Dragon Age : Origins (all platforms) Review.

[Fiach]

Thanks Art, thats very kind of you to say that :)

Glad you got sorted PZ, You should give each race a try before you get stuck in, more to get a feel for the games universe, each starting area is different, but the background information will give you an idea of the relationship between humans and elves for example and give you more insight into some of the conversations you will have later with NPC's.

I have played the game 6 times and I am really enjoying this new playthrough immensely (actually I am doing two plays at the same time, My normal group (Ranged Rogue, Alister, Morrigan and Wynne) and a Rogue group (Ranger that can summon animals, Leliana with twin swords, Zevran and assassin with twin daggers and Wynne for healing), the game is just damned awesome! :)

[PZ]

Thanks guys - only barely started the game last night, but what I saw was very promising.  Unfortunately I've duties that demand my attention for a good part of the day today, but I hope to be able to play again tonight.

[PZ]

Well, I finally started the game and am becoming accustomed to the controls, and in general the RPG feel, which is much different from the typical FPS that I like to play.  I have my pit bull dog, whom I have named "Poodle".  I also have a few friends that travel with me and fortunately take the heat off when we encounter bad guys.  Poodle is great - he is eager to fight  >:D

[Fiach]

Yes he is a great asset, the only reason I dropped him was because of the interplay between Morrigan and Alister, its quite funny and Wynne is such an awesome healer, plus she has some cool dialogue with Alister too. Also I'm playing a Rogue with the Ranger spec, I can summon an animal to fight alongside the party (Wolf/Bear/Giant Spider), so its kind of pointless to have him.

Alister is probably the most significant party member regarding the main storyline, so its kinda pointless not using him throughout the game.

There are only two other melee's, Zevran (who will betray you if you dont build a relationship with him) and Oghren who I just dislike intensely and you only really need one or two melee at the most as they can taunt enemies to keep them away from the mages and the rogues (who bring all the pain to the party).

Best tip I can suggest is to set the skill wheel to toggle on/off instead of "hold", in the Options, it will be handy if combat is going a bit fast, but the AI is very responsive and you can adjust that in the Tactics section if you need too.

I dunno what the controls are like on PC, but they are very well designed on the 360. Hope you enjoy it mate :)

[PZ]

Fortunately I don't have to worry about fast combat because I'm playing on easy, and the game pauses while I decide what to do.  :-()

While I have explored the tactics menu, and have adjusted some of my friends, including Poodle, I'm not sure what the skill wheel is.

[Fiach]

Well its a wheel that you can bring on screen, it gives you choices like Potions/Poisons/Sustained Skills/Talents/Advanced etc. Basically you can issue commands to your party through it.

It would have been Spacebar in older RPG's, on 360 its Left Trigger. You are probably using it already and I am using the wrong name for it.  :-[

[PZ]

  I don't think you have a wrong name Fiach, I don't recall seeing any kind of menu for potions, etc.  Like I've said many times before, I'm not the worlds best gamer  :-()

[Fiach]

Maybe its not in the PC game *shrugs* How do you pause the game?

Is there anything in the Options that you can toggle on/off or Hold.

Hopefully there is such a thing in the PC game as its pretty awesome.

[PZ]

I think there probably is, but I've not discovered it yet - in fact, I didn't even read the instruction booklet for the key mapping.  :-()

I know that I need to do something to take advantage of those other functions, so the next time in the game I'll poke around.  ^-^

I press the spacebar to pause the game.

[Art Blade]

Oh, reading the loser manual is for sissies  >:D

[PZ]

 :-() so that's why I don't read manuals

[Fiach]

My bad mate, here is what I've been told :

There's no skill wheel on PC. There's a big bar of skills at the bottom of the screen that can fit 28 abilities IIRC. So you can pause the game with spacebar and then issue commands to your party members using the ability bar at the bottom.

[PZ]

No worries, Fiach - however, my old eyes did manage to catch that bar across the bottom - wondered what it was used for  :-()

[Fiach]

Behind every cloud then :)

[PZ]

 :-()

[Fiach]

How are you getting on with the game PZ?

