It's pretty obvious but there will be many spoilers for the story, so don't read any further if you don't want them.
I'm going to write this guide as I make this playthrough. I will then edit it as I play differant variants.
As promised in the review I will explain the differant Races, Classes, and Backstories and how they effect the game.
There are three races. Human, Elf, and Dwarf. Humans are the most well rounded of the three and are evenly balenced between all of the atributes. Elves are a bit more frail but have improved magic and Dwarves are the sturdiest but they have no ability for magic at all. They do however have a chance to negate magic.
Then you have Classes. These are Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. Warriors are the best users of swords, maces, sheilds, axes, and two handed weapons. They need high strength stamina and dexterity. Rogues are lighter than warriors and faster. They need high dexterity and cunning. They are better users of the bow, crossbow, and duel wield weapons. They also are the only Class that can pick locks and dissarm traps. But they are a bit weaker and more frail. Mages are the frailest of the lot but are the best at attacking from a distance and, in my oppinion, are the most versitile of all the Classes. You can just use them for support by making them give status or you can make them attack monsters by giving them very powerful spells. They all play differantly and it's lots of fun to play the game several times just to play through all the classes.
After that are the Backstories. These are the first few quests (usually 4) that you play through in the game. They give you a little bit of history within the game and the background itself continues to influence the game throughout. The differant ones are; Mage, Human Noble, Dwarven Noble, Leggionare, Dalish Elf, and City Elf. I have only played as a Human Noble and so I don't know how the other backstories play out. When I play them I will let you know.
Now. I am playing with a Human Noble Warrior. I'm upgrading his Two-Handed weapon skills (there are Duel wield, Archery, Shield, and Two-Handed) in addition to his basic Warrior skills. That's not to say that this is the best skillset. I'm pretty sure it's not. But I played through once with sword and shield so this time I'm playing with a Two-hander.
The choices you make in the Backstory to not effect the game itself but there are several things to be found. After talking your way through the conversation with your father, Howe, and Duncan, the Grey Warden, you turn around and walk back through the door where you're first seen entering from in the cutscene. Immediately after walking out the door turn left and walk all the way down that pasage. When you get to the end turn right and walk into that room. There are 3 Codex entries here. (Your Codex is like a dictionary and encyclopedia. It tells you about people, places, and things that you will encounter, as well as groups and history. If you don't want to bother finding all the pages then ignore anything I say about them). Two entries can be found laying around. The first is on the altar in front of the kneeling people. The second is on a shelf in the right corner ahead of you. The third is found by talking to the kneeling woman. This is also your first encounter with the Chantry, the Church of this game.
After walking out of the Chantry room take a left and walk back the way you came. Soon you'll find a small passage to the left (directly across from where you come from after talking to your father. There is only one door. Walking through it will prompt a conversation with a couple guards shirking their duty. This is the anti-chamber to the treasury. This is locked for now but remember where it is as you can get some good things later.
Go back out and turn left. After walking a few steps a man named Ser Gilmore will stop you to talk. He's giving you your first quest. After you get the quest look at your mini-map and you'll notice two arrows in it. One is the quest that Gilmore gave you and one is a quest to be completed after the first. Walking straight forward from Gilmore will bring you to a library. In here there are several codex entries. Two are found by talking to the old man. The third is found in a chest against a bookshelf towards the fireplace. The fourth is found by taking a left directly after walking in and going through a small semi-hidden door. There is only one one entry and it's on a small desk to your right.
Walk back out and follow your minimap to the kitchens. Here you'll find the object of your quest. The cook is getting herself riled up because your dog (a Mabari War hound) is in the larder. Walking into the larder will trigger a short cutscene and then you have to fight 18 large rats. They are quite easy to kill in only one or two hits.
After killing the rats Gilmore will leave and you will be on your own again. Now you can go to the other quest shown on your minimap. To get there you have to pass by your mother, who is talking to three guests to your house. There are no repercussions from what you say so speak to them however you want.
After that conversation is over keep heading towards your objective. This objective is to find your older brother and tell him that he is to leave ahead of your father. After walking in and talking to your brother and his famiy for a few moments your parents will walk in and you'll have a family moment puncuated by your young nephew asking what a wench is and your father explaining it.
After that you walk out and immediatly trigger a cutscene. Here is where you get a real feel for the game. Howe has betrayed you and his forces have attacked and destroyed much of your castle. You wake up to battle and immediately have to kill 2 or 3 of Howe's soldiers who are trying to kill you. These are quite easy, especially with the aid of your trusty war hound. After killing them another cutscene and your mother, armed to the teeth, appears and tells you of her worries for your father. Walking around will reveal that your brother's wife and son have been slaughtered. Walking to your parent's room there is an unlocked locker on the floor in which you can find some extra supplies. Now you pretty much just wander around the castle fighting off bands of soldiers and earning experance. None of the soldiers are hard and even the hardest foe you will find, a knight, won't be able to stand up to your dog your mother and you for long.
