1012 réponses à ce sujet

[Murtallica]

I found there were many great things the added into DA2 to make it more unique.

+more talking between companions
+Better graphics
+the story (Until the very ending)
+The look of the new elves

There are many things I found that seemed bugged or inclomplete though.

-Merrill's quest is bugged with no fix yet.
-Overly reused locations (Would have been fine if warehouses didn't ALL look the same, those were the most repititive locations.)
-Not enough conversations with companions, you don't really learn enough about them like you did in DAO.
-The ending for the story seems complete and there are unanswered questions.
-Not nearly enough exploration. (Biggest concern)
-No new game +

Modifié par Murtallica, 13 mars 2011 - 01:18 .

[Azzlee]

First run through completed as male warrior, was about to start my second but I don't think I have the stomach for it. 20 hour playthrough

First off, to Mr Laidlaw and Mr Gaider. I know
you cannot be happy with this after Origins. Its impossible to be happy
with this after creating DA:O. My offer extends that if either of you
find yourselves in EA's Chertsey office over here in good ole England,
I buy the beers, you give me your time.

Where do I start? I guess the good points really.

Combat - I'll be honest, I didn't like it at first. It grew on me though but I felt the tempo was a tad too fast. Irregardless of what others may think, it was button mashing. My thumb hurts. A happy medium needs to be found. Slightly increased tempo coupled with auto attack? I play on casual as I play Bioware games for the story, not the action.

Graphics - On the whole better. I preffered the DA:O darkspawn style and the old elven style though. I do however understand the reason for the elven change. Characters hands were pretty dreadful!

Loot - It seems there was more equipment and for the most part it looked good. Hayders Razor was horrible though!

Points/talents - I actually quite liked this. No problems here.

Negatives...

Voice
Acting - On the whole, very poor. I'm not sure if its the lines being
read or just the voice actors (i think they both contribute equally, and I'll get to the writing).
Returning voice overs were wonderful (Flemeth <3 Kate Mulgrew, Zevran, Alistair, Bodahn and what little of Leliana there was). This does not include either Anders, Isabella or Sandal (who was this new person as it wasn't the same), both of whom were lackluster along with the rest of the cast. If you truly insisted on making the main character talk, why didn't you spend some money on a far better lead voice actor? The same goes for the actors that play your immediate family, all of which convey about as much emotion from me as I would get from staring at a plank of unpainted wood. Whoever allowed such poor, unemotional voice acting through to this game should consider a career in hiring hypnotherapists, where a one tone voice is actually somewhat useful, or just become a benefit claimant. The main character should have been silent.

Writing - I'm looking at you here Mr Gaider. I struggle to believe you were lead writer on both of these games. Are the credits wrong? The stark contrast in quality is quite jarring. You and your team, in my opinion, are the best in the industry with no equals. The writing from Dragon Age Origins was quite simply outstanding. Every character writen was marvelous and I actually had genuine emotion towards video game characters that I had never had before. Not just one of them, but all of the recruitable team members. Even Loghain and Anora! This time though, no connection. At all. Not to a single one of these characters, not even my own. Non of these characters had any reason for being with me bar Carver/Bethany. Not even Varric joining up was really a good enough reason to stumble off on an adventure bar the deep roads. The DA2 characters were simply poorly fleshed out. Character banter popped up when events had/hadn't transpired and did not fit in chronologically. Character romance was weak and emotionless. "I love you Merril, move in with me" after the first and only time we had any sort of emotional "connection". It felt tacked on loosly with blu-tac. As for the story, I felt the weekest section of DA:O was the Circle of Magi section, simly becuase I wasn't hot on the Fade part of it. However I still enjoyed it. I had my Origin story > Ostagar > Army Build > Landsmeet > Final Battle. It was fluid, excellenty written, knew what I had to do, where to go and why I was doing it at all times. In DA2, most of the time, I had no idea who I was really siding with, I got the acheivement for siding with the mages by suprise, more times than I can remember I had to look at my journal to see what was going on, I had no idea why I was going and doing certain things. The quest that comes to mind immediately is the gem for your uncle. I didn't even know I had to look at the alienage tree until i read it in the journal, and I still didn't know why until I got there and a cutscene kicked in. It lacked any sort of epic OR personal feel. This doesn't help when you don't care about anyone in the game. The barebones of the Story is Mage rebellion against years of Chantry/Templar control. This is a good premise. Was never going to be as epic as DA:O but if it had the same sort of love DA:O received, it could have come almost close. The story jumps around too much, I was talking to characters I had never even met in game yet personally as a player as if I knew them.

