Dragon Age is really a mediocre series and will be exposed for just how bland, boring, poorly made, and uninspired it is when Skyrim hits and blows it out of the water in November.
The first Dragon Age is actually an excellent game, especially when you play through it on PC, on the hardest difficulties.
Oh he doesn't just drink one potion. He drinks like 5.
Jesus! I quit after the first and it felt like I had been in the fight for half an hour already. I myself had two potions so I had little room for error.
I was also playing on hard difficulty. Maybe that was part of it. The thing with rpgs is that they tend to get too easy when you're on higher levels, so I err on the side of too hard rather than the opposite.
The first Dragon Age is actually an excellent game, especially when you play through it on PC, on the hardest difficulties.
I think that's one of the things they got right: many of the battles are actually challenging in a way for example Neverwinter Nights never was. On my first playthrough I got my ass kicked plenty of times on normal difficulty before I started to take it more seriously.
The characters were also pretty good. But the story was too traditional and the locations weren't very interesting.
Yea I was playing on Hard difficulty, and had to be super careful about when I went for the attack and when to run away. I got to a point where I had like 10% HP, no potions and 100 seconds until Devour was of CD (and this was about 40 minutes into the fight, and I hadn't saved for a looooong time before starting it so it would have been a gigantic kick in the balls). That was a bit hairy.
The one thing I really enjoy about DA is the tactical aspect of it. Before a fight I will send my rogue in, set a trap, disarm theirs, etc. Then I will get my mages to go double glyph on range, and then its rock and roll time. I really like the whole strategy behind it to be honest.
In a way it kind of reminds me of playing arena in WoW, without the team mates, and without having to compensate for stupid mistakes. If you execute your strategy correctly, you should win pretty easy if you have the right group composition.
I've never tried WoW. I think people that play it are naturally way better at these kinds of games. In the battle if you let him hit you, he just pastes you, so you always have to wait for him to lunge first and then you can get like one shot in safely. I was doing no damage to him at all, it seemed.
I agree about the tactical aspect, but the problem for me was the you soon find out a couple of tactics and combinations that really work and sort of keep repeating them, because there aren't that many options available. On one hand, it forces you think tactically and the options that are there are clearly designed for that, on the other there aren't as many things you can do as there have been in previous rpgs.
But yeah, I did have that slow-down bug. Everytime Bella left the party abruptly, like when I visited my house, which was all the time, or when she just left on her own, it took 5 points off from my speed. I only noticed it much later when my character was literally moving in slow motion, Matrix style. It was really weird.
Personally I think this game is about a 3 out of 5, it is a good time waster, but I will play it through once and likely never touch it again.
Diablo 3 will very likely be my undoing though, as I really love this type of genre, and if it is done correctly it can be super fun!
I quit playing WoW a few years ago, because it was the same grind over and over and over. You could never actually be the best, because to be the best meant farming a new set of gear every couple months and that got the wife a little upset.
DA isn't very original, but there are some good things about it. Like Claudia Black. At least they're trying to create an epic ongoing story.
DA2 was a huge missed opportunity, but I think it sold well and if the next one is decent, the players will be there. I mean it isn't as awful as some make it sound. They just made some dumb mistakes with it.
DAO was very good. The expansion had a couple of misfires, but in general I thought it was excellent.
Apparently DAO didn't do so well on consoles, however, which is why DA2's combat felt so different. Recycling environments didn't bother me as much as it did some - I was more upset that it had only token tie-ins from DAO. So much was made about how your choices would have these far-reaching consequences, but importing a game did little but change the cameos.
It bothers me to no end that DAO had an entire expansion dedicated to tracking down Morrigan and getting some closure, which actually answered nothing and brought up more questions, then they barely touch on the story in the sequel. Flemeth is built up to be a big part of DA2 but then she disappears without a trace.
DA2 was fun, and has a few really awesome battles, but the plot was a big letdown.
Personally I think this game is about a 3 out of 5, it is a good time waster, but I will play it through once and likely never touch it again.
Diablo 3 will very likely be my undoing though, as I really love this type of genre, and if it is done correctly it can be super fun!
I quit playing WoW a few years ago, because it was the same grind over and over and over. You could never actually be the best, because to be the best meant farming a new set of gear every couple months and that got the wife a little upset.
DA2 is okay, just not what we hoped for. The bugs sort of made me sour. Lots of people had that one judging by the forum. I'm sure they've been patched months ago. It was just that the bonus Isabella gives you would get subtracted everytime she left, so you end up with a cumulative -5, over and over again. Such a simple thing, but apparently it was connected to a whole bunch of issues with how bonuses worked with items too. At least that was the word then. Similar things with at least one other character as well.
Usually when you get a bug, you see it right away, and then you can figure out how to deal with it. Not in this case. There were plenty of people who played through the game with a slowed-down character, even slower than what I had. You could download a character editor and keep clearing it and there was also a fan-made fix that just made the bonuses permanent - but you could only do that once you found out that there was actually something wrong.
At least that's my recollection of it. Here's an example of the issue, a character with a 75% slowed down attack speed. I think I was at 55 or 60 when I noticed it.
I'm guessing the optional fight you mentioned that is harder than the Arishok fight is the High Dragon one I went through last night.
Definitely a challenge, but I had two ranged damage dealers that I positioned away from the big fella so they were able to do their thing without much harassment, and used my rogue to goad all the addon enemies into attacking my tank. Definitely a good fight, but I still feel like the Arishok one was a bit more of a challenge, the Big Dragon was more of a tank and spank.
I'm guessing the optional fight you mentioned that is harder than the Arishok fight is the High Dragon one I went through last night.
Definitely a challenge, but I had two ranged damage dealers that I positioned away from the big fella so they were able to do their thing without much harassment, and used my rogue to goad all the addon enemies into attacking my tank. Definitely a good fight, but I still feel like the Arishok one was a bit more of a challenge, the Big Dragon was more of a tank and spank.
I actually thought Hybris was tougher than the High Dragon on Hard, but I had a wacky party when I fought Hybris since the game was getting pretty easy.
I didn't mean the high dragon, but I can't for the life of me remember who it was exactly. Just that it was inside and it was chaos. The name Hybris doesn't ring a bell but that's probably it. High dragon was more manageable.
Still not as tough as the final fight in the last DA DLC.
Doesn't look so crowded on the video though. I remember being totally swarmed. I don't know.
Ah yeah I remember Xebenkeck being far easier than he should have for me because when I got swarmed I fled the room to regroup and then all the adds stated attacking one another (and Xebenkeck). I just had to go clean up once they were finished.
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