1012 réponses à ce sujet

[ExiledMimic]

After finishing the game as a 2-Hander Warrior with Isabella as a love interest, I figure I've punished myself enough that I qualify to add in 2 cents, right?

Likes

-Less shuffle to attack.  I hated how characters would shuffle step to eternity waiting to line up for an attack in Origins.  It was horrifying when I was a tanking warrior and trying to shield bash a target that had gotten stuck on Wynne.  Killed her a few times too.  So this was a much needed improvement.

-Overall combat Mostly better.  I felt like I was playing dynasty warriors at times with all the button mashing I was doing, but beyond that I was perfectly happy with combat on the whole.

-Tactics Improved.  Much more tactics slots much faster and a little more ability to affect how they react was nice.  Anders seemed to be the only one who wanted to ignore it, but if you've beaten the game then you know Anders is a douche waiting for a place to happen.

-Style.  It felt like a different country.  I felt like I was no longer hanging around with the same lot of Blight survivors from the first game.  The art was much better, the accents, even some of the graphics for weapons.  However some of the same clothes are there, that's nothing to really complain about.

-Day/Night.  I liked the change in mechanics that doesn't just have my character fighting in the sun all the time.  Still, I would have liked to have had at least 1 act where I wasn't in the middle of spring time.  That would have been rather nice to see the city covered in snow once.

-Dialog.  I didn't always have the options I wanted, and I sometimes had NO idea what the outcome was going to be (too reliant on hints) but I liked the new options.  It felt more like Mass Effect's story telling and that's a good thing compared to Origins.

-Story.  The story was, until the final act, great.  I hated the lives
of everyone who was associated with this game when Hawke's mother died. 
I wanted to kill every Templar in the city and free the Circle the
second they took Bethany.  I even wanted to choke someone for taking
away Anders' sense of humor this go round.  But until the last act the
story was great.  If I cut the game off there for this review, it would
be shining.  Hawke's options for dialog may have been sadly lacking at
times, but I was becoming invested in this guy.  Sadly... that changed
in the last Act.


Dislikes

-Hawke.  In Origins I WAS the Warden.  In this game?  I just play Hawke.  I pick his looks, his class (or he could be a she) but I'm not that character.  I don't have the investment in Hawke I did in the Warden.  Because of how the story is told I was constantly pigeon-holed into choice and dialog options that restricted me from taking control of the character as I wanted.  That's a new feeling for a Bioware game.

-Bethany/Carver.  I'd much rather choose which one I feed to the darkspawn.  I get balancing the party, really.  But I feel like there's punishment in store for picking a mage.  Bethany was such a well written and presented character, and my start of a mage play through has made me hate even being related to Carver that it's just horrible.  If one or the other died automatically I'd be fine with that.  I felt bad in Awakening when I lost my tank to the ritual, but I couldn't save her.  So I got over it.  This time what I want to play can kill off a family member.  At least give me the choice so I have to live with that, rather than deciding for me.

-Rinse/Repeat.  Dungeons, the city, most art styles... it's over and over again.  Being stuck in a single city is hard, but when you're stuck in the same mine shaft with different open doors for 30 quests it makes you want to gouge your eyes out.  Or facing the same art style of archer for the 90th time.  One of the reasons I would have LOVED to see an act played out in winter, or a mission where it rained.

-Model updates.  I dunno if this was the intent, but since I played the demo I started thinking that the darkspawn looked like pale versions of Jersey Shore kids.  They were well dressed, seemed to be clean, and looked like their skin needed some moisturizer.  At least in Origins I was afraid of hamburger-faced Hurlocks.  And when did the Emissaries start looking like bondage freaks?  The elves look overdone in places.  If the Dalish had those stronger features and they softened for city elves that would have been one thing.  But all elves look like a cross between a fish and a door jam.  I'm not too keen on it.  And let's not forget Qunari.  I take the same stance as elves.  If there seemed to be some rhyme or reason as to why some had horns and not others I'd have been cool.  The Arishock having horns was great.  But all of them having them suddenly?  Not a fan.

-Weapons.  This is going to be a complaint that, while perhaps odd, seems justified.  I ran through this game equipped with 2 handed swords almost as tall as I was.  Yet after the first dagger drops I steadily realize that they do more damage.  And you can equip two of them if you're a rogue.  So when Isabella had a pair of near 50 damage weapons and I was happy with my 38...  well let's just say that feels wrong.  Minor complaint, really.  But I'm still not over the fact I can't be a DW warrior in this one.  That was mucho-fun.

-Inventory.  Please tell me there wasn't a guy who's job it was to just code "junk" into the game?  I'm happy for them if it is.  They have a posh job in this economy, and they work at Bioware.  But what bugs me is that you actually decided to throw gas on the fire of the single most annoying part of most RPG games.  Inventory space.  You gotta run to the end of the planet when you get full, sell it off, pray that you didn't make a mistake and sell the wrong item (I'm looking at you, trinkets!) and then go back to where you were going.  Not to mention I couldn't find a single place that sold bags for more inventory space.  If the intent was just to give us more cash, just give us another silver for every person we killed.  From what I saw?  It would have been about even.

-Characters.  Yes, I liked most of the characters.  Depth, conversations, and their banter.  I wasn't thrilled with the female romance options, and was even more mad that the one I was actually interested in married another guy, but I survived.  I went with Isabella, even though Varric said it best "Is there anyone in Ferelden you HAVEN'T slept with?".  I would have liked better options.  Cause it's sad my sister was the most likeable female.  And it's creepy to boot.  Also... the ending.  There wasn't even the Origins slapping of "This guy goes to Nantucket..."  The game is just over and the characters we're suppose to invest in so heavily are reduced to a drawing.  Varric and your love interest are the only ones mentioned, the rest... poof.  It doesn't reward us for caring, and if we do another play through, we'll care less because there's nothing that can change with them.  I, for one, am skipping companion DLC this go round.  If there's no investment in them then I'm not going to pay $20 for another rogue to follow me around.

-Leaps of Logic (The Final Act).  Yeah.  It gets it's own section.  Because from the very moment Orleanus is on the steps inciting a riot: Hawke no longer becomes an investment.  He's just a character in the game.  At first I didn't realize it.  I shot down the Knight-Commander, told her to ease off, said she had no right to hold the office of Vicount.  I did, however, promote some civility at first (but it failed).  That wasn't a problem.  Neither was talking to the Grand Cleric.  Or most of the quests.  In fact that exact moment at the start should have begun to shape this ending if it had a prayer of being 1/3rd as good as Origins.

When I was killing Templars and mages working together and SWEARING I was working for Meredeth I was thinking "Uh... are you retarded?  I spoke against her in public, and I've championed the cause of mages for YEARS."  I honestly assumed I'd gotten a glitch at first.  So I reloaded the whole act thinking that the little code that affects my story decisions had jumped the fence here.  No... just a really bad leap to pidgeon hole the story.  Which only made me all the more angry.  So I'd wiped out the Templar/Mage alliance that wanted to stop the psycho lady.  Why?  Because I'd yelled at them?  Kicked them?  Spat on mages?  No.  Cause I killed a blood mage and an abomination and made sure that the third mage got him a little before I took him back the Circle.  Leaps of logic indeed.

This continues over and over where the choices you made have no affect on the outcome at all.  It's contained in your own party, no matter how many lives you reached out to.  No matter who you hurt or helped, Hawke is not you.  He is a character to be played.  In the last act of this game I was very disappointed not in what the team TRIED to do, but that they sunk below Bioware standards to achieve an end that feels like I just watched Matrix Reloaded.  Tons of questions, no answers, and I feel like something vital was cut in the end.  That loving piece of Bioware magic that let's you feel like you affected the world (even if all you got was a different dialog option or 1 more survivor) just wasn't there.  Which was the biggest let down of all.  Would I be ok with the ending?  Sure.  But not how I got there being decided for me at every possible turn. 

It was a box ending, and that's not something I come to expect from Bioware at all.  That is why I honestly am angry with this game.  It drew me in, it had me almost to the point where I felt like Hawke.  Then... just took a leap of logic right off the cliff.

Modifié par ExiledMimic, 11 mars 2011 - 11:24 .

[The Cannibal Factory]

I'm not a big poster, and many have really summed up the game fully already, but I'd like to add a short few bits and bobs.

SMALL SPOILERS BELOW:

LIKES
- New combat. I'll admit, I hated it at first, but it grew on me, even if it feels a bit more "spammy" than DA:O's one - possibly because it all happens so quickly.

- Character creation made some beautiful people, even with the recycled hair (and annoyingly small mouths).

- The tie-ins with DA:O depending on what save-game is selected. Very nicely done. I had no complaints.

- The concept of moving a game along 10 years. Bold idea and worth trying.

- The new design for the Qunari. Very nice.

- The way the characters romancability depend on what your character is. For example, Anders seems to be bisexual if you're a male (Karl backstory) but straight if you're a girl. It was an interesting way to do it. (Oh, and VERY pleased he was romancable by a male by the way! That was darling.) Anyway, I just mean that it was great that the devs allowed everyone to just go for whomever they wanted for their character's story, regardless.

- Aveline. I loved her to bits. Basically my dream woman, actually )were she real, and into ladies) I thought she'd be a bore from her character artwork, but god... just spot on.


DISLIKES
- The elf redesign. Creepy as hell for some reason! Also, why do none of the dalish have the same celtic accent? Some are scottish, some irish, some welsh.... Weird.

- What happened to Zevran and Alistair??? Zevran looks like the result of having a vacuum cleaner up his backside, while Alistair appears to have had a tragic accident requiring facial reconstruction and the full-on removal of his chin. As for that former sex-monster Teagan... *sob*. Tragic.

- The game name. No but seriously. Would have been so much cooler if it were Dragon Age: Pathways, or Dragon Age: Rise or something similarly epic, to continue the theme.

- Blood on the teeth. WTF!? After every damned fight, it looked like the characters had just nibbled their enemies to death. Yuk.

- Brown, brown and more.... oh yes, brown. Gosh this game was colourless. Even the colour looked drained out and the lighting was very poor. The only place of any interest was the shore area, and then only by looking out to sea or at the sky. Nowhere of Orzammarian epic beauty.

- The map... with Ferelden, you got a clear mental picture of the world you were in. You could say, "hmm I'd better go to Orzammar after the Circle, it's closer". Kirkwall is totally abstract - I can't picture it as a city, and the game feels more disjointed for it.

- CHARACTER INTERATION!!! So awfully done. I spent the entire game desperate to talk to someone... anyone! Remember how Sten could be given cookies, or would go on a long rant about the place of children in society if you pass by some in Denerim? Even the party banter felt thin and, sans Varric, dull.

- Inventory - appaulling. All the fun has been surgically removed. I used to love collecting armour and dressing my gang up to my specs, and trying to figure out what gift should go to whom, and comparing stats to upgrade everyone. I loved having that choice.

- Romances. What was a highlight of the first game was just boring as hell here, with nothing but the odd cut scene here and there. Seriously ruined by the LACK OF CHARACTER INTERATIONS.

- Anders' storyline. I liked it overall, including his actions at the end, but I was soooo hoping to be able to seperate him and Justice and maybe choose who got the body, divorce style. Justice was my favourite in Awakenings, and I wanted to spend more time with him! Also, would have liked a lot more backstory on what led Anders to let Justice in... I mean, I can imagine it if Kristoff's body was almost rotted away and Anders saw his friend actually pained, but more explanation was needed.

- Anders' voice. I can see what they were going for; he did sound like a cross between Anders and Justice. But he was 80% more boring as a result.

- The main character's voice... I expected to love it. But the "three choices, plus occasional side investigation choice" ruined it completely. Massive failure on depth of character. While the voice actors were great, aforementioned issues made it very hard to "roleplay" or actually feel connected to my own character. Hawke felt like a randomer and I didn't care much about him/her.

- The final battle was like something out of a steampunk world. I mean... this is still supposed to be a fantasy world, right? Where were the dragons, or witches, or ogres? On that note...

- God the battles were boring and repetitive. But DA:O suffered on that score too, so meh.



Now, the above might give the impression that I didn't like the game! That's not actually true - in isolation, I am enjoying it for what it is. It's a fun game, and I'm enjoying being there. The creators are to be applauded for trying something new.

But as a sequel to Origins? The game where I laughed so hard, cried even harder, stared at battles in awe, changed the lives of lots of different societies (ie, chose their King, or got them wiped out even), talked to characters who almost felt real and whose opinions on my actions really mattered to me, led the world into battle and once or twice even died for them.... NO.

Not even close.

Modifié par Lady Vengeance, 11 mars 2011 - 11:18 .

[StowyMcStowstow]

I finished the game about a half hour ago...