Conversation wheel - This is not poorly implemented, but should not have been implemented in the first place. Leave this back with Mass Effect. The original DA system was more real and personal and wasn't broken. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

Companion Customisation - Why was this taken out? It was awful in ME2 and its awful here. It makes no sense whatsoever in a game like this to include so much loot, but have so little use for 80% of it. I lost count of the amount of dresses I picked up that were better than what my companions had on only to have to bin them becuase they were totally useless to me.

Combat setpieces/animation - In my final fight there was a group of templars around Meredith. When the fight started they all diassapeared. In fact the diappeared in front of my eyes in the cutscene! There was more enemies in the short time I played this game, and in such a small area, than there was when I fought a darkspawn horde. Its as if more fighting was put in as a time sink due to the main story being so brutally short. Bad guys appeared and disappeared at will. Sloppy and something I expect from subpar developer.

Rehashed environment - You got stick over this for ME. When you get burnt first time, you don't put your hand back in the fire. This choice here is beyond me.

In closing, I would like to say, and I direct this at Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk that up until last thursday I ranked you number 1 developer in the world. I adore ME, ME2 , DA:O and DA:O Awakenings, but this is virtually unforgiveable. I should have seen this coming after the lack of love that was put in to Witch Hunt and the DA2 demo but I foolishly told myself that it would be ok, that I would get used to it, and i'd love it as much as I did DA:O. I have, for a long time since I worked for them for 1 day, been a staunch hater of EA and the direction they are taking. DA:O was for the most part made outside of the buyout, as was ME. The difference EA have made to your games and the direction they want you to take is staggering. I understand that companies need to make as much profit as possible, I understand people need to make money to feed themselves and their families, but allowing the devil himself to buy you out was one of the worst decisions Ray and Greg could possibly have made for their fans. I can only assume that EA wanting to ride the cash cow has been responsible for not only the quick development time (and it shows badly) but the approach that more fighting is better than everything are the reason DA2 was both not only allowed to be realeased now, but even made in this way in the first place.

Change is not always good or needed. Four of the most critically loved games of the current generation, Halo, CoD, GoW, and GTA are all virtually the same as before except the stories and with things added. I don't even know who many millions and millions of copies combined these have sold. If you pull loads of people in on your first stab at a game, it worked, you did it right, do a sequel, with a new story. Don't skin it, throw away the scraps, and expect all those that you pulled in first time to gobble it up and enjoy it. It would have been like Sega giving Sonic a gun and making Sonic 2 a FPS back in the Megadrive days.

My message to you EA, if you want to pull the CoD and Halo players to a Bioware product, make an a FPS not an RPG. Your target player base for a Bioware product is the mmorpg or the WRPG player. You may even have heard of this mildly successful MMO called World Of Warcraft. The only people to have touched such a large group of peeps is Mark Zuckerberg and God if you believe in him.

 

[Erlec]

So Dragon age 2 has arrived and been played. This a easy reveiew.

Good parts:

- The world in itself still feels great, by having ferelden mentioned sevreal times and notice the differences of culture, country of origin and race is fantastic.
- The story still is good, with more of a focus on the reality of ideals and the consquenses there of. By including a very depressing ending it also serves as the setting up for something bigger. Also, by having set points that will happen, no matter what (death of sibling, brother/sister joining the templars/circle, death of mother, attack of qunari and the end conflict) gives the entire feeling a war of ideology. Hopefully Flemeth, the Warden, Hawke and Morrigan will have happy times together.
- The combat is great, the much better clearity of combo spells is a great addition. The removal of arcane warrior is great and making rouges cool is much better then the original.
- Using the same engine but with new art and skin is great for modders who already has the tools. It would be quite intresting to see the art upgrade on origins but not needed.
- By being a depressing game, this gives a much stronger story as well as a much stronger end game. I felt it was better then the ending of origin.
- It's also great calling back to the decisions of the player in the last game and seeing how it impacted the world.

