First Impressions

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You're right about the spoiler tags. Added now. Still, despite how it may sound from my above comments, I really love this game.

 

I feel the same. It's the most entertaining game I've played in a while (and I mean a while). Definitely worth it.

 

Spoiler

yeah, I agree that Duncan seemed a bit off. Couldn't he have tried to actually convince the guy? Or at least make him go first (since the other two recruits were willing to drink it and thus not be affected by the possible side effects).

And for those who did the human noble origin, why the hell couldn't Duncan or the human player take the father on his back while fleeing. Duncan supposed to be strong... Anyhow...

 

Spoiler

Seeing as good Duncan was in combat he could have knocked him out or disarmed him. Besides if Duncan had such an eye for talent he could have seen right ahead that ser what's his name was no warden material.

I guess we are to see

Spoiler

Duncan

beyond the good and evil spectrum of classic alignment.

In fact that may be one of DA's strong points, i.e. the fact that characters are not reduced (or limited) to an alignment.

 

Anyone know why everyone in the game has bad, rotten teeth? No toothpaste back then, sure - but I'm sure mages can whiten teeth.

 

I haven't tried it yet but you should consider this mod.

 

First impressions are great, I can tell I'm going to love this game. I'm playing a mage and got a serious shock when I found myself talking to another guy with the same RL and in game name as me. "Who are you?" indeed. They pronounced it wrong though. They guy looked like a tiny part, can't imagine I'll see him again.

After getting control of two other people to guide around the Origins story I was overjoyed to discover that you can remove all their clothes and have them wander around in their underpants, including for the cut scenes. Maybe I shouldn't play while drinking...

The camera is a bit annoying. It's clearly designed for the KOTOR type view which looks better and works for a joypad. The isometric view works so much better though. The problem is you constantly have to swing it around to see things seeing as how it's not designed to be played this way.

 

I've already decided that my next game will be as an evil Dwarf who will strut around in his underpants for most of the game. I'm sure that thing will never grow old.

Of course a Mage would be better because a Warrior or a Rogue without armour is a bit of a liability but that sure must be fun.

I agree it takes some getting used to as moving from one area to another demands a lot of turning around with the camera. I think I'll try and see if I can use xpadder to use my controller to play the game like it is played on the console. I'll have to revert to the top view for strategy because that must be a real pain from an over the shoulder perspective. That may be worth a try though.

 

I lost all my earlier screenshots because I didn't disable the uploading option.

Good thing Equester pointed it out to me, it was driving me mad. All I have now is a handful of plot related screenshots that don't do justice to the game and its blood splashing effect during battles that make you think how hard it is to keep an armour clean in a medieval setting.

 

Seems like people have already finished it, how much play time is there in it? That is one of my main problems with modern games, they are too short.

 

The actual time you play the game is between 40-50 hours, maybe. There is so much dialogue in the game that it takes up quite a bit of time to go through it all.

I'm wondering, after you complete the game can you export your character to play on the harder difficulties? I'm only asking because I play the game on the PS3 and do real time combat...

 

I'm really taking my time trying to enjoy my first run through the game, I'm not looking to achieve a perfect run since I already know I'll be playing it more than once.

I can say that if you don't mind reading the books and listening to what npcs have to say you can really spend a lot of time playing this game.

I think I have 40 hours of game already and I'm nowhere near the end of the game.

Unless I'm mistaken I don't think you can export your character. From what I've read on the official forum it seems that the console version is easier than the PC version. I've seen a video of the gameplay on the console and it looks rather well adapted to that platform but you don't get the top view which is the closer we get to Baldur's Gate.

 

I have now played a little more, and have just entered the little village right after the big initial battle ... to start over again because I IMO skilled my char the wrong way So I am now effectively two hours in the game again (some one and a half more to go to be again where I left).

I like it. A lot. I will enjoy that game, just like I expected.

Redeeming my pre-order code did work, and I got the in-game-item, a ring that gives +1 on all stats, and that additional quest. I was impressed how smooth that went. I don't think they explained really how exactly it works. I think I effectively found out by trial and error.

Speaking of explaining poorly, I noticed that you get points for your achievements. Buying downloadable content (DLC) appears to cost points. You cannot, I presume, purchase the DLC by merit of playing a lot?

 

I don't know about the additional quest. I got the Lucky Ring by using the character editor.

I've got the Blood Armour (looks ugly), the Stone Prisoner (which features a nice follower) and I bought Warden's Keep (some say it's short but I like it nevertheless). I also got some minor goodies from the flash game (nothing to write home about but still nice).

Unfortunately you can't. These points are just a way to track down your achievements.

You have to buy EA points with money. Once you're done you have a credit rating when logged in and you can download the content you want provided you have enough points.

I don't like buying stuff online but I just couldn't miss getting that DLC. That game is too addictive!

 

This made me curious actually, has anyone managed to get the heavy hitter achievement with anything other than a mage using spell clash? Not for bragging rights, as bragging about spell clash (Woops, it's spell clash, not spellburst -fixed) is like bragging about casting improved alacrity+time stop in BG2. But, I'm wondering if it is even possible.

Spoiler

The achievement is for scoring over 250 points of damage in a single hit. I was thinking maybe a warrior berserker with full stamina, using that attack based off of remaining stamina. I don't know enough about rogues to know if they can do that much in a single hit. I don't really see how a mage could get the achievement without spell clash either. Even with spell might, at level 21, my mage was only hitting around the low 200s with horror on a sleeping target.

 

While i'm not far in the game, i'm really liking the game so far.

Started with a mage as i see most people did. The game definitely has the magic uber warriors/rogues touch to it. I was kinda dissapointed over combat at first, while tactical, it seemed too simplistic. It's developing nicely as you gain new skills and abilities though.
The characters i've encountered are pretty awesome so far, they are people, not "HEYIMTANK-1join-2decline".

I'm impressed by difficulty, i started on hard, and it's not a complete cakewalk at all. A really nice suprise there. As mentioned before, trash mobs arent trash, there's plenty of spacebar-pause use, even on normal packs. Tactical proficiency is extremely welcome at this game as well. It's very often the difference between a wipe and no-death victory, using same spells and abilities.


Few things i dislike about the game. Click-movement while already moving often fails. View is a bit annoying, since you can have enemies shooting at you while you cant even target them with "strategic" camera. Viewpoint shifting just to target one mob is redundant. WoW-type character roles. It seems you're expected to have a "tank" and "healer" in party. It's too limiting, narrows your characters too much. One is always in defensive modes hiding behind his shield and AoE taunting, the other is spamming heals left and right. I'm trying to do without a healer and it's working, but at times (Revenant, hi) it feels you're severely handicapped. Potion gulping. Too many hard encounters boil down to Heal hard & spam potion cooldown.
Perhaps another touch at difficulty. While i'm only at level 8, everything so far has been on one difficulty plane, except for Revenants which seem to be on a substantially higher one.

 

Oh, and another thing that annoys me a lot about the game. You need health potions... A lot... But there are waaaaay to few to buy on the market!! I'm Baldur's Gate, you could go to a cleric and buy massive amounts of health potions without fear of running out.

Sure you can make them yourself, but you have to find the right number of herbs before you do...

 

I don't have a healer as I felt it would be out of character for my favourite witch to do healing and it can get pretty tricky at times. You really need some crowd control magic in that game.

The game is challenging that's for sure and Revenants are really hard foes.

Actually you can get large amount of herbs in game and make your own potions. I currently have 80 health poultices.

Spoiler

The Dalish elves sell the herb in large quantities.

 

Damn Dalish elves! I'm coming after you! *shakes fist*