Dragon Age Origins Adventures

[lea_hazel]

Last night I finally installed Dragon Age: Origins. I was going to set up my character and play for like an hour or two, just to get a good feel for the game. During the character's introduction mission, I got stuck in a fire trap and had to repeat an escape sequence 4-5 times before I managed to avoid getting myself and my companion killed by guards. By then it was getting kind of late, so naturally I just went and played for three more hours. Mysteriously, while I was trying to save and close the game, my mouse flipped out and I had to change the batteries.


I'm playing a casteless dwarf rogue. It took me seemingly forever to learn to navigate the underground city. Apparently my general lack of navigational ability translates to learning how to read videogame maps. I kept getting turned around trying to figure out which direction I should be heading. I choose to believe this is one of my cute neurological quirks. Eventually I managed to get to the arena and figure out the battle controls. For a rogue, I spent a good amount of time fighting. I would have started the game over as a warrior, but then I got arrested.

More than figuring out the stealth abilities (which I also did), the prison escape story let me jigger with the balance between de-stealthing to fight enemies (and earn XP) and getting out of the dungeon in one piece. Not gonna lie, I was tempted to get rid of my companion, more than once. I was also tempted to refuse the Gray Warden just to see what would happen, but the way the dialogue options keep popping up over and over, I assume that would have just made my character's sister try to convince me to go, until eventually I gave in.

Once I got to the Gray Wardens things got interesting and the side quests started piling on. I started playing with a "click everything" attitude, but ended up not completing a lot of quests. Partly due to my navigation deficiencies. The kennel master quest, I just dropped the ball on. I should have done that as soon as I got back from the wilds, but I grew a temporary genre blind brain kink and figured I could do it after the battle. Hahahaha! *cough*

So now I'm in the village with Morrigan and Alistair, we just picked up the red haired girl whose name I don't remember, and my navigation problem has reared again because I can't seem to find the path out of the village. I am also deliberately not taking the prisoner with me, because friendly sociopath party members aren't my thing. Red hair isn't going to like that, I think. I wonder if it'll ruin my chances with her.

Also, Morrigan and Alistair are laying it on pretty thick. All due respect to the game being famous for romantic options and all, I still signed up for dragons and such, not for pseudo-medieval Cheers.


Maybe I'll play all night tonight. That's what the holiday of freedom is for, right?

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Heh, this sounds remarkably similar to my first go through the game *Brosca fistbump*. I find the in game map SOMEWHAT helpful but am still horribly prone to getting lost. The one advantage of Dragon Age 2 using the same maps over and over is that eventually I learned to navigate my through them.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oh, maps and their hopelessness... I always get turned around on maps too. DA:O's maps aren't the worst I've navigated, though, thankfully. (DA2's aren't either, but they're a decent second. I'm the opposite of alias_sqbr. I keep running into bits of wall/obstruction where the map tells me a passage is. >>)

But, yes, DA:O. Yours is one of the beginnings I haven't started yet. And I love Morrigan/Alistair's banter. (Honestly, half the reason I kept both in my party is because it amused me far too much to kick them out.)

[lea_hazel]

This totally mitigates my shame in being a geologist's daughter who can't read maps. Or, um, tell left from right offhand. For some reason the squiggly lines that are supposed to mean "caved in" always look like a pathway to me.

I keep trying new party combinations just to figure out who has the best banter. Wynne and Alistair's dirty sock conversation almost won first place from Morrigan and Leiliana's red velvet dress conversation.

[lynnoconnacht]

I can't tell left from right either. XD

I... find the banter pages on the DA Wikia to be more dangerous to my productivity than TVTropes, if that gives you an idea of my love for the banter. I'm particularly taken with the Leliana/Sten/kitten one. Or Shale/Leliana and the shoes. *gets distracted* Uh, sorry. Banter, yes. <3<3<3

[lea_hazel]

I understand Shale is from a DLC, but I can't seem to figure out if it's one of the extra ones that cost money, or whether I should be able to access it for free.

Notable banters that happened since I last posted include Zevran making a very unsubtle pass at Leiliana, Morrigan and Alistair's "smarter than you look" conversation (which tickled my sarcasm bone), and Alistair and Wynne cheerfully chatting about whether he's going to kill her or not. Well, Wynne was cheerful. It's no shock she's my favorite.

[lynnoconnacht]

I think Shale is from one of the ones you have to pay for. *pokes EA/Bioware* Haven't they released a "Get the game complete with DLC" version yet? If you can't get a hold of it, I do suggest looking its banter up on the unofficial wikia or on YouTube sometime. <3

Wynne is amazing. XD She was one of my favourites too. Have you encountered the dialogue about her bosom yet?