Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

As big a fan of Mass Effect as I am, I've never taken the time to finish playing BioWare's other popular franchise, Dragon Age. It was given to me as a gift a long time ago and I started to play it way back when, but I just couldn't get into it. Having just completed my annual Mass Effect playthrough, it seemed an appropriate time to give it another shot.

Apparently - despite my Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy replays - I have a hard time getting into these kinds of RPGs. I'm still never really sure what exactly is going on in a battle and admittedly, it got so difficult for me that I had to lower the difficult. (Yeah, I'll admit it.) After finally playing it to completion, I can say that I did get more sucked into the world, but it still ultimately failed to grab me the way that Mass Effect did, or in RPG terms, the way that any of the post-NES Final Fantasy games did.

The graphics look pretty much on par with the first Mass Effect. That is to say, they're not terrible, but they aren't particularly great either. Though the rendering issue of ME isn't present here, there are some weird things about the characters. It's a strange thing where they aren't necessarily going for ultra-realistic, but they aren't really doing anything particularly stylized either. The end result is - like it's sci-fi counterpart - something that looks like a stepping stone between console generations, really.

Things can get a little hectic during battles as well where sometimes, so much is going on that the game can slow down or start to stutter a bit. It's not as unpolished as BioWare's other franchise, but it still leaves a bit to be desired. Facial expressions especially are a bit lacking, but that's a staple of BioWare.

When it comes to the gameplay, I don't think I figured out everything you can do in the game. I know there's something to do with collecting herbs and mixing them to create new items, or that you can apparently forge new weapons using runes or something, but I never really figured out how to do any of that stuff. I couldn't tell if that were something you did in shops or you did by leveling up your characters and teaching them skills.

As an RPG, there are some expected elements of the gameplay. You control a character and a party of four as you meander through linear pathways in your attempt to complete goals. Unlike the JRPGs where you control the entire party, the AI runs the rest of your team for you here. You can, of course, determine the course of action you want your party members to take. For example, you can alter the settings on your mage to handle healing. If any party members take a good deal of damage, your mage will cast cure spells. Essentially, you set the priority of actions for your AI party members, but you only fully control one member at a time. You can also switch to any of the other three party members as well, so you're not stuck using just the main protagonist.

Each character's icon displays typical RPG data. There's the health bar and then either the stamina or mana bar (depending on the character's class - there's no real difference, it's just that mana is tied to magic while stamina is tied to special physical attacks). You run around environments looking for items and objectives. Every so often, you encounter enemies. The environment doesn't change, but you are limited to battling once an encounter begins. No matter how far away you run from a fight, you cannot pick up loot or leave the map. It's actually a bit inconvenient to be unable to interact with your environment during a fight. There's also no flee option, so once you get into a battle, you must finish it. This fact isn't so much a problem until you accidentally wonder into an area that you aren't supposed to be at yet, and get swarmed by too many enemies.

Battles involve physical attacks, magic spells, and special attacks. Each character has a variety of moves that you can use in a fight. To execute these skills, you bring up the classic BioWare radial wheel. This is a quick menu that pauses things so you can pick what you want to do. There is also the ability to assign particular spells or attacks to one of the game pad's buttons. This allows you to quickly strike with those buttons. However, there is a limit to what you can assign to Quick Attack. You are only allowed a total of six spells, which is far fewer than the number you wind up with as you progress through the game.

As usual, defeating enemies awards you with experience points, which then allow you allocate points into certain character traits. Each character can be leveled to increase their stamina, mana, magic power, attack power, and a few other things. There are also points to allocate into particular skills. It's a pretty straight forward RPG element common throughout the genre. There isn't anything particularly revolutionary in the game play.

Decisions do account for some of the game's appeal. Throughout the story, a number of things are left up to you to decide. Some seem small, but others feel like world changing decisions. As you go through and make these decisions, some of your party members will either approve or disapprove of you. If a character's approval rating drops low enough, s/he is able to leave your party. To counter disapproval, you can find and purchase gifts that boost their rating of you. This only works to a point though, as some members will leave regardless provided you make the wrong decision at a certain time. It's an interesting element that I haven't seen in too many games. Occasionally a party member will question you (looking at you, Sten!), but more or less your approval ratings won't drop too much if you don't do much talking and stay at least neutral.

