Comments on: Review – Dragon Age: Origins (PC, PS3, X360)

By: Don Tam

Don Tam — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:50:10 +0000

I was a big fan of the adjusted difficulty, actually. In addition to enabling them to let you play through the game in any order you wish in terms of the middle quests, it also meant I was never bored by the combat.

Your power level does feel like it scales without sacrificing the imminent danger that is felt in the combat. For example, I’m playing through it a second time on Nightmare, and though the beginning parts were very hard, the game has gotten a bit easier since level 8. There are still fights I need to reload multiple times and I find myself just playing with injuries instead of healing them all instantly.

I am very impressed with the balance of the game. You are right, you will use the same skills every battle, but is that really any different from other games? Some skills will be better or you will like them better than others, and you will use them. That’s not much different than WoW, Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights for me.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:22:31 +0000

I haven’t noticed the same thing that Bio2Hazard has pointed out. I’ve walked into areas and have been SLAUGHTERED by bandits that simply kicked my ass until I employed some strategy.

I love this game.

And I hate you guys for making me buy it.

That’s right.

You heard me.

By: Bio2hazard

Bio2hazard — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:41:20 +0000

I just wanted to point out that the level of the enemies always reflects / matches your own. When you first enter a area, the level of all enemies contained within it are adjusted to your current level.

This personally was a huge immersion breaker for me and almost killed the game for me, so to speak.

I find it incredibly retarded that your hero, after having been in over 500 battles, killing thousands of feared darkspawn, several dragons et cetera, gets a real workout from a drunk hobo in a tavern who’s never even held a sword before. Why ? Cause the game thinks its fun if they set everyones level to match yours.

Once I realized this, all motivation to play the game was pratically gone. You won’t feel powerful at any point of the game, since even the monsters at the very beginning are always as strong as you. There is no progress in strength and every battle from beginning to end feels like a carbon copy of another.

You may get more skills to toy around with, but every battle essentially works out the same way. You will have your set of skills you like, and you will use it in every battle. After all, excuse me if I am mistaken, but I see no difference when fighting darkspawn over fighting thieves or dwarfs. You get bum rushed by a horde, you use sleep, nightmare, AoE or whatever and you’ll be doing the same thing for the entire game pretty much.

All in all, technically the game is outstanding, the story is one of the best that has come around in a really long time.. but the fact that enemies level together with you and that every battle feels the same lowered my opinion / fun of the game by quite a bit. If you don’t mind these things then go ahead and buy it, if you do, there may be better games for you out there ( I found Risen’s way of handling monster strength far superior. )