Questa discussione ha avuto 1012 risposte

[Roseking]

 Here is my review from the thread I made:



Let us start with the good stuff about the game. 

The story is less epic, in a sense that you are not a Grey Warden and must form an army to defet the blight within a year. Hower this is completly made up for by how the story is told. I feel much more conected to Hawk then I did my Warden. I feel that the story is Hawk, not a random character that is recruted into the Wardens. Not everyone will like this, and that is fine, it is hard to say wether a story is good or bad because other people's thoughts on it differe so much. In short I ike the story you may not.

Party members play a more important role. I will not say that the group this time around is better or worse, mainly because I have spent 100's of hours with the origins group. What I will say is that being able to ask what  my party member's think when makeing choces. It can also help to avode upseting a character you like by doing something they hate. It is also nice to see that the party has a life when not in the group. Each party member  has a home of their own that you can visit an interact with them. 

Faster pased combat. To me the core combat is the same, however it looks faster. I hower must advise to play on hard or nightmere. While you can plat tactics on lower leves it is to easy to fall into a hack n' salsh minset. 

Dialouge whell. Was mixed at first but have grown to love it. With investigate options you have hust as many choices as you did in Origins. I would also like to say that it is not good / evil as much as in Mass Effect, rather it is agree / disagree and at times it has three diffrent options, non are good / evil.

With the voce PC it makes me feel that Hawk has a life rather then a shell that makes choices that shape the world.

On to the bad. 

While I have grown to like the new camera I am still upset that overhead view was taken away. Some who depend on it may find it hard to ajust to DA2 at first. 

Some choices with the wheel make Hawk say something completly diffrent then what I expected. In Origins youn knew exactly what you were saying. I feel that conversations move much faster but to many not kowing exactly what will be said is a huge turn off from the game. 

Mixed.

No changing pary invatory. I am still on the fence wether it is good are bad but so far it has not caused me any trouble. I do not like it, nor hate it yet. 

Final score 9/ 10    DA:O 9/10

It is not better than origins but it is no where near worse, they are diffrentl which is good. With the changes we get  "This is not DA anymore", if BipWare stayed the same we would have "This is DA:O with a diffrent story. Why no improvements". 

[Beer PONG]

Felene wrote...

bztang wrote...

Felene wrote...

bztang wrote...

Lack of physical scale

Kirkwall felt so tiny...the Ozrammar commons in DA:O felt bigger than the whole city of Kirkwall.

So yeah, I stop reading the rest of the post.

Obviously I was exaggerating, but in all seriousness, Kirkwall is pretty small, when you compare it to all the places you can go to in DA:O. There should have been a lot more areas in the city that you can visit rather than just 2 main ones where most quests are found (Hightown and Lowtown) and several other minor areas (darktown, docks, viscount tower, chantry, gallows).

Well, if you put it that way...

Please write down at least 1more major area and 3 minor area that can be add to Kirkwall, and please, it had to make sense.

How about no more Kirkwall areas and an actual world?  Like you know, multiple cities, and towns, kind of like DAO?

[LPPrince]

 Make note of the fact that I have yet to beat the game, so this review is pre-emptive(As of this posting, I am just over 20 hours in, around the beginning of the 2nd act{3 years since arrival})

There will be spoilers ahead-

There are some things I like about DA2 and then there's things I really really don't. I'll start with things I like.

Like-

How squaddies visit other squaddies at their homes. I knew that detail would rock, and it really does.

I love the references to things and people from DAO. Like Zevran being the one who killed Isabella's ex-husband, Shale lowering the pigeon population in Fereldan, Alistair being drunk in the bar and Teagan getting him out, etc etc.

I like the different abilities to be used in combat and just how effective the archer rogue is. I mean WOW.

Being an archer myself(and a Prince, so I've got quite in common with Sebastian now that I've picked up archery), I like all the detail given to archery in the game. Give my personal regards to the guy who handled the sounds of the arrows flying from the bow strings and all the other archery-related sounds. Those were great.

Didn't like-

The art style as a whole. The main characters looked great but side characters were GOD AWFUL. And it seems all characters from DAO looked terrible. I mean, literally ALL OF THEM. Even the good ones like Isabella had a negative-

What in the blue hell is up with THEIR HANDS!? Their hands look like skeletal monstrosities. Its disturbing. Its the sole reason I won't use Merrill and thankfully Isabella's face is enough that I don't have to look at any other part of her(gotta be a gentleman).

Hawke's hands? Also odd. Please fix that for future releases, because I figure patching something like that would be insanely ridiculous.

I don't like how picking up a codex page makes it show right after you get it.

I don't like how the select button(I'm on the 360) doesn't automatically lead me to the map and inventory like in DAO.

I don't like the new art style(I probably said that already).

Oh yeah, and the art style. Let me make that clearer.

THE NEW ART STYLE. I DON'T LIKE IT.

Lets see, what else?

Oh yeah, the lack of long hair styles for women and men.

Character creation took a major nose dive in DA2 compared to DAO.

I could keep going, and I'm sure I'll find more, but I'll stop for now.

I'll bring up other concerns later.

[Felene]

bztang wrote...

Well, like I said, most of the action revolved around Hightown and Lowtown and recycled areas, the latter which was really frustrating. Kirkwall as a city was not small compared to cities in DA:O, but you didn't really get to go around it much through questing.

Just as I thought.

Beer PONG wrote...

How about no more Kirkwall areas and an actual world?  Like you know, multiple cities, and towns, kind of like DAO?

Know your facts.

DA2 is about Hawke rise to power, not exploring the world. It is the main focus of the game.

DA:O has exploration because the Warden has to gather ally to defeat the Archdemon, hence, traveling to different places finding different ally makes sense. Exploration was not intended.

If you want a open world RPG, you bought the wrong game.

Modificata da Felene, 10 marzo 2011 - 01:48 .

[cheesewhiz]

LPPrince wrote...

What in the blue hell is up with THEIR HANDS!? Their hands look like skeletal monstrosities. Its disturbing. Its the sole reason I won't use Merrill and thankfully Isabella's face is enough that I don't have to look at any other part of her(gotta be a gentleman).

Hawke's hands? Also odd. Please fix that for future releases, because I figure patching something like that would be insanely ridiculous.

You never noticed the freakishly large hands in DA:O? And by freakish, I mean larger than their feet?

