You see, I wasn't really expecting to play Dragon Age, given my 2.5 year old PC and all that. I was happily playing Paradox's Europa Universalis: Rome. Constant play, however, can bore anyone out of anything, and I was bored with Rome for a while. Also had some frustrations with my internet connection and a searing headache... and 'damn all, I want the Baldur's Gate 2 experience' suddenly kicked in. I had the Dragon Age DVDs in front of my desktop, uninstalled Company of Heroes (for space) and thought, well... let's see if it even works.
And was I not amazed! After the massive 15.6 GB installation finished... and I booted the game (I directly booted from the main executable LOL, did not use the launcher), and the character creator launched... and wow... the graphics kind of hit me... CUTE. The character was created (a preset cute human female Warrior!), and then I launched the human noble origin story.
Anyway, I played it nonstop for 5.5 days... and inevitably the boredom hit me again. But then one day of work, and I got the zeal back. I am a very nitpicky RPG player who takes his RPG treats slow, so I am still in the Fade (Circle of Magi). Love the lore... and am looking for those David Gaider novels too. I actually went back to NWN2 for a while just to compare, and the reason this game got so highly rated is really that it doesn't have good competition.
Like so many other Bioware fans, I was captivated by Baldur's Gate 2 and played it over a period of 1.5 months. If Dragon Age can give me even a fraction of that, I will be more than happy.
2
I have been hearing/reading about the DA graphics and how it ain't the state of the art. But well, I am more than impressed. It plays smooth as anything with my 2.5 year old 256 MB Radeon 2600 XT and 2 gigs of RAM... so smoothly and with no glitch, a very good deal for me. I especially like the facial and room decorations... and whereas I understand there will be some repetations and glitches in this long a game... I am suitably impressed.
3
I am really looking forward to custom content from the community, but it seems like hard work... and hence the scarce output. I intend to play thorugh it at least twice before I start on anything, but this time I want to create a module or two as well.
4
No fantasy RPG can provide a 'foolproof' story... and sure, due to technological limitations on games, Dragon Age has its non-immersive parts too. But it is pretty clear that the devs put a lot of efforts into creating an immersive world. I did have some gripes about 'relentless' combat in some parts, but then other, later areas compensated well. In fact, I believe it was more induced out of sheer boredom than anything.
5
Regarding difficulty, I thoroughly enjoyed the tactical combat (I switched from Normal to Hard on the Korcari Wilds... I am strictly anti-reload, and have so far reloaded only once... during my first hard 'hard' battle
). However, once you pass a certain level and learn some of the somewhat gamey luring tactics, the difficulty seems to diminish greatly. I am now following the methodology one of the forumers here posted: that of tactically sound battles so that I do not have to use any health poultice.Of course, ultimately, it is up to you in an RPG to please yourself.
There isn't a need for optimal gameplay if it doesn't add to the overall experience.Anyway, just some fresh impressions, folks. Hope to write some more when it comes to my mind. Feel free to share yours.
Monwar
Modifié par Monwar, 07 décembre 2009 - 02:49 .
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