360

The scrolling shooter. Back in the mid 80′s and early 90′s they were pretty hot, but now it’s all about FPS, RTS, and GPS. Like most of the gaming industry, I’ve long since moved away from games like Life Force, Einhänder, and Gradius to boom headshots but every now and again, I’ll revisit. That time is now with the release of the first legitimate Cave title on North American consoles, Deathsmiles.

Deathsmiles was originally released for Japanese Arcades in 2007 and has undergone several different revisions. Instead of just picking one version and going with it, Cave was kind enough to separate each one and include them on the disc. This allows you to experience each change to the formula going back to the original Arcade version, up to the most recent Mega Black Label. Within each version of the game, you’ll also get to select a difficulty level on a per-stage basis (with the exception of the final two stages). While they certainly could have just picked one version and released it as an Xbox Live Arcade title, I’m glad they went the full package route.

At the start of your game, you’ll get to choose one of four different teenage “witches” (five if you’re playing the Mega Black Label version) each with a familiar and a different attack style. The differences between them mostly cosmetic and related to the story. You get a button that will fire to the right, a button that will fire to the left, and a bomb button that’ll unleash a screen clearing attack. Holding down both right and left attacks will create a circle around you and you’ll auto target specific enemies within that radius. While holding down any attack button, your movement speed will be slowed slightly, so it’s in your best interest to let off on the firing once in a while. Lastly, while you’re fighting baddies, you’ll collect items which eventually allow you to turn on a sustained power attack until your item count drains out.

Playing the game is simple in concept but extremely tough to master. You choose your stage and difficulty, then fly from left to right blowing away a ton of creatures who all unleash a plethora of projectiles at you to the point where if you’re fighting each stage’s end boss, the screen is almost filled with them. If any bullets hit the core of your body, you’ll lose one of your three life units while running into an enemy will make you lose a half unit. Dropping all three units will force you to continue which resets your score. So, while you can get to the end of the game while continuing over and over, your score will be terrible. To assist in avoiding projectiles your familiar can absorb them granting you safe passage, but unless you’re playing v1.1 or above you don’t have direct control over them. Despite being a bullet hell title Deathsmiles really has a great “pick up and play” feel to it.

There’s a story here as well although it’s ancillary for sure. If I understand it correctly (which is difficult to do), the girls have been drawn into this other-world dimension and have been given special powers to fight demons, of which you do for nine or ten levels depending on your path. You’ll eventually meet Sakura who informs you that her dad is the cause of all the problems and you’re off to defeat him. While you can ‘beat’ the game in about a half hour, the main draw is to constantly improve yourself and score, hopefully at one point being able to get through all the levels, on MBL 999, without continuing. Other features include score attack mode with full Xbox Live Leaderboards to show of just how terrible you are against the rest of the world and Xbox Live Player Matches (even though I could never get into a game).

Graphically, Deathsmiles is presented in the same aspect ratio as the arcade which by default is not widescreen. However, Cave has included the option to stretch the image to fit your display which doesn’t decrease the playability or quality of the graphics. There’s usually a lot of stuff happening on the screen but sometimes you’ll experience a bit of slowdown that seems to emulate what could happen on certain arcade hardware. Due to that fact when playing on MBL 999 there’s more going on and the slowdown doesn’t happen nearly as much, it appears to be intentional and is pretty awesome anyway. Once you quit out of a game you’ll even have the option to save an entire replay of your session to watch at a later time with full VCR controls.

Manic shooters really have a niche audience and generally I’m not one of the people who plays them but Deathsmiles is one hell of a game. The amount of modes included really helps make it a more accessible experience for players of all skill levels. If games like Ikaruga piqued your interest but turned out to be just too hard to get anywhere in or even if you loved something like Geometry Wars, Deathsmiles will certainly offer the stepping stone you’ll need, as well as the required difficulty for seasoned players.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Fast, frantic, and most importantly, fun.
Adjustable difficulty makes it a very accessible bullet hell shooter.
Options, options, options!

The Bad
Menu interface is a bit clunky and unintuitive.
Not a large community online for multiplayer games.

The Ugly
Tyrannosatan

Originally posted on Evil Avatar

Despite being big on the silver screen, there really haven’t been a ton of western video games and even fewer good ones. Sure you’ve got your Call of Juarez, Gun, and Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist but in general, we’re all about space marines, military shooters, and sexy ladies playing beach volleyball. Now, Rockstar has given the past as much attention as the present or future with Red Dead Redemption, a game where you slip into the boots of frontiersman John Marston and embark on an epic journey for atonement.

