How the heck is Dragon Age:Orgins played?

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Freezebyte

2[H]4U
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Ok, im still no closer to understanding how this game is actually played. I never got into the Baulders Gate series, was boring as hell for me, I got tired of the God looking down viewpoint RPG back in Diablo 2's day, and it sure as hell won't cut it for me now.

Is it an explorable, expansive world like Fallout 3 or Oblivion? Can I make certain choices and ignore things if I choose to? Do I have to farking pause for EVERY move and attack or can I just go in swinging/blasting shit? Do I have to use that overused top looking down view camera? Can I actually be inside buildings and see the roof or is it because the camera system can swing up from God's view im constantly in a never ending void above my head?

This better not be the retro roll the dice D&D style gameplay crap or im gonna cancel my preorder and go pick up Win 7 instead.
 
ivandurago said:
Perhaps you should have read about the game-play prior to pre-ordering... :p
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Considering I played KOTOR and Mass Effect and enjoyed those games and gamestyle, I assumed it was like those.

Truth be told, I actually have no idea what dice rolling on PC is.
 
Freezebyte said:
Ok, im still no closer to understanding how this game is actually played. I never got into the Baulders Gate series, was boring as hell for me,...
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I stopped reading right there, baldurs gate 2 was the greatest pc rpg game of all time with the greatest villain of ALL TIME, how DARE you reject it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




....

ignore that, seeing someone not like that game shows such blatant bad taste I have to fight not to lash out!
 
tybert7 said:
I stopped reading right there, baldurs gate 2 was the greatest pc rpg game of all time with the greatest villain of ALL TIME, how DARE you reject it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




....

ignore that, seeing someone not like that game shows such blatant bad taste I have to fight not to lash out!
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So sorry, but Baldurs was boring as all hell. I returned it to store went back to playing Half Life back in the day.
 
I am a little confused. The gameplay of KOTOR, where the game is paused and percentage of success of attacks and actions... those are all based on the D&D mechanics created years before.

If you truly liked KOTOR and Mass Effect, I see no reason why you should not love Dragon Age Origins. Story-wise, how actions affect the way you are treated later on, the immersive nature of the game-world, everything that made the two games you loved previously mentioned is also in Dragon Age Origins

With the gameplay videos shown and these responses, hope you got your answer.
 
Freezebyte said:
Ok, im still no closer to understanding how this game is actually played. I never got into the Baulders Gate series, was boring as hell for me, I got tired of the God looking down viewpoint RPG back in Diablo 2's day, and it sure as hell won't cut it for me now.

Is it an explorable, expansive world like Fallout 3 or Oblivion? Can I make certain choices and ignore things if I choose to? Do I have to farking pause for EVERY move and attack or can I just go in swinging/blasting shit? Do I have to use that overused top looking down view camera? Can I actually be inside buildings and see the roof or is it because the camera system can swing up from God's view im constantly in a never ending void above my head?

This better not be the retro roll the dice D&D style gameplay crap or im gonna cancel my preorder and go pick up Win 7 instead.
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You have a party of characters. You control one and the AI controls the others but you can pause the game, issue individual commands and they carry out those commands. It is not like other Bioware games. It's a mistake to assume one game is going to be 'like the others'.
 
Freezebyte... there are a few different gameplay video and reviews out there that you can find on some of the major game review sites. Thing is that this IS the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, and very much will play the same style. Mass Effect and KOTOR are both more like a Gears of War game play style with RPG thrown in (Action-RPG I guess). From what you have said this will definitely be something that is a RENT FIRST then decide on whether you like it or not. This game is more for the people who like TRUE RPGs in the fashion that you think, plan, and strategize what you do and how your character shapes.

To answer a few of your questions:
- No you dont have to have the "God- downward looking view" all the time, there is a first person and third person view possible.. .think of it like what you can do with WoW, zoom way out or all the way in..
- The world is not expansive like Oblivion or Fall out (basically open not an open sandbox) but is somewhat on rails, you can only go in a specific direction, something like Fable or Fable II.

EDIT: Just saw you final line..... Save yourself the time, go and buy Win 7 because everything that you have said has given me that idea that you have a "bad" preconceived notion of this game and are better off going the other direction..... Probably not what you want to hear but I think you will be happier in the end.
 
GOD'SlittleSERVANT said:
+1.
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Coming from shooters and going to a game like baldurs gate is not the best path.


the gameplay is shooter games is more twitchy, you probably would have hated final fantasy tactics even more.


Baldurs gate was about planned turnbased/realtime gameplay with the pause to set things up, and in depth story.
 
