360 réponses à ce sujet

[thebigbenman]

The general mood of the world, which is a result of a hundred little factors, seemed... off...

There are worlds I'd love to visit, but Thedas is not among them. I understand the purpose of creating a more "realistic" medieval vibe, for that was indeed a dark, depressing time period. However, this as is escapism, not a historical simulation, it is vital for the player to want to escape from their own reality into the fiction presented. That desire was never present as I played.

Perhaps it was a little too dark... For instance, I have no fond memories of walking out to a beautiful vista or listening to relaxing music, and feeling any emotion for this world itself. I hate comparing Bioware games to Bethesda's or Lionhead's, but both Fable and Oblivion have beautiful, calm music to accompany beautiful, calm locations; where one can take a breather from all the world-saving to contemplate why it is worth saving... (in other settings, Mass Effect and RDR are also able to execute this moment quite well)

I've been trying to put my finger on what seemed off in DA:O since it came out, I hope this sums it up... It's a great game, don't get me wrong!

(By the way, I don't visit here often, so I would just like to thank Mr. Gaider for the fantastic suggestions he gave me, in regards to reading material, over a year ago in this forum. I've had a very pleasant year of reading thanks to you!)

[Kail Ashton]

The art direction, specificly the charecter models/apearance & the complete lack of thought or effort put into the gear (cause only 2 massive armor models really just goes so far right bioware!?)



The visuals in general, could've used more actiony cut scenes, mass effect 2 has em, wtf are they in DA:O? beggining & ending were bout it, rest were talkies

[Nuclear]

At times the lip synching. Example: Leliana. Singing. I laughed and cringed at the same time.



General underwear and naked models. Looks terrible and odd. Plus it got annoying knowing that everyone looked the same and wore the same things,



The soundtrack I didn't really care much for. It's odd for me since I often grow to love video games because of their music (often it's how I even find out about them.) and I usually enjoy the music no matter what. But for some reason I didn't feel entirely the same about this music, although it was mainly with the vocal tracks. Don't get me wrong, I understand the styling of the music and I think it fits in very well with the setting of DA and was an excellent choice, but I just wasn't as interested in it as other games.

[Sylvius the Mad]

The user interface was clumsy. Especially the inventory.

The documentation was terrible. Really, really bad. That we had to use third-party sources to learn how the game worked is a travesty.

[Tsuga C]

thebigbenman wrote...
That desire was never present as I played.

Perhaps it was a little too dark...

Please return to the world of Toril and take all those for whom the continent of Thedas was too dark with you.  As far as I'm concerned the game could've upped the medieval realism factor another couple of notches, darkness and brutality included.

[purplesunset]

thebigbenman wrote...

The general mood of the world, which is a result of a hundred little factors, seemed... off...

There are worlds I'd love to visit, but Thedas is not among them. I understand the purpose of creating a more "realistic" medieval vibe, for that was indeed a dark, depressing time period. However, this as is escapism, not a historical simulation, it is vital for the player to want to escape from their own reality into the fiction presented. That desire was never present as I played.

Perhaps it was a little too dark... For instance, I have no fond memories of walking out to a beautiful vista or listening to relaxing music, and feeling any emotion for this world itself. I hate comparing Bioware games to Bethesda's or Lionhead's, but both Fable and Oblivion have beautiful, calm music to accompany beautiful, calm locations; where one can take a breather from all the world-saving to contemplate why it is worth saving... (in other settings, Mass Effect and RDR are also able to execute this moment quite well)

I've been trying to put my finger on what seemed off in DA:O since it came out, I hope this sums it up... It's a great game, don't get me wrong!

(By the way, I don't visit here often, so I would just like to thank Mr. Gaider for the fantastic suggestions he gave me, in regards to reading material, over a year ago in this forum. I've had a very pleasant year of reading thanks to you!)

Wow, this was a very well written critique , and I know exactly where you're coming from. I think I repeat myself too much when I say that I really prize atmosphere and immersion when it comes to games. That intangible, nay ineffable ability to suck you into its world and make you want to be there. I did not think that DA did a good job of this largely for the reasons you cited.

Firstly, it was the lacklustre music. I usually gush about Inon Zur, but for some reason, his music in DA didn't really captivate me. It lacked that quality which really shone through in the Inifinity engine games.

