So, I recently finished played Mass Effect 3. Had a great time, and now I'm looking for a comparable game to help fill the hole left by it.
However I've heard a lot of bad things about dragon age from friends and the like. So I figured I'd just ask you guys. Is it worth playing?
Would you reccommend staring from dragon age 1 or 2?
Also how would you compare it to the Mass Effect series?
Is it worth playing?
Débuté par
Cobalt2113
, juin 18 2012 07:20
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#2
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 07:38
iheartbob
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I actually went the other way around (played the Dragon Age series first, and then Mass Effect after.)
I like Dragon Age only a litle more than Mass Effect, so I would definitely say it was worth it (yes, even played DAII.)
How is it comparable?
The party mechanics are very similar, except instead of two other companions you have three. I actually think the gameplay combat is easier in DA because you get up to six "quick slots" for your powers. There are also plenty of codex entries to pick up and read about. And in Dragon Age: Origins you will have a lot of unique locals to travel too. I think the characterizations of NPCs and the romance storylines are actually better in Dragon Age as well, but that's just a personal preference.
Now obviously genre wise, Mass Effect is Sci-Fi and Dragon Age is Fantasy. So if you love playing a story that has an engrossing world of lore comprising of religion, politics, dragons, magic, elves, dwarves, etc., then you'll love Dragon Age.
I also have to say that the game is wonderful in getting you quickly acclimated to the game mechanics. The map in the first Mass Effect was awful and I got lost easily and consequently never finished the first game (finished 2 and 3 just fine.) Dragon Age is a lot easier to navigate. Origins is also very comprehensive so anticipate putting 40-50 hours in your first playthrough.
I like Dragon Age only a litle more than Mass Effect, so I would definitely say it was worth it (yes, even played DAII.)
How is it comparable?
The party mechanics are very similar, except instead of two other companions you have three. I actually think the gameplay combat is easier in DA because you get up to six "quick slots" for your powers. There are also plenty of codex entries to pick up and read about. And in Dragon Age: Origins you will have a lot of unique locals to travel too. I think the characterizations of NPCs and the romance storylines are actually better in Dragon Age as well, but that's just a personal preference.
Now obviously genre wise, Mass Effect is Sci-Fi and Dragon Age is Fantasy. So if you love playing a story that has an engrossing world of lore comprising of religion, politics, dragons, magic, elves, dwarves, etc., then you'll love Dragon Age.
I also have to say that the game is wonderful in getting you quickly acclimated to the game mechanics. The map in the first Mass Effect was awful and I got lost easily and consequently never finished the first game (finished 2 and 3 just fine.) Dragon Age is a lot easier to navigate. Origins is also very comprehensive so anticipate putting 40-50 hours in your first playthrough.
#3
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 08:06
AkiKishi
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It depends what you like about Mass Effect. Dragon Age is a lot more complex and a lot more difficult to just pick up without any real idea of what you are doing. Mass Effect, you can get by just shooting things without too much trouble. In DA you need a fairly decent grasp of what each party member can do an how to do it.
#4
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 08:15
Cyne
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Dragon age origins is one of the best rpgs i've ever played. And if you liked mass effect for its story and character interactions, you will love DA:O because it does them better. DA2 is a let down though, but it has a voiced PC and the infamous dialogue wheel, so it should be easy to transition from mass effect to DA2. I recommend you play them both, they are worth at least one play through each.Cobalt2113 wrote...
So, I recently finished played Mass Effect 3. Had a great time, and now I'm looking for a comparable game to help fill the hole left by it.
However I've heard a lot of bad things about dragon age from friends and the like. So I figured I'd just ask you guys. Is it worth playing?
Would you reccommend staring from dragon age 1 or 2?
Also how would you compare it to the Mass Effect series?