[Beer PONG]

Felene wrote...

bztang wrote...

Well, like I said, most of the action revolved around Hightown and Lowtown and recycled areas, the latter which was really frustrating. Kirkwall as a city was not small compared to cities in DA:O, but you didn't really get to go around it much through questing.

Just as I thought.

Beer PONG wrote...

How about no more Kirkwall areas and an actual world?  Like you know, multiple cities, and towns, kind of like DAO?

Know your facts.

DA2 is about Hawke rise to power, not exploring the world. It is the main focus of the game.

DA:O has exploration because the Warden has to gather ally to defeat the Archdemon, hence, traveling to different places finding different ally makes sense. Exploration was not intended.

If you want a open world RPG, you bought the wrong game.

Of course the game is centered around Hawke, so that means the story must be told in one place?  I'm not asking for an open world game.  I'm asking for different locations other than Kirkwall and the Wounded Coast.  How does it not make sense for Hawke to venture outside of the city?  Surely there could be threats to Kirkwall that are outside of the city?  This screams of laziness by the developer, especially when you take into account all of the reused dungeons.

Again, no where did I state I wanted an open world game.  Maybe you should get your facts straight.

[cheesewhiz]

Felene wrote...

Know your facts.

DA2 is about Hawke rise to power, not exploring the world. It is the main focus of the game.

DA:O has exploration because the Warden has to gather ally to defeat the Archdemon, hence, traveling to different places finding different ally makes sense. Exploration was not intended.

If you want a open world RPG, you bought the wrong game.

DA:O was hardly an open world game. In fact, it wasn't even close to an open world game. And I don't think the op is necessarily looking for an open world game. 

[Elvenlon]

Here's my review in another thread, moved over, sry for the double posting, but I think i do have some points to share:

The game itself has many commendable improvements, visual, gameplay, combat. But it is very obvious that the game seems rushed and less polished it should have been. Personally I'm not a fan of "tale within a tale" style, I think that's just cliche, but this is just a personal opinion, no offence. However, I think when you finish the game once and look back, it doesn't give me that many memorable moments like DAO did. (warewolves, abomination at the circle, fade puzzle & maze, sacred ashes, etc.)

The development of the story dived in too quickly for me to establish a strong emotional bond with the characters. Many of the maps and dungeons are repeated, only with enemies and blockage changed, very often you find yourself exploring the same old dungeon again and again. Also most of the story is contained within the city which gives me a very limited sence of scale and a narrow perception of the world.

Even for the epilogue, it felt more like a prologue because the game finishes right after the "tale telling". Which left the players unsatisfied from so many questions in their head. Obviously this is for the sequeals, expansions, DLC stuff, but I think they should not leave so many things unexplained just so there will be more coming in the future for marketing stunts.

The story is rather linear and predictable, with some parts relatively detached from it. When the game had so many screenshots and artworks of Flemeth before it launched, I thought she would play a more important part of this story. She just showed up, saved the day and then revived from a ritual and flies away!?

Comparing the DA2 story to DAO, I'm totally okay with no "grand evil" behind the whole, but DA2 is much less intricatly interwoven as compared to DAO. DAO started from a task to gather three races, but then branched into so many sub-story/plots, and then related them well back into the main plot. For DA2, you can really pull out some of the plots and make them a stand alone story, which overall leads to a less impactful experience.

But hey, this is only my first playthrough, maybe when I play it for 2,3 times, I may be wrong, but i don't think I'm speaking rubbish either. Just some humble and honest opinions.

[Kortul]

Ive played through the game, enjoyed pretty much everything except one thing, lack of companion interaction. While I enjoy the faster paced combat than origins, i consider origins way better than 2 because there was loads and loads of interaction with your companions. Whereas here you get a few quests here and there, not to mention talking to them for a few seconds at their homes.

But where is the actual conversation? In origins you can talk to your companions at any time and learn more and more about them. That is the one thing this game needs, in my opinion, to make it better than origins.

[Hatem]

I just started, and I like the game so far. I think it's great. There was one thing that annoyed me though.
I accepted the fact that Anders is bi, and I actually liked the fact that there are icons in the middle of the conversation wheel that let me avoid initiating romance.
I thought that avoiding all dialogue choices with the heart in it will help me avoid initiating any unpleasant conversations, so I chose "paragon" choices like "Can I help" or "I'm sorry" instead. However, he started flirting saying that he feels like he knows me and at the end I was forced to either accept or reject him which caused approval loss.
So like in Origins, the only real way to completely avoid romance is being a jerk or disagreeing with him, at the very least.

[Carmen_Willow]

MAJOR SPOILERS: DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

I've played over ten hours into the game so far. Here are my thoughts:

STORY:



1. It was very difficult to "get into" the game. If I were not such a fan of Dragon Age Origins (and Awakenings), I would have put it down after a couple of hours.

2. I do not feel any kinship with my character. The voice isn't me; the responses aren't me. My femme Hawke is a nice person - but she isn't me, and I don't know of a way to make her so. I have the same problem with Femme Shep. I really felt like it was "me" in Dragon Age. You've gotten this one wrong.

3. I felt no kinship with my crew/oops companions. At least not until Anders came on scene. Merrill didn't look like Merril (don't like the new elves, sorry), and I there wasn't the same sort of in-depth getting to know you interaction for a long, long time. And of course, even Anders has changed. Frankly, I prefer Alistair's supposed whining to Anders' "I don't know if I can live with the thought that I might cause your death...." angst. So far, Aveline's story has been the most entertaining.....at least her romance isn't all "Days of our Lives" on steroids. I keep waiting for Anders to decide to go back to the Wardens just so he doesn't have to see me die. And frankly, the "I'm sharing my body with a spirit who isn't a demon" thing is a little redundant. After all, didn't Wynne have the same issue?

4. The art style is immersion breaking. I feel as though someone has taken a photograph and cartooned it. People's faces look better...I like that.....but the backgrounds are almost primitive. And, after seeing the same darned cave for the 3rd time.....boring.

5. Just about the time I was beginning to care enough about my brother to worry that we would end up permanent rivals....YOU DID THAT CRAPPY DEEP ROADS THING. WHAT A COP OUT!