Bad parts:

- Securom. This is just bad. By buying a signature edition I get a securom notice that I cannot play the game and if I had bought it for a console I would not get it. This is just annoying and sad.
- The three year pauses is unneccesary and gives alot of questions. What have I been doing for these years? I think that three years is too long. It would have been fit the story much better if it was just one year (three years under meredith with the idol sword would have been much worse during the reality three years).
- The same dungeon setup is just awful. Getting bored of the enviorment is just awful and seeing the same location but it's a "different place" is just lazy.
- Being able to miss companions. I never got Fenris's quest. This makes me who likes to gather and do everything annoyed.
- No way to find secondary quests. By not having them lighted in the maps it's really easy to forget them during the greater scheme of things. It's also annoying to run around the entire of some maps just to find some flower or a book.

What could have been done/ should be fixed in the future:

- The game slowsdown to a full stop at times and I have to go the the main menu to fix it.
- Markings of quests should be pretty easy to fix fast.

In the end however, I can appriciate on how Bioware is trying to shape a grander world plus a trilogy/franchaise. By having a very depressing story it makes some parts of this more memorable, so this game is worth the price. However the future of Hawke with dlc and such will make people angry as well as annoyed. By making this a cliffhanger many people will complain on that there is no ending.

Still looking forward for new stuff.

[samurai28]

I just completed the game and overall it was enjoyable, but disappointing expierence.  I purchased the game on PC as this is the console my Origins saves are on.

Pros:

- I like the new combat system, its fun.  Its a little quicker pace.  However, I think I do prefer the Origins system because it was a little more tactical and more challenging..
- I like the crafting set up.
- I like the characters having their own skill sets.  I thought it added some depth to party selection and allowed a   little more flexibility in the make up of the party.
- I like the large amount of armor of varying types in the game.
- Although I didn't like my companions not being able to change armor, I did like the upgrades to their armor you could find/buy throughout the game.
- I like that my companions had real conflicts with each others belief systems that I felt like I needed to balance.  "I want to save this mage, but fenris isn't gonna like that.  But if I let the mage die, Anders is gonna get upset.  I need want them both to be happy..."  Nice.

Dislikes:

- I did not feel the depth in my companions I was expecting from a Bioware game.  I didn't find myself really caring about them.
- I didn't feel the same impact of my decisions as I did with Origins.  And I really miss the Origin stories.  I loved those in the previous game because how the all connected with the story later and it made me want to play through it several times.
- I was expecting my Origins actions to have a greater effect on the game.  Cameos of a couple of the characters is it.  I'm upset there wasn't a more direct connection of the two games.  I was expecting completly different paths, or the availability of different companions. 
- I didn't feel like many of the skills were useful or needed.  Especially with the mages.  The elemental path plus the healing spell, and you'll have very little trouble in the game.  I think this is due to the slightly dumbed down combat system.
- I was disappointed to see an overall dumbing down of the game and its interface to appeal to the console players, I think it definitly took away from the game.
- I didn't like I couldn't select my race.  I didn't feel as much ownership in my character.

