Dragon Age Legends Review

“13 years ago, Ravi and his party prevented the abomination Khedra from destroying the city of Kaiten. You were there for the battle, hiding in the shadows, and played a pivotal role in turning the tide in Ravi’s favor…” Intro to Dragon Age: Legends (DAL) for Facebook.

Bioware initiated its popularity for the Dragon Age series beginning with Dragon Age : Journeys.  In Journeys, you traveled through Orzammar, located under the mountains and West of Ferelden. There, the dwarves, the main inhabitants of Orzammar, had to abandon their brethren thaigs to the deep roads. You created your hero in order to search the deep tunnels and caverns to find out if the darkspawn were growing their numbers. There were a few quests that further expanded the world and gave a pretty good understanding of what you would be up against in playing Dragon Age: Origins release in 2009. It would seem that Bioware thought it fitting to return to Journeys, with their latest Dragon Age: Legends, as the “first real game” for Facebook.*

DAL should be considered a successor to Journeys–playing DAL is very similar to playing Journeys, except for the differences to it. Instead of winding through the caverns and tunnels of Orzammar, you will travel on the surface via a map–which pretty much allows for more linear gameplay. You will not get the opportunity to choose your quest options as in the console versions of the Dragon Age games. You get to complete a number of “encounters” with the darkspawn enemies. But before you get to start the slaughter, you have to create your in-game champion.

You begin by creating your champion and choosing a class (Warrior, Mage, or Rouge). Once this is completed, you will have to create your castle, which is quite possibly the single most important aspect to playing the game. In your castle, you create rooms for your workshops that you will need to create potions, bombs, expand your storage/inventory options, and a place for your workers to sleep. Here is where DAL becomes like every other game for Facebook: addictive. It will eventually cost you some money. In order to be successful in-game, you have to spend gold. Which, you can earn from completing some of the encounters you face, or you can spend “crowns” to purchase the much needed items to be successful in-game. The game starts you out with a bit of gold and 60 crowns. Now, there is really isn’t a need to purchase any of the awesome in-game items to play DAL. If you are like me, those 60 crowns will not get you too far in-game. Crowns cost moolah or hard cash–via credit cards, Paypal, or Facebook credits (which also cost real money). Soon you will find out that won’t get too far being penniless.

Quickly, you will find yourself in need of health potions or bombs. Which you need your workers to craft, costing you some gold. Don’t be too much in a hurry to use these, however–it can take between 4-6 hours in real-time before they will be available for you to use. Which can be annoying especially if you were to run out during a huge encounter with darkspawn Emissaries and those pesky Hurlocks. Also, should you be able to survive these battles, you may get lucky and earn a special item unlock–which would be several levels ahead of your current champion level–which “encourages” you to play the game longer and more often to be able to wield or equip an item.

Your “energy” levels charge slowly as well, and you will find yourself in need of a stamina brew or two, which costs crowns if your workshops/workers are unable to craft the items, and they cannot craft items if your workshops are not “upgraded” enough to produce or craft them. So, I found myself falling into this pattern: weak armor, in need of something better = crowns; low health, no potions available from worker crafting item = crowns; stronger weapon/shield and not fortunate enough to find an item drop = crowns. Need more gold to spend on the castle, potions, and bombs = crowns. To sum, gold and crowns will eventually cost you a bit of money.

To add, if you read my Dragon Age 2 Review (DA2) article, you will pick up five “bonus” unlocks for use in the DA2 console and PC game. However, using the item “bonuses” in the console and PC versions of the DA2 game will prove…not…as…awesome as I would have liked them to be.  If you purchased Dragon Age 2, you will be able to unlock a playable ‘Hawke’ champion for your DAL game and two armor sets, Sir Isaac Clark and a Samuri outfit, which requires you to be a certain level in-game in order to be able to equip these special items.

And of course, what’s a Facebook game if you can’t “share” by inviting your friends to get in on the game. You need a good fellowship of characters to survive the more difficult encounters. So, recruit some of your friends to join in on the fun. DAL may sway some of you away from those “other” Facebook games (i.e. Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc) and offer you a much more engaging Facebook gaming experience. No friends? No worries, DAL has NPC characters available for you to adventure with. Since DAL is a RPG for Facebook, be social! This game is much better with friends.

Overall, Dragon Age Legends for Facebook is a pretty sweet game once you can get past using your wallet to help improve your gaming experience. It is everything you ever wanted in a real-time Facebook RPG; blood, guts, and all!

Pros

• Bioware Dragon Age for Facebook = Sweet!
• The ability to share achievements/accomplishments with friends.
• Brilliant graphics
• Ease of use – high replay value
• Great story-line befitting of Dragon Age

Cons

• Once you exceed the level for your equipment, the item is deleted from your inventory. Even if you spent “crown” to get it.
• You cannot expand your item inventory if you do not purchase a “store room” for your castle.
• Must have friends who actually play the game. Or get stuck with the preset NPC’s.
• Crowns = real world moolah…lots of it

[xrr rating = 4.5/5]

*Dragon Age Legends for Facebook is not rated and requires a Facebook account to play the application. The game features blood, gore, and may not be suitable for younger audiences.

All image credit: EA/Dragon Age Legends

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