3274 réponses à ce sujet

[canticl]

Great game! I've been playing this for three days now.

My hero is a male mage and my companions are Aveline, Merrill, Carver and Varric. At this point, I haven't journeyed to the Deep Roads nor has my hero's family placed a claim for their ancestral home.

The only negative feedback I can give thus far are:

(1) Cool equipment and items are largely restricted to the hero. I'd like to have my companions buy or take these, but I can't.

(2) Aveline is not a love interest -- that's what I've seen from the postings. Too bad. She's worthy of admiration and affection. :happy:

(3) Personally I like how the Elves looked like in DA:O. While I don't mind the effort put in DA2 to make Elves look exotic and different from Humans, I think their ears a way too pointy. Just me.

That's all. Looking forward to more enjoyable hours!

[lizzbee]

Overall rating: Pretty good.  Probably a 7/10

The story was ok, and had a lot of potential that seemed to be wasted.  Lots of "catching up" after a long period transition, rather than seeing or participating in the major events of your companions' lives, and it made me feel a little disconnected.  Things that might have been nice: a snippet of something you do that first year of service, a cutscene of some major character life events in the intervening years, rather than a codex entry.  It drove me nuts that the only companion I couldn't stand was the narrator of the story, and the game seemed determined to inject him into everything.  Even in the private social calls you make in the third act.  Not a huge fan of the *exaggerated* sections of the game, either, especially when you *have* to really replay them later.

Combat was fun at first, but really, really, really got tedious when every single battle, even the trash mobs, played out exactly the same.  Waves.  Endless waves.  Nonstop waves.  Waves of enemies that magically appear before you out of the air.  The occasional wave battle is fine, but these weren't occasional.  The Kirkwall streets at night were an exercise in endless ennui, and I swore that Hawke must have destroyed half of the city's population before Act 1 even came to a close just trying to get from the Chantry to the area exit.  It was rendered all the more annoying by the removal of the PC's isometric camera, and the inability to zoom out far enough to attack enemies on stairs.  Battles that involved stairs or doors or confined corridors were utter torture with the new camera system.  Also, what's up with the bloody endless boss battles?  A dragon's impossible to maim with arrows until its minions are dead?  How does that make sense?  Arrows fly up a hill just as readily when minions are attacking you as when they're all dead.  I got the feeling that Bioware wasn't letting me play the way I wanted to play, and took my away ability to strategize and plan battles the way I wanted to fight them.

I don't mind the streamlining of crafting.  In fact, I think it's far beyond awesome.  I really loathed crafting in DA:O and Awakening, buying endless recipes, searching out endless elfroots, only to find out I was short some vital ingredient.  I'd have to short characters skills just to have them be my crafter, which got a little old.  So this was a fantastic change, and I found myself actually using things I hadn't touched before.  So, kudos on that.

The environments, with hi-res textures enabled, are gorgeous.  I loved to stop and look at the scenery.  Performance on my 9800GT was smooth as silk, always, and was a vast improvement over DA:O.  The first cave was great, very detailed, and had a certain prettiness about it.  Shame I had to see it over and over and over.  And that leads me to another frustration-- the maps.  None updated for the available areas during each quest, so I'd get lost trying to find a course according to the main map, only to get railroaded at a sealed off door, or an area that was "fenced off" with a line of rocks not even the height of a step.

What I loved, as always, were the characters, both my companions and a lot of the NPCs.  Hubert, my mining partner, was a blast to deal with.  Honestly, they kept me going forward as the combat was slowly wearing me down.  I enjoyed seeing the evolution of a lot of the side characters over the years, like the random qunari in the game.  The qun is rather interesting, and I was glad to learn more about it.

I hate the dialog wheel.  I mean, loathe it.  Not a big fan of the voiced protagonist at all, even though Lady Hawke did a good job.  And what's up with all the weird symbols?  I'd have been better off without them, TBH, even if the paraphrasing on several occasions was nowhere close to what Hawke actually said.  Much as I'm not a fan of the wheel in general, it's handled a lot better in both Mass Effect games.

Modifié par lizzbee, 13 mars 2011 - 12:22 .

[Grandchamp1989]

lizzbee wrote...

Overall rating: Pretty good.  Probably a 7/10

The story was ok, and had a lot of potential that seemed to be wasted.  Lots of "catching up" after a long period transition, rather than seeing or participating in the major events of your companions' lives, and it made me feel a little disconnected.  Things that might have been nice: a snippet of something you do that first year of service, a cutscene of some major character life events in the intervening years, rather than a codex entry.  It drove me nuts that the only companion I couldn't stand was the narrator of the story, and the game seemed determined to inject him into everything.  Even in the private social calls you make in the third act.  Not a huge fan of the *exaggerated* sections of the game, either, especially when you *have* to really replay them later.

