What did you hate about Dragon Age: Origins?

[newtmonkey]

Alistair's dumbass haircut

 

[Falksi]

DA:Origins only £3.79 on GOG

For all it's faults I thrived on it as an overall experience. For that price if you aint played it invest.

 

[Theldaran]

Origins is decent but worse than BG and some NWN experiences, compare with true decline like DA2 (shit overall) and Inquisition (console extreme popamole combat).

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Origins is decent but worse than BG and some NWN experiences, compare with true decline like DA2 (shit overall) and Inquisition (console extreme popamole combat).

If you are comparing OC Campaign DAO is far far more playable than NWN.

NWN OC was a big fetch quest after another coupled with bad animation and gameplay.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Origins is decent but worse than BG and some NWN experiences, compare with true decline like DA2 (shit overall) and Inquisition (console extreme popamole combat).

If you are comparing OC Campaign DAO is far far more playable than NWN.

NWN OC was a big fetch quest after another coupled with bad animation and gameplay.

NWN OC at least had the strong foundation of D&D mechanics, DA:O was just some vapourware aRPG system.

I know some of you like the whole shagging team members and pretending you're part of a faction and all that, but some of us still prefer to refence actual mechanics and systems when deciding what's less shit...

 

[Delterius]

Too bad the fun of Neverwinter Nights ends at character creation and the actual act of playing it is a torment unto itself. Compared to it, Origins was at least functional enough as a computer game.

Proof of which is the simple truth that Neverwinter Nights is best played with the auto-combat character -- a pure Fighter -- in a CYOA-like module, precisely the kind of campaign that is well regarded here in the Codex.

 

[Theldaran]

Origins is decent but worse than BG and some NWN experiences, compare with true decline like DA2 (shit overall) and Inquisition (console extreme popamole combat).

If you are comparing OC Campaign DAO is far far more playable than NWN.

NWN OC was a big fetch quest after another coupled with bad animation and gameplay.

I clearly said "some NWN experiences", you could play it online on a server, and NWN has lots of content (fan made modules) compared to Origins.

It's not that much of a stretch to say that fans and modders write, and even design, better than Bioware.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Origins is decent but worse than BG and some NWN experiences, compare with true decline like DA2 (shit overall) and Inquisition (console extreme popamole combat).

If you are comparing OC Campaign DAO is far far more playable than NWN.

NWN OC was a big fetch quest after another coupled with bad animation and gameplay.

NWN OC at least had the strong foundation of D&D mechanics, DA:O was just some vapourware aRPG system.

I know some of you like the whole shagging team members and pretending you're part of a faction and all that, but some of us still prefer to refence actual mechanics and systems when deciding what's less shit...

some of us enjoy actually playing a game instead of reading a book

 

[HammyTheFat]

The super generic fantasy setting. There gets a point where too generic is indeed too generic.
The camera controls.
Having just come from playing KOTOR, that Alistair was basically a better rendered Carth with daddy issues instead of son issues. Little did I know that every bioware game would have a Carth.

I actually enjoyed being cruel to my party members so I had few issues with them unlike some here. I still remember sacrificing elf children and the elderly for a +1 stat boost and that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you disgust everyone around you.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Ultra-generic boring setting.
Ultra-generic boring art style.
Combat presentation a step back rather than forward in some ways. BG2 had feints but they were poorly explained/shown. (just seemed like attacks that missed but weren't actual attacks). NWN had people duck under swings /block /dodge, sidestep, step in general when duelling. It wasn't well done or anything, but it spiced things up visually from the old boring "stand still and just trade hits like idiots" representation of combat in the past. Dragon Age went back to that for some reason, at least as far as I recall. It's a seemingly small thing but if you're going to stare at them fighting constantly...
Shit combat ruleset in general. Don't really need to go into that, right? MMO garbage. Even mages have a magic auto-attack with their staves ffs. RTWP even though fights are small. Environments are just backdrops etcetc.
Shit balancing. Overall kind of like "Sawyer but extremely simplified".
Shit itemization and incredibly tedious loot bs.
3D has its upsides when it comes to conversations and such imo, but with this perspective and this style of game, it's just annoying in combat with zoom levels and non-static/non-optimized char and environmental detail due to camera distance.
Lack of atmosphere in spite of a few nice music tracks. The rest of the audiovisual atmosphere components weren't really there due to the blandness/genericness mentioned above.
Boring level design. Bioware have been terrible at this in their 3d games in general. Mass effect same thing.