I'll play it through because I want to see if I'm right about certain things. BTW, where the heck is the runed elf, because I still haven't found him. Did I miss a quest? And why can't I get rid of the Prince? Is it a glitch that he won't leave my party?

6. Why did you make the women run that way? Why did you make them walk that way? It's awful!! I They look like ducks with flappy wings waddling along. IT'S TERRIBLE! Somebody needs to go back and pick a different femal model for the walking running.

7. Gentlemen: A woman with the breast size of Isabella would never be a decent duelist. The physics simply aren't there. It's obvious that whoever designed her doesn't know a thing about having triple Ds. Any woman of such size could tell you how difficult it is merely to run....let alone fight with knives. You should have given her the cross-bow; she might have been able to manage that.

8. It doesn't look as if I get to change my folks' specialty.....I hate that. Maybe I didn't want Carter to be a two-hander. Perhaps I did want to give Isabella the cross-bow. That was half the fun...how to build my characters. The only people who have any leeway at all are the mages. Badly done.

9. Wish I could talk to my folks more often. Glad they at least have some banter back and forth, but you still haven't hit the snarky stride of DA:O.

GAMEPLAY:

1. I do believe that the baton twirling move I make with my staff is killing me....at least virtual me. While I twirl, twirl, twirl (and Anders twirls, twirls twirls -- what are we a marching band?)very prettily, people around me are dying because I'm not casting...Really guys, I'd rather have the additional seconds to get off another spell than look good.

I find the new power differential between ordinary fights and boss fights too much. Boss fights are supposed to be hard, NOT IMPOSSIBLE! (Yes, I know. There are many out there who beat the game on Nighmare the first time through and for you it's too easy....must be nice....but that's not a lot of us.)

All of us out here buying the game are not superman on the consoles. You could have at least left casual and normal alone.....I've also noticed that the minions are wearing better armor as I level up. And, excuse me, but the spiders shouldn't get harder to kill just because I'm a more powerful mage. Very frustrating. And why so many spiders? What happened to the wolves? Where are the rats? (just kidding). And it's all demons. Even in the dark roads, demons. Why? Are we leading up to something here?

2. I resent having to wait so long for both health potions and heal spells to cool down. I am a ******-poor mage if I can't fire a heal spell more quickly than that. It's very frustrating and I now spend a lot of time kiting instead of playing. Badly done, folks, badly done indeed. Hate the new potion/rune/crafting thing...what a bore. Just let me buy the darned stuff at the store like I used to. And why can't I make my own?

3. I hate that I can't take all that lovely armor, weapons, etc. and use them for my team. I LIKED deciding who should wear what and what sword they should use. Now all that lovely stuff is just crap I sell to make money. I liked saving up gold to buy that special set of armor for Leliana and Zev.

4. The game guide inside the box sucks. The black and white sucks. The information is sparse.


LIKES:

Everybody's prettier. Except the elves. And now it seems as though there are no female dwarves. Interesting.

Thank you for not changing the way you use the controller too much. It was nice not to have to try and figure that out. ARE WE GOING TO GET AUTO ATTACK BACK. That's another thing that's getting my crew killed....no autoattack. Is it already there and I missed it?


The story has hooked me enough so that I will play it through once...just to see. Whether it's a game I'll ever go back to? Can't say at this time. Certainly won't preorder DA III. I'll wait for the reviews.

(Sorry for the wall-of-words, folks, but you did ask.)

[King Killoth]

I have to say this game is fantastic. I love the new art style for the elves and qunari. I love the story and the personality's of the other charterers. combat feels good and flows great from action to action. I love the voice work. I only have one complainant and that is the darkspawn. the new Hurlock look seems a bit cartoonish I would have liked something a bit closer to the orgins of a rotted mutant human. I love the Emessaries and miss the genlocks. the orgers look great.

[Matthew Starr]

Know your facts.

DA2 is about Hawke rise to power, not exploring the world. It is the main focus of the game.

DA:O has exploration because the Warden has to gather ally to defeat the Archdemon, hence, traveling to different places finding different ally makes sense. Exploration was not intended.

If you want a open world RPG, you bought the wrong game.

Im curious to know why youre trying to deffend this issue so much? Theres no doubt that the in-game enviornment feels cramped.
You can obviously tell that the developers decided to trade map size for better graphics. Everyone who is a fan of Dragon Age and Mass Effect know that they're not playing a Bethesda game but in all the previous Bioware titles the developers were able to make the in-game worlds feel bigger than they actually were. Im pretty sure that everyone here would agree with me that, in Mass Effect, it feels like youre actually traveling the galaxy where-as in DA2, the in-game world feels like your walking around your neighborhood. It even feels smaller than Awakening, which is why I too completely agree that DA 2 should have been called the kirkwall chronicles. 

Thankfully, the guys and gals at Bioware love their DLC

But in all seriousness, dont blame the developers, blame the economy. Because of the economy, we are so over due for new gaming consoles that the developers are pushing the them to their limits but our expectations are starting to go beyond what the xbox and ps3 are capable of, that added together with the fact that EA's stock is less that half what it was back in 2008 is pretty much a recipe for disaster. 
BTW, Im sorry PC gamers but because youre so out-numbered by the console gamers, games are just going to continue to get worse for you and never really push a pc to its full potential.

Oh and as for my review, aside from the neiborhood sized world, I love it! Companions could be more interactive but it not really that big of a deal.

Im just glad someone came out with a game that got me away from that bug infested crap Ive been playing for the last 5 month *cough* new vegas *cough*

Modificata da Matthew Starr, 10 marzo 2011 - 07:18 .

[DarthSliver]

Ok I love this game and all but I am still fairly in the beginnings of the game and I am already tired of the Reused dungeons. Yeah i know they get reused but in DA2 its really noticeable unlike in DA:O. Thats about the only negative thing i have found in my 8-10 hours of playing the game. I will come back with a full opinion on the game after i finish my first playthrough. But saw this thread and felt that pointing out the reused dungeons was real important. I mean its not we didnt expect it to happen its just when we visit them there is really nothing changed but the pathing we can take in the map.

[HolyJellyfish]

So far I've only played half way through and its lovely. I am very pleased with the amount of character dialogue in the game.

Some scenes are worth mentioning, that which I felt were incredibly moving and beautifully done.

