Combat = 5Personally, I don't care about flashy combat. The combat in Dragon Age: Origins was fine by me. I don't play RPGs for combat. I play them for the story. It was nice that ranged characters had melee animations when enemies got close, but that's unnecessary.
I did not like the constant waves. I don't mind waves from time to time, but not in every single combat situation. To me, throwing those waves around constantly just makes me think that the game is focused too much on action/killing rather than story. In my opinion, that's a huge negative to an RPG. Also, enemies dropping in from nowhere is always immersion-breaking.
Graphics = 6.5I'm torn between a 6 and a 7, so they're averaged. Kirkwall looked beautiful. Sundermount was pretty. The enviroments generally had more color to them. However, I completely stopped caring about the new look as soon as I saw every area again for the second time, and the third, fourth, fifth, etc. . .
They got old, quickly. A mention to the developers: when you make something unique and then copy it throughout the rest of the game, it loses that sense of being unique.
I hate seeing two identical NPCs standing next to each other in a crowd without another, different model standing in-between them (as was done many times in DAII), let alone running through the same area for so many hours. Sealing a door shut so that you have to run around the same area in a different way does not equal a significant enough change to ignore that it's still the exact same.
I would have sacrificed an overhaul on the graphics to instead giving more areas (and more beasts/people, considering how female dwarves, genlocks, and shrieks were missing). I understand going for a more unique look to set their franchise aside, but pushing it from the classic look Origins gave to this anime/cartoon-esque approach wasn't as appealing to me. I prefer other MMOs over WoW because of the cartoon look.
The emphasis on this unchanging unique appearance for companions also destroyed one of my favorite parts of the game (customization) and left roughly two-thirds of the equipment I found virtually useless, since it only pertained to my one class.
The changes to the hurlocks also isn't fitting: they were changed to look more patchwork and gritty, but that effect is broken when every single hurlock patchworked their armor in the exact same pattern. Unless they sit around their campfires during down time comparing notes on how to make themselves look a little individualistic and terrifying at the same time, but also with a hint of uniformity, then I'm not buying the reason behind that change.
The land around Lothering also struck me as curious. I wasn't aware that it was situated in a barren, brownish-orange wasteland.
Story = 5Rating any RPG to the level I consider combat almost hurts me. The story was theoretically great, but the execution was poor. If they hadn't spent so much time on the overhaul of combat and graphics, perhaps the story could have felt more immersive and real. Instead, it plays out like this completely inevitable tragic tale that also doesn't seem to highlight Hawke as anything important. What did Hawke actually decide that made a real difference?
I didn't like how impersonal my relationship with Hawke's family was. I didn't like standing around and doing nothing as the story happened entirely around me (against the cinematic approach, I suppose). While they were borrowing from Mass Effect, they should have looked into the interrupt system so that we could actually have made a difference in particular scenes. Making certain choices didn't lead to that many alternatives, considering most resulted in "die now, or die later." I didn't like how many plot-centric deaths were forced, and how there felt like a complete inability to save anyone.
None of the decisions in Act III really seem to have any particular bearing on what happens. The first and second acts feel decently put-together, but the third act just feels like it was slapped together and tossed in at the last minute. I enjoyed Act I the most. Act II was where I started going, "I don't like seeing this area again" at a nod toward graphics, above.
I don't like how the family is removed from the picture after Act I and really become utterly insignificant, as I greatly enjoyed having Carver around for the first act in pretty much every mission. Leandra felt too distant, and Gamlen even more so. I hated that there was no way to really try and bond with our only uncle, when there was so little family left to Hawke.
Even the little things lacked story. Instead of interesting little mentions on my arms, armor, trinkets, and miscellaneous objects found throughout the world, almost everything was generic. "Amulet", "Ring", "Robe"? Really? Also, everything that just went straight into the junk tab frustrated me.
Why include "miscellaneous items" if they don't have an interesting story, such as: "Moth-eaten Scarf: one year ago scarves were a huge trend around Kirkwall, but a large portion of the nobles sneered at them once Orlesian fashion trends changed several months after they became a hit!" It's even worse that these objects not only lack some flavorful information, but they go into a tab labled "junk" of all things! There's no better way to call something utterly useless unless they went ahead and put it into a tab named "garbage you're going to sell in the shop because it's useless!"
Edit: I felt like I was beginning to rant a little, so my review ends a bit abruptly.
Modifié par HallowedWarden, 11 mai 2011 - 05:02 .
Retour en haut
) from final fantasy 7.
f**k it. to tired to fix it properly.
