Adventures in gaming

[rheasilvia]

As some of you know, I have recently begun playing video games. I've successfully avoided this for a long time, because I always knew it might become dangerously addictive. And what do you know – I was right. I am a sucker for any medium that will deliver a good story, and I have stumbled over Dragon Age.

My previous ventures into gaming have been few and far between. Long ago, there was a game called KGB, in which I played a KGB agent investigating a suspicious block of apartments in Moscow. I gave up on the game in frustration because I always ended up either starring in a snuff movie or transferred to Siberia. I still regret my incompetence as a government agent, though, because it was a good game, and I was a dedicated – if disillusioned and bitter – agent and really wanted to stop those bastards.

KGB was on a floppy disk! Yikes, that was so long ago. I still have the game, actually, and I remember it very fondly apart from the "inevitably ending up stuffed in trash cans" bit. I can't try to play it again, though, because I no longer have a floppy drive.

Next, there was a Blade Runner game in which I hunted renegade androids. I gave up on this game in frustration because my lab results were never in, and I couldn't continue my investigation without them. Foiled by lazy lab techs! I suspect I was lucky nobody had ever heard of Siberia. And also that nobody tried to stuff me into any trash cans.

Lastly there was The SIMS, which I gave up on in frustration because (perhaps fortunately) my computer wasn't entirely up to the task; it stopped erasing footprints after people had walked by, and I couldn't deal with the disconcerting white footprints all over the place. What can I say, I am a sensitive soul.

If you conclude from this that my frustration threshhold when it comes to video games is low, you may be right. ;-) Still, I overcame my initial frustration – and it was there – for Dragon Age Origins, and now Dragon Age II (which I am not yet finished with, so please, no spoilers!). My current computer still isn't entirely up to the task, but I make do, possibly because there have been no footprint-related mishaps so far. I can overlook the occasional person hanging out in a giant spider.

I suspect there will be more posts about this, so I apologize if you have no interest in the Dragon Age games.

Also, if you happen to know of other games with as wonderful and rich a world and characters as nuanced and interesting as the Dragon Age ones, please do rec them to me. :-) I already have the Mass Effect Trilogy waiting on my shelf... anything else I shouldn't miss?

(Sorry about the long silence, everyone. I am still alive! Real Life has merely been – real life. Enough said.)

Comments

[rheasilvia]

Myst does sound potentially interesting! Is the worldbuilding and characterization at all comparable to DA?

I've played all the way through DA2 now, by the way. The ending rather surprised me because it was so sudden, and nothing was actually resolved - I expected there to be an entire additional act, somehow.

As for Anders: Argh. Okay, even locking the man up in a left-over slaver pen in my basement wouldn't have helped. At this point, I'm convinced that once he joined up with Justice, there was basically no way for him to live in this world anymore. Too many shades of grey. He is worse than Meredith; she at least seemed to have moments of genuine regret that she had to go to such extremes.

How is Anders a romance option, but Aveline isn't? (My poor Hawke was so in love with her for a while there.) And how does any player character ever actually leave the guy alive and then run away with him?? There is *no way* Anders will not do something exactly like this again and again. He cannot learn. He is literally unable to, thanks to Justice.

[torch]

The Myst games are... different. They're problem-solving games, games where you wander around and try to figure out which buttons to push in which order, and what the lever here has to do with the counterweight there, and why there aren't any people around. They're also played in strict first person, without player-created avatars (unless you count Uru). The player can't really affect the plot, just figure it out. Which can be tricky enough. *g* I love the games dearly because I like puttering around at a slow pace, looking at the view and thinking about things; switching to DA-style games was a shock to me because you could talk to people and hit things.

Yeah, I really wanted the option to be cranky with Anders and express my anger without actually killing him. The non-killing options just feel so weak.

Aveline should totally be a romance option! Aveline and Hawke together would make a terrifying force for, um, mostly-good. *g* I'm not really happy with any of the romance options, tbh, which I suppose is the point, or a point, anyway. I'll say this for the Anders romance, though, it does have an awesome kiss scene.

[rheasilvia]

Ah, I see! I will have to ponder the Myst question a bit. I fear I am very attached to the interaction - more the talking to people than the hitting things, though. ;-) But it is early days yet... it's really the storytelling power of video games that has caught me, and I'd imagine that potential is just as strong in less action-oriented games.

YES. Either you say "oh well, whatever" and shrug, or you are forced to kill your friend (and/or lover). My Hawke was already incredibly angry with Anders just then, but the fact that Anders brought him in a position where he was forced to kill him if he didn't want to condone what he had done - that made it so much worse. I would have needed an "explode with rage" option there. Although politically speaking, literally exploding with rage would have been a very bad idea, considering my Hawke was an apostate, too. *g*

And Anders just utters his stupid, deluded little martyr line, because of course he does not understand what this really means. *headdesk*

Aveline and Hawke together would make a terrifying force for, um, mostly-good. *g*

They so would! Kirkwall would be completely helpless against them. And Aveline and Hawke seemed like such a natural combination to me. Plus, I really love Aveline in general. She is so loyal and smart and strong and just - truly just, with all shades of grey accounted for. My poor Hawke was crushed when she asked him to help her woo Donnic. But that's realism for you; she has a type, and snarky apostate mages just aren't it.

Good point, with the romance options. A bipolar terrorist, a ditzy demon-bargainer, an amoral raider and... Fenris. (I actually felt that Fenris managing to fall in love with a mage was a pretty impressive statement, considering, but it would have been nice if he'd qualified his vocal categorical condemnation of mages just a tad at some point.)

I'm not really happy with any of the romance options, tbh, which I suppose is the point, or a point, anyway.

How do you mean? Because of the darkness and moral ambiguity of the entire setting?

I'll have to check out that kiss scene now. :-)