Dragon Age: Origins Wrap-Up

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My finished playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins clocked in at right around 72 hours.  Side note: I love how Steam keeps track of total time played for each game on my PC.  Anyway, my adventure is over and I feel accomplished.

I mostly had a good time playing DA:O, but the dialogue and conversation system started to drive me crazy towards the end of the game.  I wanted to scream at the characters, "GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!" on more then one occasion.  Besides that, I already mentioned my gripes when I first returned to DA:O to finish up my game.

After the final cutscene wrapped up, I immediately jumped into the Dragon Age II demo.


I first tried it on the Xbox 360 and was disappointed with what I found.  They had taken a great RPG intellectual property and turned it into a button mashing hack-and-slash with little to no strategy. There's no way you can get me to play through Dragon Age II on that system.  I'm going to go ahead and assume it's pretty much the same on the PS3 since they're both consoles.

I quickly retreated to the safety of my PC and downloaded the demo there.  Once I tried it out I was a much happier RPG fan.  The pause and think mechanic is still an important part of the PC version and auto-attack hasn't been replaced by a button mash fest.

Not only did I find what I know and loved from DA:O in the Dragon Age II demo, but they improved on a bunch of the mechanics too!  Gone is the plodding dialogue system and in it's place is a re-purposed dialogue system from Mass Effect that feels quick and intuitive.  Conversations flow more smoothly and the story briskly moves along.  The combat system is tighter and more responsive.  Activated abilities take effect immediately which makes me feel more in tune with my characters.  Not to mention that auto-attack animations look at least ten times more badass than in DA:O.  The Dragon Age II advancement system also has a more substantial feel to it.  Every ability that can be picked up looks like it can change the way I play my class.  That will make for some interesting choices while leveling.

I'm glad I finally finished my Dragon Age: Origins playthrough, but now I can't wait for Dragon Age II to release next week!  One final bloody screenshot to send DA:O on it's merry way.

My Final Ogre Kill of the Game... Stupid Ogres

Comments

  1. KlelithMarch 2, 2011 at 12:20 AM

    Good job finishing DA:O. I never could and I'm only about half way through.

    Of course I never finish RPGs. In fact, I think Mass Effect 1 was the only RPG I ever finished.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AndrewMarch 2, 2011 at 7:12 AM

    Oh man.... I hated the dialog system in the DA2 demo, it's as horrible as the Mass Effect system. I especially loathe how the options don't correlate to what Hawke says.... even my wife (who was helping make choices) noticed how out-of-whack a few of them were.

    It won't surprise you to hear that I love the DA:O method of dialog. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. VoidMarch 2, 2011 at 7:42 AM

    At least you know what you like. Personally, I love that I just have to give Hawke the tone of the response and I get to watch more of the conversation play out. I played through the demo 3 times and the sarcastic answers ended up being my favorite. I like my character being a smart-ass.

    ReplyDelete

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