1012 réponses à ce sujet

[brigantine]

I want to start off by saying that I loved Dragon Age II. I'm going to point out the many areas of this game that fell short of my expectations, and the expectations that Bioware has set for their own games. That's why I want to make it clear that it is one of my favorite games of all time. Even with the warts, anyone that loves a great fantasy game should pick DA-II up and play it. It's worth the $60 that I spent and I will be more than willing to purchase downloadable content in the future.

I know that most people start off with what they liked and finish up a review with their dislikes, but I'm going in reverse. I want to end this review on a positive so that's how I'm organizing this review.

The Bad:

It has been said by others and I will say it again that using dungeon over and over was just ridiculous. I mean it was done in such a cheap way that you can see all the doors even though sometimes they are open and sometimes they are blocked off. How can anyone at Bioware think that it was acceptable? You could have easily made the doors not used at the time look like walls and made the spawn points different. That way while you're using the same dungeon over and over, at least it has the illusion of being different. It seems to me it was rushed and really had little thought put into how using the same dungeons over and over would be perceived.

Choices in this game were completely negated by the developers. Would siding with the mages keep you from fighting Orsino? Nope! Well why not? The entire going too far into Blood Magic was a cheap trick to get you to fight him as a boss no matter what your choice is. There was one ending and absolutely nothing you did during the entire game was going to change that ending.

Why are you forced into using Anders? It does not matter how you feel you must use Anders as your healer because in DA-II healing is not open to all mages. This is just a cheap way of forcing you to drag along an obnoxious character regardless if you wanted to. There is no choice allowed here! How about if you want to play as a fervent Templar? You have to have a mage with you and a possessed murderous one at that! This brings me to a topic the entire DA world has. Why are only mages allowed to heal? I think that it is silly when some of the main political tensions are between the Chantry and mages. There needs to be a priestess class that heals affiliated with the Chantry for anti mage characters. Magic and spells should be in the realm of mages and the fade, while healing should be associated with the Chantry. It allows more true role play as opposed to what is available now.

The whole killing off of the family was just something that has been done to death. I mean, did anyone not guess that it was mom getting killed by the serial killer? I mean dad, brother/sister, and then of course mom killed. It's very predictable and really hurts the story. There should be a way to save mom. It felt like there was one predetermined outcome and nothing Hawk did matters. How is this even remotely good for role play or non-linear game play?

Why tactical play was removed? I get that you wanted to add more action to the game play. For the most part, I really liked the new faster style. What I did not like was the ridiculous beaming in of vast amounts of enemies from the starship in orbit! I mean this had to be one of the worst ideas in this game. It totally negated any position play because enemies just beamed down on top of you. This added absolutely nothing to the faster game play that was trying to be implemented. All it did was make me believe that you chose to have greater enemy numbers and random beaming in as opposed to smarter/fewer enemies coming at you logically. I loved the tactical play of DA:O, and if this could have been combined with the fast more fluid fighting of DA-II you would have created a truly unique action/tactical game.

The Good:

I absolutely loved the story! I'm not sure why people are saying that it did not flow and was disjointed because I did not see it that way. I really like that you did not return to the "big enemy coming to destroy the world and it's up to this one guy/girl to save the world" kind of story that has been done to death in the fantasy genre. I really like that you were building your reputation standing in a single city. It felt more real to me and the quests seemed to really work well. With this story line, you can have Hawk save the world later on in the series but DA-II really laid out the groundwork for a character with depth.

The characters in this game were, for the most part, some of the best. I loved Isabella, Varric, Merrill, and Aveline. They were fleshed out and their dialogue was some of the best I've ever heard in a game! I would sometimes just party up with Isabella, Varric, and Merrill just to hear the banter because it was so funny. Fenris and Sebastian were pretty decent although each could grate on your nerves a bit which is fine also. Anders was obnoxious, and this would have been okay had any real choices on what to do with him not been removed by the developers.

The graphics were really awesome! I played on my xbox-360 and never really had any slow downs during combat. I also really liked the new artistic direction you took with DA-II. DA:O was just a run of the mill fantasy game but the new art style really helps the game world stand out. The elves actually look like a race on their own instead of just humans with pointed ears. The Qunari really look cool.

I liked the faster more action orientated game play. I thought it was fluid and a lot of fun. Every now and then my rogue would start jumping around uncontrollably not hitting anything but for the most part it worked great.

I've read people saying the game was buggy but I did not find any of this. I had one issue where I could not attack at all, but after I logged out and back in I was fine. I also had that one quest bug where the guy just stood there and could not be interacted with, so the quest could not be completed. Other than those two small issues, the game ran perfectly. As someone who suffered through the buggy Fallout and Oblivion two small issues is a perfect game bug wise in my book!

I liked how the skill trees were set up for the most part. I also liked how they were streamlined a little, such as lock picking being a function of cunning, as opposed to separate skills like in DA:O.

Conclusion:

I want to end this by saying I really appreciate the game Bioware put out. It was a lot of fun to play and I look forward to playing more DA content. There are many areas of the game that can be improved and this would just ensure DA is the best fantasy based role play game on the market. The world of DA is a fascinating place that I look forward to exploring more. My hope is that the developers at Bioware look at some of the issues I pointed out and not take offence to them, but use them as ways to improve an already awesome game. It seems role play orientated games are becoming more open and non-linear. I hope Bioware can incorporate this into future expansion packs and downloadable content. The future of the Dragon Age franchise looks good. With a few tweaks and changes this can become one of the best fantasy gaming franchises out there!

[Fast Jimmy]

I know I just replied here recently and, if you big wigs at Bioware were reading this thread in the beginning, you've likely stopped at this ponit (forum page 30 is hardly the time to be making relevant comments), however I would just like to say, from a business perspective, I understand why DA2 was what it was.

DAO was released in November 2009, and DA2 was already in conceptual design. So, in a year and a half, you all at Bioware had to create an entirely new combat system, upgrade the graphics and animation system to the Lycium system, do more dialgoue voice acting and rework the entire art direction of the series. The game was completed, tested, screened, packaged and in production by March 2011, less than a year and a half from when Origins came out and was a success. During this time, you all also made a number of DLC for the old design of DAO, pulling dev hours and resources, not to mention scripting and plot ideas, from the sequel.

With all the new major changes for DA2 and the rabid demand of the fans for a sequel (fed on by a Release Date given out less than six months after the release of the first game, which you all can blame on your Marketting Department, I'm sure) I'm sure very little time of this project was spent with a small, high concept team like DAo was at the start. Many hands were involved in making DA2 fixed in ways that DAO was found to be lacking. So, from the very start, the project has a high labor cost and a short development cycle.

After all, you don't want to get an even two years of development, as that would be the same release time as ME3, which would be competing with yourself for holiday gift sales. And a two and a half year cycle, while probably the best, would have been WAY too costly. Perhaps if the game had spent more time with a smaller team, but with all the employees required to be on it from the get go, it would have taken two or three months to make a profit, even if it had been panned as Game of the Year 2012.

So... as I stated, I understand the release cycle and the business decision not to make DA2 everything it could be by stretching out its release by six months or a year. And maybe its because Bioware has never had two major franchises like Dragon Age and Mass Effect going on at the same time. As much as I would love to continue playing games in the Mass Effect universe, maybe the release of 3 and the end of Sheppard's story will be the best thing for future of Thedas.

Anyway, like I said in my first post... huge fan. And also a business grad. It makes me sad, but unless everyone would have been willing to pay $80 for DA2 in 2012, then development cycles will trump the gamer's ideal RPG wish list.

Modifié par Fast Jimmy, 12 avril 2011 - 02:25 .

[GenericPlayer2]

I don't know if BioWare is still following the thread, but having completed about 5 play throughs I am ready to voice my opinion

Things I liked:

1. Story: I liked the story and companions. The story was very compelling and kept me hooked - I lost a lot of sleep during the first week of playing

2. Companions: The party banter has greatly improved, and you have prompts (missions) that let you know that your companions would like to talk. I like meeting new characters, and seeing minor characters from DAO make it into DA2 preserved continuity. I am against re-using companions in sequels simply based on fan-popularity. Especially if the companion could have been killed in many people's play throughs. The chance to meet new characters and companions brings an excitement of its own. Cameos for familiar faces are fine.

3. Graphics: Huge improvement. I can finally see what the Qunari are supposed to look like.

4. Voice Acting: I know voice acting may have been one of the reasons that character options were limited to human male/female, but it was worth it.

5. Dialogue System: The different 'tones' Hawke can take are brilliant. No more pouring points into cunning just to pass a persuasion check.

6. Crafting system: This was redesigned in a way that was very convenient.

7. Companion armor: I like that every companion has a unique look. Plus the effort of fishing around for gear for your party members is greatly reduced to weapons and accessories.

Things I did not like:

1. Remodeled Armor, Crumb Catcher: The armor in DAO looked amazing. DA2 is taking a huge step back. The armor does not feel epic and finding something nice looking for your character to wear is very challenging. The crumb catcher has ruined the appearance of several chest pieces, including the mage champion armor. Bringing back the armor to the style and appearance of DAO would be a huge improvement.

2. Re-used maps and environments: This is a big problem - plenty has been said

3. Locked crates: Locked crates do not have anything 'special' in them. They are simply XP sources for rogues. An option for a warrior or mage to break the lock and forgo the XP would be nice. Alternatively, keep things as they are but actually put something of use in the locked containers.

4. Retcons/plot holes/whatever: Bringing back dead people does not add mystery, it adds resentment. I know events may unfurl a certain way regardless of choice, but having someone the player killed appear again later is infuriating. Flemeth is an exception because in DAO you are told that she is a being of legend and it is unknown if she can truly be killed.

5. Lack of 'save' opportunities: On several occasions winning a difficult battle automatically throws you into a conversation and then maybe a cutscene. So exploring different conversation options becomes very tedious and difficult.

6. Introduction: I absolutely hated the game intro. Without exaggeration, I put the game aside for two days because of it. I do not like being thrown into combat right away without a chance to read up on my abilities before hand - as opposed to hitting pause every two seconds to read up. I hate that I have to fight before reaching the character creation screen. Nothing, absolutely nothing should come before the CC screen! I want an intro that sets the scene and eases you into the game.

7. Loot: I don't understand the point of junk items. If they are not good for anything except to sell, why not add more money to the corpses instead? If it is there to add to the immersion, then it needs to have a value that corresponds with its label. A 'gold bar' junk item should not sell for 3 coppers.  In addition, a 'Pile of Treasure' should really have something. In DA2, 'Pile of Treasure' is in fact 'Loose change between the sofa cushions'. Similarly,  there is a lack of loot coming from most of the bosses. I can't believe I kill a vateral (sp) twice or 3 monstrous spiders and only find a few silvers and some junk.

8. A few of the Elite Boss fights: In some of the boss fights, the boss escapes periodically and summons minions, all the while assaulting you from the elevated position. I didn't like that and I feel that if he is able to walk away from the fight so should I.

Edit: I just wanted to add that the game does not feel nearly as 'epic' as it should. Its a very subjective assessment so I will try to put out a few points that I felt contribute to the lack of "epic-ness"

1- Scope of the game is limited to Kirkwall. We don't even get to see other parts of the free marches.