You’ll be controlling Marston as he navigates the sprawling landscape on foot, horseback, stagecoach, or even motorized buggy thing. While there’s a story present, the nature of the game doesn’t exactly force you to follow any specific path though you’ll probably want to see how the entire tale unfolds… That and there’s about half of the gigantic map that won’t be available until you do. Instead, you’ll be able to head off and hunt any number of wild animals, accept bounties, gather flowers, or partake in a fairly good number of minigames. I personally spent plenty of time throwing horseshoes, but there are also fully realized and entertaining Texas Hold’em, Blackjack, Liar’s Dice and Five Finger Filet minigames. If for whatever reason you’re angry that someone just won a huge pot in Hold’em, feel free to whip out your double barrel shotgun and dispatch his cheatin’ self.

Considering the sandbox nature of the game and the obvious comparisons to previous Rockstar titles, Red Dead Redemption made it difficult for me to really play the bad guy. Not mechanically of course, if I wanted to I still could have rolled up on some prostitute, lassoed her, and pulled her behind my horse until she expired. No, what I’m talking about is a sense of morality. You’re in the old west where it’s perfectly acceptable to blow the head off of someone who just stole your horse. While that doesn’t necessarily relate to today’s justice, it really kind of removes the need to act like a complete jackhole and still get your job done. Thus, going in and role playing as Marston felt much more satisfying than being a random psychopath. This also helped with the game’s Fame and Honor system, as well as keeping the bounty on my head non-existant.

Helping out random strangers and completing story missions will earn you points towards fame, honor, or both. The more famous you become, the more people of the world will turn a blind eye to your actions and some will even think they’re better than you, challenging you to duel. You’ll be become more feared or loved on the Honor scale in response to how you handle situations and each notch on that belt will bring specific perks. Going down the wrong path will bring about a bounty on your head and people who will look to collect on that. You’ll be able to get pardon letters to help clear your name, or you can just pay off the bounty. Money isn’t exactly falling off of trees though, so you may want to put on a bandana before you decide to go on a murderous rampage. Sometimes the game doesn’t really do a great job of explaining all the different systems at play, so it may take some getting used to. I’m still not entirely sure why I win or lose while dueling folks.

John’s mission isn’t a clean one by any means and you simply can’t get through without skinning your smoke wagon, but at least there’s an honest purpose to his actions. Marston was once an outlaw running with a gang of would be Robin Hoods until life caught up with him. Deciding to settle down with a wife and child, he left his gang only to be pulled back into the fold by Edgar Ross who serves at the primary antagonist. Ross, who is a government agent, kidnaps Marston’s family and tasks him to take out his old running mates or never see his family again. The tale is well crafted being very western in style and substance, including some very cool and deliberate pacing particularly during the climax and resolution, and I personally became very invested in many of the main characters, particularly John himself.

While performing various tasks during the story, you’ll travel through one of the coolest deserts you’ll ever see in a video game. It isn’t just a bunch of sand either, Rockstar spent plenty of time throwing brush, tumbleweed, points of interest, and small towns all over the map. The attention to detail is quite impressive and it really is one of the nicest looking environments around. You’ll even roll through canyons and gang hideouts with varying terrain on your trusty steed. Animation is handled by the Euphoria engine found in games like Backbreaker and The Force Unleashed, so you’ll get some really cool reactions. Shoot someone off a horse and there’s a chance their foot will get stuck in a stirrup while their horse gallops onward; blast at a horse’s legs and watch it crumple as its rider is jettisoned with a graceful sense of pain. There’s even a full day/night and weather cycle with impressively cool thunderstorms.

Along with this impressive use of graphical and animation technology comes a very potent and gripping soundtrack. For the majority of the game it’s primarily instrumental with period and location specific tone. Additionally, the voice acting for just about everyone in the game is great and Rockstar actually took the effort to ensure if an on-screen character’s got a cigar or cigarette in their mouth, they actually sound like they do. When you finally make it to Mexico, keep your ears peeled for one of the single coolest uses of music ever in a video game.