#5
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 08:45
Jozape
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I loved playing DA:O. I find the characters, character interaction, combat, customization, lore, writing, and options to be much better than that of Mass Effect. The game is longer than ME1 and ME2(without DLC) combined, so you'll be preoccupied for quite some time. One thing that you may or may not like though, is that the player character is a silent protagonist. What that means is that you pick text options, but you don't see or hear your character act them out like in ME. So if that's not your thing, you might not like DA:O. DA2 however does have a ME style dialog system. You also control a party of four instead of Shepard plus 2 NPCs. So if micromanaging isn't your thing, you might have to lower the difficulty to one of the easier settings to really enjoy the game.
Most of the bad stuff you heard about Dragon Age was probably because of Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 is a bit different from DA:O, so if you dislike one, you may like the other.
Most of the bad stuff you heard about Dragon Age was probably because of Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 is a bit different from DA:O, so if you dislike one, you may like the other.
#6
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 11:55
nightscrawl
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Well I like both games, but I don't think that will help you very much.
However, I do suggest starting from DAO and moving forward, to get the full lore experience of intro to the Dragon Age universe, the races, politics, and so forth. I also suggest, even if you don't finish a play with all races, to at least play through all of the origin stories once.
If you are planning on buying all of the DLC and expansion, you'll want to play them like so, with the imports: DAO, DAO - Awakening expansion, Golems of Amgarrak DLC (this is kind of iffy in my book, but I include it for accuracy), Witch Hunt DLC, DA2 +Legacy DLC (you can play this either during or after the game).
Hopefully all of that will consume a great deal of your time. Welcome aboard!
However, I do suggest starting from DAO and moving forward, to get the full lore experience of intro to the Dragon Age universe, the races, politics, and so forth. I also suggest, even if you don't finish a play with all races, to at least play through all of the origin stories once.
If you are planning on buying all of the DLC and expansion, you'll want to play them like so, with the imports: DAO, DAO - Awakening expansion, Golems of Amgarrak DLC (this is kind of iffy in my book, but I include it for accuracy), Witch Hunt DLC, DA2 +Legacy DLC (you can play this either during or after the game).
Hopefully all of that will consume a great deal of your time. Welcome aboard!
#7
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 12:56
Swordfishtrombone
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Absolutely start with DA:O.
DA2 is not a bad game, though it has the halmarks of having been rushed. The negative reaction was probably amplified by the huge expectations that DA:O set up - DA:O was (and is) a great game, one of the best that Bioware has ever made. DA2, by contrast, is just a good game, a good game with some significant flaws. Worth playing, but just not up to DA:O's standard.
DA2 is smaller in scope, with events happening within one city, and it's immediate vicinity, with most of the map layouts for environments used, and reused (and reused again) throughout the game. The storyline is much less focused than DA:O's more traditional RPG storyline - through most of DA2, you don't actually have any idea of having any sort of an overreaching goal or purpose.
It's a risky sort of a storyline to adopt, and I think that the public reaction to it, which was mostly negative, was amplified by the recycled environments and the hightened expectations after DA:O.
Still, I'd say both games are worth playing, and DA:O is a "must play".
DA2 is not a bad game, though it has the halmarks of having been rushed. The negative reaction was probably amplified by the huge expectations that DA:O set up - DA:O was (and is) a great game, one of the best that Bioware has ever made. DA2, by contrast, is just a good game, a good game with some significant flaws. Worth playing, but just not up to DA:O's standard.
DA2 is smaller in scope, with events happening within one city, and it's immediate vicinity, with most of the map layouts for environments used, and reused (and reused again) throughout the game. The storyline is much less focused than DA:O's more traditional RPG storyline - through most of DA2, you don't actually have any idea of having any sort of an overreaching goal or purpose.
It's a risky sort of a storyline to adopt, and I think that the public reaction to it, which was mostly negative, was amplified by the recycled environments and the hightened expectations after DA:O.
Still, I'd say both games are worth playing, and DA:O is a "must play".