2- Item sets are much rarer, and as such there needs to be more of a 'quest' type feel to acquiring all the pieces. As it is right now you just stumble upon them one after another, and in some cases just buy a piece from your local vendor. Is there any good reason why Huon would have boots of the champion?? Compare this to the armor of the Juggernaut in DAO or getting a master smith to craft items from things you pick up on your various exploits. Having Solivitus craft a single necklace from a high dragon is very underwhelming. Also, poor armor artwork in general contributes to a lack of epic-ness.

3- The Darkspawn taint is used as an arbitrary plot device rather than a real danger. It would have been more effective if you lose one party member in the deep roads regardless of who you take along.

Modifié par GenericPlayer2, 12 avril 2011 - 08:37 .

[kmarcum2]

I liked the game and would recommend it to others (after the needed patches) but I loved DA:O so much that I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with this game. If this game was from another company and unrelated to DA:O I would probably be singing it's praises aside from some bugs and recycled maps. I still love the DA universe and have been a Bioware fan since Baldur's Gate so I expect greatness from you guys. I think a longer development cycle to work out the kinks would have made this a great game though I would still prefer the character customization, story affecting decision making and epic feel of DA:O. I am looking forward to future DLC & patches to this game and hope you are carefully planning DA3. 
My Critic Score: 8.0/10.0                         My Fanboy Score: 7.5/10.0  
Random Complaints, Observations & Suggestions:
I understand that a more specific story was planned for this game but it felt like you limited my options and decreased replayability in comparison to the first game.
I think combat and graphics are a major improvement over the first game.
More armor/item sets please. 
The friendship/rivalry mechanic was cool but often the changes seemed fickle and went unexplained by the affected companion.
The conversation wheel worked most of the time but I prefer to know exactly what I am saying to avoid unnecessary game reloads when something unpredictable or undesired is said at a critical moment.
I liked the art changes for the Qunari, Flemeth and world environments but hated the changes to the darkspawn and elves.
The recycled maps are inexcusable. 
Some of the quest bugs ruin potentially great story moments and shouldn't have made it by your quality & control people. (Though it looks like many of these bugs will be patched soon.) 
Why is almost every companion or NPC in Kirkwall a fanatic to their own cause that often threatens/challenges me when I am trying to help them?
I like that you included a Mabari that is summoned & doesn't take a companion slot.
Varric, Aveline and Bethany/Carver are the only companions that feel like they are part of your team. The others are interesting but psychotic/selfish and I often wished I could tell them to ****** off. 
It would be nice if you could interact more with your love interest like in DA:O but otherwise companion conversation is comparable to the first game.
The last act felt too short compared to the others and the ending seemed a bit incomplete. I hope DLC addresses this and is made with your fans in mind.
What's up with junk?
I like the companion specific armor but wish there was at least one alternate choice for each companion.
I don't mind losing a loved one due to choices, enemies, or something that advances the story in an important way but the serial killer thing just seemed to be done for shock value and pissed me off.  
Sandal and Flemeth are still cool. 
Why can't my blood mage summon shades and undead like every other blood mage in the city?
It feels wrong that my 2nd playthrough as an evil blood mage was much more satisfying than my warrior that tried to hold the city together. Killing Fenris with the Enslave spell made evil feel so good though.      

Modifié par kmarcum2, 13 avril 2011 - 04:09 .

[IoCaster]

I'll make this short. Fun. Where did it go? Did anyone on the team ever attempt to view the game from the players perspective?

There's only so much fun that can be attained from slaughtering endless waves of trash mobs. There's a limited amount of entertainment that can be derived from squiring around a group of companions to listen to banter.

Getting set on a rail and driven from one depressing family and/or faction drama to the next felt like playing out a Greek tragedy. The story might be entertaining as a novel, film or stage play, but it made the game a chore to play. By the third act I was gritting my teeth and just trying to find the shortest route to the exit. 

Maybe next time you folks can try and remember that you're supposed to be making a game and that games are supposed to be fun to play. I finished the game and put it aside feeling frustrated and depressed. With most other games I can end on a high note feeling like I'd accomplished or achieved something, but with DA2 there's no joy.

Modifié par IoCaster, 13 avril 2011 - 03:02 .

[Fiskrens]

Well, I had fun playing this game - a lot of it, in fact. I really liked the story, and that you didn't really know where it was going to end; something that was a big improvement from DA:O where you basically knew the whole thing from the start (although each substory excelled in the details there). The feeling of "the whole world is going mad, you're in the middle and have to simply cope with it/do what you think is best of it" was sometimes awesome.

On the other hand, it seemed as if you couldn't affect much of the outcome; no matter what you did, it ended basically in the same way. Which makes sense if you think of Hawke as only just another piece of the game, but frustrating anyway game-wise. I also thought that Meredith being obsessed by the artifact was a bit cheap, why couldn't she just have been 'only' fanatic? The same really goes for Orsino.

The limited environments issue has been stated so many times, so I'll do it one more time just for the sake of it .

I also hope that Bioware will do some work on the character models: every single female, regardless of age is busty - and Isabella even bustier. Thankfully, the female Hawke I've played was just about the only exception. None of the characters aged when they should have - and those coming back looked even younger than they had in DA:O (with the exception of Alistair, maybe)

I still have great expectations for DA:3. Playing this game only heightened them since the world of DA is something I will want to return to.

Edit: criticising sexism at the same time as being sexist isn't very S-M-R-T .

Modifié par Fiskrens1, 14 avril 2011 - 03:17 .

[SpltAlgorithm]

First let me start by saying that I am a true Bioware DA Fan!!! I always will be...It was once again an enjoyable experience.


My likes -
-The graphics in DAII were great! It had major quality improvements.  In addition, using the battle system made the game enjoyable and challenging (Which was a choice! Awesome!)


-Download Black Emporium…you can change Hawke!!!!  Recommend!!!!! You can even change the eyes. 


-New memorable characters…I enjoyed the storyteller, Varric (Will I ever see him again? Should I get attached?)
-Old memorable characters….Flemeth looks fantastic! And I have been quoting her!!! (Wish I could see more of her in the future.)


Having the storyteller experience works for me (I would rather have that, then read PDFs or Codexes throughout Kirkwall.)


My dislikes-  The comments I already see posted in the forum are “hitting it on the nose.” 


-The story about the Champion was fine, however, I felt as if was just a prelude. Many unanswered questions. Does that mean we have to wait for DLCs or #3? Several years? Months? Weeks?


-“Lack of character dialogue and interaction!”  It was so easy in DA to work the characters and their relationships (how I missed the campsite!). However, in DAII the depth of the relationships, which is critical to a RPG, was missing. I also missed building their gear.


-“Where is Morgan????”


“Staying in Kirkwall for 90% of the game made for a boring game.  It is like comparing it to staying at the Citadel in Mass Effect.”  The first time through Kirkwall was not so bad.  However, when you start to do different types of “Hawkes,” Kirkwall gets OLD fast.


I miss the DA humor! DAII had some…but nearly enough. 

Modifié par SpltAlgorithm, 13 avril 2011 - 10:31 .

[Thaddeus Mynor]

  Pros: 
~The Writing was stellar.
~The Art syle. Stylized and Wonderful. A very unique image all your own.   
~The Plot: I really enjoyed the change of pace, from generically saving the world from a specific bad guy, to growing as a person and trying to battle a concept (the treatment of mages); It was really refreshing and I enjoyed every minute of it.  
~The Characters were wonderfully done, by the end I had grown more connected to them than previous DA characters (minus Alistair and Oghren).   
~Voice Acting, nailed it.  
~The immediate response to combat was nice, it made me feel more involved.  
~Male Hawke voice actor nailed it.  
~The personality stance system was well executed. 
~Junk items, while annoying, were a nice touch from, oh everyone just happens to carry gold coins!  
~Companion quests and dialogue, best I’ve ever seen.  
~Time span of the game, I loved living as Hawke and seeing him progress in life.  
~The usage Companion armor was well done. Except I could have done w/ specific armor changes, rather than      just upgrades. So they can keep their style of armor, just have a visual change. Like seeing a progression of    Aveline wearing her shirt and suspenders to upgrading to Her style Plate Armor.   
~Gift giving.
 ~More enjoyable World/Lore of Dragon Age.  
~I really like Hawke.


Cons: ~Repetitive Level Design, was just lazy.  
~Random Spawning of Enemies from nowhere, was frustrating and eliminated any technical positioning.   ~Elimination of skills, Instead of letting everyone make potions, runes, and poisons. It would have been better to make them specific to what Hawke puts his points into. A technical decision so to speak.  
~The condensing of all rogueskills into the Cunning ability. Separate skills to pick locks, pick pockets, disarm & spot traps, would have been better.  
~The way attributes work; It came down to just a buffing of your primary’s only, instead of needing or wanting all of your attributes to be good. ex: Warriors focus on strength and constitution. Mages: Magic and Willpower. Rogues Dexterity and Cunning. all at expense to you other attributes.  
~How your attributes had so much impact on separate skills, rather than you specifically picking abilities to raise those skills.  
~Same 3 boring classes.  
~Female Hawke’s Voice Actress, was not so good.  
~Romances seemed stretched too thin over the 6+ year period. to where they felt like they had no depth, or no
strong foundation.  
~Combat. Seemed way to WOW heavy, Too much action, not enough thought in battles.  
~Combat Difficulty, doesn’t mean bigger health bars. Combat all to often became a war of attrition rather than a war of skill.  
~You should NEVER have to rely on kiting. Mages in BG2 never kited.   
~Magic arsenal was small. And based of you magic attribute rather than high level spells.  
~Gigantic Oversight when it comes to how Templars treat mages in Kirkwall, then having you and all your apostate friends running around shooting fireballs right in front of them with no consequence. In BG2 you couldn't even cast magic in the city without permission!!



Maybe: ~Duality system of Friend/Rivalry. It was used very well. But at the end of the day, part of me still hates things like this because it makes choosing some decisions based on whether or not I’ll get
points w/ a person vs If I actually agree with it or not. A Chance to break immersion and role playing w/ points to please. 
~The use of persuasion. I grieve its loss from a skill. But It was very intuitive and interesting how it was used throughout the game: That being based on your dominant personality. Aggressive Hawke had his own way of
persuasion than Diplomatic Hawke than Funny Hawke.  
~The stances of Diplomatic, Funny, and Aggressive were well done. ESPECIALLY Aggressive. Aggressive stance no longer means Huge A** (a la Mass Effect). But at the same time, I’m still a sucker for a silent protagonist to live through. I just like having an imagination, and creating his personality in my head. So I don’t have to hope for a good Voice Actor to get it right. (I HATED Male Shep in ME, all because of Mark Meer’s delivery).

 

(Really just up The RPG, and tone down the WOW. We’re not a blind FPS crowd, so give us some credit. Bring
the gamer up to your level rather than dumb yourself down for the gamer.)

Modifié par Thaddeus Mynor, 15 avril 2011 - 12:28 .

[ephion_kun]

Pros

• Absolutely loved the refined combat system. Combat is tight and response if super tight, makes actions have weight and completely immiediate.
• Love the companions, they felt like learned from their experiences and love the side conversations they have, never fail to make me smile.
• Hawke has a voice! And it's really good! Loved how by the 3rd Act your Hawke personality is cemented through unchosen dialog through previous decisions, loved it.
• Really liked how crafting is done now, however items seemed to be ridicuilously expensive. It's all straightforward and don't really have to worry about possessing all the crafts.
• Story is actually pretty good, though wished Hawke was more commanding than rather be dragged along.

