Friday 30 July 2010

Dragon Age

Yup, that's me. Two handed sword wielding warrior Aedan Cousland spiking Urthemiel's head in heroic sacrifice

My post fallout 3 obsession. Been playing DA:O pretty much non stop, since I got it, with minor breaks for Borderlands and a moment of madness when I gave in and bought me a PS3.

Well, its a Bioware game. That usually means the following.

Size: A playthrough – with most of the side quests ignored will take you around 40 hours. You play a completionist’s game, it will take you around a hundred. While, this is nowhere near Baldur’s Gate – where BGII with the Throne of Bhaal expansion would take you around 250-280 hours, its still loads more than any other game. Fallout and Oblivion have similar lengths – but a lot of that length is caused by grinding mechanics – enemy respawns in visited locations, freeform adventuring, the ability to continue playing after the main quest (with the Broken Steel expansion in Fallout 3) etc.

Writing: Is usually good, lots of hooks and jokes, very few BLAMs, lots of mythology gags and pop culture references. Lead writer was David Gaider, who wrote the unofficial and amazingly KICK ASS BG:TOB module Ascension – more about that later – who won my undying fanboy adoration when I tried his improved Abazigal.

Romance: Oh all kinds, whether you are male or female, whether you’re human, elf or dwarf, straight or gay – or even bisexual.  And options for consequence free sex – with your choice of human/elf/dwarf/animal at the local brothel)

Characterization: Usually very good, much deeper than the usual video game characters – especially the baddies – case in point – Shale, Loghain.

Tactical Gameplay: You try fighting the mooks, Diablo style, you’re dead before you know it. And the sheer number of demonic spider types is staggering. Enemy archers can spam scatter shot – a kind of group stun arrow which prevents you from doing anything for a few seconds -  disabling you while other baddies tear your ass apart. Emissaries and enemy mages cast stuff like crushing prison – where you take constant damage without being able to move or defend yourself – or curse of mortality – constant damage, cant be healed, bye bye. So you have to use the pause button a great deal – direct your mages, your tanks and DPS dealers.

Over and above this, Bioware have been dishing out downloadable content frequently, adding to the number of adventures you can have and several goodies in the form of arms and equipment that kick butt.

The closest I can come to describing the DA experience is junk food. You just cant stop eating.

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