Remember you visited the Treasury? Well here is where that comes back. If you can find your way back to the treasury your mother will tell you that the Redmon Family sword and shield are locked up tight there and she will give you the key. Inside is not only the best longsword and shield to be found for some time but also the best armore for a while. As well as a couple more pieces of weaponry.
After a while you will find Ser Gilmore. He is holding the Main Hall against the invaders but he is gravely wounded. No matter what you try to do he will go back to protecting the door, but he does tell you where your father is; the larder! After talking to him a good way to get some extra dough is to strip your mother of her armor (EWWWWW!!!!) before your reach the larder. Walking into it will reveal your mortally wounded father. He can't even stand but his last request is that you make it out alive. Here Duncan the Grey Warden shows up and tells your father that he will bring Howe's treachery to the king in return for your enlistment into the Grey Wardens. After your father agrees you and Duncan run off to safety...for the moment. This is the end of the Human Noble Backstory and where the main game story begins.
After running away with Duncan (and your dog) you travel to Ostagar. This is the site of an impending battle with the darkspawn. As well as your Joining Ceremony for the Grey Wardens. The first thing that happens is that Duncan tells you to go look around and get a feel for the place. Look around all you want. Find stuff to take. Talking to a mage named Wynne, who is standing with her back against a tree to the left of the mages, will tell you about the darkspawn history and the Fade. A world between worlds.
Walk right from the large fire where Duncan is standing and you will see the quartermaster. He is in charge of selling you goods. Anything from weapon and armore to a backpack(which you should most definately buy because it increases your inventory). After speaking to everyone you wish, use the quest marker on your minimap(small white arrow) to find Allistair. He will be speaking to a mage and then to you. After finding him go back to Duncan.
Duncan will give you a quest to go out to the Korcari wilds and retrieve three vials of Darkspawn blood and the ancient Treaties. The wilds isn't that dangerous and can be quite profitable. Try to find yourself a white flower called a Wilds Flower. The Kennal Master will reward you. But you have to give it to him before you complete Duncans mission. When you find the treaties, Morrigan, a witch, will talk to you and bring you to her mother. Her mother has been protecting the treaties and she gives them to you. Before going back to Duncan, strip your two friends (not Alistair). They are going to die. Going back to Duncan completes the mission and sets off some dialogue. Then you see the joining and why you stripped your friends of the belongings.
After that go back to the quartermaster and buy whatever you need as this will be your last chance with him. Then go to the king. No matter what you say the outcome will be the same but you get to see what you're mission will be in the upcoming battle for Ostagar.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Dragon Age: Origins Review
Dragon Age: Origins Review
This is the PS3 version and I don't know how the other platforms play. I read a lot of reviews about Dragon Age, before I bought it. I checked out many promonent gaming sites, as well as oppinions of people I knew. Very few people had much to complain about, so I bought the game and started playing. The very first thing I noticed was that the voice acting was well done. The opening movie was quite well done, both visually and audibly. The next thing I noticed was that there is an option for there to be subtitles or not. I liked this feature quite a bit.
The very first thing you have a choice in, player-wise, is your gender. After choosing if you want to be a male or female you get to choose your race, Human, Elf, or Dwarf. They all have pros and cons but don't play any differently, or look too differant. Dwarves are of course quite a bit shorter and broader but not other obvious distictions. Elves look like short slim humans with pointy ears. I will explain more about the pros and cons in the walkthrough.
After choosing your race, you then choose your class, Warrior, Rogue, or Mage. These don't have any effect on your looks but have consiquence with your backstory, as well as how they play. I will explain what each class does and their consiquences in the walkthrough.
The final choice in this section of your customization is your backstory. While there are six to choose from, by the time you make your choices of Race and Class there may only be one or two to choose from. I found this a very good design, as I'm prone to sit and contemplate something like that for 20 minutes, if there are too many options. This also gives Dragon Age a very large amount of replayability. Because while human charecters may react to a human one way, there is a large amount of racism towards elves and so you will have differant dialogue options when you're an elf than when you're a human. All of this leads to days and weeks sitting in from of your TV playing this game trying to find all of the differant options.
The character customization is really, very well done. There is an impressive selection of preset facial features, such as beard and hair styles, as well as colers and you can even decide to have differant stubble patterns. All this leads to a huge amount of veriants for how your player will look. A nice touch on the facial construction, are the tattoos. You can choose from about 10 tattoos. I liked this little touch.
The first bit of play that you experance is just you making choices. These choices don't really effect the game but it's a good preview of the dialogue setup. Very quickly you are given a small mission to do to get you aquanted with the movements and camera controls. Thise soon leads to combat controls. These are all very straightforward and it's hard to get confused. Especially if you've played RPGs before. The combat controls are a bit differant than anything that I had ever played, but easy nontheless.