Cons

• Almost entirely in Kirkwall: Kirkwall is amazing, but it never did feel like it did grow like what the devs were previously mentioning. It just feels like a terrible place to live. It's just that it feels like every couple of years there was something bad that was happening within the city and it was up to Hawke to do something about it. Nothing within the city changed aesthetically. It would be great what the people of Kirkwall would have done with the empty space the Quanri left rather than just have it vacant. It would be nice for more for more diversity like what happened in the Bone Pit rather than just have the same walls that we pass over and over again.
• Hawke is a push-over: This is a personal story and it centers around Hawke, which is completely fine. But it didn't feel right. Hawke seems to be always reacting to problems caused by other people. And not in a good way. The Warden in Origins knew that there was a blight and all that needed to happen was to obtain any army; no matter what. Hawke feels like a kind of a push over that didn't really call the shots at all in the story. It felt like Hawke was being dragged with the story rather than pushing it forward.
• Companions are not that customizable. I do appreciate the fact that we have totally different companions, but why can't we customize them what-so-ever? Except for weapons and accessories, can't change them to look somewhat different.  In Mass Effect 2 at least they had least an alternative outfit which changed it up.

Can't think of anything else.Really wished it was greater, but it was most certainly enjoyable.

8/10?

[Vadaum]

I say this game put most of the choices to a revolution to test, even if you want to be viscount you know in your gut that helping the mages is the right thing to, after all what the chantry did to everyone that has magic isn't right at all.

The moment you take the freedom away from a people of course they will fight back, and even if there was blood magic and apostates they would not have as much support from the general population, meaning if they they turned to forbbiden magic people would disgust them not think "Oh poor guy he just wants to defend himself!".

And the chantry wouldn't need to addict their loyal followers with lyrium.

In the end actually by not following that line of history that i just posted is why this game sucks you in, it is because you want actually to make things right.

[Vadaum]

And the battle system, graphics, companions, rivals, monster, and people ROCKS!

[Pyro_Monkey]

great game, though it did feel a bit rushed at times, I'd say 8.5/10.
First impression wasn't great, during installation I was struck by the ridiculous amount of times I had to enter codes and passwords in order to start the darn thing, then I fire up the game and realize that there's no way to download the bonus content I recieved in game, and had to close and download and install it from the website.
Finally I start up the game, must say I like the way Varric starts out by making up the story, that little intro section is a great way to give you a feel for what each class is capable of, and pick your favourite, unfortunately for me I ran into my first bug soon after this, right after character creation the game froze (spent 30 mins creating a custom char then lost it all), anyway, I worked my way around the bug by skipping the video (using the default hawke look, didn't want to make another), and playing as a mage. Great start to the game, you really get attached to your family members, though flemeth was a bit weird looking, seemed like she was channeling Alexstrasza from world of warcraft.
      First act was my favourite, though it was a bit unfocused, probably because my char was a mage, and I kept Carver with me at all times, he seemed a trifle displeased with the way I was handling things (he really didn't like Anders). Could have done with more of this to be perfectly honest, the first act needed a heck of a lot more templars. The whole point of going into the deep roads was to escape from the templars, that should have been emphasized a lot more, perhaps some quests where the templars almost catch you, perhaps sneaking into their offices to destroy or alter documents which incriminate you. It really struck me that this was what the plot line for the whole first act was supposed to be about, hiding the apostate mage in the family (you or bethany), but apart from a few comments from Carver, it's almost completely absent.
I'll take the opportunity now to mention how much i love the combat system, waaay better than DAO, nice going Bioware.
      Second act, I thoroughly enjoyed the mage-specific dialogue when it showed up, though there should have been much much more. Also might have been better to head up in stages, not from slums to a mansion in hightown (rags to riches as it were), but I suppose it was alright. I very much enjoyed the quests dealing with the Qunari (the quest to escort the saarebas to the coast was particularly good, especially if you choose to admit to the Arvaraad that you're also a mage, though unfortunately this netted no friendship gain with any of my companions). My favourite part I think would be running into meredith on the streets during the final fight, and she tells me that she saw me using magic, and I have to help save the city whether i want to or not.
Truth be told I think perhaps the biggest problem with acts 1 and 2 was the companion system, with friendship/rivalry. I would try to take my favourite characters with me on every quest but most of them would end up in rivalry, and then, when I maxed out their friendship, it locked, and it seemed like their opinions weren't as important anymore. I'd have rather if it was all reduced, less gains, less losses, and less points required, also, more opportunities to talk companions out of a rivalry gain would be nice, as it stands I'm forced to look up every quest online beforehand to find out who likes/dislikes the quest if i want to have any chance of getting the friendship/rivalry bonuses. Involved an awful lot of saving and reloading if i picked the wrong speech options (while I'm at it some of the options you can choose from aren't all that clear either).
If you asked me act 2 ended too early, the moment the Qunari capture the city you kill them, and it ends. Would have been better if it had lasted a little longer.
      Now we come to act 3. First of all I'd like to say the armor of the champion is awesome, why can't all the armor pieces look more like that? unique and cool looking. Was sick of being stuck wearing a dress (robes) that were all the same just in different colours (I ended up picking gear based on looks instead of stats as I just hated the robes so much). In acts 3, another 3 years later (by the way what's with that? do important events in Kirkwall only take place every 3 years? why not 2 years later?), there's trouble with the mages and the templars (what else is new). This act was noticeably shorter than the others, in fact it felt quite rushed. The goal seemed more to kill off characters (like Thrask), rather than have a defined plot. Also was odd that no groups actually asked me to join them. As an apostate mage and open critic of Meredith, I sort of expected that I would get at least one invitation from the various swarms of apostate mages running around to join them, instead they all attack me on sight. Furthermore, Anders destroying the chantry seemed sort of tacked on, and then in the cutscene afterwards he just sits on a conveniently located box, staring into space (personally, had I been writing that scene I'd have had Sebastian/Meredith stab Anders, then, if you sided with the mages, have Merill offer to heal him using blood magic, would've made things a bit more exciting). I sided with the mages, Orsino goes and turns himself into an abomination from World of Warcraft (seriously guys, whatever happened to creativity?) just in time to attack me (would've been nice had he actually killed a few templars), then meredith goes insane (by the way she really should have killed Cullen in that scene), then she dies, the end. The ending sequence leads me to believe an expansion is forthcoming, seemed to have left a number of loose ends.
      All in all, an excellent game, number of bugs that could use fixing (especially the horrible clipping on the eyebrows), last act should have been longer (would have been nice to join a resistance movement, rather than picking sides at the last moment), the first act should have had more templars, but aside from those points the game was great. The combat was fun, the companions were unique and interesting, the storyline was amazing (far better than DAO). Thumbs up Bioware!

edit: oh a few final points, first of all, great voice for Hawke, nice not to have the silent character anymore, and the personalities are great too.
secondly, in contrast to a lot of other people here, I actually liked the way it was all set in Kirkwall, you really become attached to the city.  My complaints would be how there are too many generic areas.  Caves for example, you can pretty much say if you've seen one cave you've seen them all, as they're all almost exactly the same.
thirdly, a complaint, Bioware is still sticking with the rogue bias (where you character is supposed to be a rogue), in the opening sequence, you run accross a locked chest, if you hawke isn't a rogue, it can't be opened.  Seems silly that just choosing a rogue class gives you more loot than any other, then in the game you always have to bring a rogue along with you.  Personally I'd like to have mages open locks as well (my mage (specialized as a force mage) can throw a room full of enemies into the air but can't open a box? seems silly).
fourthly, some of the cameos really weren't necessary, for example, King Alistair shows up, out of the blue, talks for a bit, then leaves without accomplishing anything.  If there had been a real quest involved then sure, it would have been justified, but it seemed more like the designers just wanted to put Alistair in, he didn't serve any purpose, or affect the story in any way.
fifthly, there needs to be more balancing between the classes.  Seemed like I was running accross extremely powerful daggers everywhere I went, but staves were nowhere to be seen (also, my char was strongly against blood magic, and it seems that every high level magic item has a blood magic effect on it, was annoying).  Mages also seem to be lacking any single target attacks, really only winter's grasp was any good.  Also, when I finally did get a good staff (had to kill the keeper to get it), and added runes, seemed like I was doing more damage with the staff than any of my spells could do.

Modifié par Pyro_Monkey, 16 avril 2011 - 11:54 .

[Jackxta]

I enjoyed DAII and i thought it was a great game but it didn't meet the expectations after the stellar performance of origins, but this will have something for them to strive towards in DAIII, but still thought it was a good sequel.I loved the new combat system and thought it was more involving. I also loved the dialogue wheel and defintely that the character was voiced.

I also liked the storytelling style it was interesting and different.

Although i do think the story needed a bit of work, it didn't feel enough as an adventure espically as you were cooped up in one city ( i kno u also went in the outskirts of the city, but more cities or even countries would be freaking awesome) and that it felt like a proloque to the next game ( and some people may like that) but it felt like a little to much, but i loved the cliffhanger it makes you to want to play the next game pretty bad which is good.They need a bit of a kickass storyline like origins like you have to save the world from some omnious threat were you have to kick some evil guys ass with pure bad ass skills ( sorry for the repeated use of ass), but hat is what i would like and some may disagree or agree but at least its somethig to consider .But the area was too small and regular. I don't think i need to remind them of the reused areas as they seem to have heard it quite a bit i think.

Another would be the elves, they looked as if they were mauled witht the ugly stick after birth, their was something wrong with them which i hope they kno and will change next time. Also the old origins charac ters were slapped together and looked stupd, but im still happy that they used the same voices for some of the characters, but Isabella looked better. The main character couldn't change the defualt look becuase if u did they looked stupid, but the default for Hawke looked good. So for the next game i hope you will be able to change their look and when u do, u can make them look normal or good.

I thought that the one character made it feel less like you can actually make it your character with it's own unique story instead of the same character and less adventerous, but thats my opinion. But in saying that the character they had chosen was very good. the friendship and rivarly system was good but the rivalry felt like they were annoyed by your presence and disliked you but i think bioware could change the rivalry to they respect you but not that they dont like you necessarily, but just don't agree with every descion you make and let you kno, similar to the arishok with Hawke. I loved the characters and that they had great personalties that made the game enjoyable especially Varric, Isabella and Fenris, with Aveline had her great mometns to but they were my favourite. Hawkes voice was good.

Ok i will stop my rambling for now and would like to finish with a great, solid and enjoyable game but that needed improvements which i hope they will consider what i have said, my apoligies for long text.

I think some more dialogue options with some more interactions with your characters where they can attack some one for instance, cool when Isabella does that with the knife but i think what class you choose should use their weapon, except for mage who would use spells instead of always using the knife.

Overall i would say a 8.5/10 very close to hitting 9. I hope you can improve the next game so it become epic again but don't rush it that was most of the part take some time and i think most people will agree and the game will be

[hundreds and millions]

cool feature, feedback posts.

