So you love dungeon crawling? Do you, like me, remember the old days when there was no internet, no multiplayer and you set down with a couple of your best friends gathered around one computer to play a so called role-playing game? We were not only spectators, watching the one guy with the controls play the game though – each of us had a role to play on his own …

Hey, is there some coffee left? – What about some more snackfood and nibbles? – Are you sure we turned west, north and then east? I’m pretty sure we turned south here …

Dragon Age Origins Blog eob dos 150x150 Article: Hide The Map When You Dungeon CrawlIf these phrases sound familiar to you then you might also be an oldschool player like myself. I first discovered RPGs back in 1991 with the masterpiece game Eye of the Beholder, which was also my first AD&D game. Before that, I used to play adventure games and lots of jump’n’ run. Occasionally some sports game, too.

In those games you didn’t have the necessity to put out your pen and make notes where you went and what happened along the way. There was no real risk to get completly lost or maneuver yourself into a trap or even a dead end.

I’m not quite certain what made me so crazy about role-playing games. But when I start to think of it, I realize that I always loved the risk, the danger and the challenge in a game. Intelligent Gaming is what I named it.

And there was not much intelligence needed in the previous games I played. Jump’n'run games were all about timing. Sport games were all about practicing. You may protest now and state that you actually had to use your brain in adventure games. I agree, to a certain point. You had to think logically to solve puzzles (at least in those I played).

Still, the experience in a role-playing game was something totally new and refreshing. You didn’t just click on the ground to point your puppet there; Every move could be your last. Behind every corner would wait death and the inevitable reload of a save game. On the table, next to the junk food and coffein drinks, where core rulebooks, manuals, drawings of certain riddles and, of course, the phone number of your local pizza delivery.

But there was also one other thing. There were graph papers. We would sit in the dark playing and trying to figure out the levels and at the same time map them. Personally, that’s something I miss most nowadays.  Playing games has become an industry of its own and today companies develop games for a much broader audience and thus the games become easier.

Back in Baldur’s Gate your companions could actually die. To bring them back to life you had to cast a certain high level spell or bring the body to a temple, if you had the cash to persuade the local priest. In the latest RPG hit Dragon Age Origins that risk has been eliminated. Your companions don’t die. They get knocked down unconscious and get up automatically when the battle’s outcome was positiv. I can live with that though. I arranged myself with this new game design back in 2001 when Neverwinter Nights was released.

Therefore, I applaud BioWare to implement different difficulty settings for Dragon Age Origins. This way you can play on a harder setting and experience a more challening game. But somehow the oldschool feeling does not come up.

I’m still missing something. I miss the graph papers. I do not want the game to tell me where my enemies are waiting for me. What surprise is it when you know beforehand what awaits you around the corner? What excitment does it cause when you know which way to go? If you happen to reminisce then I have a tip for you; Try disabling the mini map at the top right when you are dungeon crawling and watch when you start to get lost again, just like in the old days …

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