#8
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 01:51
Teddie Sage
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DA2 is fun to play, but most players here will prefer Dragon Age Origins. I'm not a huge fan of click and drag rpgs so the action aspect of DA2 was more fitting for me. Dragon Age Origins is more strategic and has a deeper lore, while DA2 doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm a fan of both games, but if you want a good, deep product, go for DAO first because DA2 had a lot of little flaws that turned off a lot of the fanbase. If you can overlook those flaws, it's a good game.
#10
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 06:18
Kidd
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You will most likely enjoy it, cause as much as people tend to rag on one being so much different from the other, they share a lot more similarities than they have things that set them apart. The most obvious difference at a first glance of course is that DA is fantasy while ME is sci-fi.
Second, the party works a bit differently. Whereas in ME, you control only your own character and your party mostly control themselves (though you can issue specific orders to them), you cannot give quick orders like that in DA. Instead, in DA you can switch which character you're currently controlling (even when the game is paused) to fully control any party member you want at any time, setting up pretty nice strategies if you want to - though it's by no means required unless you want to tackle the higher difficulties.
There is no "shooting" in DA obviously, since you don't wield guns. Instead, you highlight enemies and click/press A to have your character start attacking them. They will keep attacking until you give your character an order to do something else - quaff a potion, cast a spell, use a martial talent, move somewhere else etc. This leads to combat feeling less direct, which may or may not be a preference to you. I prefer the more directness of ME, but I still love DA.
The feel is slightly different not only because it's a different IP, but also because the state of knowledge in the worlds are at different levels. In ME, nothing is a mystery to the actual world. It's just a matter of whether or not your character knows something. The character next to you probably knows all about whatever you're thinking about. Aside from things involving Reapers, ME doesn't really have any mysteries. Since everything you get to touch and read in DA is written from the perspective of people living in that world, in a pre-science era, there's tons of mystery left in the world. That leads to a very different feel, methinks.
Also, you know those pre-service history things you get to fill out during character creation in ME1? In DAO, you get six choices, and you get to actually play through those origin stories too
I would suggest starting with DAO even though I prefer DA2 overall. DAO is simply a better introduction to the world, and it was obviously written to be just that. While you can probably enjoy DA2 without playing DAO first, DA2 takes a lot of previous knowledge for granted. You also won't get to import your save into DA2 if you play that first, obviously =)
Dragon Age is very recommended to all fans of Mass Effect, from me.
Second, the party works a bit differently. Whereas in ME, you control only your own character and your party mostly control themselves (though you can issue specific orders to them), you cannot give quick orders like that in DA. Instead, in DA you can switch which character you're currently controlling (even when the game is paused) to fully control any party member you want at any time, setting up pretty nice strategies if you want to - though it's by no means required unless you want to tackle the higher difficulties.
There is no "shooting" in DA obviously, since you don't wield guns. Instead, you highlight enemies and click/press A to have your character start attacking them. They will keep attacking until you give your character an order to do something else - quaff a potion, cast a spell, use a martial talent, move somewhere else etc. This leads to combat feeling less direct, which may or may not be a preference to you. I prefer the more directness of ME, but I still love DA.
The feel is slightly different not only because it's a different IP, but also because the state of knowledge in the worlds are at different levels. In ME, nothing is a mystery to the actual world. It's just a matter of whether or not your character knows something. The character next to you probably knows all about whatever you're thinking about. Aside from things involving Reapers, ME doesn't really have any mysteries. Since everything you get to touch and read in DA is written from the perspective of people living in that world, in a pre-science era, there's tons of mystery left in the world. That leads to a very different feel, methinks.
Also, you know those pre-service history things you get to fill out during character creation in ME1? In DAO, you get six choices, and you get to actually play through those origin stories too
I would suggest starting with DAO even though I prefer DA2 overall. DAO is simply a better introduction to the world, and it was obviously written to be just that. While you can probably enjoy DA2 without playing DAO first, DA2 takes a lot of previous knowledge for granted. You also won't get to import your save into DA2 if you play that first, obviously =)
Dragon Age is very recommended to all fans of Mass Effect, from me.
