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Dragon Age: Origins Hands On
PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Hands On by Christian Donlan
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It takes a lot of components to make a great game. You need glamorous stuff like lax unpaid overtime regulations, dangerous quantities of Diet Coke, and dozens of cubicles filled with half-built LEGO Mindstorm Robots. Also, throwing in a skateboarding chipmunk named Jimmy Lightning doesn't hurt.
But it also takes patience: vast reserves of patience. Consider Dragon Age, BioWare's latest blood-flecked, scaly, axe-battered moral playground: in order to get this one up and running, the development team first had to invent roughly 5,000 years of lore to give the game a genuine sense of depth. Then they had to build convincing digital actors, capable of delivering performances more nuanced than the average muddle of pantomime shrugs and fist-shaking that makes up most videogame cut-scenes.
Finally, before they've even had a chance to appear on Fox News to defend themselves from charges that they're trying to warp tweenagers' brains with loathsome interactive pornography, they've had to find a way to explain the massive scope of the entire enterprise to the games press. They've had to explain it to the likes of me, in other words: people whose brains have long been addled by constant sugar highs and too many Mini Cheddars, people who struggle to pay attention to any single subject for the space of even half an hour without being given either a free T-shirt or another donut to keep them ticking over.
BioWare's hit on an elaborate solution this time around. After the game's last showing featured a confusing couple of minutes of sexy slaughter speed-cut to strangely inappropriate sports rock, we're now getting a more serious look at the project the team's been working on for the best part of a decade. With the release creeping steadily closer, the developers want to show us that Dragon Age: Origins isn't just about whittling dwarfs into gooey chunks with flashy magic spells, or bedding sultry female minstrels for the price of a few groats. It's not even just about dragons. It's about choices: meaningful choices that really impact the way a gigantic story unfolds.
We suggested BioWare knock out the space in the middle of the title and go with Dragonage. You know, like luggage, but deadlier.
It's an agenda we've heard before, but developers have rarely gone to so much trouble to give us a taste of it in action. And that's where that elaborate solution comes in: our latest glimpse of a single section of Dragon Age on PC plays out on two separate machines wired up to two separate HD displays, while two separate party load-outs explore the same in-game situation with very different outcomes. It's taken a lot of cables, then, and EA has gone one step further, hiring eighties dual-keyboard wizard Howard Jones to run the complex presentation, too.
Okay, I made the last bit up. But it has taken a lot of cables. Luckily, the results appear to be worth it. Things start off fairly simply: the first thing our two parties - one containing a saucy, and fairly mean-spirited, female mage, the other rounded out with a hulking warrior - find themselves faced with is a guard who doesn't want to let us across a river. RPGs are filled with this kind of scenario. In fact, when was the last time someone stuck in the middle of a medieval fantasy world did want to let you across a river?
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ChthonicEcho
08/07/09 @ 09:14
0
Has anyone seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e46Z7iFl...
I've no idea how to feel about this game. On one hand, it looks mighty generic, what with the cookie-cutter storyline and setting, but on the other hand, I am intrigued by certain gameplay intricacies. |
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0
Nice to see that all's not lost with this one.
Usually you shouldn't trust trailers because they all-to-frequently misrepresent the game's content and raise expectations to an unreasonable degree. In this instance I think it's safe to say that Dragon Age will very much have to speak for itself on release. |
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+9
I really don't care too much about the setting as such. It's the writing, characters and mechanics that will decide if it's a good game or not. Baldur's Gate has as generic a high-fantasy setting as you can imagine, that didn't keep it from being great, nor does Mass Effect win any prizes in that regard.
Of course it's nice to have something more original like in Planescape: Torment or Fallout, but it's more the cherry on top for me rather than an essential thing.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 08/07/09 @ 10:25
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ChthonicEcho
08/07/09 @ 09:34
+1
@UncleLou
It's quite early to judge the storyline, I admit, but it sounds fairly uninspired so far. It's nearly identical to what was the premise of Neverwinter Nights 2 - the blight spreading and poisoning the land, with no means to defeat it. It's an age old fantasy premise - a metaphysical presence of Evil that's harming the lands or pulling the strings of minor evildoers (Tolkien's invention). I can't argue that presentation might distract from the generic premise and setting, though. |
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TheTingler
08/07/09 @ 10:06
+2
I think I will enjoy it, but I think Bioware have made a mistake not going for a licence like Forgotten Realms. This type of generic fantasy has been done to death, and with The Witcher Special Edition out there doing the fantasy RPG brilliantly with an interesting licence (and using Bioware's own graphics engine no less) I'm worried this'll get a big 'meh'.