Within your first five minutes you'll get your first glimps at something that will become a huge part of the game; Grey Wardens. These ass kicking knights in shining (grey) armor are half of the driving force of the story. They are a group of men and women of all races who joined together to fight your main enemy: The Darkspawn. Darkspawn are a horde of demon-esque monsters that you will continuosly be fighting throughout the game.
All of this, taken together, gives you a very well told story within the first half hour of play.
I really liked both the movement and battle controles. The camera got on my nerves at times since it wants to look the way you're walking and walking in a new direction moves the camera as well. This just means you have to hold the camera in place if you don't want to look ahead of you.
I experanced quite a few instances of the game dropping frames but usually it only happens when you move to a new area and it usually only happens twice every time you go there. Most of the movements flow together. The background is usually pretty bland with mostly tan and brown houses and such, but given the story and the medieval theme of the game, this color scheme works well.
The music is epic and well selected. Changing from upbeat adventuring music, to fast paced battle music when an enemy is in range, is not only fun to listen to, but helpful if you don't see them before they see you.
The story is very well designed and, while a tad shallow at times (such as the Circle of Magi mission) it's quite enjoyable. Something that did bother me was that, in the beginning of the game, the racism towards elves is very noticeable, this racism is all but forgotten towards the end. This doesn't take away from the overall game, it's just a small snag.
I give this game a 9.8 out of 10.
If you have any suggestions please comment and I will adress it. Thanks for reading through my horrible spelling.
This is the PS3 version and I don't know how the other platforms play. I read a lot of reviews about Dragon Age, before I bought it. I checked out many promonent gaming sites, as well as oppinions of people I knew. Very few people had much to complain about, so I bought the game and started playing. The very first thing I noticed was that the voice acting was well done. The opening movie was quite well done, both visually and audibly. The next thing I noticed was that there is an option for there to be subtitles or not. I liked this feature quite a bit.
The very first thing you have a choice in, player-wise, is your gender. After choosing if you want to be a male or female you get to choose your race, Human, Elf, or Dwarf. They all have pros and cons but don't play any differently, or look too differant. Dwarves are of course quite a bit shorter and broader but not other obvious distictions. Elves look like short slim humans with pointy ears. I will explain more about the pros and cons in the walkthrough.
After choosing your race, you then choose your class, Warrior, Rogue, or Mage. These don't have any effect on your looks but have consiquence with your backstory, as well as how they play. I will explain what each class does and their consiquences in the walkthrough.
The final choice in this section of your customization is your backstory. While there are six to choose from, by the time you make your choices of Race and Class there may only be one or two to choose from. I found this a very good design, as I'm prone to sit and contemplate something like that for 20 minutes, if there are too many options. This also gives Dragon Age a very large amount of replayability. Because while human charecters may react to a human one way, there is a large amount of racism towards elves and so you will have differant dialogue options when you're an elf than when you're a human. All of this leads to days and weeks sitting in from of your TV playing this game trying to find all of the differant options.
The character customization is really, very well done. There is an impressive selection of preset facial features, such as beard and hair styles, as well as colers and you can even decide to have differant stubble patterns. All this leads to a huge amount of veriants for how your player will look. A nice touch on the facial construction, are the tattoos. You can choose from about 10 tattoos. I liked this little touch.
The first bit of play that you experance is just you making choices. These choices don't really effect the game but it's a good preview of the dialogue setup. Very quickly you are given a small mission to do to get you aquanted with the movements and camera controls. Thise soon leads to combat controls. These are all very straightforward and it's hard to get confused. Especially if you've played RPGs before. The combat controls are a bit differant than anything that I had ever played, but easy nontheless.
Within your first five minutes you'll get your first glimps at something that will become a huge part of the game; Grey Wardens. These ass kicking knights in shining (grey) armor are half of the driving force of the story. They are a group of men and women of all races who joined together to fight your main enemy: The Darkspawn. Darkspawn are a horde of demon-esque monsters that you will continuosly be fighting throughout the game.
All of this, taken together, gives you a very well told story within the first half hour of play.
I really liked both the movement and battle controles. The camera got on my nerves at times since it wants to look the way you're walking and walking in a new direction moves the camera as well. This just means you have to hold the camera in place if you don't want to look ahead of you.
I experanced quite a few instances of the game dropping frames but usually it only happens when you move to a new area and it usually only happens twice every time you go there. Most of the movements flow together. The background is usually pretty bland with mostly tan and brown houses and such, but given the story and the medieval theme of the game, this color scheme works well.
The music is epic and well selected. Changing from upbeat adventuring music, to fast paced battle music when an enemy is in range, is not only fun to listen to, but helpful if you don't see them before they see you.
The story is very well designed and, while a tad shallow at times (such as the Circle of Magi mission) it's quite enjoyable. Something that did bother me was that, in the beginning of the game, the racism towards elves is very noticeable, this racism is all but forgotten towards the end. This doesn't take away from the overall game, it's just a small snag.
I give this game a 9.8 out of 10.
If you have any suggestions please comment and I will adress it. Thanks for reading through my horrible spelling.
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