Dragon Age online has given me mixed feelings. What’s most frustrating is the awkward camera angles. I found myself going around in circles or trying to figure out how to get my character in the appropriate place. I could not tell if it was related to playing MMOs or if it was a mouse sensitivity problem. Now that I’ve played the game for a couple of hours, it hasn’t been as noticeable. but there are occasions when it happens.
The cut scenes with the story are immersive, and the blood splats on the characters after a fight are ridiculously sweet. Here are some additional tidbits on what I’ve experienced so far. I tried to be vague to prevent spoilers.
Tuesday night [aka game release day!]
– Spent nearly 2 hours trying to remove programs on my computer to make room for 20 GB. I am sure removing World of Warcraft would have helped a great deal but I refused to reinstall it at a later date. While removing files I was watching ABC’s new show called V.
– After installation there was a message about outdated Graphics drivers. I was anxious to play so I ignored it and the game crashed. Spent even more time fixing the driver problem.
– Spent an hour in character creation and went with the Human Warrior. Part of it was figuring out the races and classes to determine who I would end up playing as long term. I did apply my Baldur’s Gate experience in this area to determine who I might have the most fun with. I ended up selecting a human warrior because BG & BG2 used to have characters that were Rogue to tamper with locked chests and doors. I spent some time on the tattoo on her face to make her look like a rock star warrior with flaming red hair.
– I went through the first part talking to my father and his friend. Then, I realized it was almost 2 AM in the morning so I quit the game to get some rest only to wake up wanting to play.
Wednesday night
– I had a chance to play a bit more that night. Sir Gilmore is “teh” hotness. I had a crush on him after a few conversations before and after the dog in the kitchen sequence.
– The prejudice against the elves is believable – so much that it bothers me. I don’t like the way the humans treat the servants. Wish I could do something to prevent any mistreatment of them, but there has been no option to yet.
– I am curious about what the Grey Warden is all about. I am currently at the point where I am in a ‘joining’ quest with 3 warriors, which is where I saved the game, it was 2 am in the morning. If I am not careful, I will be up until 6 or 8 am! Late nights are best for the weekends.
– The warriors appear to be gentle in the way the converse with me as a female in the game. They do not mistreat me for being a female warrior or act like I am another man in the game. It is almost as if they treat me better because I’m ‘female’ and ‘human’. They jest about being female a little, but not enough to be a criticism. The role playing games I used to play either treated me like a man for being a woman warrior, or they mistreated as a female warrior.
– Alistair reminds me of a wrestler, he has a persona as if he’s THE man. He started off like that but softened up a bit. At one point I told him that I looked forward to working with him. He responded with something on the lines of, “Huh. Oh, really? hmm…”
– The conversations with the other characters are much like an interactive movie with the plot unfolding based on your own actions in the game. I heard about this kind of interaction in Mass Effect.
– I missed this style of gameplay. I liked being able to play other characters, but Dragon Age Origins adds combat style elements and NPCs in my party are always around to help.