24 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

I was thinking he could make virtually unlimited bombs(Acid, Fire and so on) and use a good mage staff.

Liked the Broodmother line.

And I wish I could record the sound without a live person - just with some software. I think it'll even be possible in twenty years or so. Not today, though.

[Yovaneth]

A lot seems to depend on your party, but I have to think I agree about the origins not having any effect. I played HN male initially and I started a second run a few days ago as EM female. I must have missed something in the EM origin because all of a sudden she was being offered Grey Warden for seemingly nothing. I took the friends route, BTW - not much of a spoiler there. On the HN run the main party consisted mostly of Alistair, HN warrior, Wynne and Morrigan. It was okay but seemed to lack.... something. This time I decided I'd take Sten, Lelianna and Morrigan/Shale (dependant on quest requirements) and the SLM party has turned out to be quite entertaining. Lelianna appears to have far more to say than just about anyone else (insipid? I'd disagree there. Definately very female in some of the conversations - remember the shoes?). It's difficult to roleplay an opposite sex character; I do it by looking at the conversation choices and then try to imagine how my wife and her sister would have that conversation. It seems to work.

My EM is an arcane warrior/spirit healer and with her, Morrigan and Lelianna set to ranged and Sten set to attack the target of the controlled party member, the party has turned out to be surprisingly lethal in comparison to my original runthrough setup. Remember the juggernaut armour revenants? All four of them were taken down by a combination of Sten hacking away and Lelianna attacking at range when the other two were down and out early on. As for the first time you meet an ogre in the Tower of Ishal: I blinked and it was dead. Huh!

-Y-

[darlarosa]

I have to disagree. I'd say Dragon Age has a lot more replayability than, for example, Mass Effect 2 (which I think is a great game, don't get me wrong). DA:O at least has several quests associated with each origin, and a fair amount of dialogue exclusive to each Origin as well as gender even between the Origin and the endgame.

ME2, for comparison's sake, does not have a single solitary line exclusive to the player's class, a single "private message" related to the pre-military background, a single message related to the psychological profile, and some minor differences based on gender. Hell, even Kaidan and Ashley's dialogues are virtually identical (Ashley sticks in a "Oh captain my captain" in there, but that's about it, wowzah). While I think ME2 is at least as good a game overall, I think you're giving DA:O's particular strengths short shrift here.

Also, while I can see how you might find the Deep Roads exhausting, the Circle Tower, particularly the Fade bit, is among my favorite parts of the game. Can't imagine what there is to dislike about it.

Qwinn

Well when you really think about it, essentially the re playability only comes down to the origins and some minor epilogue changes. I find myself play DAO again just to say I did the origins, and to see the various epilogue changes, and even thats not pulling. There is nothing special about the origins after they're completed, and those gosh darn final choices. I've said it before and I'll say it again...the main selling point of the game is ultimately a let down except only a few times. I mean there were a few special dialogue choices but they were minor things.

I agree with your feelings on ME2, but I know I didn't miss the diffrent choices in that game because it felt a lot more meaty to me than DAO.

[WeeRLegion]

Well when you really think about it, essentially the re playability only comes down to the origins and some minor epilogue changes. I find myself play DAO again just to say I did the origins, and to see the various epilogue changes, and even thats not pulling.

And that's where I think you're wrong. DAO is a game where you're suppose to enjoy the combat; if you do, then you'll notice that different characters and active party compositions will bring very different playthroughs.
Say, a double rogue party that handles business in a stabfest manner, or a multi mage party.
Or, heck, just varying your mages' spellpicks makes a little sometihing of an difference.

The dialogue remains pretty much the same, though, but that is quite true even for BG2. There's always Irenicus with his ranting, and the same comments from the same party members, only variation being which people you have tagging along.


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As for the deep roads and the fade though, I'll concede that those are boring, that's where the game IMO actually fails.
The fade's great fun on a first run, but once you know what to do and in what order, it quickly goes stale. Luckily there's mods for that...
And the deep roads, it's just too monotone; one room after another, filled with roughabout the same model group of darkspawn.

Edited by WeeRLegion, 18 April 2010 - 03:11 PM.

[Cal Jones]

I'm on my tenth runthrough. I have a couple of aborted ones as well. I am starting to tire of it a bit now, I must admit, but it stayed pretty fresh for the first six or seven runs.
I do have a very high tolerance for repetition, however. I think I've played BGII over 30 times.
I've not started Awakenings yet because I'm scared of 1.03.
I'll probably take a break to play ME2 and hopefully they'll have patched it again by the time I return. We'll see, I guess.