Ok, I loved the story, just like any other story where you could changed the plot youself. I honestly did, great job =). I loved the originality and how there were 3 different stories rolled into one to come together and show a Hero rise to power and choose purpose, as opposed to them just being randomly powerful and swinging a sword whilst looking the other way and killing armies of enemies.

However, I have one quarrel with the game.

There wasn't enough surprise twists in the game. Nobody every sounded beleivable (isabella's promise to give you the relic when she gets it, anders kept blabing when it comes to "justice" in act 3)... and there are no twists in the story (you mother is reluctent not to let the surviving sibling come, just in case something happens, then they die) companions and other charicters just keep saying "dont do it hawke!" every time something bad could happen, and by the second act you've learnt that there is no flavour and your going to be warned before anything like that happens.

Although it makes the game more realistic as this is the sort of stuff that would happen in real life, I want to follow paths to find actuall that guy back there should of been locked away, or what everyone was calling a lie was the truth and now, because you didn't listen, this will happen. Catch mydrift?

Also its kinda ruining when the above happens, because I want to side with an option, then get a warning from someone and now I know I have to go with the other option unless I want someone to die.

seriously though, apart from that, great, immersive story. thankyou for 42 hours of fun, and just on the first playthrough!

[Volourn]

Here it goes guys. The review that nobody was waiting for but are getting anyways. The review is gonna suck so if you hate sucky things don't read, or read it tell me how much sucks. Either way.. remember one very important thing: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!!

CHARACTER CREATION/SYSTEM
----------------------------------------------------
OVERVIEW: This works exactly like DA1. However, it is weaker due to things that were unfortunately cut out whcih hurts the game's 'role-playing'. The lack of origins (different starting points for morans), races (**** BIO and their anti dwarf stance!!!!, -10 points for you!), and no non combat skills (which have been streamlined into the actual gameplay). The biggest sadness is the limits placed oin waht type of weapon Hawke can use as there are no bow shooting warriors and no great sword weilding rogues On the plus side, the talent tres are set up in a much coller and open way though you still often have to take a talent you rather not just to get something you actually want. Still, by the end of the game you have lots of choices as I reached level 25 and still didn't come close to having all the talents I wanted.
ANALYSIS: It is good for what it is. It's basically a dumbed down version of DA1.
SCORE: 7.5 (no darn dwarves, I told yas that would cost yas BIO!)

COMBAT
--------------
OVERVIEW: Probably the most challenging combat I've ever faced in a RPG. I died a lot on hard. Combat is lots of fun that allows all 3 classes to brag how awesome they are with warriors able to sweep enemies away like trash, rogues being able to dance around the battle field, and mages to be able blow **** up! Nothing cna be cooler. there's lots of interetsing battles, and BIo did a good of setting up interesting boss battles. However, this probably leads to the combat's two major weaknesses. The first is the ridiculous amount of hit points enemies (bosses usually but even some general mooks have it as well). Soemtiems this is so bad I chnaged the difficulty to normal/easy just so I could end an otherwise 'easy' fight earlier instead of getting bored. The second is the insta respawns that come out of nowhere and make no logical sense. Tsk, tsk. Still, the game requires smart play and the ability to use your talents and your party members to make things easier. if you rush in with no plan, you will die. Period.
ANALYSIS: Fun, challenging combat with some cool enemies and a great variety in talents and possible apporaches are plusses. Spamming enemies and bloated health are weaknesses. Overall, it's DA style combat just a little faster pace and harder.
SCORE: 8.5

STORY
----------
OVERVIEW: The story starts out personal as you lead your family away from your hometown that was overrun by darkspawn as the game progresses you become the center of all out civil war where you, yes, epically find yourself in the middle of. ACT1 is basically you trying to improve your family's lot in your new city of Kirkwall, and the fatc you need gold leads you to meeting a bunch of folks that need help (like any rpg does). ACT 2 shows your climb to becoming the Champion and does this through your dealings with the Viscount and the Arishok. ACT 3 is where all hell breaks out as the mage-templar war rages on the streets.
The progress of Hawke is the story's strength. This is literally this (her) story coming from being a desperate refugee to the city's only hope. What makes it evens tronger is the touches of many side quests that earlier hint at and then eventually full blown show the discord betixt the mages and templars. Also, more than a few side quests in ch1 and ch2 also bring the Viscount and Arishok to show their stuff in front of the player. This is done so well that many DA2 players have the idea that Arishok is 'awesome', 'cool', or a 'good guy'. Of course, nothing is that simple in the world of DA2.
As above, the mage-templar conflict is easy to see as a simple slave-slaver issue but it is nowhere enar that simple as no doubt the Kirkwall mages aren't exactly known for their subtlety and lack of love of blood magic (often referred to as the Theda's 'dark sideof magic'). In many quests you will have to choose between the templars and the mages and often times your choice ends up not as clear cut as you originally thought. I can go on about this, but that's it for now.
ANALYSIS: The mage-templar plot may only be the main focus ina ct 3, but througout the game it is tied into main stories and dialogues. From your very first encounter with Aveline and her husband, this conflict is front and center. That kind of tie in is terrifically done. The Arishok secondary plotline is also done well and even includes a major connection to a popular (and hated) companion as well.
SCORE: 9.0

GRAPHICS
----------------
OVERVIEW: Overall, outside of siome weird glitches, the graphics are on the whole better than DA's. The city of Kirkwall is beautiful to behold, and the other areas are always nicely done. The major problem is the repetive nature of the maps. The cae might look great but it's the same cave no matter. This didn't bother me in act 1 while the game was new, it annoyed me to no end in act 2, and in act 3 I just ignored it. Beautiful graphics hampered by a time saving tatic.
ANALSIS: Good graphics (except for the ugly looking elves), but repetive use of areas is sad.
SCORE: 8.0

ROLE-PLAYING
-----------------------
OVERVIEW: While you are asked to play the character of Hawke, you still have a lot freedom to play him/her as you see fit. From being diplmatic, friendly, suave, a joker, or a bastard the chocie are yours. How you interact with others will determine how they react to you. Certain decisions you make will open (or close) quests, other dialogue options, give you access to unique equipment, cause party members to leave or even return to your side, avoid combat, romance options, and more. One of the big things is the game will also keep track of the tone your character has in dialogue and will use that to influence future dialogues including giving you unique options later on. Even actions taken in DA1 opens (closes) certain things in DA2.
The C&C in DA2 is pretty darn good espicially compared to some popular BIO games (*cough* BG *cough*), but there is one letdown and it is the run up to the resolution of the mage-templar war. The leading mage Orsino decides to become all abomination mass murderer near thee nd for some lacking reason. this could have been handled better. As is, it's an alright scene - for a typical RPG - but DA2 could have easily taken it to a whole new level. I'll explain how in my future 'things I would change' thread.
ANALYSIS: Top line C&C that rewards and punishes you for decisions both shoirt and long term. This is held back as I explained in the overview.
SCORE: 8.5

CHARACTERS
---------------------
OVERVIEW: This get on thing straight. This is the typical list of who's who for BIO joinable npcs. From the loveable rogue (Varric) to the ****ty sex staved goddess ( Isabella) to the 'i am emo' (both fenris and Anders fit the bill here). That said, in comparison to DA1, this group as a whole is much stronger. Not much can be said about Varric that hasn't already been said as the narrator seems to be well liked by anyone who has played the game even those who hate. Isabella is much deeper than her b00bs allow you to see. from being a pirate scamp to book stealer to defender of the underdgo potentially redeemable lover interest she is much more than her appearance. I also have to say there is no joinable who i absolutely loathe (though fenris comes close by I actually understand wher ehe comes from unlike, say, that douche Sten from DA1). One companion that kind of surprised me was Merrill who I had written off as just a lolli wannabe for the eprverts but her character arc was really strange considering the dark side of her otherwise naive sunshiny perosnality which shouldn't work with a 'practicer of the dark art of blood magic'. The fact that by the end she actually feels shame over actions shows that she can grow. Even the other wise 'boring' Aveline is reo****e in her steadfastness plus she has a genuinely funny yet silly side quest that lightens the mood. Hawke's siblings have distinct personalities as well, and play somewhat major roles (well, one does anyways since one dies early). I have a lot to say about the controversial 'reawakening' (r00fles!) of Anders later on. Still, heads sueprior to to the DA1 npcs where only Morrigan ended up as one of my fave BIO npcs while DA2 has serval that can make thata rgument while none of the them are outight horrible.
For non joinables there's a ton of interesting folks including Arishok, the Viscount, Cullen, Thrask, Meredith, Orsino (despite his letdown conclusion), Chantry Mother, Fenryiel, and a host of others are all well written and add a lot to the game's story despite some of them being relatively minor characters. My weird fixation though is on the PC' Uncle Gamlen who has a very solid character arc. When you first meet him he comes across as swarmy and untrustworthy (and is for the most part), but is such an interetsing character who is well written and vocie acted as he slowly grew on me througgout the game. Good stuff.
ANALYSIS: My fave characters are Varric and Isabella while my fave non joinables are Uncle Gamlen and The Viscount.
SCORE: 9.5!!!

GAMEPLAY
----------------
OVERVIEW: Combat strengths and weaknesses have been covered already so it might be touched on breifly here but not much. The biggesta ddition here is the lack of ability to choose your companions' armour as they have their favorites which you can gift with upgrades 9along with Varric's unchangeable lovely crossbow. Dialogue uses the ME style convo wheel but with the added bonus of style icons' which lets you know how you'll say soemthing. This also makes it less likely to say/do soemthing you don't want. There is no room for error filled romantic oopsies. The coolnes of the dialogue options is that it allows you to start fights from dialogue, end romances (or start them), lie, bribe (or be bribed) amongst the other useful things. It also gives special options based on your character perosnality as well absed on past actions. Another cool feature is to ask a companion to speak up when appropriate (Bethany whent rying to calm someone's concerns about magic or Fenris when trying to intimidate someone)>
The old non combat skills like potiona/rune/poison craftinga re instead done thorugh finding base components just once then buying/crafting them at your home base. While this makes one's inventory cleaner, it's not as fulfilling for those who love cluttered inventories. Lockpicking/trap disarming are nowm rogue only skills based solely on cunning. Some skills like heraldry or wilderness survival have been cut which is hugely dissapointing.
One cool yet realitively undiscussed feature of DA2 is the addition of day/night cycles(maps) which leads to quests that can only be done depending on time of day. While this may not be as fantatsic as a full fledge light/day cycle it is still a welcoming addition as DA1 didn't have anything like this at all.
Companions now a much more tighter friend-rival graph taht can give you different reactions to yourd ecisions, and can lead to them leaving you, attacking you, or even have two distinct romantic relationships with the same character depending on where you are in the friend-rival axis. The best aprt of this whole aspect of DA2 is that unlike DA1 there are only a handful of gifts for each npc so it's a lot harder to simply 'buy' one's affections plus some 'gifts' can even lead to rivalry points depending on what it is and your chocies in dialogue after you gift it to them.
A quick note as well for a shoutout of a great sue of Varric as the actual narrator as it adds a lot espicially in the humour department (see his reaccounting of his hunt for his brother as an example)
ANALYSIS: Gameplay is basically DA1. Some new stuff is very good like the friend-rval set up, and the day/night mapsm while some stuff that were cut are dissapointing losses like the lack of non combat skills and less control of companion armour (though you can still give them rings, amulets, weapons, etc.)
SCORE: 9.0