Combat was fun at first, but really, really, really got tedious when every single battle, even the trash mobs, played out exactly the same.  Waves.  Endless waves.  Nonstop waves.  Waves of enemies that magically appear before you out of the air.  The occasional wave battle is fine, but these weren't occasional.  The Kirkwall streets at night were an exercise in endless ennui, and I swore that Hawke must have destroyed half of the city's population before Act 1 even came to a close just trying to get from the Chantry to the area exit.  It was rendered all the more annoying by the removal of the PC's isometric camera, and the inability to zoom out far enough to attack enemies on stairs.  Battles that involved stairs or doors or confined corridors were utter torture with the new camera system.  Also, what's up with the bloody endless boss battles?  A dragon's impossible to maim with arrows until its minions are dead?  How does that make sense?  Arrows fly up a hill just as readily when minions are attacking you as when they're all dead.  I got the feeling that Bioware wasn't letting me play the way I wanted to play, and took my away ability to strategize and plan battles the way I wanted to fight them.

I don't mind the streamlining of crafting.  In fact, I think it's far beyond awesome.  I really loathed crafting in DA:O and Awakening, buying endless recipes, searching out endless elfroots, only to find out I was short some vital ingredient.  I'd have to short characters skills just to have them be my crafter, which got a little old.  So this was a fantastic change, and I found myself actually using things I hadn't touched before.  So, kudos on that.

The environments, with hi-res textures enabled, are gorgeous.  I loved to stop and look at the scenery.  Performance on my 9800GT was smooth as silk, always, and was a vast improvement over DA:O.  The first cave was great, very detailed, and had a certain prettiness about it.  Shame I had to see it over and over and over.  And that leads me to another frustration-- the maps.  None updated for the available areas during each quest, so I'd get lost trying to find a course according to the main map, only to get railroaded at a sealed off door, or an area that was "fenced off" with a line of rocks not even the height of a step.

What I loved, as always, were the characters, both my companions and a lot of the NPCs.  Hubert, my mining partner, was a blast to deal with.  Honestly, they kept me going forward as the combat was slowly wearing me down.  I enjoyed seeing the evolution of a lot of the side characters over the years, like the random qunari in the game.  The qun is rather interesting, and I was glad to learn more about it.

That part pissed me off quite a bit!
The game is meant to be a strategic game where you line up your party to have an edge against the mob but what good is that when the game magickly spawn 4 raiders BEHIND your mage! I loved in Origins to see the enemy, count  their numbers and bait'em to a narrow pathway and mow'em down(nightmare). None of that now when they just spawn other mobs in every corner! I put the game difficulty from Hard back to normal half way in because of that bull****, how can I make a strategic stand against that when they keep spawning all over and my cooldown for spells and attacks are so long and there's a cooldown on potions too. So so stupid.

[Theagg]

Nimtai wrote...

Mike Laidlaw responds to the backlash of DA:2:

http://www.eurogamer...ge-ii-interview

From that article

Eurogamer: Imported saves don't appear to do much in Dragon Age 2. Will they be beefed up for Dragon Age 3?

Mike Laidlaw: ....... But in order to create earth-shattering new story-arcs or huge, huge changes to the game from the import really does run the risk of alienating people who didn't play the first game and were maybe turned off by it.

......I've certainly seen a fair amount of feedback that says, "I couldn't play Origins, I thought it was too slow, the story was too plodding, too typical, and Dragon Age II is awesome by comparison!" For those people we don't want to create this swathe of content that is closed off and exclusive.

Throughout these posts I have noted that sadly imported saves ( and thus the choices made in Origins ) have little effect in DA 2.

Thats certainly dissapointing given one of the major selling point of the Dragon Age series was that its not about the individual characters ( usually the line trotted out when people are reminiscing about the Warden ) but about Thedas itself and how you shape that.

In reality, obviously not.

What is more dissapointing though is Laidlaw's defence on this situation in that article. In essence they decided not to have a well structured sense of continuity from the first game in which your choices do really count, so as not to alientate the disgruntled few ( a minority ) who felt the original game was too slow etc. And that also they didn't want to alientate newcomers who had never played the original ( again the minority, in other words, favour newcomers over your existing loyal fanbase )

Which seems a somewhat peverse approach to take when creating an ongoing series ( as opposed to distinctly stand alone titles ). To favour those who have not taken up the series from day one. Not that smart in fact. ( In fact why then bother giving people the ability to make in game choices that shape Thedas, if come the next game in the series, you as a designer choose not to impliment them any great degree, for fear of alienating the new new bunch who have yet to play the prior installments. )

Abd, lo and behold, this approach does not seem to have worked as the majority of gamers reviewing don't seem to have been impressed. This is but one reason why many reviewers don't feel DA2 is part and parcel of the same greater "Dragon Age" game they started in Origins

[theenigma77]

Love the game, fun, pros and cons follow.

Pros:
Fun combat
Well written dialog
Like the characters
Deep roads were short, thank God

Cons:
To many waves of enemies
Enemies spawn from nowhere?
To many copy paste areas. Caves/mansions/beaches etc.
Feels to "consoley"
HATE not being able to talk to party members whenever I want
Not enough connection to Origins, needs more Origins story
Mages get knocked down WAY to easy, and if they get pushed against a wall, dead mage.

