared to the DA1 with the add-ons, however, which is one of the best RPGs in recent times.
 
DAO is a great game, especially given that you can get all the dlc for a steal on Steam. DA2 is and was a pathetic half asked attempt at a sequel that was the last game I'll ever preorder.
 
Would concur with this.

DA2 is not as bad as many people say. I thought it had an interesting, if myopic story, and some great dialog and voice acting. Can't be compared to the DA1 with the add-ons, however, which is one of the best RPGs in recent times.

This. Sadly (or not) I've played DA2 through 3-4 times. DA:O however, twice that, and wish they had twice the content for it. Incredible game.
 
I highly recommend DAO Ultimate Edition. DA2 is an OK game that should only be played as a background story to more of what DA is as a whole rather than a sequel to DAO. I have yet to play any of the DA2 DLC though.
 
Dragon Age Origins is a must play for RPGs fan.

It was one of the last few games that got me really hooked and I even bought the DLCs for it because I couldn't get enough :eek:
 
Another voice for DAO. Great, great game. I never played DA2, so I can't comment on that. It looked bad from the design and early release footage, and the reviews and player experiences bore that out. I'm still holding out hope the 3rd one will be a return to form.
 
I need to try DA:O again. I bought it well over a year ago and played it for a day or two but could never get into it. I thought I'd like it since I love Mass Effect so much. Everybodyraves aabout the game so it must be me.
 
You definitely need to give it another go. The combat takes a while to get used to (it's good once you do, though), but the storytelling and interaction is very much in the vein of ME1, meaning, if you like RPGs at all, it's tough to see why you wouldn't like DAO.
 
Would concur with this.

DA2 is not as bad as many people say. I thought it had an interesting, if myopic story, and some great dialog and voice acting. Can't be compared to the DA1 with the add-ons, however, which is one of the best RPGs in recent times.

Ya I don't get the DA2 hate. I liked it. It wasn't the best game EVAR or anything, but it was fun.

I think part of the issue is some people get too in to the idea that you have to be saving the world in every RPG. You character has to be the big hero that saves everyone, or it isn't worth playing, and DA2 wasn't like that. Your story was more personal. Not to say you didn't do some larger things, but you weren't saving the world, the realm, whatever.

I like that from time to time. I enjoyed Mask of the Betrayer for that reason. You weren't being the big hero, you were dealing with a personal problem, righting a wrong done to you.
 
The first one with DLC's would certainly be worth the price.

I would steer clear of DA2. Or play DA2 as a standalone game first and then play DAO. DA2 is not a horrible game by itself but it is a horrifically bad sequel, it may as well be set in outer space.

I would agree with this approach. If you want to try DA2, play it before DAO because you will be sorely disappointed in 2 after having played the original.

Otherwise I wouldn't even bother with 2. There are plenty of other games that are more worth your time investment.

Ya I don't get the DA2 hate. I liked it. It wasn't the best game EVAR or anything, but it was fun.

I think part of the issue is some people get too in to the idea that you have to be saving the world in every RPG. You character has to be the big hero that saves everyone, or it isn't worth playing, and DA2 wasn't like that. Your story was more personal. Not to say you didn't do some larger things, but you weren't saving the world, the realm, whatever.

I like that from time to time. I enjoyed Mask of the Betrayer for that reason. You weren't being the big hero, you were dealing with a personal problem, righting a wrong done to you.

I really didn't have much problem with the story in DA2, my biggest complaints were the overuse of area maps and the oversimplification of the game's design/mechanics (namely gear management, combat, dialog, and game world size). DA2 felt like a lazily developed, stand-alone expansion pack for DAO rather than an actual sequel.
 
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DA2 clearly had major issues that could have been solved with more time; the major one was the terrible reuse of map after map. It was an OK game, clearly not an actual sequel to DA:O and I think that is where a lot of the "hate" stems from; quite legitimately in some cases.

