DA:O - The good and bad stuff

Remove all ads!

Hi all.

Wanted to make a small review of this game. I got it about a month ago, and have been playing a lot.

So when i first started the game, i was surprised about the graphics. They were astounding. The intro is kind of cool, and i knew i would start my first game with a mage.

But then i noticed how much this game looks like World of Warcraft. The combat system with the annoyinig cooldowns. Now that was a real disadvantage to me, i used to play World of Warcraft and got really tired of it.

That having said, the plot is kind of cool, the dialouge is exciting, and the exploration aspects of the game is very gripping. I could spend hours on just exploring an area and loot everything.

So this game reminds me way to much of WOW, the only real improvement is that you can PAUSE the game.

Oh and you won't have to listen to lame teenagers trying to get a boost - LOL

Other than that it is really just WOW on single player.... With a much cooler storyline.

I would like to hear all of your opinions. Thanks

 

No. its not like WOW at all.

 

Thank you for your opinion

Let's disagree that it's not the same at all- I mean the UI is very similar the leveling up system, and the looting is all the same to me. Rouges and Mages rock, just like in WOW

Of course there is differences, like not having to fight re-spawns all the time - And the pause function, dialogue and so on. But to say not at all, i disagree.

Other thoughts, anyone ?

 

How far are you in the game? DAO is a single player game that is party based. WOW is, well I won't go there as I hate it.

Yes the games may have similar combat styles, but it ends there. DAO is a very enriched game and brings you into Thedas. The characters in the game is what makes it special and how your interact with the character is what makes it AWESOME...

Please stop comparing DAO to WOW... They are two different games...

 

DA:O was very good. After the betrayal that was DA:2, however, it's understandable that people would be disinclined to discuss it as when it first came out.

I don't think it's very similar to WoW at all, except for the interface. The rules are very different. Perhaps you mean the older WoW, when talent trees had more skills in them and the type of magic you used (shadow, fire, arcane, etc) actually mattered, but that was only because the older versions of WoW were at least partly inspired by D&D, in the same way DA:O is.

 

Peace out

Thank you for your thoughts Munch

Yes I'm far into this game by now. It's great. Almost like playing BG again. But i hate the cool-downs, (Just realized the loot also have a cool down?)

I should have started this thread by clearly stating that i'm a WOW hater - Don't misunderstand me here.

I got disappointed because the UI and the cool-downs reminds me way to much of WOW, like i said in the opening post. Anyway - It was just my review.

Would you recommend DA 2 ?

---------- Added 0 hours, 5 minutes and 48 seconds later... ----------

Yes thanks for your reply

I also replied to Munchkin, and you are both right i guess. The rules are very different, but as i tried to explain, i just HATE cool downs, and the visual similarities. They could have made it look more different, if you ask me ..

I like all the posts in this thread, Rawgrim's answer was a little short though. Would any of you recommend DA2 ?

 

Nah, the posters above (me included) are just stating our case. Sorry if it seems repetitive, please don't read too much into it. Good to hear you're enjoying the game, heh, hope you brought both Morrigan and Alistair. Loved that first run. Their dialogues are some of the best imo, followed by Sten's and Zevran's. No, looting isn't supposed to have a cooldown. Might be a bug?

DA:2 is a good game I guess. At least, when compared to most other PS3 games. But placed in the same room with the other infinity engine games and the original DA:O and it just fades completely into the background.

 

I wrote up a rather longer post about it not too long after it came out, if you'd like to read long posts about DA:O. In short, it's a game with many good points, but in the end the combat completely turned me off of it.

I've never played WoW, but from what I've seen of it, the cooldown system on special abilities is quite similar. It's at least a more elegant system for casting spells than having to memorize spells in BG.

I've never played DA2 either, but from what I've heard, I would recommend everyone not to get it. The sheer amount of copy pasting of environments in that game is just lazy game design (well, more likely it was game design under intense pressure from deadlines, but still) and it shouldn't be bought if only on the principle of it. I mean, if it does manage to sell well, what kind of signal is that sending game developers/publishers? That it doesn't matter what kind of **** they put on the market, people will buy it anyway? (I'm pretty sure they already believe this already, but that's a different discussion.)

 

Hugin, you more or less mirror my opinion of the game and I wrote an almost identical post when the game was new. DA:O is nothing but single player WoW with a party and some story. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to the player,

 

There are mods out there that can adjust certain aspects of the game such as cool downs and completely removing then when trying to steal. There are also texture mods out there as well. But those are mostly to remake the textures so they are of a higher quality and don't necessarily change them completely

 

Depending on the platform used you can use mods as Token stated to improve game play and graphical content within the game. There are other mods to add characters and story lines to the game as well; however, I recommend always playing the vanilla game first before incorporating any mods. However, mods are only available to PC.