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If its a rail based farking exploration system, fuck it. That shit is old and outdated and I won't waste my time or money on anything that continued to use old based gameplay structures Gonna go place my order for Win 7 and wait for a demo of this....
 
Ever since the really, really, really crap original intro video was first released, this had the smell of a B grade project. The FMV is so.. 90s. Not that it determines game play, but I take it as a sign of the internal standing of the project.

Baldur's game back in the day was the THE main project that Bioware was working on, and this time around, it is playing a very distant second fiddle to Mass Effect 2. Not that it's crap, but I don't think it got the love and polish it would have if they were expecting it to be a AAA blockbuster like they expect from ME2.
 
So sorry, but Baldurs was boring as all hell. I returned it to store went back to playing Half Life back in the day.
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Honestly, it's hard to compare good games across genres. Baldur's Gate was, IMO, one of the best games of all time, but it takes a lot of patience and role-playing enthusiasm to get it. If you're not a fan of pen and paper D&D, you probably hate it. That's the way it works. To be fair, I think most FPS' are rather boring too, so no genre perfectly suits everyone. It just depends on what you like to do when you play a game, and what you want to achieve out of it.
 
Almost all RPG's tend to be linear. Because they are telling a story starring YOU, the player. This is one reason why i tend to view sandbox games as action with a touch of RPG, rather than true RPG's. For example, KOTOR was an RPG's of setpeices. Sure you could travel around somewhat freely, but in the end, the story unfolded as the authors intended, with variations based on player decisions.

If you don't like that style of gameplay, this is one game to stay away from.
 
spugnor said:
Almost all RPG's tend to be linear. Because they are telling a story starring YOU, the player. This is one reason why i tend to view sandbox games as action with a touch of RPG, rather than true RPG's. For example, KOTOR was an RPG's of setpeices. Sure you could travel around somewhat freely, but in the end, the story unfolded as the authors intended, with variations based on player decisions.

If you don't like that style of gameplay, this is one game to stay away from.
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Many people SAY they don't like that more, say they prefer more "freedom"


They do not know themselves. A truly gripping and immersive story requires a certain level of linearity. kotor and bg2 and the like basically brush around the edges in terms of choice, but if they veered too far, how long would such a world take to create?

branches laced with forks laced with multiple possibilities each going off on their own path would lead to chaos, would lead to near infinite development time to do it justice. But hey, let the makers prove me wrong, so long as the immersion is kept intact I am sated.

I want good gameplay and a good story and universe to play in.
 
I really was looking forward to Dragon Age, but the more I saw of it, the more it looked to me like The Witcher. I never could get comfortable with TW's combat controls and ended up giving it away. I've no doubt that DA, like TW, will be a successful game, but it's not for me. :(
 
Almost all RPG's tend to be linear. Because they are telling a story starring YOU, the player. This is one reason why i tend to view sandbox games as action with a touch of RPG, rather than true RPG's. For example, KOTOR was an RPG's of setpeices. Sure you could travel around somewhat freely, but in the end, the story unfolded as the authors intended, with variations based on player decisions.
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It depends, really. Most RPGs tend to have a relatively linear main storyline (with variations, of course, depending on what you do) but will have major side quests and random things like that which make it feel less linear. I think that's what most people mean.

They do not know themselves. A truly gripping and immersive story requires a certain level of linearity.
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QFT. I know it's not an RPG, but Dawn of War was a perfect example. Awesome SP campaign for the original game, but as soon as they started having multiple roles and multiple races in the expansions, it started getting worse and worse; there was less feel to the story, it just seemed stale. Whereas even on the tenth, eleventh playthrough, the original DoW is still an awesome game for me, and a lot of that is because of the way the story's told: perfectly linearly and with no variation whatsoever.
 
This thread clearly demonstrates the problem with Dragon Age's marketing.
 
eloj said:
This thread clearly demonstrates the problem with Dragon Age's marketing.
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EA's marketing team is either retarded or totally genius. I haven't decided yet, but the PR for Dante's Inferno has me leaning towards the former.
 
I dont mind the somewhat linear lines but I wish games like this gave you a choice like Fallout tactics did. Give you the choice of whether you wanted paused gameplay or action based.
 
Marketing a game like this cant be easy. On one hand EA wants the PC gamers who want a classic-style RPG, which is what they are actually selling. And on the other hand, there are lots of kids that need a present under the tree for their XBOX.

Baldur's Gate didnt even have to market itself. Slap a D&D sticker on something and you have an instant fanbase and no confusion over what type of game you are getting.
 
