Video & PC Game Discussion

Really? There aren't any orcs? Oh well, it's not as if I've been paying attention to what I kill. It's all the same midgets in armor or bandit highwaymen or what-have-you.

Did I ever say Skyrim is the epitome of plot in gaming? Hell no. In fact, I haven't even touched my copy of Skyrim in over two weeks. Obviously DA:O's plot is better than Skyrim's because Skyrim has no plot to speak of. It's literally a world built as an excuse to adventure and kill. 

But the graphics, gameplay fluidity, character creation system, combat, and world in Skyrim all trump DA by a large margin. There are so many subtle nuances that draw me in that DA doesn't have. There's no sense of exploration for me. It feels like I'm just walking in a straight line forward until I come across some predictable enemy types so I click once and wait, humming a fancy tune, while they all eventually fall to the ground, then I walk forward some more until a cutscene appears where I select responses for my character that have no real bearing on the plot. The decisions you make (So do I keep the nun or not?) seemed so inane and meaningless to me. So far the class progression system seems as bare-bones and unrewarding as hearing a loud, soggy fart in a public restroom. Simple feats and class upgrades that have no real effect on gameplay other than increasing a few inane numbers? Ugh, that's frustratingly archaic. At least with Baldur's Gate II you had some hefty decision making and exploration to contend with. The characters had more engrossing personalities and you had thrice as much control over your character's abilities. 

Sure all that generic sh*t bothers me, but it would be minor if DA's combat system were a little more involving. Hell, I feel like the game was designed in 1997 and only finished recently without any changes. And hey, if you ask me I'd rather have no plot at all than a garbage plot. At least I don't even have to deal with obnoxious characters being forced in my face. Every battle (on hard difficulty, of course) is literally me clicking once and watching a few characters perform the same moves time after time after time after time. I've not once come close to dying and I'm not even using tactics - I just run my ass right up to the middle of the nearest cluster of red-circled enemies and wait for them to die. If my health gets low I've got a large supplies of the instant healing items so one press and pow, fully healed in a flash. I haven't felt a single pang of struggle or true excitement. Isn't a game supposed to do that for you at least once in the first couple hours or so?

As I said I don't think it's a terrible game, I just had much higher hopes for it. There's no immersion factor. I almost feel as if I'm playing a text-based RPG and staring at the cover to a TOR fantasy novel cover simultaneously, except that most of DA looks pretty murky to me. Skyrim, to me, looks (much) better, plays much more engagingly, has three times as much content, has a lot more options, and gives you a much freer, more exhilarating hold of your character, despite the cheap pocketbook fantasy cliches which are so painfully abundant. Again, I'm no raving Skyrim (or ES) lunatic. I haven't touched my copy in a couple weeks and probably won't for another couple, but even half a minute of combat from Skyrim was more engaging, less limiting, and more viscerally enjoyable than the several hours I've sunk into this.

And I'm only comparing Skyrim and DA:O because you did - apparently you thought you were making some grand point. You might be tempted to say to me, in a virulently sardonic undertone, 'well if you don't like the game, why play it? neener neener sneer sarcasm blah'. In pre-emptive response - I probably won't finish it. I wanted to sink my teeth in and give it an honest try. You may also reiterate 'well how can you say you don't like the plot if you aren't reading it wheeper deeper doo dum diddle'. Again - I've read enough of it to know I won't give a quarter of a damn. When your primary goal is as vague as 'vengeance with an underlying fight for the greater good against monsters and demons and dragons' I stop paying attention pretty damn quickly. 

But you probably won't read this, anyway.