13 réponses à ce sujet

[ckriley]

So, I've played through DAO like four or five times, so I'm obviously a fan of it.  But I've only been able to beat the game on normal mode.  I'm trying a hard mode playthrough right now and it's actually a bit easier because I found the normal mode to be so freaking hard in parts.  Hard mode is kind of a breeze.

When I first played through DAO, I said the game was too hard for normal mode.  Normal in DAO would be considered hard in other games.  Many agreed but of course, many flamed, and many believed DAO was too easy.  I actually think the archdemon fight is too easy but the rest of the game has these really, really strange spikes in difficulty.

The mobs hit way too hard, have too much life, and have WAY, WAY, WAY too much CC for a normal playthrough, I argued.  And now, in an odd way, BioWare kind of validated my point.  How?  Well, in just three words:  Mass Effect 2.

ME2 is a game you can breeze through on normal with hardly any trouble at all.  You might even get through it without dying.  Hell, I've played through that game twice now and think I've died, what, two or three times in total?  And that was because of my own stupidity.  A normal playthrough in ME2 was not frustrating in the least.

However, I'm doing a third playthrough now on hardcore mode, and it's definitely more challenging.  Once I'm done with that, I'll go to insanity.  Having the game be difficult at these settings is how it's supposed to be, in my opinion.

But with DAO, normal mode is essentially hardcore mode in other games, and this is coming from someone that actually likes Dragon Age.  Many people quit DAO and took it back to the store because of the combat.  So I just wanted to say to anyone out there that might be playing DAO for the first time and are thinking you are doing something wrong or that maybe you just suck at video games, you don't.

The gameplay is in fact too difficult for a normal setting (of course, some of you may disagree with me)  It may not be entirely you. However, once you beat the game the first time and learn how things work:, it does get a bit easier.  But go playe ME2 if you wanna see how a game on a normal setting should be.  At least in my opinion.

[Feops1]

Seemed fine to me. Comparable to the Baldur's Gate games.



I think the bar on default difficulty is just lower now. Mass Effect 2 on normal is mind-numbingly easy.

[Nauthiz84]

Don't think so, sure you need a bit till you know how things work, but that's normal for an RPG and the way it's supposed to be. An RPG is not a book where all you have to do to enjoy the story is turning the pages.

If you spent just a bit of time with the game mechanics normal mode is actually a bit too easy for my taste. There is a reason people that understand the game better clear nightmare solo without a party.

[beancounter501]

Feops1 wrote...

Seemed fine to me. Comparable to the Baldur's Gate games.

So true!  I am enjoying the increased difficulty.  LOL, a couple of months ago I fired off the orginal Baldurs Gate and I was killed quick by the first bounty hunter!  The majority of recent RPG's have been super easy.  It gets boring when you can play sloopy and still crush the game.

[soteria]

I've never played on normal so I can't really comment on the difference. Personally, I think DA:O is pretty hard the first time you play it, unless you're following a guide. Subsequent runs get *really* easy. I think Bioware could have smoothed the difficulty in both directions by implementing diminishing returns on crowd control for both players and monsters. Well, we could talk for hours on what they could have done, but that's one thing.

[Sabresandiego]

The difficulty is hard before level 12 and with default tactics.



-Post level 12 the Player character becomes much more powerful than enemies relatively speaking



-Equipment starts to get good making fights easier



-Custom tactics can make most fights pretty easy



-It can be easy to abuse game design flaws and mechanics and make the entire game trivial

[ShinsFortress]

Agree with most of the OP. Don't like 'the curve' in DA:O.

[Washell]

Mass Effect has console roots. Console gamers are assumed to be a more casual gamer with less taste for a challenging (reloading) fight. Dragon Age is aimed at the PC gamer and has a more complicated combat system. Mass Effect is also highly focussed on pacing and storytelling, trying to be an interactive movie whereas DA:O aims for being the traditional RPG with a compelling story.



Personally, I'd say the comparison is like saying driving a car is too hard (to learn) and claiming you're right because riding a bike is easy. They're two completely different beasts, just happened to be shipped by the same developer.