Pros:

• The Graphics and Art style- Dragon Age 2 really came into it's own in this department. I really like the spikey armor look, and the graphics have a great feel to them.
• The combat- Far superior to Dragon Age: Origins. I liked being able to hit a button and throw fire at something, and it did feel less like someone rolling dice in the background.
• The companion interactions- with each other. I really liked seeing the companions getting along with each other, and their banter during quests was great. 
  [/b]

[b]Cons:

• The Companion interactions- With Hawke. I really didn't like the fact that now only were your companions spread out all over the city (and hence all separated by nice loading screens), but most of the time if you went there without having a quest for them they kept saying the samethings over and over. My point is that the way DA:O handled this was better, what with having them all in one place.
• Companion upgrades- "oh you can get upgrades for your companions instead of getting them gear." That's great, except not only do the "upgrades" for your companions not show up on them, forcing us to stare at the same armor for 40 hours, but I am then left with hundreds of items restricted to me, especially since I played as a mage.
• The Gear... Mage Gear- We get it. Mages usually wear robes. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo. If you're going to have us in robes an entire game, vary it a bit. The only time fur looks good on  armor is then it serves to make the character look bigger and more intimidating, like in the Champion armor. Why were we restricted to robes, then all of a sudden given legitimate armor? I love the champion armor, but why couldn't there have been other sets similar to it?
• The Repeated levels- This one really pissed me off. I don't care how strapped for time or money you were, there are other ways to create new dungeons... like a randomizer. Create several small chunks that can be put together to form smaller dungeons, then mix and match. You can also do this with lighting, the color, etc. There is no excuse for this.
• The Story- As epic as Bioware wants it to be, Hawke's personal story is not that "Epic." It is a tale of a man who does extraordinary things... in one place. I felt the same way after beating Mass Effect 2, and for good reason: DA2 and ME2 are set-ups for a third game. The events in DA2, while confined to a city, will mark the rest of the world. Also, Anders going all terrorist was a great twist. And the First Enchanter turning into a floppy eared arse-nugget was not.
• The loading screens- These really pissed me off, and not because they're loading screens. It's because on the ones that filled up a symbol or whatever, one side would always start before the other, and after a while it really got to me. Who thought that was a good idea? I'll tell you: the same person who thought armor with one shoulderpad was a good idea.
• Flemeths lack of involvement- I really expected he to be behind some of the things that occurred in Kirkwall. Her presence in the beginning was a Deus Ex Machina at worst and convenient at best. Either way, don't say a character will play part in  a game when the part is A) miniscule and almost irrelevant.

Thats all I got. I enjoyed the game, but at the end I did feel a bit underwhelmed.

Modifié par StowyMcStowstow, 11 mars 2011 - 11:43 .

[Inkeres]

I loved Dragon Age: Origins. I really did. I was extremely excited for DA2. But after beating it, I want to go back and play Origins again because it was entirely more epic.

While DA2 is a good game, and I did enjoy playing it, I was left disappointed.


Combat:

Streamlined.

Killing things was way more fun in this game. Totally interactive and cool looking.

I saw a comment about how the mages twirl their staffs rather than casting and that that's stupid. That's ridiculous. You can't just have a beam of cast energy. It's a way to make it more realistic to have them making motions like they're building up power. Cool downs make sense too. They're not just an endless source of constant ferocity. The fact that potions had cool downs as well MADE SENSE. Realistically, no one can just down potions over and over, and that keeps the difficulty in check.

I did a lot of kiting. Why? Cause I did a lot of damage. Enemies did the same thing to me when I hunted them down. Mages teleported away. It makes sense, people. Stop complaining.

As for changing fighting specialties...Why on earth should you be able to change a 2-handed weapon fighter to a shield and sword specialist? They've worked their lives on that particular ability. In the real world, changing them over like that would result in a person that just can't do anything well and it's no longer a specialty.

At first I didnt' like the skill tree, but they grew on me. Though I do wish you could hover over the skills and see what they are before you click on them.

Spell targeting was wonky. Right click? Left click? Target enemy or target floor? My game got confused and it took me several attempts to cast a spell while using the right method.


Certain abilities are not useful. Why do I need to teleport to a party member? I can run. I suppose if I lived in this world I would use that to jump behind people and scare them.

Characters:

Overall, I felt the characters in Origins were stronger. I may not have liked them all, but they stood out.


Hawke: 

Hawke did not really feel personal. While the voice acting was good, I felt more connected to my silent protagonist in DA Origins. If I was the peacemaker/talker, nothing changed about the world to show that. If I was a jerk, no one came to kill me or threw rotten fruit at me besides bad guys. Why was she wandering around in a short robe in her house? Yes it's her house...but...pants are, you know..pants.

Why couldn't I change how her model looked? I hated her hair but I couldn't tweak it?

Fenris:

I thought he was going to be whiny and emo. To my surprise, he was a badass. The fact that he refuses to change his mind about mages grew a little tiring. Would have liked to see a bit more of a change in thought regarding magic.

Anders:

I loved Anders in Awakening. He feels like an entirely different person here. Yes, he's attached to Justice, but with the new voice actor and his emo-ness...he's someone else. The further I went in the story the more I regretted having him...but he was the only healer??????

Merging with Justice was just...weird. It had the potential to be so much cooler.


Aveline:

No matter what I did in the beginning, she couldnt' be pleased. She's a tough person to figure out how to behave around, and soon I was gaining friendship, then rivalry and back again when I wasn't doing anything crazy.

Her romance quest was hilarious. She was okay, a little bland, but likable enough.


Merrill:

I can't STAND her. At first she was adorably cute. And then she's a selfish, naive stupid brat.

Isabela:

Funny. I thought I'd hate her cause she seemed like the 'i'm so cool, check me out' kind of person, but she wasn't. Really, no pants?

Varric:

He seemed to be the only one that had a lick of sense, and was funny.

Sebastian:

Love his accent and his looks. Found his personality irritating but really that's just personal preference. His armor was cool and I'm glad Anders made fun of his belt.

Bethany:

Thoght she'd be bland, and she was very sweet and I had her in my party until she was torn away in a plot twist that seemed like it was there just to torture Hawke.

Carver:

Haven't used him.



ROMANCE:

I was really disappointed with the romance. The flirting was awkward and cringe-worthy and I barely used it because it never felt right in the situation it got tossed in. There were hardly any opportunities to use it in either. No celebratory party after Hawke gets the mansion? No proper moment to actually flirt?

The characters would be pouring their heart out about some traumatizing or difficult decision in their life and you'd hit on them? While it could work, because in real life people do do stupid things like that, there were too few RIGHT moments to flirt.


I laughed hysterically when Anders kissed Hawke. The noises were funny, like a dog slurping.

When I romanced Alistair in Origins...that was sweeter and more realistic. There were opportunities for silly conversations, and there were ways to interact with the character, to hear about their lives and to get to know them.

It's silly that people want nude sex scenes. It's supposed to be tasteful, not porn.


Why did everyone have to be bi-sexual? Unrealistic. If Fenris was totally gay no matter if you were a guy or a girl I'd be dissapointed that I couldn't romance him on my girl but I wouldn't go on youtube and cry about it. Total fan service which weakens the integrity of the game.


Despite everyone being bisexual...the choices were limited. Do I choose the hardcore vengeance Fenris? The crazy mage? The stupid blood mage? The pirate who sleeps around? Even if Sebastian is romanceable you can't actually sleep with him or marry him or whatever. I can't find a sweet nice guy or girl like Alistair or Liliana?




Story:

I didn't have a clear goal. I was wandering around doing side quests wondering how they all connected. There was no major antagonist, big evil. I understand that this was the intention, but I felt like an errand boy while the world fell apart around me.

What was the point of the mine? Did I miss something there? Did that help me in any way by owning it?

Why in the world weren't templars hunting down my apostate friends? You're told later that they leave them alone because you're the champion of kirkwall...but before that? Whaaaaat? Considering it's mages vs templars....shouldn't the whole mage thing be a more involved part? Even after becoming champion, no one wants to mess with you? They've got tons of templars and you're like, 8 people?


Your decisions don't seem to actually matter. The story goes the way it goes no matter what you do and that's insanely frustrating.

The pacing was off. If I was going to be forced to do so many sidequests, they could have at least been for the mercenary or smuggler group.

The game just ends. Where did Hawke go? Yes, it's a cliff hanger but...what? Also, I KILLED Anders but apparently he still runs away with me?


Having Flemeth put part of her soul in an amulet felt a bit Harry Potter-ish and I sighed when it happened.

While the serial killer plot was intriguing, it didn't connect at all to the main plot other than the fact that it was a blood mage who did it. He wasn't some crazy mage you'd heard about, or some politician you knew that was an advocate for mages. It was totally random. What he did to Hawke's mother was shocking, but I've seen the whole 'i cut up people to make another person' thing before.

Why didn't I get to be viscount? It's mentioned but somehow I can't do it? No actual reason, just 'no.../shakes head...I don't think so'

Why are most of the mages you meet evil? Surely there are some who are decent.

Some characters tie into the story line while others are just...there. Anders blows up the chantry, Isabela steals the book (but in my game never shows back up), Varric and his brother do the whole evil idol thing, Fenris and Merrill just hang out, as does Aveline. Though, Aveline does do guard things.

I didn't feel like any time had passed. Kirkwall didn't look any different from beginning to end. Couldn't there have been a building being built that you see later? Or something?

No closure. Even a cliff hanger can have some closure.


Other:

-Lack of character dialogue and interaction.

-Game maps were repeated over and over. All groups chose the SAME place to have their hideout. You can still remain in and around Kirkwall and have different maps.

-Dialogue wheel was great.

-Elves look weird.

-Love the Qunari.

-I couldn't hover over the minimap. Kept having to check the main map to see what was going on.

-No access to party members inventory and character screens while at home was irritating.

-Women looked silly when running. Just because you're a girl doesn't mean your hips sway ALL the time. We walk like normal people.

-Aside from needing fifty gold for the expedition, and buying the occasional rune or potion, I didn't need it.

-SCARY hands. I thought they were diseased or turning into a skeleton and that it would be part of plot.

-Difficulty jumps irratically.

-Great music, but not enough of it. I still remember my first Deep Roads experience, and the haunting music. I barely remember great moments of music in this game.



    To sum up, I thought it was a good game, but I think Origins was better in all ways except for combat and inventory handling.

    The best part of the game for me was when Alistair showed up as king. Followed by Zevran and Liliana's entrances.




Final Score: 7/10

[RedBird56]

So just beat the game last night after a final push of about 13 hours of straight game play. Over all I really liked the game but let me break down my review.
likes

Story- When a game can make me yell "holy crap", "F*&^ you" and other words my mother would smack me fore using you have made a story the has my complete attention. This was a interesting change of pace from what most other games i've played. You're not trying to save the world nor are you part of some super group like you are in other games (DA:O) You are just a guy (or girl) looking out for his family and trying to survive. And the plot twists and such like with Anders and Justice, that was just...holy crap

Art Style

The Qunari look awesome and I really like how you changed the elves. Before they really only looked like humans but with pointy ears. Now they seem sharper and more wild.

Characters

Merrill- http://browse.devian...errill#/d399ohg With out a doubt one of my favorite characters bioware has ever made, tied with Tali and Mission. Here's a character who has an innocence to her but at the same time is going down a path that will only end in pain and death. A very tragic character who wants nothing more to help her people and will do what ever it takes. Yet her methods leave her hated and feared. She was of course my romance option One of my favorite moments is during a simple random conversation between her and Aveline. Aveline asks why shes fighting with Hawke when this isn't really her fight. Her answer "I love him." Awesome

Aveline - At first I wasn't sure how to think about this character. However after some of her missions you see this isn't just some tough as hell woman who's only interested in whats right. She's a tough as hell woman who's interested in whats right as well as someone who has a very caring side thats almost motherly. Also watching her try flirt of just funny as hell.

Varric- now this is a character. Funny, witty, sarcastic, and one hell of a liar...i mean story teller. Unfortunately we don't get as much character development with him as we do with the others which would have been nice. But he can stand on his own pretty well. Also he has the best crossbow ever...of all time.

Anders- oh boy where do I even start. I liked the idea that in order to save Justice he offered to be his host but after that...i duno. He is really a tragic character. His good deed to save Justice ultimately doom both of them and his method to finally free the mage's makes him a murderer.

Isabela- my god that is a lot of woman.I can't really say much for this character other than she pretty much screws me over. I think well see more of her in some future dlc at some point.

Bethany and Carver - I'm putting these two together since I never got a chance to really use either. Carver dies and Bethany got taken to the circle. Maybe on a new play though I'll get more out of them.

Fenris- Didn't really use him that much. Over all not a bad character but he was just kinda there. Though the plot twist at the end of his story was pretty cool.