However there were some things that it tried to do that I really liked. The combat was a bit over the top but is extremely fun (not counting the random spawns, which sucks). And the episodic/chapter nature of the game, with serious time elapsing in between, is a really good idea, if only the story could have been fleshed out more and truly taken advantage of it. The decision making also was suspect, but again I think it was a time crunch, which has been admitted, with EA pushing the game out the door at least 6 months too early.

With more time to give more maps, a more fleshed out story, etc, I think it could easily have been a great game, instead of a flawed good game.
 
My biggest problem with DA2 after the maps and more action oriented combat (create a perfect tactical position just to have 3 guys spawn right on top of my healer) was the story felt like it was created by someone who just glanced at a wikipedia page about DAO's lore. It felt like after they got the base game down Michael Bay came in and decided it needed more explosions.

"What, abominations are actually humans that were corrupted by demons? They are really powerful and everyone is so afraid of them that they keep mages under guard all the time? Screw that, let’s have them pop out of the ground 10 at a time for no reason. Also, when any mage uses blood magic once they need to instantly turn into one. Screw the lore, more blood and explosions!"
 
"What, abominations are actually humans that were corrupted by demons? They are really powerful and everyone is so afraid of them that they keep mages under guard all the time? Screw that, let’s have them pop out of the ground 10 at a time for no reason. Also, when any mage uses blood magic once they need to instantly turn into one. Screw the lore, more blood and explosions!"

QFT for being so accurate to what DA2 felt like to me as well. :D
 
i couldnt get into dragon age origins at all... could not be compared to mass effect even in the slightest if you ask me
 
If anything, DA:O is more comparable to KOTOR than Mass Effect. Mass Effect (particularly 2 and 3) is a very different type of game.

I loved Origins, but I have to say that except for the bigger expansion Awakenings, all of the DLC for it felt like very shoddily constructed cash grabs. I'd skip them all if they weren't part of the bundle.
 
The only real comparable to DA:O and ME is the decisions having very different consequences, team members leaving/dying, etc.
 
The only real comparable to DA:O and ME is the decisions having very different consequences, team members leaving/dying, etc.

Except it is fairly easy to conclude that the vast majority of dialog decisions in Mass Effect have minimal actual effect... As you can pick either red or blue options and still get the same result most of the time.

DAO doesn't even color code the decision to even give you a clue what the response does.
 
Honestly, I didnt like DAO too much. It wasn't until there were a significant amount of mods that I finished. And I only finished because I was already so powerful after beating the incredibly hard and rewarding mods, and figured... why the hell not just finish this damn thing.
 
I need to try DA:O again. I bought it well over a year ago and played it for a day or two but could never get into it. I thought I'd like it since I love Mass Effect so much. Everybodyraves aabout the game so it must be me.

I think I'm experiencing this too...I just started the download on steam and I'll give it another shot.
 
As everyone and their mother has said, DA:O is incredible and should be required reading...er, playing for every RPG fan.

I liked DA2 more than others. It had some major flaws- the way combat was handled, for instance, meant that all the strategy you learned to play with in Origins is useless to you in this game. I also hated a part of the ending, but I really did like the concept- telling a cohesive story that covers decades of a hero's life. Worth playing, but it's not as good as Origins.
 
I loved the original, but hated the second one...like most people. Beyond recycling the same levels over and over, the battles were just horrid. Random spawning enemies and chaining special attacks one after another simply made the game torture to play. For that matter, the plot went nowhere and the whole game felt unfinished at every turn. Even the DX11 effects were poorly implemented and are still system hogs after all this time. I think the only good thing about the game would be the fight animations, which honestly are pretty nice.

The devs long admitted that the game was rushed and per some coders on [H], there are references to other chapters, areas, enemies, etc. throughout the game that Bioware never had time to implement.
They seem to be interested in making DA3 a good game again and are taking their time and even asking for community feedback. No clue if that’ll make this one back to the level of quality as the first DA, but it certainly can’t hurt!
 
