Oh Reginald... (Dragon Age and the 'KotOR feeling')

Aside from work, I've done precisely two things over the last three days: read Knightfall's blog posts and obsessively play Bioware's 2009 D&D-style RPG, Dragon Age: Origins.

And I'm absolutely loving the game, quite a bit more than I did the first time I played it. At that time I played through in a grumbling hurry, confused by the lore and plot, being punished horribly by the steep difficulty, and almost losing it after the largely-dodgy endgame (luckily the very end bits are great.) Then Mass Effect 2 came out, and I forgot all about DA:O (It looks like the initials and then a shocked emoticon) until the extremely meh expansion pack was released, and I read the surprisingly great prequel novel.

This past two weeks, I've been playing DA:O again, and this time... I've just been completely absorbed in it. It's been constantly on my mind. I play long into the night, and I wake before my alarm clock, so I can get juuust one more conversation in with Shale, or kill juuuust enough darkspawn to level up, so as I can wear that heavy chainmail that's a slightly lighter colour than the one I'm wearing now. I think because I now understand the plot better, and I'm revelling in how flexible it is - the dialogue options, the plot decisions, the inventory. My character feels like my character, whereas Commander Shepard feels like Bioware's.

This is what I call the 'KotOR feeling'! And it's More than a Feeling. It's... a way of life, or something. What I mean is, this is exactly what I want from a role-playing videogame. I want it to be like Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic, the game which brought me back into games, made me into a Star Wars fan, thrilled me for a year and even influenced my writing. It brought me into fanfiction, and thus into renewed writing. I know Knightfall has a similar story. He and I truly revere KotOR, and with good reason. The plot was incredible, the voice acting was a cut above (at the time). This is what I would call a true role-playing experience. You felt like you were that Jedi apprentice. For the week and a half it took to play through, the Ebon Hawk was your home, Jolee Bindo was your mentor, Mission Vao was your respnsibility and Lord Malak was most displeased to learn you had escaped Taris alive. Through its tight, excellent and immersive story, it sucked you in and forced you to abandon every other part of your life until you were done.

I remember the first time I beat that game... It was my first RPG unless you count Zelda. At the first I had no idea what I was supposed to do or why clicking people initiated lengthy, casual conversations about seemingly trivial things. After a couple of days I was hooked, and a week later I was astounded. I remember excitedly telling my brother about this amazing new game: 'I just finished it - I saved the Republic, fell in love with my Jedi teacher, resisted the dark side, conVERTed the girl from the dark side, and even convinced the Sith Lord that I was right and he was wrong - right before killing him with my YELLOW lightsaber! And holy crap... there's this twist... you've got to play this!!' And what's great is that all those things I mentioned are optional. None of those are set as part of the plot. I chose to persue those goals, and when they came together into a perfect Star Wars story, it blew me away. Oh, and the 'evil' decisions I made a few weeks later were also incredible.

At the very end, when the classic John Williams theme music kicked in and the credits rolled over the story's climax (and a teasing hint at a sequel) I was so excited I pumped my fist into the air like a fool. I couldn't help it! I beleive it's called the 'Manly Arm Pump' expression, but it didn't look so manly then. The game occupied me for the best part of a year: I had KotOR weeks and non KotOR weeks. I dreamed I was playing the game, I read fanfiction and heard the game's plot in every song on the radio. And every time I got to the end, I involuntarily did the arm pump, reviewing the choices I'd made, the character I felt I'd co-created and the ending s/he had created. It was like being in love! But with a videogame about Jedi Knights. I know this blog doesn't exactly make me sound mature.

When I reached the end of KotOR 2 (the somewhat disappointing, rushed sequel by Obsidian Entertainment) I did not do the arm pump. I did it for Jade Empire several times, and Mass Effect once or twice, but that game wasn't so immersive. I loved Jade Empire, KotOR 2, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 (and also Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), but never became so obsessed as the first time.

I also loved Fable 2, when I played it through twice more than a year ago. Like Knightfall, I was amused but not thrilled by the first Fable. But number 2 was a triumph. It's a fun, action-RPG set in Dickensian England, with guns, goblins who wear top hats, Julia Swahala, Zoe Wannamaker, Shepard Book and Stephen Fry... those Scottish gargoyles... a cockney hero... and in general, a great deal of loving passion and a magnificent sense of humour. I don't really care for the silent hero, the button-mashing and the halo that forms around my 'good' character's head, and the plot is generally very shallow and silly (but much better than you'd expect). But that's deliberate, and that's fine. It's an excellent game, and a perfect example of what a sequel should be: it's like Fable 1, but with all it's major faults removed apologetically (and even joked about in-game), and great, new innovative features added.

And now... I come to the point of this post. Knightfall said something in his Fable 2 review on Friday, which chilled my blood.

