The Dark Urge appreciation thread

[Arani]

No, not because of what one might think. But because it addresses one of my favorite pet peeves of this game (and D:OS2) and another personal issue.

I never liked the idea of origin characters because they're essentially premades. And being able to fully customize my character, personality, everything, is the most important thing to me in an RPG. It's even doubly worse because they're your companions anyway. I'm not hating on those who love it! Just saying that's not for me, and the way things were felt like people like me were missing out. The Dark Urge gives us a personal origin, while retaining our ability to play a customized character whose story does not already exist as an NPC.

Another just as important aspect is the fact that having that background doesn't make you evil, it doesn't make choices for you or force you to play a certain way. I never play bad characters, just can't. I've tried like ages ago with some old BioWare RPG's and I'm just hating myself the entire way through. But the thing about playing good characters is that they choices they make feel all the more important when it's not what's expected of them. Like in SWTOR, my most loved stories were playing good characters on the empire's side. Literally sith and agents, expected to murder, torture, and abuse everyone around them, except that you had the choice to not be like that. And then how the story and dialogue would change to account for that.

More than the classes, more than the races, more than pretty much anything about the reveals of the final game, this one really struck home for me. And that added bonus of feeling like a tie-in to BG1&2 with a dark legacy you can choose to ignore and overcome? It's just a bonus. :>

[wtiger27]

I am enough intrigued about it, to change my mind for the race/class I will play on my first play run. A Half Elf Necromancer Warlock. And strive for redemption from the evil within my char. Sounds like fun. :)

[IRMcG]

Not going to be my first choice of playthroughs, but it's quite intriguing. I'll definitely give it a run when I'm doing a full on evil run. Looks like it might be fun to try and fight against it as a "normal" good/grey Tav.

[Blackdragon]

I sincerely hope it will be more than just "kill all companions before they even join the party". Sure it's fun to have the option, but for the first playthrough I want to play with companions. Especially if you don't even seem to get any benefits out of killing them (unlike, say, the Trial of Selfishness). So, hopefully, there will be more to Dark Urge than what we saw in the Panel.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by wtiger27:

I am enough intrigued about it, to change my mind for the race/class I will play on my first play run. A Half Elf Necromancer Warlock. And strive for redemption from the evil within my char. Sounds like fun. :)

Wizard and Warlock don't mix in any way, shape or form. You'll be severely gimped, especially considering the 12 level cap. Either take a straight Necro, or a straight Warlock, or a Warlock/Sorcerer multiclass.

[Aldain]

All depends on how it's written across the whole game imo.

If it winds up mostly being just "edgy murderhobo: the Origin" then I think I'd be underwhelmed.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by Aldain:

All depends on how it's written across the whole game imo.

If it winds up mostly being just "edgy murderhobo: the Origin" then I think I'd be underwhelmed.

The panel video hints heavily at something Bhaalspawn-related (the blooddrop ring symbol, the infernal-looking creature talking to you, etc.).

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

Originally posted by Arani:

No, not because of what one might think. But because it addresses one of my favorite pet peeves of this game (and D:OS2) and another personal issue.

I never liked the idea of origin characters because they're essentially premades. And being able to fully customize my character, personality, everything, is the most important thing to me in an RPG. It's even doubly worse because they're your companions anyway. I'm not hating on those who love it! Just saying that's not for me, and the way things were felt like people like me were missing out. The Dark Urge gives us a personal origin, while retaining our ability to play a customized character whose story does not already exist as an NPC.

Well you can already customize your personality. Thats what you're doing when you're making choices. Mass Effect did this better with the alignment system. You make choices throughout the game, your reactions to dialogues are the way you show your characters personality. At the end, in Mass Effect, you get an alignment to sort of indicate what your choices leaned to overall. Of course only having 2 main alignments doesnt really account for the full breadth of a humans personality spectrum.

Still, Dark Urge is definitely interesting, mainly because its the definitive Evil play through. But either way, your actual personality is shaped by the choices you make. And hopefully, the Dark Urge doesnt have the exact same story as Tav. Otherwise it's just Tav+.

[Arani]

Originally posted by .Master Jiren, The Strongest:

Well you can already customize your personality. Thats what you're doing when you're making choices. Mass Effect did this better with the alignment system. You make choices throughout the game, your reactions to dialogues are the way you show your characters personality. At the end, in Mass Effect, you get an alignment to sort of indicate what your choices leaned to overall. Of course only having 2 main alignments doesnt really account for the full breadth of a humans personality spectrum.

Still, Dark Urge is definitely interesting, mainly because its the definitive Evil play through. But either way, your actual personality is shaped by the choices you make. And hopefully, the Dark Urge doesnt have the exact same story as Tav. Otherwise it's just Tav+.

Yeah but the main point is that in Mass Effect there is only one Shepard, you. And you get to choose your gender, looks, everything. :> I mean if I could pick say Astarion's origin story but play as my own character, that could be fun.

[Tommy The Gun]

I think it would really shine in 2 player multiplayer. One player picks default custom charcter, the onther goes for The Dark Urge. Boom. Both have unique stories and are able to play custom character.

[gankthoven]

the dark urge seems like a gateway drug to an evil playthrough. judging from the last 20 minutes or so from the pfh im guessing the content created for evil playthroughs is really good and they needed a way to onboard people who typical choose the good guy in rpgs. dragonborne also looks hella cool however, if the character limit prevents me from naming mine fooserole dahing im refunding.

[EMT-Fields]

I am very interested in playing the dark urge first go around. I don't understand why it took them this long to think of this. Create origins and let the player create a character around those origins. Those companions should have been just companions, and Larian should have created multiple origins that the player could choose from. I hope they continue like this, and drop the companion as origin characters, and just let them be companions. Dragon age origins was so ahead of the game.

[mods twist his balls]

I wish every single origin were as customizable as the dark urge, what's the point of playing a DnD game if you can't pick the race, name or class of your character?

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

They'd be better off creating origin paths, which you can tie to a character to give a run a unique side quest-line.

[cl656]

I think it's a neat idea, but I m skeptical about it. For all we know, it could be a low effort pseudo origin that's real easy to market when you make it a Dragonborn.

[Super_]

I was the same way. Why play the origin characters when you can play your own? They definitely make them look fun though and I absolutely will play the Dark Urge probably as my second playthrough.