I have a tinge of hope for DA3. No clue if it will be worth the wait though.
 
I dug Dragon Age...

I didn't Dig Dragon Age 2...

Its no Dark Souls but still pretty good worth full price so easily worth discounted price.
 
I played both. DA2 wasn't bad at all, but DA:O was better.

The only problem I had with DA2 was that the map wasn't as epic. You were stuck in tiny town, with a few outside places to go, and the entire story revolved around you continually revisting these places over and over. There was no sense of a new discovery.

What kept me going was that I actually enjoyed the story of DA:2.
 
Still have very fond memories of DA:O.

Spent several months playing it while laid off and then ripping out the audio files to use on my phone. For the longest time when I got a text on my phone it would have Sandal yelling out "Enchantment!".

Good times.
 
I LOVED DA:O, one of my favorite rpgs in the past decade, and a good throwback to a Baldur's Gate style rpg.

Good storyline, great characters and writing (Morrigan for example, oen of the most well written characters in an rpg imo, once you get to know her character, uncover her mysteries, etc). Anders is also one of the more hilarious companions, and most of all of them are very well rounded and developed.

Combat was good and tactical. Plenty of variety to develop your characters and companions. Overall a great rpg, well worth the full price I paid for it when it came out, and easily worth the cheap price you can find it out now. I highly recommend DA:O.

Ya I don't get the DA2 hate. I liked it. It wasn't the best game EVAR or anything, but it was fun.

I think part of the issue is some people get too in to the idea that you have to be saving the world in every RPG. You character has to be the big hero that saves everyone, or it isn't worth playing, and DA2 wasn't like that. Your story was more personal. Not to say you didn't do some larger things, but you weren't saving the world, the realm, whatever.

I like that from time to time. I enjoyed Mask of the Betrayer for that reason. You weren't being the big hero, you were dealing with a personal problem, righting a wrong done to you.


The problems I had with DA2:

1. No more variety in your character. No more race selection, no more backround selection, you were Hawke, a pre determined Human with a set in stone backstory. No more Human noble, or elf from the slums, it was taken away from you.

2. No more choice and variety for your companions. This was a HUGE deal imo. You no longer were able to really develop your companions how you wanted. Their skill paths weren't as varied. If you wanted a Healer? Anders, Anders is the ONLY person you can use as a full healer. I hated Anders character, I much rather wanted your sister to be the healer, she' s amage as well, but guess what! You can't make her a healer. Unlike in DA:O where you could take your companions and shape them. You want a helaer? You didn't HAVE to use Wynn, you could easily develop Morrigan into a healer. Alistar? You could make him into a dps, a tank, etc. It was your choice.

Then on top of all of this, you could no longer outfit your companions either. Just upgrade pre-determined armour/looks. If you found armour that was kickass for a tanky guy, you either had to use it yourself, or sell it, that was it. You lost all sense of progression in terms of itemization for your companions.

3. Dumbed down combat. I do not know what they were thinking, DA:O had great tactical combat. You could set up your tactics, use your AOE/Mages and traps/CC so well, you could make smart use of tactics and overcome much greater odds if you played wisely. In DA:II, that was thrown mostly out the window. Enemies constantly spawn OUT OF THIN AIR, throwing the entire tactial use of traps/bottlenecks completely out of the window. People dash around the battlefield like something from an Anime, it just felt all around dumbed down.

4. Lack of Variety in General. The game was FULL of re-used copy and pasted texutres/art EVERYWHERE. You would think since the scope of the game was soooooooo much smaller then DA:O (set mainly in Kirkwall) that they would be able to truly make the city look unique and fill it with great details and variety. Nope, they copy and pasted a TOn of textures and the city felt so lifeless and just plain GENERIC. Constantly reusing things over and over you'd get a feeling (when in a completely different dungeon/area) that you had "been here before."

