I started playing it yesterday... I must say that even on my current system - which is two years old and for which I couldn't find updated graphics drivers - the game looks amazing. And that's with low details and medium textures - I can't imagine what it must look like on a high-end machine. Affectionately called DA:O, it's a fantasy roleplaying game from Bioware, the makers of Neverwinter Nights and the first Knights of the Old Republic. It's a title for "mature players" - and after playing a bit, I can see why. Bioware didn't shy away from blood and gore!
Nevertheless the game is great fun. The name comes from the "origin stories" feature: basically depending on your class and race, the first chapter of the story is different (if you're a human noble, for example, it takes place in your family's ancestral castle). These origin stories also include characters you'll meet later in the story, whom you wouldn't have met if you didn't choose that story, so basically the replay value of the game is strong. The only complaint I have there is that basically, once you've chosen your race and class, the game usually only opens one possibility as an origin story - meaning that if you're, say, a human mage, you'll always only be able to choose "Human Mage" as the origin story, but not "Human Noble", for example. That's a gripe I have, though I suspect that future expansion packs will increase the amount of origin stories available.
It's also supposed to be epic fantasy, and Bioware gives you a demonstration of what they mean fairly early, with a massive battle between the darkspawn and the armies of the kingdom you live in. Oh, the game uses its own ruleset, so it's not D&D or anything.
That said... the story seems to be quite interesting, with a few twists here and there and as far as I understand it's very open-ended, so I want to see if I can manage to become king by the end of the game
I've been playing a human warrior with the Human Noble origin, so I can't say much on the magic system yet, but melee combat is fairly impressive. As a warrior, you have a stamina bar which decreases when you fight and when you use special moves, and the decrease is more pronounced the heavier the armor you wear. I've been having a lot of fun bashing foes in the face with my shield, but I'm going to switch to dual fighting to see how that's like. When you kill an enemy, there's also a chance your character will perform a finishing move, which in at least one case seemed to amount to beheading your foe. Tactics count a lot - you can organize preset tactics for your allies (such as "if the foe is below 50% health, use your Reposte ability") so they will follow them and prevent the need for micromanagement. You can also flank your foe or attack it from behind to get advantages.There's a very cinematic feeling to the whole game, especially the action sequences - the first time I did battle with an ogre it was remarkably difficult, but when I finally killed the thing, there was a whole short sequence in which my character jumped on the ogre as it staggered, stabbing it in the heart with his blade, and as the ogre fell to the floor, chopping at its head.
While I can't say anything about the storyline as a whole, since I have barely finished the second chapter, I think that the game looks quite impressive. Anyone else has comments about it?