As a complement to the single player, there is a fully realized multiplayer component available called Free Roam. While taking place within the same landscape as John Marston’s tale, this is a completely separate, somewhat persistant mode where you’ll be able to assault gang hideouts, assault each other, or play a few different version of capture the flag by going after bags of gold. Completing certain tasks will gain you experience points which will eventually get you to level 50, unlocking something for you each step of the way. You get customized titles, different (and better) horses, and a ton of different character models you can use. I found the most enjoyment in joining a posse and taking down each of the game’s gang hideout locations, but was disappointed that the minigames weren’t available to play and the somewhat empty world felt a bit too soundstage instead of a real bustling arena.

It’s certainly strange coming into the summer months and having multiple contenders for game of the year, but Red Dead Redemption is squarely in the running. A huge world with a mountain of content, beautiful landscapes, tremendous soundtrack, and wonderfully crafted story, this is likely the best western game you’ll ever play.

Score: 5 out of 5

The Good
One of the best looking games around. Who thought the desert could be so captivating?
Great western story that hits all the right notes and paces itself in old cinema fashion.
Multiplayer isn’t some throwaway mode; it’s pretty awesome.
Clint Eastwood’s mexican poncho.

The Bad
Quirks of the sandbox formula still exist.
Some gameplay systems aren’t really explained well.

The Ugly
The weapon selection radial menu sucks.

Writer’s Notes
Single Player Playthrough: 19h53m
Percentage at Completion: 75.1%
Favorite weapon:: Bolt-Action Rifle
Best NPCs: Marshal Leigh Johnson, Landon Ricketts, Bonnie MacFarlane

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

I think there may be a bit of a misconception as to exactly what kind of game Alan Wake is. The developers originally stated that it was an open-world title and even at the time of this writing, Amazon.com maintains that description. Let’s get this out of the way first: Alan Wake is a story driven, linear action game. You’ll spend most of the time launching an assault against a dark presence while uncovering the truth about what happened to Alan’s wife. Remember that other game Remedy is famous for? This game is kind of like that but now there’s no bullet-time.

Throughout the game you play as Alan Wake, a novelist who’s going through a bit of writer’s block. He hasn’t written a book in over two years and his wife, Alice, plans a trip to Washington state, hopefully to get the creative juices flowing. They land in the small town of Bright Falls, rent a cabin, and then the story really gets going. Talking much about that aspect of the game would really do it a bit of disservice as much of the enjoyment will come from uncovering what’s really going on in the quaint village, so I won’t do that here. What I will tell you though, is that while being somewhat cliched, it’s worth going through. Told through poorly lip-synced cutscenes, in-game dialog, and a series of mysterious manuscript pages, it does do quite a bit of creative storytelling and creates an interesting experience. Additionally, you’ll get to learn more about the town by listening to radios scattered throughout as well as be able to check out short replays of the television show “Night Springs.” Remedy has created a realistic, believable corner of the United States.

The story is broken up into a total of six television-like episodes and each begin with a “last time on Alan Wake” re-cap of important events that took place. While this helps remind you of key points, it feels a little odd that they’d end an episode with a static “End of Episode X” message while closing music plays, then just jump right into the next “show.” Breaking it up like this does make sense as the developers have already said that this is just the first season of Alan Wake and they’ll be releasing some more episodes at a later date. In case you want it wrapped up with a tidy bow, this first season ends with a fairly significant cliffhanger which may turn off some people. Each episode can take around two hours to play as long as you’re not powering through. Just a suggestion, but if you’re proficient with action games, you should play on Hard instead of Normal.

Much like Remedy’s previous work, the gameplay of Alan Wake relies on a single hook but this time it’s more pervasive. Alan’s primary enemy is the darkness which embodies all of his enemies. Generally, if it’s daytime, you’re safe as safe can be. At night however, the ghouls come out. In order to properly combat these foes, you’ll need to first melt away that darkness through various means, then blast away at them with your standard firearms. The primary tool to do this is a flashlight that you’re rarely without, but you’ll also get to use spotlights, shop lights, and street lights as a method to deter your enemies. Flashbangs, flares, and flare guns are also present and provide some nice crowd control for those sticky situations. While it doesn’t really evolve much, the combination of darkness melting and gunplay is entertaining enough that it holds up fairly well throughout the game. This is particularly important because you’re going to be doing a TON of it. One mild irritation that arose dealt with enemies spawning from behind and getting a cheap shot off. Yep, effectively there are some Doom 3 monster closets. Once or twice wouldn’t bother me all that much, but it basically came to the point that I’d always swing around to look behind, instead of focusing on what was in front of me.