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frostcircus
08/07/09 @ 10:26
0
Second time in a week that I've nitpicked a Eurogamer pun, but please don't make them separate to the actual tagline. Bad form. There are rules about these things.
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3william56
08/07/09 @ 10:46
+2
Wow. 5000 years of history to develop, and what did they come up with? Mages? Templars? Dwarves and Dragons. Maybe even a barbarian? Must have taken them *ages* to think of those.
And someone was criticising Katamari Forever for a lack of originality... O_o The problem with these sorts of "decision" morality games is when there's no clear sense of what your decision is, and the consequences thereof. What, for example, was the trigger to lose you the best healer in the entire game in a dialog tree? If it was something crass, like calling her ar$e fat, then fair enough. But if it was something mundane like refusing a cookie, then it sucks. Becomes the RPG equivalent of off screen insta-death. Choosing whether to slaughter innocents is one thing. Upsetting a cr*p AI with a dialog choice is another. |
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Eighthours
08/07/09 @ 10:51
+1
I've got one eye on this, but I haven't yet seen anything that takes it out of genero-ville in terms of its setting. All seems a bit tired to me. I hope that the story within that setting can make me more interested, as no matter how well the gameplay works, if it's not telling a good yarn then it's not worth me ploughing 60 hours into.
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+3
'The problem with these sorts of "decision" morality games is when there's no clear sense of what your decision is, and the consequences thereof. What, for example, was the trigger to lose you the best healer in the entire game in a dialog tree?'
Hopefully it'll employ The Witcher's excellent technique where you were treated to a gravely voice-over and a few key stills telling you how you just messed up a decision/killed a good man because you thought you were doing the right thing two hours earlier. Ace game. |
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Kratos1986
08/07/09 @ 11:05
0
It is Bioware so you can expect some quality without a doubt.
It's nice Bioware are giving us a throwback to their old Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights days. Those were Biowares best days. Plus if this goes well it won't hurt when they try and sell KOTOR Online to people. |
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actionfitz
08/07/09 @ 11:29
0
@UncleLou
08/07/09 @ 10:23 Re: Planescape Torment - to this day still one of the best gaming experiances I've had. The quality of the story was just mind bogglingly good, at least for some one like me who had been used to the general high fantasy / emo-anime RPG game storys of the day. You pick up a game thats basic premise is "What can Change the nature of a man?" Quite meaningfully raised the bar in terms of games narrative... and so spoiled every lesser attempt at game story for me ever since :) |
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the_inchworm
08/07/09 @ 12:18
+14
"Who wants to have to complete a 60 hour game in this day and age?"
Me. |
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+3
....a move suggesting that the team isn't sure people have quite clicked with the property yet, confused by the muddle of sex and violence that's been shown so far, or unsure of what to make of the game's unusually dark take on fantasy.
And whose fault is that? We didnt ask for those shitty heavy metal gore/sex fest trailers. |
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+8
And whose fault is that? We didnt ask for those shitty heavy metal gore/sex fest trailers.
Well, we might not have, but take a look at the comments under these videos on gametrailers.com. If their plan is to introduce a new, young audience in the US to beardy RPGs of old, it works brilliantly, as depressing as that may be for you or me.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 08/07/09 @ 14:03
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CouldntResist
08/07/09 @ 14:08
0
Maybe i'm a natural cynic, but just because they've shown you one section where there's all this dynamic storytelling going on doesn't mean that the entire game is going to be like that!
Don't get me wrong though, am really looking forward to this. |
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-1
Just because it is a fantasy setting, does not mean it will be generic, boring and overly familiar.
