11-07-2009, 04:00 PM
I did mention playing it in the first response. Gave a bunch of Origin stories a roll through on normal, and did a bit of poking around in the first area you end up in after. Played long enough to find out that my first choice of a character (dwarven warrior, sword & board) was pretty superfluous with the starting party members you pick up, so I took things up to Hard for more of a challenge and went to a finger waver. Holy crap are mages... well... MAGES. The setting for the world handles magic in a rather believable way and I'm really enjoying taunting the Chantry.:D
It's so far been a lot smoother as a mage than either a 2h or S&B warrior, even on hard. I haven't played the rogue too much as there is this niggling little problem: A lot of 'boss' encounters start with conversation, which means you aren't able to take advantage of stealth.
As for the gameplay, it's kinda like WoW-FFTactics with a pause button, and as much as I enjoy it so far... Except for one thing; those of you who played with me in WoW know I have this particular little tic, I like to hop on my toons. Amusingly, not only is there no way to jump in DA:O, the spacebar is pause.:lol: The little 'double hop' my thumb's muscle memory has ingrained into them turns the game into a slideshow. I could rebind it, but eh.
The tactics for each party member are incredibly important if you don't want to start/stop your way through combat after combat. Defensive/Ranged/Cautious are all far better options than most of the rest, as they don't have your party members chasing after stuff. Running after darkspawn will only draw more enemies, get that toon blown to pieces and wipe you when it goes from 4v3 to 4v11+Named. The ambushes the enemies attempt to pull off are pretty good, and once I figured out how to start pulling off some ambushes of my own things went very smooth. Trap-making, a stealth character, ranged weapons on everyone, crowd control spells on your mage (Main or Morrigan) and selective kiting (for when orange-titled beastie decides that your finger waving arse looks tasty) can turn what used to be an ambush on you to an encounter where no pausing needs to be done and no one even takes more than incidental damage even against overwhelming odds.
Despite the rather tactical combat, the main focus IS the story and... it's a doozy. Not sure if it's better than the 'stories of old', but up front, it's a lot more mature than they were. Oh, flirting... damn, it's funny, especially in a teenage-romance kinda way. It's embarrassing, full of humor and a funny way to blow off some steam.
Back to killing darkspawn with mah mind!:D
~Frag
It's so far been a lot smoother as a mage than either a 2h or S&B warrior, even on hard. I haven't played the rogue too much as there is this niggling little problem: A lot of 'boss' encounters start with conversation, which means you aren't able to take advantage of stealth.
As for the gameplay, it's kinda like WoW-FFTactics with a pause button, and as much as I enjoy it so far... Except for one thing; those of you who played with me in WoW know I have this particular little tic, I like to hop on my toons. Amusingly, not only is there no way to jump in DA:O, the spacebar is pause.:lol: The little 'double hop' my thumb's muscle memory has ingrained into them turns the game into a slideshow. I could rebind it, but eh.
The tactics for each party member are incredibly important if you don't want to start/stop your way through combat after combat. Defensive/Ranged/Cautious are all far better options than most of the rest, as they don't have your party members chasing after stuff. Running after darkspawn will only draw more enemies, get that toon blown to pieces and wipe you when it goes from 4v3 to 4v11+Named. The ambushes the enemies attempt to pull off are pretty good, and once I figured out how to start pulling off some ambushes of my own things went very smooth. Trap-making, a stealth character, ranged weapons on everyone, crowd control spells on your mage (Main or Morrigan) and selective kiting (for when orange-titled beastie decides that your finger waving arse looks tasty) can turn what used to be an ambush on you to an encounter where no pausing needs to be done and no one even takes more than incidental damage even against overwhelming odds.
Despite the rather tactical combat, the main focus IS the story and... it's a doozy. Not sure if it's better than the 'stories of old', but up front, it's a lot more mature than they were. Oh, flirting... damn, it's funny, especially in a teenage-romance kinda way. It's embarrassing, full of humor and a funny way to blow off some steam.
Back to killing darkspawn with mah mind!:D
~Frag
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.