I'd rate it a 7 or so compared to Origins at, of course, 10.

Modifié par theenigma77, 13 mars 2011 - 12:50 .

[magnuskn]

I finished yesterday. Overall impression: A good game, with some very emotional and stirring scenes, but with some major flaws.

The good things:

- Voiced Hawke was a much more emotionally engaging main character than the Warden.
- Some of the party banter was hilarious and most of it gave good insights into the companions.
- Combat felt very responsive.
- Some major emotional moments in the game. Especially the big WTF?!? moment when the endgame began.
- Overall satisfying cameos and callbacks to the first game.
- The story of Thedas was advanced significantly.
- New Quanari models look bad-ass. Makes one wonder if Sten isn't a "real" Quanari, though, as he does not have horns.
- The cutscenes of your companions sometimes talking to each other and
doing things together. That was one things missing from DA:O or ME1/2.

The bad things:

- The new darkspawn models look extremely bad. Very much LOTR ork-ified. Please go back to the old models for DA3.
- The new elf models also did not improve the race. It brought out that they are a different race, though. For some reason, Zevran mostly looked the same as before, though. Interesting.
- Alistair looked horrible. Just absolutely horrendous. Please, someone, re-skin him to his old model.
- Dungeons and locations were re-used way too much.
- The constant "three waves of enemies" fights got tiring very fast and took up way too much time of the game.
- Overall the story felt disjointed. The time-jumps, however, weren't really felt as much as one would like.
- A major non-sensical development in the end with the First Enchanter. Which did not make any sense, story-wise.
- Some major bugs, dealing with flags from the last game, companion delopments in this game ( Merril! ) and, finally, some of the epilogue dialogue. Please fix those!
- Only one constant character in the game can heal. If you don't want to use that character, you either got to make a mage yourself or rely on healing potions, which got a really long, shared cooldown.
- On a personal note: The game was a bit too much of the "You lose, whatever you do" variety.
- Romances were very shallow in comparison to DA:O or Mass Effect 2.
- The loss of freedom to have a conversation with your companions
anytime you want in party camp. Only getting the option to talk to them sometimes in their house was a definite step down from DA:O or ME2. I'd really hope that BioWare isn't following this trend to dumb down options in their next games.

Overall, I'd give the game a 7.5 of 10. A definite step down from DA:O, although that the main character was voice-acted helped elevate the game.

Modifié par magnuskn, 13 mars 2011 - 01:38 .

[Izsera]

 I've been playing the game for the last few days now, and I thought I'd give my two cents about it as well.

All in all, the more I think about the game, the happier I get. The story was, in my opinion, perhaps the best since Baldur's Gate times. I enjoy stories that are more personal more so than I like stories that basically have only a "Go out and save the world" vibe. I enjoyed KotoR after the big twist more than I did before it, for example, for it gave it a bit more of a personal feeling. Dragon Age: Origins, for me, in this sense, lacked quite a lot and at times I was simply thinking how bland the game was. Even though most people disliked the Fade, or the Deep Roads, those were the only parts I enjoyed cause they were unique. However apart from that mostly the story simply seemed to lack depth.

Dragon Age 2 completely fixes that. Now to be honest from act to act you do get these slight "lull" moments, cause the acts individual storylines really draw you in and then suddenly you get to this epic battle or climax and then are left alone without much excitement remaining. This doesn't take more than 30 minutes or so to get past, however. The family, the companions, how Kirkwall changes from the Champion statue to the family crest and house to the Bone Mine to Hanged Man and so on, were simply lovely. In my opinion the 10 year storyline has really been done well and I hope to see it more in new games. 

Other small things I can say about the story would be that frame narrative and voiced main protagonists are really growing on me too. Frame narrative was an interesting concept for a computer game from the start and I think it can be developed even more, but it was really enjoyable. Main protagonists having a character of this type is something I really love, even though I guess most people won't agree, so I won't go very much into that with generalizations, but suffice to say I liked it.

Gameplay..this is the hard part. I really, really liked the talent trees. The class design was much better, as was combat. One problem I had with combat was that at some moments wave fights got tiresome, even though they kept you on edge. Sadly for most boss fights I can't say that. I know the design decision was to make it so that you can't find the "trick" to beat the boss and then repeat that again and again, but its also tiresome when a fight takes 20 min because the boss has loads of health and once you learn how to do something you have to keep doing it for ages again and again as you whittle his health down. Does it make fights more "epic" and more "satisfying"? Yes. Could it have done that without taking 15 minutes? Yes again.

Graphics and sound were really good, in my opinion. I loved the music, especially in the Hanged Man, and the music that sometimes crept up in companion dialogue was very exciting too. All in all I don't have much problems with that also.