A talented developer like Bioware will bring something fresh to it. They are capable of creating a rich world, compelling story and sustaining your interest. Baldurs Gate revitalised its genre. Likewise KOTOR did something good with the Star Wars universe. Whilst a less talented developer may just recycle concepts from better games and have an unpolished implementation.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 09/07/09 @ 21:57
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+3
"Inventing 5,000 years of lore" seems to amount to "Dragons, dwarves, undead etc. with not-D&D background fluff/explanations."
Bit hyperbolic and disingenuous. BioWare's been biding its time with this one, fitting in almost two separate jaunts across the Mass Effect universe in the space it's taken to get the basic pieces of its dark fantasy working together, but this is a company that's never been short on patience. I think in this case "biding their time" amounts to having this project worked on part-time by about three people who spent all those years prior to full production coming up with the same tropes with a different lick of paint. Anyway, it might still have some as-yet-unseen saving graces, so there's a chance I'll buy and enjoy being a Jed...Grey Warden. |
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WinterSnowblind
08/07/09 @ 18:45
+1
The marketing for this game has been pretty bad, they seem to appealing to the masses.. with violence, sex and metal music, but when it comes down to it, it's a Bioware game, a spirtual sequel to Baldurs Gate at that. The Bioware fans are going to be turned off by how they're marketing the games, and those that are interested by the ads, are probably going to hate the game when they have to sit through more than 5 minutes of dialogue.
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+4
You can say negative stuff, but just saying "it's spectacularly dull" without giving any reasons gets punished, which is fine by me. Just look at Eraysor's post (the second). He says what he thinks is "horrendoulsy boring", but also makes it clear that he has read the article - tada, no negative rating.
Now I don't think disc hasn't read the article and I am sure he has good reasons, but his post does read like random trolling.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 09/07/09 @ 08:56
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0
Yes, the "Violence" trailer was indeed laughably bad, but what got me really worried was the RPS editor John Walker's blog post about a few unintentionally funny and occasionally cringe-worthy moments in an E3 demonstration of the game. The article gives the distinct (if admittedly early) impression that the problem is not so much with the marketing but with the game itself - the pubescent Marilyn Manson-esque silliness is thus not confined to the trailers but is intrinsic to the product Bioware is trying to sell us.
I think I'll just play Mass Effect 2 instead....
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 09/07/09 @ 10:49
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+2
Erm, I wasn't even talking about your post (nor have I rated it), but disc's, but anyway.
It's not trolling, it's called having a personal opinion. I don't think you're getting what I am saying at all. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. And the karma system works almost perfectly in that regard. It's the difference between "Halo is shit" and "I didn't like Halo because a)..., b)..., c)...". The first one will get buried, the second one not. Well, in the case of Halo, maybe it will, but I hope you catch my drift. Following your logic through, nothing that is also a personal opinion could be trolling, which is clearly utter nonsense.
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 10/07/09 @ 01:02
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-1
All I'm saying is that it's a pretty big jump from "Dragon Age is shit" to "I'm sorry but I think Dragon Age looks a bit dull"
It seems to me that too many people are jumping on the minus button merely because they disagree. Positive comments tend to get left alone but negative ones seem to get stamped on for pretty much no reason. Sometimes you just want to say 'I like this' or 'I think it looks a bit crap' without a long list justifying your reasons. Okay, reading it again, disc's comment could definitely be taken as trolling. |
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0
i've been sceptical about this since it was announced almost five years ago. the name alonde is so awful it sound like it came from a random rpg name generator. I lost all respect for Bioware after they ditched Star Wars & D&D in the name of artistic license, only to come up with third rate knock offs of KOTOR & NWN (mass effect and dragon age respecively).
and seriously, it sounds like the consequences thing s being massively overplayed. it doesn't sound any different to killing Okku in NWN2: Mask of The Betrayer. now that was one hell of an RPG. it had the best character creation system of any RPG ever made. and more better writing than bioware has had in anyof it's last three games. it looks and performs pretty good too. almost as good as this IMHO. and poly counts aren't really much of an issue when you're peering at everything from a great height. of course, nwn2 never got the hype of dragon age or masss effect because A) it wasn't on consoles B) Obsidian didn't court controversy by including alien sex and C) the media hates atari |
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