SPECIAL EFFECTS: The music is basically like DA1 with epic stiredd music. Speciale ffects espicially the magic is beautiful as always . freezing or burning enemies is always a beautiful sight. A terrorist attack in the late game leads to a nice explosion as well. Abomination transformations are always a sight to behold. Still, basically DA1 all over again.
Voice overs are always important in a BIO game espicially with the idea of giving the PC a voice. The voice actors for Hawke (both genders) go a great job though they don't match the level of ME's Shepards but that's a tough challenge consideirng how awesome Shepard truly is. My biggest complaint, perhaps, is they need to be a little more dramatic when its called for. No such complaints for npc voice overs as it's uniformly great througohut with only a few misteps. I never heard a npc talk and say soemthing like' that just doesn't fit the character'. Again, this is the biggest difference between meredith and orsino. She shows a lot more passion for her beliefs while Orsino while solid througohut doesn't come across believable duringa certain time when it could have been his moment to shine.
ANALYSIS: Fantastic with few missteps. Not perfect but damn close.
SCORE: 9.5

FUN FACTOR
--------------------
Overall, I just had a lot of fun with the game for the nearly 60 hours I played (just a couple hours shy of DA1's length). Outside of some combat issues and repetitive areas, the game was one I wanted to play when i had a chance to. Just as fun as DA1 with strengths and weaknesses to balance them out. DA2 = better story and characters with DA1 = less annoying design decision, and better role-playing (NOT the same as C&C).
SCORE: 9.0

TOTAL SCORE: 78.5 /90 = 87.2/100 = 8.7/10 (MATHSSSZZZ!!!)))

Wow! That was longer than I thought it be. I'd apologize for it but I am a punk. Ha. So, take that!

[Symean]

First, let me say how much I longed for this game. Before DA:O, I had never played an RPG game before, and I completely fell in love with it. I thought it was such a rich environment and had an enormous replay value. I indeed played and replayed DAO so many times I pretty much knew it by heart, including the dialogues and I felt like the characters were friends, that I cared for.

So really, my expectations were through the roof for DA2!

I can't say they were met, but I can't say I am disapponted either. What I think of the game was said many times over already. But I dare think that there more Bioware reads it, the more they will want to fix it and improve it for future installments of this series.

Among the things I liked:

• Having a voiced character. Thank you!!
• I don't know if a lot of people would agree with this, but I really don't care: I would like to give a big kudos to Bioware/EA for allowing the characters to manifest different sexual preferences and orientations. I work at a school where I see kids every day being discriminated and harrassed because they're different, and I naively hope that games like DA:O (Zevran), and DA2 can make a little difference in the way kids see homosexuality and bisexuality.
• The character of Hawke itself is really well-written and I truly cared for what happened to him. The idea of telling the story over a longer period of time had its pros and cons, really. But it certainly allowed to see an evolulation and "social climbing". I was happy for Hawke when he reached the status he had in the end.
• I missed the different background stories of DA:O, but the relationship with Bethany or Carver, as well as with the mother compensates a bit. I was truly sad when the mother dies, or when my sibling was taken away.
• I liked the way Leliana returns and that definitely opens the door to a future key-role in some DLC content or for DA3
• The new combat system. It's awesome.
• The new skill and talent trees are excellent. It generates a diffence between classes that allows a party to be very flexible and versatile (cross-class combos rock).
• The graphics are very nice. Special mention to the day/night views which I think is a great idea
• Seeing Flemeth again. Love her new outfit as well ! 

Among the things I didn't like (and this is where it will be especially repetitive).

• the fact that we can't change the armor of the companions is a major step back. I really don't understand how that could have ever been considered a good idea. Seriously.
• I really would've liked to see stronger connections between DA:O and DA2. Somehow, I think that the experience of DA2 is so different than DA:O that I guess it was hard to link the 2 games? I also can't help but feel that DA2 is a weak in-between, since it ends with a door wide-opened for a sequel.
• The companions were not nearly as well-developped as they were in DA:O. Except for my romantic interest, I didn't care as much for my friends as I did in DA:O.
• The link between the 3 acts is SOOOOO thin, I could barely see it. The story just isn't strong enough. You have read this at least a million time before but: I really felt like I was doing one side-quest after another. I didn't feel a pull toward a final goal. At all. There was NO main goal. The only time I started feeling something (and that I had to make very hard choices) was when Anders blew up the Chantry and I had to decide who I would support. But even then, it doesn't change the ending at all. You still fight Orsino and Meredith. Both options are perfectly equivalent.
• Using the same environments and locations throughout the whole game is beyond ridiculous. I felt like there was 5 or 6 location-types that were repeated throughout the game. Utterly disappointing. Is this caused by the lack of time? Is it because it was rushed and you didn't have time to design or developp more?

Overall, I  certainly remain a huge fan of the Dragon Age franchise, and I am still looking forward to the next DLCs and DA3, but I sincerly hope that the next instalment will be closer to the rich and satisfying experience DA:O was.

[bti79]

First of all - kudos to Bioware for collecting fan feedback like this.

I really enjoyed Origins - best game ever - nothing less. I liked Dragon Age II - but not nearly as much as Origins though. In all fairness, Origins set the bar pretty high. Had I never played Origins, I might have been more impressed by DA II. This mostly goes to say that I would not say DA II is a bad game - it is a great game - but with Origins in the back of mind mind I had expected more.

GAME MECHANICS:

The combat speed up and seemingly improved AI was nice. Feels more like you're in the middle of the fray. I liked the improved visuals when slaying a foe. The skill/spell trees are nice and easy to navigate. The concept of Varric as narrator worked really well - probably the best part about DA II for me. Overall though I missed the interface of Origins, including the tactical camera. What I think should have been done, was to take the already well functioning Origins combat interface and update it with improved graphics, AI, combat visuals and have kept everything else as it were.

AREA DESIGN:

Too much recycling of areas going on. I'd have preferred less irrelevant side story quests in trade for more unique and detailed areas. Origins had none of this nonsense (except when recycling was part of the story) and that made the world much more believable to me.

STORY:

..and now we arrives to the part that really matters, - what the game is all about - telling a story.Unfortunately this is also the biggest let down for me in DA II. See as a huge fan of Origins I had kinda expected a real sequel. I had hoped to see more of the characters I had grown fond of in Origins and more importantly get some more hints to the unresolved endings of Origins. Where did the mirror take (my) warden and Morrigan? What is the great change comming to the world? What is Flemeth exactly? What happened with the Old God Baby?

DA II was off to a promising start with the appearance of Flemeth, but after that it was let down. I was kinda excited about Merril rebuilding the mirror - but it turned out to be nothing, I fully understand if many of these stories are being saved for later - but it would have been nice to have being thrown a few more bones in DA II.

The main story of DA II was ok - but seemed a bit plain compared to the epic story of Origins and the open leads remaining from Origins.

CHARACTERS:

There wouldn't be much of a story without interesting characters. DA II fails greatly at one major point: No Morrigan!?! Ok joking aside - the chracters in DA II were ok, and I'd certainly like to see characters like Varric, Isabella, Anders and even Merril in future DA games. Still though, I felt much more attached to my companions in Origins. I just hope Bioware will take the best from both games and give us more time with them.

CONCLUSION:

DA II is a good game - I enjoyed it. Honestly I suppose I had hoped for an "Origins II", and in that light I did feel disappointed, but remain hopeful. I just think there are so many great open ends in Origins that could have been taken up and I do hope that we'll see that in the future.

[Parley42]

I'm going to say this right away - I LOVED this game.  I've played through it twice now so here are my thoughts.

Likes:
Graphics/Gameplay - I really liked the look of this game, especially the areas outside Kirkwall.  Kirkwall was nice, but I found myself liking the look of Sundermount and the Wounded Coast quite a lot more.  Liked the way the game played overall.  I've found hard to be a nice challenge, battle-wise.
Combat - I really liked the fast paced combat, much more exciting than in Origins.  The moves and spells all seemed more flashy and dramatic.
Dungeons - I liked the shorter length of the dungeons.  In Origins, it felt to me that the game really slowed down during the long stretches, such as in the Deep roads, or getting to Andraste's ashes.
Characters - I loved the characters in the game and their interactions with Hawke and each other.  I liked knowing that they had lives rather than just sitiing around a campfire.  It was hard to decide who to take with me on my quests!  I've romanced both Fenris and Anders, and love both romance plotlines and how it continues over time.  I thought the voice acting was superb. 
Story - Fantastic story! I liked the idea of a protagonist establishing and defending themselves in a new home.  I enjoyed how the major conflicts - Qunari and Templars vs mages - were built up over time.  I like that there were valid points on both sides of the mage/templar debates - I love when decisions are not always black and white.  I also got the feeling that  if Anders hadn't managed to pull off his plan, that other mages would have risen up to do something drastic, it was made clear that things were getting very bad very quickly.
Hawke - I enjoyed having a voiced protagonist, it made the scenes feel more dynamic to me.  I liked the way your Hawke could have a consistent good/sarcastic/forceful personality.

Dislikes
Repeated Areas - I don't mind this quite as much as others seem to, but it was quite noticable after a while.  Would prefer a little more variety.
Some story elements seemed a little forced.  For me it was especially noticable during Best Served Cold when I was playing a completely pro mage character  - why were people acting like I was a pawn of Meredith when I had sided with the mages at every opportunity?
I did not care too much for the large trash mobs.  I would personally prefer a smaller number of more difficult enemies than a larger amount of weaker ones.
Bugged quests - Sketch and Who Needs Rescuing didn't work for me.  Annoying, but fixable with a patch.

Overall
9/10 - A few small annoyances, but they don't detract from an overall great game!  Loved it!

[Jarlof Seoul]

BLUF: Excellent game in its own right. Worthy sequel. Few
shortfalls.

The Good

Dragon Age II’s (DA2) story made it an excellent game. Its strong story includes nuanced characters with their own sub-plots. The story is a reflection of good writing, which is a worthwhile investment in the role-playing
game (RPG) genre. I played DA2 with prejudice since I did not like being forced into a set character. However, the strength of Hawke’s character within the story, his initial set-up as a refugee from familiar Lothering and his
playability softened that prejudice before I played the game. My prejudice was also insufficient enough for me to give the game a chance for a key reason. That reason is that Bioware was wise enough to bring closure to my Warden’s relationship with his love interest Morrigan through the Dragon Age: Origins(DAO) downloadable content Witch Hunt. As a result, I was an avid DAO fan, with over 20 years playing computer RPGs, open to DA2 out of gratefulness for bringing sufficient closure to my Warden’s story in DAO. My doubts turned into astonished pleasure at what I will call an incredible experience. DA2 is a worthy, impressive sequel to the Dragon Age franchise. The franchise gives me the level of entertainment of the other great space/fantasy opera’s such as
Star Wars, Star trek, Lord of the Rings, Ultima, and Baldur’s Gate. The franchise also captures the immersive combat and sepulchral feel of the early 1990’s AD&D Eye of the Beholder (EOB) CRPG series, particularly EOBII: The Legend of Darkmoon, as well as the prolific lore and exoticness of another all-time great computer game, Planescape: Torment. In short, Dragon Age II far exceeded expectations, provided a great story and impressed me greatly with it’s yet to be unmatched, exciting combat style in the CRPG genre.