#11
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 09:04
Shevy
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Origins : absolutely
DA II: I'm not a fan of it, but if you like a more actiony gameplay give it a go.
DA II: I'm not a fan of it, but if you like a more actiony gameplay give it a go.
#12
Posté 18 juin 2012 - 10:48
KDD-0063
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Origins: absolutely
DA2: if you think ME3 is a decent game, then ... probably DA2 will be a decent game too. However, for me, I think it's not great; it's just decent at best.
DA2: if you think ME3 is a decent game, then ... probably DA2 will be a decent game too. However, for me, I think it's not great; it's just decent at best.
#14
Posté 19 juin 2012 - 12:10
Ponendus
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wsandista wrote...
DAO: YES!
DA2: NO!
I think if you develop a love for the lore then DA2 is worth playing just for that.
Otherwise I agree.
#15
Posté 19 juin 2012 - 12:22
Realmzmaster
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If you liked ME3 then the transition is not that difficult. Both DAO and DA2 are worth playing. Given that both are fairly inexpensive there is not harm in getting both. So I say YES to both. You can then decide which one you like best and weigh in with your opinion on DA3.
If you like a faster paced combat style then DA2. If you want to experience the lore and everything then start with DAO. Just be warned that if you like a voiced PC DAO does not have one DA2 does. Since you liked ME3 then you will probably feel comfortable with the dialogue wheel in DA2.
If you like a faster paced combat style then DA2. If you want to experience the lore and everything then start with DAO. Just be warned that if you like a voiced PC DAO does not have one DA2 does. Since you liked ME3 then you will probably feel comfortable with the dialogue wheel in DA2.
#16
Posté 19 juin 2012 - 12:41
Rxdiaz
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I really liked DA:O
I really disliked DA2
I really disliked DA2
#17
Posté 19 juin 2012 - 01:05
ChaosAgentLoki
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Both are great games. I won't weigh in on the which is better part of the discussion, but as someone who clearly enjoyed ME3, there is no reason that either of these games should be avoided.
There are many similarities between the two series, but, as is mentioned before, DA is fantasy while ME was sci-fi. Parties work slightly differently as well since you have far more control in DA than Mass Effect and combat is slower than ME's as well. They are very fun games though and great RPGs that I would highly recommend to anyone who uses these forums.
There are many similarities between the two series, but, as is mentioned before, DA is fantasy while ME was sci-fi. Parties work slightly differently as well since you have far more control in DA than Mass Effect and combat is slower than ME's as well. They are very fun games though and great RPGs that I would highly recommend to anyone who uses these forums.
#18
Posté 19 juin 2012 - 02:15
Fast Jimmy
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Given that you wouldn't be paying full sticker price for either game right now, I'd say go for it. Make sure you get the GOTY edition for DA:O, which includes many of the DLCs and the Awakenings Expansion. It should occupy a very large chunk of your time.
Then, if you either hate Origins or if you just can't get through the slower gameplay, you can give DA2 a shot. The DLC for that aren't on discount, so you'd have to buy them (if you're the DLC buying type, pick up Legacy. If you really like both DA2 and Legacy, then take a good look at Mark of the Assassin).
If you find yourself loving certain things about the first Dragon Age game, like the multiple races, the origins, the multiple dialogue options, the unique environments and the equipment/upgrades, then brace yourself for either a great reduction or altogether removal of these elements in DA2.
Then, if you either hate Origins or if you just can't get through the slower gameplay, you can give DA2 a shot. The DLC for that aren't on discount, so you'd have to buy them (if you're the DLC buying type, pick up Legacy. If you really like both DA2 and Legacy, then take a good look at Mark of the Assassin).
If you find yourself loving certain things about the first Dragon Age game, like the multiple races, the origins, the multiple dialogue options, the unique environments and the equipment/upgrades, then brace yourself for either a great reduction or altogether removal of these elements in DA2.