5. Lack of adventure/epicness. Ok this is more of a personal opinion, and it's part of what you mentioned. To me, I like rpg's because I like "adventures." Having DA:O be such an epic adventure traveling around everywhere and then having DA:II be set mostly in a single city, it just squashed any sense of "grand adventure." I like adventures, I like to travel in rpgs, see new lands, etc. That's one of my favorite aspects of rpgs in general. You don't HAVE to do, but you sure as hell better make sure the focused story and setting makes up for it if you don't, and DAII didn't. The story was lackluster, many of the characters were lackluster (Aside from Varrus who I liked) Anders was BLOODY ANNOYING as hell. The city itself was drab, lifeless, and generic. All of these together made the loss of the epic/adventure aspects all the more apparent to me.
 
Its been said, DA:2 isn't a bad game, it's just a terrible sequel. They took most of what was good from the first and replaced it with garbage. Just a dumbed down "for the masses" game. DA:O knew how to stat a game, huge battle, massive odds, good stuff. Lots of interesting characters and dialogue, some genuinely suprising revelations with Shale, funniest character since HK-47. Sten was a surprising character who really kept you on your toes. Fun combat, some fun side quests as well. The main "villian" was multi-faceted, not just a "I am evil" type. I highly recommend it.
 
Answer these questions:

Do you like listening to random people talk inane shit for 3 hours?
Do you agree that story depth scales with sheer amount of words?
Do you like it when people talk about the same thing over and over?
Do you like 1 dimensional characters you can "romance" by being nice to them?
Do you like "romance" scenes that consist of fade to black?
Do you like having 3 hour conversations with random people about nothing?
Do you like pressing the space bar lots?
Do you want to hear lots about the grey wardens?
Do you like voice overs from that guy who voice overs everything?
Do you like obvious good/bad people?
Do you like walking down corridors with annoying guys who think aloud constantly?
Do you feel compelled to like games because Bioware made them?
Do you like dealing with the Bioware store for your DLC?
Do you like "offline MMO" style combat?
Do you like MMO style quests?
Do you like "tactical combat" which mainly involves running behind people? (and AI that doesn't know how to prevent this)
Do you like the color brown?

If you answer yes to all of these then go for it.
 
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DeathPrincess, did you even play DA:O?

One dimensional characters? Did you even play/talk to the companions? Morrigan, Alistair, etc were about as far from one-dimensional as you could get.

Morrigan comes off as selfish, brash, a bit "evil" but the more you learn about her, the more yout alk to her the more layers you discover about her character and she opens up.

Alistair as well, he's a cut up/funny guy, but there's a lot more behind his jokes and humor once you get to know him.
 
DeathPrincess, did you even play DA:O?

One dimensional characters? Did you even play/talk to the companions? Morrigan, Alistair, etc were about as far from one-dimensional as you could get.

Morrigan comes off as selfish, brash, a bit "evil" but the more you learn about her, the more yout alk to her the more layers you discover about her character and she opens up.

Alistair as well, he's a cut up/funny guy, but there's a lot more behind his jokes and humor once you get to know him.

Yes I did. For as long as I could stand it.

That bearded shithead was annoying as hell. He was never funny, I just wished he'd STFU after the 40405650th time he blah blah blahed about what he felt about seeing a goat then Morrigan told him he was in idiot, then he'd blah blah blahed about her. The whole time people are just talking and talking but not really saying anything interesting, like wandering around with a bunch of annoying people who talk to much. It gets to the point you don't want to talk to anyone because either a) they blah blah blah for 3 hours, or b) they join you and blah blah blah for 45054 lines of nonsensecrap (apart from the dog). Non of the characters are interesting or original, they are just been done before, for the want of a better word, clichés. They have their "turmoils" they blah blah about or do they? :eek::p

The story is not deep. You go to a village and everyone one you talks about the same thing "oh the grey wardens" "the grey wardens" "oh I am the apple seller, the grey wardens came here and once I met a grey warden and the grey wardens wear grey you know and they battle demons and the grey wardens come here and they are bad and the grey wardens" x3483568. Word amounts does not mean a deep story. People all talk about the same thing, then the next person gives their opinion of the same thing. It's like when you do language classes and the subject of the day is the grey wardens, like the writers though you were stupid or had a 15 second memory.
 
