I absolutely love Dragon Age. I love how you could influence the world and the dynamics between your party members and yourself. You can solve quests in different ways, and sometimes your party members will have their own opinions on what you do. If you do something that goes against a party member's core values, he/she will not only disagree, but can even leave the party or attack you. I loved how you can romance your party members, and how much influence you have on what's going on in the story. It's one of the best RPGs I've played, but it is not TES. Don't compare it to TES or anything Bethesda has done, because then you will be disappointed. Just enjoy Dragon Age on it's own.

I do agree with what others have said, though - focus your character build, that is very important. If you want your warrior to use a sword and shield, then stick to it. Don't spend skill points randomly here and there. The game is more tactical, so you need a balanced party with good battle tactics.

I absolutely loved it. That was one of my favourite parts of the game.

Huh, thought I was the only one who liked the Fade. It made for a nice change of pace from the usual dungeon-crawling most of the game is made up of.

Then again, I'm also in the minority of people who liked the Deep Roads (especially the Dead Trenches). Yeah, it's long, but it contains some of the best fights and most atmospheric sections of Dragon Age. Ah, whatever. :shrug:

Did you get it for PC or console.
I got it for PC and it's one of the best games I've ever played.
I've never tried the console versions but the controls just seem to be very weird.

It was good in my opinion, My main gripe only is you can see the strings of what is going to happen In typical Bioware fashion, Go to C, B, A, D, So you can defeat the great evil.

I dont like the band. At all. And itwas terrible music choice in general, just dosent fit.
The trailer is just a fail imo.


The expansion was easy. And then I got to the mother. I would rather fight 2 archdemons at once than go through that again.

Yeah, I didn't even realise I was playing on nightmare in Awakenings until halfway through and even then it only got even partly challenging on big boss battles. Then I had to kill half my group right before the end-battle, that was fun.

Really ? How did you piss them off ? (use spoiler tags ?)

But for me it was just insane, the last fight my character was the only one left, luckily high dex dodged most things, but I still had to drink loads of potions.

Also one annoyance for me was the damn dialouge (ME2/DA2 style) where I had to backtrack. And there werent many gifts or chances to increase how they feel. I failed Oghrens quest because I didnt find ever gift and messed up one dialouge choice. It was just annoying. Sure gifts broke the game, but Oghrens quest was way to hard to do. And I failed sigrun (whatever her name was) because I finished a quest before getting her. I ahted that game.

Did you play on normal? I'm starting to get worried. I don't want to invest many hours and then be really frustrated towards the second half of the game. I already used a couple skill points under shields and now I'm thinking I want to go with a more powerful two handed sword.

Their talking about the expansion, Awakening, not DA:O.

Thanks for the feedback.

It's not as bad as that. I had a month or two of gameplay out of it, and played at normal difficulty. I think I had to take it to easy diffiiculty for one or two battles. The Fade is an interesting puzzle; you go through it at one point no matter what class you're playing, but it's worth creating a mage character a time or two for the story line and the spells you get. The writing and voice acting in the game are excellent too.

Play a city elf sometime, I think their origin is one of the most interesting in the game. (Not as crazy about their "gypsy" counterparts the Dalish who live outside the ghetto. Their origin had its moments, but I couldn't get into that character as much as the city elf.)

I think you'll be impressed with the Ostagar levels before you're done with them. One other thing: I liked the fantasy religion in the game, the Andraste believers. Somehow I preferred to speak respectfully to the priestesses and brothers of that faith, and even the Templars. The Templars are not some one-dimensional group of mooks, they're ordinary people who have sacrificed a lot for their vocation just as the mages have sacrificed a normal life.

Personal opinion; don't go with two handed weapons.

They will do a lot of damage when they hit. If they hit. They made using two handed weapons way too slow. By the time you go through your swing, your target is liable to be a mile away. I was never as frustrated through the game as I was when defending the gates at the final battle with Oghren or Sten.

