Nobody respects the team leader

[susie_flo]

Argh. Why am I playing Dragon Age? Someone make me stop. I thought it would be like Skyrim but it isn't.

I've managed to stealth through my entire work career finding ways to be specialist and senior without having to manage people... and yet I appear to be spending my free time micro-managing a team of useless tossers who keep dying every five minutes.

It's second only in annoyingness to those games where you have to escort some cowering NPC to safety without them dying. I end up bellowing "Will everybody STOP getting shot!"

I just want them to get on and fight by themselves while I do my own thing. I've even gone so far as to set up their tiresome battle tactics and instructed them all to sort themselves out with health packs and so on. What more do they want from me? A personal development plan??

*Mumble mumble*. I might have to play something else for a while.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Yes, it is squad level really. You can try to get through just controlling yourself but it will never work well no matter how cleverly you set preferences. For tight spots you need to set them all to be stupid as possible and control all of them. No way around it, so if squad level is not for you you will always find it frustrating trying to play this as single player plus helpers.

[steer.livejournal.com]

They tried to simplify for Dragon age ii to please those who want the single player experience but as their core fan base wants squad level stuff then they just upset most people as it was perceived as dumbing down.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I managed to play all three Mass Effects without having to micro-manage my team, just upgrading them every now and then and letting them get on with it. That was a far better experience all-round.

I think you've helped me decide that it is time to press 'eject' and send Dragon Age to the great Xbox in the sky.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Yes, mass effect you can pretty much ignore your team apart from as a substrate for conversation. They are there in battle but just get on with it. They change how the plot plays but not really much how the fighting goes.

A shame you don't get on with the style, but not every form of game appeals to everyone. I prefer the Dragon age way but there are good elements to both. It's a shame as the story of quite an interesting one and it does a good job of making you care about characters.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Or to put it another way, trying to play mass effect as if it were Dragon age or vice versa will be tremendously frustrating.

Mass effect has more options for the player in fights but the companions are very abstract. Dragon age the player and companions are more equal in abilities... indeed in some set ups the player might be the least interesting one to control.

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

I played WOW briefly for a while a few years ago and those escorting quests always drive me mental. Thankfully there aren't many in Elder Scrolls games.

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy the Fable games if you haven't already played them. Very cartoony and silly, but in my experience much less annoying than Dragon Age and other similar games.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I shall have a look, thanks

[dexypunk.livejournal.com]

Try Oblivion?

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that. Is it about the same or would you say it's slightly less good than Skyrim? (I know that a lot of games get better in sequels because they read their reviews and take out all the annoying bits)

[dexypunk.livejournal.com]

Story's as good, if not better. Graphics aren't as good though.