Highly Dislike:

- I hated that the companions could not change armor.  What is the point of collecting all this armor if I can't use 2/3's of it.  Also, the game obviously had certain sets that it wanted to be used and made these much too powerful.
- I hated that I had to keep running through the same exact maps, not just locations, but the same exact maps.  This was horrible.  Why was everyone making their stand in the same alcove on the wounded coast?  Hawke, go take out some Qunari, then go right back to interupt the mage templar party.
- I didn't have that epic feel to the game.  The conflicts weren't big in enough.  Because the game was limited to litter one city, one group of people...it was naturally small in scope.  The story basically came down to conflicts of indiviudals instead of confilct againts groups.  For example, Darkspawn vs. Dwarves, elves, humans...Greatness.  Psycho Knight Commander vs. Whiney Head Mage....eh.  This game felt like one small event...where as most of your games feel like one global (universal) conflict.
- Why give me conversations options if you are going to make it end up the same.  "No, I don't want your help Flemeth"...Too bad bud, it wasn't really a choice, we just wanted you to think the three conversation choices mattered.  Ugh.

In summary, the game was fun, but I can tell the focus had changed, and I think Bioware is changing.  I loved Origins, I saw Bioware went back to doing what Bioware does best.  For this game, I think ya'll again fell into the same traps you did with Mass Effect 2.  You moved away from what you do best and moved away from the types of games your customers buy.  I have no doubt you will make tons of money with this title and its deserved.  But remember your company and reputation was built on deep difficult RPG's, and that's what ya'll should make.  There's plenty of companies out there that make good action games.  Only a couple that make great RPG's.  I hope you will stop moving the direction ya'll are going with this series...and take it back to what made the first one so good. 

Modifié par samurai28, 13 mars 2011 - 01:48 .

[Zepheera]

My primary complaint with the game itself was the repetitious use of the same few cave, warehouse, and mansion maps. Halfway through the first Kirkwall segment, I was able to anticipate any encounter simply by what map I was on.

Money was a bit hard to come by, I was not able to purchase much during the run of the game, aside from companion enhancements and the occasional small bit of equipment for Hawke. It was offset for most of the game by the fact that decent stuff dropped in combat, but there were times I was wear 1 and 2 star items because I couldn't afford anything better, and the drops for my class (mage) were scarce.

The ending was a bit frustrating, but I can see a sequel/expansion hook when it hits me on the nose, so I will withhold judgment on that bit for now, despite the lack of a feeling of completion.

I did enjoy the story, and while I would have liked to be able to speak to my companions when I wished to as in DA:O, I was pleasantly surprised that the conversations and interactions were as comprehensive as they were. I was greatly fearing that companion interaction would be pared down to 2-5 conversations/interactions for the entire game as it was in Awakenings and in ME2.

Combat and general movement was a nice change from DA:O. The slowness and sameness of a character's run was frustrating. The first time I controlled Fenris, for example, I thought something was weird because of the way he moved. He took these huge leaping steps, and I didn't actually realize why it looked odd until I switched back to my PC and finally NOTICED why it felt different. I really enjoy that each character has unique movements and stances.

One last thing is the combat.  I'm not a hack-n-slasher, I make liberal use of the pause feature, and I enjoy the combat mechanics, however, I am 2/3 of the way through my second playthrough, and I have noticed that combat is insanely easy, even on hard and nightmare difficulty for the first few segments of the game, then it suddenly takes a huge step up in difficulty about the time that Isabela runs off. I would have preferred a slightly more gradual increase in difficulty, starting a good bit earlier in the game. 

Edit:  And OMG, who designed the DA2 version of Alistair and Teagan?  They turned nice, rugged faces into pudgy, unattractive masses that really only had a passing resemblance to the characters!  I understood Zevran's design change to be in keeping with the other elves, but I nearly cried when I saw Alistair and Teagan!

Modifié par Zepheera, 13 mars 2011 - 02:12 .

[basbaker]

 Overall, taking this game just on its own merits, this is a solid game and
enjoyable. Those who have not played Dragon Age: Origins will likely
be completely satisfied with it. For those who did play DA:O, it
leaves very much to be desired. While the game improved dramatically
over its predecessor in the areas of gameplay, combat, and unique
artistic style, it completely failed to deliver the same epic sense
of scope as Origins. The overall story was dramatic and engaging,
and yet it felt like Hawke was swept along by every major event
rather than having a hand in shaping them. The character
interactions, while adequate with a couple of really good exceptions,
left me feeling as though I wanted more. That generally sums up the
entire game. It was good, but it could have been so much more.


