Nov 21, 2009 20:17
finished my first playthrough of dragon age: origins. so epic to have (hardwon- goddammit do i have to solve all your political/zombie/werewolf/demon problems to get your help against the invading dark swarm) armies at your disposal at the end. SO epic- at the end of the massive final battle all the rest of my battle party got knocked out so it was man-o-e-man-o of just me vs the huge archdemon all by my lonesome for like, half an hour of duking it out while war raged on around us. victory was sweet! i rushed through this playthrough- a bit more than 30 hours only put me in at completing 40% of the game wut. for the very first time in my videogaming history at 3 am after the credits rolled i immediately started a new game with a different origin story. i want one of the happier endings dammit. why do you toy with my emotions bioware!!
ok let me back up and explain just in case any of you have no idea what i've been going on about. dragon age: origins is basically what would happen if suikoden, shadow hearts, and knights of the old republic (with maybe an appearance by persona) had some kind of weird demonic threesome, this game would be the demon baby of such a union. you can pick from 6 different unique origins to start the game (eg- cast out dwarven nobility who turns to rogue thievery, cloistered mage elf, human nobility, etc) and it affects how the world reacts to you. your own actions also shape the world; there are countless consequences from choosing to spare lives or take them. there's a huge branching tree of choices you can make that lead down different paths that lends itself well to replayability; the land of ferelden is an addictive one to visit and you're basically encouraged to replay to see all the different ways this story can play out. sure, it's your typical LOTResque fantasy tale, but it's written fairly well and there's a good bit of humour and bite to it. there are some fairly amusing romances and the characters you travel with you end up learning a lot about and becoming sadly attached to, providing deeper investment in the story. that sounds a bit clinical but on the whole i was impressed with how immersive the experience became. the battling bits are fun and they're wrapped into the storytelling seamlessly. and the party banter! depending on who you bring out into the field with you, sometimes at random they have conversations as you walk around. almost all of them are hysterical.
in any case, 1) i am impressed and delighted by this videogame, 2) i insist others play it so we can blather on about it and compare how different things play out if you decide to kill ___ instead of ___ or support ___ instead of ____ or ____ instead of ___ LOL and well also because it's really a good game, it's been a long time since i've been so entertained or addicted to something.