Secondly, I also didn't find Thedas to be a place I would like to visit. The fundamental question of "what am I fighting to preserve?" is what ties in to this. One thing Tolkien did really well was show Middle Earth as a place worth preserving. The quaint bubble of the Shire, the green fields of the Rohirrim, the  fragile beauty of Lorien, all these places deserved to be kept from being run over by the swarm. In the Elder Scrolls Morrowind, each region you visited had its own distinctive character, charm, mood, ambience etc. I'll never forget the first time I encountered a gigantic Silt Strider looming up from the fog of Seyda Neen with its haunting, mournful moan. In DA, most everywhere you visit seems to only be a shadow of past greatness, as if the bad guys already won. What are you fighting to preserve and protect in Ferelden...a bleak land in its death throes?

Modifié par purplesunset, 25 mai 2010 - 08:29 .

[the_one_54321]

I disliked the areas where the world lacked originality. In specific the elves and the dwarves.



Original should be original, it should not be a "re-imagining" (or as I like to call it, a bastardization) of something someone already did a long time before you. There was nothing wrong with elves or dwarves as they have been presented in LotR or D&D. If they wanted new backgrounds, they should have just made brand new races like they did with Sten. Sten and his backstory were awesome. That is originality.



Also, the animation flat out sucked. I mean it was doing-the-robot-dance bad animation. When I saw a group of wizards casting for the first time, it took me back to the wizards casting in NWN. That is not a good thing. Head models were great, but the body models were copy-paste and that is no longer acceptable in AAA games. They really need to polish this aspect of the future games.

[Darth Drago]

Still need to finish the game but from what I’ve seen of it so far:

-My character has no voice. I might be spoiled with games like Mass Effect where the hero/heroine actually speaks. It just didn’t feel right not hearing the Warden speak in dialogs yet we can hear him/her talk in cmpbat and other things like that.

-Not enough random encounters in the wolrd map. I'm at a point now where i seem to have done them all. Throw some darkspawn or Loghains troops/bounty hunters at me at least, even a random critter encounter would do.

-Since when do puddles of water prevent you from walking over/through them? This annoyed me when I first ran into a puddle and I couldn’t walk through it.

-It would have been nice to have seen a priest or healer like class added. It just seems a bit odd that mages are the only ones with healing spells/abilities.

-Unpolished game. Why are there so many bugs in it? Going by the DA Wiki site (my source for a game guide) it seems like every quest has a bug involved in it.

-Music. I may have it just turned down to much but the game seems to lack atmosphere with music in areas.

-The lack of a storage container at your camp. Yea sure, adding Soldiers Peak fixed the storage container but you still don’t have it in your camp and its bugged as well.

-Codex updates are hard to find what your new entries are. The new ones should have been added to the top of the list in each category so you can see it. When you scroll down to the bottom of a long list and the new one is near that bottom part how do you know if you see it? Keep the text red until you read them like in the new quests or quest updates you get would have been better. 

-Character creation and customization is very lacking with your options. More colors, hair styles, and so on would be nice.

-Orzammar? Really? Couldn’t you come up with a name for a city that isn’t a rip off right out of World of Warcraft with their city of Orgrimmar?

Modifié par Darth Drago, 25 mai 2010 - 09:15 .

[Sylvius the Mad]

Darth Drago wrote...

My character has no voice.

If my character had a voice, that's the one thing I would complain about the most.

Voice-overs are costly and add very little to my gaming experience.  I will oppose their ever increasing presence in games.

[Darth Drago]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

Darth Drago wrote...

My character has no voice.

If my character had a voice, that's the one thing I would complain about the most.

Voice-overs are costly and add very little to my gaming experience.  I will oppose their ever increasing presence in games.

It just seems out of place when everyone else in the game has a voice and my character does not. Its like the evolution of RPG’s has to fully take that final step out of the text only era.

It unlikely that it would happen but they could at give the option to use a voice actor or mute it for your character.

[Tsuga C]

Darth Drago wrote...
It unlikely that it would happen but they could at give the option to use a voice actor or mute it for your character.

Voice work is expensive.

Sylvius and I both strenuously object to the idea of a voiced PC because, as has been noted by Georg Zoeller et al a number of times, if they'd voiced the PC then the game would've been about 50% shorter.  Besides, we might not at all care for the 1 voice you get for a male elf, the 1 voice you get for a female human, etc. and that'd leave us with a much shorter game on "mute".

A voiced PC for DA2?  Thanks, but no thanks. 

Modifié par Tsuga C, 25 mai 2010 - 09:37 .

