Haexpane wrote...
Estelindis wrote...
I've found the difference in quality between DLC for DA:O and ME2 to be so vast
Not everyone would agree. I would argue that most of the ME2 DLC was throwaway/ could have easily been launched w/ the game. Zaed and the Cerebus? You really think those were better than DA DLC?
The assassin chick that you can't romance and had a cool story but the DLC was 90 minutes long? Skins for Jack?
Take a closer look at the ME2 DLC. It's very pretty, shiny and flashy. Most of it is shorter than DAO and has less bang for the buck
Okay, first of all, I said that
I find the quality difference to be huge, so I'm not claiming everyone would feel this way. That said, your answer was that "not everyone would agree," so you're not claiming that this is anything but subjective either. Given that we both acknowledge this is just a matter of opinion, then, let's break this down.
Wall of text incoming! (Obviously, it's spoileriffic.) TL;DR version: ME2 DLC looks better, plays better, and gives us more of the drama that makes roleplaying emotionally powerful. DA:O has one item pack (or two, if you choose to regard Feast Day gifts and pranks as separate); the rest is story-based DLC. While the story-based DLCs do grant items, they are rarely interesting visually (I think the Warden Commander's armour is the only one with DLC-unique visuals, but correct me if I'm wrong). Gameplay-wise, they are simply more powerful items; they don't revolutionise gameplay. By contrast, weapons and armour added via the four Mass Effect 2 item DLCs (plus the weapons added by Kasumi and Zaeed) are all visually distinct from the main game. While the armours do just offer various bonuses, the weapons genuinely offer different gameplay experiences. (I won't comment on the appearance packs, as they're not my cup of tea.)
DLC items aren't all that interesting to me (though I did like the Feast Day pack), so I'll mainly concentrate on story DLC. On the DA:O side, we have: Shale; Warden's Keep; Return to Ostagar; Darkspawn Chronicles; Leliana's Song; Golems of Amgarrak; and Witch Hunt. That's seven story DLC in total - an impressive amount. On the ME2 side, we have: Zaeed; Normandy Crash Site; Firewalker; Kasumi; Overlord; Lair of the Shadow Broker. That's six, only one behind - but, as the Normandy Crash Site was very short, let's settle for five and a half as a fairer comparison. In terms of numbers, DA:O has more. (At the moment, anyway - but, seeing as Witch Hunt is the end of DA:O DLC while we still have more ME2 DLC on the way, this may not always be the case.)
Of the DA:O story DLCs, only Shale and Warden's Keep have much in the way of unique areas. Return to Ostagar has a kind of unique area in that Ostagar is redone, plus there's Bann Loren's lands and an underground area that I don't recognise. Darkspawn, Leliana, Golems, and Witch Hunt are almost exclusively composed of reused areas. By contrast, all ME2 story DLCs have multiple new areas, some of which are visually *stunning.* They expand the Mass Effect universe and show new and exciting vistas to the player.
In terms of characters added to the party selection in the main game, Shale's the only one for DA:O, but possibly also (in my opinion) DA:O's best DLC. Shale is fully intergrated into the game: she has a personal quest and party banter with everyone in the group. That's no small undertaking and the result is great! By contrast, while Zaeed and Kasumi have interjections at all the points where other ME2 squadmates have interjections, they don't have properly developed conversation trees and they only have loyalty missions rather than the standard recruitment + loyalty of the rest of the squad. But, like Shale, their missions and interactions have emotional punch. (I don't know why you make a point of mentioning that Kasumi can't be romanced, by the way. Neither can Shale! But maybe it wasn't a criticism.)
In terms of temporary party members, DA:O DLC has a big roster of interesting characters, but none of them get very much time. That said, I generally found them to be the best parts of their DLCs (I really liked the dwarven brothers in Amgarrak, and Ariane and Finn were what made Wtich Hunt worth playing for me). By contrast, Liara as a temporary squad member in Lair of the Shadow Broker is implemented spectacularly well. She has wonderful interplay with Shepard whenever the two are on screen together and some of the most emotional scenes I've seen in any video game come from the development of her story.
There are two main ways in which DA:O DLC falls down for me, though: drama and consistency. Take Leliana's Song, for instance. There is almost no drama to the story, because the player already knows the outcome - yet it changes the story in the one way it shouldn't have been changed by relocating it to Denerim. So many people would have loved to see Orlais, but instead old areas were reused. Another example would be Return to Ostagar. Ignoring the fact that the DLC was delayed so many times that by the time it was finally released any punch it might have had was much diminished, there was almost no dialogue. You didn't get to ask Loghain to reflect on what he'd done, ask Wynne about fallen companions, or ask Alistair how he might feel about the possible responsibility of leading Ferelden in battle considering what had happened to Cailan. You *did* get to hear inappropriate sexual banter between Alistair and Wynne that was completely out of keeping with their relationship up to that point (which had been a kind of grand/mother and grand/son dealie). Getting the chance to put Cailan to rest was nice, but it was just so little.
Ditto Witch Hunt: people bought it because they wanted more Morrigan, but there was only a few minutes of dialogue with her at the very end. When people joked pre-release that the sole contact the PC might get with her would be a single conversation at the end of a long dungeon, I laughed. I didn't believe for a minute that this would be what we actually got, especially considering that this was the last DA:O DLC. I honestly thought more would have been put into the end. Compare the reunion with Morrigan to that with Liara. You see much more of Liara. You get to fight at her side. You get to help her achieve her goals. You get to console her and be consoled by her. It actually feels like a true character journey. Morrigan says little that she had not already said to the player. The whole enigmatic witch with inscrutable plans that may be tragic for her personally is great - but there has to be some point where we go further and find out more! This DLC was billed as giving us resolutions and insight, but it simply didn't. I agree that it offered something extra and special to those who romanced her, but it wasn't much - and the friendship path offered virtually nothing. My Shepard in Overlord gets to do much more to help an NPC's child-like brother than my Warden in Witch Hunt gets to do to help her lover's child. Both are innocents who are being exploited to serve another's grand purpose (arguably, in Morrigan's case, since we don't know the full story, but it seems likely from my point of view). But all we can do in the case of the god child is refuse to go along with the initial plan back in Origins, in which case all Morrigan gives us in Witch Hunt is an angry reception because we didn't help her. If the child exists, there is nothing we can do to help (at least as friends; a lover of Morrigan can do something, presumably, but we don't know what it is because of the fade-to-mirror ending). The ending of Witch Hunt, accordingly, left me feeling powerless. The ending of Overload left me feeling disgusted by what had been done and so glad that my Shepard could stop it. Numerous reviewers have commented on how moving the ending was, in fact.
In general, DA:O's DLCs have been mostly comprised of hack 'n' slash combat through hordes of the same kinds of foes we've fought before, through the same places where we've fought before. The combat would be more exciting if there was more to motivate us in terms of story, but the drama is just so lacking that, once it's all over, I have the feeling of having eaten fast food rather than a good meal: it's insubstantial and doesn't really satisfy any of my RPG cravings. ME2 DLC does (in addition to simply having much higher production values). This is why I find it generally superior.
Modifié par Estelindis, 11 septembre 2010 - 02:25 .
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(This isn't a complaint I have with DA:O itself. When I finished playing DA:O, I didn't want more at all, because I felt like my heart had been torn out and ripped to tiny shreds with broken glass. The DA:O writers certainly got their fair share of bitter tears from me, for their unholy sustainance!)