Considering this isn’t an open world game, the design decisions surrounding the interface are curious. Knowing the history of the title’s development makes me think that they stated “Welp, we already did this work, may as well leave it in there.” Just a look at the GTA-esque health bar and waypoint “circle” makes me believe that it was at one point a mini-map, and the fact that there are collectibles at all when the levels themselves are so linear is an odd choice. Sure you can vary a bit from the main path, but the vast majority of the game is a single corridor, complete with gates that prevent you from backtracking. Remedy also included driving segments which work fine, but again, they’re just down a single path. To try and ensure multiple playthroughs, you won’t be able to collect all of the manuscript pages the first time through as some aren’t even in the world until you play on Nightmare difficulty, which is only unlocked after you complete the game.

In terms of presentation, the team at Remedy has certainly nailed the atmosphere. Light beams through treetops casting wonderful shadows everywhere during the day, while billowing fog and stormy weather help increase the tension at night. Just about every aspect is well polished, right down to the selection of songs used for the closing music on each episode. While not on par with Uncharted 2, the varied vocal cast performs a great job with all the characters and pull of mostly convincing performances through the interesting story.

While the open ended ending left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, I’m still interested to see where Remedy takes this game with the upcoming episodes. The town, atmosphere, and characters made me want to keep playing till the end, despite the somewhat repetitive combat. Let’s just hope that 1) the game is sucessful enough to warrent a proper conclusion later down the road, and 2) Remedy doesn’t take their “episode” queues from Valve. We’ve already waited long enough for Season 1.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Atmospheric and beautiful. Remedy sure knows how to create a remote mountain town and its surrounding locale.
Interesting story and characters successfully drive the action.
Manuscript page mechanic turned out to be one of the more interesting aspects of the game.

The Bad
Cutscenes aren’t particularly great looking, and they could have spent more time working on lip sync.
Despite being interesting, the combat really doesn’t evolve much and becomes rote after a while.

The Ugly
No, it really is not an open world game.

Writer’s Notes
Playtime: 13 to 14 hours (no in-game timer)
Favorite Weapon: Flare Gun
Thoughts on ending: [REDACTED]

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

Dragon Age: Origins was my Game of 2009. It was a beefy old school RPG that hit every just about every note during its sonata with awesome flair. So when BioWare announced they’d be hitting the market with an actual expansion to it instead of just some smaller $DLC, I was more than excited. Here we are with that expansion, Awakening, released about 4 months after the original offered in both digital and physical form. It should be noted also that while the PC version requires the original game to play, if you’re on a console you can play this by itself.

Awakening takes place about six months after the events of Origins. It’s your job to establish yourself as Warden Commander and help recruit new Grey Wardens while rebuilding your new estate, Vigils Keep. It isn’t long after setting foot in the arling of Amaranthine (northeast of Ferelden) that you find out the Darkspawn haven’t completely gone away as was expected, and some are even talking. Of course, it’s your job to determine the root cause and stop it.

Like Origins, the big star here is the way BioWare handles player relationships. Sure you’ve got your dungeons, forests, swamps, and a cities full of stuff, but the interactions NPCs have with each other as well as how their background and motivations are explored is great. While there was a certain bit of comedy to be found in Origins, it seems as though that has been ramped up a bit with a metrosexual mage named Anders who loves his little kitten and the only returning party member, Oghren. When journeying around, characters will make snide remarks about Anders carrying Ser Pounce a Lot around everywhere and much laughter is had. This brevity makes your situation feel a lot less dire than the events of the Blight, and it should because you’re just not facing that same enemy. Despite what some had stated prior to release, the new characters are not simple rehashes with new skin, but are fully realized and interesting people.

Missions included range from standard stuff to great deviations. While there were a few too many cases of ‘scavenger hunt’ including one that’s straight up called “Scavenger Hunt,” there are plenty of unique events that make your journey worthwhile. Many of the interactions that take place while in Vigil’s Keep are particularly interesting and I really enjoyed the trek through Kal’Hirol, which is the polar opposite from how I felt of the dwarven aspects in Origins. While you won’t hit too many decision points, there’s one major choice towards the end that will certainly lend itself to further expansions or possibly even Dragon Age 2.