Hawke's mother's death was striking and surprising. The way she died was just insanely well written. Credit where credit is due

Aveline's romantic escapades were hilarious. I adored them. In fact, I love her character throughout. She is one of the strongest in the game, next to Fenris and Merrill. Beautifully well written.

I loved the story involving the Qunari mage. It was heartbreaking and poignant. I thought it was tremendously beautiful and mysterious.

One issue I had was all the trouble it took to switch out party members. Is it not possible in the future that whenever you move to a new area, you can switch out? This was time consuming and frustrating.

[HolyJellyfish]

Also - One BIG complaint

There were TOO MANY SIDEQUESTS. Holy bunnies, waaaaay too many. I wanted to move on with the plot, and I just was so sick of all the sidequests....

[Pamine]

I just finished playing through Dragon Age 2, a 29 hours walkthrough being a mage character on normal mode. My overall impression is somewhat mixed. I have to admit I came into this apprehensively. The main thing I got from the demo was how bad the environment graphics were, and the previews speaking about this tale being 'told' over 10 years did not hype me.

First, the bad parts. The graphics are not great, even playing with high res textures. The characters are fine, in fact some of the armor pieces look great. The problem is the environment looks generic and not that good, especially outside the city.

Then, this game has bugs. I played Origins when it came out and I don't recall seeing any major bugs, but in this one I saw several. The game froze twice. Some of the quests would not complete, like the one where you have to kill a named elf thug in the Docks and the one where you need to find a kidnapped daughter on the coast. The worse one however is the Isabella romance, where she shows up at your house with an exclamation mark signifying a quest, but doesn't talk at all, apparently bugged and unable to finish the romance (yes even at night).

The story is a mixed issue. It was fine, but not great. It very much seems forced upon us. For example, regardless how much I decided to support a specific group, they would be hostile over and over again. I would guess that picking opposite decisions throughout the game would have a very small impact on the plot, save a few dialogs, although I can't be certain. The ending is also a bit abrupt.

Still it's not all bad, the game is very much Dragon Age, with all its quests and action. I like the streamlined combat, and I don't mind the dialog wheel.

My sense is that it was rushed out, both from a design standpoint where they had to compromise on how much 'story' they could put in, and at the end where some important bugs clearly made it in.

7.5/10

[Felene]

Beer PONG wrote...

Of course the game is centered around Hawke, so that means the story must be told in one place?  I'm not
asking for an open world game.  I'm asking for different locations other than Kirkwall and the Wounded Coast.  How does it not make sense for Hawke to venture outside of the city?  Surely there could be threats to
Kirkwall that are outside of the city?  This screams of laziness by the developer, especially when you take into account all of the reused dungeons.

Again, no where did I state I wanted an open world game.  Maybe you should get your facts straight.

Open world maybe too far, but you still miss my point.

For a game which main story is focus on how the main character become a champion of a city. I think the areas around Kirkwall were more than enough.

Devs can definitely add more random stories for Hawke to go out and visit more areas just to fill the exploring need of the players.

But story-wise, traveling to too many random places will just digress the point of the story.

However, I will at least agree on the repeating area designs, is gets boring after a few visits, but its doesn't annoying me as much.

Half of the people complain on lack of exploration in the game is just because they have been spoil by previous BioWare titles.

Matthew Starr wrote...
Im curious to know why youre trying to deffend this issue so much? Theres no doubt that the in-game enviornment feels cramped.

Maybe because I have a different opinion on something you feel "no doubt" about.

You can obviously tell that the developers decided to trade map size for better graphics.

Jump to conclusion.

Everyone who is a fan of Dragon Age and Mass Effect know that they're not playing a Bethesda game but in all the previous Bioware titles the developers were able to make the in-game worlds feel bigger than they actually were. Im pretty sure that everyone here would agree with me that, in Mass Effect, it feels like youre actually traveling the galaxy where-as in DA2, the in-game world feels like your walking around your neighborhood. It even feels smaller than Awakening, which is why I too completely agree that DA 2 should have been called the kirkwall chronicles.

...I can only say areas in city of Kirkwall and the world map is working as intended. DA2 is definitely not about travel or exploration of Thedas.

Modificata da Felene, 10 marzo 2011 - 08:18 .

[Hawksblud]

Just finished, so fresh out of my mind:

The game began slowly, not going to lie. I powered through Act 1 without feeling much of a connection to my family, companions, or even Hawke herself. The feeling of a fresh immigrant was perfectly captured, IMO, but I had no real drive to raise the money I needed. Nor did I really understand the point of recruiting my companions.

This was improved in Act 2, though, where things sort of clicked. The Qunari conflict was very well written, I think. I got very attached to Seamus the first time we met him, and very angry at Petrice when she killed the Qunari mage, which gave the whole thing an emotional punch from the very beginning. I was immediately ready to get started on the quests. Act 3 wonderfully took up threads woven through the previous two acts. I loved how things were hinted at before they happened, how plots began before we saw them fully in the light. Nice job on that! So the game definitely picked up and was worth playing, but I feel as though Act 1 could discourage a lot of people. If you get through that, you're set. But if you don't, well. :/

Things I thought the writers did very well, and some things that didn't convince me:
1. Bethany/Hawke dynamic. I haven't played as a mage yet, so I can't speak for Carver, but I kept thinking of Bethany as my RL sister's name-- that's how realistic it felt.
2. Aveline. Loved her from the first meeting and she just got better, Lovely writing, and the Long Road questline made me giggle. But I was emotionally invested in her and in all her quests, so serious kudos. Her comforting Hawke after mother died? Also a very nice touch. (Speaking of nice touches, Varric warning me off of Anders was another thing I loved seeing.)
3. Isabella-- started out rough and uninteresting, and sure the face-heel-face turn was a little expected, but I came out of the game really liking her character, which is what counts.
4. Qunari. I want to see more of them now, haha. I am ready for the Qunari invasion. They are fascinating and really well fleshed out.
5. Flemeth twist -- nice. End/ epilogue twist? Eh. I'll wait to see where it goes, but it's a little too meta for me. I am curious as hell for part 3, though. xD
6. Serial killer plotline. Losing the entire family was trite and a little wangsty, but I understand why it happened, character building wise. And the bit in the tunnels (and again, the foreshadowing) was excellent. Creepy and emotional and yes. Nice job.
7. Anders. Okay, mixed feelings on this one. The romance towards the beginning, by which I mean the lines? Trite. Cheesy. Cringeworthy. I would have liked to see some more of Justice, as well. But that ending was a gutpunch. Like with the idol, saw it coming and yet didn't. (Speaking of the idol, we better find out what happened to Varric's piece!)
8. Merrill. I liked the storyline, but was surprised to see no fallout whatsoever from slaughtering her entire clan. :/ No heart to heart, no breakdown, no conversation afterwards. That was either poorly done, or glitched I hope. Otherwise, I quite liked her! And I felt she really grew as a character over the course of the story, which was very well executed.
9. Fenris. I expected to like, but didn't. I will probably change my mind on my second pro-Templar playthrough, though. I think something glitched on my game because he had no personal quests, so. That may also be influencing me against him. :x
10. There was too much angst all over these backstories, would have liked to see someone happier with less dead family. (Hawke's mother/sibling/father, Fenris's entire life pre-slavery, Varric's brother, Isabella's crew, Merrill's clan, Anders's cat/sense of self/mage friends, Sebastian's family, Aveline's husband, etc.) It was a little ridiculous.
11. The (oh god I'm mangling it, it's 3am here and I really should be asleep) Saaresbad questline. That was excellent. Really, everything Qunari was excellent. The mutual respect! The dual to the death! The sword gathering!

