It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussion (archive)Is Dragon Age worth playing as a standalone?(53 posts)solved(53 posts)solved
(53 posts)solved
Pages:
1
2
3
4
This is my favourite topic
Posted September 05, 2012
I hear so much about how bad DA2 is, and I am deterred by how bad ME2 was. Should I just avoid it?
This question / problem has been solved by xxxIndyxxximage
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
anjohl: I hear so much about how bad DA2 is, and I am deterred by how bad ME2 was. Should I just avoid it?
If you enjoy games along the line of Baldur's gate or Drakensang, then give Dragon Age 1 a go. It has its share of flaws, but I thought it was one of the better CRPGs that have been released in recent years, in large due to the tactical combat system, similar to that found in the old infinity engine games.

Also, get Drakensang ;)
Post edited September 05, 2012 by AFnord
Posted September 05, 2012
DA:O and DA2 are two different stories that take place in the same world. You can safely ignore which ever one you don't like.
Post edited September 05, 2012 by Snickersnack
Posted September 05, 2012
I really liked DA:O and as noted you can safely ignore DA2 if you wish to. There's very little real connection between the two games and you'll miss nothing by not playing DA2.
Posted September 05, 2012
As they said, if you like the turn-based-with-pause tactical battle from older Bioware titles you will like this one. The story is good too - there are some clichés, but it's good nevertheless.
The two games just share the world, so you can totally ignore the second one.
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
anjohl: I hear so much about how bad DA2 is, and I am deterred by how bad ME2 was. Should I just avoid it?
By no means. DAO was a strange and awesome throwback to (slightly) more complex gameplay mechanics.

The Bioware progress was/is a bit strange, they have these different ideals coming and going. Baldurs Gate -> NWN -> KotOR things got simplified and simplified all the time, leading to smoother gameplay and greater mass market appeal. Then Jade Empire was almost a completely action game, but didn't sell as well as one might have hoped. I'd guess mainly due to unfamiliar setting though.

Bio seems to have reconsidered their progress there and then. The first Mass Effect was essentially going back to KotOR mechanics and complexity, and was all kinds of awesome and a huge success. Dragon Age was going even further, drawing from Baldurs Gate, combined with their now trademark cinematic presentation.

DA took ages and ages of developement time, and in many ways is the swan song of Bioware. Clearly a work of love, their finest product to this date and probably will remain their finest product.

Because of EA.

Both DA2 and ME2 (and3) were again massively simplified, shorter developement times, good sales, easy money. I don't expect EA to fund anything of ME1 or DAO scale again, I think DA was like 5 years or more in developement. From now on, it'll be new ME's and DA's coming semi annually, with DLC's filling the gaps.

But yeah, get Dragon Age, it's awesome.
Post edited September 05, 2012 by Jarmo
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
Jarmo: But yeah, get Dragon Age, it's awesome.
Know what's funny? My issue with DA is the exact opposite as my issue with Mass Effect: I felt that Mass Effect's got boring characters, horrible overal story, but fantastic setting.

Dragon age? Great characters, but horribly generic setting which only leads to me remembering more useless fantasy trivia and ... Ok, these two games have one thing in common: Horrible overal story :D
Posted September 05, 2012
I would add my voice to give DA:O a try, its totally different play than DA2 and different story too, the only thing they have in common is the world.
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
Fenixp: Know what's funny? My issue with DA is the exact opposite as my issue with Mass Effect: I felt that Mass Effect's got boring characters, horrible overal story, but fantastic setting.

Dragon age? Great characters, but horribly generic setting which only leads to me remembering more useless fantasy trivia and ... Ok, these two games have one thing in common: Horrible overal story :D
And The Witcher 1 has both ;-P

(Just trolling. slightly.)
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
SimonG: And The Witcher 1 has both ;-P
Witcher's setting's actually got quite a few neat twists to traditional fantasy - for instance, being in it's way highly technological, it's just magic that replaces technology here (Mages experimenting with genetics, for example. Not to mention that from clues I've gathered from books I believe it's supposed to be set in Earth's future.) On the first glance, tho, the setting is very generic and if I didn't read the books, I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much - which applies to characters as well, they're very deep and beleivable as long as you're not a bioware fanboi and don't expect a top-notch presentation to 'get into' them.

And... Please, Witcher's overal story completely and utterly crushes both DA:O and ME.
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
Fenixp: And... Please, Witcher's overal story completely and utterly crushes both DA:O and ME.
In your opinion. With knowledge of the books.