Sebastian-...Can i have his accent please? Nice archer character. Wish I could have had him as a party member sooner. I thought my game had glitched when after the first mission he didn't join me. It was interesting to see him have to pick staying with his vows of chasity and poverty or going home to rule his land.

Game play- I love me a hack and slash and there was a great amount of side quests.

Also liked how each character had many missions instead of just one like in DA:O

And the boss fights were fun. Loved how bat **** crazy the final one was. And all you party members are in it. Epic Win.

dislikes

The damn serial killer. That pissed me off so much when Hawke's mother dies.

To many game freezes. The game froze 6 times, and the last on was just after the ending video but before the end credits so I had to redo the final boss.

Merrill romance glitch. I got the dialog for after the prides end mission way earlier than the mission so I was wondering what was going on. I've heard this happened if you get her friendship up too fast. Please fix that.

Not enough connection to DA:O. When I loaded my past save files and saw all the plot points in the summary I figured each one would be a main point in the story, but not so much.

Also on that note, the plot summary didn't mention anything I had done in Witch Hunt, like me going with Morrigan into the mirror.

The Ending to Merrills story. I can understand the keeper dieing, but was it really necessary to kill off the WHOLE clan?

Anders solution to the mage templar thing. "Lol I know I'll blow up a church. That'll fix everything"

The mages at the end. I stick up for them then EVERY ONE of them turns bad and uses blood magic...

I'll give this game a 8/10 It would have been 9 but the glitches and freezes really annoyed me

[Zeuserich]

I am actually shocked. I mean - i expected that at least half of the negative stuff would be exaggerated, but the longer i play the worse it gets.

Game actually does contain simple copy/pasted layouts (cheezus Christ - how hard was it to shuffle the caves a bit?), quests actually do send you over and over to the same visited places, where mobs have "magically" respawned back.

I can't believe this is actually happening. Did i get some random game back from 2004 instead of Dragon Age 2?

Elves actually do look like Na'vi from the Avatar movie. I hope Bioware payed all licensing fees?

Side quests actually are pathetic - loot some random crap, bring it back, get one line saying "OOOHhhhh thx for bringing this thingy back!" and thats it. Really? I mean - REALLY? Next ill be picking up some random leaf and finding some random NPC, out of the blue, to give it to him? Should've at least called it "collections" or something.

I can hardly follow the story, simply because the gameplay itself is appalling in every possible way.

Harry Potter esque "soul in the amulet"? Oh cmon...

Castrated inventory and UI? Well... i ain't buying xbox anytime soon. Hopefully choosing console players, over PC players, payed off, at the end.

At this points i can't even view this "thing" as an interactive book, or a movie, or a comic. Its awful and thats that.

Unless this is a brilliant scheme to release quick and bad second game, so you would have more cash and time to work on a decent third game - i am not amused.

Modifié par Zeuserich, 12 mars 2011 - 02:25 .

[DarthCrios]

likes-
-the new comabt system, got rid of the akwardness and made warrior and rogue classes worth playing
-charecter interaction, some of the best interaction between charecters i've ever expierenced in an RPG
-Non-linear ness- ability for averything to change; from your entire family dieing, having Merril be forced to kill the keeper, or the many other branching paths was a much welcome change from the DAO 2 choice cross roads
-New dialogue wheel- leaves little room for misinterpretation
-shiny new look

dislikes-
recycled dugeons
dlc ready upon release
stuck in one city
skiping 3-4 years between acts
random squad mate reactions to things tht they didnt react to in dialogue

[DarkSpider88]

Version Played: 360

Pros:
-Combat: Like it so much better than Origins, makes me feel more involved in the battle. I began playing as sword and shield and redistributed talents to play as two-handed both are immensely fun to play.
-Story: I really liked the story of Hawke choosing on how to shape the world. Yeah in DA:O you got to pull the world from brink of disaster but in this game you get decide which disaster course you take.
Companions:
Aveline: Thought I wasn't going to like her but she was a very interesting character. You made a strong female more believable than most other games. She wasn't a constantly letter of law character but stood up for what is right. Also her quest to get Donnic was pure genius.

Bethany: You guys made me feel for this character. She is the sweet sister who you can't help but protect. Her thinking it okay to use magic but not blood magic no matter what made me respect her. To me she was the best mage and was sad to see her leave for the circle. If we play as Hawke in DA3 I really would really like to have my badass sister at my side, or at least in future DLC.

Isabela: I didn't think I would like her or her character remodel but again proved me wrong. She is a feisty woman and fierce warrior who isn't afraid to show her likeness for all things involving sex. Isabel's interactions with everybody was awesome, especially Varric, Bethany, and Aveline (especially during Aveline's quest). Would like to continue relationship in next installment.

Varric: I am a guy and even I was sold on his Paragon of manliness status by the end. His completely cool and suave attitude made me want to have him in party at all times. His fondness of

Bianca was also very awesome, the scene with Isabel trying to touch Bianca was great. My favorite Dwarf character so far, much better than Oghren.

Dialogue Wheel: Good to see how a character will say something than what they will exactly say.

Character Interaction: Just walking around how the characters react to one another was hilarious and me the game feel that much more real. Also when characters were visiting each other in cut scenes made it feel like it was really a team. So much so I want all of them back except for Anders, Sebastian, and Fenris.

Graphics: Everything looks better and polished. Stick with this style.

Main Character armor and items: felt like there was a variety of unique armors and items to choose from.

The Story: Like how the story evolved and that I got to choose how the world would be shaped. That I got to stand with my sister against the oppression of mages, a little disappointed the first enchanter resorted to blood magic.

Immersion with DA:O and Awakening: Thanks for nodding to my game and that the Warden is still important.

The Ending: After the game I can log back in and in my party is Bethany. You better provide DLC where my sister and I can kick more butt. Seriously an expansion with all of them would be awesome.

New Qunari and Elf models: they both grew on me.

Romance: You guys nail this every time but the bedroom scenes were a little more tame. Don't let the media guide you, we aren't watching the news anyways.

Cons:
Reused Map: I am okay with doing it a little but a little more variety wouldn't have hurt.
A few Companion Quests: I felt like some of the endings were missing. No reaction from Merril after killing the keeper and her clan. Also why can't I convince Seb to go reclaim his throne, how can you call him the exiled Prince and have him want to go back to the chantry!?

Overall score 92%
As long as you keep DA3 a single player event I am game. Also want an expansion keeping these companions, you made me like these companions more than the ones in Origins.

Modifié par DarkSpider88, 12 mars 2011 - 03:17 .

[BaronIveagh]

Likes:

New Graphics are very nice.  Liked Flemeth's new look and the reduction in armor clipping in animations.

Fully voiced protagonist. 

Hilarious party banter.



Dislikes:


Inventory and inability to equip other party members to the same level as main character:

I hated this in Mass Effect 2, and I hate it EVEN MORE in Dragon Age 2, as you can't offset it with having them duck behind cover.




The Hawke Family Graveyard Stampede:

Any player that connected with the characters would be depressed at thier pointless fall into death and/or slavery.  Any player that doesn't connect with them, won't care what happens.  Niether makes for dramatic storytelling.  The situation with Hawke's mother was a ham fisted attempt to make the player feel that maybe the Templar's were right to commit torture and genocide, overlooking the fact that the player can romance a blood mage and/or an abomination, who both get much more screen time, and makes the entire thing pointless.  It broke my immersion instantly and badly.

And that, alone, warrents DA2's current 3.9 out of 10 rating on Metacritic.



Heavy area recyling:

What happened, Bioware, lay of the level designers half way through the game?  I fought through the same five caves or so a dozen times, to the point I no longer had to look at the map.



Railroading:

Where there any meaningful choices in this game?  The only real differences are who is with you in the end.  I mean, seriously, not one decision I made altered the game in any but the least ways.

Plot Holes:

Where to start...? 

Anders alive.  Since in my save game, Justice was not with him, so him being here, in Kirkwall, alive with Justice was the polar opposite of my imported game.

No one has the Litney here?  You rememeber, that anti-blood mage deus ex machina from the first game that supposedly they kept around for JUST THIS SORT OF THING?  

The Qunari go from big scary humans to an entire different species? 

Your name is used to set up and murder a Templar, but neither you nor the Templars, nor your best freind the captain of the city watch, are bothered enough to launch a full investigation of what happened immediatly? 

Even more disturbing, Hawke talks constantly about how important her family is and how they need to be protected.  And then takes absolutly no precautions to do so.  One would think that, if, knowing that there are people hostile to you that have access to blood magic in a city where even the Vicount's son can be taken hostage, and you have your own blood mage on tap that you would arrainge for some sort of protection for them. 

Lack of Healing:

You must take Anders or else.  I'm not a big fan of missions with required characters, but the part were I only get to pick one person for my team most of the time if I want a chance at success REALLY irritates me. 

Non-sensical Freind/Rival increases:

Am I the only one that had to sit there and scratch my head when occasionally Aveline would get a rivalry boost despite having both used the 'good' response and made a decision that upheld law and order? 

Modifié par BaronIveagh, 12 mars 2011 - 04:04 .

[AlexiusFields]

Two analyses must be made, the first is the obvious comparison between DA2 and DA:O.

DAO was a genius game, original and special in many ways. DA2 by itself is a good game, I played, liked the history (although it is a Bioware game, so we kind have very high expectations about the history), but it is just a good game. And comparing to DAO, it is a very poor game…

I would just add 3 points that DAO had and DA2 don[t that I Think was a poor design judgment

-           Anywhere interactions with companions possible, the need to go to their house, or place to start a companion quest is boring. Some story arcs may need the place as background, such as Merril mirror plot, but most of them is just a bad design option.

-          Also the role-playing quality of the companion’s interaction and the Plot Arcs, as said DA2 is just a good game, whereas DAO was incredible,
o   Having a baby with the mage evil companion to save your own life…
o   creating a king (or the treason to become the King) …
o   the plot of the blood mage (a thing treated with secrecy) when the life of the NPC would be used as a mean to enter the FADE, and ALONE, since there were not enough Magic to take anyone else … and in DA2 the Elf Keeper does an OcusPocus and we go four characters to the fade to save or kill an dreaming elf…
o   and other details … no FADE plots, no exploration of the good magic and blood magic concept, although the main plot is about Templar x mage conflict…

-          The Companion Armor … I must say it is different, original, but silly. I understand and idea of keeping the visual of companions simple, don’t change to much the models, but RPGs are about gear getting, and I think it was a bad choice, I played the first playthrough as a warrior and wanted to give all mage robes to the mages, but could not … silly.

So, by comparison DA2 is poor …

Analyzing DA2 by itself

 Strong points-

o   Good storytelling concept as a history told by a companion, which open options to changes and interpretations. Good. Very good indeed.

o   Some of the companion histories were good, although a little disconnected from the main Char, so you must WANT to play their sideplot … because there is no reason to do so, other than get armor upgrades. Anyway Isabela and Varric were very good plots. Merril is fine, the romance arc with her is better than the normal plot, but the death of the keeper was a High point! And even Aveline and his romance with the guard NPC … silly but fun, without comparing to DAO, I liked…
o   With the HIRes pack the game is very beautiful, the cutscenes very well made, the camera angles are very good. A level of quality we expect in Bioware products, and they are there.
o   The dialog wheel was well used, the hints are a little to CLEAR to my taste, but I get the point and it is a PRO.
o   Battle system and Char rules also improved.
o   Friendship/Rivalry system, although confusing is an original concept…

Weak Points

o   Guys, really? To use the same map over and over? The same city, the same places in the same city, the same DUNGEON MAPS, only that the entering point is different each time?? That’s unforgivable, that alone takes 2 or 3 points out of 10 in any evaluation, the 10th time I killed the same monsters in the same cave I really got tired …

o   Some unimportant plots with very special and difficult monster, WHAT THE Hell a High Dragon is doing walking (or flying) by the little mine ...? Do you recall that in DAO the High Dragon were a little more Mistic and Plot based? .. what is the importance of killing it in DA2?

o   Roleplaying … it is shallow, it is silly, for a few exceptions, and they lack logic …

§ Why the brothers die near darkspawn ? Do they have an special allergy, or something?? – talking about the Dwarf road plot… :} and if so, why not alert the character?
·         Actually the idea of losing the thing you love most is very good as story arc, but when it takes the logic and decision off table it goes from good storytelling to manipulation …
§ Other silly thing is the main story arc, where is the option. Everyone is wrong, I kill that crazy Templar, some blood mages, save what I can and that is it! Even if the hell breaks loose in the other mage towers all over the world (what world, by the way, I was stuck to the city and some outskirts)
§ Anders story arc and “deux ex machina” plot – I played only once, as a warrior trying to be fun and neutral… and that story arc is impossible with Anders, do whatever you do he will get the special and unique items he claims ONLY YOU CAN HELP and blow the Chantry away … with some kind of non-blood magic atomic bomb! … no player choice here!

