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[joiedecombat]

So I've been sick for the past slightly-more-than-a-week, which has sucked. As a result, about all I have really had the energy to do has been playing Dragon Age Origins.

I truthfully wasn't interested in DAO at all throughout all of the buildup to its release. I was pretty well aware of it because I was keeping tabs on Mass Effect 2's development, but it just didn't ping me at all until I started hearing the comments from people who were actually playing it. Then I had to try it out - and if Mass Effect 2 is anything like this, I'll be very happy.

I'm especially hoping that the party interactions are handled in a similar way; I love the random in-the-field conversations and things like having the other party members comment (usually hilariously) on the romance subplot. It gave me an entirely disproportionate thrill the first time I switched control from my main character to her love interest mid-gameplay and heard him say "My love?" instead of his default response. I'm coming to the conclusion that even though we know the romantic subplot will be less prominent in ME2 than it was in the first game, if they just include such tiny but immersive details I'll be content.

There are definitely some elements that are familiar to me from the other two Bioware RPGs that I have played (KotOR and ME). Handily, they are elements that I enjoyed from those games. It's also very aware of all the usual sword-and-sorcery tropes - playing the human noble origin is a little like playing the first chapter of Mercedes Lackey's By the Sword as a video game - but it gets markedly less predictable and more complicated once the main storyline gets underway. I think I was put off, or at least left somewhat cold by, the aggressively Dark And Edgy marketing, but as sinvraal commented on masseffect, it's not purposelessly dark, and the player has plenty of opportunity to make their character a light in the darkness, something that appeals to me.

I'm also really liking the various moral choices - thus far I've been able to work things out pretty much the way I've wanted, but there have been a few points at which I really worried about it. More than that, there's a feeling of interconnectedness to the different quests, thanks both to the Gondor-calls-for-aid plotline and just the way little details carry over, making them not just checkpoints to be marked off on the way to the endgame. There's a nice, organic flow to it.

No complaints on the characters. The approval system was a little frustrating at first mostly because I just couldn't seem to do anything that Morrigan or Sten approved of, but I've been able to manage a bit better as I go along, and Morrigan - though she'll probably never be among my particular favorites - has mostly stopped annoying me as we've come to understand each other a little better. I mostly really like other party members (aside from Leilana who I somehow missed and Oghren who I'm looking forward to but haven't managed to pick up yet) - Alistair is snarky and adorable, Wynne is badass, Zevran is entertaining, and Sten is intriguing. And the dog! Plus various neat supporting characters, as well. As a bonus, the game passes the Bechdel test - with flying colors, if you're playing a female PC, but even if you're playing male I suspect it still passes thanks to the interaction between supporting characters.

I'm a good ways into the game at this point - I'm beginning to see the endgame looming, and I'm in the odd position of kind of wanting to start over from the beginning, not just to try out a different origin but to make the game last longer.

...being worried for Alistair might also have something to do with it. Possibly.

Comments

[persephoneflame.livejournal.com]

I'm about three hours in (and oh it was hard not to call in sick today ;) ), so some of your comments aren't relevant to me yet, though I agree with everything I'm familiar with.

Also... Alistair. Yes.

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

I love Alistair so much, omg. Snaaaaark.

Which origin have you been playing? I've got a dual-wielding human female noble going, as mentioned glancingly in my post.

[persephoneflame.livejournal.com]

Human female warrior noble. (sword and shield)

So, same origin, I think. Was there an origin for human that wasn't noble? I couldn't find one.

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

The noble is the warrior origin; the other human origins are for the other classes (presumably both rogue and mage, I haven't actually checked).

[fiddlersgreen.livejournal.com]

I kind of had the same initial reaction to Dragon Age as you, until recently. Their advance press did nothing to convince me that there was a worthwhile game there, except I knew there probably was because, y'know, Bioware. But once people who'd actually played it started talking about it, I knew it was a must-have. So I bought it. Er, this morning. (Off Steam, so I could download it when I was at work and hopefully have it waiting for me tonight.)

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

This has the handy side effect of making me feel a lot better about ME2's similar marketing campaign. I get the impression that whoever's in charge of the marketing is trying to draw in a new batch of fans from the "we like dark and gritty and bloody rarr rarr action" crowd, and hoping that people who have liked previous Bioware RPGs will still buy based on the fact that they're Bioware RPGs.

[funwithrage.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I've got to get this. Especially because I am OMG SICK of Neverwinter Nights, but am finding appeal in a Western RPG.

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

I definitely think you'd enjoy it. Mass Effect is also very good, though of course it's space opera instead of fantasy. Bioware just generally makes really good RPGs.

[ancalemon.livejournal.com]

If they have DA-style party/inter-character interactions, I will totally forgive them for Subject Zero, because hopefully there will be someone mocking her mercilessly. XD

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

We can *only hope.* :D

[yang-wenli.livejournal.com]

I'm playing a dwarf noble warrior. I love some of the comments. Things like, 'You must be the dwarf I was told about.' 'Guess that from my height, did you?'

My favorite is still, 'You honor me with this fight,' to which I can respond, 'I'll honor you upside the head.'

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

Heee. I've only just gotten into the Orzammar part of my human noble warrior playthrough, and man, dwarf politics are brutal. This is the most flailing I've done over trying to figure out which side to take in a conflict.