Dragon Age Origins: How to Start?

[Mr Light]

I got Dragon Age Origins awhile ago and was thinking about starting it tomorrow. Reading a little bit about it, I understand that you pick one of ?ten? or so characters to start as which profoundly affects the first section of the game.

So... which character should I choose? What does it mean towards your gaming preferences?

 

[Skywalker]

There are six origins to choose from:

Human Noble
Mage (Human or Elf)
City Elf
Dalish Elf (sort of like a Wild Elf)
Dwarf Noble
Dwarf Commoner

Each origin has its own opening chapter where you start off in a specific part of Ferelden and learn how the game works and a bit about the world, and it's also where the story begins. Each origin has an effect on dialogue and how your character is treated in select parts of the game as you progress through it. If you want to play a mage, you have to choose the Mage Origin, but if you want to be a Rogue or a Warrior you can choose any of the other five.

 

[FPAlpha]

Have you played rpg games before?

What you choose is up to yourself.. most games are balanced enough so you don't have disadvantages of choosing one path over the others.

You can basically divide the classes between close combat fighter and ranged fighters.

Close combat being Warriors (in all their variations) and Assassins (Thieves and the like) and Ranged being Archers, Scouts and Mages.

So choose what you prefer.. having played through the game i can assure you that you will pick up party member that fill in your weak spots, i.e. if you play as a Warrior you can take some characters with you who are good archers or mages and vice versa.

Do not sweat too much about your choice.. play what you prefer and like. If you have gotten through the game you can always start fresh with a different character and take different story choices.

 

[Mr Light]

Well I guess I prefer ranged/magic/sniper types.

Also, what's the game play and difficulty like? Are there difficulty settings? I don't like hard games. And is the combat pause-menu or live action or what?

 

[FPAlpha]

You can adapt the difficulty at all times during the game.

During combat you can pause, give orders to all involved and unpause to let the action unfold.. there's also a shortcut system for powers and items so you can access the most important ones with the press of a key.

Additionally you can customize the tactics and behaviour of each character, e.g. if the health of a warrior drops to 25% he will automatically take a healing potion or you can tell them which special ability they use and when.
It's a bit daunting at first and to be honest after the first few hours i didn't bother with it anymore since i became more proficient and controlled my guys personally.

 

[Jono]

Well, there are difficulty settings for the game so you can adjust it how you like and I think you can adjust it in game. There is also an easier order in how you go through the main quests, which some of them more tuned for when you have a higher level/stronger character, so if you go for the harder main quests early you are likely to face more frustration.

 

[firehawk12]

People say Wizard is the most overpowered, but I didn't mind the Warrior class.

 

[Skywalker]

Mage is crazy overpowered if you level it up right. Personally, I prefer Warrior. I've never had much fun playing wizards or mages in any RPG.

If you go with Mage, do yourself a favor and avoid the Shapeshifter spells.

 

[VDCNI]

The different Origins are nice to play out but after the first hour no matter who you choose they all end up in the same place and it doesn't make a massive difference to the rest of the game.

If you play on casual level you don't have to worry about tactics really - you might want to direct any mages in your team but warriors and rogues can be left to themselves.

I would say - don't get discouraged if you're not enjoying it straight away - it took me a while to get into it but once I did I absolutely loved it and have played it through multiple times with different characters.

 

[Reverend]

One thing to be aware of is that the combat system is like KotOR's, in that you're clicking to queue up attacks, pausing, switching to other party members, rinse and repeat. On top of that the hits or misses are all determined by you stats and invisible dice roles, not any skill on the player's part. So if you usually like playing as a sniper then you're never going to get the same feel of immediacy as a shooter. So being an archer basically means sitting on the sidelines while your character takes pot shots.
The real skill in this game is the tactical kind; deploying your party members and setting up ambushes, etc.

Also, if you import a character from the character creator you can download from Bioware, you'll get a bonus item that'll give a small boost to all your base attributes. Aside from that, it's a good way to fiddle around with the character you want before starting the game proper and sitting through the cut-scenes.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I have the GOTY edition waiting to start, i have to force myself not to open it till i actually complete the backlog of game i have sitting here unfinished.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh I loved KOTR so I'm familiar with that type of game play.

 

[Reverend]

^The combat system on KoTOR really put me off at first (I'm not much of an old school RPG gamer) it's really only since playing Dragon age that I've gone back and given it another chance...I was doing fine up until Maan (sp?) but it's gotten boring all of a sudden...

It didn't bother me so much in DA as most of the REAL combat is with either swords or spells which lends itself much better to that type of gameplay. Firing a blaster with dice rolls just feels unrealistic and very irritating when a character can't his a stationary target that's right smack in front of them! Conversely I tried playing Oblivion with it's FPS style sword fighting and it was equally awful.

Personally what I'd like to see in DA2 is something more akin to the combat system from Arkham Asylum...but with swords.

 

[Manticore]

Personally what I'd like to see in DA2 is something more akin to the combat system from Arkham Asylum...but with swords.

That would be awesome.

 

[MNM]

Who ever you start as (I tend for a female Elf mage), make sure you down load as many mods for armour, weapons, face morph etc as you can first, that way you can really improve your game in all aspects.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm not on X-Box Live, alas. Still haven't started the game yet.

 

[MNM]

If you're on the x-box then the mods I'm talking about probably arent available anyway as they are stuff fans have made for the pc version.

My arcane warrior mage walks around in a great icey white/blue armour with a powerful staff that has a horses head on the end, all my other characters are similarily decked out. Morrigan has a huge staf in the shape of a cobra and so on..

 

[Reverend]

Personally, I really wouldn't bother with mods. At least not until one has played the game nearly to death and absolutely need something to keep it interesting. It's a well crafted game and there's little sense in defacing the developer's work until after at least one playthrough, otherwise you're not experiencing the game as it was intended.

 

[MNM]

I can see that point of view, but for how good a game it is, visually it is not that impressive in my opinion. Certainly not around the characters themselves. the armours are dull, the mage outfits are very dull. I use mods to give my characters a better look, which I find enhances my enjoyment of the game.

That and the better sex scenes mod....

 

[Reverend]

I don't mind the "dull" armour so much as I'm not much of a fan of the OTT fantasy style other franchises like Warcraft seem to adopt. If it comes to it I'm not really much of a fantasy rpg fan at all and only got DA recently on the strength of reviews and not wanting to wear a hole in my copy of Mass Effect 2!

The one thing I will say about the DA armours that I didn't care for and that's the helmets in general and the light helmets in particular. I had a female, dual sword wielding human rogue and tended towards light or medium armours and none of the helmets were exactly what you'd call flattering and all but totally obscured the character's unique features. I would have much preferred something along the lines of that studded leather crown type of thing Arnie wore in Conan. Also, some type of cloak would have been nice.

As for mods, in my experience they have a habit of clashing with the rest of the game's art direction as they're often just one fan's idea of what looks cool to them, but often pays no attention to how it'd look in context.