1) Why am I paying $60 for a game when the price eventually will come down?
2) The game they put out nowadays are almost always INCOMPLETE (I'm looking at you DLC!)!!!!!!!!!!
3) If I wait long enough, they'll package everything in a nice cheap price. So, call me el cheapo but you know I'm right
Now that that's out of the way, onto review!
I did read some reviews and people's comment of how Dragon Age was one of those great games. But it was one of those I'm not sure I would enjoy playing. So after finishing God of War 3 and Deus Ex, I needed something new. I had bought Sly Cooper collection but that game is a very easy pick and play whenever game. So, at an EB Games, I saw the Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition for $20. Considering that it is $20 for two games, I thought it was a good price as they actually had Dragon Age and Dragon Age: Awakening for $20 each.
Finally got around to it and finished ALL the contents, including the DLC. I will try my best to do a full review.
Let me start with the big pictures.
1) Graphics - It is beautiful. It is not perfect but it still have beautiful scenery, facial expression and the finer details that are over looked.
When having a conversation with your companion (I enjoy talking to Morrigan and Alistair), you can really see the anger, sadless and love in their facial expression.
2) Music - as a classically trained music student. I really love the music. It had a very Romantic era style with the drive and the sound. I hope that the music will be part of the Video Games Live list, if it's not already.
Sometimes people over look the music in video games but a lot of the times, it is what drives the game play. In Dragon Age, soundtracks for fights make it more exciting. Just loading the disc into my PS3 and just let the track run got me excited. The vocal track is very haunting and yet soothing. It reminds me of Lisa Gerrard's voice in Gladiator soundtrack.
3) Story - and not just the storyline. It's ashamed that we cannot use all 8 of the companion at the same time. I would love to read the script for those small conversation. The interactions between the characters are hilarious. For example? The bickering between Morrigan and Alistair, or Oghren and Leliana. You can tell the writers wanted to give them life and they achieved it. Sometimes I would stop and just listen to the conversation between them.
Now that the big picture is out of the way. What did I think of gameplay?
Call me a loser and not a real gamer but I personally found the controls a bit frustrating. Sometimes I would press the button and it wouldn't react. I think I'm quite used to playing games like God of War where there is a BLOCK button. I started the game on normal difficulty. It may have been my poor decision to visit Denerim first before other places on the map, I ended up turning the difficulty to casual. I am normally in it for the story. Having said that, with just one actual attack button and 6 magic/special moves, I thought it may have been better executed. I did have several frustrating moments.
Speaking of frustrating moment... autosaves. It's nice but sometimes you forget. There were a few instances that I forgot to save frequently and lo and behold, that last 20min of gameplay? Poof. Now, that ain't necessarily a bad thing but just forgetful.
Now back to the storyline, as I mentioned, they are very intertwined. To have your character to love several people and see jealousy is kind of funny. To have Leliana and Alistair make you choose... I did find Alistair a bit annoying at times. Maybe I just like Leliana's accent.
Voice casting was great. Morrigan had such great dark humour and Claudia Black was awesome. I remember seeing her in a few roles on Hercules and Xena. And Kate Mulgrew, Captain Kathryn Janeway on Voyager, I don't know who else you would find to voice Flemeth. Kate is hilarious in person and her voice and humour played it perfectly. Even Alistair's voice had a lovable personality.
I think what made Dragon Age one of the best game on PS3 is the re-playability. I have only finished 1 version of the story. The fact that the game has 6 different origins and different endings depending on your action makes the game great value. Do you keep this companion? Or kill them? What shocked me was playtime. My total game play for JUST Dragon Age: Origin was around 66 hours. SIXTY-SIX HOURS. That's a lot of hours spent looking for things. I tried to do most of the side quests. The side quests are the ones that make the game complete but there were so many (as I was stupid to accept all of them and about 10% was probably incomplete). To top it off, they decided to add 4 extra, standalone story DLC and 4 in-game DLC.
Each of these DLC added an extra hour or so of game play. However, the standalone story DLC gave more of an alternative. Leliana's Song provided more of her background of how she came to be. Witch Hunt actually is more of the aftermath. While Dark Spawn Chronicles offer you a totally different point of view and allows you to be the bad guy. Who doesn't want to be the bad guy?
Dragon Age: Awakening is a story continuation of the end of Dragon Age: Origin and you are able to continue with your created character, even if you decided to sacrifice yourself (I did... hey, it was the greater good!). While the content is not as in depth as Origin, Awakening provides the extra content to satisfy the "I want more." I'm not sure how I feel about Awakening. You rebuilt the entire Vigil's Keep and get new recruit. I decided to put all the recruit I find through the Joining. You need all the help you can get. But the story just didn't have the same oomph as Origin. I just didn't find the ending of Awakening as satisfying as Origin but then again, I did sacrifice myself at the end of Origin. I shouldn't have been able to transfer my character into Awakening. It's just a minor detail.
The main question is, did I enjoy playing it? Yes. Will I be playing it again? Yes but not in the near future. Is it worth the $20 I paid? Yes. Would I have paid more? Probably not (blame those DLC).
