I have never been so on the fence about a game as I have been about DA:O. I really wanna see a second opinion review.

But Brad, riddle me this. Are there dragons in it?

Viewable on iPhone.

Gosh what is with me today?

@AgentMOO - There are! I just killed one this morning.

@Palidi
The character you play doesn't speak except for token things when being issued commands at times.

It's interesting to see the responses playing as more of jerk opposed to be being respectful like I was.

@Carl

Definitely. The other origins stories are mired in ignorance compared to the Circle Mage one. They learn so much about the mystical nature of the world right off the bat that has only barely been touched on in the ~7 hours I've played on my main character.

Not to play down the Human Noble origin story, but its at its best towards the end.

Quite a nice intro. I was hoping to see some combat as part of the 'taste' but I guess in a dialog heavy RPG it's not so easy to get from character creation to combat within 10 minutes.

I rented this disaster and it deserves a 6.0 IMO. I think the one thing I would change is the role playing, swinging action. THIS IS NOT LIKE BAULDERS GATE!!! Please stop saying that it is. (yes I know that no one said it here in this article but I have seen it before and especially in reviews). Anyway, I just wished when I rapidly hit the 'A' button that he would swing his damn sword just as fast not wait his turn like World of Warcraft. This game is like a behind the back P.O.V. Sacred 2. I hate the no voice character too. It also is pretty jumpy at times like when they talk and I have heard the music in the background abruptly stop and start on its own (HORRIBLE!). Please GOD dont let them fuck up Mass Effect 2!

Plus, you played the console version.

I'm fine with the console version. While there may be comprimises over the PC version, I'm just glad I get to play it. Bioware has made a lot of console fans in the last couple of years. KoTOR on the Xbox was my first Bioware game and I've been a huge fan since. It's nice to be able to play this even though I don't have a computer up to snuff for gaming.

PC version is the best version, anybody who says otherwise is simply in denial.

There are plenty of games where you do that, every game on console doesn't need to be like that though. Besides, all Bioware RPG's played like this before they started working on consoles. Even Kotor played like this.

I can totally understand how people wouldn't like the combat system of Dragon Age but that's just how Bioware has always made their RPG's.

@Goon

You also forgot better graphics and frame rate. Tactical view which is also quite useful for those battles with many foes. If I wanted action oriented then I would play Zelda or anything similar since there are already plenty of games out there for it.

If you didn't grow up on classic PC gaming though I can kind of understand the sentiment. This game is somewhat more catered to those that played Baldurs Gate. They did make the system a bit easier with the idea of drawing in console players. Example, if a character died in your party in BG, they would stay dead unless you resurrected them or brought them to a temple. It made you think tactically better instead of mindlessly running in.

The voice acting effort is really the best I've heard in a while. Lots of different voices, so much dialog, and really excellent and well realized characters. I the storytelling is realyl the high point of the game, and that comes through on any platform.

I didn't read up on the combat, so I too actually expected "1:1" button action. But, I got over that pretty quick. Popping cooldown skills satisfies my button mash just fine.

Also, the harrowing was an amazing start to the mage character. I haven't played much past it, but it was a real standout experience that definitely gives you more insight into the magical aspects of the world.

@Goon

Those console Baldur's Gate games were fun for what they were. But they're totally different games from different developers that both happen to be set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons and Dragons setting. That's why the console games have the Dark Alliance subtitle. The Bioware Baldur's gate games were long, complex RPGs from the mid 90s with tactical PC gameplay. Both the PC and console series are great fun in their own right. I can see why you were confused if you were thinking Dragon Age was going to be like the Dark Alliance games!

@Everyone who answered my question:

That's disappointing news to me. Eh, it's old skool I guess though.

I'm very pleased with this game so far. My only complaint is the randomly tough fights where your tanks might get killed and then you die, and realize the auto-save hadn't kicked in in a while.

I wish I could auto-save every 2 minutes. But I guess I'll do it manually, just to be safe.

Also, you must be patient while playing this game. You might go an hour or more between a battle. Particularly when you come to a new town.

@Timmins - I actually think that the lack of hard info on skills is good. Why should there be any numerical value to them? Why do you need damage range with spells, when all you need to know is their type and relative strength. And while that doesn't bother me, it would be nice if they went with it further and removed numerical indicators for stats, weapons, armor and their modifiers - or at least give an option to do that.

@ StingingVelvet-

Not to mention humanity's!

reindall:

Because any tactics or strategy game is about making meaningful choices. The difficulty says to me that, if you want to play this as a tactical or strategic rpg, instead of a hack and slasher, you should be able to. With no information to base a decision on, your decisions are pointless or frustrating. This really makes leveling a lot less worth looking forward to, also. I constantly get the bethesda rpg effect, where every level up, I suspect I am screwing my character over for the future by making all the wrong choices, though I couldn't possibly be expected to know better.

Compare a game with a VERY transparent mechanics system, like KOTOR. You know exactly what blade flurry does. You know if you want to get an extra attack, and are willing to accept the -4 to hit penalty, and what exactly that means. You can decide "okay, these grunts are easy to hit, even with the penalty, it only drops my to hit from 60 to 40 percent, it's worth it." Or "okay, this boss is really tough to hit, I probably only have about a 30% chance of hitting him, no way is it worth it to take a -20% chance." you have made a decision, it was meaningful, and it was meaningful BECAUSE you had enough information to know WHY you should do something. Is mighty blow's extra damage worth the penalty you take? who knows? they don't tell you how significant EITHER is, and you can't even open a window where you can see the rolls you are making like baldurs gate did, so you can reverse engineer your way to figuring out how combat works.

Plus the whole jamming worthwhile and completely useless abilities into the same linear tree, and putting important upgrades to one skill at the end of another skill progression that you quite possibly don't want at all, so you can't get something you really want, like fireball, without taking something that has absolutely nothing to do with being a long range blaster mage, like flaming weapons, which doesn't even affect the archer rogue, or either of the two mages you put in your party. Tough to look forward to a level up where you don't get anything you EVER expect to use. It's like they took everything about the KOTOR talent trees except what made them good, and transferred it over here.

Action games work well with mystery. Strategy games shouldn't have it unless it is CAREFULLY considered. Demon souls might work with not telling you what's going on, I really don't think Dragon Age does.