I Review Dragon Age: Origins
Actually, I won’t. Because someone with exactly my opinion has already done so. This person is, of course, as big of a Baldur’s Gate fan as I am, was as excited about Dragon Age for the same reasons I am, and liked the new game just as much as I do. We even have more or less the same caveats about it, as well as the guilty reasoning that most of the issues we have regarding it are more related to our nostalgic obsession with Bioware’s first games than DA:O’s actual flaws.
But we can’t help it, you see. I, for one, have never played a game where the developers endeavored to inject as much atmospheric, entertaining content into every corner of their work as much as BG2. Here is one of my favorite examples. In most fantasy games, if there is an inn mechanic, the PC walks up to the innkeeper and initiates dialogue. The Standard Fantasy Innkeeper is invariably fat, bored, and boring. He asks for a few coppers and sends you up to bed, with nary a second glance. If you’re lucky, you can squeeze a rumor or two out of him. Whereas in BG2, this happens:
Vincenzo the Innkeep: ’Allo to you an’ a good day! I am Vincenzo and I offer you all the services of me humble l’il inn!
Willet the Stableboy: There’re a lot o’ things t’ be said about yer inn, Vince … but “humble” ain’t the one I would be pickin’, aye?
Vincenzo the Innkeep: Hush, boy! An’ keep callin’ me “Vince” an’ I’ll have ye strapped o’er a log! The name’s “Vincenzo!”
Willet the Stableboy: ‘At’s a lotta rot. Ye hears that name from a Sembian trader an’ suddenly yer puttin’ on airs. Pfeh!
Vincenzo the Innkeep: Never mind the boy. He’s an ignorant lout I took in out of pity. A simpleton who doesn’t know his place. Is there aught I can do for you, my good Lady?
This is what I mean. These NPCs, who continue to argue with one another every time the player interacts with them, serve no further use later in the plot. There is no purpose to their conversation other than to delight me, and the game is chock full of this stuff. And some people think a good RPG is about damage per second and item harvesting.
Do I think Dragon Age lives up to this game in sheer richness of detail? It doesn’t, but frankly, no modern game could. Nowadays developers have too much other stuff to worry about, like creating character models that don’t resemble Polly Pocket dolls. Making each and every NPC into a quirky character and creating fantasy cities that seem alive with real individuals would take time and energy that they simply don’t have.
Sexy.
And really, DA:O is still damn atmospheric, more than any RPG I’ve played for a long time. I still love you, Bioware. Call me.
BioWare RPGs hold the key to my heart (this lock is too complex to pick, and is warded against simple spells. You will have to find the proper key). BG2 is the only electronic game that has ever been comparable to playing tabletop DnD with a Dungeon Master as creative as Em ^______^
I’m currently playing NWN (hallelujah! There is a God!) because I found a nerd online who is obsessed enough to patch it for Mac OS X. By the way, he did the same for SoA…
Your Journal has been updated: There’s a WHAT in their Chicken?
I’m not the world’s biggest NWN fan, actually. It’s too linear and the NPCs are the most wooden out of any Bioware game I’ve ever played. I understand that it’s excellent for multiplayer, however.
That’s quite a compliment you just gave me, seeing as how I was such an inexperienced DM who pulled stuff out of my ass for practically the whole adventure–but as I understand it, that’s what you end up doing even if you’ve been DMing for ten years.
That’s one of two schools of thought on the issue, at least: the “prepare 20 pages of notes” school and the “pull everything out of your ass” school. I much prefer the ass-pulling style myself, but the more linear, narrative one can work too. It just requires much more advance preparation and strictness in corralling your PCs.
I always thought you were into the ass-filling style. I dunno, maybe I read too much into our time together.
Pulling, not filling. Freudian slip!
No no, you typed correctly. I was just saying I was under the impression you preferred to put things into asses, rather than pulling things out of them.
You are right that NWN doesn’t compare narrative-speaking with Baldur’s Gate or KOTOR. It’s just not as good in general. Yet it is still way fun to play, in the same way as stuff like Pokemon. And the plot includes that great ego boost that all nerdy RPG players crave: “who, little old me, save the ENTIRE UNIVERSE? You mean to say I have limitless powers and talents no one else seems to possess? Oh, you DO go on!”
But I think that it makes more sense when, as in Baldur’s Gate, there’s a *reason* the PC is better at kicking ass while all the NPCs can barely manage to stand around with their thumbs up their butts. If you’re just some random dude and you could fix everybody’s problems, why you and not somebody else? What’s preventing any old sod from picking up a pitchfork, killing a few rats, and working his way to the Champion of the Universe? It kills a lot of the realism for me.
Because we all like to imagine that *we’re* that special, and we all know we’re not children of Bhaal. I understand though. BG is better. I agree. All I’m saying is that NWN is still a fun game, and even more fun if it’s not compared unfairly to Baldur. Picky picky (0__o)
altho, a suppose a “review” is expected to be picky
that’s the trouble with reviews, they’re so judgmental
^o^ why can’t we all just get along?
I love you. We should go watch low-brow daytime television together. <3
Golden Girls and Home Improvement!
I was hoping you’d actually review this. You lazy punk.
I was going to, but then after reading that guy’s review, I literally felt that there was nothing I could add. Our opinions on it were that similar. And much like him, I knew there was no way I could be really objective about it anyway–BG2 looms too large. I was way to young when I played that game and it permanently stamped me.
So there’s really not a lot to say from my perspective: Dragon Age is exactly what I wanted, Baldur’s Gate revitalized for the modern era. Like all games it has flaws, but I don’t care about them like an impartial person would and couldn’t really help the average gamer decide if he wants to play this or not. But this is really just more evidence that DA succeeds at what it was supposed to do. Bioware designed it as candy for their oldest and most loyal fans, and that’s precisely what it is.
Although it’s interesting to me that Yahtzee liked it.
His tastes are very unpredictably strange. I loved the shit out of Uncharted 2, and he seems to hate it on principle. And on principle, I would think he’d hate DA or at least be bored by it, but instead he seems to enjoy it more than he even admits.
Which is weird, because Mass Effect bored him and Dragon Age is WAY more talky and convoluted.
Well…this is going to sound awful, but judging by his appearance and mannerisms, he seems like the kinda guy who’d be raised on D&D, so perhaps he has a hidden bias…?
But I’d say that if he has a pattern, he tends to favor sci-fi games over fantasy, especially classical fantasy. Maybe it’s that he expects lots of yakking in a fantasy game but in a sci-fi game just wants to get to the action, and so Mass Effect disappointed him while Dragon Age hits the mark. But I really don’t know.
. . . wow. . .it’s been a long time since I’ve seen so much discussion on RPGs anywhere. Oh, and btw, don’t play DnD with Mary Beth!!!! She takes everything!!!! And she’ll make you feel completely useless! I hate her sometimes. . . .
[...] By the way, this is coming from someone who usually gravitates towards fantasy over sci-fi and is way too obsessed with a series of ancient computer games based on Dungeons & Dragons. Space operas are not [...]