Dragon Age Redux

[NukeHavoc]

I've been making a concerted effort to finish Dragon Age, since Dragon Age 2 is looming and I'd like to knock out the original game and Awakenings before the new game drops. And I gotta say ... DAMN!

[SPOILERS]
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I finished up the dwarven quest last night, and moved onto what I thought would be the penultimate fight at the Landsmeet. Except now I'm in Denerim and up to my eyeballs in political intrigue trying to line up support for Alistair, which was disappointing because I thought I was closer to the end.

Except ... it wasn't because DAMN ... I'm walking through the streets of Denerim and my elf assassin buddy's old guild shows up, and he decides to join them in killing me. The first time through it's a TPK because I was caught entirely by surprise. The second time I figured I just chose the wrong dialogue options (my character being something of an arrogant, "fuck you AND your horse" kind of mage") and tried a friendlier approach.

And the bastard STILL tried to kill me. I took him out (and then sold his stuff for a tidy profit, I mean, come on, what would YOU do?) but ... whoa, I did not see that coming. And keep in mind that I'm playing the same character who left Lothering before picking up all of the potential party members who were there -- I don't have a lot of PCs to lose!

So then I have to go on this mission to rescue the queen. It's a stealth mission so we have to sneak into a castle, evade the guards and escape with the queen.

Except my party now consists of my mage, Alistair, the dwarf and Morrigan. We are not a stealthy bunch, and we end up spooking the guards and fighting our way through the castle. Ok, fine -- I can do this. Except on the way out, we run into the bad-ass female lieutenant and a legion of troops, who proceed to kick our asses, landing Alistair and I in prison.

Naturally, we proceeded to break out of the prison and amazingly, we actually made it back home.

All of this is a long way of saying that this game is pretty damn cool. I love the unexpected events and unintended consequences that keep piling up. Do I miss being able to go back and pick up those companions I missed? Sure. But I love that I'm trapped in this world where only a few people have my back, and someone might turn on me at any minute and try and stab it. It makes me really want to play through the game with my "good" character to see how things pan out.

And I have to say, it has me wondering about playing a Dragon Age pen-and-paper RPG. I'm thinking of ordering the boxed set, because it seems like the rules might be something at least a subset of would enjoy. Light enough to be fast-playing, Old School enough to bring back memories of the Red Boxed set, modern enough to incorporate stunts and a mana pool spell system.

[EvilGenius]

Yeah, the story really is awesome. I need to get Awakenings and get ready for DA2.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Yeah, I'm slowly working on Awakening. In between adventuring through lost dwarven cities (The hell dwarves! Quit fighting each other and fight for your homes!) I've really enjoyed the intrigue and politics. Can't wait for DA2!

I also enjoyed Liliana's Song... a very cool character developing tale. However it's very sort (about 3 hours) so I'm glad I got it for 50% off. I picked up some of the other DLC too so we'll see how it is.

I'd be up for trying out the pen and paper rpg!

[Hardcorhobbs]

Beat Awakening last night. Kinda annoyed that I hit 30 in the final battle and couldn't level up to capitalize on it, which also means I didn't get the level 30 chievo. Story was great, and now I'm super excited for Dragon Age 2! The ending however was kinda lack luster (not how the game end, the epilogue after). If you enjoyed Origins I would recommend it.

I think I'll play through some of the other DLC next. Want to hunt down that damn Witch... maybe play the alt history as the bad dudes... see whats going on down in the dwarven holds (again). I also have a few origins to work on. After finding some awesome armor in Awakening I really want to build a battle mage too... Maybe I'll do that first...

Also note: the Dragon Age 2 demo drops on Feb. 22. If you play through it there is a weapon that transfers over to the full game when you get it. Just in case you're interested.

[NukeHavoc]

I finally finished Dragon Age last night, defeating the archdemon. I also finished my progress down the dark and sexy path of world domination...

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I don't know if this was an option for everyone, but before the final battle Morrigan offered to have sex, conceive a child, and then use the child to capture the escaping Elder God essence of the archdemon. Said god would then be cleansed of the taint and eventually born into the world as ... well, who knows what?

Naturally I had to say yes. My character survived, which (of course) was the important thing. No idea if my choice will have an impact in Awakening or DA 2, but it would be very, very cool if it did.

[Hardcorhobbs]

SPOILERSSSS!
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I played a female character, so the offer was through me towards Allister as the father. I ran Morrigan out of town. My character then died sacrificing herself to save the world. That made Awakening a little weird because I could import my character... and she was suddenly alive again! I made a new character instead to play through awakening. The Morrigan storyline didn't come into play then... but there is that Witch hunt DLC I have to play yet...

Also, Bioware has stated that the witch hunt isn't the last we'll see of Morrigan, though they implied that DA2 may not be where it will take place... but we'll find out soon!

[EvilGenius]

SPOILERS
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I too, made the God child. I was playing a noble, heroic character but I dallied quite a bit with Morrigan. But after reading a lot of the setting history, it became apparent that although they used the term "Old Gods", they were really talking about Gods who were Old and not worshipped anymore. Not, you know, Chuthulu. And these gods were asleep deep within the earth and when found, they were corrupted and essentially enslaved by the dark taint.

So I enthusiastically agreed to help a God be reborn out of the slavery of corruption which had been inflicted upon it by the Darkspawn!!

[erilar]

I think that the game hinted that the leader of each Blight was a corrupted Old God. Like the dragon that led the Blight in DA:O. So yeah, I told Morgan to take a long walk off a short pier.

[EvilGenius]

I think that the game hinted that the leader of each Blight was a corrupted Old God. Like the dragon that led the Blight in DA:O. So yeah, I told Morgan to take a long walk off a short pier.

Yep. That's exactly correct. They state it outright in the history section, IF you uncover the right information. That's how the Blight starts. The darkones find a slumbering old god (in the form of a dragon), then they corrupt it. It becomes a darkspawn and leads them all on a war to the surface.

So rebirthing it won't create an evil god. It will free a god from the darkspawn taint. IMO.

[Lars Porsenna]

SPOILERS
So I enthusiastically agreed to help a God be reborn out of the slavery of corruption which had been inflicted upon it by the Darkspawn!!

And not for, you know, the nookie...

Damon, who thinks that is the only reason...

[erilar]

[Per Damon's comment, queues Limp Bizkit on iPod while working on new Gunslinger character]