Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dragon Age: Impressions

Yesterday the long wait for Bioware's latest venture, Dragon Age: Origins, came to and end.  I went with the Digital Deluxe version from Steam.  I played for 3 hours or so yesterday.  Read on for my no spoiler impressions. 

The process of getting everything setup was not easy.  In order to link the game to Bioware's Social Network it had to be registered. I had no luck in getting the site to recognize my key.  The site is also supposed to display your screen shots but I haven't been able to get that to work either. 

As for the game,  it is good but I'm not ready to call it Game of the Year yet.  The graphics are a bit sloppy in my opinion.  There is a lot of clipping and the fact my weapons float a few inches off my body bothers me. 

The story is good so far but I would expect nothing less from Bioware.  They added a lot of GUI elements from Mass Effect for managing all of the information the game throws at you.  Even though I have spent over 3 hours in the game, I have not done much.  Most of my time was spent reading or talking to npc's. 

I went with a Dwarf Commoner as my first character.  I was impressed with how my story fit into the game.  I was worried, since there are multiple starting stories, that it would feel disjointed.  It flowed perfectly into the main story.  The characters around you talk/treat you differently based on your start.  It isn't just 'substitute your name here.'

I plan to have a spoiler-free video out tomorrow so you can see for yourself what the gameplay is like.