Dragon Age Impressions
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Games: Ok, an update to the Dragon Age situation: Miraculously, the game did arrive at my house, unopened. I was thrilled-- and also very, very confused.
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Turns out that the game was indeed incorrectly delivered to my old address, but through some unexplained happenstance, the postal carrier somehow had an epiphany and remembered that the wrong occupant was living there. He went back to reclaim the box the next day, was able to recover it, and then put it back through the forwarding process which resulted in the extended delay-- and me getting hyper paranoid about the game being stolen by the guy who now lives in my old house.
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I still say he looked damn suspicious, but I guess I owe him an apology since he was innocent. Random dude: my bad.
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So, now that it’s here I’ve been able to log some hours with it and at this point all I'll say is that despite some of the big talk BioWare was putting out, Dragon Age = KOTOR/Jade Empire/Mass Effect in a Medieval-ish/LOTR skin.
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Frankly, it's the same game they've put out a couple times now, so everyone's mileage may vary. In my case, this is one of my favorite game types and BioWare does them best, so I'm digging it. However, I’m under no illusions that the game pushes any boundaries or explores new territory. This is firmly-established boilerplate.
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Although the voice acting is superb and there are tons of dialogue trees available (always pluses) Dragon Age is much rougher and more unpolished than I would expect from BioWare, and it doesn't have their usual ZING! quality. I mean, even a mediocre BioWare game beats the pants off of a lot of other games, but it's far from their best… I’ve hit a handful of small bugs, certain design decisions annoy me, and the game lags far behind its contemporaries in a technical sense. Hate to sound like a graphics whore or the equivalent, but the visuals are part of the immersion, so if they’re not there then it’s kind of an issue at times.
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So far it’s still good and still very enjoyable-- it just feels a little like they’ve got the formula down and they're phoning it in here.
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P.S. – The DLC featuring the extra character Shale is SO worth it. They did a great job not just with the quest, but in how seamlessly they integrated him into the main game. Maybe a little TOO well, if you get my drift. That said, he really adds a lot to the mix and I would recommend it to anybody contemplating playing Dragon Age.
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IMO, get it and install as close as possible to the beginning of the game so you’ll have access to the character early on. You won’t be sorry.
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I completely agree about Shale. I'd say that was either something they wanted to go on the disc and didn't have time or wanted to screw used game sells. I can't complain about this kind of DLC, because it was free with the game.
For the rest of the game impressions, I'm skewed in a different direction. This is only the second BioWare game I've ever played, the first being Mass Effect, so I'm really loving this. I'm playing on the 360, and for some reason the graphics are just not really bothering me.
The combat system is taking some time to adjust to, but now that I've adjusted it's really fun, though still chaotic at time. I find this to be the weakest aspect of the game, but it is still growing on me (22 hours in). Though I'll admit that I'm playing on easy and am not ashamed.
From my perspective all Bioware's been doing for years has been remaking their early D&D-based PC RPGs as console games with prettier graphics. The reason Bioware fanboys are going absolutely ape shit about Dragon Age is that, for them, it's Bioware returning to its classic fantasy roots. In a way, this game was intended for them, which may explain the slightly lower level of polish than normal "mainstream" Bioware games.
Mac> Yeah, the weird messy-crowd combat is weaker than I'd prefer. Not their best system ever.
If you liked ME and you're liking DA, i would *highly* recommend playing Knights of the Old Republic (#1) and Jade Empire, both on the old Xbox.
Matt> whatever the case, i'm really disappointed at the roughness. Mass Effect looked at least 5x better than DA does, so it's hard to not be a little unenthused for the visuals.
Well I wasn't defending it so much as explaining it. It's one of the reasons I'm not so excited about Dragon Age as most people. I'm sure it's good, but good enough to tear me away from Demon's Souls? Considering that DS is actually one of the best, most original games I've played in years, something tells me 'no'.