I love the game though. I just don't use two handed weapons. I've finished the game with a mage, a couple of dual-wield fighters, and rogues. I'm not a fan of sword and shield, since I use Alistair for that. I'm still playing it, actually.

However I don't think I'm going to get DA2. The reason I bought DA:O in the first place was the "old fashioned" style and appeal. Now they seem to have changed just about everything that I liked in the original. Their own marketing managed to kill any interest I had; by the time there was real information, I found out how much had changed and lost almost all interest. I'm just curious about one thing. As soon as I find that out, I'm going back to ignoring EABioware's forums.

Edit:

I loved sword and shield. My warrior was ridiculously resistant to damage by the end. I think I had max fire, electricity and spirit resistance with cold and nature both above 50 plus really high physical resistance. Whenever I got Overwhelmed she'd just lie on the ground with the damage going 0...0...0... above her head.

How did you have max mage spells when you were a warrior? Also, how do you dual wield? I equip a one handed sword and it says "main hand" under description and then when I try to equip a dagger it un equips my other sword?

@talaran what's the one thing you're curious about and what has changed for da2? I'm new to this series and pretty much am going into origins "blind".

Well, yes. Especially if you get the armor Wade can make for you. But there is something satisfying about stabbing someone in the chest with a dagger to hold them in place and decapitating them with your longsword that makes me smile. Managing to beat someone with a shield, eh, it has its place, too, but I still like the two weapon attacks you get.

In order to equip 2 weapons put one of them under the shield slot.
Also, Mana_Gamr wasnt using mage spells to get the resistance, but was using enchanted armor that gave the resistances.

Depending on your equipment and/or buffs your companions can "cast", you can rack up really good resistances to certain types of damage. Master Wade can make you armor that stacks fire resistance, for example.

Yes, the second weapon goes in the shield space. If you want to use dual weapons effectively though, you need to choose the Dual Weapon talent. As you level up, you can add more dual weapon attacks. A few of them aren't that great, but you have to take the first ones in the chain to get the later ones that you'll use more often. Like I never used "Dual weapon sweep" that often, but the next one, "Riposte" I used in nearly every fight. If you beat the enemy's resistance check, it gives you a nice stun effect. And I also liked using "Punisher".

I want to know who they chose as the voice actor for Female Hawke, in DA2. Its a sort of morbid curiosity. In ME/ME2 I disliked maleShepard's voice so badly that the poor guy never made it off the Normandy to Eden Prime. It isn't the voice actor; I actually like the other parts he plays, its just maleShep I can't stand. People did figure out who the maleHawke was. I might have been able to stand him as my character.

There's no point in playing Sword and Shield warrior since Arcane Warrior does it better than warrior

I'm playing it again too, Two-Handed weapon user. Tactic is that Alistair gets hit (strength, dexterity and constitution, massive armor, sword and shield) while my character spams skills to kill the enemies (strength, dexterity and willpower, Medium armor, Champion and Berserker specializations). Wynne keeps Alistair alive (creation magic and Spirit Healer Specialization) and Leliana is hanging around to open locks and disarm traps (focused on bows, stealth and lockpicking).

It's a winning combination, and Ogre finisher with Yusaris is still a sigth to behold.

And yes, i love the Fade too. And Deep Roads. If DA2 doesn't have either, i'm gonna be pissed :stare:

Someday I'll have to try another character and this time build from the beginning for Arcane Warrior. I know with my one mage that one duel you fight was really one-sided, in her favor. But that was after I figured out the best way to go about being a magic user. My fighters and rogues had no issues, but I restarted my first mage more than once because I wasn't satisfied.

one of the most agitating parts of the story mode.

I liked the Fade. Especially after I figured out what I had to do and the best order to do it in. I'm not thrilled after the 7th plus time through the Tower; I can deal with the Fade.

Thanks I didn't even know you could put a weapon in that slot.