Mass Effect vs Dragon Age: why Shepard has the edge

OXM's Edwin explains why Mass Effect has attracted higher scores than Dragon Age, despite close similarities between the two franchises.

[Jam_sponge]

I think it's development time that makes the difference myself. Though I can see how the world design stuff makes it easier for MA.

[Biggest]

It's more simple for me. Shepard has the edge because he is Shepard. Dragon Age has "The Mysterious Protagonist" going for them. I'll take real backstory over general customization any day.

[Son_Lee]

As I prefer sci-fi over fantasy, I have to agree. I can't get into the Dragon Age series (and I do love fantasy), but I think the Mass Effect series is one of the best this gen, up there with the Uncharteds, Assassin's Creeds, and Dead Spaces.

[MizTv]

da sucks balls me1 great me2 not so great

[TopDudeMan]

I'm more of a traditional fantasy guy, but I definitely enjoy both of them.

[Captain Qwark 9]

prob becuase even though ME2 wasnt as good as ME1, it was still great.

DAO on the other hand i liked better than ME1 and ME2 but DA2 was a total pile of shit.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

DA II is the best fantasy RPG ever made and Mass Effect 2 is the best Sci-Fi RPG ever made. Period.

[PandemicPrawn0]

You need to play more games.

[mynameisEvil]

Well, when it comes down to modern Bioware, they lost me with the Mass Effect series. Mass Effect 1 and 2 made me feel betrayed by one of the greatest RPG companies ever. The first game just felt really clunky and annoying, so much so that I just couldn't take it. Instead of taking that clunky feel and fixing it, they made it into an action game with a bunch of RPG elements. What the hell?

Dragon Age: Origins, however, I truly loved. With DA:O, I felt the nostalgia of Neverwinter Nights rush back to me and the difficulty was nice and difficult, rewarding strategy and using your characters to their fullest. And then they released DA2, which was an action game.

*sigh* I know I'm gonna get a ton of disagrees for this, but Bioware has disappointed me recently. Obsidian now has my heart as my favorite RPG devs...

[Yui_Suzumiya]

DA II / ME II is when Bioware finally hit their stride.

[mynameisEvil]

Have you gone completely mental? Jesus, you must be one of those "Cod-kids", kids who think that action, action, action is how every game should be.

When it comes to games, Bioware hit their stride with everything from Baldur's Gate to KOTOR and DA: O. Anything else has been weird and a total disappointment.

[Captain Qwark 9]

mynameisevil pretty much nailed it, those are biowares worst, most shallow games. on that note, ME2 is still good but DA2 is not

[PandemicPrawn0]

ME2 was as deep as a puddle. A total mis-step from Bioware if you ask me.

[Lord_Sloth]

Depends...Origins had MY character and it actually felt like MY character. ME just has Shepard and DA2 just had Hawke. Neither of which felt like they were actually mine. Just my version of the same dude/chick that was already there. I had 1 nice, 1 neutral, and 1 ass response for the situations... Maurius (my DA:O City Elf) had at least 5 responses to choose from, all of which were fairly dark choices, but they were more varied and didn't have similar effects in the conversation.

I like ME1 and, to a lesser extent ME2, but I felt Origins had the whole Playing a Role side down pat with it's options. DA2 followed Mass Effects image and that didn't fair so well since they didn't even have a grand story to fall back on. DA2 sucked.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Drsgon Age II and Mass Effect 2 are both brilliant. Anything else by BioWare takes a back seat to the 2 big boys.

[Baka-akaB]

Even Bioware acknowledge that DA2 was dissapointing and not that great . They had to scramble and try fixing whatever the could with the dlc expansion

And even if they didnt , it's easily crushed by stuff like the Witcher 2 in almost the same category , or Skyrim in the open world wrpg type .

Even sales wise it did less than DAO be it separately , or all platform combined

[pandehz]

DA2 had some very repetitive locations.

Also the story was quite rubbish.

From the trailers I thought it was going to be badass n all but quite the opposite happened in the game. The way the opening was built up with the introduction of the hero of Kirkwall etc etc, I kept hoping at some point im gonna feel like a hero but nothing ever happened.

Another thing is the conversations feel boring. Worked for Kotor 1,2. Improved the presentation in DA1 with some animations, lip sync etc. But in DA2 it was basically NPC's standing around the quest giver and looking left and right from time to time while camera angles change.

This was always there but I feel Im able to figured out how the game was made, which makes it look bad. I shouldn't be de constructing the game while playing it and instead should feel immersed and captivated by it. This needs to be changed, maybe better performances, body language and better cuts and reaction shots.

Mass Effect on the other hand has taken steps forward I feel. Ppl may disagree but I feel taking the step towards a more action based game was a good choice. If they can tell good tiny stories with very meaningful conversations and each character finely crafted then having a more roleplaying oriented game is fine. Also if the loot system did not seem like I was getting only marginally better loot like ME1 then doing away with that system was a good choice too.

Im a loot whore. I love games with loot but lately many games have been making looting less rewarding. Where I could have got an awesome loot after a battle or discovery instead I get a lot of loot along the way which are marginally better than what I had. Borderlands as another example. Thank god ME2 had some good weapon unlocks and some mod loot instead.

Overall I feel ME has a much stronger fictional universe than DA and better games too.

[SnakeCQC]

in me choices are carried over in da not so much i loved origins but felt let down with da2

[SovereignSnaKe]

-I will take a Sci-Fi Space Opera any day! 30 years from now if anyone asks me what my favorite Series was in the later 2000's I will say Mass Effect