The ending was abrupt. I want to know what happened to everyone! xD I feel like this is very much a part two of three, or a part two of something. I can't really judge it without the rest of the story, because it relies on what comes before and what comes after. I don't want to judge too harshly, for the same reason-- for example, Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Star Wars movies because of its position and emotional resonance, but standing alone it loses its poignancy and purpose. I suspect the same may be true of DA2. Even if not, it was nice to play a game structured so differently than the norm, and I can't say I regret the purchase at all.

Modificata da Hawksblud, 10 marzo 2011 - 08:19 .

[Moodath]

Literally JUST finished the game, and I have to share my thoughts...

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At just over 25 hours played time (30 if you count reloads due to bugs and lawlfails on bosses) i'll start off by saying I expected a MUCH longer game.

I won't claim to have 100% cleared the game, i'll just say I explored all the areas over again every act and I did every quest I found while doing it. Maybe i missed something, maybe i didn't, either way, the game was shorter than I had hoped.
The first act is BY FAR the longest there is, simply because 90% of every quest in the game starts/completes during that time. I was 13 hours into the game before I finally started my expedition into the deep roads.
The time issue aside, i'll now break it down into categories, it helps me with the review process

****Graphics -

Okay. The game looks better most of the time but there a few bugs and changes that need to be pointed out. While the overall quality of textures is slightly improved, the animations and facial expressions are just as bad as they were in Origins. The attack speed makes your rogue look rediculous during combat (though fun, i'll get into that) and enemy animations can be just as bad.
On the note of enemies, worth mentioning (though not seen often) is the new darkspawn. I mentioned during my demo playthrough that they looked 'interesting' and that thought remains, but all in all, it believe it was a mistake changing the look. That goes for the Qunari as well. It just seems rediculous from a lore standpoint that I fought the blight back and in 1 years time the darkspawn grew new faces and the Qunari grew giant horns.
Weapon variety is finally present, not every sword and dagger looks exactly the same, and the same goes for armor. Your character looks bad ass atleast 60% of the time.
Now about those bugs I mentioned...and theres a few.
The first two i'm going to mention happened at the same time, sometime after Merrill's request to get that shard for her mirror from the keeper. After that all the texture in Kirkwall faded and was just white polygons. Yep. But it doesn't stop there. Also at that exact same time, all the dalish elves faces became invisible, so they were bodies with hair floating above them.
The biggest complaint in the graphics area has to be the ackward facial animations. One of my biggest hopes for DA2 was that the characters wouldn't look like they just had soddering irons shoved into their butts when they 'expressed' sorrow or sadness. Oh well

****Gameplay -

This will be said across most reviews I think...Combat rocks. Some call it hack and slash, and they're partly right, because DA2 creates a new sub genre of the hack and slash and strategy genre...I subgenre I like to call
Strat and Slash.
Yes, you will be mashing the A button a lot, but on difficult encounters you need to pay attention. Bosses are very challenging, some more than others, which brings me to my first complaint.
The difficulty is all over the place. The rock boss in the deep roads gave me the most trouble, and it wasn't because I was an idiot and stood in the AOE (thanks WoW ! ). No, it was hard because his physical resistance was so damn high, and I had to deal with 50 adds at lvl 12. Compare that to the quite frankly, pushover end bosses, and it makes me scratch my head. I entered the mine area to a cutscene of a high dragon and I said to myself 'O SNAP, STRAT TIME!' but what actually occured wasn't more complicated than 'ranged over here, don't stand in front of the mouth...OMG ADDS AEAWODPMEOGREG'.
Some groups of random enemies were difficult because of their type or there numbers, and were actually more difficult than some bosses.
Simply put, the difficulty in this game is more bipolar than Anders.

***Story -

Mixed bag is a mixed bag. The main storyline went from '...k' to 'o snap!' back to '...k' and ended somewhere around '....wait, what?'
The highlight had to be the uprising Qunari, even though the explanation as to why they were there or what they wanted was reletively vague.

What I did enjoy was how CERTAIN characters ended up tying into the main storyline, where as in other games (including mass effect now that i think about it) their stories are just subplots that don't have a whole lot of impact on the main story.  Let me just say that my...i mean Hawke's, emotions were running amuck when a certain romantic interest did a certain thing at the end.

That said, I didn't care about all the characters. Some of the personalities were just mehish.
The ones I did care about (Anders, Varric, Bodahn, Sandal) played awesome roles in the story, and are without a date, my favorite parts of the game, and the like for Bodahn and Sandle expands beyond 'ENCHANTMENT?!?!?!'
Everytime I saw Bodahn's face, how withered and aged he was becoming, his eyes becoming greyer...I felt sad for him. Hearing Sandal move beyond just saying 'Hi' and 'Enchantment!' was nice as well, even if he did start to worry me when he started barking at my dog...poor chuckles...he must of been so confused.

The side quests in the game are aplently, and there is far too many storylines for me to address individually. So let me just say that overall, its a mixed bag. Some subplots are well thought out and executed, some are left unfinished, and some are just plain stupid. At the end, theres only about 6 that I would say I really 'enjoyed' and 3 of em were quests from companions, and one involved my mother.