All in all, however, once I get through everything about the game and come to giving it an imaginary rating, I realize the problem with it. As fun as it was, as enjoyable as the story was, the game had a few design choices that simply leave me baffled once everything is said and done. Why add something called "loot", that over the course of the game seems to give you something like 5 gold at most. Having emeralds and rubies and vases and such was much more interesting, now loot is just random, useless stuff. Or why have randomly generated stats on items. I know its at least a bit interesting but when I get 10 ornate rings per mission it tends to get boring fast, and gives me an inventory management that is incredibly clunky. Luckily it also teaches you that the upgrades on the new 5 star ring you got from that npc you just killed has about +2 more stats than the last ring you got so its really useless. After a while I walked around with my companions wearing rings and belts from Act 2 unless I was replacing something Hawke had. Rather than making the last act suddenly swarm you with awesome awesome items of every caliber maybe they could have been spread out a bit better.

Group inventory management..difficult to talk about, I can understand that having characters have armor designs of their own is a fun thing, and it is. I simply love Varric's or Anders' or Merrill's outfits, and I am glad I don't have to replace them with leather armor no.3 and mage robe no.4. On the other hand, with the belt / ring / necklace system (in my eyes) being the mess that it is, the inventory seems much worse than it was in Dragon Age. Perhaps the the other "offset" items could be improved on and made more interesting, or there could be more armor runes or something. 

Another similar complaint would be the combat. Its much more fast and exciting and fun, yes. But why is it at times so flashy? I don't want the "swinging your sword takes 10 seconds" combat of the first game, but watching dual wield rogues also makes me feel bored of the game. 

A few small notes before I finish this gigantic post..I liked the crafting system, exploration is an important part in these games and it felt good to be rewarded while making gold and "merchants" more believable. Reused caves were tiresome, at times, but at least when it really mattered on some quests the caves reflected the mood, like using dwarven themed tunnels or that more dark "skull pillar" cave in some blood magic involving quests. Nonetheless that is pretty perplexing to me as well, I am pretty sure some different cave designs could have been implemented. 

All in all the point I want to get across is..this game is great. It simply is. Its a very very fun game that makes me very excited about the continuation of the storyline and very much amazed at the writing. However from a gameplay perspective there are some things that are completely perplexing to me, and I don't want to continue down the path that they seem to be leading the series to. The way I see it, and I sadly can not rationalize this without drawing comparisons to Mass Effect, is that Mass Effect 1, which was advertised as a hybrid FPS/RPG, was a bad FPS and a decent RPG. Mass Effect 2 "simplified" some RPG elements and made the game a really fun FPS, and still a decent RPG, considering the first wasn't really a stunning RPG game either. Thus Mass Effect 2 in my eyes is a gigantic improvement over Mass Effect 1. Dragon Age Origins, a game that was called to be a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, was a homeage to old RPGs, and as far as I know that worked. The mechanics that were actually changed didn't really need to be changed. While it is commendable that such an exploration and experimentation was done, and while in some aspects I think it really strengthened the series, I seriously am of the belief that the extent of which some changes have gone was simply uncalled for, seeing as Dragon Age: Origins didn't have such a mess of gameplay as Mass Effect 1 had, in my opinion. Thus, if I were to rate this game over 100, I would give it a 90, but I would give Dragon Age Origins a 95. This is an excellent game, no doubt about it. But gameplay design decisions in it are somewhat disappointing, and I want the score to show that at least personally, I would like Dragon Age 3 to be a combination of the first and the second in gameplay, and not to go down this road even further. 

[DrMatta]

Finished Dragon Age 2 (PC) yesterday.

Took me 21 hours (including ALL sidequests)



GOOD:

- Some DX11 effects are good

- Some party members are cool



BAD:

- Some party members are horrid

- Terrible level design (corridors..... corridors everywhere)

- No choice for auto-combat (player will suddenly stop attacking, often very unclear battles)

- Graphics are horrid (Texture artifacting, NPCs are low poly as hell)

- 95% of the game takes place in 1 city

- The small "outside areas" are just one or two areas repeated (at least) 10-15 times throughout the game

- Very poor narrative, no clue on what's going on most of the time

- It ends on a massive cliffhanger (obvious nickel and diming DLC inbound)

- Very, very limited party interaction (the games takes place in a 7(?)-year time-span, yet they repeat the same lines throughout those 7 years)

- Poorly optimized for PC

- Homosex everywhere (you can "heart" almost any male NPC, but i've barely seen the option for the female ones)

- Inability to customize party equipment (except weapons)

- Infinite streams of mobs near the end of the game, obvious filler (bored to tears)

- Forgettable soundtrack (which was also "rushed" according to the composer; so that makes sense)

- Limited dialogue choices that are marked for "Nice" "Snark" and "Evil" (often making different choices in the same conversation sound awkward)



Bioware's worst game ever, and the fact that they're being manbabies about the honest feedback they're getting makes it worse.

Modifié par DrMatta, 13 mars 2011 - 01:14 .

[IndelibleJester]

Pros:
Act I & II.
Combat.
Characters.

