The LOTR KOTOR. That was heavy on the acronyms
| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.30 |
| Overall | 9.30 |
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Dragon Age is the other major RPG release from Bioware, you know the one not called Mass Effect. Clearly all the money went into Mass Effect cause Dragon Age doesn't stand out much graphically. In fact Dragon Age is sort of a return to roots for Bioware, going back to it's Neverwinter Nights days and such or so I am told. I never played any pre-KOTOR Bioware game so in reality I have no clue how it compares to their old titles. No sci-fi setting, no spaceships, no guns, it's back to the fantasy roots. Bioware goes all out in creating this new fantasy world of theirs. It has all the familar races; humans, elves and dwarfs. It borrows heavily from Lord of the Rings which is not a bad thing at all, in a way it seems like LOTR version of KOTOR. Bioware doesn't really ease you into this new world, they sort of dump you in head first. They throw around terms and locations during the first few hours as if you should know the entire history of Fereldin from middle school. Massive amounts of optional text await you if you wish to learn this history. It takes a while but after what I felt was way too much dialog at the start you do become hooked into this world. This game has a unique way to start the game. You have the usual choosing of your race and class but that determines which one of the six or so origin stories you are told. These are like 2-3 hour segments, each with it's own location and story, after which you will eventually end up in the same location as all other origin stories. I have only played one of these, the human noble story which introduced me to the major players in the story very early. If I started as a dwarf I would have seen their political situation in a totally different light. It's a very interesting way to the game, it makes future story segments more personal depending on who you are and where you came from. Once the main quest begins it feels like most Bioware RPGs, to me it felt almost identical to KOTOR. You and your party travel the world solving problems and fighting enemies. Once the world opens up you may choose where you want to go, visit the elves if you'd like, maybe you rather go to the dwarven city. It's all up to you. Like KOTOR each area you enter usually starts with a city of some kind. Here you converse with the locals and find that there is some major issue that needs to be resolved. You will find many side quests as different locals have requests. Once you speak with all the important NPC you go on the quest to fix whatever issue this town has which leads you to the action portion. You go out into the wild/tunnels/temples whatever it maybe and fight your way through hordes of enemies. Combat is real time and like everything else, felt like KOTOR. You may switch between party members at any time, you queue up the next attack using either the quick keys which you may assign any skill or spell to, or you may enter the full menu which pauses the game as you make your selection. KOTOR had a simplified AI system where you set teammates to a general type of player. In this game you may set full scripts with various if then statements. You can basically customize the AI to do almost anything, though you are limited in how many actions you can program. It starts off easy while you have few abilities but as you level up and gain far more skills your choices become important as there is no way you will always be in full control of the party. Combat happens very quickly on the battlefield and often you are battling hordes of enemies, each teammate is usually fighting two or three enemies on their own or in pairs. It gets very hectic and even if you want to micromanage everyone the fighting goes by way too quickly to do so. By the time you give one character a command, another character is already doing a set command or the enemy has attacked, something has changed on the battlefield. On the PS3 the combat felt a bit clunky. Menu navigation is a but clunky and managing a whole team doesn't seem as easy as it does on the PC. At first I was a bit bored with the combat as my brute character wasn't that interesting to control. Once a mage entered my party then things got interesting. Mages come with so many combat and support options as well as area attacks. I almost controlled my mage exclusively throughout the game and let every one else do their own thing. The difficulty is very unbalanced at first. Your party can go through hordes upon hordes of enemies easily only to get demolished by a random battle on the map screen. Later in the game I feel the difficulty levels off, as long as you manage your team well every battle can be won without much hassle. I really didn't get into this game until about 15-20 hours in. It felt too much like every other Bioware game, it felt like it was just going through the motions. It wasn't until more characters started joining my party and until I visited some non-human locations that the story elements really took off. The strength of this title is it's characters and the situations that get presented to them. The characters are bar none, the best cast of characters in any game of last year and one of the best of this gen. Expertly voice acted, wonderfully written, they are engaging and many are hilarious. The way the interact with each other on the field feels natural. I don't even want to focus on one or two of them cause they are all great. I will tell you that you can have a sarcastic golemn, a bisexual elf and bitchy witch all in the same team for some magical dialog. If I am going to play a game that lasts 70+ hours I better like who I will be spending that time with, this game nails that aspect, you never want the journey to end. The overall story in Dragon Age is basic LOTR stuff, evil army is coming from evil land to kill everyone. That just sets the backdrop to all the individual stories that occur. This game is at it's best when it presents the player with a near impossible situation. You will always get two sides to every conflict, each outcome will always result in some negative effects. There is no light side and dark side choices, you don't become super evil guy or glowing with light hero. You are just a person making very difficult decisions and every decision has major consequences. I loved watching how my decisions impacted entire societies. Usually in a game like this I like to do the right thing but in this game there is no right thing to do, that alone sort of blew my mind. Everything is always so black and white, this game actually succeeds at presenting the gray area, the more realistic outcome. This is a monstrous RPG so to keep things interesting the game surprises with unique gameplay situations. In one area you enter a magical dream like world where you get to shape-shift into various creatures. In another you are protecting a town from an enemy invasion. When the game is changing gameplay up it is at it's best, I wish it happened more often but it happens enough to have plenty of memorable moments. The more I played the more I loved it. Sprinkled throughout are some amazing boss battles, including a few against giant dragons which require the very best planning. The leveling up system is, guess what, like KOTOR. You distribute attributes and choose abilities depending on your class. Simple and effective. In many ways I like this game as much as KOTOR but there are some issues that prevent it from becoming the all time classic I feel that game is. Most of it might come from the fact that I am playing it on a console. Besides some clunkiness I noticed some bugs, especially at the end. The final battle was nearly broken for me, my teamates would freeze up randomly, I almost had to do it all on my own. Also the overall story is not as engaging as KOTOR, the minor sub stories are but there is nothing like the final reveal in KOTOR. Also I felt KOTOR was made more for consoles in mind, the battle system worked better on a controller. Other than that, this is one of the best RPGs you will find this gen. I played for 75 hours, did nearly all side quests but in reality I haven't seen anything. I could still see the other origin stories. I can see how the story would turn out if I had chosen differently. There is enough here to last hundreds of hours. Another stellar game from a stellar developer. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:24:48
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robio (2m)
" will tell you that you can have a sarcastic golemn, a bisexual elf and bitchy witch all in the same team for some magical dialog."
Awesome.
Couple of questions, keeping in mind this is the only review of the game I have read, and have seen no screen shots (though I've heard about it plenty from podcasts).
Can it be played co-op? How about offline co-op (should tell you on the back of the box). This was a part of the old Baldur's Gate games.
And from what perspective do you play? You said it was like most other Bioware games -- so third person perspective?
Yeah this is one game I'm glad I played on the PC, because you can really tell the controls were made with Keyboard/mouse in mind and it makes the experience truly more playable.
Most times I think keyboard/mouse is overrated, but not in this game.
Good writeup.
Awesome review! There are you happy now?
It's a pretty bad review. Especially with the lord of rings comparisons. I pretty much disagree with your whole review and find it hard to believe you actually played it.
You also suck.
Are you happy now!
Aspro no multiplayer at all and yes it's third person.