**** Player Character -

I only use this category with RPGs, and i feel its extremely important with Bioware games.
Overall, Hawke is an awesome character. While I wasn't able to shape him in my vision as easily as I could in other games, theres still a fair amount of freedom to be had here. The main culprit to this problem is the conversation wheel.

Let me say that I like the wheel. I like the feel of it. I had that in this game it is misleading quite a few times. I'll pick something I wanted said and then hawke would turn around and say something that threw me completely off guard. If theres a dragon age 3, and I know there will be, bring back text responses, and keep the character's voice. You can have your cake and eat it too.

Hawke's story of becoming the champion is told in a responsible manner, but what happens after that is a giant wtf. In fact, the ending itself is a giant wtf, as we are just told 'lol, he like went away and stuff, and the end.' Really? Thats it? After all that I don't even get an ounce of an idea on where he's gone off to? I feel cheated. Very, very cheated.


**** Atmosphere -

I hope you like Kirkwall...because with the exception of about 4 other areas (yeh, only 4) its the only thing you will be seeing the entire game, which is a disappointment. After spending roughly 22 of my 25 hours in the same location, my brain was starting to hurt, and frustration was present. It didn't help that every region of kirkwall is seperate, so I ran into times where I'd sit at a 20 second loading screen, talk to someone for a minute, then sit at another 20 second loading screen and repeat the cycle a few times. You'd think that if you can have games like Fallout and Oblivion that only require short loads during building transitions that the problem wouldn't be present. But I digress.
Kirkwall is kirkwall. Its not spectacular, but its unique enough to not be 'just another fantasy city'. Having to stare at it for the entire game did it no favors. Fail :\\


**** Replay Value

Not as much as Origins, i'll say that right now...with only 1 city and a bunch of side quests that have only 1 outcome, theres little reason to do them all over again. The main quest however, DEMANDS atleast two playthroughs in order to fully experience the story, as it is with other bioware games.
You can get atleast 100-120 hours out of the game before it becomes more tedious than fun.

**** Overall

In the end, after all the gripes I have with it, I still feel satisfied. While some stories weren't told very well or ended in meh, the main storyline itself was a good time. I wouldn't rank it up there with Mass Effect or Origins, but Bioware did a good job with it. One of the biggest problems was the overwhelming number of quests made availible almost immedietly, which made it difficult to keep up with the story of some.
It was shorter than I wanted, but I think it was long enough to tell the story for the most part, with the biggest disappointment being the poorly executed Epilogue.
All in all, It was an enjoyable 25 hours. I had some laughs, I almost had a cry, and I was satisfied in the end. Now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go start my 2nd playthrough!



8.5/10

Modificata da Moodath, 10 marzo 2011 - 08:50 .

[DemiG]

Ok first off i must say i am extreamly disapointed with this game to the point that if i bought the console version i would take it back and demand a refund!

The story is lacking, far to short and pointless.

- The collecting gold to go on the expedition is B.S. and i am sure i speak for most in here that agree it was put into the game to take up game playing hours so you can advertise having a game with lots of content and a long lasting story.

- I beat the game in 12 hours (thats not skipping conversations) and 6 hours of that was gathering coin for the expedition.

- The final act of the story sneaks up on you. i was following the missions given to me in the second act and third and found my self in the final battle.. I dont feel anything for the city.

- Hawkes rise to power... There is none... yet thats the main point of this? correct me if i am wrong but him becomming champion seems small considering convienetly the chair of the viscount is open towards the end and your the most influential "noble" yet you dont get a chance to claim it for your self?

-After defeating the knight commander your character runs away... WHY?  You should be seen as a hero for saving the town from tyrrany. That seat for viscount should be all the more closer. Is it because you defeated the Knight commander who had her position taken away from her by her captain just before the final fight? with all the witnesses it seems very unlikely that this is the reason the champion is missing.

- Where is the rest of the story? The story seems rushed and the ending is HORRIBLE. I honestly dont see the point in this. It seems more like a expansion that you buy for 30$ then an actual 60$ game.

- One more thing thats been buggin me about the story.. Where is the lady from the demo? The demo made her seem like one of the main characters yet i never ran into her. Seriously i feel like i did when i played Rainbow six: Vegas to get to the best part to be interupted with a "Too Be Continued..." I honestly believe crap like that is the reason piracy seems so apealing...

As for the gameplay/combat Its a nice change of pace and enjoyable. The equipment for companions is very lame and the variation of equipment as a hole seems very limited. Im willing to bet theres probably only 70 diffrent equipment but each with a randomized attributes based on where your at in the game.

Graphics and artwork is ok but why do darkspawn look cartoony while the human characters look more realistic? I liked the darkspawn in DA:O cause you can relate them to corrupted humans and dwarfs that turned into darkspawn making the story behind them more deep.
Another thing i didnt understand is why are the high res textures downloadable? the game only takes 5 gigs yet i have to waste bandwidth to download textures that shoulda came on the disc?
The PC version is glitched in a way to where playing the game on max settings while using Direct X 11 is impossible to play through.

All in all this game is compleatly overpriced and if i was to rate this it would get a 2 of 5 rateing soley because the combat is fun and enjoyable.
Well that and being a sarcastic ****** made the game so much more humerous.

If BioWare puts out another dragon age  this poorly i can see it loseing some fans.


Something i forgot to mension was the fact that there was no point in importing my DA:O clear data. Other then hearing the pub master talk about how the pigeon population is dropping it didnt add a single thing to the story.

The Emporium DLC that came with my pre-order is also pointless. It adds nothing but another shop with no interactable characters even the store owner sits in his chair as a statue and if you try to speak to the only none moving lifeless human character he tells you not to manhandle his urchin <_< From the discription of this 10$ DLC (if you bought it) i expected a back room or something more interesting. I feel sorry for everyone who was tricked into paying money for this useless DLC, Then again thats just my opinion.

Modificata da DemiG, 10 marzo 2011 - 09:11 .

[jb1983]

 Graphics were a big improvement over the last one, but I do think more could be done to prevent repetative scenery. I felt boxed in playing DA2 as opposed to DA:O. 

