So I finally started my PC copy of Dragon Age that I got during the 2009 Steam Holiday sale.
This is the first CRPG I've ever touched that is not Mass Effect or 3D Fallout. I went male city elf Rogue. Originally I stayed away from this game because I couldn't tell the difference between it and any other CRPG that looked like a Tolkien derivative.
Gameplay-wise it's very solid. A combat system where you have to take the initiative to pause and micro-manage EVERY SECOND of each battle requires some adjustment though. Fighting and especially questing seem to be really solid.
At first the graphics seemed to be crap, but only in certain areas. The really busy, ragged parts of the game like Ostigar, the city elf origin place, and Kokari look pretty ugly, but cleaner places like villages and building interiors all actually look quite good, if not great. Game also runs pretty smoothly on my 8800GT.
Even though I don't find the story and world all that interesting or inspired, I do like the characters and find the main party members to be very well-written. I'm probably playing through the game right now just to see more of what happens to Alister and Morrigan.
People tell me this is the main reason they like playing games like Baldur's Gate II and Planetscape Torment - the well-written stories and worlds. I guess that's a good reason to take these games as a refuge from melodramatic and emo-fueled JRPGs. Dragon Age just doesn't seem to have the deep exploration element that draws me into most RPGs (Japanese or Western).
The big problem though is that I really, really suck at combat. Basically, any group of more than four or five enemies and I get completely overwhelmed. Most of the time I have to figure out how to funnel enemies to gang up on them one by one. I'd also like to know if there is no healing magic at all in this game because I haven't encountered any yet.
I'm trying to figure out how to make the best use of the tactics system since otherwise It seems I have to repeatedly command my party to attack the same enemies. With only around for tactics slots per character the range of what you can do is also much less than in Final Fantasy XII.
As of this post I'm stuck at the second wave of walking corpses at Redcliffe Village. This is the first place I've been to since leaving Loithering. The only things I was able to do before the attack were
.
I'm trying to stun, frighten, and freeze my way through this with Morrigan while the other characters try to gang up on each enemy. At first I do fine enough but eventually find myself in a position where all the militia are dead, I've run out of health poultices, and there are still around 10 walking corpses coming at us. My characters are all level 7.
This is the first CRPG I've ever touched that is not Mass Effect or 3D Fallout. I went male city elf Rogue. Originally I stayed away from this game because I couldn't tell the difference between it and any other CRPG that looked like a Tolkien derivative.
Gameplay-wise it's very solid. A combat system where you have to take the initiative to pause and micro-manage EVERY SECOND of each battle requires some adjustment though. Fighting and especially questing seem to be really solid.
At first the graphics seemed to be crap, but only in certain areas. The really busy, ragged parts of the game like Ostigar, the city elf origin place, and Kokari look pretty ugly, but cleaner places like villages and building interiors all actually look quite good, if not great. Game also runs pretty smoothly on my 8800GT.
Even though I don't find the story and world all that interesting or inspired, I do like the characters and find the main party members to be very well-written. I'm probably playing through the game right now just to see more of what happens to Alister and Morrigan.
People tell me this is the main reason they like playing games like Baldur's Gate II and Planetscape Torment - the well-written stories and worlds. I guess that's a good reason to take these games as a refuge from melodramatic and emo-fueled JRPGs. Dragon Age just doesn't seem to have the deep exploration element that draws me into most RPGs (Japanese or Western).
The big problem though is that I really, really suck at combat. Basically, any group of more than four or five enemies and I get completely overwhelmed. Most of the time I have to figure out how to funnel enemies to gang up on them one by one. I'd also like to know if there is no healing magic at all in this game because I haven't encountered any yet.
I'm trying to figure out how to make the best use of the tactics system since otherwise It seems I have to repeatedly command my party to attack the same enemies. With only around for tactics slots per character the range of what you can do is also much less than in Final Fantasy XII.
As of this post I'm stuck at the second wave of walking corpses at Redcliffe Village. This is the first place I've been to since leaving Loithering. The only things I was able to do before the attack were
help Murdock, help the knights, find that lost kid, and convince that elf spy to help join the fight
I'm trying to stun, frighten, and freeze my way through this with Morrigan while the other characters try to gang up on each enemy. At first I do fine enough but eventually find myself in a position where all the militia are dead, I've run out of health poultices, and there are still around 10 walking corpses coming at us. My characters are all level 7.
