After Garvaos’ encounter with Dragon Age Orinins at Eurogamer and That Bloke In The Beanies’ newest RPG chrush. The two gamers decide to talk about this latest RPG fernominon in Plus XP’s first game disscussion.
Garv: Well my main gripe about Dragon Age is that I played the console version, my god it royally sucks on there maybe it’s a translation problem but I didn’t get on with it at all
Beanie: The 360 version I assume?
Garv: Indeed, and the flecks of blood over everything, though it is a nice idea, look cheesy to me.
Whatever you do, don't turn around.
Beanie: I’ll grant you, the gore is a bit over excessive. Looks like someone got a bit slap happy with the paint tool
Garv: Too true, I mean, after a battle my character looked like a DIY decorating accident
Beanie: Heh heh
Garv: Personally, I found the game play clunky and glitchy at times, NPC’s get in your way during battle, and I kept swapping between me and my dog for no good reason, and as much as I like Maralin Manson and His song ‘This is the new shit’, it feels really out of place in a medieval setting, and also, I didn’t see a single dragon.
Beanie: Wow, I feel as though we were playing totally different games, or at the very least versions of the game. Now, I’ll back you on the hate for the 360 version, because, if you’re gonna make a next gen RPG for the 360, you need to spend a lot of time to make it work.
Garv: Agreed, To make an RPG work on any console you don’t port it from the PC, you build it from scratch; this is blatantly a ported PC game, and it has gone pretty damn wrong.
Beanie: So we agree on that side of the debate. Now, what about the plot and characters?
Garv: Now remember I didn’t play the whole game when I got my hands on it at Eurogamer, but the characters I found were pretty RPG generic. I was the soldier/sword man, with my trusty fable II dog on acid.
Beanie: Oh no, you didn’t like the dog?
Garv: Fable II did the dog awesomely; somehow Dragon Age didn’t hit the mark.
Beanie: But you didn’t find the Fable dog a bit too gimmicky?
Garv: What? Hell no! He was the awesome, he found you stuff alerted you when enemies were near by. He also, led the way to treasure and you could teach him tricks. He was with you from the start, his personality changed with yours and he was your trusted friend through out the game. My heart literally sank when he got a bullet to the face.
If all else fails, use fire!
Beanie: Fair enough, do you think they relied too much on a similar Knights Of The Old Republic (KOTOR) setup and character types then?
Garv: Yeah it stank of KOTOR to be honest, just set like a billion years in the past, and I know my mentality is if it isn’t broke don’t fix it but seriously? You have to have a little innovation.
Beanie: You didn’t find any of the lore interesting? What little you saw of it?
Garv: I saw very little really so I didn’t get into the story much, the demo I played was more game play orientated. Which all things were at Eurogamer to be honest because you only have a set time.
Beanie: Ok, it’s a real pity that on first impressions that you see all the various clichés and worst parts of the game.
Garv: Yeah it is a shame because to be honest, I was kind of psyched about this game. I downloaded trailers from Xbox LIVE and was like oooh!
Beanie: Yeah, unfortunately it suffers from being over hyped, but I think you’d feel different if you played the PC version.
Garv: hmmmmm maybe, thing is I’m more of a console gamer as you know
Mind you, CAD did a hilarious comic on one of the trailers
Beanie: Yeah that was pretty funny. For me, I’d seen relatively little of Dragon Age so I didn’t have a large expectation for the game. It’s pretty (but only on the PC and PS3) and well voice acted and written, though I’m not a big fan of the silent protagonist.
Hey, we're here for Steves' Stag do.
Garv: Only GTA III nailed the silent protagonist well
Beanie: Yes, some of the character archetypes are a bit clichéd, but this is a genre that is pretty much saturated at this point. Most of the good ideas have already been used up.
You know what I’ve come to see Dragon Age as? A parody of the RPG genre, not in a bad way though. It’s still entertaining and fun but if you allow yourself to laugh at it, it really comes into its own.
Garv: Oh I see what you mean actually, if you look at it from that aspect and not take it seriously you’re probably gonna enjoy it more.
Beanie: I’ll bet once you get a few hours with the PC version you’ll warm to it or at least be a wee less critical. But I can understand and condone your views about the 360 version and the plot, combat and character types
You got a final word?
Garv: Indeed I have. To be honest, I really did have a bad experience with Dragon Age. But in heindsight, if I take a little time to actually take in the story more and not take it so seriously, I could end up enjoying it….Just get it away from my 360!
Beanie: Ha ha, true that!