Overall …alone it is a good game, but it is a 7,5/10 … not more than this…

Modifié par AlexiusFields, 12 mars 2011 - 04:05 .

[TwistedComplex]

Re-posting this since i didn't see this thread

I was on my second play-through and i figured out why i have such a hard time swallowing the story

Don't get me wrong, the story is good and it sets things up nicely in the world of dragon age. But i found it hard to follow at times and i think the reason is because of how the game frames your objective

In Origins, you knew your untimate goal and how to achieve it almost right off the bat. Everything along the way was a bonus. In dragon age 2 it feels like the story is dragging you on a leash.

It's hard to describe

In Origins you had an ultimate goal
In DA2 the story lacks that kind of direction
You go from needing to buy back your estate, to becoming champion, to defeating the templars.

I guess the best way i can describe it is:
After every completed story line, i asked myself "Why did i do that?"

I felt like i was just wondering through the world of dragon age rather than being apart of it

It was a good story, but i think the framing of the story left me feeling empty

Any thoughts?

[eveshep]

 GOOD
-Combat was a huge improvement. As a player, I felt more involved in the action. The animations for the moves were great too.
-Art style was great. Elves look distinct from humans, unlike the ones in DA:O.
 -I enjoyed the dialogue wheel. One aspect from this wheel in comparison to ME, I like the fact that decisions weren't colored as "paragon" or "renegade" as it were. It aided in making decisions more complicated, and it was less black and white. I also like the added "funny" dialogue options, instead of just "neutral" options. 
-Companions were well-written, and engaging. I found myself actually caring about their fates. 
-Loved the Friendship/Rivalry sliding scale. It makes more sense; a companion may not agree with you, but they respect you. This helps the player stay consistent with their decision's instead of just trying to choose dialogue options that will please the companion. Bonuses for either side of the scale is also a nice perk. 

MIXED

-Story. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story, but it felt more like an extended prologue instead of a fully developed story. 
-Some people may not think this, but I wish I could've had more conversations with my companions. I didn't like the fact I had to wait for a quest alert to appear before I could converse with them. 

BAD

-I don't know about other players, but the game on my Xbox 360 had a LOT of bugs and glitches. Glowing eyes would float around, along with flames on torches. Character animatons would shake, and the battle with the High Enchanter  didn't let me loot him at first; I had to start over. 
-Recycled environments; going into a cave, or an alley, or what have you, just got boring and repeatative. A little variety would keep it fresh, and less monotonous. 
-I really wish I wasn't stuck playing in one city. I understand that this particular game chronicles our Hawke's rise to champion of Kirkwall, and thus would make sense to keep the entire game in Kirkwall. But, traveling to other parts of the world is what made DA:O interesting and fun. 


OVERALL

Twas fun! Can't wait for the next game!

Modifié par eveshep, 12 mars 2011 - 05:39 .

[Piecake]

Overall, I enjoyed the game.  I think I would rate it an 8.5/10

Likes
- Story and Characters - I quite enjoyed both the story and the characters.  I liked that it wasnt a typical epic tale where you don't save the world by killing some bad guy that will destroy the world - I am right sick of those stories.  I did feel that it was more personal since you come to Kirkwall penniless and have to work your way up throught the years before you you are a really important figure in the city.  It felt more real and personal that way.  I know a lot of people had a problem with the ending, but I really didnt.  I think this is mostly because that is about what I expected to happen.  It tells the story about how you become the champion of Kirkwall and vanquish your political enemies and what not in the city.  I didnt expect the story to go beyon that - so was not dissapointed.  I do like how the world is shaping up though, so dragon age 3 looks like the world is just in chaos.

As for the characters, for the most part, I thought they were all interesting and well defined characters with some interesting character development.  I mostly ran with Merrill, Anders, and Fenris, and it was pretty hilarous how Andres and Fenris just absolutely hated Merrill and just abused her the whole time.  And of course, Merrill didnt really stand up for herself since she is just so obviously quirky.  I find it really funny that that type of character is a blood mage - though i can see why - i just find it amusing that someone positive, odd, quirky is a blood mage.  Not surprising, I romanced her, and thought that was pretty well done.  I really didnt interact much with isabella, and wasnt a huge fan from what i saw, so she got crossed off my list.  As for the guy romances, while they were interesting characters, were just a bit too emo for me.  Sebastian wasnt though, but I was playing an archer so didnt really use him much.  I found his conversations with Fenris pretty interesting though.

I also liked the voiced PC and the conversation wheel, so keep that.  Though i felt that it would have been better if it wasnt always good, funny/charming, and hard ass.  Throw some different things in there.

- Gameplay - Yes, I did enjoy the combat.  I thought it was pretty much exactly like Origins except sped up, which is a very good thing.  I do think the animations could be ratcheted back a bit - meaning a bit slower, more realistic, no flips and what not.  Overall though, I thought it was a lot of fun.

As you can see, since I liked the story, characters and combat, I naturally enjoyed the game a lot.  However, I did have a few significant problems.

Edit: Few things I forgot to mention.  The music was a lot better and the side quests were definitely improve as well

Dislikes
- Recycled Areas - Holy crap, this was just inexcusable.  I didn't mind the story focusing on one city and how that city and your position within the city changes over time, because that sounds pretty interesting.  However, if you are going to do that you need to make the surrounding areas varied and interesting.  I think I went into about 50 or so dungeons, maybe more, i really have no idea, but there were only like 5 different dungeon patterns.  That is just ridiculous.  That should have been the places that we explored, found new areas, what not.  With only 5 recycled dungeons though, there wasnt any semblance of exploration or new, interesting areas to explore.  I felt like that really hurt the game, and hurt my overall enjoyment since I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over and over again.  We already get that with the city.  I expect that with the city, but if the areas are like that too, then there is a problem, since you arent experiencing a different kind of gameplay - exploration, or at least the newness and the unexplored.  Not to mention that it really hurts immersion as well, since its hard to get into the game when every dungeon looks the same. 

I really didnt have a problem with recycled bits in origins, but I think the difference was with origins you visite the dungeon once, and while it looke very similar all the way through, it really wasnt too big of a problem since you only visited that place once for a very long time.  One visit and a very long time>>>>>>multiple visits to the same dungeon but in shorter intervals.  You simply just notice it a lot lot more.

- Companion outfits and non-combat skills - I was actually in favor of this originally because I like how it was done in Mass Effect 2.  I think the problem with it though is a problem of pacing.  ME2 is a pretty fast paced game where I just didnt want to spend a ton of time in menus because it simply ruined the flow.  DA2, however, is still pretty slow paced, even though it is faster than DAO.  I think because of being slower paced, I missed that customization more, I noticed it more.  I felt like I should be able to equip my companions and I coulnt, and I was annoyed.  I also was dissappointed in the amount of customization you had in dealing with your companions armor.  I thought it would be a lot more, but bascially all you got was a rune slot, and that was dissappointing.  I thought you could have expanded on that a lot more if you were going to do away with npc customization. 

I also missed non-combat skills and wasnt a huge fan of the crafting system.  I thought DAO's crafting system sucked as well though.  I think you just need to change up what items that we can craft - like awesome weapons/armor or something - not just potions or runes.

- A lot of the naysayers were saying that DA2 was rushed, etc.  I dismissed those claims since its pretty ridiculous to say that before you even play the game, but seeing all of those recylced dungeons, I kinda believe it.  The recycled dungeons were a huge huge problem since it basically just eliminated one of the rewards you want with an rpg - exploration.  You arent exploring anything if youve visited the same dungeon 15 times before.  Take the time to make dungeons interesting and unique.  Or, at least, jumble up the hallways-walking areas if you are going to re-use the dungeon pattern. 

So yea, fix recycled dungeons for DA3 and bring back NPC customization. 

Missed opportunities
- Branching Stories - I felt like this game could have been more interesting if the game had more drastic branching narratives.   Sure, DA2 has choices and consequences, and it does a better job of it than DAO, but the problem is is that none of your choices put you on a significantly different path.  What I mean by this is not just a story path, but a gameplay and combat path.  For example, the big choice at the end, the story changes, but I think the combat/gameplay probably remains largely similar.  I think that is a problem.

I would have liked to see a choice in in act 2 to chose between the Templars and the Qun.  Basically, whoever side you pick, that side remains in act 3 and do conflict with the mages in act 3.  I think that woul have been really interesting and would have altered act 3's story and gameplay pretty significantly depending on what side you chose in act 2.

Hopes for DA3
Besides the complaints and missed opportunities that I mentioned, there is one thing that I really want DA3 to have.  I posted this on the general board, but that just goes by too fast and is filled with midless drivel.  So...

I really really want the next DA game to have multiple playable protaganists who are all connected to the overall story, but indifferent ways.  Basically, what every fantasy novel out now does - gives us multiple perspectives. 

One game that I think does a really good job of multiple protaganists is Suikoden 3.  (Put it in quotes to make it easier to read if you want to skip the description of
it)

How Suikoden 3 did it was thatthey had 3 protaganists split the game up into chapters.  You could choose to play the 3 PCs story in any order, but you had to play all 3 tomove on to the next chapter.  Next chapter you could also do it in anyorder.

The game is split into 5 chapters.  You do that whole play the 3 characters in any order  and move onto the next chapter
until the end of chapter 3 or 4 (forget which).  At that time, Your 3 PC characters finally meet at the place where the True Rune is located.

(TrueRune - powerful magic item that is tied to local history and legend because it was once formally used to beat back a much stronger, technologically superior organized force.  The area the game is set in is nomadic pasturelands with people that are looked on as barbarians/nomands/mongals, etc.)

There is only one, so you are presented with a choice of which of your three characters get that item,and whoever you decide becomes your main character for the rest of the game.  The other two characters become members of your party so cease to be PCs, but still remain very important story characters.  for example,I believe the end boss dungeon you have to split your forces into 3 groups and the 3 original PC characters are the ones who lead thethree groups.  So, the 2 non-chosen characters become PC once again forthat dungeon.

The reason why that narrative structure, specially the first 3 chapters of Suikoden 3, is how that would impact Bioware's choice/consequence system.  I mean, the order that you choose to play your characters could radically alter your
game.  The first character you choose would have to be the baseline, butwhat if a choice you made early in that character's 'act' -- say you had a choice between helping alocal tyrant get rid of some bandits or depose him and try to do it on your own (which might lead to more town damage) -- greatly altered thes story and the options available for the second character you choose, like if he visits that town near the middleor end of his character's 'act'(will the tyrant be there or not).  And then that character's choices(as well as the first's) could greatly alter the third charactersstory 'act'.  And the whole process would repeat itself in the next chapter when you are again free to play the 3 characters in any order. 

Now, I can imagine that this would getrather complicated, especially since the 3 characters are doing these
things roughly simultaenously, but just think of the possibilities.  I mean, if you selected all of thegoody-two shoes choices for all of your characters on the first play through, you could still select all of the
goody-two shoes choices on your next playthrough and still get a different experience so long as you play the characters in a different order. 

Besides the framed narrative, I think this would would be another narrative structure that will really let the players feel
that the choices they make have meaningful consequences. 

Anotherbenefit of having multiple protaganists is that you could have a personalized and voiced dwarf, elf, whatever story that really digs deepinto their history, culture and what not.  I really do not want to havemultiple origin stories again since I think it naturally results in a simple, generic, one size fits all story, but you do not have this problem with multiple protaganists.  Players can get their dwarf pc and elf PC while still having a personalized story.  Your dwarf could have a dwarf story.  Your elf could have a very elf story, and what not.  

Modifié par Piecake, 12 mars 2011 - 07:17 .

[Failbox]

 I just finished the game like 2 minutes ago so I'm still kind of reeling from that ending. But I will say that I believe Dragon Age 2 is a vast improvement over Origins. Unlike Origins, I did not have to force myself to finish the game, on the contrary, I will probably start my 2nd playthrough tomorrow.

Like others have said, the lack of different environments got old. I found myself sighing at constantly having to fight through bandits and slavers in Lowtown and Darktown. I thought Sundermount and the Wounded Coast were great looking, and I honestly enjoyed going back to them. 

Side quests were a huge improvement over the last game and the music was so much better. 

Crafting was a huge improvement, not having to hoard and whatnot.

Combat was just okay, but still better than the truffle-shuffle that was Origins' combat. My only beef was that I played it on the console and I could not for the life of me find a way to turn it off. If someone could tell me if its possible that'd be awesome because spamming 'A' makes it hard to focus on cross-class combos. 