Likes:

• Improved combat
  In most RPGs, I play more for the
  story than anything else. Combat is usually my secondary concern
  unless it's just godawful; it's a means to an end. But in DA2 I
  actually enjoyed the combat. Playing as a mage, I enjoyed it
  excessively. Force magic, being able to pick up a knot of opponents
  and slam them down against the ground, was particularly satisfying.
  I wish there had been a crush option as well. Playing as a rogue,
  the combat isn't quite as spectacular for me and seems often a
  little more of a grind, but overall it maintains its enjoyability.
  I desperately miss the dual weapon sweep and whirlwind from Origins.
• Improved graphics
  I enjoyed the look of the game. The
  developers said that everything would be sharper and more stylized,
  and it was.
• Skill trees
  Although I have the same complaint
  that I've read several times in this thread already – that there
  should be a way to hover over a talent and see what it does without
  having to open up the tree – I liked the trees very much overall.
  It made choosing skills much less of a headache, and made for less
  waste of points.
• New art style for the Qunari
  I never had a problem with the way
  Sten looked in Origins, but I have to say that the Qunari in DA2
  look bad-ass as hell. I don't care if they all have horns all of a
  sudden. This art decision was great. I have a much easier time
  envisioning the Qunari as an unstoppable conquering force now than I
  did prior to this game. The Arishok couldn't have been more foreign
  or intimidating.
• Cameo appearances from DA:O
  characters
  We all love our DA:O companions. I
  understand that the looks had to be changed somewhat to mesh with
  the revamped artistic style, so I can get over my old Origins
  friends getting facial reconstruction. I just loved seeing them.
• Writing
  Even though I
  don't always agree with the directions that the stories take, and
  sometimes downright hate those directions, everything is generally
  so well written and performed that it makes up for a lot of
  shortcomings.
• Varric and Aveline and the general
  complexity of the characters
  Oddly, the characters that I couldn't
  romance in this game were my favorites. Varric was my right-hand
  man, which is quite probably what he was supposed to be, considering
  he's the Champion's personal biographer, authorized or not. He was
  just plain decent, down-to-earth, and had bucketfuls of personality
  and wit. Aveline was such an exemplary companion that I kept
  wanting to shake some of the others and say, “See, that is an
  all-around good person – a true friend.”
  Beyond that, all of the companions had
  layers of complexity that were enjoyable to sift through. No matter
  what I thought of their personalities and their decisions, I always
  appreciated that there was more to them than met the eye. I wish
  I'd had more time with them.
• Party banter/flavor commentary
  There were quite a few times that I
  laughed outright playing this game. Most of them involved Varric,
  but not all. “I think that statue over there is a statement on
  modern life. Possibly the statement is, “Well...****.””
  Hilarious!
• The conversation wheel
  I liked this page taken from the Mass
  Effect series, and I especially liked the intent icons. Knowing the
  tone of a remark before giving it was helpful in keeping my
  character's personality consistent.
• Quests for companions
  It was so nice to see my companions
  having troubles and needing help with them. After all, they're
  going all over the place with me doing every fetch quest and killing
  half the city of Kirkwall on a nightly basis, so why shouldn't they
  get a little of my time? This was possibly the best part of the
  entire game, because it was pretty much the only time I got to
  interact meaningfully with my party. The Long Road quest with
  Aveline stands out as one of my favorite parts of the game. I
  believe it is my absolute favorite companion quest. It was so
  unique and funny. Thank you so much for including such a sweet
  event in what was otherwise a rather cheerless game story-wise.
• The Exiled Prince
  This character screams DLC, but that's
  alright. I mean, he's DLC to begin with, but it seems to me that
  getting to know Sebastian a little here is just a prelude to
  something bigger. I hope I'm right. I liked his character, loved
  his accent, and wished that I had been able to go with him to
  Starkhaven to reclaim his birthright.

