Accustomed to real-time strategy (Starcraft) or turn-based (Heroes 3), I didn't find the lack of control over my own troops appealing at the time. I remember to tried and uninstalled the same day. So I don't have the nostalgia factor. Now, I got hooked watching a gameplay and decided to give it a try, and I regret not having given it a chance years ago; it's endlessly addictive, and the skirmish generator makes it endless. 4 stars because today you may miss some UI modern stuff, as certain keybindings, but the good, is that there are lots of mods today. GOG and Steam versions, works perfect, vanilla and with all mods I'm using.
I remember when kid someone told me: "I don't know if it's good or bad, but people say it's really long", and I fell in love at first sight. I installed, and entered a huge world, free to roam in any direction, only limited by the risk I wanted to take, populated by all kind of mythological creatures, along all types of biomes, and countless items to equip, in a race to improve my character up to an absurd level limit and re-playable in five difficulties. Pro: - Long (if you like it). - 7 classes with unique gameplay. - The biggest world for a single player ARPG. - Many secondary quests for each area and city. - Variety of enemies and items. - A community that is constantly creating mods. Con: - Long (if you don't like it). - Few useful skills per class. - Tangling enemies! (solved with mods, like Sacred ReBornHD) - A guide to not bug some side-quests is recommended. Needs: - A dedicated server (the game is intended to be played online). Want: - A re-master. But! Only if is made by fans, for fans. Please, don’t allow to any company to 'fix what isn’t broken'. The only way we would love a re-master, is of THIS game, not a censored version for the non-existing modern audiences, converted in the fanfic of some snobs believing with rights to change other’s work.
When first played in 2007, I couldn't believe these detailed units, I re-played this a lot, but only later I noticed the lower detail of the world. This game looks great in many things and unfinished in others: Great: -Units detail: Excellent design even for current standards. -Tactical combat: The turn based strategy system with all creatures shown. -Music: You really feel the Mid-Northern European mythology in it. -The hero in the army: This is always great in a strategy game. Moderate: The plot: Many 'unfinished' games has ridiculous plots, but this one is acceptable. Linear: You have some freedom to do random side quests, but main quest is linear. No respawn: Many people love, others like me, when like a game, want to still a bit more. Unfinished: -The world: It is like play a game from 2000s, acceptable for me. -Simple RPG system: Few stats for hero, combat has no random damage or misses, just critical strikes. -Dialogues: Basic and meaningless. -Interface: Basic, dialogues even for chose item rewards. -One class. You play with the Fighter. There are altars for 2 more classes, the shooter and the mage, but they actually are companions. Seems planned to have 3 playable classes. (There is the stand alone Valkyrie expansion, in which you play the story of Eneya, the shooter). Failures, bugs: -The chests system: The reward grows with your level. So better save them to open at higher levels (I open them all after clear each current area). -Repeat forever one high level combat, by choosing always the same dialogue option, but it's not unbalancing at the end of the game, when you already are very strong. Don’t buy if you want complexity, or a polished game. But if you like turn based strategy, and story driven RPGs, you probably will be amazed by its simplicity and the love shown in each unit.
There are few games which get better with time. I have been playing HOMM3 for more than 20 years, not every day, but it was installed in all my computers and at least once at year I play a custom map. One of the secrets, besides a rich mythology and its special attention to the detail, is a loyal community who keep it updated with an insane variety of mods. At least there are two mods that I consider mandatory: the HD for high resolution widescreen, and the last HERA as a mod manager to install easy a wide variety of them.
Still playing this particular RTS from time to time since the 2000’s, with its remarkable physics system, which I remember was innovative for its time (and still pretty advanced today!), but I enjoy particularly its soft RPG feature, making units gain ranks in small groups while I hold a fort, until all my army gets gold. For the bad, its worst downside are the unbalanced dragon, and especially the deity (which is insanely powerful, practically wins by its own), but you can banish unit types in the map editor (making an extra challenge to leave the opposite faction with their dragon for example!), you decide.
Role Playing Games came from the Pen & Paper board, in which you design a character in a sheet, and it will be solving troubles throwing dices based on its own statistics, you don’t take your figure with your giant hand making it dodge and hit enemies, that but would be... just playing with plastic soldiers making noises with your mouth. Well, in computer is the same, the only difference is that the computer throws dices automatically, until Baldur’s Gate... maybe the biggest innovation in the RPG genre, making the turn based mechanics be automatically running in background while the player can pause the combat to give new commands to the characters. Dragon Age Origins is the culmination of Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate legacy, adding two points of view (isometric with point and click, and 3rd person action), keeping the "cinematic" dialogues from NWN2, in an epic story with unforgettable moments, and also, a solid toolset evolution from the Infinity Engine, trough the Aurora Toolset, ending with the Dragon Age Toolset, which allowed more than 2000 mods, with the possibility to customizing your game to the absurd. What more an RPG player would want?