The characters were awesome and I think the story was way better. The only character that I did not like was Isabela, and I hated her because of her character flaws, not because she was a bad character, so I'll count that as a good thing. I romanced Mirrell, and it felt kind of forced. I dunno. If that's what all romances are like, then they could use some work.

Graphics didn't bother me. I for one, liked the direction the elves were taken in. They are no longer short humans with pointy ears, they have their own distinct look. Same with Qunari.

As for the story, I wasn't impressed and before the climax I would have given this game a 7/10 at best for story, but when the **** hit the fan at the end, it bumped it up to at least a 8.5 for me. The ending was so enjoyable for me. 

I did not like the way armor was done. I did not enjoy having the best armor until roughly the end of the game. In a 35 hour campaign, I probably wore it for 3-5 hours. The rest of the time I was stuck in robes. They were better than Origins robes, but still, they were robes. I would prefer a different way of armor, though I may be in the minority.

Things I'd like to see in Dragon Age 3

-More Qunari. One of the few things that sets the Dragon Age universe apart from other fantasies. They're awesome and I love them, and I loved the interaction between Hawke and the Arishok. 
-More Cassandra. I won't even hide it, she is my waifu.
-A better armor system, more customization? 
-More amibuity with decisions. It was a lot better in Dragon Age 2 than it was in Origins, and not nearly as much random murder-knifing, which I'm happy about, but there was still a lot of black & white decisions. I would enjoy everything be gray. 

Modifié par Failbox, 12 mars 2011 - 07:06 .

[x_dj_x]

Going to make this short and sweet.

PROS

• Ending was pretty cool. You guys have alot of room to move it forward, I was getting the impression that I might be able to play as my warden and/or hawke in DA3 which would be cool.
• Graphics were pretty decent
• Voice acting was much better
• Gore, Just awesome
• Cutscenes improved
• Combat system was ok, Didn't like button mashing (Console) but i'll get to that soon
• Night and day system was extremely cool
• Qunari look sick as hell, Good job.
• How the years advanced, I'll admit in DA:O it's extremely hard to believe that you stopped the blight one year after it happened.
• Difficulty setting was awesome.

CONS

• Character customization was just plain awful, I'm not complaining about races since we all knew that this was a 'fixed' race, But hairstyles etc I mean come on..
• Button mashing, Seriously? You have nothing on holding X or A so why not add auto-attack?
• The story is extremely boring until ACT2 onwards, Really was grinding through the game until it started picking up.
• Not enough refrences to DA:O, In my opinion anyway. (Might be more if I imported my save, but i'll try that soon)
• I WANT TO TALK TO MY COMPANIONS. Really was extremely annoying, Bring back DA:O party feature.
• The constant re-use of scenery was ****ing annoying, I must have been to that warehouse in the docks atleast 15 times.
• Inventory, Uh..annoying? Kept having to goto a vendor every 5 minutes. And bring back weapon switch, That was one of the most useful things ever to grace an RPG.

That's all I can think of at the moment, Bit tired.

Compared to DA:O, Doesen't come near it.
Looking it as a diffrent game it's pretty decent.

My rating; 8/10.

Modifié par x_dj_x, 12 mars 2011 - 07:33 .

[staindgrey]

Around the web, DA2 is getting some unjustifiably harsh response. While I see the flaws that people point out, this is by no means a bad game. At all.

I like the change of the focus on the main character; I feel so much more attached to my Hawke than my Warden. Perhaps that has something to do with having a voice now, but it also has to do with the structure of the narrative, which was a unique direction for the franchise that I liked. I much preferred this change (meaning the leap to Kirkwall, away from the Wardens/Blight/etc.) to, say, a repeated Blight with new Wardens. Props to Bioware on that decision.

I also very much liked the simplification in some areas to avoid the tedious nature of DA:O's gameplay that kept me from actually beating it for forever. I'm a console gamer, and I love the new battle system and how it actually takes into account that I play it on a gamepad. The inventory gets less bloated, the gift giving is easier to keep track of, and the decisions carry more weight than any Bioware game I've played. There's no longer a clear wrong/right, and they tugged at my morals more than a few times. The plot twists were legitimate twists, too, though Meredith having the idol had the same effect on me as the human-shaped Reaper in ME2. Which wasn't good.

However, with all that the game does right, it's pretty clear it was rushed. It lacks the little details that made DA:O's world come alive. The little conversations with NPCs to get to know the world, the varying encounters with teammates, the MUSIC-- seriously. I'm an OST nerd, and this is one of the least inspiring OSTs I've heard from a single-player game in a long time. The epic trailer music wasn't even anywhere to be found, and that was the best song available. The Hanged Man had a memorable tune, and the Qunari takeover had some epic battle music, but past that... Meh.

The writing was taken in a bold direction, and the graphics were better than an original Xbox title this time. The conversation wheel, attribute tree and streamlining of combat and inventory were all major improvements to gameplay. But DA2 lacked the "soul" DA:O did. It felt rushed, both in development and in actual gameplay. I understand those time skips are necessary, but it didn't feel right each time it happened. Characters were well thought out, but I felt less attached to them simply because I didn't get to see them grow as much. I couldn't just talk to them; I always had to have a reason, which rarely came. Shopkeepers rarely said anything, and there was no one in the streets despite Kirkwall being overpopulated upon my arrival.

And seriously, I just want to know... Why does Dragon Age as a franchise need to be so far behind other games in the presentation department? I'm not expecting a game with the same look of a linear FPS, but sometimes I feel like I've stepped back a decade. Especially during romance scenes. Intimacy is laughably bad.

All that said, I played for 43 hours to beat the game in the span of four days. So obviously I enjoyed it. The story had me hooked, and the decision making was the best Bioware's done in terms of the weight of my consequences. But I can't help but think that it SHOULD have been more, and that that EA deadline ruined a perfect experience. There was so much left to be done!

Regardless, I know I'll be playing it at least twice more before ME3 comes out. Gotta beat it with Warrior/Mage and find all the possible decisions I can. I love the game, but it's an incomplete kind of love. It won't be as memorable down the road as other games have been for me.

[syn010110]

Dragon Age II - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Y'know, the more I digest the ending and the overall story and experience of this game, the less I'm convinced it was worth paying $60 for.

Anyway... Dragon Age II. Was it fun? Yeah, it was. Does it have problems? Hoo boy, it has problems. Many, many more problems than DAO ever had. I'd say it's definitely not Bioware's strongest release in the past few years.

So, let's get to the not-so-short review/collection-of-opinions.

Thoughts:

Romances~
This is the first big one. Not only can you romance practically any companion, but Bioware didn't lock any of them out by Hawke's sex. Every potential love interest is bisexual--that's ****ing amazing. Well, except for the DLC guy, but who cares about him? I'm really happy with Bioware for making this decision and realizing that the LGBT community DOES contain gamers, and we WOULD like to have romances in-game that are meaningful and in some way linked to our real-life sexual orientation.

Starting DA2, I was upset I'd be forced to romance Isabela, despite pretty much hating her character, because she'd be the only obvious lesbian choice. But I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case (even though my Hawke ended up having sex with Isabela anyway during Act I, LOL... basically it's like Anders says, everyone eventually has sex with Isabela...)

Lots of bones have been made about how bad the romances are, but I'm really quite happy with them.

Fights~
This was improved over DAO in a couple of ways. For one, the combat is a lot faster-paced, which is usually a strength (but sometimes a detriment). The "coming in waves" thing is really, really annoying, but it isn't a show-stopper. It seems to be one of the many Matrixy combat themes that has been added to the "more stylized" Thedas portrayed in DA2.

The biggest improvement came in the form of actually interesting boss fights. In DAO, there were very few notable boss fights--the Harvester is the only one that really comes to mind, and that's in a DLC! DA2 had several entertaining boss fights, from the very first ogre (which was a rough fight on Hard, especially without much in the way of abilities!) to the Ancient Rock Wraith in the Deep Roads--easily the BEST fight in the game. The fight with the Arishok in Act II was good ONLY if you get him to duel you, in which it's a very entertaining fight (even though it's not that hard). If he attacks with his entire entourage, it's frustratingly difficult. The Orsino-Harvester and Meredith were likewise entertaining boss fights, but neither were truly TENSE like the ogre boss in the prologue and the Ancient Rock Wraith in Act I.

Characters~
While I'm not sure if I like the characters in DA2 better than the ones in DAO, I have to hand it to Bioware this time. DAO had precisely one personal quest per character, and for most of them, it was really quite short--Morrigan's personal quest was the only one with any real meat to it, and it's not like Flemeth was much of a challenge.

DA2 really improved this by bringing not just a personal quest, but personal quest chains, reasonably meaty ones, every plot arc. This was a great way to handle things I think--gives you plenty of dialogue options to build lots of good (or bad, if that's your thing) influence with the character.

As for the actual characters themselves, I found myself liking Bethany the most. I was very upset when she caught Plot Disease at the end of Act I and died. >< Definitely a Guide Dang It moment. Next time I'll bring Anders. Other favorites were Varric--using any "snarky" conversation options with him is ALWAYS fun.

Merrill... yeah, she gets her own paragraph! She seems to be a love-her-or-hate-her character in regards to the fanbase, but I thought she was adorable. Like every other character, she's broken in some way (some more than others, though) and her brokenness was compounded by my bad dialogue choices (getting her entire clan killed, hoo boy)... but I suppose it worked out in the end. She's really the Tali'Zorah of DA2, taking the Grotesque Cute spot the quarian engineer occupied in ME and ME2. At least Merrill can be romanced by a female Hawke--I am still bitter that a female Shepard can't romance Tali. >< So Merrill was my Tali stand-in.

The change in character DESIGN was one that I partially approve of and partially dislike. While most players think the redesigned qunari are buckets and buckets more badass than they ever were in DAO, I actually LIKE the changes made to the elves. In DAO, elves didn't really look elvish enough. Except for the very old ones, they looked like humans with pointy ears. In DA2, they're very obviously NOT human--they're much more slight of build and their eyes are far larger, and always almond-shaped.

Gameplay~
Everything's been streamlined, and I really liked that. I wish there were more options for party member armor, but it's not too bad. I know Bioware wanted to keep their unique looks, just like they did in ME2, but come on--you should have at least made the armor scale with level, rather than changing once an act. They do end up getting alternate outfits later, but it'd be nice if you could pick like in Mass Effect 2.

Rogue was a lot more fun to play in DA2 than it was in DAO. In DAO, I only really felt like I was having fun when playing a mage (or tanking as an Arcane Warrior, with mods). The other classes would blow through their stamina and then just be autoattack bots for the rest of the fight. The addition of stamina draughts in Awakening should have been retro'd to DAO with a patch, seriously. But I seriously enjoyed how flashy my dual-wielding Hawke fights--which brings me to my next and biggest point of all: the combat system itself.

While most people are griping about the lack of customizability, items and suchlike, I'm saying they didn't remove ENOUGH "RPG" elements. This game feels like a hack-and-slash action RPG, and yet it still has the rotting, desiccated soul of a ****ty game engine from thirteen years ago. This frustrated me more than any other gameplay issue.

Guys, I'm sorry, but the Infinity Engine was created in 1998! It's 2011 now! We do not NEED that clunky fake-real-time bull**** anymore. It works for strategy games, it does NOT work for third-person action RPGs. This game SHOULD have used a melee version of Mass Effect 2's combat system, complete with similar party-member control (i.e. bring up a menu, tell them to use a special ability).

Look, if you want to make a strategy-heavy RPG, just make it TURN-BASED. Really. Please. This pretending-to-be-turn-based stuff is just stupid. Fallout was turn-based and it was awesome. Arcanum was turn-based and it was awesome. If you want turn based, just make it turn based! I know "turn-based" is some kind of marketing bad-word, but still. The Infinity Engine sucked in 1998, and it sucks in 2011. Stop trying to emulate it.

The inventory annoyed me just as much as it did in DAO, but even worse with all the "junk" items and no rapid way to dispose of them without a store nearby. Seriously, there should be a "discard all junk" option in addition to a "sell all junk" option. And why the hell is there even "junk" in the first place? DAO didn't have junk. This isn't an MMORPG, why do we need vendor trash? To annoy us into having to go do inventory management every hour? Honestly, I would have been FAR MORE SATISFIED with a ME2-style system in which weapon/armor loadout was customized upon leaving Hawke's house--and then DELETING the inventory screen ENTIRELY.

DA2 would have been perfect with NO inventory to worry about at all, a fighting-game like combat system in which you could do combo attacks and stack special moves on top of each other, like The Witcher. The cross-class combo thing was a nice touch, but not very flashy. Playing as a rogue, the game felt VERY schizophrenic, as if it were trying to make me fight like this was a third-person action title, but with the requirement to lapse back into BG-style pause-issue-order-unpause combat every time things got dicey. It was clunky and not very intuitive, and it made some of the fights pure hell--especially with the camera no longer zooming out like it did in DAO.