Yes I did. For as long as I could stand it.

That bearded shithead was annoying as hell. He was never funny, I just wished he'd STFU after the 40405650th time he blah blah blahed about what he felt about seeing a goat then Morrigan told him he was in idiot, then he'd blah blah blahed about her. The whole time people are just talking and talking but not really saying anything interesting, like wandering around with a bunch of annoying people who talk to much. It gets to the point you don't want to talk to anyone because either a) they blah blah blah for 3 hours, or b) they join you and blah blah blah for 45054 lines of nonsensecrap (apart from the dog). Non of the characters are interesting or original, they are just been done before, for the want of a better word, clichés. They have their "turmoils" they blah blah about or do they? :eek::p

The story is not deep. You go to a village and everyone one you talks about the same thing "oh the grey wardens" "the grey wardens" "oh I am the apple seller, the grey wardens came here and once I met a grey warden and the grey wardens wear grey you know and they battle demons and the grey wardens come here and they are bad and the grey wardens" x3483568. Word amounts does not mean a deep story. People all talk about the same thing, then the next person gives their opinion of the same thing. It's like when you do language classes and the subject of the day is the grey wardens, like the writers though you were stupid or had a 15 second memory.

I have only one thing to say to you....












ENCHANTMENT?!?
 
Yes I did. For as long as I could stand it.

That bearded shithead was annoying as hell. He was never funny, I just wished he'd STFU after the 40405650th time he blah blah blahed about what he felt about seeing a goat then Morrigan told him he was in idiot, then he'd blah blah blahed about her. The whole time people are just talking and talking but not really saying anything interesting, like wandering around with a bunch of annoying people who talk to much. It gets to the point you don't want to talk to anyone because either a) they blah blah blah for 3 hours, or b) they join you and blah blah blah for 45054 lines of nonsensecrap (apart from the dog). Non of the characters are interesting or original, they are just been done before, for the want of a better word, clichés. They have their "turmoils" they blah blah about or do they? :eek::p

The story is not deep. You go to a village and everyone one you talks about the same thing "oh the grey wardens" "the grey wardens" "oh I am the apple seller, the grey wardens came here and once I met a grey warden and the grey wardens wear grey you know and they battle demons and the grey wardens come here and they are bad and the grey wardens" x3483568. Word amounts does not mean a deep story. People all talk about the same thing, then the next person gives their opinion of the same thing. It's like when you do language classes and the subject of the day is the grey wardens, like the writers though you were stupid or had a 15 second memory.

They could have done better in fairness.

BioWare made a world with many interactive characters, lots of factions, lots of weapons/armors, cultures with histories, a world with endemic racism and prejudice that you actually see as whatever race your character is...and turned it all into a kill-the-dragon plot.

DA:O has some of the more deeply done dialogue/lore around. You can hate on it all you want...but just about every other game does a worse job.
 
I played both. DA2 wasn't bad at all, but DA:O was better.

The only problem I had with DA2 was that the map wasn't as epic. You were stuck in tiny town, with a few outside places to go, and the entire story revolved around you continually revisting these places over and over. There was no sense of a new discovery.

What kept me going was that I actually enjoyed the story of DA:2.

I didn't hate DA2. But the maps aren't the only problem. Enemies popping in out of no where. The story... dear lord, the story. The story would've been the same pretty much if the "champion" wasn't even involved. All he is, is a character that just so happens to be there. Any decision he makes is pointless. A guy that gets pulled along. And that girl you could possibly killed in the first game, makes an appearance regardless if you kill her or not.

I enjoy the combat. It's fast and fun, but the skills were just not as good for some reason. The idea that the champion is such an important person without doing anything outside a a town is also stupid.
 
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