Flight from Denerim: Impressions of Dragon Age

WARNING: Here there be Dragon Age: Origins spoilers.

I'm stuck with a spell of gaming doldrums. As pointed out by Big Mikey Ocho over at Casual Aggro, The Secret World is in a holding pattern as we await the opening of Tokyo, the first new major zone since the launch of the game almost two years ago. And with their limited resources, our friends at Funcom have decided to focus on said playfield rather than interim holdovers like new scenarios (which I personally think are greatly needed). While I have stuff to do to progress, most of it involves repeating content. My interest the Landmark alpha also waned in the past few weeks leading to the beta reset. After all, any progress I've made has been lost (other than templates I'd saved). Everquest II kind of petered out for me and Scooter, as well. It's too much a step back in terms of game mechanics—though the Lore/History is rich—the same I couldn't get into Pandaria.

Enter Dragon Age. A couple years ago, I picked up both Origins (Ultimate) and DA2 on sale from Amazon. But I'd never gotten around to starting the games, partly because of my subsequent disenchantment with EA/ BioWare. The game can be played offline, but requires an initial internet login to satisfy DRM requirements.

Speaking of which, while I need to check if they have synced up, I was unable to log in to the Dragon Age social stuff from within the game, despite having just changed it with Origin and being logged in to the site through Chrome. So I am not sure whether the game knows I am entitled to the DLC included in the Ultimate edition. Very aggravating, but at least I could get the game started and play through the opening bit.

Anyway, meet Rowan, a "City Elf" Rogue. As you can see, she's a redhead, much like LoneStarBelle and many other characters I've created. I picked the City Elf story because the initial description involved the disruption of an Elven wedding by arrogant bastard humans attempting to exercise some sort of Droit du Signeur. Naturally, in the end, the young nobleman and his companions were dead in a pool of blood at her feet, satisfying my overdeveloped sense of justice. I'm pretty sure Rowan beheaded him.

Rowan is saved from certain execution for her crimes through conscription by Duncan into the Grey Wardens. Yada, yada, battles and tests. I haven't played further than the fall of King Cailan's army, following the betrayal of Loghain Mac Tir, his trusted general.

So far I really like the story, but I am reminded of reviews at the time DA:O was released that this game is more about story than game mechanics. The combat is pretty basic, though control of an entire party (potentially taking over the various characters individually) is pretty cool. The game enables and requires strategy as much as simple combat prowess; which I like, as well.

The game is also very bloody, which may or may not be a turn-off for some people. As you can see in the picture below, my entire party is covered in spatter on a regular basis. I didn't mind it exactly, I found it more amusing than anything.

Unfortunately, DA:O is very much a single player game as far as I can tell; so no joining forces with Scooter to play together. Therefore, my progress through the content will be rather slow, as I will likely only play when she is unavailable. Meanwhile, trying to combat those doldrums, we have decided to give Age of Conan: Unchained (F2P) a go. Aaand Landmark is entering the beta phase, which we'll want to get in on. More on both later.

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