"That's the sin that BioWare keeps committing, but shouldn't. Sure, they rectified this in Mass Effect 2, FINALLY giving you the ability to keep playing after the main storyline is done, but there's nothing to that galaxy. There's nothing to do outside of the quests. I can't get a job, because I'm already the effing savior of the universe. I can't own a house, because I got captain's quarters and, you know, your life is your job. That's the one thing that I'd take to BioWare on a flag or something: if we're gonna save the galaxy, give us a reason to save it besides blue women."

Whoooooah there, Billy.

Bioware, if you're reading, ignore him. Good, solid endings are not a sin. The tangible, beautifully-acted love of a blue woman is a better reason to save the galaxy than ownership of a house in which there is a nameless woman who says 'Welcome home, darling' when you walk in.

What I'm trying to say here (and what this article was supposed to be about) is: I HATE carrying on the game after the end. I really like endings - I think they're the best part of almsot any story - the bit where everything ties together, and everything is resolved. The author's points are driven home, the characters demonstrate how they've changed, the world is changed for good. So why would you want it to... carry on for a bit after that? It's like The Return of the King! It should have ended long before they returned to the Shire and drove-out Sharkey!

I like my Bioware RPGs (as opposed to Lionhead or Obsidian) because they have solid, well-crafted stories. The endings (although lately they are suffering... ME2...) are powerful and contain complete 'closure'. In the last moment, I always think about (and very occasionally do) the Manly Arm Pump - because I know the epic story is finally over and I'm looking back. In the run up to the end - when I have my final conversations with the party-members or take one last stroll around the places I've been - there is a wonderful bittersweet feeling. 'This character will never talk to Kaidan again' ... 'That's the last time I'll fight alongside Canderous; I wonder what he'll do now the war is over' ... 'I'll spend all my remaining money on the special armour now, and equip Duncan's swords for the final battle.'

I don't like it when the story ends... but you don't. Rather than ending on a bang, the character ends with a whimper. He ends when you get bored of side-quests. I hate seeing the world AFTER the cataclysmic events of the ending... and seeing it's just the same.

That said, I played Fable 2 for a while after its end. Not having my dog was indeed heartbreaking. God damn, I love that dog. Bravo, Lionhead. And it was nice to wander about, aquiring and collecting things for fun. But I wish this could all have happenned as part of the story proper.

And as for Mass Effect 2... you win, you fly around... nothing happens... you fly around more. You go to some place and fight some mechs, you get credits. You go back. No-one talks to you.

Story-based games should end when the story ends. Bioware made me pump my arm into the air every time I beat KotOR and Jade Empire! It was a rush.

Dragon Age is giving me something very close to the KotOR feeling as I play it now. I've been playing for 54 hours, which is a record. It's an excellent game, (if one with a complex plot and too much backstory required.)
I just played through this one scene where one of the characters (my elven PC's love interest at that) randomly sings a goddamn beautiful ancient elven song - just before the endgame kicks in - and the camera shows us reactions from the hero and the other members of my party. The song reflects the quest we just finished, and some of the greater themes of the plot. And it tied itself into my own backstory and character seamlessly. Above and beyond the call of duty, Bioware. More songs please.
I've shaped my character and her story arcs, making my Grey Warden and Alistair mirror Loghain and King Maric in their pasts and relationships with each other and their party. I've grown immensely fond of talking to my followers and getting their pasts out of them, earning their favour and loyalty through carefully chosen questions and gifts. I'm going to be genuinely sad when I find out which one of the two lead heroes will die this time, and imagining what happens to the other one.

Leave that feeling in. I like endings.

The British Are Coming: or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Redcoats

At the risk of writing a review for a two-year-old game, which I really wanted to do, I think I'll just make a comment on the state of RPGs as I see them today. But to put this in context: I recently borrowed a copy of Fable II from my cousin. I had actually done this once before last year at some point, but that year belonged to BioWare and Bethesda in the form of Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age: Origins, each of which I spent no less than forty hours with. And because I spent so much time with those marvelous game, the hack 'n' slash, collect-your-exp-in-the-form-of-glowing-orbs aspect put me off.

But I eventually gave that game one more try - and I'm very glad I did. It's like I found the third piece of the Triforce, because each of my most favorite game studios brings something to the table that I wish would crossover into each other's games. Lemme 'splain.

1) BioWare, without question, provide the best stories and production values out of the three companies. Hell, at this point, the Mass Effect series is pretty much an interactive movie, and a believable one at that. But what I love about their games, and the reason why I keep coming back to them no matter what, is that I actually feel as though I'm traveling through their worlds, affecting them, and interacting with their occupants. The romances and friendships feel true and dynamic, giving it all the more realism. Case and point (in the current generation): Dragon Age: Origins.

DA:O had a lot of problems. It was relying on the formula and production values from the last generation. It was striking just how accurate the KotOR comparisons were, with its small-ass zones, frequent loading times, and how I couldn't walk over a ledge if it was slightly higher than my ankle. But the story came through for me. It was well-written, engaging, entertaining, funny, sad, aggravating: all the good emotions wrapped up in one experience. And the ending to it all felt genuinely unique, like I had just spent forty hours crafting my own personalized adventure, and it still one of the greatest gaming moments of my life.