Cons:
Act III. What kind of ending was that? I at least expected a kiss before I went off into battle, and an epilogue. It feels like a game that can't stand on it's own, and needs EPs in order to be finished. Even ME1 & 2 didn't feel like that. I don't like that. However... I absolutely loved a lot of it, far more than my disappointment, and kudos to whoever wrote Anders - I haven't seen a character and romance that is so adorable in years. I wish there'd been a little more dialogue since I felt like this game's dialogue and family had been promoted... and then... there was only like, one actual romance scene? Over a 10 year history? Varric seemed a little more interested than that...
Also, what happened to the "last night before the storm" thing I read somewhere before in a pdf for Dragon Age 2?

Modifié par IndelibleJester, 13 mars 2011 - 01:31 .

[Grontag]

This game is scum.

[MartinKlekner]

The game is pretty much comparable to this character i found in the Hanged Man . There is this "Talkative Man" always walking around...but you cant really talk to him.
A lot of things look as though theyre there, but they actually arent.
Why? No idea why this mustve happened. I dont think Bioware got lazy or anything (at least I hope), maybe EA wanted the game soon and they pushed them too much.

I still loved the game, I basically played it 3 days straight and that really means something for I dont usually do that (+ i immediately started my second character).
But I definitely dont like where things are going. The concept was simplified wherever possible and I really hate it - I want my characters to all have the ability to wear different armors and equipment, I want crafting and all the other things that make it RPG. I dont want mindless waves of enemies coming from midair. I dont want copy-paste environments. I want to talk to my characters more often, anywhere and I want to be able to give the more gifts...
Basically I want Bioware to build on the old rpgs they made (KOTOR, Jade Empire, DAO, even ME1), add the good stuff (emotional voiceovered heroes, interesting characters and interaction, enjoyable fight system) and go forward from there.

I love the way the story was built (though the ending let me down a bit, I expected more) and the whole Mass Effect approach, but cant we have it more the way the DAO was?

If you keep going this way, Bioware, Ill stop buying your products.

Modifié par MartinKlekner, 13 mars 2011 - 02:13 .

[garrus233]

This game is good it deserves 86 out of 100 in my opinion. I liked characters, especially Hawke's family (Bethany, mother) and Varrick, Avelin. Hope will complete it 2nd time on hard level.

[michaelfeb16]

I love to give a review of the game, but I don't want to be banned from my bioware account. Origins is worth playing at least..

Funny how the more feedback a company gets, the more they ignore it.

[Loup Blanc]

First of all, my apologies in advance since english isn't my first language.

At this point, the forum has become a chaotic mix of positive feelings and really angry ones toward DA2 and Bioware. We all have our personal opinion of the game: some of us love it, others hate it with a passion, and in the middle some folks have mixed feelings.

But in the end, despite our feelings, I'm sure deep inside we do not wish Bioware to crash and burn, follow the same tragic path than other developpers purchased and sodomized by the Evil Empire. You know who I'm talking about. No, at this point, I'm sure we all hope and want a DA3 that will improve the errors/shortcomings we couldn't get passed in DA2.

Here's my feedback:

1) THE DIALOGUE WHEEL
For some reason, I felt it just didn't work at all in DA2 and I think this needs to be seriously reworked on. First of all, as many have pointed out, it just does not let you know enough about the answer Hawke is about to give. I guess expanding the description of the response on the wheel should help: instead of indicating (Opps sorry) and have Hawke says (I apologize sincerely, and I promise I will find this artifact for you) - which you agree is more words than you expected, then maybe the wheel could indicate (Apologize and tell him you search the artifact).

I know this explanation is pretty dumbed down, but you get the idea. The wheel should be more detailed. The second thing that didn't work AT ALL with the wheel was the actual voice acting corresponding to the answers. If you want a coherent character (and therefore story), you just have to stick to one tone. Have you noticed how depending on  the answer, Hawke sounds like he has three distinct personalities? What question, I'm sure you have. He either is the brave hero, the smartass, or the tough guy. Only the voice actor was way overacting it when playing tough guy and even smartass. You simply couldn't change the tone of your answers without cringing. Seriously. I tried at the beginning to give answers based on what I would answer (sometimes you wanna be tough, other times you want to be a smartass, and other times you want to be solemn). But I quickly gave up when I realized how different the tones were. It almost sounded like a different person. This was a great immersion killer, as far as I'm concerned.

2) THE COMBAT
Personal opinion of course, and I'm sure plenty will disagree, but I think the combat was great, even though yes, it can feel like button mashing at times. I had the same impression at first, but I think you just need a time of adaptation to the speed and the new system. I am 14 hours in, and I am now playing tactically pretty much exactly like in DAO. Sure, when you're out of stamina, you sometimes are induce into some button-mashing of the basic attack, but overall, I think the upgraded combat is indeed for the best. My opinion: keep it.

3) THE GRAPHICS

Were really an improvement on 360. I hated them at first, but it is now very apparent this was the right thing to do. It's grown on me immensely, but again... I also played DAO on 360. I probably can't understand the PC gamers' rage. I personally think the art is great and you should keep it.