The storyline was actually superior to DA:O, which is saying something because DA:O had a fantastic story. Still, it took a bit longer to get into this storyline as opposed to DA:O. 

The downside is there isn't much said about your character from DA:O, which while it doesn't feel like that character was a waste, it certainly puts a damper on everything. The hope is that DLC will make up for this. For instance, whatever happened to my character and Morrigan once they disappeared? 

The ending is interesting as I'm left with more questions than answers, leading me to believe that both Hawke and my DA:O characters will be in DA3 (or so I hope). However, I'm kind of interested to see where all of this is going; it appears there is a civil war or a rebellion with the circles breaking out against the Chantry. 

Overall, I was impressed with the game, but I do look forward to some DLC to hopefully answer more questions. 

[SHawke]

Combat:

I thought it was a bit shallow at first, but when skills started getting upgraded and you could do cross-class combos with disorientation, brittle and staggering, and I realized there was a clever tactical depth. (+)

Enemies however, were repetitive and fell into a predictable rhythm after awhile, as they spawned in the same areas(which were re-used) and often had the same composition. It was impossible to 'look out' for assassins as they often killed mages/rogues in one hit. The assassin thing was fine, but overdone in an aspect. (-)

I liked how the enemy mages would cast aoe spells and you could avoid them. (+)

Boss fights gave you a lot of room for tactical play, I loved it. (+)

Certain abilities, however, just still are not useful. Such as the abilities where you 'teleport' to beside an ally - the movement is extremely responsive, you do not get slowed often, there is just no need to use that ability when you can run there. (?)

Graphics:

Good art style, and distinctive. (+)

I like how the elements look much more natural now, over DA:O (+)

I did not enable the high-res textures, so I'm not sure anybody is facing the same issue as me. King Alistair's armor was particularly distracting - the textures were so stretched it looked like it came from a game made 10 years ago. (-)

I could hardly tell whether kirkwall changed over the years.. I'm not sure if this is a graphic thing, but I'll leave it here anyway. (?)

General:

Armor and weapons looked distinctive and I liked that. (+)

I know that dragons and giant spiders eat people, but I don't like the idea of finding obscenely misplaced items such as staffs and gold in every spider I kill (-)

What? Anders/Bethany/Mage Hawke/Merrill carries a staff around town and there aren't templars who want trouble with them? Even before hawke was the champion? (-)

The voicing was good. I liked it. (+)

This might be a personal thing, but I think garrett hawke looks like crap as opposed to his portrayal in the trailer. His features are too... barbaric. (?)

Items were messy and undistinguishable, they shared similar stats. If you're not going to include picture icons for them, name them differently. I do not enjoy sorting rings that give you +3% physical damage with 5 other rings that have different stats and they are all called "Ring" and look the same. (-)

If you want to tell a story over time, I think there should be brief cutscenes of what hawke is doing or how people are treating him/her in a short cinematic in between acts. Still, personal preferrence. (?)

The DLCs: I bought the signature edition, and I was greatly disappointed with the DLCs. Sebastien wasn't even an interesting addition, unlike the Golem from DA:O. The signature edition items were overpowered - I do not think it would be wise to throw everything at the player at once, or rather make it such that hawke discovers them over time, there is an npc who gives it to him with some minor plot point, etc. The black emporium and the dog.. was simply a mess. (-)

Companions:

Romance scenes were done better than DA:O, but I would have liked something like from ME2, instead of a hasty scene before fading to black. Still, much better than in DA:O, but nowhere near good. (?)

I felt companion development was weaker, I felt somehow less drawn or interested in them. (-)

I also thought, since I had a romance with anders, I could at least TRY to use such an option to persuade him to aid me against the mages at the end. I'm not sure if I 'completed' the romance, but i'm quite sure it wouldn't be available even if I did. I felt that romance was a one-button win. There should be choices in conversations that can make or break the relationship, not hawke settling everything easily  in one option. (-)

Since liking companions are strictly subjective, there is little for me to comment on.

Plot:

The intro was bad. We should have had moments in lothering, and allow us to see that hawke had a home and a family before the darkspawn came, and let us witness the destructive capabilities of the darkspawn.

The whole plot seems insignificant to thedas. What does being the champion of kirkwall give hawke? He controls it... okay...? The role seems insignificant - I mean, so what if Meredith were in charge? Would she lead the entire army of kirkwall to kill all the circles across thedas? What is hawke doing in her position? What is the significance of that sword? These were questions unanswered, and thus they seem much like smoke.

Unfortunately, The champion does not seem to be changing the fate of
kirkwall much, besides from the qunari matter - unlike the warden
changing ferelden.

However, tough choices had to be made and the plot had an interesting twists here and there, so I would not call the overall result bad.

Overall:
I still had a great time with the game, I love this franchise and I hope it continues in a direction somewhere in between DA:O and DA2. I clocked 22 hours in my first playthrough as a female rogue.

8/10

P.s Please bring back skills like persuade... Gives you more options to fight or talk

Modificata da SHawke, 10 marzo 2011 - 10:44 .

[Gunzwei]

 Beat the PC version last night.

Gameplay

Combat

Faster paced combat looks better and makes the non-mage classes a lot more fun to play. The multiple specialization trees also allow for some interesting party set ups especially since you don't have a dedicated healer anymore.The Zap Brannigan approach of wave after wave of mobs however got really old about halfway through the game. Ultimately for quests I just learned to burst down the leader in seconds then AoE fest the rest of the mobs till it was over.


For me personally this is where combat showed the most cracks. Way too many "insert army of x here" encounters. All it really did was break immersion and demonstrate the lack of mob variety which in turn leads to the "rushed game" feel. Boss encounters on the other hand were extremely well done, especially Meredith.

Party AI is also much improved in DA2 although I think combat balance is sort of unbalanced due to the heavy AoE nature of the game. 


Layout and UI 

New UI was better and I prefer the minimalist approach to inventory management. Bagspace however were always an issue. I was about 2/3's through the game before I even realized backpacks existed. Junk items just need to be removed as they have zero purpose in the game. Towards the second half of the game I simply stopped looting them.

The layout of the areas was well done but severely lacked variety and atmosphere. Most of DA2 takes place in a mine, warehouse, or the beach. Most of DA:O takes place in Ferelden. Easily the worst part of the game since it affects the entire game. It bottlenecks the narrative and character development as they have no room to breath/grow. It's very far reaching to expect people to develop an attachment with a DA2 party member just as it would be in DA:O if the whole game only took place in Denerim.