Dislikes:

• Re-used maps
  You guys have been panned enough on
  this already, but I still can't keep from adding my own log to the
  bonfire. It was unspeakably boring to run through the same maps
  over and over again. I would have preferred everything to be
  randomized, with a handful of specially designed areas for the most
  important encounters. Considering the bite-size of this game
  compared to Origins, I expected more depth.
• Sameness of Kirkwall
  I liked Kirkwall – I really did. I
  thought it was a great city. It felt alive, and it had its own
  personality that made it like nothing I had seen in Origins. But it
  was hours upon hours of Kirkwall. After that much time running
  through one area over and over again, it loses its charm. Beyond
  Act 1, I didn't care which part of the city I was in anymore. I
  don't think I even noticed. It all blurred.
• Limited interaction with
  companions
  I think that the very strongest point
  of Origins, and what kept people playing it time and again was the
  character interaction. Yes, my character wasn't voiced and at times
  this was a drawback for me, especially combined with her doll-like,
  unchanging expression, but I felt so much more involved with the
  story and my companions despite that. I understand that Kirkwall is
  a home for everyone in the party, not just Hawke. I don't mind
  having to go visit them in their homes for special quest starters
  and things. But not being able to just pull a party member aside
  once in a while and chat made me feel far less connected to them.
  Not having them initiate conversations as things happened was really
  odd. They do something dramatic during a personal quest and then
  they run off, and you have to go find them to hear about it?
  And that brings me to a nit-pick. In
  the Anders romance, I invited him to come live with me at the estate
  and as far as I could tell he took me up on it. Yet I could only
  have a meaningful conversation with him, or interact with him at
  all, at the clinic? That's pretty ridiculous.
• Lack of vibrancy in NPCs
  I can't count the number of
  non-crucial NPCs in Origins that made me giggle, or just impressed
  me in one way or another. In DA2 I also can't count them, but
  that's because they don't really exist. There's no Old Barlin with
  his poison traps. There's no Bann Teagan, or Sergeant Kylon or
  Goldana. The NPCs in this game seemed incredibly one-dimensional
  and most of them were only distinguished from the others by the fact
  that they gave different quests. The glowing exception is Cullen,
  but since he came from Origins, well, there you have it.
• Rushed/forced feeling to romances
  I did not appreciate choosing one or
  two flirtatious options and
  suddenly finding myself in a serious romance. Flirting is flirting. Yes,
  it often opens the door for something else, but sometimes it's just
  flirting. And talk about poor timing. Anders just tells me that
  he's inseparably paired with a spirit from the Fade, and that his
  own mortal weakness and anger have corrupted this spirit from one of
  Justice to one of Vengeance. My “romantic” option for a
  response - “Well at least he can't complain about his host” or
  something along those lines. Wow, talk about inappropriate. Is
  there a Romance for Dummies book we can unlock in the game for
  better dialogue options? In Origins, there was a lot of lead-up
  before you actually got to start a romance with everyone except
  Zevran. It seemed a far more natural progression. And that's how
  it should be – especially when you have seven years to do it in.
  Continuing in
  that vein, what happened in the three years between Act 1 and Act 2?
  Did they date? Send anonymous love letters? Cross the street to
  avoid one another? If one poorly timed dialogue choice gets them
  interested, waiting three years to act on that interest is pretty
  odd. Considering the gaps between major events, it seems to me that
  the romance either shouldn't start in Act 1, or there should be a
  bridge of some sort in Varric's narration that at least hints at why
  the romance waits three years to progress.
• Hawke's family
  While I was not unduly upset by the
  death of one of Hawke's siblings during the escape from Lothering, I
  found the rest of the drama in the Hawke family very much contrived.
  By the time Mother Hawke died, I knew that the only reason Hawke
  had a family in the first place in this game was so that the writers
  could try to force an attachment to them, or force the player to
  choose sides. It didn't work with me – it just mainly made me
  angry. Why give me a family that I can't really help no matter
  what?
• No feeling of connection to
  Hawke/family/companions
  I not only felt little connection with
  Hawke's family, I felt little for the companions in general. While
  I enjoyed helping them with their quests, the lack of interaction
  throughout the majority of the game was sad. I barely knew who they
  were by the time the game ended, and other than Varric and Aveline
  and my LI, I didn't particularly care. This is a tragedy really,
  because I like what little I know of every single one of them –
  their appearance, dialogue, personalities. I just didn't get to
  invest in them – it seemed very superficial.
• Inventory in general, junk in
  particular
  The junk was completely unnecessary.
  I understand that it's more realistic for your character to pick up
  a broken widget out of a barrel on the street than a finely honed
  longsword. That's fine. But there was WAY too much junk, and you
  couldn't even see its value. So, if your inventory filled, you
  really had no idea what to drop and what to hold onto for a little
  extra coin. The inventory itself was so generic looking that I
  didn't even care to sift through it. Thank goodness for the little
  stars that rated the gear's importance/value for the characters. I
  would have preferred more interesting items, because then it would
  have been fun to figure out for myself which to use and which to
  sell.
• Act 1 – disjointed and somewhat
  pointless
  Compared to parts 2 and 3, the first
  part of the game seemed very slow. The quests just seemed to blur
  after a bit, and mostly seemed trivial. I couldn't get into the
  game at all during the first part and almost put it down, sixty
  bucks notwithstanding. At least during Origins the little quests
  you did mostly tied in with the main reason you were in an area,
  which made them feel somewhat necessary.
  