I just started a new playthrough as an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage, basically a mage that can wear heavy armour and can use hitpoints to cast spells.

The kind of spells you tend to cast are ones that are constantly turned on (you put aside a certain amount of mana to sustain the spells) like elementally enchanted weapons for your party, different types of magic armour spells and auras, plus some lockdown spells for harder enemies so they cannot defend themselves, its like driving a wercking ball machine through the game, a whole lotta fun!  8)

[PZ]

Fairly well, I think.  I'm still learning how to control my friends properly because I don't know how the weapons, armor, spells w@&k yet.  Yesterday I had to make my way to the top of a tower to light some kind of flame signal and there was a huge, extremely angry individual that killed me several times before I found the correct combination of attacks to have success.

On the way up, I managed to collect too many things, and discovered that I could offload to my friends, and equip them with new things.

Also along the way were many locked chests, some that indicated I did not have enough skill to open them, and others that required a key.  I suppose that I need to return to the former after I an skilled, but what about the keyed ones - where might I look for the keys?

[Fiach]

Man you havent even started the game yet, hopefully you are enjoying it, because it gets 100%+ better after where you are at the moment, which starts the whole ball rolling, storywise.

OK, first, if you have an earlier save in Ostagar, if you havent bought the bag off the Quartermaster, go back and get it as you wont be returning to get it and its gone forever.

The guys in your party at the moment are I guess Alister and two soldiers, The only one staying with you is Alister, so just kit him out with heavy armour a sword and a shield, then kit yourself out with a weapon and armour. You will next get Morrigan, you wont need anything for her so sell any mage gear you have.

Next you will get leliana in the tavern in the next town, so keep a bow/arrows plus any studded leather armour you have for her, sell everything else, except health potions and lyrium potions.

You should have plenty of space then.

Its seldom you will have a battle like that, you will meet Ogres later, but you will be better skilled/equipped to deal with them.

If a key is needed for a chest/door, it will say "key needed", if it says Insufficant Skill it means you need a rogue in your party (like Leliana) with the skill to open locks.

Opening locks, disarming traps gets you XP, it really mounts up, so the sooner you get leliana the better.

Use heavy Armour for Warriors, try to choose a specialisation and stick with it, then as you progress, you will pick another specialisation (I dont like berzerker personally, I use the others mostly). Use one that gives party buffs if possible. Concentrate on Strength, Constitution and Willpower, but a bit of Dexterity now and again will help him too. I would tend to use Sword and Shield if I was kitting out Alister. He has more protection because of the shield and he will need it as he will use taunt to pull the enemies away from the rogues and mages

Leliana, set her up to use bows and just buy bow skills, the most important for here are the one that breaks armour, Critical shot and Arrow of Slaying, dunno if you can get Mark of Death until you meet Zevran. Also get her Ranger skills to add an animal to your party, or Bard skills, so she can buff your party. use DEX for her bow skills, a bit of willpower and Constitution.

Morrigan, get her a heal spell (only one), then pick eg the Cold Spells, then she can enchant your weapons, and use some freeze spells (they stop/slow enemies and if they freeze, they will shatter if you get a critical hit. Then get her the fire spells, they are kinda the opposite of cold, so eg. a dragon would not be hurt by fire, so use cold on them. Dont get her and Shapeshifter stuff. Concentrate on Magic, Willpower and a bit of Constitution.

Wynne, get her all the Spirit Healer stuff like Heal, Group Heal, Rejuvenation etc. Same Stats as Morrigan. Later get her Glyph Spells like Paralysis and Warding etc. for crowd control.

A fight for me would be (as a mage) run into a group try to gather as many as possible near me, use Mind Blast to stun them, then let the others attack them, when the stun wears off drop a glyph of paralysis on them so they cant move and maybe a glyph of warding on your party to protect them. or maybe drop a glyph of paralysis on a group of archers, then move away from them and drop a Fireball on their asses and let the melees go in and mop up as you and a ranged character take potshots, you can play as any party member so mix it up in a way that suits you.