I should mention that I'm pretty much furious with how much recycled dungeon there was. The areas were so ridiculously limited I felt like I was trapped in a box. Way to go Bioware, especially after making ME2 feel so goddamned enormous and open through clevery trickery, even when it really wasn't.

Story~
Hoo boy, this is the part I have the biggest problem with.

DA2's story asspulls so often it's looser than the Goatse guy. I'm not even going to bother with padding the blows here; this story was REALLY inexcusably bad. My theory is, DAO was billed as "dark fantasy" when it's really just Lord of the Rings With the Names Changed. This poses a problem, so Bioware scrambles to make DA2 appropriately Darker and Edgier. And does this by applying Kill 'Em All Tomino logic to the story.

I can understand one sibling getting owned by the ogre in the prologue. That's sad, that makes sense. Kill the unneeded sibling off (though the concept of Bethany dying right away makes me not even want to play a mage) to start things off on a somber note. Similar to killing off Duncan at the beginning of DAO (only nowhere near as dramatic and well-done).

But seriously, Bethany dying of Plot Disease in the Deep Roads was just ****ing stupid. Really, Bioware? What the hell? Did she drink darkspawn blood? How did this happen? She's a MAGE! She doesn't slice and dice hurlocks--she shoots fire at them from fifty yards! How the hell does she get darkspawn blood in her system? Plus, we spent most of the time fighting rock wraiths, not darkspawn. So what the ****? And the only way to save her is to have Anders with you--or to leave her behind to be taken by the Chantry, which makes her just as good as dead.

Why did my mom have to die in such a hamfisted, lame way? A sidequest, really? It was stupid, it came out of left field and it was not appreciated.

The finale was so bizarre and wrong I just don't even

Why did I have to kill the mage-templar alliance? Why did Fenris's stupid Tevinter **** get involved with them? They could have made some sort of DECENT ending out of this--mages and templars, working together for a common goal rather than openly hating each other. What the HELL, Bioware? The Player Punches sure don't get pulled here!

Anders BLOWING UP THE ****ING CHANTRY was definitely a serious HOLY**** moment. I really have to give Bioware mad props for that--my jaw literally DROPPED and I uttered the words aloud! But thanks to Bioware's stupid decisions, I couldn't kill Anders! I wanted to, I really ****ing wanted to stick him with a knife and twist, letting the bastard know that he ruined EVERYTHING I worked for by killing the Grand Cleric.

But guess what? Because Bioware didn't give Merrill the Creation tree, I HAD TO KEEP ANDERS ALIVE. BECAUSE HE WAS MY ONLY HEALER. Holy ****ing **** that right there makes me want to put my game disc in a ****ing microwave. Because Plot Disease killed Bethany, I had no other healing options, and potions are just on way too long a cooldown to be relied upon--especially playing on Hard.

But I swallowed my distaste and moved past that, because hey, I was at the end! Little did I know it was about to get even stupider.

I'm so infuriated at the mages. I felt for them. I hate the Chantry; I think they're a bunch of **** zealots who bully the mages simply because they can. The Chantry spent the entire game doing horrible things to mages in the name of protecting the people from blood magic, and I felt bad. I stuck up for the underdog--not to mention I was sort of sleeping with an apostate mage, too--and let's not forget Bethany, either. So I side with the mages, I join forces with Orsino. I have the sweetest cutscene with Merrill before the final battle...

... aaaaaand then 90% of the mages start using blood magic and summoning demons. Just like the templars said they would. That was the ultimate kick in the head right there. I stuck my ****ing neck out for you, and THIS is what you DO?! I was actually happy when Orsino went insane and used blood magic to turn himself into a Harvester--I had a chance to get a little vengeance after getting the most royal EMOTIONAL ASS****ING of all time.

Meredith going crazy because of Random Artifact of Insanity was the most ridiculous asspull I've ever heard of. Seriously, what? That just came out of nowhere. Yeah, we knew the dwarf sold the thing, but not to whom. It was never even hinted at that Meredith was the one who bought it--nor did we have ANY idea it could turn into a sword. The artifact ITSELF making the dwarf crazy and locking you in the Deep Roads was a stupid asspull. Using it to make Meredith bat****-looney was just **** icing on the manure cake.

The final boss fight itself against Knight-Commander Meredith was actually well-done, and felt appropriately tense and chaotic. But the ending was just... ow. Seriously. What. The. ****.

AND WHY THE HELL IS LELIANA BACK WITH THE CHANTRY?

And why did Bioware build up Flemeth so much before release, and she has virtually NO story involvement whatsoever?

Ugh. Bioware, I am disappoint. DA2's story was a steaming pile compared to DAO's. It's okay, guys, Dragon Age doesn't NEED to be grimdark. Why can't it just be good epic fantasy? DA2's story feels inconsistent, full of deus ex machina and just plain unfocused and weird. It is the definition of TRYING TOO HARD to be cool and edgy.

tl;dr version: DA2's story in a nutshell--an entire city holds Idiot Balls of enormous size for the entire game. And Hawke holds the biggest Idiot Ball of all for not just saying **** IT and going back to Ferelden!

That's it for my extremely-disorganized "review." I am going to go back to my happy place now, where in my head my Hawke screamed **** THIS I HOPE YOU IDIOTS ALL DIE IN A FIRE after Anders blew up the Chantry, grabbed Merrill and the dog and moved to a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. And **** what else happens to Thedas.

[Revakeane]

Hello! Just finished the game last night, so here are my two cents...

GAMEPLAY
The combat has indeed been massively improved upon. It is now much more satisfying, visceral, and far more fun to play and to watch. I actually felt really badass after most fights, and that doesn't happen very often. The abilities for warrior and rogue are definitely much better, and I didn't feel nearly as detached or as frustrated as I did with DAO. Just a suggestion though, the melee combat sequences (I mean the exchange of blows, hitting the enemies and all that) feels slightly unbalanced, especially when your warrior is swinging a massive two-handed weapon and the opponents hardly flinch on impact. I kinda prefer KOTOR's sequences where an actual exchange plays out: parry, parry, feint, HIT!... that sort of thing.

I'm not necessarily an RPG purist, but I did not feel that DA2 was dumbed down or simplified in terms of gameplay. The streamlining was a positive step in making everything feel more natural. But that's just me.

STORY
I really liked the new narrative structure; the differences are refreshing rather than depressing. However, it did kinda make me feel more detached from the story. In DAO you were always engaged and deeply invested in your warden, because you were responsible for everything he did, whereas in DA2, you were only responsible for the important things. It's not that I don't like this streamlining, but I would definitely like a little more intimacy with the character, a greater feeling of identification and relation to Hawke (or whatever protagonist comes next).

The quests were great. Dark fantasy indeed... especially with the White Lillies serial killer (that really FREAKED ME OUT) and Bartrand's betrayal and subsequent descent to scary-loony-town. Gut-wrenching stuff. Some quests felt out of place, but that's not different from other RPGs. The cameos from DAO characters were also very much appreciated! Especially Leliana's and Allistair's. I want one with Morrigan though.

The companions and NPCs were nothing short of amazing. I was rather apprehensive at first, as I thought nothing could equal, let alone top the FANTASTIC companions of my warden, but I was proved wrong. Morrigan is still my favorite (and where was she btw??? Not even a cameo?), but Isabela, Merril and Aveline were definitely well-rounded, memorable, and striking. I especially liked that your companions had social lives outside of the party, and which didn't always include you. Maybe next time, there can be some 3-way conversations... that would really bring out the social dynamic of party members. Anders and Fenris were slightly disappointing though; their absolute refusal to compromise on most things irritated me... Anders was depressing, after his previously incredibly funny incarnation. His horribly inexcusable act at the end was a major letdown for me. While this may be a good point, because the writing had pulled me in so deeply that I actually felt really betrayed and conflicted, I was seriously irritated that a companion I had invested so much into could be so appalling. That terrorist act was polarizing, and Anders' unapologetic stance for the massacre of innocents and the subsequent battle was really really really annoying. But mostly, things were great.

I did however, have some problems. One thing is that the companion quests sometimes felt unfinished or incomplete. Like Merril for instance, she kills her whole clan and never says a word after? What was up with that? Also, the Anders/Justice thing was not really explained... was the potion really a potion to split the two, or did I help finding bomb ingredients? What happens to Justice? These quests felt abrupt and truncated, like there wasn't enough time write a proper introduction or ending. Bartrand's betrayal was quite weird... he displayed no indication of being the evil, fratricidal traitor that he was in the beginning. Surely someone who would kill his own brother would show SOME form of psychopathy. I felt somewhat cheated in these instances. Maybe that was deliberate. If so, dirty trick!

I also didn't quite appreciate the times where I felt forced into choices, or was given the illusion of a choice in terms of story. The killing off of family members is an excellent example... no matter what, you can't save your (SPOILERS!) sibling and mother, and that really sucked. In DAO, I was appreciative of the fact that while the narrative framed the Redcliffe quest as a black-and-white choice between Connor and his mother, you could circumvent things by solving the Circle quest first. That made me feel like my Warden could indeed defy fate and make a hopeless situation right. I felt quite helpless as the Champion of Kirkwall. Nothing I ever did really made a difference; my family was still decimated, my companions still hated one thing or another (as opposed to say, Sten, who could be convinced halfway of the validity of a worldview outside the Qun), the mages and templars still fought...  Champion or not, Hawke was vulnerable and helpless. That makes him human, but frustrates the player. So I guess no clear good-bad here.

I have mixed feelings about the dialogue wheel. The 'Good' option was quite frankly, boring most of the time. Good Hawke always felt too earnest and naive... Funny Hawke was sometimes overly snide and callous in my opnion. I would like a kind but witty protagonist, or at least a protagonist with more nuance... as opposed to the somewhat simplified 3-category replies. However, the voice-over was great. I really love having a protagonist with a voice.

That's it for now. Thanks Bioware

[kimprobable]

 COMBAT
I
loved, loved, loved the new skill trees and how every character had
their own unique skillset. I could honestly go through and play
Fenris, Anders, or Varric on their own and use my own PC as a utility
because their skills were so unique! AMAZING. Seriously, BioWare, I
cannot say enough about it – it beats any other title I've played
from you as far as character combat customization goes. Huge huge
fan.

I
have very few minor complaints about the targeting on PC still being
a little awkward and having to retell my character to attack again
and again, and taunts for warriors failing to work at all, but
overall my review for the combat in DA2 is glowing. My rogue was
such a blast to play, and two handed warrior was both super damaging
and took a lot of damage, and mages were absolutely devastating. I
thoroughly enjoyed the fighting and think you did a top notch revamp
while still keeping a ton of the flavor from DA:O.





BATTLES
The
battles to me seemed incredibly weak. The only boss battle that
really challenged me was the Ancient Rock Wraith, which was awesome!
The whole using line of sight dynamic there was really cool, and
really challenging. Then I get to the end of the game and the
battles are just really straight forward tank and spanks. I would
have loved to have more bosses that required strategy and tactics in
that way, and I feel that lacking this dynamic to the plot battles is
what made the game pacing feel more off. The quest combat didn't grow
in difficulty and strategy the way that it should, so it didn't help
fulfill the story. It's like if Die Hard had no explosions – the
story just falls a little flat without it.

The
battles also seemed to be all one-note and not varied depending on
the plot/characters. Take the Qunari. The Arishok was basically an
ogre re-skin. I expected to see what made them so legendary as
conquerors – black powder and poison bombs – but we never saw a
single boom in their final battle. You already had explosions from
Nathaniel's sidequest and the poison from the Qunari sidequest that
you could reuse to create a cost effective battle that actually
relies on the story material instead of being another bland 'bunch of
mobs in a room' encounter.

Even
the next to last battle was a rehash of the Harvester from
DA:Awakening, only less effective because there was no change in his
resistance to add to the complexity. I just can't fathom why you
would ever, ever do this. It's like admitting video game suicide if
you can't even come up with a new battle and new art for the second
most important boss in the game. Why not write a book? Frankly,
it's dumbfounding.




STORY:

I
should start off by saying that I disagree with the entire
construction of this story from the get go, so this will be the
harshest part of my criticism and I apologize for that. I do hope it
is at least constructive.

Firstly,
DA2 completely abandons the dramatic arc started by DA:O and deflates
the feeling of rising action that should flow from one game to
another. It is smaller in scope than the original game and makes
your dramatic arc look like a wonky valley. It's not building the
tension and drama for the overall story, so it completely and utterly
fails as a sequel to the first game – and ironically not because
you decided to go with a different protagonist. I just don't 'get'
it.