Overall, it's a fairly straight forward and typical western style RPG. I must admit, I'm not a big fan of the style, but there are interesting elements added on. The game also includes places for your war dog to "mark" that grant stat boosts in that environment.)

The start of the game varies depending on what race and class you decide to play as.  After an introductory level that showcases the basic dynamics of the battle system, you are recruited into the Grey Wardens - a group of warriors responsible for defending the land of Ferelden from the evil Archdemon dragon and its army of orcs...er...dark spawn known as The Blight. Almost immediately after your initiation, you face a horde of them. You fight along side Cailan, the king, who is killed after being betrayed by his father-in-law Loghain, who then goes on to essentially usurp the position by passing blame onto the Grey Wardens.

You spend most of your time building a case against Loghain. In his efforts to force everyone to unite, he ultimately creates a divide and so a civil war breaks out. Along the way, you are also trying to build up your old alliances with the dwarves, the humans, and the elves. Basically, you are trying to recruit races via their old treaties with the Grey Wardens while also trying to convince people Loghain is evil. Of course, doing so means chores. Lots and lot (and lots) of chores. Typical RPG stuff - "We'll join your alliance if you climb the mountain and retrieve this item." Then you get there and it's someone else saying, "We'll give you the item if you go defeat this monster." You know, RPG busy-work; fetch-quests.

The story is pretty straight forward in terms of plot, but the draw is being able to impact the world around you. While it's not an open-world game (indeed, you can't get to certain places until certain times in the game), you are often required to make decisions that impact the city you are in. You are responsible for decisions that range from saving an Arl's son to deciding who will be king of Orzammar, land of the dwarves. Additionally, decisions you impact your squad's loyalty.

The strength of the game comes from the complexity of the decisions. While other BioWare fan-favorite Mass Effect is also known for allowing decisions, they more or less are simplified. Save this person or save that person. Kill this villain or let him go. Keep this information or destroy it. Dragon Age turns those decisions into legitimate brain-scratchers. There are no clean answers. You can't play the equivalent of Paragon without getting your hands a little dirty.

The characters are fairly forgettable. And while the deeper into the game I got, the more interested in the world I became, I still didn't ultimately care that much about it. These things obviously had a negative impact on my experience. At the end of the day, I lost three party members along the way - the elf dude whose name I never remember, Alistair, and Morrigan. I liked the latter two just fine, but when they left, I didn't feel too bad about it. Alistair was kind of a baby about the whole Loghain thing, and Morrigan had kind of an unreasonable demand. But frankly, I didn't care enough about them as characters to feel upset when they left. Additionally, they were useless party members. I never used Morrigan. And I rarely used Alistair since Sten was stronger and also there was a war dog. So I also didn't feel like my party was any worse for their departures. This is often a problem with RPGs. Doing anything to party members for a narrative emotional punch only works if it also makes you use those characters.

The final mission is great. After spending more than forty hours running around, doing favors for people, and solidifying treaties, you then seek out the invading darkspawn army led by the Archdemon itself. As you work your way through the city, you can call in your dwarf, human, elf, and mage allies. In many ways, the final mission feels like what Mass Effect 3's should have been.

However, the final boss itself was a bit insane. Perhaps it's just the PS3 version, but the game is fairly glitchy (can't tell if it's more or less so than the first Mass Effect). By the end, it was just horrible. It took me four tries to kill the Archdemon, and each time had a huge, battle-impacting glitch. The first time, there was a glitch that prevented a party member who was knocked down from ever getting up. She was literally lying on the ground with full health for half an hour before the rest of my party finally caught up. After loading my game and trying again, there was a glitch that had any of my KO'd party members disappear off the battle field. This meant that I could not cast my revival spell and bring them back into the fold. Load again and the third time had a glitch in which no matter how close I got to the Archdemon, its health bar didn't show up. This made it impossible to tell if I were actually doing any damage at all. My guess is not, given how long I fought him for that time compared to how long I fought him when I finally beat him.

And of course, after three hugely negative glitches that single handedly cost me the battle, I finally got a favorable glitch the fourth time in which the Archdemon landed, but wouldn't attack. He just stood there roaring for about ten minutes while my guys hacked away. It felt cheap, but I also didn't care given that my defeats felt equally so, a feeling that says a lot.

REDUCTIVE RATING: Not so good.