[Sylvius the Mad]

Tsuga C wrote...

Besides, we might not at all care for the 1 voice you get

This strikes me as the larger issue.  Yes, having the game be shorter would suck, but having the game be entirely unplayable because the voice doesn't suit your character would be far worse.

Using Mass Effect as an example, the Male Shepard voice isn't a voice I would ever want on my character because he sounds like a meathead.  My characters tend to be cunning and erudite, and if I can't play that sort of character then I don't want to play the game (there are a wide variety of characters available that still fit my requirements - I have 7 distinct DAO characters, for example, but not one of them is a gruff goon who yells at people just because he can).

If you play the game as if you're getting to know a pre-written character (most non-RPGs are like this), then having a voiced PC doesn't cause this problem, but if you're supposed to be playing a character who is at all under your control - a character about whom you're expected to care - then a voice is simply too great a barrier.

[the_one_54321]

Sylvius wrote...

If you play the game as if you're getting to know a pre-written character (most non-RPGs are like this), then having a voiced PC doesn't cause this problem, but if you're supposed to be playing a character who is at all under your control - a character about whom you're expected to care - then a voice is simply too great a barrier.

It's to great a barrier for you, you mean to say. There are lots of players who have no trouble playing a game with a character they have control over that is also voiced. The recent FF titles, in particular XII, com to mind. I know that you probably would hate those games, but hundreds of thousands of people liked them just fine.

[Auru]

I think the only thing that I can really think of, is the engine the game is built on.. it just felt a little dated, even when it was new.. the graphics in the game are a mixed blessing, the expressions on people and the general 'look' of some of the areas was pretty awesome.. but on the flipside, some of the textures and animation really looked a bit ropey at times.



Look at mass effect and it's sequel though, the amount of polish thats gone into the graphics for the sequel is amazing.. perhaps we will see something similar for dragonage some day

[Domyk]

Only negative is the expansion. Expansion should be what the name implies, expanding content, areas opening up and freedom to explore. In the Awakenings expansion your character is stuck in said world.

[HELLOWORLDDANG]

(can do it big with that action experience) go big man and imagine if you made it like open war combat the game viking atleast tried to do it ya know. like be able to connect to different enemies alot like alot when in war which was minimum war the game should be about War . ps EA sports do not worry about losses because they will provide to impress (we should give thanks) insteady of simple currency. i am editing now but i gotta stay real go xbox 360!

Modifié par HELLOWORLDDANG, 25 mai 2010 - 11:34 .

[Vicious]

Sylvius and I both strenuously object to the idea of a voiced PC because, as has been noted by Georg Zoeller et al a number of times, if they'd voiced the PC then the game would've been about 50% shorter.

If they cut out the extended battles in the Deep Roads and etcetera I would not miss them. That's the sort of garbage they can stick into DLC.

[Darth Drago]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

Tsuga C wrote...

Besides, we might not at all care for the 1 voice you get

This strikes me as the larger issue.  Yes, having the game be shorter would suck, but having the game be entirely unplayable because the voice doesn't suit your character would be far worse.

Using Mass Effect as an example, the Male Shepard voice isn't a voice I would ever want on my character because he sounds like a meathead.  My characters tend to be cunning and erudite, and if I can't play that sort of character then I don't want to play the game (there are a wide variety of characters available that still fit my requirements - I have 7 distinct DAO characters, for example, but not one of them is a gruff goon who yells at people just because he can).

If you play the game as if you're getting to know a pre-written character (most non-RPGs are like this), then having a voiced PC doesn't cause this problem, but if you're supposed to be playing a character who is at all under your control - a character about whom you're expected to care - then a voice is simply too great a barrier.

In hindsight after thinking on it more having your character with a voice in a RPG isn’t important. All of my favorite games didn’t have voices (Morrowind, Oblivion, KOTOR 1&2, Fallout 3, Jade Empire to name the big ones). I guess I’ve been playing Mass Effect to much these last few months…

I dont mind either way actually. Some game work well with a voice used for your character.

It was a disappointment that it doesn’t have a voice that’s all. Nothing huge like the rest of them on my list.

[DigitalOrigami]

The ending blew chunks. All that work for nothing? Ultimate sacrifice means nothing because it didn't work. What, was this a rejected Fallout 3 ending that somebody found?

[thebigbenman]

Tsuga C wrote...

thebigbenman wrote...
That desire was never present as I played.