[maxernst]

I think the game has a huge difficulty spike when you leave Lothering. Despite the levelling up of enemies, it's very tough at that point on a first playthrough, in part because you don't have the experience to know what skills and talents are best and you only have a chance to take a small number. At that point in the game, I just couldn't believe all these posts saying the game was too easy. However, it does get significantly easier later on and probably wouldn't be so bad on a second playthrough. The difference between normal and easy in DA:O is abnormally large, though.

[shree420]

The spiking comes from the large-chunked nature of the quests. Compare BG2: SoA, where you had medium-length and short-length quests across the game map. Thus after every quest you finished, you could upgrade your gear by returning to the "shop" areas. This smoothened the gearing-up curve.



In DA:O, you tend to try and finish off an area at once. Primarily because it's a chore to backtrack through areas because of the inadequacy of the map - you can't jump to the best vendor areas from anywhere in the world, you must return to "base" and then jump to the world map. And of course, the Mage Tower must be finished in one go, and Redcliffe Village too. This means that you can't gear up as frequently as you could earlier.



Plus the best gear is bought, not dropped. Which is disappointing. One of the highlights of BG2: SoA( warning: broken record) was the Firkraag fight for 64k gold, Red Dragon Scale( one of the best armor raw material in game) and Carsomyr. The fight was really hard, but highly rewarding. You don't get that here; most of the boss gear dropped is sold in exchange for vendor items. To be fair, the fact that it can be bought does give more flexibility to the player; you don't need to finish a particular fight to give your rogue the Felon's Coat.



And re: the post-Lothering spike, I feel it's because till then the game has your abilities firmly in hand; it controls your party composition and knows what enemies you will face for certain. Once Lothering is done, it's a crapshoot because it doesn't know where you're going, and what party composition you're going to have(two mages? no mages?) and there's only so much you can nerf a Revenant without running into Oblivion-style Level 5 lich-kills.



I think that they could have added more obvious warnings ingame re: the required player levels. Orzammar needs a player level of 10+, but the only clue is that you're getting wiped by the bounty hunter group. It isn't like the old day RPGs, where getting wiped would mean" you're not good enough. Level up and try again"; being allowed to go somewhere nowadays means "I should be doing this area easily", for better or worse.

[DJ0000]

Sabresandiego wrote...

The difficulty is hard before level 12 and with default tactics.

-Post level 12 the Player character becomes much more powerful than enemies relatively speaking

-Equipment starts to get good making fights easier

-Custom tactics can make most fights pretty easy

-It can be easy to abuse game design flaws and mechanics and make the entire game trivial

Yep, about right.

It starts to become easier around level 8 when you have decent talents, gear, etc. And by level 12 you are awesome.

[x-president]

soteria wrote...

I've never played on normal so I can't really comment on the difference. Personally, I think DA:O is pretty hard the first time you play it, unless you're following a guide. Subsequent runs get *really* easy. I think Bioware could have smoothed the difficulty in both directions by implementing diminishing returns on crowd control for both players and monsters. Well, we could talk for hours on what they could have done, but that's one thing.

Agreed.  I think in any game the first time you play through it, it is always the hardest.  Once you know what is coming and what to do it will always get easier.

[Spideywulf]

Played through Nightmare mode and had an easier time!

[kormesios]

I think some of the perceived difficulty in DA is that it's *much* more tactics oriented than Mass Effect, KoTOR or other recent games. If you try to play while ignoring your companions, the game will be pretty difficult, even on normal. If you are an obsessive pause-and-position type player, you can reap huge advantages--which means normal is way too easy.



For example, simply choosing to place all your companions in a doorway, to prevent being flanked, makes a lot of mob fights very easy, while default AI behavior gets you killed. I don't know of any tactical approach that give you similar benefits in Mass Effect 2--just stay under cover, shoot, and use a special power when it's available.



I think it has more to do with style than "hardcoreness". I'm very much not a hardcore player, I don't min/max and have quit other games that were too difficult for me to enjoy. But I found hard about right in DA for my first playthrough, even a little on the easy side since.