A Lengthy Inspection of Dragon Age: Origins: Episode 001
0Statement of intent: I want to put out consistent videos with minimal editing, might do the Twitch Stream-to-YouTube VOD route once I’m comfortable enough. Morbidly curious in Dragon Age: Origins due to: 1.) Being released in 2009 so I’ve read, heard, seen alot about it during my 2009 research. 2.) “Choices and consequences” has largely been bullshit in my mind when it comes to video games and Bioware have long been heralded as excellent “player choice” developers (prior to their post-Mass Effect 3 days) and it is all I have heard when listening to them talk about Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars The Old Republic. I’ve already played Mass Effect 2, I know how bullshit the “Shepherd can die!” “Suicide mission!” is given that you intentionally have to fuck up in the last sequence to kill off everyone including Shepherd, and that the save doesn’t carry forward into Mass Effect 3 if that happens as well. I’m not about to play The Old Republic, so Dragon Age: Origins it is. I want to know what these “choices and consequences” are, how true they are, how “morally complex” the decisions are, and how easy it is to get a companion to leave/fight you because that was the other big PR line in previews was that companions had their own opinions and could leave or try to kill the player character depending on what you decided to do and I want to know if, like Mass Effect 2, how intentional you have to be to actually get that to happen. To me, if it is something you have to intentionally seek out to perform, I think that robs a lot of the tension and strength behind characters having independence from the player’s dictations. I already know about the “gift” system where you presumably shower a companion with gifts after pissing them off to keep them happy, and I think that sounds really stupid given the apparent intention behind this system. Anyway so I’m going to first play each and every origin in Origins and then pick one that I think will be most interesting. Player statistics released afterwards showed the Dwarf - Elf - Human being the least-to-most popular picks so it will not likely be either of the human origins I play through because I’m trying to break from the inclination I have when playing most games with choices to pick the most safe boring choice available.
001: Hubris of man causes corruption. 400 years since last war with Dark Spawn, Grey Wardens were saviors, now forgotten, Dark Spawn rise again. Human Rogue Noble: Couslands. Do we meet Delilah later as the human noble? Voice lines that are obviously reaction to the player choice and then switching to the Plot track. Grey wardens burned down villages rather than let the Darkspawn have them. Are we going to have any decisions like that? Why did they choose this blood splatter thing for everyone? Ugly looking even for this generation. Glad it runs at 60fps though that is pretty rare.
Hard to get invested in any character when its so obvious they are all going to die from the outset. Anyone who is familiar with fiction work should be able to tell they are going to be betrayed and everyone you love is going to die, given the character achetypes, the setting, the voice acting, the dialogue, the little kid’s voice and how they really try to squeeze all they can out of him to get you to really care when you find their dead body but I just don’t!! It’s not good writing! Larger fiction of the world itself is base level interesting to me so far. I do appreciate that my dialogue choices with the religious mother figure allowed me to be atheist. I just think that is a fun thing to choose in this world of magic and demons and what not. The blood splatter is truly ridiculous. Why? It is very amusing to recognize when an audio track is switching between the one that is responding to a player dialogue choice and then switching back to the Plot Relevant track of dialogue. There is just something in the tone or recording that gives it away sometimes. I’m not a graphics snob but damn is this game ugly.
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