Dragon Age: Origins PS3 first impressions

Managed to have a delve into Dragon Age: Origins on Sunday enough to get through my opening quest at least.
Graphically it's poor. Oh still better than a PS2 title, but compared to some of the latest titles it's a bit sub-par; a highly polished PS2 version if you will. No tearing that I noticed so I'm guessing the frame rate is capped which in turn makes it a bit jumpy, but so far this hasn't been too apparent actually playing the game it shows up in the cut-scenes.

Due to the ability to choose your own character appearance it can't use pre-rendered graphics so it's handled in-game and this is where anomalies stand out. Having completed a couple of quests I was sent to a city and a cut-scene swooped about as I walked down the entranceway. First off we had a stuttering frame rate, but that may have been caused by the imperfect texture on one of the towers flickering in and out of existence as when we moved in closer the frame rate headed back up. However as the camera started to head over the entrance arch someone flickered into existence in front of me then vanished.

As I said this hasn't happened in-game yet. However once again the bane of cut-scenes shows its hand in that you can be repositioned at the end of them. Fighting one enemy I had to talk to, at first I was standing facing them about two feet away. At the end of the conversation as the fight began I was standing next to and behind them facing the wrong way.

Onto the controls and the tutorials are brief to say the least, as my starting character was a mage I had some spells automatically assigned to my quick-use slots. The combat tutorial consisted of "Press X to initiate combat" and "use the quick slots" one time only. Sure repetition is annoying, but a couple of times isn't a bad thing. In particular some skills have a 'cooldown' period, in that they can't be reactivated until they're ready again. This is indicated by a sweeping clock hand on the graphic icon that re-saturates the unusable skill; it works well, but isn't explained.

I ended up resetting the game twice because the tutorial popped up with something I'd forgotten how to do and wouldn't let me exit until I'd done it. Yes the manual was there, but it seemed like the game had locked up because nothing was responding. For those interested it was the using the Radial menu, the L2 Press that allows you quick access to manipulating your party, assigning quick-slots etc. and pauses the game while you do so. No buttons responded and it turns out I was supposed to use the left analogue stick to select the correct option.

At this point I discovered the poor auto-save ability. I'd just finished my first quest, and been transported back to the tower when the 'lock-up' happened. At which point I find myself once again facing the boss I'd just defeated. The same occurred taking care of some spiders I got killed by the last two and had to restart that entire section again. Lesson learned - manual save often.

Character creation is streamlined. Pick a sex [sorry pick a gender can't use the word sex in an adult game now can we], race, profession. Each type gives bonuses along the lines of +1 to Cunning and so on. Except you haven't got to the bit where you can tweak these attributes when it shows a description of what they actually mean. Sure your basic RPGer will have some idea, but in some cases these may be slightly out as in it appears Strength doesn't affect carrying weight etc.

Likewise you choose your skills and get a set number of points to spend. Again an RPGer might expect that higher level skills cost more points and be baffled as to why these aren't shown. Turns out all skills are only 1 point each, but some can only be selected if your attribute or level is high enough. Remember that you find this out after you've tweaked your attributes. You can go back a step, but it makes this task longer than it needs to be.

A neat little trick is the compare button when you're in your inventory. Pick something you're not using, hit square and it'll compare it with the equivalent of what you are wearing. Neat if you understand the bonuses. A Mage's Staff has a +1 Magic bonus (that's an attribute) whilst an Acolyte's Staff has +2 to Spellcasting (which isn't an attribute) what's the difference? Which is better? Um?

Onto combat itself and as mentioned the tutorial is a little sparse on this so I'm going to have to check the manual (so don't bite my head off if I'm wrong, the game should be telling me this). Anyway combat mage style consists of standing still to shoot off some magic followed by frantic scrambling around to avoid getting hit before standing still once again to launch off some magic. No side-stepping strafing that I could find, no target lock so as to fire off that highly damaging Lightning Bolt at the big bad rather than the goon - first come, first served. So far this makes combat painful. Sure I can understand not being able to shoot something you're running away from, but when I see a spider rear back to strike I want to be able to circle around him to get a hit in rather than turn around so he can hit me in the back, or stand there and take it.

There'd got to be a way to lock, there's just got to be.

Onto getting around, you do have a mini-map which is useful, but you don't get any guide indicators. "The First Enchanter wants a word with you", "Where is he?" "In his study". Pull up the big map and I can move the cursor around to highlight certain points and I find steps to a basement and to the first floor plus other things, but no Study; where is it? Where am I supposed to go?

Wandering around I find some sparkly chests and bookshelves, remembering to press X to interact with them (remember that's also to initiate combat) I pick up grimoire pages and some stuff. This all gets sorted out in my Character/Inventory screens, but I'm not sure where at the time. Anyway I finally decide to head upstairs and consult the main map and lo an icon has appeared indicating the First Enchanter. Back out and... which way was I supposed to go? I can't see the icon on the mini-map and the map is a fixed orientation. Back to the main map, back to the game. I finally notice that when I bring up the radial menu it also shows icons in the distance through walls.

At one point I gain two members as a party. No explanations as to how to handle a party are made; no wait I tell a lie I had one extra member in my first quest and when I died it stated I could use switch to other members using um L2 or R2 I think. It came up once just before the other member died - useful. Anyway I get a proper party and not in the middle of combat so up pops the tutorial as to how to handle party members. Well actually no, I get no tutorial at all. I find out for myself that I can check what they have equipped in the character/inventory menu and that the radial menu has party options and advanced options that aren't explained.

Now I find myself having to touch on the character/inventory menu brought up by pressing select. Across the top are the major tabs such as character, map, inventory. Select one of these and you can see the main points, but some have a secondary tab structure. So for inventory you can see weapons, armour, shiny, etc. You can then navigate around these items to find out more about them. It's laid out logically and to be fair there's a lot to pack in, but once again none of it's explained and you're left to fathom it out for yourself.

DA:O has been declared a bit dialogue heavy and this is indeed the case so far. You stand there and someone talks to you and you select an option to reply. Although you can pick your voice style in the initial creation you don't hear your own replies in these dialogue sections. You only hear your voice during the game at the end of battles. In fact it's Baldur's Gate's "I can't carry any more" level of appearance.

On a final note as mentioned you can craft the appearance of your character and this is shown in the cut-scenes; however to emphasise this any headgear you are wearing in-game will be removed during the scene and then replaced when you're back in-game. Just amusing that's all.

Yes I'll carry on with it and see how it progresses, I'll also read the manual in full to see what the tutorials aren't telling me. But if you're not already an RPG fan this wouldn't be a good introduction to the genre.