Maybe as a ranged character, shatter the armour of a tough enemy to make things easier for everyone, then hit them with a critical hit or arrow of slaying. if you have bard skills use something like song of courage to bolster your party.

Melee, use Taunt to to pull enemies away from the squishy members, then use a Buff to Rally the other members and whack away with your sword.

Sorry if it looks very long winded, but when you play for a bit, it will become more understandable. :)

[PZ]

Wow,
I'm stunned to learn that I'm still at the beginning of the game!  However, I've experienced enough to understand what you're written.  I can imagine that the game will become quite addicting as it progresses because it seems to be getting better with each quest completed so far.

I think I know the answer to this, but when you say Leliana will open locks etc. to gain XP, do you mean that I click her first to "become" her for the moment and that I (my Aeidan character) earns the XP rather than Leliana?

As to selling things to my buddies - I have transferred things from my inventory to theirs - does this constitute a sale?

[Fiach]

No mate, there is only one inventory, you only sell to traders. I can see where you are coming from though.

There is only one inventory, so if you open your inv, then select a character, you equip gear on them (on 360) by clicking the gear while their portrait is onscreen, EG Select your character, then click on an item you want them to wear, items they are wearing have a blue tinge/colour over the name.

With a Trader, the screen opens with two windows, Trader and Party. if you click stuff in the trader window, you buy it, if you click stuff on the party window you sell it.

leliana, you have to "possess" her character to open a chest or disarm a trap, then re-possess your own character afterwards.

All XP is party XP, so if you constantly use only 4 characters and another three are benched, if you decide to bench a current character and replace them with on that was previously benched, then the new character will probably have a bunch of skill points you will need to allocate to them as while they were benched, they were still accumulating the XP you were earning while using the other characters.

Hope that makes sense :)

[PZ]

Makes perfect sense - thanks for all the help; this is a complex game compared to the FPS that I normally play, so there is lots to consider.  ;)

[Fiach]

Once you get a feel for the stats, it will go alot smoother. :)

BTW, the game I would reckon is about 50 hours long on the first go, alot faster on subsequent plays though.

I've played many different types of characters (mostly mages), but it can be a whole lot different when you change the other mages usual skills to a completely different set that it makes replays really fresh.

Or with Rogue, will you use a bow or a dagger, or use two swords, all having different combat styles. will you make poison weapons, use bombs or make traps, will you use invisibility, sneak unseen into an area, stand behind the boss, bring in your team to start the combat and then de-cloak and backstab the boss...

The storyline is strong enough to last through many replays, even the ending has so many nuances, are you male or female, did you romance Alister, What decision did you make with Morrigan, how does Anora feel about you, how did you deal with Logain etc.

The ramifications and permutations while ultimately leading to more or less the same thing always add new dialogue/outcomes etc.

I really hope you get into the game :)

[PZ]

The ramifications and permutations while ultimately leading to more or less the same thing always add new dialogue/outcomes etc.

I get the sense of this - as I click my dialog choices, I am choosing to get the maximum dialog interaction.  However, I can see that some choicess you make appear to change your destiny.

[Fiach]

Well there is a stat that rogues have called Cunning, it is a big help in combat, but it also governs Coersion.

This can have a HUGE impact on several scenarios in both serious and comic ways, but also can elicit dialogue trees that you wont find any other way.

Some interactions, not necessarily conversations, but interactions with objects can have consequences.

Even talking to your party members can make the game easier or more difficult, depending on what you do.

I found a book that I gave to one character, it wound up with me fighting a freaking dragon I didnt know existed in previous plays that had huge ramifications for the story in this game and the sequel!

On a more comedic level, I found some boots and gave them to another character and found out he had a leather fetish .... not joking!..., man it was sooooo FUNNY! But it changed a certain story arc in a HUGE way.  :o 8)

[PZ]

Man, is this a dynamic game or what?  Sounds like there is huge replay value - can't wait to get into it again - after dinner though.  :-()