I’ve got two primary gripes with Awakening and the biggest has to do with technical issues that run rampant. Two of my character specific quests couldn’t be completed; one due to the time where I received it in relation to the overarching quest, and the other just wouldn’t trigger despite the requirements being met. Additionally, I took part in one quest during the endgame which required clearing an area of enemies. After I had done so, there were still two animated corpses that would not take damage or attack. A reload of the quest didn’t fix this and instead I had to game the system, pulling my team away to disengage them from battle. These sadly are just a few of the problems I came across and while most are quest related, there are some quirks with the visuals as well.

My second issue is with the length and difficulty of the expansion. While doing the vast majority of available quests, the whole venture still only lasted just over 12 hours. This could be due to the difficulty being significantly less than what you found in Origins. On normal, your character starts off so powerful that it’s a breeze to get through most encounters, including Dragons. I recommend bumping up the difficulty from where you had it previously.

Despite these quibbles, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is still a fun romp which extends the already solid framework laid by the original title. If Dragon Age is calling you, but you don’t feel like reinvesting the time in the base title, or just want to see what happens next, there’s really no reason to stay away. It may not be as completely awesome as Origins was, but it’s still Dragon Age and by that regard, it’s still awesome.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Fantastic character interactions coupled with interesting personalities.
An intriguing and well spun continuation of the Origins story.
It’s still Dragon Age.

The Bad
Much shorter than expected.
Not nearly as many choice points as its predecessor.

The Ugly
C’mon BioWare, patch these damn bugs.

Writer’s Notes
Single Player Playthrough: 12h40m
Typical Party Members: Maker, Andres, Nathaniel, Justice
Difficulty: Normal
Quests Incomplete: 5

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

Dragon Age is not Mass Effect. It’s not Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire either. While these most recent BioWare titles are great in their own right, it almost seemed as though as a studio they opted for a simplified approach, moving away somewhat from what made their games popular to begin with. So when the first information started coming out about Dragon Age: Origins, referring to it as the successor to Baldur’s Gate 2, a lot of people including myself were very skeptical. It’s time to douse that fear fire because Dragon Age: Origins is here to bring back the truly epic and heavy handed RPG, doing so with great gusto, no apologies, and complete awesome.

You start off Dragon Age: Origins just like most other RPGs by picking your gender, race, and class then customizing your appearance. You can either select from a set of preset looks, or get down into it by adjusting things like the space between your eyes or the slope of your nose. The most interesting thing here is that based upon your race and class, you’ll be put into a specific background. For example, I chose to be a male human soldier as a main character and was given the background of a Human Noble. There are six total backgrounds and each of them is tied to a specific origin story. Each story is completely unique, lasts about an hour, and will tell the story about how your character joins the ranks of the Grey Wardens. Once that happens, the world map opens up to explore.

Travel is handled by simply looking at a map of locations and picking whichever you’d like, in whatever order you want. The world map will become more populated as you obtain quests from characters throughout, and some of the larger locations even have their own sub-map of locations that need to be filled in. While traveling point to point, sometimes you’ll experience some random encounters that can be caravans, bandits, or even a lonely couple that found a boy who sounds strangely like Superman. One of the minor issues with this game pops up while visiting your party camp or with some of these random encounters. While everything is designed specifically to really get lost in the land of Ferelden, you’ll encounter certain people that will literally ask you to buy downloadable content. It certainly could have been handled a little better and completely shatters the illusion.

Without getting too specific, a very large portion of the story revolves around your quest to unite different factions around the kingdom of Ferelden. As a Grey Warden, you are sworn to do what others before you have done: defend the world against the blight of the Darkspawn. Unification is paramount in repelling this evil force that has been dormant for over 400 years… and that time span is certainly part of a larger problem. While many around the kingdom understand what a Grey Warden is and what their job revolves around, they’re not about to drop everything just to help you out. Each need their own brand of convincing, and it’s all up to you about how you take care of things. In fact, with every different force, you’ll have a big decision to make as to how you handle it, and these decisions will typically make someone really happy, and piss off some others. There’s plenty of wheel greasing, naughtiness, and intrigue going on in about a billion quests.

