{"id":276,"date":"2012-10-26T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/?p=276"},"modified":"2012-10-17T10:06:24","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T17:06:24","slug":"mark-plays-dragon-age-origins-hour-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/2012\/10\/26\/mark-plays-dragon-age-origins-hour-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Plays ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: Hour 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighteenth hour of Dragon Age: Origins<\/em>, I discover how truly fucked up the village of Haven is. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to play Dragon Age<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hour Eighteen<\/strong><\/p>\n

LIKE WHAT IF I HAD NEVER PICKED UP THE MISSION FROM WEYLON? I know that Haven has been on my travel map for a while now, but seriously, a story this incredible<\/em> that’s not part of the Blight mission IS RULING MY LIFE.<\/p>\n

I started my journey through the village outside the village shop, where I discovered one of Arl Eamon’s knights mutilated in the back<\/em>. Okay, what the fuck is going on?<\/strong> Actually, that was a common theme for my journey through this part of the game. I kept coming upon some new detail, and it would leave me more bewildered than before.<\/p>\n

For example: WHY ARE THERE REAVERS IN THIS GAME, AND WHAT ARE THEY? <\/strong>Oh my god, it’s Firefly<\/em> now. Okay, just teasing, but for real, what was going on in Haven? <\/em>Why were they decimating bodies? Why are they cultists?<\/em><\/p>\n

As I came upon the Chantry, all I could think was, “WHY DO I HAVE TO GO IN HERE. THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA. CAN WE NOT DO THIS?” I even searched around the sides of the building to see if there was anywhere else to go, but nope. This was it. I had to go inside. So I did. And my brain just turned to mush.<\/p>\n

SO ANDRASTE IS ALIVE? OR CAN BE? OR MIGHT BE? What the fuck are these people doing in Andraste’s name? Why does this priest keep saying we need to protect<\/em> her?<\/p>\n

I like a good mystery in my video games. I do! I mean, look, how fun<\/em> was the story in the first Uncharted<\/em> game? (Obligatory mention that the gameplay itself is borderline racist as fuck<\/em>.) How great were many of the side quests in both<\/em> of the recent Fallout<\/em> games? WHAT ABOUT BIOSHOCK<\/em> oh my god my brain hurts just thinking about it. I didn’t expect anything like this from Dragon Age<\/em>. The story is set before me so plainly: gather an army, fight the darkspawn. There didn’t seem to be room for any sort of mystery or pervasive creepiness. I WAS SO WRONG.<\/p>\n

I found Brother Genitivi and took him with me into the temple, which is EASILY the creepiest place in the whole game. It’s full of snow, icicles, and\u2026 well, I’ll get to that. I left Genitivi behind so he could be scholarly, and he said my absolute favorite thing when he was talking about the use of religious metaphors:<\/p>\n

After all, no one wants to hear: “Willy toiled for many a year to perfect the curious mechanism that would send a sharpened spike up the arse of the unwary intruder.”<\/p>\n

God, I love the dialogue in this game.<\/p>\n

And so I left Genitivi and began my exploration of the Caverns. They’re FUCKING HUGE. Oh god, it was like entering the sewers in Fallout 3<\/em>. Some times, they’d go on forever<\/em>. This map in particular feels like the biggest, most expansive place I’ve explored. Generally, I explored every hallway and tunnel I could, and when it opened to the main caverns, I stuck to the right whenever I met a fork in the road. By the time I got to the “end” and my brain promptly gave up from being plot twist’d too many times, I’d actually explored the whole cavern. I managed to notice the following things:<\/p>\n