If
I look at it instead as a first installment in a spin off tale, I can
be much more forgiving. Except, it kind of abandons the qualities
that made Origins so wonderful to me. The entire storyline in
Origins is crafted by the player's decisions. In DA2 you can't
effect the world at all. No matter what you decide the same people
survive or don't (except Anders), and the storyline unfolds in
exactly the same way except for a minor adjustment in a ten second
epilogue speech. So even as a spin off, it definitely doesn't hold
the same charm.

If
I don't think of it as in any way tied to Origins, I actually find it
doesn't bug me half so much, but that the plot is still way too
'small' for my tastes. I like wide sweeping extraordinary tales –
that's why I loved Origins. In DA2 we never even leave Kirkwall, and
Hawke isn't all that extraordinary. She just happened to be in
Kirkwall when a battle went down. I can't even fathom why Cassandra
even heard of her, much less is trying to track her down. So as far
as games go, this one's story just isn't to my tastes to start off
with. It just wasn't epic enough.

It
was also too melodramatic for my tastes. I actually don't mind that
not everything turns out all glittery happy shiny – it doesn't in
Origins, so that makes sense for DA2. What I disapprove of is the
ability to predict what was going to happen based on what would be
the most dramatic and hurtful to my character. By the time Orsino
turned wimp after I sided with him, I literally said out loud,
“Naturally.” The game had been so predictably negative that one
of the very last end-game twists lost all shock value. How horrible
is that?

Lastly,
I didn't like the pacing. This wasn't because of the decision to span
the game over a decade, but because of the artistic and writing
decisions to have so much of it happen off screen. I was not a fan.
I also didn't like the three act format, with each act being
unrelated to the other but for minor threads of importance. It made
the game feel like it was lacking focus, and made the story overall
much weaker. Hawke had no central conflict, and if the climax of the
game was going to be about mages and templars then it should have
started there and had more of the main plot centered there. Instead,
the climactic battle had very little foundation, and it all felt
incredibly shallow.

Honestly,
compared to 'personal story' rpgs like Fable, DA2 just feels cheap,
small, unimportant, and unfocused.





THE
ART

Loved
it!! I can kind of entertain the complaints about the elves – they
are too thin and look a bit like the blue people in Avatar LOL, but I
adore that they were changed to be more different and the Qunari were
AMAZING. I absolutely thought the world (I played with the high res
textures) was stunning and I spent a good amount of time just looking
around at the environments going, oooh, shiny!

The
characters were also incredibly well done. Fenris looked absolutely
amazing and so did Orsino The art for the armor for the main pc was
lacking but the final set was still awesome. I loved the character
customization options but ended up going with default Hawke anyway
simply because she was gorgeous. The art and design of the game gets
two thumbs way up.




COMPANIONS
I
think part of the reason the game felt so melodramatic to me was
because of the characters. They were all very dramatic, especially
compared to Origins party members. The two shining beacons of
redemption were Aveline and Varric. Aveline was the perfect
companion – a mature, steady friendship that isn't too needy and
which would have made an awesome romance. The same goes for Varric.
I was incredibly disappointed that neither were love interests, when
they are both the only two I would be interested pairing my Hawke up
with.

As
it happens, those are also the only two party members that are
dynamic in any way shape or form. None of the others change even a
little bit over the course of the decade. I think this is why the
companions simply don't engage me. The inability to talk to them
with regularity could have been tolerated if they actually appeared
to be growing in some way.

I
miss the Anders from Awakening and wish that the terrorist had been
some other mage, or that the addition of Justice had happened
on-screen instead of off screen so that it adds weight to the
transition (and keeps him from being so depressing the entire game.)
A few more allusions to the old Anders would have been wonderful –
maybe just letting him keep Ser Pouncealot or a few more witty
asides. Long story short, don't change a character that drastically
off-screen.

I
definitely liked how they could break into the quest dialogue,
though! Definitely keep that up, because it was awesome. I enjoyed
every time I got to hand it over to Aveline to be a badass for me.
My enjoyment of ME2 would have been greatly increased by handing it
over to Thane for a timely necksnap. Udina.




ROMANCES
For
God's sake add some romances who aren't so friggin depressing. Both
males are utterly wearisome. Merill is very difficult to romance and
not much better than the males for the negative drama. The romances
are also very oddly paced. With Anders, I say, “Hey Justice got a
nice body! Wink.” and Anders explodes back at me with a “NO,
DON'T GO THERE. I WILL BREAK YOUR HEART.” Whoa, slow down, honey.
I just said you were cute! Fenris's reaction was much smoother up
until he leaves you and then his romance becomes ridiculously
dramatic, too. In light of the already very dramatic personal
storyline for Hawke, it really seemed overbearing and left me rather
uninterested.

I
did love that the romance comes to Hawke when her mother dies.
Excellent touch! I also really liked that they move in with you. It
definitely added a sense of closeness and made the romance feel more
real. I still would have preferred more dialogue, especially since
they stand around your house mutely or talking about “getting back
to the mission.” Lame.

I
did like how the romances seemed steamier than not. In ME2, the male
romance scenes aside from Jacob are a bit... touchy feely, and not
enough sexy. When my rogue smart-mouthed Anders he pushed her up
against a wall and snogged the hell out of her, and I cheered. At the
same time, it wasn't sleazy. It was perfect. Please keep this up.




OTHER
THOUGHTS

I
actually didn't mind the world being so small, and I don't
particularly mind reusing maps or animations if that means more time
is invested in the big, important stuff like plot and boss fights.
It does seem like a major oversight to not even include any changes
to the world over an entire decade, though.

Another
minor complaint was that the random combat felt that it completely
drug the game to a standstill sometimes. Walking around at night
there was a battle on every corner, and it was three waves of enemies
instead of just a handful of thugs. It was really jarring and it
felt like a cheap way to try to 'expand' the world by making you take
your time through maps. It was really really distracting to be on a
quest for someone – specifically, for example, rushing to appease
the Qunari, and you get stopped by some random “Dog Lords?” Oh,
please!

I
did like the length of the game. There was plenty to do. It was
just a bit repetitive because of the unvaried combat. You expect
that from sidequests so if the actual plot battles had been more
interesting I doubt I would have noticed it.




OVERALL
I
want so hard to be forgiving of this title. There are some definite
redeeming qualities. The revamp of the combat system was excellent.
The skill trees were awesome. The art was amazing. As far as game
mechanics go, you nailed it. Unfortunately, the creative side of the
game creation was not good. The plot was bad, and the bosses were
unimaginative and barely deserving of the term 'boss fight.' Being
as that is the foundation of a good video game – the gameplay, and
the plot – it's hard to rate the game very highly. I'm sorry,
BioWare. I'm not a fan.

[Shadowrun1177]

Edited to add some stuff.

 Ok I'm gonna chime in on this fan review thread with my own personal review.

For the most part I liked DA 2, I enjoyed the over all story for the most part. It did feel overly dark to me like your character was forced to suffer with no real good in their life to balance the bad things happening and you had no effect on anything what so ever. The graphics looked great considering my video card is over three years old but the maps lacked any real varity. I liked the new character designs for the most part, but like most people the elves need some work their face's remind me to much of the Navi from Avatar or feline cause their noses. 

I can't really fault the prologue cause I knew from the demo and yes live feeds both those done by Bioware and by others what to expect and felt it fit the story.

Act 1 seems typical for the beginning of most role playing games doing quest and collecting party members for some future event in this case the Deep Roads Expedition and other future events. I enjoyed the party banter and the quest to make the money and such where fitting. To me the story started to go downhill at the end of Act 1 cause you lose another family member either to death or being sent away with no option to keep them around. I really hated having no choice in stopping the death or  the sending away of a character. I think there should of been some way for Bethany/Carver not to die or be sent away. 

In the case of Bethany it really messes up the game mechanic's cause she's one of only two mages with healing abilities meaning your forced to use a character (Anders) that I might not want to use just to have healing in your party at least in DA:O I had the choice between Morrigan and Wynn cause I could spec both as healers. Add in the fact I loved the banter between Hawke and his/her sister/brother and I felt the family dynamic could of been even better with them around till the end living through all the ups and downs with Hawke. 

My biggest complaint about Act 2 is the death a Hawke's mother and the fact that you can't save her no matter what you do. I've read the post by I think was David Gaider that was linked in another thread that said and I'm paraphrasing they had toyed with this option but decided against allowing you to save her cause players would choose to save her everytime like it's a bad thing to want to save someone. I mean I already know the guy who kidnapped her is evil cause he's killed several women and I know he's a mage so it's obviously evil magic so why not let me have the option to save her. This is another point where I might of played differently not saving her everytime if the sibling had been around cause of the whole family dynamic thing and seeing the reactions of the sibling.

Act 3 at this point I honestly felt like nothing I did in the game matter what so ever my characters life totally sucked with no real joy even with a romance going. My character's mother was dead, my sibling's were either all dead, a Grey Warden or Circle/Templar and had not been seen in years really. I was finally glad when the Last Straw quest started and I was able to travel with my sibling again like I felt it should of been for the whole game. Though I'll admit at this point in the game I found it hard to care about the whole mage vs templar thing on both my play throughs. Mage character I felt like let Carver and the templars kill the mages I'll stay at home and if they decide to come after me later then I'll deal with it, on my rogue I could care even less cause Bethany was part of the Wardens so was clear. If both had died in the deep roads it would of really seemed point less. The only reason I could see to care is if Bethany was taken to the Circle by the Templars or had been in group the whole time to protect her from Meredith and the Templars if they decided to come after her. 

Modifié par Shadowrun1177, 12 mars 2011 - 10:39 .

[StripedStocking]

Alright, so here's what I liked/disliked. Just finished it like 10 minutes ago . Well, now, that I'm done writing, it's a lot later .

Liked:

The new graphics are pretty nice. Still not on Mass Effect level, but nevertheless nice to look at (don't know about consoles, just played the pc version ).
The music, too, was great. I felt it really improved since the first game.
Lots of funny dialogue and a lot of hilarious responses from Hawke.
In general, the characters are pretty well written and I like most of them.
Some, I didn't like for the way they behaved, but not, because they were badly written, so, like Failbox, I'll count that as a good thing .
Flemeth! In my opinion, she had the best voice actress in the game. Still got to look up who voiced her, but she did an absolutely terrific job. Creepy, yet funny, I loved it . Sent shivers down my spine, but I wished she'd had more screentime (getting to that later).

The new fighting system is a definite improvement over Origins. Also, I loved playing as a rogue archer, that worked perfectly, whereas in Origins it was almost impossible for me to play as an archer, so again, a definite improvement.

The companion missions always were the first thing I did when reaching the next act, in my opinion, those were the most enjoyable quests to do .

I liked that the bodies seemed more individual in this game. I always hated seeing old people (like Flemeth or Wynne) have the same body as Leliana or any other young woman. It creeped me out, really. Also, for some reason, I thought the men's upper bodies were a lot nicer than before (I mean without a shirt, I liked the abscence of the weird unnatural sixpack xD).

Soo many elves and elven language . Love it, especially all the tossed in elven words in the conversations.
The dog, Sandal and his father returned *yay*
I liked living in the mansion, it was pretty cool to have a nice place to come back to, instead of just the woods .
I felt like the romances were handled better in this one. The fact, that everyone was bi, was awesome,  no more heartbreak over the realization that Morrigan's straight, and I was also not forced to romance Isabela *yay* .
Last but not least, thanks for Merrill, she's my favorite character. I loved her since Origins and it was so great to have her in my party (the romance option didn't hurt, either ). And I got to kill Anders. Thank you so very much for that. I have utterly hated him since Awakening, so it really was a pleasure to see him bite the dust, lol xD.

Alright, so now to what I didn't like about the game (again, because my previous text was deleted, cause my browser crashed -.-)

The ending, in my opinion, was terrible. I didn't think you'd be able to pull off a bigger cliffhanger since Witchhunt, but you actually managed it (let's just hope this one leads somewhere).
What was up with the story in general? I really was waiting for it to pick up, the first act was very drawn out, in my opinion, and although it did pick up at the ending of act 2/ third act, it immediately lost me with the ending. That put me in a rant like state for quite a while. I don't know what you guys are planning with the dlc's, but not giving this game a real ending, feels to me like this was created entirely to lead up to Dragon Age 3.

What really put me off the romance a bit was, that there was a real lack of conversation going on, imo. Not only with the LI's, but with the whole party in general. I flirted once with Merrill in act one and all of a sudden I'm romancing her in act 2...That felt rushed and a little forced. One of the things I loved in Origins was, that whomever you romanced, you could just go back and talk to them and kiss them. I really liked that, it gave they're relationship a bit more depth, I think.