God damnit, I just went and watched the Gamespot video review and now I wanna go pick it up.
 
I've been reading a few threads when people mention 'pausing' the game are you referring to actually 'pausing' the game or like Fallout3 where you go into a 'attack mode' in which the game pauses and you can pick your teams moves?
 
liquidtrance123 said:
I've been reading a few threads when people mention 'pausing' the game are you referring to actually 'pausing' the game or like Fallout3 where you go into a 'attack mode' in which the game pauses and you can pick your teams moves?
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Its like the Attack Mode. Its how all the old games did it. Pausing it.
 
Marketing leaves something to be desired but I'd like to think that most gamers interested in something like this know not to make the marketing the last step in the process of getting information. I think outlets like Giant Bomb have done an excellent job upfront explaining exactly what this game about even in quick summary for those in a hurry.

Basically when you say: "Spiritual successor of sorts to Baldur's Gate except bigger" and such...that covers a lot of territory fairly quickly. ;)
 
I'm in fairly the same boat as OP - FPS junkie who has enjoyed a few recent RPG's and wants to dig a little deeper. 'Cept I didn't pre-order DA, not considering Win7 yet, and never really even tried to play any of the old-school rpg's (can't stand that old isometric viewpoint). :)

I did love Mass Effect and Oblivion - would love to play something like those but with more in-depth rpg. But I'm not sure if I could stand the "disjoined" (for lack of a better term) combat system I've seen so far in the Dragon Age previews. I really want to like DA, 'cause I hoped it would be something like a fantasy/medieval Mass Effect, but the more I'm seeing of the game-play vids, the more I think I should just steer clear.

gregnash said:
No you don’t have to have the "God- downward looking view" all the time, there is a first person and third person view possible.
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Does anyone know of vids where they play in first person? If I could play the whole game in FP, that might be enough to get me through the rest of the clunky combat mechanics etc.

Really wish they would release a demo that was more than just the character creation menu. For what it's worth, the character creation screen was pretty impressive. :D
 
There is a pretty good review that I remember watching a few weeks back that the two guys (both kinda morons but funny) did a good in-depth review and showed that you can move all the way into first person view. I cant seem to find it but it was a good 20 minutes long.
 
gregnash said:
There is a pretty good review that I remember watching a few weeks back that the two guys (both kinda morons but funny) did a good in-depth review and showed that you can move all the way into first person view. I cant seem to find it but it was a good 20 minutes long.
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Giant Bomb, I linked it here already
 
gregnash said:
- No you dont have to have the "God- downward looking view" all the time, there is a first person and third person view possible.. .think of it like what you can do with WoW, zoom way out or all the way in..
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but the first person POV is not a 'true' 1st person like in Fallout 3 or most other first person shooters...it's more of a zoomed in first person view...you cannot view the world through your character's eyes but instead you are always viewing him viewing the world (that make sense?)
 
Its linear. Lots of INVISIBLE WALLS. Having said that the game rocks...its a true rpg.. story from beginning to end.
 
polonyc2 said:
but the first person POV is not a 'true' 1st person like in Fallout 3 or most other first person shooters...it's more of a zoomed in first person view...you cannot view the world through your character's eyes but instead you are always viewing him viewing the world (that make sense?)
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You are correct... I alloted the analogy that it is somewhat like playing way... you have the ability to zoom WAY out and have an overall look at the area, something like an RTS and the zoom all the way in (aside from seeing your weapon) and be basically playing as your character.
 
k - finally got around to watching the entire vid... definitely looks like not my kind of game... oh well.
 
K, im still wandering around the harrowing for my magi but so far, im very happy that I can still control myself in a 3rd person manner aka Max Payne style and not having to do that age old God like view from above.

Music is incredible so far and the voice action is top notch and i've already busted out laughing several times already and im only 10 minutes into the game.
 
Freezebyte said:
Ok, im still no closer to understanding how this game is actually played. I never got into the Baulders Gate series, was boring as hell for me, I got tired of the God looking down viewpoint RPG back in Diablo 2's day, and it sure as hell won't cut it for me now.

Is it an explorable, expansive world like Fallout 3 or Oblivion? Can I make certain choices and ignore things if I choose to? Do I have to farking pause for EVERY move and attack or can I just go in swinging/blasting shit? Do I have to use that overused top looking down view camera? Can I actually be inside buildings and see the roof or is it because the camera system can swing up from God's view im constantly in a never ending void above my head?

This better not be the retro roll the dice D&D style gameplay crap or im gonna cancel my preorder and go pick up Win 7 instead.
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slowclap.gif

seriously, what is wrong with you?
 
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