{"id":579,"date":"2012-12-21T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/?p=579"},"modified":"2012-12-24T12:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T20:04:00","slug":"mark-plays-dragon-age-awakening-hour-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/2012\/12\/21\/mark-plays-dragon-age-awakening-hour-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Plays &#8216;Dragon Age: Awakening&#8217;: Hour 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the tenth hour of <i>Dragon Age: Awakening<\/i>, I AM DONE WITH THIS GAME. I AM SO DONE. (PS: <i>I love you, Dragon Age<\/i>.) Intrigued? Then you know what to do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><!--more-->Hour Ten<\/b><\/p>\n<p>No. Nope. <i>NOPE<\/i>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Not having all my stuff is SO IRRITATING <i>I HATE IT<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>But look how gorgeous the design is in this place!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot7.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Time and time again, I&#8217;m impressed with how these settings are constructed and how they convey specific emotions in me that fit the story. I stepped into this hall full of awe and wonder. What <i>was<\/i> this place? It&#8217;s so huge, and I was eager to find out what was insi\u2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-115.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What the hell, <i>where did that come from?<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-25.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oh. <i>OH<\/i>. OH FUCK, WHO IS THAT? WHAT IS THAT THING? He looks unlike <i>anything <\/i>I&#8217;ve seen in this game. And that&#8217;s clearly Seranni with him, but who&#8217;s the other woman??? Why are they with him? They&#8217;re both tainted by darkspawn blood, but they also don&#8217;t seem all that excited to\u2026 well, <i>leave<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>So I fought both the dragons. Nathaniel died fairly early. But Velanna adapted quickly. Oh, she&#8217;s going to be fun to have around!<\/li>\n<li>Okay, what do I do next? That weird <i>thing<\/i> is still hanging out above me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-36.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oh, you <i>fucker<\/i>. You just escaped! Okay, so I assumed I would fight him later in this map, so I headed to the next doorway. I found a chest that had ALL OF MY BELONGINGS IN IT. YES. Then I was annoyed <i>again<\/i> because I had too much stuff I&#8217;d picked up along the way, but the wonderful Armass was just hanging out there. What a weird place to decide to set up shop! I didn&#8217;t give him a hard time for selling his wares to the darkspawn because I really, <i>really<\/i> needed him. After selling all the stuff I didn&#8217;t need and splitting everything amongst my party, I asked Armaas to be a vendor at Vigil&#8217;s Keep. HE AGREED <i>AWESOME<\/i>. I also found this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-48.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ROSLIN IS GOING TO LOVE THIS! All right, the door in front of me says, &#8220;World Map.&#8221; What? There&#8217;s nothing left? But where did that creepy dude go? I selected the door, and it immediately went to this unsettling cutscene:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-54.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UTHA? Who is Utha??? Who is this guy? What is his relationship to the Mother? No, wait, <b>what does he need to convince us to do??? <\/b>Oh, I don&#8217;t like this. I don&#8217;t like this at <i>all<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>This is the first time that a part of the game totally cliffhangered me. Each of the big locations on the map has its own story, and that&#8217;s generally wrapped up by the time you&#8217;re done with all the quests. NOPE. NOT HERE. NOT EVEN CLOSE. This is <i>fucking brilliant<\/i>. I am more and more impressed with <i>Awakening<\/i>, I swear.<\/li>\n<li>So what was I to do? I guess it&#8217;s time to go to the Blackmarsh. Yeah, <i>10000000% unprepared for every second of this fucking place<\/i>. Nathaniel IMMEDIATELY started talking about how this place was haunted, that he grew up with stories about how &#8220;evil magic&#8221; killed nearly <i>every<\/i> living creature in this place and then it was taken over by MONSTERS. And he wasn&#8217;t lying! This place is abandoned, and the only things I came across were Marsh Wolves and BLIGHT WEREWOLVES. Oh god, <i>werewolves<\/i>. Otherwise, everything else was darkspawn or Fade-related.<\/li>\n<li>This is, without a doubt, one of the eeriest locations in the entirety of the <i>Dragon Age<\/i> world. The coloring, the black mists, the creatures, the fact that there are no people around\u2026 it&#8217;s simply unreal.<\/li>\n<li>I picked up four quests while poking around: The Trail of Love, The Lost Dragon Bones, The Burden of Guilt, and Tears in the Veil. Yeah, there are huge tears in the Veil <i>everywhere<\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-63.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There&#8217;s also catgut.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-85.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I can&#8217;t even begin to guess what the hell this is for. What? Just\u2026 <i>why???<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-93.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No, for real, the Blackmarsh is <i>gorgeous<\/i>. In a weird way, I guess.<\/li>\n<li>Immediately after this, I found Kristoff. Dead. Aw, well, that sucks. I was hoping to find him alive. As soon as I checked the body, <i>this<\/i> thing showed up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-123.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great. Who the fuck are <i>you?<\/i> You know we&#8217;ll destroy you, right? This thing told me that he had a &#8220;gift&#8221; from the Mother, and he started to conjure up some ball of energy. The entire screen turned into this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Screen-Shot-133.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great. So what was he doing to me? If I lost all of my shit again, I was going to find a way to nuke Ferelden and just be done with this whole continent, I swear.<\/li>\n<li>Wait.<\/li>\n<li>Why does<\/li>\n<li>Why does everything look like this<\/li>\n<li>where are we<\/li>\n<li>what<\/li>\n<li><b>WHAT<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>OH MY GOD, YOU ASSHOLE, YOU SENT US ALL TO THE FADE.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>WE ARE ALL IN THE FADE. WHY DID YOU DO THIS. OH MY GOD<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Done. SO DONE WITH THIS GAME AND THE TORMENT IT MAKES ME FEEL. How the <i>hell<\/i> am I going to get out of the Fade???<\/p>\n<p>This game, <i>I swear<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Links Stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; You can follow me on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/markdoesstuff\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0for any updates and live commentary on upcoming reviews I\u2019m writing.<br \/>\n&#8211; You should read this\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2012\/10\/hello-mark-does-stuff-community-lets-discuss-things\/\"><strong>very important post<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about supporting Mark Does Stuff!<br \/>\n&#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markdoesstuff.com\/product\/mark-reads--video\" target=\"_blank\">Video commissions are just $25! You can commission me to read, watch, or play anything for current, past, or upcoming projects right here!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2012\/10\/mark-reads-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-is-available-for-purchase\/\">I have just released\u00a0<em>Mark Reads Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince<\/em>\u00a0for $4.99!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/category\/the-shoebox-project\/\">I\u2019ve started reading\u00a0<em>The Shoebox Project<\/em>\u00a0for Mark Reads<\/a>, the first fanfic \u201cseries\u201d I\u2019ve ever covered!<br \/>\n&#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2012\/11\/mark-reads-harry-potter-books-available-in-paperback\/\" target=\"_blank\">Both\u00a0<em>Mark Reads Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Half-Blood Prince<\/em>\u00a0are now available in paperback form!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the tenth hour of Dragon Age: Awakening, I AM DONE WITH THIS GAME. I AM SO DONE. (PS: I love you, Dragon Age.) Intrigued? Then you know what to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[63,48,31],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dragon-age","tag-awakening","tag-dlc","tag-mark-plays-dragon-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markplays.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}