4) THE LEVEL DESIGN:
Variety, Bioware. Variety. Spending a whole game in one city is a no-no. And as for the re-use of the same caves and warehouses... NEVER do that again. At least not that often. I'm sure a lot of us are OK to revisit a map at least once (not all the maps) but clearly, by doing something like that, you're playing with fire and your audience.

5) DISCUSSION WITH PARTY MEMBERS
One HUGE immersion breaker for me was the fact I could not speak at any time to my party members, like in DAO. This was a huge problem. You have to bring back this feature: we want to be able to start a conversation anywhere (except during combat). I also understand the party members' personal headquarters, all together, act as a huge camp. Sure, you can visit them and speak to them, only they are in different locations. But guess what: it just didn't work. So many times I would visit them, hoping for a comment or further character development, and NOTHING.
I would visit later, hoping for a romance to initiate, or something to happen, but nothing was happening. This mechanic needs to be rethought and reworked, or you need to put more dialogue in it.

6) STORY AND CHARACTERS
Well, it just just wasn't on par with what we expect from Bioware. The framed narrative was a nice try, but it just took a lot away when coming to personal involvement in the story and immersion. At least, for me. The characters also weren't as interesting as in DAO, and most importantly, the impossibility to chat with them anywhere like in DAO (see previous point) didn't help. They just felt like strangers for most of the game. I don't know how many times I tried to initiate something more intimate with Isabella, but all she was saying on missions was : have you been in a storm in the open ocean... bla bla bla... And I wanted to answer : shut it already. The last problem I had with the story was the lack of apparent cohesion. This was especially apparent when doing the quests.

5) THE QUESTS
Yes the quests were unfocused and almost random. I know Hawke is rising to power, so he is helping people here and there to make a name. But come on... I'm 14 hours into the game, and I still don't know where I'm going at this point. So yeah, there is tension between factions. But it just isn't very interesting as a plot. And the plot is what motivates players to play through the end of the game. If the early quests seem unrelated to the plot, you risk the alienation of the players, who simply won't feel motivated to continue playing. I felt like this quite a few times, to say the least.

That's about it for now. I'm going back to playing. If more ideas come up, I will edit this post accordingly. I suggest you all do the same, so that we stick to one post by community member.

If you've read that far, congrats. You've earned a cookie.

Modifié par JL81, 13 mars 2011 - 02:48 .

[Cerberus Operative]

Finished the game this morning!

However, I was very disappointed with DA2.

5.5 out of 10 (Origins was an 8.9)

Pros:
Voiced Character worked well.
Some characters are interesting (Fenris)

Cons:
Horrific Menus/User Interface
Repetitive, dull combat
Bland, uninteresting environments
Reused environments
Convoluted mess of a story.
Unimaginative quests
Art Style
Most companions are boring
Being in the Kirkwall all the time
Decision from Origins having no impact
Time shifts having no impact
Having to fight identical mobs constantly
Waves of enemies
Anti-climactic ending
Female walking animations
90% of the clothing is horrible
Terrible weapon design (especially staffs)

I hope that DA3 is far better than this, Bioware.

PS: I play on the 360

[sevalaricgirl]

I also love the game. I'd give it a 9.0. I've been playing it for 3 days but I started over today since I wanted to make some changes to my character's abilities. Anyway, love the quests, love the city of Kirkwall. It really fits the stories. Yes they do use areas over and over, but I look at it this way. It all takes place in the city and around the city. I don't mind that they use the same cave system since these are mining caves and construction would be the same. I love the combat but I find that a duel wielder is stronger than an archer. My character was mostly archer before so I started over as a duel wielder. Anyway, characters.
Varrick, so funny and really charming, believe it or not. I wish all dwarves could be like him.
Isabela, she's ok. I have no problem with the character, but don't take her many places since I have Varrick and my Hawke as rogues.
Merril, very cute personality
Anders, loved him from Awakening but he has grown up and more tragic. He will always be a favorite of mine.
Fenris, hard to get to know him, moody guy. Don't know if I like him or not, but he's tough.
Aveline, oh how I like Aveline. She's my Hawke's and Bethany's long lost sister in arms. Aveline is a great character.
Sebastian, I love how he's always looking at my Hawke (insert heart here).
Bethany/Carver, I really like Bethany. Carver can be such a weasel probably why they didn't give us him unless our Hawke was a mage.
Sandal is cute as ever.

The things I don't like. I want to talk to my companions anywhere, not just at specific points in time and at specific locations. That to me isn't fun but I live with it. I don't like the friendship/rivalry system because I quickly became a rival to a certain moody character and didn't know what I did to offend him. I miss equiping my team. It's weird having them wear the same clothes for years. I don't like that at all, It would have been better if Bioware chose different clothes for each time period. So far no one has been to Hawke's home. I would have liked to see a way for the companions to go to Hawke's place. There's no different casual clothes for Hawke, just armors, while I can understand that, I like to switch it up at times like in ME2 where Shep had 3 or 4 different uniforms she could wear.

