Yet another example of game reviews where the tone of the review does not match the score given at the end. I mean, come on, that read like a 90 Mega-Fonzie review!
Are you kidding me? When a sword or axe hits someone, blood sprays out of the contact point. When something dies, it bleeds out in a bright red puddle. Not only are you flat out wrong, but you’d have to be incredibly tone deaf not to appreciate that this is a hyperviolent and gory game.
I’m not complaining, mind you. It fits in with the general atmosphere of the game. But you and idrisz are really doing a disservice to undersell the level of gore when someone asks.
-Tom
Based on this review I have canceled my PC preorder and got the 360 so I can enjoy the old school text based fun. Graphics are for wusses.
Not in the 360 version. There’s some minor spray when you get a finishing animation on something, but nothing like what you’re describing. In fact, early on I was amused by the blood splatter on the characters primarily because I saw nothing in the combat to indicate that much blood was flying around. Is there some gore option that’s turned off by default? Because I want to play what you’re playing.
Not only are you flat out wrong, but you’d have to be incredibly tone deaf not to appreciate that this is a hyperviolent and gory game.
Or I’m playing the console version, as I stated in the previous posts, which is evidently much less graphic than what you’re describing in (what I assume is) the PC version, something I made an allowance for when I originally responded. Thanks for being a prick about it, though.
Tim_N
2745
Based on the Fidgit diaries i’m quite sure Tom is talking about the 360 version as well.
Then I don’t know what he’s on about. I wasn’t aware small blood sprays qualified as “hyperviolent” all of a sudden. God of War 3 and MadWorld are “hyperviolent.” Dragon Age is not even remotely in the same class as those games. Like I said, it’s about as violent as the Lord of the Rings movies, except the blood is red instead of black.
Ah, the dangers of using a fractal, quantum phased, non-euclidian reciprocating review scale. It’s also metric. And hexadecimal.
Sarkus
2749
That does seem to support Tom’s argument more than Matt’s. :-)
There sure are a hell of a lot of people playing this game already, it seems.
Mordrak
2750
Well, to be fair, God of War is a step above that on the gratuitous scale. I don’t know about the blood, but I saw a video of Kratos (?) shredding the intestines of a centaur thing and ripping the eyeball off a cyclops. That’s a bit more than plunging a sword into something and lots of blood spraying. It’s even more than run of the mill dismemberment.
But on the other side, that isn’t a “small blood spray” in the screenshot.
Something I’ve been wondering at related to the blood splatter - does Dragon Age actually have real elements of Dark Fantasy (i.e., fantasy with horror/supernatural elements such as e.g., in the writings of Howard and Lovecraft) or is that just yet another element of the slightly misleading marketing for this game? I wonder because based on the interviews I’ve seen, it seems that “blood spray and scary-looking monsters” is basically being equated with dark fantasy, which isn’t quite how I would define it…
its a large small blood spray
idrisz
2753
I’m playing on the 360 as well, but it’s as Matt said, not much blood, even with a decapitation there is only small splutter of blood.
idrisz
2754
that’s screenshot is from PC, you can easily tell the difference by looking for that skillbar at bottom of the screen.
Hunty
2755
Well, I’ve pre-ordered this but have to wait till Friday. Blergh. The more impressions I see the more excited I am! It’s coming at just the right time as I’m kind of winding down a bit from Demon’s Souls, and going through A Song of Ice and Fire at the mo has put me in the mood for some blood-spurty, vaguely gritty fantasy.
Quick question - this may have already been answered somewhere in this megathread, but is there a resource for creating or posting builds up for this yet? I like the idea of resurrecting my Fighter/Mage dual wielder from BGII, who was fragile but lethal and really fun to play. Even if I can’t get that, I like the idea of something along similarish lines. I can see the wiki and have had a play with the character creator and some of the classes there, but I’m not that au fait with the actual basic progression and stuff. I tend to find that this is not the sort of thing you want to learn as you go in case you shaft it with some lolnoob decisions and end up with a bit of a wasted playthrough. So yeah, any tips?
The point is that Matt is wrong when he says blood only appears during decapitations. Blood sprays out when you use a slashing weapon, and it seems to be in proportion to how injured the victim is. Pools of blood spread from dead enemies. Your characters get sprayed with blood after combat. There are vivid sound effects like knives slicing into casaba melons that Hitchcock would love. Dragon Age is rated M specifically for blood and intense violence.
You have to be pretty desensitized to poo-poo the level of gore in Dragon Age. It’s a graphically violent game with plenty of blood.
-Tom
Killzig
2757
Don’t know if this has been asked/answered but do NPCs ever react differently when you’re wearing a half pound of Darkspawn medium rare?
It’s already been established on Fidgit that Tom is also playing the 360 version, people. His game diaries are quite entertaining on Dragon’s Age and you should be reading them.
I checked my Amazon Collector’s Edition (360) order this morning and even with one day shipping they’re estimating a delivery date of November 5th, which bums me out. Then I saw the regular edition has free release date shipping (for Prime members) and that ticked me off a little. I emailed them to see if they’d at least give me free one day shipping on the CE.
Edit: WOW! I’ve already received an email back from Amazon granting me free one day shipping on this. I’d encourage anyone else in the same boat as me to email Amazon and ask for the same.
Got an email right now from GAME.UK that they’ve shipped it to me. Wooo :)