Having played TW 1 without any knowledge of the books was a burden to say the least. There is one quote in the game which perfectly sums up the characterisation of all the characters in the game: "Why do cocks go into pussies? It's because they are there." This pretty much sums up the game. Why is A evil? Because he is. And all those childish attempts to be "mature". Wind Waker was more mature than this juvenile power fantasy.

I can't even remember much about the later stages of TW 1 anymore. And I'm not going to play through it again. There are many good elements in TW 1 (Combat, alchemy, levelling, the bit of exploration you do, a lot to read (which is to much "gameyfied", sadly). But the setting, story and characters, oh the characters, are just horribly one-dimensional.

The Witcher 1 was living of the hype as much as DA2 and ME2 were killed of by the hype.
Post edited September 05, 2012 by SimonG
Posted September 05, 2012
I've pretty much loved every Bioware story to date, full of cliche but I don't mind.
It's much like watching a western or a WWII movie, you sort of know what to expect.

Anyway, I'd like to add. If there are those in the (very specific) group,
who like bioware tropes, characters and storytelling, but still want a new different
setting, I'd strongly suggest checking out Jade Empire if you haven't yet.

I think I'd have liked it better had it been in the familiar D&D (or star wars) setting.
And if it hadn't been so action (and the same goes with ME series).
Post edited September 05, 2012 by Jarmo
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
anjohl: I hear so much about how bad DA2 is, and I am deterred by how bad ME2 was. Should I just avoid it?
definitely no! It's a great game, that deserves at least a try.
Posted September 05, 2012
my 2 cents: i absolutely loved Dragon Age. I got hooked. I started the human nobles origin story and that part alone was great (i played the others later and somehow these didn't feel so good). Only problem i had with it was when you figured out a tactic you could pretty much use this for every fight and you wouldn't really have any problems. But it's an amazing game.

It's big expansion is also great but you can see in it that they where already leaning more to a more action based game (that what you get in dragon age 2). If you import your maxed out character, you might as wel play it like diablo. So i actually advise to play that with a new character so your stats are a bit lower.

All of the above is assuming you play on normal mode.

Dragon Age 2 is totally different: make no mistake this is an action rpg. It plays a bit like dungeon siege 3. Nothing wrong with it but it's a different game. What's wrong with it, is it's repititiveness. You essentially play the first hours over and over and over and over again. Nothing really changes, not even the enviroments. I didn't mind the change of gameplay because i just approached it as a different kind of game but it's get boring after let's say 5 hours. So i would leave it there for a few weeks and come back to it, when i wanted to play some action rpg thing on a console.

Mass effect 2 is a difficult one. I loved mass effect 1 when it came out (i played both on pc). I loved the fact they made a good third person shooter with a great story and good rpg parameters. Mass effect 2 is an amazing 3rd person shooter in a great universe but wel, aside from the dialogue options, this is not a rpg. So i always regarded mass effect 1 as better. BUT i recently replayed them both doing a renegade femshep run and i found i really hard to go back to mass effect 1. That game just hasn't aged well (strange to say about a top game that's only a few years old) and i came to the conclusion that mass effect 2 is the better game.

Conclusion: play them all (you can skip dragon age 2 since it's mediocre and it's really not a "must play", dungeon siege 3 is better) but know what you play and don't start expecting something the game is not.
Posted September 05, 2012
avatar
SimonG: Having played TW 1 without any knowledge of the books was a burden to say the least. There is one quote in the game which perfectly sums up the characterisation of all the characters in the game: "Why do cocks go into pussies? It's because they are there." This pretty much sums up the game. Why is A evil? Because he is. And all those childish attempts to be "mature". Wind Waker was more mature than this juvenile power fantasy.

I can't even remember much about the later stages of TW 1 anymore. And I'm not going to play through it again. There are many good elements in TW 1 (Combat, alchemy, levelling, the bit of exploration you do, a lot to read (which is to much "gameyfied", sadly). But the setting, story and characters, oh the characters, are just horribly one-dimensional.

The Witcher 1 was living of the hype as much as DA2 and ME2 were killed of by the hype.
I've discovered something fairly interesting: People rate storywriting in TW1 depending on how much they value presentation and movie-like dialogues. And yeah, it does a lot, and it's got a LOT of bad bits (like the one you quoted) - mostly because CDPR tried to simulate Sapkowski's style of writing, which is very hard to do believably. However, beneath that lied a very mature story with very deep characters.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Is Dragon Age worth playing as a standalone?(53 posts)solved(53 posts)solved
(53 posts)solved