![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm playing the PC version, and completed it about twenty-four hours' gameplay. I started a new game rather than importing an existing one, so started as an Orlesian Grey Warden, female human mage. As you'll be able to tell, I'm a big Bioware and Dragon Age fan!
Gameplay
...has the same smooth feel, with additional specialisations, spells and class-related extras to keep you indecisive over what to choose upon levelling up.
...has an added skill of Runecrafting, in which a crafter can create incredibly powerful runes but with a downside of a lot of faffing around. I found the incredible power very handy, but the faff less than desirable.
...is pretty balanced, especially compared to Dragon Age: Origins. I fought everything on Normal bar a couple of boss fights, and it was satisfyingly challenging without being horribly frustrating.
Plot
...is very nicely developed for an expansion pack, and works well as a standalone game. I'd be interested to see how it works as a continuation of the Dragon Age story.
...contains plenty of moral and logistical choices to make, all of which have consequences throughout the game. At various points I was squirming at the difficulty of the choices I had to make - which is a sign of good storytelling, I feel!
...apparently contains a bunch of plot and ideas from the Dragon Age novel, which may explain why I was a little confused at some points.
...has a very abrupt (and cosmetically buggy) ending followed by more satisfying epilogues detailing the results of your actions and what your NPCs are up to.
Sideplots
...are surprisingly highly in evidence. I was a little overwhelmed by the volume assigned at the beginning of the game but once I found my feet it felt satisfying.
...are rather vague and unclear. Journal entries are sometimes uninformative, and it can simply be unclear what you're supposed to do in certain situations I think it's a result of a faster development time.
...can be annoyingly situational. There were quite a few NPC-related quests that I missed because I happened not to be in the right place at the right time, so it's worth travelling around the areas with different party members to check you haven't missed anything.
Non-joinable Characters
...are fine and certainly better than in most games, but Bioware have an excellent standard for breathing life into the random characters you meet and these just weren't the same.
Joinable Characters
...are vivid and wide-ranging in tone and personality.
...don't have talk tracks but do interact with you at various points based on your location and how much they approve of you.
...talk much more to each other than in Dragon Age: Origins.
...contain only two women. Boo.
...on the other hand, contain two of my all-time favourites, Anders and Sigrun! Anders! Sigrun! Oh, they bring joy to my heart!
In summary, it has the same punchy, satisfying feel as Dragon Age: Origins, and it's highly compelling. You can tell it's Bioware: the joinable NPCs pull their weight in the characterisation stakes and the plot is exciting. Though it suffers from a faster development time and is noticeably less polished, it's most definitely worth playing, and I'd say with fair confidence that if you enjoyed the original, you'll probably enjoy this installment. Now excuse me while I doodle "Mr and Mrs Anders" and "Mrs and Mrs Sigrun" on my notebooks...
Gameplay
...has the same smooth feel, with additional specialisations, spells and class-related extras to keep you indecisive over what to choose upon levelling up.
...has an added skill of Runecrafting, in which a crafter can create incredibly powerful runes but with a downside of a lot of faffing around. I found the incredible power very handy, but the faff less than desirable.
...is pretty balanced, especially compared to Dragon Age: Origins. I fought everything on Normal bar a couple of boss fights, and it was satisfyingly challenging without being horribly frustrating.
Plot
...is very nicely developed for an expansion pack, and works well as a standalone game. I'd be interested to see how it works as a continuation of the Dragon Age story.
...contains plenty of moral and logistical choices to make, all of which have consequences throughout the game. At various points I was squirming at the difficulty of the choices I had to make - which is a sign of good storytelling, I feel!
...apparently contains a bunch of plot and ideas from the Dragon Age novel, which may explain why I was a little confused at some points.
...has a very abrupt (and cosmetically buggy) ending followed by more satisfying epilogues detailing the results of your actions and what your NPCs are up to.
Sideplots
...are surprisingly highly in evidence. I was a little overwhelmed by the volume assigned at the beginning of the game but once I found my feet it felt satisfying.
...are rather vague and unclear. Journal entries are sometimes uninformative, and it can simply be unclear what you're supposed to do in certain situations I think it's a result of a faster development time.
...can be annoyingly situational. There were quite a few NPC-related quests that I missed because I happened not to be in the right place at the right time, so it's worth travelling around the areas with different party members to check you haven't missed anything.
Non-joinable Characters
...are fine and certainly better than in most games, but Bioware have an excellent standard for breathing life into the random characters you meet and these just weren't the same.
Joinable Characters
...are vivid and wide-ranging in tone and personality.
...don't have talk tracks but do interact with you at various points based on your location and how much they approve of you.
...talk much more to each other than in Dragon Age: Origins.
...contain only two women. Boo.
...on the other hand, contain two of my all-time favourites, Anders and Sigrun! Anders! Sigrun! Oh, they bring joy to my heart!
In summary, it has the same punchy, satisfying feel as Dragon Age: Origins, and it's highly compelling. You can tell it's Bioware: the joinable NPCs pull their weight in the characterisation stakes and the plot is exciting. Though it suffers from a faster development time and is noticeably less polished, it's most definitely worth playing, and I'd say with fair confidence that if you enjoyed the original, you'll probably enjoy this installment. Now excuse me while I doodle "Mr and Mrs Anders" and "Mrs and Mrs Sigrun" on my notebooks...
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I don't think I was rushing through the story... But maybe I did, I don't know. Perhaps one of these days I'll start a new DAO character and then play Awakenings through and ignore the main plot for as long as I can.
From:
no subject