It had upsides as well imo, I enjoyed some of the banter/quips between characters and some of the voice actors imparted a good bit of personality into their chars. I'm not against fully-voiced dialogue either so long as it's not so boring that I have to click through all of it or takes too much in the way of resources form the other aspects of game development.

Overall though I thought DA was a major herald of decline in spite of enjoying a few aspects of it. It came out after the lean times (compared to the amazing 1995-2002-ish years of hit after hit in every genre) began and that's why I played it.


Edit: Edited out Varric. He doesn't belong in that one, lol

 

[Hevnknekt]

The low point for me was probably when my OCD compelled me to unlock the final achievement. I downloaded some kind of revolting tranny mod so that I could whore my character out to Alistair. The disgust lingered for a long time after uninstalling the mod and reloading.

 

[M. AQVILA]

Nothing. It's the second best game from Bioware after BG2. I did dislike the MMO like blandness of the abilities (i.e. spells) however, but I would not say I outright hated it.

 

[Roqua]

Shitty controls, shitty and super easy combat, shitty and super lite rpg system and mechanics, console sensibilities, arpg itemization coupled with a shitty rpg-lite system, etc. It was a game made for storyclowns and horny kids that want their game to be storymode and who don't mind rpg elements as long as they don't have to think and can still 0WNZ the game by picking any party members they want, build however they want so they can focus on the story and the animations and everything other than the game parts and gameplay.

My subjective opinion is it would have been a better game with smoother gameplay with a fixed isometric camera.

 

[Jacob]

NWN had people duck under swings /block /dodge, sidestep, step in general when duelling. It wasn't well done or anything, but it spiced things up visually from the old boring "stand still and just trade hits like idiots" representation of combat in the past. Dragon Age went back to that for some reason, at least as far as I recall. It's a seemingly small thing but if you're going to stare at them fighting constantly...

KotOR also had this. For some reason it impressed the naive me back when I first played it

 

[Swampy_Merkin]

I played BG recently on core settings, and fount it to be no more or even less difficult than DA:O on normal.

I guess I could have artificially stat-bloated either game, but why the fuck would I? Played both games for the 1st time within the last 6 months. I liked BG a little more, but not way more. DA:O had more interesting characters. BG had better overall story and combat because of variety of enemies. DA:O's combat was more varied by location and situation.

 

[The Wall]

Not much. How much I knew about RPGs back then? Not much.

I guess I was part of target audience back then.

Not bad game nor terrible RPG even in retrospect. Which is muyo, muyo, muyo more then I can say for abominations DA II & Inquisition Broodmother Bioware later on spawned.
Dunno, maybe I'm possessed by the Spirit of Nostalgia when I think about DA:O. Sequals were objectively bad.

I guess further and further decline of already infected with taint of decline is accurate description of both DA series and Bioware. Bioware, follow the example Wardens set and deal with the growing taint of decline inside you the Warden's way. Answer your Calling!*

*kys

 

[Theldaran]

Nah, wishing for the demise of Bioware is too mainstream nowadays.

Get on the bandwagon and wish for the demise of Obsidian instead.

 

[The Wall]

Nah, wishing for the demise of Bioware is too mainstream nowadays.

Get on the bandwagon and wish for the demise of Obsidian instead.

Sure, we can even do Codex fundraiser for hiring of Gypsy witch to cast a curse of plague on both of these once noble RPG houses

 

[Theldaran]

Sure, we can even do Codex fundraiser for hiring of Gypsy witch to cast a curse of plague on both of these once noble RPG houses

It's a matter of waiting. Their blunders will come eventually (they have already come).

 

[Darth Canoli]

If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.

Sun Tzu.

 

[Cael]

If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.

Sun Tzu.

To hell with waiting. "What is best in life?"

 

[Theldaran]

At least we have masterpieces left, like KOTOR 1 and 2 and Tyranny

 

[sullynathan]

I've already beat Origins like 3 or 4 times on the Xbox 360 years ago so most of this will be about DLC that I didn't play like Awakening, Witch Hunt, Leliana's Song & Golems of Amgarrak.