Available On: XBox360, PS3, PC, Mac

Beyond Eyes (2015)

If you were looking for another video game to add to the list of starters for the debate about whether something actually constitutes a "game," Beyond Eyes can be included. A small game, it is likely one that will be skipped over by many. Indeed, the conversation about what makes something a game will likely stick to walking simulators like Dear Esther or The Stanley Parable, or extend into the kind of experiences produced from thatgamecompany (Flower, Journey), but it will likely be a discussion point here as well. Beyond Eyes doesn't quite hit the same high notes as those games, but if you were a fan of those, it might be one worth checking out.

The game centers around one basic concept: you play as Rae, a young girl, as she sets out to find her lost cat. The catch, however, is that she is blind. Experimenting with this dynamic, players have to navigate an empty, white void. Obstacles unveil themselves at the last possible second, since you cannot see them. The map unfolds very much in a "fog of war" fashion (from RTS games). While there is nothing to do other than walk around - something sure to be boring to many players - it doesn't necessarily feel as passive as it sounds. Maps might not be particularly large, but exploring in search of the proper path is actually more engaging than one might think.

An interesting idea to play with blindness, there were a few moments that stuck out. The frustration occasionally felt when you find a fence blocking your way as you figure you are headed in the right direction sheds some insight into the life of a blind person. There are some well done environmental inclusions as well. Crows scream at you from a distance, and occasionally a stranger makes noise nearby which is a bit startling. At one point, a dog starts barking at you from down the path. That moment is great, as it makes you realize how scary it can be. You hear the dog and know where it is, but you can't tell anything else. Is there a fence there? Is the dog on a leash? What kind of dog is it? Similarly, weather can play a factor. In one chapter, a rainstorm breaks out and reduces the amount around you that you can sense. For most of the game, you retain some memory or sense of the areas you just passed. When it rains, the sound washes all that away. Going backwards is as unknown as going forward. All of these aspects provides some intriguing insight into the life of the blind.

Helping the game is its gorgeous art style. It is legitimately beautiful, opting to go with bright colors to clash against the idea of the darkness stemming from a lack of vision. Visually, it is just nice to look at. When things come out of nowhere to frighten Rae, the colors get a bit more subdued, but even then it is still pretty. Rae looks sufficiently uncomfortable wandering through unknown areas by herself. Her body language goes a long way to indicating her emotional state. The music is calm and peaceful, making this one of those relaxing games that you could potentially play before bed. (Some might consider "games to fall asleep to" a negative, but I happen to really like games like that.)

All that said, it doesn't quite hit any of the substantial notes as one of thatgamecompany's games, or the entertaining meta-narrative of The Stanley Parable. It is a lot less cohesive than the likes of Flower or Journey. With those games, the chill nature of the gameplay matches the story pretty well. In Flower, the "go with the flow" gameplay fits the story - in which players control petals riding the wind. You collect more flower petals, then use that to destroy grimy, polluted areas. Such a story demands such relaxing gameplay. Journey, similarly, sees players do little more than run around and jump. Yet as the title suggests, the story is all about this epic, emotional journey that is told through a very subdued fashion.

Beyond Eyes doesn't exactly have the same kind of resonance. The gameplay of walking around to an unfolding environment matches the character trait of blindness. That is without question the most interesting element of the game. However, that does nothing to match the story - which is all about Rae on a giant fetch quest to bring home her cat. As it  happens, the big reveal at the end makes that adventure seem even stranger. During the credits, it kind of hits you that the game might not have been developed to give players a means to somewhat understand the world of the blind, but rather for the creator to deal with the loss of a beloved pet.

As a result, the game could stand to be shorter. It already is pretty quick to beat. Six chapters and a prologue, however, in a game where all you do is walk does wind up feeling a bit dragged out. Chapters two and three ultimately feel like they could be cut out entirely. If so, it would become boring less quickly, as you would be left with only the chapters that do something interesting.

There are things to enjoy about Beyond Eyes. Generally the recipient of bad reviews, a lot will depend on your patience for games like these. Indeed, its central concept of having you play as a blind person is interesting. There is much to explore there, and a truly incredible game awaits from that premise. Still, it doesn't hit anywhere near the emotional highs and lows of Journey, nor does it quite have the charm of Flower. It isn't trying to be those things, of course, but that is the audience a game like this would appeal to.

REDUCTIVE RATING:  It's...interesting

Available On: XBox One, PS4, OSX, Windows, Linux