The game was way too short. It took me about 30 hours, with lots and lots of side quests and the dlc from the signature edition. Now, I can complete Origins in a good 30 hours, but that's with almost no side quests and no dlc.
The save from Origins is more or less useless. Things you did matter, but the impact on gameplay in DA2 is non-existant. I expected it to affect the story much more, like it did in Mass Effect 2, for example. I know, it's not Mass Effect, and you don't play as the same character, but still. I expected..more. Then again, that can pretty much be said about the entire game :/

Getting achievements was never so easy. Of the 55 achievements, I have only 16 left to achieve, and this is after my first playthrough (I played it on normal mode). I didn't look at them before playing, 'cause that's something I generally don't do, but I felt being flooded with achievements during the game, which was just confirmed once I checked. Bottom line: The game's way too easy. I know, I can still play it on hard and nightmare, but referring to Origins again, I felt it to be challenging enough on normal mode. The game requires almost no thinking or planning, which is something I really liked about Origins. I guess it has something to do with the new combat system, but I just found most fights to be dull and boring, they were all resolved using the same "tactic" (which was, run in, shoot it with all my abilities, optionally drink a stamina potion, move on).

The inventory in general, annoyed me. I didn't like the fact that you couldn't alter your party members outfits and all you could do was equip different rings and belts. I liked fumbling around with armor . It is simpler and better arranged, but mainly because you guys removed most of it, and I think you could've made it simpler without doing that.

Flemeth...now that was a disappointment. This has to do with the story in general again, but I feel I need to talk about it, because it was pretty much what I expected Dragon Age 2 to be. What I expected, even after I knew I wasn't going to play my warden, was an epic battle with qunari overlords, and Flemeth being like the final threat..or something at least. I felt like that with witchhunt, you guys were leading up to something big considering Morrigan and Flemeth. Instead, it wasn't even adressed. Morrigan is never mentioned and for Flemeth getting all this new outfit and design, I really expected her to be important. I know, it's early to say this, with dlc's coming out and Dragon Age 3, but I felt like Dragon Age 2 was..empty.

I never really felt connected to the characters the way I usually do with Bioware. I didn't care when Carver died, I didn't care when mother died. I didn't care when Bethany was taken to the circle, Isabela or other characters were in trouble. I cared very little in this game, which really started to worry me after act 1. Usually, I'm instantly fond of most Bioware characters, it's the reason I play your games and love you as a company, but with the DA2 charas I just never clicked. Sure, I liked most of them, but there was a complete lack of emotional envolvement I ususally get with your characters. I just didn't feel that here. It's sad, really.

The environment was too repetitive. I eventually got used to the game mostly taking place in Kirkwall, but the fact that the same warehouses and mansions were recycled in almost every mission, really annoyed me to no end. That just got very, very boring.

Then, there's a quest icon over my book thing where the letters ususally
are, but there are appartently "no quests available". You can't go
anywhere, either. I'm guessing this is for the dlc's but come on...the
ending really is a letdown, after the whole thing in origins, with all
the nice cards at the end about what happened to the characters after
the final battle...[smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/angry.png[/smilie]

Now, after all that complaining, you must think I hated the game. And I didn't like it nearly as much as other Bioware games, that's for certain. But I still enjoyed it. I think you did a good job, but for a game that's priced 50 euros, I would've liked at least a more satisfying story. Especially with all the dlc coming. Because somewhere in the back of my mind I'm thinking that this whole game feels a lot like, I dunno, a rip off, and I really don't want to think that.

Oh, and also...no music at the end of the game? No epic "you've done it song", just growling thunder for 15 minutes...really?

[Kelsen89]

Pros :
- Hawke/Amell family has different looks depending on what Hawke looks like creating a sense of relation (i thought this was a pretty awesome touch)
- Improved Graphics
- Love the dialog wheel, makes it easier to decide what to say knowing what effect it will have
- Hawke/Amell family dynamics and chemistry, i was actually bummed when bethany was taken away and extremely bummed when leandra died (oh and how she died really got me heated, made me want to kill all the mages but i was like like, oh wait Bethany is a mage and shes awesome)
-love how actions in DA:O had some impact on the world 
-faster more streamlined combat system

Cons :
- Thought the accent/facial change for  the elves was kind of weird but it didn't bother me that much
- Interaction with companions is a lot more restricted than it was in DA:O (didnt like having to wait for a companion quest in order to fully interact with one)
- Game world felt really small when restricted mainly to Kirkwall, but I understand it had to do with the story and hawkes rise to power there
- Didnt get to customize the armor of my companions

In the end the main thing that bugged me was the story. It wasn't as grand or as epic as Origins. It was more like an awesome personal story of a man who rose to power and ended up starting an international war between mages and templars, but the story ends before that war starts moving and you don't get to partake in that bigger grander story either. Thats what got me. It felt like I played a prelude to an epic game. I still think the story was awesome, just not on a grand epic scale. I thought the story was going to be about another Qunari invasion to be honest. 

BUT I still think it was better than Origins. I really thought Bioware did well on improving the gameplay. In Origins i dreaded going to the deeproads and having to go through wave after wave of boring combat. Combat in Origins was something i just had to "go through" to experience an awesome story. In DA2 combat was actually fun for me, and I still loved the story so I didn't feel like i was forced to have to just "go through" anything. Which I think is important for lasting appeal. 

[Flurdt Vash]

Dragon Age 2. Well one thing for sure is that it is NOT Origins. There are several great points to the game ... unfortunately there are many more things (to my humble opinion) hold it down.

First the Good Stuff:

Dragon Age 2 has (as always, my humble opinion), the best combat engine I have seen in an RPG in recent memory. The fps (frames) are truly amazing, regardless if you play the game on PC or consul, this is simply a great thing!

I have been in LOVE with the new art style since day one. As much as I loved the look of the monsters from the Blight, Its nice to see some original idea work with the revamping of the Genlock, Emissary, hell even the Quinarri. The art is definitely one thing which I think will set DA 2 apart from other RPGs, as well as usher in the Dark Fantasy concepts that are so common in the Dragon Age stories.

The new crafting system (or lack there of, take your pick), is a great thing. Not having to load my pack down with herbs and roots and Maker knows what else (lol), lets me focus more on taking useful items ... i.e. additional potions, rune and weapon collecting. Its simply just a headache that (for me) was relieved.

The Mass Effect style conversation wheel was a GREAT addition. I do LOVE Mass Effect, and to be honest (my love for that title aside), the conversation wheel does work WONDERS better then the line by line dialogue option.


Now, On to the BAD!:

I appreciate a good story, as well as some enduring concepts, BioWare has always been a fan of damned if you do, damned if you dont situations in there rpgs. Still, when I cant keep party members because of a play threw, especially if a character, In GOOD standing, MAX friendship leaves because of one decision I make, and takes ALL the gear that I outfitted him/her with ... thats just bad. There is no excuse for that.
Probably the thing about the game that agitates me the most, if the cameos of old characters that pop up, say hi then depart as if they were meant to be there. As if its a reward just to see there face one more time. Seriously. Once even shows up in the last battle (assuming you did the quest and they lived threw Origins), and doesn't say a word! There just there, swinging there weapon, and when the fight is over .... there gone. No word, no explanation just "Oh I was passing threw". Nothing. /images/forum/emoticons/uncertain.png

The completion of the game rose my blood pressure to I think dangerous levels, Im not sure. I understand the whole concept of a Frame Narrative (which was a joke by the way, at best its a quick explanation of what happens during the years that the game fast forwards threw with out so much as a side quest. Playing a whole decade of the Kirkwall adventure was my understanding, not two side quests, a main and then "Story time with Varrick"), but there is no Epilogue AT ALL!!! Seriously? At least in Origins and even Awakening we got to read about what our companions did after the thing was over, all we get from this is "We ran for the hills, then separated" all but the love interest who stays ... depending on the interest. An end battle which takes near an hour and an ending that lasts 120 seconds .... at best.

I feel let down. I hate that. Ive been a big Dragon Age fan since the beginning. Got the books, beaten Origins, Awakenings and all the DLC seven ways from Sunday. I was MORE then anticipating this game! I kinda wish BioWare would have held onto it another year and put more effort into the story or something. It just left me feeling the same way the end of Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver 2 left me feeling .... annoyed.

Im not saying Im jumping ship, Im not saying down with Dragon Age! God knows that would be a lie, my friends and I even play the table top version lol. All Im saying is I was more disappointed then I thought possible, coming from my favorite developer and my favorite game series ... it just struck a nerve. /images/forum/emoticons/andy.png

Not being able to talk with my companions when ever I wanted to was a MAJOR issue. I think one of the best things, if not the main thing that first attracted me to Origins (Other then it being a BioWare RPG and spiritual successor to Baulders Gate lol) was character interaction. I could talk with my companions when ever I wanted. I go to camp and just BS with them, or take my love interest to bed just because I felt like it. There were options. Now I have to go to there house? And, HOPE that I have done something or picked up an item that would allow for a few seconds of dialogue. Also the Mass Effect approach of making a statement here or there and building up to a single romantic scene (which are weak in DA2 by the way. I figured Mass Effect 2 was watered down romance scenes enough ... but no, Dragon Age 2 waters it down to a family friendly concept ... that aside), You get no additional scenes. Just the one, which you have to work at .... depending on your love interest. I LOVE Mass Effect dont get me wrong, but when I heard people say "Dragon Effect" I laughed, I didnt realize who close this game had come to being a dark age version of just that! Until, I actually played it. I didnt care about ANY of my companions. I didnt know them ... aside for Anders, there was just no story growth, just baldn. And, as far as the Mass style relationship treatment and the Mass style items given to me by my companions and all the other Mass Effect inspired game elements placed into a a game that I bought and craved and expected to be Dragon Age .... all I can realy say is that if I want to play Mass Effect, Ill play Mass Effect, when I want to p[lay Dragon Age, I expect it to be Dragon Age.

I agreed with a post I read forever ago, written by David Gaider (at least Im 99% sure it was him) were he said it made him angry people downing a game before it even came out and we had a chance to play it. I agree with that. Well, I have played it, and given my opinion on the good and the bad, I can still see myself playing threw Origins, but maybe two more play threws for DA2 to get the achievements and I think that will be it, unless and expansion fixes some of the things I spoke of.

Of course Ill be buying any expansions and/or DLC for the game. Its is Dragon Age after all, and for better or worse, its still my favorite game series. I just wish Dragon Age 2 had been more deserving of the series name.

My review :

Combat : 10

Crafting and Gathering : 8

Art and Graphics :10

Story :4

Character Interaction :2

Overall : Id recommend Dragon Age Origins to a friend before I would Dragon Age 2.

God, I hope someone really is reading this and they take some of these things into consideration, I cant possibly be the other one.

[mopotter]

 Nice.

Personal opinions.  

It's fun.  The characters are interesting and the story is entertaining.  I LOL when Varric was introduced and the reasons for side quest make sense.   I play BioWare games for the story and complex characters, not the game play, thought that's important, it's not the most important factor.

Right now I'm playing 2 characters on the 360 one on casual one on normal.  The wheel is fine, the fighting on normal is hard enough so i'm not bored and on casual easy enough so I don't get fustrated and I have switched back an forth with my mage.  Rogue is easer for me so she's been staying at normal.  Eventually I'll try it on a harder setting but when I'm first learning the game dynamics I alway play on an easier setting.

What I dislike is something that was apparently added to try and make everyone happy, which is an impossibility.  

Characters that are romancable by either sex just reduce the number of plays I'll have and decrease the complexity of the characters.  I don't care of the micromanagement of the heart option.  I understand why it was added but would have prefered  just a nice way to say no if the romance dialog came up.  

If BioWare is going to try and include all of the sexual preferenceds, which I think would be a good thing, I would much rather see characters who are homosexual included instead of having everyone bi-sexual.   And if not romancable  have an option to be friends with them if our personal choices agree - good/evil.  6 romance choices would mean more work, but better defined characters.  2 straight, 2 bisexual and 2 homosexual.  

It would mean the possiblity that the straight male isn't my personal favorite, but for me that would be better than having all characters romancable. And having 2 characters who are openingly bi-sexual increases the chance that one of them will be of interest to me.  It will also mean that I will play a male who is gay, a female who is lesbian as well as my straight characters.  

In DA2 I have no reason to do that.  It's a loss I regreat, but  I'm straight so both male love interest are both going to be straight in all of my games.  My male Hawkes will only romance females.  

I've heard the rummors that BioWare is worried about the game rating and good ol Fox, but I doubt if that's true or else they would not have made the characters bi-sexual.  So having characters with definate sexual preferences in future games would be a good thing.    

Since I haven't finished the games yet, I don't know how the endings will affect my enjoyment or my interest in replaying the game.