One thing I do notice after playing Baldur's Gate and quickly jumping back into Origins is how "tactics" work. There is less use of positioning in Origins since you can't necesarilly pick the formations of your party like you can in BG. Since you have many fights in the game that start right after you enter dialogue, you party gets teleported to where dialogue/cutscene happens and then a fight breaks out right in front of the enemy, many times leaving your party members with lower constitution or lower stats at a disadvantage.

Nightmare is kinda easy in the base game especially when you have mages. In the beginning there is a challenge and if you fight enemies you shouldn't for your level, they will spank you, but other than that, it's far too easy. The game just buffs the hell out of the health of enemies but it is still too easy. I also started using mana clash this playthrough, something I didn't in previous playthroughs and it was outright killing the more powerful mages, demons and mana users.
The first Cauthrien fight is pretty much impossible on Nightmare. She killed everyone in my party in one or two hits each and can resist or is immune to every attack.
I remember when I played this portion on Normal years ago, it was a tough battle but manageable, here the health buff is so ridiculous that it's near impossible to take her down.
It is admittedly worse, that if you do fight her the 2nd time, she is not this overpowered.

DLC is easy on Nightmare too until you fight The Harvester in Golems of Amgarrak. That fight just sucks ass, the Harvester is slow but hits hard as hell and somehow your weapons constantly miss it. He will spawn more helpers by doing an AOE attack that can take out nearly half of all your allies health in one hit. You are also given some of the worst allies in the entire game. One Golem, one rogue, and one warrior but you are not allowed to respec or choose any of their skills because they're fully leveled up.
These minions that he summons can outright one shot I and my companions on nightmare. The boss stops taking damage when the screen turns red and you have to press a switch to make him take damage again.
The entire fight is quite boring with the main strategy I used being constant healing and kiting with my main character mage. I can't fathom how this fight would've turned out if I wasn't playing a mage.

Worst of all there is a 2nd phase for this boss fight. The boss is smaller and moves around more, and now you can't turn off the switch, it turns off on its own after a time. Now more mobs consantly respawn and they're even faster before and do enough damage to kill you & your allies in two hits.

Awakening is the best DLC, I actually quite like it and feel that it has far less fluff than the main game and Amaranthine is quite a cool city to explore compared to the rest of the game.
Awakening introduces a bunch of talents for the main classes and new specializations. The Rogue Legionnaire is Overpowered as hell, being able to ignore all magical attacks and take no damage at all to your health is OP as fuck.

I used a few mods (credit to lilura):
Advanced tactics
Extra dog slot
Make console commands visible
DA2 Mabari
DA2 Qunari
Faster Combat
GT Core Rules Pack

Back when I played origins years ago, the only mod I used we're armor mods and a mod that allowed you to break chests because I didn't want to constantly carry a rogue around.

I also ran into an annoying bug in this Ultimate Edition that I didn't before. A memory leak bug that made the game keep crashing which is annoying as hell.

DA:O was an enjoyable experience in total. The middle really is a slog. I don't like the Fade anymore, I don't like the dungeon crawling in the Dwarven Thaigs, they look far too similar. I probably won't be playing the game again anytime soon, but I have played it a lot so that's good enough.

Playthrough over a span of two months.

DA: Origins - 50 hours
DA: Awakening - 14:13:19
Leliana's Song - 1:21:58
Witch Hunt - 1:41:50
Golems of Amgarrak - 1:35:53

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Having just come from playing KOTOR, that Alistair was basically a better rendered Carth with daddy issues instead of son issues. Little did I know that every bioware game would have a Carth.

Pretty sure that all Bioware games from that decade or so were designed exactly the same following kotor.. Kotor, ME, DA:O, JE are all like the same game but with different settings. Same number of major locations (planets or cities), same character archetypes, same plot, etc..

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

What's not to hate about DA:O? Tons of boring as all hell dialogue/cutscenes until you want to rip your ears/eyes out. If you are gonna do cutscene dumps, do it like the Witcher people, with good writing and direction. In DA:O, it was so dull and boring, eh. And everyone talked so damn much! About nothing!

Exploration was shit because they had the Neverwinter Nights school of map design, i.e. tiny room-like maps for everything, even outside areas. Go into forest, walk from one wall to the other, feel like you are in a cage.

Combat was bleh. Not tactical like the Baldur's Gate games, there were hardly any challenging fights, especially if you used mages, not interesting in an action way either, so bland and boring.