I'm running around in the Brazilian forest. At least that what the name sounds like when the voice actors say it. The Brazilian forest. Okay. So I come out of a narrow pass - for the purposes of level design, it's an open air tunnel - into some ruins. Ogres. Two of them.

Up to this point, with 10 hours, 22 minutes, and 15 seconds on my saved game and the difficulty set to "normal", I haven't had any problem with combat. That's about to change.

Read about it after the jump.

I'm an elven rogue majoring in archery, with a minor in stealth and backstabbery. In battles up to this point, I just hang back shooting arrows while the AI party members do their thing. I use my special shots when they're available and I sometimes equip my fire arrows or elf-flight arrows for a little extra oomph. When something closes to melee range, I switch to my melee weapon. The battles proceed of their own accord. Stuff eventually dies. I loot and move on. Whatever.

But after a pair of ogres wipes out my party for the fourth time, one of two things can happen with Dragon Age. I can either get frustrated and be done with it. Or I can accept that Bioware has created a sophisticated combat system, built from the ground up, and I'm going to have to avail myself of it if I want to get past sticking points like this. I can man up (elf up?) or go home.

For me, this will be the turning point in Dragon Age. In fact, it's a crucial moment in any game. When it frustrates you, has it sufficiently hooked you to keep you playing?

I'm a bit surprised that it's taken Dragon Age so long to get around to this particular test. Ten hours* is a long probationary period. There were times I powered through out of mild curiosity more than anything else. I'm not really the target audience for this game. Epic 60-hour single-player fatnasy RPGs aren't my genre of choice. And I don't generally have a lot of patience for someone's reinvention of the same old tropes. Just ask my long neglected Mass Effect saved game.

But, dammit, I like a good tactical combat system. Plus, I don't want to give up because of some relatively routine encounter. This isn't a boss fight or anything. They're just a couple of ogres in a clearing. So I decided to figure out the combat, play the battle from the perspective of someone who cares about the game, and see what happens.

From here on out, my sense of investment in Dragon Age will skyrocket. I will care more about the game and the characters themselves. My choices for whom to include in the party will matter more. What I am fighting will matter. I will pay more attention to who equipped what. And I will even care a bit about where I'm fighting. Enough so to note that it's called the Brecilian forest.

Tomorrow, by way of an example of Dragon Age's combat, I'll break down for you exactly how I got around those two ogres.

(Click here for the previous Dragon Age game diary.)

* I should point out that the ten hour figure might be misleading; I tend to leave a game running for long periods while I do other things. I multitask. I'm not sure if Dragon Age keeps the clock running when my 360 goes into "Away" mode.