DA2 is different than DAO when it comes to inventory management, companion equipment, item ranking value, and combat. Those alone either improve or reduce DA2 value to most gamers. Also, the story is more linear as you don’t have as much freedom as in DAO.

Inventory management has been dumb down a lot. Items that you clearly don’t equip or use are marked as JUNK and can be sold for a few quid. Companion items are now restricted to accessories and weapon (most companions) as you cannot change companion armor. You as the PC have 3 armor sets throughout the game and best is the Champion Set. There is no guess work with DA2 PC armor and which mean you have maybe 4 sets total.

Weapons and armor power level are no longer determined by the tier of weapon (steel – dragon bone). Instead, weapons are armor power level is determined by PC level. Simply put, you can have two similar items made from the same material but the PC level when the item is found determines its power level.

Besides the restriction to companion armor, item power level being determine by PC level and limited amount of armor set the game isn’t all that bad. The story is ok, not great. It does add to the story of the first game and the main PC is related to the human mage origin story in DAO.

If you plan to buy DA3, you should definitely pick up DA2 to know the back story of what is going on in DA3. And who knows, maybe Bioware will provide a free DLC item to those of us who own the previous two games.

 

I don't think they did that for ME3, so I wouldn't hold my breath for DA3 either. Also, planning to buy DA3 when you're not even sure about getting DA2 sounds kind of like you've got it the wrong way around. On the other hand, after playing DA2, not a lot of people would be looking forward to the third installment.

 

Thanks

Thanks many times, lots of usefull replies here.

I'm playing on PC, and will try and play around with some mods, i found the respeck mod very usefull, just remember to unequip equipment first.
I would like that cooldown mod, but i couldn't find it.

As for the official DLC i don't like the idea of bioware points, that's a really lame idea. I have bought the game, and now they want me to pay up again ?

So I settle with Shayle and the armor you get for free.

Enjoying the game, I'm in Orzammer, a little too much hack'n slash, but i still really enjoy the Deep Roads.

 

See if the cooldown mod is on the Dragon Age Nexus at dragonage.nexusmods.com

 

My understanding is that the choices you make in DA2 impacts DA3 story. Not sure how much but it does.

 

I am not sure how that would work, considering you never really had any choices in DA2. If you spared someone, they come back and attack you later anyway. And siding with the templars\mages achived nothing. You only got to pick wich if the bosses you got to fight before the other.

 

I wouldnt be surprised if bioware messed up the choices from earlier games like they did with Mass Effect at least that is what I have been hearing about the series.

 

They did mess up quite abit allready. People you killed in DA:O, shows up in DA2 as if nothing happened. The only thing that got affected in DA2 by DA:O was some cammeos.

 

More good and bad

I will wait with DA2 - Not really sure I'm gonna like it. Thanks for all the replies.

I have made it through most of the game, with my second character, a mage. I'm worried about the final battle though. it sounds like a pretty hard job.

I really like most of the quests, also the side-quests. And i have done some companion quests as well (I can't for some reason unlock Leliana's quest)

Of the mods i tried, i recommend "Misha the Horder" (like a chest in camp) and the "Respeck mod" and "Auto-loot". Never found a way to change the lack of combat and looting (I sometimes have to wait 10-15 seconds after a kill, before i can loot).


Yes, I have been busy. I also tried Quest and Legends (a really big mod ekspansion) but there is some kind of bug, that won't let me go to the first area after talking to Marianna in the camp. It only worked once, but it was way too hard, so i changed the difficulty and now i can't unlock the map.

 

Before I played DA:O, I'd only played two other similar games: Baldur's Gate and World of Warcraft. Playing DA:O made me realize how much I disliked WoW, and it reignited my interest in BG. So, I don't think DA:O and WoW are alike at all, other than fitting into the same basic category (**RPGs where you can create a character, then do quests and progress). The biggest difference I see between DA:O and WoW is in the interactions and the story. You actually have real choices when talking to people, not just, "Okay, I'll accept your quest" or "I don't want to do that quest." And your actions are also important and affect the story, in ways other than "Oh, the big bad guy is dead now." This is really important to me.

Another difference is the MMO part of WoW. I found that I didn't really like that aspect, either. I always prefer soloing and got frustrated about how much of the content was unavailable to me because of that. I also didn't like how much time I ended up spending on the auction house. Being able to instantly sell things when I get to a merchant is so much more relaxing.

In short: the things I do like about WoW (character creation, quests, exploration) are in DA:O, but the things I like about DA:O are not available in WoW. Meanwhile the things I didn't like about WoW aren't in DA:O. In short, about the only thing that WoW has that I wish DA:O had are the banks/storage.**

**My only computer capable of playing DA:O is a Mac, so I can't get the Downloadable content. I'm hoping to get a teaching job this year, and if I do, my first purchase is going to be a new PC. The Mac is really meant for my writing, but my PC is too old to play most games now.