Many games with “a lot to do” can fall into the rutt of just throwing a different coat of paint on a wall… You’d end up doing the same things over and over, but for different people or in a different place. Not Dragon Age though; I don’t recall a single side quest that repeated. Each feels unique while providing more depth to an extremely well realized world as well as some cool weapons and armor. There’s a veritible ton of gear available as well… some are just plain ole items, some with unique abilities, and others that you can add runes to in order to customize them to your liking. Over the course of the game though, you’ll find a lot of junk so it’s nice to be able to throw all of that into a specified junk inventory window and sell it off at the next merchant with the press of a button. Along with normal gear for your party, you’ll be able to buy or create traps and potions. The depth to the inventory system is impressively staggering.

The fiction in DA:O is mostly derivative, being based upon archetypes you’ve seen a million times before. If you know Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons, you pretty much know what to expect here. You’ll see Dwarves acting like dwarves, living underground; Humans act like you’d expect them to and seem always to be out for themselves. You’ve even got the major antagonist race in the game based upon the Uruk-hai in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. About the only thing that’s not within the norm is that elves aren’t the majestic creatures they have been in the past and often are treated like scum and in some cases, forced to live separately from humans in major cities. Utilizing these known types helps breed a sense of familiarity and helps lay the groundwork for one heckuva fleshed out universe.

Your Grey Warden’s narrative and story are superb as is the execution. If Dragon Age were a book, it would best be described as a page turner. Throughout my entire time with the game, not once would I shut off the console without saying “I wonder what’ll happen next.” To help stick you into the world, all of the non-player characters are fully voiced and the quality of dialog is top notch. At first during conversations, you may be put off mildly by the fact your character doesn’t actually speak, but by utilizing the dialog trees you’ll simply read what your character will say instead of hearing it. Considering the amount of talking that you’ll be doing, this is certainly for the best. You had best watch what you say as well, there are certain things you can’t take back that may cause someone to just whip out their sword to dispatch your sas mouth. In the very first city, I had tried to help a man who was being held prisoner within a hanging cage, however my incorrect word choices with his captor caused that intent to be skewered. I’m pretty sure he’s dead now.

Not only will your words and actions effect NPCs, but it will also change the way party members view you. They’ve got their own notions about how the world should work and what they want ‘their’ Grey Warden to do and will often try to sway your decision as you’re making it. If you go against those wishes too many times, theres a good chance they’ll just up and leave you. But, if you just do what they want, you’ll get the opportunity to open additional side quests specific to those characters or even get in their pants. Too bad the sexual relations in DA:O feel quite strange (Mass Effect handled them much better).

In terms of general gameplay, you’ll take control of up to four characters in your party and walk through the world in third person. At any time you can swap between each party member and issue specific commands. Those are given by either a set of customizable hotkeys unique to each character, or a radial menu that will pause the action until a command is given. I would have liked to have the “pause ’till I’m ready” button that the PC has, but this system works well enough within combat. Additionally, there is a fairly deep customizable tactics screen that allows you to basically issue commands based upon certain situations. Always want your party to attack the most heavily armored foe? Done. Chug a health potion at 25% health? No problem. You can easily lose hours tweaking the tactics for your entire party as well as individual characters to make sure they’re always doing what they should be without constantly needing to control them directly.

One particular area I am always concerned about when playing through lengthy games is the possibility of general game fatigue. I could either grow tired of the story, get lost on side missions, or start to hate the general mechanics and ultimately just shut off the game with a “I’ll come back to this later” thought, never to return. Thankfully, that just wasn’t the case here at all. With plenty of different endings, six origin stories each changing the world’s perception of you, and having a plethora of important decisions to make throughout, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth. As long as you’ve got the gumption and staying power, you won’t find a better true RPG on the market for this generation.

Score: 5 out of 5

The Good
Simply the best RPG so far this generation.
Fantastic voice work and orchestral score.
Tons and tons of content.

The Bad
The Deep Roads felt a little bit too long.
Some of the texture work looks a bit muddy.

The Ugly
“Hey, can you help me out bud? All you have to do is (DOWNLOAD CONTENT).”

Writer’s Notes
First Playthrough: 33h26m
Character: Maker, Male Human Noble Warrior, Level: 21
Normal Party: Maker, Morrigan, Shale, Zevran
Achievements Obtained: 37 of 54
Number of Dragons Killed: 3
DLC Completed: Warden’s Keep, The Stone Prisoner

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.