All in all, it is a great game despite some of the flaws. Really the flaws are just things that origins had that they took away which I wish they kept.

Modifié par sevalaricgirl, 13 mars 2011 - 03:03 .

[Warden-Commander Shepard]

About 9 hours into the game and my initial reaction is mixed. Not because it isn't just like DA:O, but because I feel like they really focused on certain things while ignoring others completely. Take the graphics, for example. The cut-scenes and the way characters move (especially mouths) look beautiful, but the environments look like they were made in the late 90's. By that I mean they look terrible in comparison to the characters. Also, the darkspawn look like somebody just clean forgot to put a skin on them. I like the updated combat styles a whole bunch, but the movements look clunky. Hawke doesn't swing a two-hander as much as do a vanguard charge and slam into them all jerky. The story so far is awesome and I like the new art style a ton. Only complaint about that is the text. I can barely read it. Why make a text of that font so tiny?

Those are just some initial impressions. I hope I didn't come across as too negative because I'm enjoying the game so far.

Modifié par Warden-Commander Shepard, 13 mars 2011 - 03:18 .

[JamesWebster]

I thought it was a very good game, i was so excited about it that i waited at my front door for it to be delivered. I was not disappoointed, i loved the story it was great, the companions were very interesting in my opinion, however I was slighty disappointed with anders, he could have been a bit more lively.

i loved how the combat was much more action packed, but i missed being able to spam heath pots as they saved me alot of tims in origins, I found the enemies coming in waves was better as it made it easier to deal with.

The interactions with NPC's were great, loved the whole Mass Effect conversation wheel, made for a more cinematic experience, it did feel like i was playing in a movie, which was great funt.

Things i didnt really like, well there were quite a few, when it would go to conversations with other characters some of them would start jiggling up and down, which kinda ruined the experience, probably is a bug. The way the years progress was a little too vague in my opinion, like after the first 6 years it didnt really feel like Hawke had lived through six years, nothing really changed just the plot in the storyline, it could've been more realistic in my opinion.
I didnt really like the way the shops were this time around, i like actually talking to the merchant before buying, felt like there was more interactions in Origins, I miss being able to talk to my companions at any time when they were following me.

Overall, the game lived up to my expectations and i was pleased, i look forwards to any future expansions and DLC. The game has great replay value and i will certainly play it more than 4 times.

[BrianRB]

Okay, I've read a lot of the comments on this thread, and I've also read the reviews of the product on Amazon.com. It seems to me that the people who like this game are those who are playing it on console; those who are PC RPG gamers don't, for the most part, like it.

On Amazon, the PC version is rated at about 2.5/5; that's bad.

I think that accurately reflects the result of the change in design for this game, and the fact that Bio-Ware obviously console-ized the game away from the in-depth RPG experience of DA:O.

They essentially took the "role" out of "role-playing".

Further, this game really has VERY little to do with the original campaign, other than sharing a name. It does take place in the Dragon Age world, but that's really just about it. So calling it "Dragon Age II", or "Junior", was really a misnomer. It raised expectations that Bio-Ware and EA obviously had no intention of fulfilling.

[Warden-Commander Shepard]

I don't know if I would go that far, Brian. I fully expected the events of DA:O to have a very minor role in DA2. Also, I play on 360 and yes, I could very much tell it was tailored toward my console. Yet, I still have some problems with the game design itself, so I don't think the "misses" are just limited to the PC version. That said, I don't think it missed all expectations, just some. Still playing though. Maybe I'll change my tune?

[yoda23]

I was holding off but then I thought of all the great games Bioware has produced and my curiosity got the better of me. The High Res Tex pack from Priestly also made an impact on my decision. I am glad I didn't wait any longer because I really like this game but for probably different reasons that a lot of you. First, I only play Bioware games on PC b/c the Xbox is a sell-out and sucks. Second, I have played Bioware since BG2 so I have been around the block with their games. Third, ME2 disappointed me. That was a shallow but great looking linear effort.

I am not sure where all the angst for DA2 is coming from but I will venture a guess that the people on these forums are typically quite dumb. While I have seen some compelling analysis from some of the folks on here, usually they are incoherent ramblings that Bioware shouldn't pay much attention to anyway. (See ME2 for further information on the Tyranny that is the Xbox idiot trying to play a Bioware game with a "controller". Now that's dumb! Eventually if BioEA keeps listening to this crowd the games will all but play themselves. "it's too hard, waa" "My controller doesn't work, waa" )

The new financial model for these games is to first release what I call the "shell". The shell becomes the structure that houses all the forthcoming but yet to be named content that will later be tacked onto DA2. From a gaming perspective I don't necessarily agree with this strategy but as a manager it makes sense to want multiple revenue streams from the same game.