The Story

Concerning, the story, I enjoyed the personal feel of Hawke’s rise to power. I enjoyed the relationships with his family members and companions. It built on one of the key strength of DA2’s venerable predecessor.
The strongest character for me was Aveline. In fact, I immediately looked at her as a romantic love interest.  I had
avoided spoilers for DA2 in order to better enjoy it. As a result, I had no idea she would end up impossible to romance. I tend not to want to like the “bad girl.” Thus, in my first playthrough, I ignored Isabela. Aveline has an
impressive, emotionally packed introduction into Hawke’s life. Her traits and her difficulty to manage were pluses,  as my Hawke, like most of mt RPG characters, tend to be played as “chaotic good,”  anti-hero types. As with Morrigan, the fact that she was “hard to get” made her interesting. (Incidentally, it was Morrigan’s depth, evolution into a more good character, combined with her difficulty to romance by a “good” Warden that made her blow away Leliana in DAO, who while good, was a bit too much of a goody-two shoes. In fact even a
hardened Leliana, while much more interesting, was still a notch below Morrigan in terms of choosing between the two as a love interest in DA2’s prequel.)  While I was disappointed in the fact that I never successfully romanced Aveline, I pursued every option to flirt with her and when she ended up with righteous Sir Donnic (even the effeminacy of the name make me twinge with jealousy) as opposed to my studly Champion Hawke,  Hawke’s smile of resignation in Aveline’s office after Aveline laughs and did whatever one can imagine behind closed
doors, was one of the many awesome memorable moments of excellent CGI acting in DA2.  Besides Aveline, another strength of the story was the cameos by DAO’s Alistair, Leliana, and Zevran. They were most welcome and brought good, light, witty, and nostalgic moments to DA2. It was like seeing old cherished friends. Since Aveline was not able to be romanced, I had to endure re-playing DA2 a second time all the way back from the end of Act I as to romance Isabela, who was the next best thing left in terms of female romance options (that limit is something I will get to later in the bad aspects of the game below). Simply put, my Hawke would not go ten years with no significant other.  Besides, Isabela did have objectively, the “hottest” body of the females, although Aveline has a personality and character that I was more inclined to romance. Isabela did grow on me during my Hawke’s courtship with her. Like Morrigan, Bioware writers had the wisdom and foresight to make her character go from bad girl tendencies to developing a moral compass that would point towards the good. So, since Aveline didn’t know what she was missing out on, I got me an Isabela with the added bonus of a Hawke whose toes would be made to curl. Sometimes, the good guys do win, even after the eighties! Speaking of companions, how about that Anders?

Certainly, Anders was a major role, above and beyond his role in Awakening. He was my primary mage to my warrior Warden in the DA: Awakening expansion. Anders was more interesting than angry Velanna as a companion (who while blonde had nothing to impress my lonely Warden-who-missed-his-Morrigan-at-the-time). Anders’ story and centrality to the climax in DA2 was mind blowing. Having the merger with Justice was another
welcome twist, as Justice was other “tank” in Awakening, with probably the coolest armor set in the franchise, the Armor of the Sentinel. While radicalized, Anders in DA2 was right about the Templar abuse of Mages., which
provides me with a transition into another story strength in DA2 concerning my Hawke.

The Gameplay

Having the choice to play Hawke as a mage made the plot as interesting as it could be played. Having
played and enjoyed DAO, and having a played a warrior Warden, I played Hawke as a mage. Well, I have never played a Mage that was some much fun to play in RPG combat. DA2 combined the traditional- -weak-at-the-beginning to a cosmic force-to-be-reckoned-with at higher levels aspect of being a mage. Giving Hawke more manliness than a typical mage was smart to make him more enjoyable for us traditional tank players. I raved about the combat gameplay of DA2: most impressive and very fun to play. Cone of cold and ripping arms off Ogres were never so much fun! I would have liked a special talent of eyes turning red and getting the blood stripe at a pivotal moment of the plot, such as the fight against the Arishok. The DA2 trailer had me all excited but, alas, it was not to be.  Bioware has a bad tendency to advertise misleadingly between the DA2 trailer implications compared to the actual battle and the exposition writing skinniness of Witch Hunt compared to its advertisement of all questions answered. So, I played my Hawke with no blood stripe throughout. On that note, I will address the bad aspects of DA2, which are much less than the good aspects but not before mentioning the third great
aspect of the game, the soundtrack.

The Music

Inon Zur does it again. The man has made some memorable moments since Baldur’s Gate II boisterous opening notes almost a dozen years ago. In particular, the subtle Wagnerian horn leitmotif in DAO that became more pronounced in DA2 stirs excitement in me anytime I hear it. The string quarter family motif indeed made the story more personal. While it would have been perfect to have the equivalent of Leliana’s song in a quiet companion dialogue of DA2 just as when you stumble upon it as a player in DAO, such an omission is appropriate given that DA2 is a close second to DA:O in terms of novelty. That’s not the composer’s fault, but a result of the overall different, deliberate direction the DA2 team took the franchise in this second chapter. Nothing quite captured the immersive feel of “the Party Camp” track in DA:O while you were at the party camp talking up Morrigan or getting Leliana to sing her song. Still, the eerie strings when you see Hawke’s Mom in the Killer’s Lair, sent shivers up the spine. The jovial music during Hawke’s first sex scene with Isabela was a musical highlight of the game beyond the main theme. Now, let me point out the negative aspects of DA2, which were much less than the positive ones.





The Bad

Concerning the negative aspects of the game, according to myreview of it, I will discuss them increasing order of magnitude:

Not enough Flemeth. Flemeth was an very positive upgrade in terms of appearance, and even more charming in
DA2. I wanted more. At least I got some mention of Morrigan and a cryptic reference to her executing her plans.

Some annoying bugs. The worst concerned issues with DirectX 11. I was able to play with DirectX 9, so
not a show-stopper but my laptop was unable to enjoy DA2’s latest graphical technologies.
     
Aveline was romantically unavailable. Absolutely heartbreaking. She was the most interesting female, which leads me to my next gripe.
        
Ratio of heterosexual versus homosexual choices. What on earth?  Are heterosexual males accounting for less
gamer demographics than female and homosexual male players? OK, DA3 better at least have Morrigan for my Warden since the adult-actress-endowed Isabela has become only choice available in DA2. Merrill was just not an alternative. Such a limited choice leads me to the following point

Female characters seemed more limited—Leliana and Morrigan are DA classics now. The minutes of Leliana in
DA2 were awesome.  Conversely, Merrill was the worst of Leliana at her cheesiest in DAO and came across as too dense in DA2’s plot to realize the inherent dangers of being a blood mage. Compare that with DAO’s dark-clad Witch of the Wilds, Morrigan, who while making the Warden have a more open-mind about categorizing Maleficarum, used blood magic with more reserve (once, if I remember correctly) and for rather epic reasons
(produce an offspring, preserve the essence of an Old God, and save the life of the Warden who would kill the Archdemon and in my particular Warden’s case, was her lover).  The point here is DA2 female companions were ok, but DAO’s were better
     
I saved the worst for last: The demise of Hawke’s mother. Disgusting. Sickening. Who can imagine such things?
At least the writers could have been less graphic about it. It was way too much, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Shocking. One of the rare computer gaming moments I will never play again, and not miss it. I will try to keep the disturbing images out of my mind forever. Please don’t do something like that again, Bioware.

The Bottom Line:

As with DAO, DA2’s biggest strength is its story (including characters), gameplay, and music. The story makes the
impressive eye candy and combat experiences compelling, as does Inon Zur’s sense for musical development of a fantasy world. The game is excellent and one I recommend to any RPG fan to play as a stand-alone game. However, I encourage those new to Dragon Age to play DAO and Awakening first in order to maximize on
the experience that I hope will continue in future Dragon Age expansions and sequels. The game falls somewhat short in terms of the romantic possibilities the player encounters, and has one part that was too gratuitously violent for my taste. Maybe as a gamer in my thirties I am not as desensitized as younger gamers. However, the game is a worthy sequel to DAO and the franchise looks promising going into and exciting set-up for future Dragon Age expansions, sequels and expanded universe media. Enjoy Dragon Age 2; enjoy the whole franchise even more!

Modifié par Jarlof Seoul, 18 avril 2011 - 01:17 .

[Mage One]

I really liked the game.  I did.  Honest.  A lot of what I am about to say, though, is probably going to sound very harsh.  I say it out of love, though.  Dragon Age 2 struck me as a very wounded game.  It was filled with solid concepts and good writing, but at the same time it suffered from implementation that was either very poor or very damaged.  What follows is an enormous wall of text.  I make no apologies for this.  If you find yourself reading it and thinking, “What the hell is this?  Why am I reading it?”  You can go ahead and stop.  I won’t blame you.  All I ask is you not then reply to it with “WFT is this $h!t?  This is way long and boring.”  It is for Bioware, not for you.

Visuals: 
The new designs were gorgeous.  From The Deep Roads, (which actually looked majestic, something they did
not seem to be to me in Origins) to the scrubby beaches of the Wounded Coast, the environment designs were a pleasure to look at.  I liked the distinct look of your companions.  Isabela always looked like Isabela, and not just another rogue in leather armor.  There was more armor variation, and even armor designs that made a return looked better than they did in Origins.  Underwear actually looks good.  The graphical presentation of the design, though, only looked good with the HD textures patch, and even then, there were rough spots.  As has already been pointed out by many, the extent to which areas were recycled hurt the game visually as well.  Also, while Kirkwall looked farbetter than Denerim, the district design of Kirkwall left much to be desired.  The foundry district, for example, where virtually every good sold in the markets came from, according to the game, was a tiny little cubby in Lowtown.  It seemed a bit ridiculous, and it made me wonder why they were labeled as districts at all, as not only did most of them seem implausible, but their distinction as districts was rarely used at all.  Finally, I didn't like that certain characters changed their costume permanently after  you either romanced them or finished their quest line.  For the most part, I preferred their original look and was disappointed at being unable to change back to it.  If we are to have multiple, distinct outfits for our companions in future games, a move I would support, I would greatly prefer the option to switch between them.  The exceptions, and there should be some, should be small things, such an a locket you give someone that they would always wear no matter the outfit.

Combat: 
Combat was generally much improved and a lot of fun.  It moved faster and more fluidly.  Skills had more variation and function, generally looked snazzier, and had glorious, glorious numbers describing their effects.  I greatly enjoyed the reduced role healing played, whether this was intentional or not.  With all the different options provided in combat, refilling green bars was easily the least satisfying, and not necessarily most effective, option.  I personally liked the waves.  I liked having to be on my guard until I could be sure combat was well and truly over.  The inclusion of combinations across classes was generally also a welcome addition.  (More on the "generally" in a bit.)  Also, closing attacks must never go away.

