This game is out for the 360, PS3 and the pc. I am reviewing the 360 version as that is the only version I have played, and the game is very different for the PC which you should bare in mind when reading.
Dragon Age has a really deep storyline. You can play as 3 different races and classes, each having a different background, making the game different and more interesting each time. My favourite race is probably the elf, as I like the bow and arrow type people. The three classes are mage, warrior and rogue, each coming with their own individual personalities. The class with the best storyline, in my opinion, is that of the mage. I was playing as an elf mage, and the background story was just gripping, and I found it to be a much deeper storyline than that of the others…it’s like the developers spent much more time on the mage storyline than any of the others…maybe it’s because the mages have a huge say in the main story. Becoming a mage allows you to see the story develop from a different type of perspective, getting to see how the mages are treated for being behind what is known as the Darkspawn (the evil things that cause trouble).
Now, the game itself is all well and good, but…I won’t lie, maybe it’s because I’m a girl I don’t know, but the difficulty is very…well…difficult? And that’s when it’s on normal. On easy it is too easy, on normal it is too hard. This ruins the game for me, which is such a shame because I find it quite addictive and I always want to progress onwards with the story, but the toughness of the game prevents me from doing that – unless I have it on easy…which for me, is just childs play.
You have to be quite strategic about the style of fighting, by selecting different tactics for each member of your party to use, choosing ones that will suit that particular battle. You don’t really control the fighting as such, you just click on the enemy you wish to kill, and the characters do it all for you…a bit like World Of Warcraft, but with more abilities. I don’t mind this style of play, but it does feel a bit old school, and It doesn’t really favour the 360 too much. Sometimes a party member won’t do what you have assigned him to do, and it can get ‘throw the pad in a rage’ annoying! If this game was just a normal hack and slash or even first person, I think I would have prefered it more. Each ability is attached to a different button, which can sometimes make things quite complicated. Each time you level up, you get to pick a new ability – but then the annoying part comes, where you have to sign each ability to the characters in battle abilities, so he’s able to actually use it bla bla.
This can all get very fiddly transferring all the abilities around, and what annoys me, and gets very boring, is assigning these abilities to different types of acts. For example: ”Self – Health 50% Lesser health potion” means when your health is half way…then the character is commanded to use a health potion. Then there’s all the enemy stuff, for example ”Enemy-surround by at least 3 enemies – Wet fart”, Of course, wet fart isn’t an ability, that would just be silly, but all of these rules you have to set before each battle can just get infuriating…I just wanna get in there and murder the fuckers, ya know?! Screw the tactics!
What disappoints me about this game, is the fact that it’s not free roaming – which is what I was originally expecting. I think they could have done so much more with the game if you and your party could actually walk to your destination instead of the map markers routing your destination out for you and have the annoying map screen come up that shows a trail of blood mark your destination trail…ooooo how original! The world could be bigger, but there are lots of side missions to do that will distract you from doing the main quest, however you must do the main mission to be able to progress to actually get to these certain side quests, which for me, being someone who usually likes to forget about the main mission until I can be arsed to do it, sucks bumbum.
Overall, it’s a good game, but the gameplay is very old fashioned and it doesn’t really favour the xbox 360 as much as it would the pc and its clickety mouse. If you enjoy strategy games, and have the patience to fiddle around with tactics before EVERY single fight more or less, then this is a great game for you! If you aren’t so good at tactical games (or just don’t have the patience for them- like me) then this may disappoint. Some compare the battle system to that of Baldur’s Gate, which is a classic game in itself, but I personally think it is much harder than Baldur’s Gate, and certainly more infuriating! Maybe it’s because it’s on the 360, I dunno, but it doesn’t really ‘feel’ right…having seen some of the pc screenshots, I think I would have preferred to have played it on that instead of on a console, as this game suits the mouse so much better.
You can create short cuts down at the bottom of your screen on the pc version, and with just a quick click of the mouse, you’re away – not like on the 360, where has previously mentioned, actions etc are all assigned to the pads buttons and can take a little bit longer to access. I can imagine playing this type of game back in the ’90′s and really enjoying it, with its birdseye view and cute little sprites – because that’s how I see this game…old. Like something you would have played back in the day before let’s say…the Internet. But the game in reality is not in birdseye view mode, it is very much 3D, and very modern looking, which makes it just not feel right. It’s a bit like an old person trapped in a young persons body. What I’m basically trying to say is…this game has come out a few years too late for me.
Anyway, moving on to the graphics. They aren’t great, not by todays standards in any case. The textures are very blurry, and look a bit like something you would see on a xbox original. Compare the textures to those on Fable 1 for example – they are very similar. The actual characters in the game however look acceptable. Their facial features make up for the rest of the games not so great graphics, and I love how they show emotion when they talk (unlike in Oblivion, where they are just stone faced all of the way through it). But I have to say, the graphics aren’t the worst I’ve seen in a modern game, and I didn’t find them too much of a distraction. And who ever said a game is about graphics anyway?
Okay…let’s sum this up. If you love tactical RPG’s with a good storyline and a challenge, then this is the game for you. If you’re not an RPG fan, don’t bother, as the amount of dialogue you will have to sit through in the game will just bore the crap out of you. If you’re an RPG fan, don’t mind tactics, but may find this game too hard…I’d say give it a chance. Even if you do find it too difficult, you could always play it on easy. Don’t be ashamed, it’s the storyline that counts afterall. And the storyline is a bloody good one.
Tags: Bioware, Dragon Age, Origins, RPG