2) Bethesda is a different kind of beast with its focus on a different aspect of the genre. Their philosophy is that if you're gonna make an adventure game, give the player some room to roam around (to put it lightly). They offer the most seamless of RPG experiences, for my money. Their games are made so that you can literally walk for hours without encountering a loading screen. And this is where the comparisons kick in.

Bethesda games have still not delivered a story on par with anything cranked out of BioWare's camp (well, except for Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, just to take another shot at it). I think this is safely evidenced by the fact that they completely blanked out the ending of Fallout 3 with the introduction of the Broken Steel DLC (but don't get me wrong, I loved that I was able to take my character back into the world, but how it happened was a bit of a cop out). That's not to say that their stories are terrible, only that they aren't so deep. It's the sidequests that they excel at, and I find myself frequently putting the main quest aside in favor of freeing slaves, exploring long lost Vaults, and curing Aleswell of its curse of invisibility.

In this regard, Bethesda are better at world-building. You can go anywhere in the sandboxes they create almost immediately, and you typically can't walk ten yards without seeing something interesting and unique. Most of the time I spent playing Fallout 3 was just wandering around! It felt like a proper adventure, where there was stuff that you might never see even if you've played it three times through. Where you have an inflamed sense of freedom to the point where it can feel like the world belongs to you. For instance: Oasis. Three-Dog talks about this place at length during the game, but you're never told exactly where it is. You've got to find it. You're not missing out on anything quest-wise if you don't; it's just there for you to discover at your leisure, which I loved. And it made it all the more rewarding when I actually found it.

And to go back to BioWare: they have nothing on Bethesda's world-building. Most of their zones are too small for my liking, or they're designed like labyrinths to give the illusion of distance and scale. Even Mass Effect 2 was not immune to this, since there was a loading screen between every deck on the Normandy. And Dragon Age was the worst of all. An example being the forest outside of Ostagar near the beginning of the game. When I looked at the mini-map for it, I swear it looked like a maze you'd find in the Sunday paper, and it wasn't limited to just this forest, either.

To make my first point, this is where I could do with some overlapping. If there was only an RPG with the story and dialogue of a BioWare game and the epic world-building and sidequests of a Bethesda game. This is what I was getting around to, because that's what I've always effing wanted. It doesn't have to be completely free-roaming, but just big enough so that the loading screens aren't so intrusive. I died a little inside whenever I hit one of these bastards in the game, which was like every couple of minutes. To reenact this experience, watch one of your most favorite movies, then pause it every two minutes, and watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0guyWFIl0

3) Okay, now here comes Lionhead Studios, the makers of a game that I only semi-liked, Fable, and a game that's quickly becoming one of my favorites, Fable II. The funny thing is that this game had a lot of the problems from the other games. Lots of loading screens, a disjointed feeling about it, and a story that was pretty much Zelda: OoT but with "heroes" instead of spiritual stones. But what Fable II did absolutely right was to give you the option of making a home for yourself within that world, no matter where it was. Your reputation follows you everywhere, and people even know if you're living within their town. People stop to sing your praises and talk about your family or dog or exploits.

Whereas the stories from BioWare felt dynamic, the entire WORLD felt dynamic in Fable II. You can get married, have kids, and start multiple families if you're feeling a bit Mormo...I mean, in the mood for polygamy. People react to your decisions, spread gossip about you, and even blackmail you! The bastards. You can buy almost every building in the game, redecorate them, resell them, rent them out to get a steady cash flow going, even when you're not playing the game, giving me the feeling that the world kept going when my Xbox was switched off. I loved that aspect; it made me feel as though I had some control over the world itself. It felt a part of that world, because I could prove it! I had a house and an address.

And a job!

That's what I want in a game:

-The story and production values of a BioWare game
-The free-roaming, expansive and detailed world of a Bethesda game
-And the dynamic (i.e. home/job/a place to call your own in the world) feeling of a Lionhead game

This, I think, would equal the perfect western RPG. Each of these companies are slowly trending toward that outcome, with Mass Effect 2 giving you captain's quarters and Fallout 3 giving you a house or apartment as a reward for a quest, but it just wasn't as cool as in Fable II, where I could find my favorite spot in the game and choose my house accordingly. It made the difference between playing a game and feeling immersed.

That's what I wanted to say. Took awhile to get that out there but, yeah. To that end we have many sequels on the way for each of these properties. Fable III might make an appearance this year, Fallout: New Vegas is coming out this Fall, Mass Effect 3 might be released as early as NEXT year, and Dragon Age 2 has a release date in February of next year, or so Dragon Age - Awakening told be, but I don't trust that thing at all these days.

Also THIS.