Combat difficulty was schizophrenic, though.  This may be because my gameplay experience has mostly been in Nightmare, but most fights were easily manageable once I got the hang of combat and a few abilities.  Most.  There were a few, not including bosses, that randomly had such a spike in difficulty that they nearly became exercises in frustration.  (The Barracks in Night Lies, for example)  Also, the minimized role of healing did not apply to most bosses after the Rock Wraith.  In fact, it seemed the only way to succeed in certain boss fights was to stack up on healing and resurrection potions and spam their use.  This is not good design, and it is not fun.  It was jarring to have Aveline, who had 55% flat damage reduction and 65% physical damage reduction from armor and who could hold a group of six enemies herself, only be able to take three or four hits from a boss who swings every two seconds.  (Orsino, I'm looking at you)  Now I understand I was playing nightmare, but nightmare was the difficulty threshold that provided me a challenge.  For those for whom the threshold was normal, I can only imagine it did just the same.  Further, fight design was disappointing.  I was delighted at first with the buff abilities of the lieutenants and the improved backstabbing of assassins.  When they became the way to make any challenging fight challenging, when the answer to difficulty was to throw larger number of enemies who deal more damage at the player, it begins to seem that the team who came up with these first changes must either have run out of ideas, or run out of time for them.

I should address the cross-class combos.  While I enjoyed the cross-class co-operation combos brought in, I found it disappointing their only effect was adding damage and force.  Given the difficulty spikes, especially, I frequently found myself defaulting to the same few skills for optimal efficiency.  I find myself doing this much less so now that I'm playing through again on hard, but it is my understanding, again, that those for whom normal sufficiently difficult, normal is no kinder to them, in effect, than nightmare was to me.  I also think it’s telling that hard, despite being ridiculously easy at times, it’s more fun because of this.  Optimal efficiency frequently meant overwhelming damage through combos and little else.  The variation provided by the new skill system is very fun to play with, so it's a shame when the difficulty design and scaling of a fight requires the over-powered damage of combos, which requires reliance on a few skills.  In the end, whenever I came across a boss who dealt alarming damage to Aveline, and who lost very little health to cross-class combos, I sighed.

Finally, boss design felt like it peaked at the Rock Wraith, as most other bosses seemed to just take a page from his book and fight, disappear and summon minions, return, and repeat.  (High Dragon, it is your turn to earn my glare.)

Companions: 
This is one of the parts where the game truly shone.  As a whole, I liked the companions, their stories, the friendship/rivalry system, and their having a place and life away from Hawke and adventuring.  I enjoyed their banters.  That one was a bit of anadjustment for me, though.  I had to get used to them not always ending neatly or them occasionally ending very quickly.  In the end, though, I appreciated the variation.  I really liked being able to romance nearly every romanceable character whatever your gender.  I liked being able to invite certain romances to move in with you.  I wish I could have done that with all of them.  I didn't like that there seemed to be substantially less dialogue with them, though.  I also didn't like how stilted or minimal their lives outside adventuring seemed at times.  Fully half your companions had a life outside adventuring, allegedly, but really did nothing in it, or at the very least whatever they did went largely unmentioned.  (Isabela, Fenris, Merril, Sebastian)  Those who did have a fuller life mostly saw their lives unchanged across the years of the game, with perhaps the mention in a line or two of dialogue or in the codex as to some shift.  Varric is the worse example of this.  He is allegedly in charge of an entire merchant house after Bertrand flees, but in effect, outside of a sentence or so in the codex entry and a banter or two, everything about him remains unchanged.  It would be easier to see this as simply him being Varric with all his resilience if this problem didn't endemic in DA2.  Aveline and your sibling, really, seem the only companions whose lives truly show progression.  All in all, I would say it's a step in the right direction, but it could use more fleshing out.  I'm also disappointed that whenever you come upon your companions interacting with each other, one of them excuses his or herself.  I should say here that I really like seeing them interact in that way.  It would just be nice to robustly interact with more than one companion at a time.   DA2 teases you with moments where you almost do, or do for a sentence or two, but it never really delivers.  Last on this list, I get that I couldn't romance Aveline, but when you finally broach the issue with her, she tells you to head to the barracks where you two will talk about it, and then she proceeds to never mention the subject again.  That just seemed like sloppy story-telling.

Hawke: 
Another great step.  I suppose it doesn't hurt that about a decade ago, I found myself wondering about the problem of the silent, unvoiced protagonist, and the only satisfactory solution that came to mind was the dialogue-paraphrase system Mass Effect announced a couple years later.  After playing Mass Effect, I found myself musing over the dialogue system's limitations, and a system very much like this one came to mind.  I'm presently mulling over the issues of this system, but it'll take some time before anything significant emerges.

As it is, I greatly enjoy the ability to craft a personality the game world recognizes.  Its recognition is not always as full as I would like, and there are moments where, given the places where my personality has interjected in the past (such as randomly musing on the name of the Wounded Coast), I’m surprised my Hawke says nothing.  I also dislike how your character can get "type casted."  For example, even though my character always works to resolve conflict and do the right thing, she was always very flippant and light-hearted about things.  This meant she occasionally was unable to be diplomatic.  (Such as with Dalish on the Wounded Coast accosting the former werewolf)  Similarly, I found myself having to make my Hawke more polite that I felt she would be on occasion just so I could pick the option to help.  To that extent I found it disappointing that demeanor was frequently wedded with intent.  By this I mean on occasion I had to either had to be diplomatic and reassuring or comical and indifferent.  I could not be comical and reassuring or diplomatic and indifferent.  I felt there was a certain degree of granularity to personality that was largely absent here.  Perhaps, in conversation, intent and demeanor could be separated through different selections/a mix of selections?  The current system seemed to try to do just that through its dominant personality system, but it didn’t always work as smoothly as I would have hoped.  Whatever the case, the present system is far better than the silent protagonist of Origins, occasional disconnects and all.  Also, a few of the dialogue summaries could have been done better.  Still, I would not give up the casual asides my Hawke’s personality makes for…well, for the world, certainly, fine, but that’s the level of giving we’re talking here.

Story: 
I liked the more personal feel of this story.  It didn't have a great evil roiling in the background, only the pervasive theme of people's hatreds and weaknesses being exploited and causing disaster.  I honestly liked that there was no great threat to work against or established future plot point to work towards.  There was you, your family, and your friends doing the best you could in the increasing chaos over the years in Kirkwall.  I also liked the idea of the story spanning several years.  The execution, however, was a bit sloppy.  I think a more gradual progression, perhaps jumps of several months or a year to the next significant adventure rather than a break of years to the next major cataclysm, would have served it better.  It seemed my identity in the city was largely created for me between the years, which, while not terrible, wasn’t exactly ideal.  I was surprised to learn, for example, the Viscount had taken significant notice of me in the years after the expedition.  I would have understood if his notice stemmed from my having saved his son, but the game doesn't suggest that.  It saysit happened in the intervening years because of my wealth and whatever other adventures in the time span that I had no agency over.  I didn’t find it jarring, like others have said, but I did find it wanting.

I really liked having a family.  I greatly disliked how your family can ultimately be entirely used up as drama fodder in death.  (“Sure I’ll bring Bethany with me.  I mean, I should bring the warden.  It just makes sense, but the taint is a story mechanic.  If that was something your companions ran the risk of, my party in Origins would have died ten times over.   …oops.”)  Don’t get me wrong, I was authentically sad when Bethany and then Mama Hawke died, but by the end of my first play-through I was expecting Isabela to get the axe because we were further ahead in the story, and I was all out of immediate family.  I suppose, in that case, her fear of marriage was well-warranted.  This bugs me in part because, like I said, I really liked the idea of having a family in the story, and I was hoping for more depth from their involvement in the story than I felt I received from their deaths.

Then there was the ending.  Oh, dear, the ending.  Despite its flaws, the story had me completely on board up to this point.  So, every noble in the city owes me their life, the city hails me a champion, the guard and it's captain are at my side, I have the support of the ruler of Ferelden, I have the gratitude of the remaining mages of the circle, I broke the grip of the Templars on the city of Kirkwall, I have the strongest candidate for the ruler of Starkhaven as my ally, I'm a shoo-in for Viscount, and I flee for the hills with my companions?  Really?  I don't get to open dialogue with the Chantry in an attempt to explain the circumstances or consolidate my power base and make a stand?  After I defeated the one of the strongest contingents of the Templars on Thedas, my only response, which I have no control over, is to flee.  With all my companions.  And unnamed circumstance separates almost all of us?  Absolutely ridiculous.  Just completely, freaking, ridiculous.  Not only does it wash away everything I did up to that point, but it decides my character acts in a way I cannot see her acting at all, in part because I am never even given the choice to act in such a way throughout the entire game, without my input.  Then it decides circumstance would somehow force my companions and I all apart, unless I was romancing someone.  If I was romancing someone circumstances don’t force my romance and I apart.  I didn’t know circumstance cared, really.  I was of the impression it generally didn't, which suggests there was the possibility to not be separated had I not been romancing them, and I chose not to take it.  Also, Varric gets caught and dragged in for questioning, and I let him get taken.  Honestly, I must have been on the other side of Thedas for that one, but then I apparently disappeared for months while Chantry/Circle relations fell apart everywhere, so what do I know about Lavonne Hawke anyway?

 I know there’s going to be a sequel/expansion.  That much is obvious.  That is not an excuse for the state of the story at the game’s end.  At the very least, we should have gotten epilogues.  Writing them and setting them to a pretty picture isn’t exactly resource-intensive.

There’s a lot more to the story that doesn’t make sense either.  This revolt only took place and succeeded because of the extreme circumstances surrounding it.  In fact, it was less a revolt and more a desperate struggle for survival, yet The Chantry lost every Circle in Thedas when news of it spread?  When Varric first started his conversation with Cassandra he guessed she was looking for me to help put things back together, yet when Cassandra tells him so at the end he seems surprised.  There’s a small difference between his guess and her intent, but hardly enough to catch Varric, of all people, off-guard.  There are little bits like that strewn throughout the story that make me arch an eyebrow, and they seem all the worse because they seem like the sort of thing that could have been caught and ironed out with a bit more time.  (I say this because I remember the small tweaks made to the dialogue from the demo.)

Agency: 
I understand the issues with player agency, I really do.  I understand that there’s a trade-off between being able to tell a story and letting the player have control.  There is an almost zero sum game between the two.  If the story is going to be about a Grey Warden uniting Thedas and defeating the blight, then the player has no choice but to become a Grey Warden and has no choice but to visit places to gain allies to fight the blight.  Similarly, to the extent a character is going to have a specific and/or important role in a story, the player must have less agency over said character’s fate.  I get that.  You can write a story that would allow for a player to have full agency over that character’s fate, but then you have to write the story an additional, different way, and there are only so many such divergences, especially over sequential installments, that you can afford to put in any story.  I imagine this is especially true when you’re on a schedule and have a budget.  I get that.  At the same time, though, if you’re going to have a character play an important, necessary, specific role, don’t pretend to give us agency over the character’s fate just to ignore our work later.  Just, don’t give us the option.  It’s less frustrating.

I say this because I felt a bit betrayed too see the influence I was told I had at one point taken away from me now.  Anders, according to my Awakening epilogue, went back to the Circle for a little while, but then returned to the Wardens, who became his lasting companions, and trained the next generation of mages for the order.  Except that he didn’t and fled the wardens to come to Kirkwall instead.  Leliana, as I recall, decided she had made her faith in the Maker a way to hide from a life she should instead embrace and lead an expedition to find the source of the darkspawn.  Except that she didn’t and became the right hand of the White Divine instead.  I’m sure explanations will eventually be written around the abrogation of player agency in these cases, but it’ll feel like an excuse.  A cop-out.  An apology for ignoring the effect I was told I had in favor of the story you want to tell.

