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Archive for Gabriel Baca
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Gabriel Baca
United States
Texas
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Okay, so the game has been out forever, but I finally finished the entire thing, including every single thing out in DLC form, and with as long as the game is, I don't think anyone else out there who has played the game will fault me for taking so long. Now that I've had some time to think about the game, I've finally decided to give my finally praises and criticisms, ultimately leading to the rating I gave the game.
My first praise: The game handles fantasy in a slightly skewed version of the typical fantasy tropes. Magic nearly destroyed the world in the past, and it caused God to shun his creation, etc. And in the present day, everone is still paying for that mistake with cycles of Blights that tear apart the kingdom of Ferelden. Magic is still used, but is treated with complete suspicion. Magic users are under close guard of the religious order in the kingdom. This is all great stuff, and there are a lot of intricicacies to the story that are developed further by reading the codex. I really liked that this story could be as simple or as complex as you wanted it to be. I also liked that you could basically take whatever path you wanted through the game after the initial introduction, although all branches had to be completed and met up together for one final story arc in the end. I know there are also ways to change the story as well based on whether you're a saint or an ass, but there is no way I would ever have the time to play through this game again. Now, notice I'm talking about the main game here. Once you get to the DLC, the story is significantly weaker, and often has little or nothing to do with the main story.
Praise Numero Dos: I love that this game took the best of the old school party roleplaying video game from the Days of Icewind Dale, Balder's Gate, and my particular favorite, Planescape: Torment. The action is pausable and makes everything as tactic-oriented as you want to make it. There's even a fairly-intricate and somewhat sophisticated and intelligent AI pathing system so that you can focus only on yourself if that's how you like to handle things. You also have great interactions throughout the game (including the DLC) with all of your party members (including getting it on with some of them), and it's just as interesting digging into most of their pasts as it is to hack and slash through dungeons.
Praise Three: The voice acting in this game is phenomenal. I never had a moment in the game where my disbelief was in danger of coming off suspension. Some of my particular favorites were Flemeth (voice by Captain Janeway herself) and Morrigan, but far and away the best performance in the game was Leliana. Wavering temptingly somewhere between French and British, it took little to no time for me to decide she was going to be the love of my (Dragon Age) life, and I never even considered straying (and believe me, there is a terrible opportunity for it). These performances were so persuasive that I seriously considered taking Wynn's advice in breaking things off with Leliana simply because I was afraid it would end in tragedy for her, and I didn't know if I could take the heartbreak of that event. That's when you know a game has sucked you in completely.
Criticism One: The bulky interface required for RPG character management was not completely improved in this outing, and equipment management is the worst part of all of it. First, you have to add a DLC in order to have any kind of storage. The next best thing is only selling things to the shop owner at your camp so that you can always buy back what you don't need now but might need later. That's not really cost effective, and for someone trying to save the world, you would think someone might volunteer to hold all of the crap we can't. There were also many times I would get overloaded easily, which led to long sessions where I was comparing new gear to old, selling it, crafting, figuring out who gifts belonged to, etc.only so that I could get back to the interruption in my story caused by too many items in my backpack. I understand the need for limiting backpacks, and I understand the love of having a doll to dress up in the neatest outfits (I mean stats to boost with different pieces of armor), but there just has to be a better, more importantly, quicker way to do this. I don't mind all of the stuff, but I need a better way to manage it, like a child who follows in the wake of my slaughter to pick up all of the useful items and hold them all until I need them. Something like that.
Criticism Two: I'm sorry, but this game was a little too long. Perhaps if I'd played it before I knew that I'd have an additional 300 hours of DLC to play as well colored my attitude toward the game, but even the main story alone took an enormous amount of time to complete. I felt like Bioware had done an excellent job of pulling me into their world. I humbly assert that perhaps the story could have been tightened in a couple of places here and there (especially in the DLC), and it would have remained just as rewarding.
Criticism Three: This is a very minor complaint, and it only has to do with the mage class (as I played no others). I often had a problem with the number of abilities throughout the game (and paired with that awful button system made it difficult as well). I like to have new things I can do with each level, but after some time, it felt like I was getting extra abilities that I wasn't even able to use, because my usual cycle of spells would kill most things before I got to anything new. Even though I was steeped in elemental magic, by the time I was finished, I had purchased a a great number of spells in other trees as well. I thought this took away from the distinct difference between paths you could take. What would have been better would have been the option to tweak a smaller number of spells as you went on. It keeps you from getting overwhelmed with a large number of abilities, but still allows you to have new points to allocate every level. In addition, there were a great number of spells where friendly fire was possible. This wasn't a problem for the spells I could fling at ranged darkspawn from a distance, but for the ones where I had to get up close, and when there were no enemies left alone to fight, maneuvering to get these spells in was tricky, and sometimes really difficult with the camera was working against me in a tight spot. Like I said, these were just minor annoyances in an otherwise great combat system. When you consider everything else from the beautiful scenery to the amazing special effects and animations of the different skills, there's just too much to love to quibble over small things like that.
Overall, I thought that the great aspects of this game far outweighed the bad. Even though it took me almost a year to beat (I do have a day job and a life), it was an exhaustingly great experience, and a world I can't wait to visit again. I would heartily recommend this game for anyone who loves any sort of roleplaying game, and especially for those making the crossover from tabletop to video game role playing. I only wish I could have played it co-op with a group of RPG buddies! Thanks for reading!
Gamefacekillah Overall Score:  
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