This leads me to the discussion of Kirkwall and DA2 generally. I take DA2 to essentially be a reboot of NWN rather than an extension of DA:O. While some of the controls from DA:O are still there, there are also more of the elements from NWN included than people are considering in their discussion of the new game. Kirkwall looks like a map straight out of NWN and I like this direction a lot more than the Very Linear methods adopted for ME2, DA:O. Wider and broader areas for exploration provide the game with the "discovery" factor that was non-existent with ME2 and DA:O so I think this is a step in the right direction. (Fallout 3 is a great example of open world RPG done right.)

So how exactly does one combine BG2 and NWN into a single game that is playable with the silly Xbox controller? Well it looks like DA2 is a step in that direction towards an open-world OTS RPG but the good folks at Bioware forgot the features of NWN that made that game such a resounding success, namely the surprise element.

In the main campaign for NWN there were few surprise elements but when people created their own worlds using the NWN tools they could, in real time, change the experiences of the players. Meaning that instead of those thugs spawning in the next courtyard, as expected, a DM (do I need to tell you what a DM is you Xbox slackers???) could choose to change things up a bit so the players experience remained fresh and compelling. Without the ability to affect the players experience in real time you have lost one of the most important elements of the game imo. But then the Xbox probably is limited in this regard!!!! AARGH!

What's on the horizon one might ask? I can take a "stab" at it. When you combine Kinect, 3-d displays and Bioware, one might expect an open world scenario where you are the controller exploring 3d created environments and using motion control to act within that environment. Will the Xbox ever be that robust? Doubtful, but there is hope on the HTPC side of things to produce enough power to get a world operational. But to get that done you slackers need to stop with the Xbox controller silliness already and get to work on Bioware to get back on track developing open world RPG's that have the horsepower to be driven with the Kinect and a PC!!! That's the way I see this all progressing but until BioEa gets off of that damn Xbox "controller" we will continue to see games released that do not fully meet their RPG or user potential.

I think NWN was the correct model for the players surprise factor listed above but EA seems not to want to go that road, which considering EA's mission makes sense. EA is not about making great games, EA is about making money and until all you Xbox slackers get off your thumbs, build a gaming rig, and petition Bioware for some real gaming advances, we will continue to see games that are a) released without all their content included, released with fewer customization options (dumbed down for the Xbox), and c) released with the intention of making the worst gaming crowd (xbox players) happy. (An impossible task.) Why wait on Microsoft to update the Xbox when you could take matters into your own hands and build a rig that you can upgrade yourself and connect to your tv in the living room sans the stupid idiot controller.

Ok let the whining commence...

[Shattermind]

probably nothing new to add, but...
it has strenghts and weaknesses. i like that the combat is trying to get more interactive despite the single button being mashed, i like that Hawke actually talks. in other games, just listening to a playthrough seems odd when the main character is silent at all times. i like how Bethany's face changes in relation to Hawke's after you customize to make it seem that they are related. i also respect bioware for not making only perfect looking characters, though this game in particular douesn't best reflect that. varric looks unique at least. haven't gotten too far into the game, but still unsure what the plot is. that's not a bad thing. don't want the entire story thrown at my face like a bag of ser Pounce-a Lots.

[BrianRB]

Warden-Commander Shepard wrote...

I don't know if I would go that far, Brian. I fully expected the events of DA:O to have a very minor role in DA2. Also, I play on 360 and yes, I could very much tell it was tailored toward my console. Yet, I still have some problems with the game design itself, so I don't think the "misses" are just limited to the PC version. That said, I don't think it missed all expectations, just some. Still playing though. Maybe I'll change my tune?

I agree that the "misses" aren't limited to the PC version. My point is that the PC gamers are the ones making the majority of the complaints because, as you yourself pointed out, the game was essentially redesigned or "tailored" to the consolers.

We on the PC are used to palying a very different style of game, one geared more toward strategy than button-mashing. That's one of the reasons I never bought a console; I want a more in-depth experience than what can be achieved on those little hand-held controllers.

[BrianRB]

I'll even take it a step further. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights were both games that took place in the same world. And in NWN there are references to BG. But even though that was the case, they don't share a name. They're completely different games, and were so treated.

That would have been a more appropiate approach for this game, as it's really not a "sequel" at all.

[Skwirl182]

BrianRB wrote...

Warden-Commander Shepard wrote...

I don't know if I would go that far, Brian. I fully expected the events of DA:O to have a very minor role in DA2. Also, I play on 360 and yes, I could very much tell it was tailored toward my console. Yet, I still have some problems with the game design itself, so I don't think the "misses" are just limited to the PC version. That said, I don't think it missed all expectations, just some. Still playing though. Maybe I'll change my tune?

I agree that the "misses" aren't limited to the PC version. My point is that the PC gamers are the ones making the majority of the complaints because, as you yourself pointed out, the game was essentially redesigned or "tailored" to the consolers.

We on the PC are used to palying a very different style of game, one geared more toward strategy than button-mashing. That's one of the reasons I never bought a console; I want a more in-depth experience than what can be achieved on those little hand-held controllers.

I agree.  I like it when a game makes me think.  Unfortunately this game was more like a never ending sidequest with enemies that spawned out of the woodwork like cockroaches.