Also, I would have liked to have been able to influence more in the story of Hawke’s rise to power.  I accept the increased agency we have with our companions as a substitute, but only as a temporary one.  I might have accepted it for more if everything I had done with my companions hadn’t been wiped away by the game’s ending.

Polish: 
Or rather, lack of it.  There were game-breaking bugs in this in this thing that any competent play-tester should
have caught.  There were many smaller bugs and oversights that, while not game-breaking, were annoying because you ran into them or their effects every few minutes.  (Such as portraits being stuck highlighted and the lack of ground targeting for AoE spells.)  Many of these were mentioned by the community when the demo hit, whereupon we were told not to worry about them because we were playing an older build of the game.  That, quite frankly, is an embarrassment.  I enjoyed playing the game, but it gave every impression of not having been ready to ship. It felt instead like I was playing a beta that needed at least another month in development.  One of my friends who loved the story and improved gameplay stopped playing it halfway through because it just didn’t work.  He really liked Isabela, for example, but he was scared to put her in his party out of fear of the friendship bug. Frankly that’s inexcusable.  That’s no shape to ship the game in, and it leaves me far less inclined to buy another Dragon Age game at launch.

Miscellaneous design decisions:
I was pleasantly surprised to see underwear, the brothel, and sex-scenes taken more seriously by the design team.  I mean, the brothel no longer looks like a random inn, and there’s no more awkward underwear dry-humping.  There’s instead a nice lead-up and then a tasteful fade to black.  These are good things; though, I do wonder why Marian Hawke and Merrill put clothes on after sex to cuddle, but that’s just quibbling at this point.  (Note that the only scenes I’ve seen so far are Marian Hawke & Isabela/Merrill, so I can’t speak for the others)

I like being able to drop stuff you plan on selling into a junk section of your inventory.  I didn’t like how unequipping certain items automatically sent them to the junk pile, though.  I also disliked the inclusion of junk items as a whole.  I didn’t see the point to them when their value in coin could just have easily been dropped instead, and some of the items I was picking up to sell hurt my suspension of disbelief.  Moldy dolls and pouches of pebbles?  These are things I pick up to sell?  These are things coterie thugs are carrying?  Mind you, I still think the system was a functional improvement over picking up items that were essentially junk and being unsure whether they were, in fact, junk or not that was present in Origins.  It is far from ideal, though.  Also, the naming/star system on items needs serious work.  Many items I picked up had the same name but different properties and visa-versa.  Also, weaker items were frequently given more stars than items I currently had equipped just because I got the items I had equipped at a lower level.  At the end of the day, this resulted in my ignoring stars altogether.  I do like how item set bonuses were now listed in your abilities.  I just wish there had been a couple more sets.

I’m glad crafting no longer required you to carry an apothecary in your backpack. I’m not sure the system in DA2 is the right solution, but I do welcome it as an improvement.  Perhaps there can be a mini-cultivating game where you can grow/harvest you resources for crafting, and your resources are stored in your home base?  I don’t know.  I know I liked finding the resources.  I know I liked not having to carry them, but the implementation of the current system felt a bit flat.

I definitely like being able to change my appearance mid-game.  I only wish it wasn’t DLC only.  I remember hearing a conversation between NPCs in the game where one she was thinking of changing hair styles.  The second said it was a good idea, as she had had the same hair style for seven years.  Not having to deal with that myself was welcome.  Still, I would have preferred it if things like changing your hair style had been in the vanilla game, perhaps even something that would be commented on by someone.  It would also make sense if your companions changed their look a bit over the course of a decade too, but I suppose that’s getting into nitpick territory.

Having a button to auto-loot and auto attack was one of the best ideas ever.  I keep trying to do the same while playing DA:O and getting frustrated that I can’t.

I greatly appreciated backpacks no long costing six sovereigns.

Anything I haven’t listed I probably liked.  Overall I really enjoyed the game even if the ending made me want a hug.  This is in large part because of the improvements over Origins and the direction you were willing to brave with this installment.  These are things that may not be sufficient for future games, so don’t rest on your laurels, not that I think you would.

Edited to fix wonky formatting issues.  Also to say that Nathaniel's appearance totally should have shown that he hooked up with Velanna.

Edited again to fix a couple glaring errors.  I say this, yet I'm certain there're more I missed.  Now that this is here, though, a few notes.  I would appreciated the ability to invite whichever character I romaced to move in with me even if they refused to.  What I like there is being able to broach the isssue, the progression, being able to take that realistic step.  Also, the ending made me want a hug not because it was sad, but because it made me feel empty.

Modifié par Mage One, 19 avril 2011 - 02:29 .

[VanTesla]

I have changed my review from a 7.5 to a 5 after further notice on poor story, character development, bugs, reused maps, little plot development for ten years, unmemorable side characters and quest, little attachment to family, Hawke having little choice in serious matters, random throw in encounters with DAO characters like Leliana, poorly implemented DAO imports, and reused or poorly implemented Boss fights.

[Scrydragon]

Glaring dislikes/issues:  Bugs and re-used map layouts were a HUGE drawback for me.  I  know that we're running around the city of Kirkwall, and that's fine, but why is it that EVERY house, warehouse, sewer, cave, and mine have identical interiors?

I  don't mind running around Kirkwall for the entire game -- honest.  That isn't the issue.  The game takes place over roughly 10 years or so.  We hear about the Bone Pit having tunnels collapse, tunnels being reopened, etc., and yet we never SEE any of that.  Here is a perfectly legitimate excuse to make the same relative location different.  Make it such that the layout of the Bone Pit mines change between acts or quests even.  Maybe have it reflect the current quest?  For example, there is one quest for the Bone Pits where one of the miners breaks into a new tunnel and undead rush out.  When I  went in to do the quest, it was the identical mine, but there were just undead crawling out of the ground.  Where did the undead come from?  Why are they here?  This probably would have been the perfect time to open up a new segment of the mine somewhere and show that maybe they accidentally broke into a cursed elven masoleum.  Or maybe in the course of 10 years, portions of Dark Town collapse and reveal more tunnels or something.  Or maybe there was a riot that burned down part of the city.  Or maybe a bunch of new building tenants decided that they wanted to change the layout of their warehouse to deter thieves.

None of the caves or tunnels on the Wounded coast should look remotely like the caves on Sundermount, or the Bone Pit.  Likewise, without modern corporations making all the houses and buildings all the same, a pre-industrial society should have buildings with completely different interiors.



Good things that I really liked:  :happy:


1)  Good main story and good story-telling of the main conflict.  The primary conflict is introduced in the prologue, but it's so early that you just don't know it yet.  The mage vs templar conflict is told so masterfully that I  could see the build up in Acts One and Two that the only real surprise is why I  didn't see it sooner.    The little bits and pieces, side quests, commentary, and even companions really contributed to this.  Dragon Age 2 feels like the beginning of a truly epic tale.  If expansions to DA 2 come out continuing this story, I  will be right there to get them because this was masterfully done.  I  now want to really see the struggle in the Chantry-Circle War and how something so huge ends.

2)  Moral ambiguity.  Having the story be morally ambiguous was FANTASTIC.  This made the story far more interesting, in my opinion.  You could easily see both sides of the argument, and just as easily be torn by who you should support.  Blood mages going on the rampage, killing people, and letting loose demons on the hapless populace?  Of course I  can support the templars on this one!  Over-zealous and scared templars imprisoning all mages, brain-wiping them on a whim, killing them if one so much as sneezes?  (Making a mage tranquil might be even more serious since the Fade is supposed to be the realm of the Maker, and if you're killing someone while in the realm of the Maker, does that mean that you're killing their VERY SOUL??  )  Of course I can agree with them!  Oh, wait. . .   When the story is very clear cut as to whom and what you're fighting against, there isn't as much of a personal engagement with the audience/player.  Dragon Age: Origins was nice, but the personal involvement and dilemma wasn't there.

3)  Wonderfully interesting companion characters who are consistent in their actions.  Each one of the characters was distinct and fascinating.  You have a blood mage who firmly believes that the wolf at the door is just an over-sized puppy dog.  Rather than have other blood mages who believe that they can control the power and that they know what they're doing, or blood mages who don't care about how far their depravity goes, you have one who really doesn't understand the dangers of what she's doing.  Or the escaped slave with amnesia and a staunch hatred of all mages.  Or the really nice healer who happens to be possessed.  Or the impish pirate queen who follows her own rules.  Or the wise-cracking bard who happens to have a crossbow named Bianca.  Or the overly-protective female tank who spies on you.  Each one is memorable in his or her own way, and I loved interacting with them all.  (I will admit that Carver reminds me a little too much of my own younger sibling -- he's just more obnoxious -- , and that I  wanted to deck him a few times.  Maybe allow that in the next installment?)

I  also loved the fact that the characters sometimes did their own thing, rather than just follow my character all the time.  "Wait!  Where is Isabella going with that book?. . ."  Or  "Why is Aveline such a freaking chicken when it comes to asking someone out?"  Or "You BLEW UP A CHURCH???"  And contrary to some very vocal homophobic players, I LIKED having some of the other characters flirt with me first.  (Admittedly, I  am a straight  female player, but I thought it charming and funny when Isabella flirted with me, even if I  was in a romance already.)

4) Hawke lives!  Hawke has a voice and a face!  I  didn't realize how much it bothered me that my character was silent and never showed her face until this game.  The character acting was so phenominal that a number of my favorite moments were because of the expressions on either Hawke's face or one of the companions' faces.  One in particular was during Fenris' quest to kill Danarius' apprentice.  "All mages are evil!  Everything that magic touches becomes corrupted!" (Hawke, the mage, suddenly has an expression of shock and dismay as though to say, "What of me??")  When Hawke is incredulous that they are going to Kirkwall, I can tell that she is incredulous, even if I couldn't hear what she was saying.  And to make it even better, the voice acting (the female version at least) was a perfect fit to the acting.  It made it so worth it.

5)  Flemeth.  She turns into a dragon, can somehow see the future, and she tells jokes!  And to put icing on the cake, Kate Mulgrew voices her!  <3  I  really hope that future installments of Dragon Age will tell us more about Flemeth.  What is she?  Who is she, really?  What is her purpose?  


My two favorite quests/quest lines:  Bartrand's Haunted Mansion -- This quest was just cool.   I walked around the entire mansion thinking that it would be booby-trapped and so got to see everything.  The companion comments were hilarious.  "In 10 seconds I'm going to start smashing everything."  "St. Andraste's Flaming Knickers!"

Aveline's courtship of Donnic:  This chain was just awkward for poor Aveline and very funny.  If you brought along Varric and Isabella, it's like being a part of a romantic comedy gone wrong . . . with a riff-track.  There were parts where I  had problems paying attention because I  was laughing too hard.


Request:  More companion interaction with the dog!  It seemed like there were more comments and interactions between the dog and the companions in DA: Origins.  I really missed it!  (I do, however, like the new implementation of the dog as more of a summons and less of a party member.)