Perhaps it was a little too dark...

Please return to the world of Toril and take all those for whom the continent of Thedas was too dark with you.  As far as I'm concerned the game could've upped the medieval realism factor another couple of notches, darkness and brutality included.

I'm not familiar with the world of Toril, but I'll assume it's a more happy (and likely less realistic) place than Thedas. Perhaps I wasn't clear, I am totally in favor of realism in this setting. I am currently reading book on the 14th century, "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman, which speaks about the terrible things of the era. The author goes on to say that, while the time period may be defined by horrible events, normal life went on. People ate, drank, married, and were given in marriage. There was happiness and beauty in our world even at that time, and there is no need to exclude it from the fictional world of Thedas.

purplesunset-

Thanks! I completely agree with you! In fact, you stated your thoughts so well I don't have much to add... I do remember that very moment you speak of in Morrowind, and I haven't touched Morrowind since high school. The beautiful score by Jeremy Soule sets the mood for that first impression, and in fact, the entire game. Likewise for Tolkien's fiction, he gave us a world we wanted to stay in, long after finishing his books. There is one part of DA:O that has stuck with me, Orzammar. It was, in writing, art, and music, the most memorable part of Dragon Age. I'm looking forward to more content of that quality in the future!

I honestly don't believe that Inon Zur's score was lacking, I simply believe that there needed to be more moments of tranquility and beauty in the soundtrack. He has demonstrated he is more than capable of this style of composition in both Prince of Persia and Fallout 3. Perhaps he simply must be asked nicely.

[purplesunset]

^Ha ! I'm also currently reading " A Distant Mirror" . seems like we do have similar views and tastes...

[Dargon Grey]

'Tawsk complete....onto the next!'
Loved the cocky voice
Anyway, I didn't really feel much like a traveller using the map. Granted there were points of interest but early on in the game they were just battles that would kill me. Very limiting but in its defense, I'd say it's a timesaver.
I played as a Human Noble and found the Orzammar dilemna to grate on my nerves. There was way too much to do there and while it may appeal to political afficionados, I was bored. Bored of running from Dust Town to the kingdom to the Deep Roads and back again.
I was dissappointed by the lack of more interaction with the Orlesians and the Tevinters.
The battle system required micro management at times unless you're skilled with your tactic adjustments. I'm not. Only gave them key tactics that would maintain health and get them out of a bind. They did well on their own.
Oh and killing dragons makes me sad...
Nah, not really

Modifié par Dargon Grey, 26 mai 2010 - 04:49 .

[Sylvius the Mad]

the_one_54321 wrote...

Sylvius wrote...
If you play the game as if you're getting to know a pre-written character (most non-RPGs are like this), then having a voiced PC doesn't cause this problem, but if you're supposed to be playing a character who is at all under your control - a character about whom you're expected to care - then a voice is simply too great a barrier.

It's to great a barrier for you, you mean to say. There are lots of players who have no trouble playing a game with a character they have control over that is also voiced. The recent FF titles, in particular XII, com to mind. I know that you probably would hate those games, but hundreds of thousands of people liked them just fine.

JRPGs are not RPGs.  There's no capacity for the player to inhabit the character.

[Asdara]

I can sum up in a few lines for my own feelings. This game touched the field of being great, but it never quite took that field by stepping on to it and making its own place there. There is so much potential, so much they almost did but shied away from at the last moment it seems like that I was constantly looking for that step to be taken. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the game, have played it and will continue to play it - but I felt that ache of "almost" immediately and it never dissipated.

[the_one_54321]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

the_one_54321 wrote...

Sylvius wrote...
If you play the game as if you're getting to know a pre-written character (most non-RPGs are like this), then having a voiced PC doesn't cause this problem, but if you're supposed to be playing a character who is at all under your control - a character about whom you're expected to care - then a voice is simply too great a barrier.

It's to great a barrier for you, you mean to say. There are lots of players who have no trouble playing a game with a character they have control over that is also voiced. The recent FF titles, in particular XII, com to mind. I know that you probably would hate those games, but hundreds of thousands of people liked them just fine.

JRPGs are not RPGs.  There's no capacity for the player to inhabit the character.

That has nothing to do with what you said in the quote. You control the characters actions, even if not the decisions, and you make a mistake in assuming that just because you cannot develop any caring, sympathy, empathy, or relatability with a character you do not inhabit that others are similarly incapable. It's non sequitor.