Story

The Companions
The new/old companions were done very well but as mentioned above the lack of setting kills the effort. The rival/friendship system was very cool and it's worth a second playthrough just to see it differently. One problem though is that each member is very narrowly focused on how they perceive the world whereas in DA:O they're open to the idea of seeing it differently (at least this is the impression I got). 

The Main Narrative 
Very well done but comes a bit late. The Templar/Circle story is a great addition to the world. I still would have preferred more of the game be focused on this instead of the volume of pointless sidequesting. Again more settings would have made this much better. Last but not least the 10 year thing at times came across as "and then we went off on adventures that our budget couldn't include" in the interum times.

Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall
Noble origin Human = Hawke.  As even an NPC points out Hawke is the champion of a city while the Grey Warden is the hero of a nation. In that sense Hawke never has a conclusion in the core game and more pulled into a chain events that will happen irredgardless of his/her involvement. In total Hawke makes one major decision in the entire game at the end. This is not to say that the character is bad. I really liked Hawke but I felt the environment he was put in was lacking to such a degree that even the NPC dialogue at times jokes about it. (Isn't this a job for the city guards?)

Overall

DA2 with its flaws is still a good game and does improve on some of the lackluster qualities of the the original. However it does come across a very rushed game or at the very least an underdeveloped one. As such it drags everything down including the narrative which in my opinion it diminishes. Hopefully an expansion will come out that fleshes the game out a bit more but as it stands it's still in the valley while Origins is on the summit. 

On the topic of expansions/DLC I remember awhile back reading a BW person mention that x-pacs don't sell that well and wanted to point out that BW released what I consider the best DLC ever made (Shadowbroker for ME2) and the worst (Witchhunt) on the same day. If ME2 released an x-pac I would buy it no questions asked because I have consumer confidence in the product. If DA2 released an x-pac I would need a review and possibly some word of mouth to even consider purchasing it because of DA's track record of half-assed finished post-game content.

[Nintox]

*Spoils*

Alright, I finally finished my first play through, I tried to peg out most of the quests, I ignored the herbalist errands simple because I had enough picking flowers randomly throughout the country side in other games *cough*.

The Bad:

There is definately differences between DAO and DA2 which is what I expected, it has it's high points and low points.  I really enjoyed the story line but it didn't feel as legendary as being a Gray Warden, I sat there the entire game waiting for something to happen that would swoop me back to Fereldan or a more sinister experience than micro managing a city.  in DAO, you went through actual long intensive stories all over the map and they all had a moderate link behind them.  The Deep Road Campaign in DAO was long interesting and submerssive, not such with DA2, it was shorter than I expected but still had Sandal so that made up for it.

Oh and speaking of the city it is rather small for it's size, and extremely repetitive, between the epic storyline of DAO and sprinting across the universe on ME2 I expected much more, to go much further than a city, a mountain range and a beach.  It got so redundant at times I could stare at my second monitor while running in lowtown because I had the area memorized after about 6 hours in.

As for loading the DAO campaign I expected the former characters to have a bit more interaction, I loved Alisters visit but it was short lived, and Leliana at the end was also short and sweet.  I expected to meet my former self at some point or at least hear rumors about it.  I don't understand how the Seeker is having trouble finding both Hawke and the former Gray Warden, and she is Alister's Queen.  It just doesn't fit right.

I also wasn't sure I liked the whole "hey if you want to talk to me, come find me in my house, hovel or bar".  The camp in DAO made it so easy to interact with companions I felt more attached to them.

The lack of other playable races was understandable but still not expected, it did not bother me at all because I would never play anything but a human, not that it's a racial thing, I *love* elves (hehehe).  But I enjoyed fiddling around with the starting campaigns of the other races in DAO.  Again, didn't really matter to me much but probably had a profound meaning to others that love being a dwarf or elf.



The Good:

Hawke is amazing, while the area wasn't so great and the quests felt repetitive and confined sometimes the link I had with Hawke and my fellow campanions was far superior to anything I'd experienced in DAO.  I looked at the sarcasm answers as well as the others and every reponse was right on with something that you would find coming from my mouth.  I smiled more to myself in the past 3 days then I ever have playing a game, it was wonderful.

The actual companions were also very good, I really liked Varric and his opinions and the goofie cute Merril was DA2's shot at Tali and I fell for it pretty fast.  Anders annoyed me most of the way but I did like his "hey I'm possessed by evil stuff so I'm going to blow up an entire chantry with the grand cleric inside out of no where".  I was not expecting that and my jaw hit the floor in excitment and a little confusion.  I mean I know he hated the Templars but daaayum.

I'm not sure if it was just the way I played it which is likely but I found myself unable to use my sister Bethany for most of the game, I don't know if there was another way to tell the Templars that took her to ****** off or I just missed it completely.  I like to run heavy mages with my Reaver and the inability to do that left me distraught a bit.

The Qunari were very pleasing, I love the skinning, and sat about half the game getting quests from certain ones hoping, praying to get another Sten.  I'd constantly walk up to a Qunari in plate with a gleam and hope.  I remember replaying the Qunari mage quest at least 2-3 times trying to figure out a way to get him as one of my companions.  I really respected the Qunari leader and was a bit sat when I had to put the rabid dog down.  I also did not agree they should have been locked in the Docks but very a revered leader, he was pretty stupid.

The Mage/Chantry battle was rather expected by the end.  I knew by the time I became champions I would kill Meredith by the end of the game just for her arrogance, she would die.  I however did NOT expect Anders to freak out and kill her Grace or the First Enchanter going abomination on me.  Both pleasing plot lines and definately gave me some goose bumps.

As for Hawke directly I was not happy about the way my mother ended up.  I felt everytime I came back to the Mansion or my uncle's house that hey, at least things were going alright in her life.  I expected my uncle to be involved in some new gambling scheme and have to go save him from his captors, which inevitably I would not, because he was scum.

I will be playing through this again most certainly, I just need to decide what class I am going.

Overall, very amazing game, I do not regret preordering as anything you make as an RPG keeps me on my seat for at least a few days afterwards.  Kudos Bioware, thanks for the adventure and I'll be awaiting ME3 and DA3.

- Josh