• The illusion of steering the game
  
  This game was touted as one in which
  Hawke shapes the fate of a nation. But it's not true. Hawke is a
  bystander for the most earth-shattering events in the story. She
  has no sway. Any time the game needed a character either alive or
  dead for story purposes, there was nothing you could do about it. I
  wanted to kill Grace along with Decimus and the other blood mages
  during that quest. I didn't trust her, didn't like her, and thought
  the world would be a better place without her. But could I do it?
  No. She told me to stay my hand, and I did. Your mother asks you
  to leave your brother or sister behind when you go to the Deep
  Roads, but no matter what you do, you're screwed. There is no way
  to keep your family whole. When you go to the rally where the
  kidnapped Qunari entourage is being held, do you get an actual
  chance to save even a single Qunari? Nope. Despite the love you
  share with Anders, if you go that route in the story, does anything
  you say have the least impact on him or his decision to act? No.
  You can't even stay neutral at the end. All I wanted to do was tell
  the lot of them to go jump off a cliff and take Hawke back to
  Ferelden, but no, you HAVE to choose. And no matter what you pick,
  it's not even close to right. Hawke didn't shape events – she was
  just there to watch the most important ones unfold and then react to
  them in usually unsatisfactory ways. Control isn't exactly an
  illusion – it's just that there are no good choices.
• The ending
  The ending was surprising, and it was
  epic. It was also the most disappointing thing in the game, which
  made the hours I had invested seem time wasted. Is it possible that
  I would have felt less strongly about this if I hadn't chosen Anders
  as the love interest? Of course. But I did choose him. My mage
  Hawke romanced Anders, trusted him, defended him, helped him –
  shared a home with him. And all the time he's plotting behind her
  back, lying to her, and getting her to help him do something that he
  is certain she wouldn't condone if she knew what was really going
  on. With the limited character interaction you get in this game,
  why wouldn't you assume that everything is fine right up until the
  end? He went from telling you “Don't go there,” in Act 1 to
  telling you that he would bathe the city in blood to save you in Act
  2, with no real bridge over that rather large leap. But then I
  guess something changed between that and Act 3, but beats me what
  that might have been, because I couldn't TALK to him about it even
  though he lived with Hawke. What an utter waste of time he turned
  out to be. What an utter ass my Hawke (and by default, myself)
  turned out to be for trusting him. That's not a nice feeling to
  have at the end of a game.
  Additionally, there is no epilogue.
  They all went their separate ways, and you have no idea where the
  Champion is or what she's been doing for three years. You don't get
  to know what happened to any of your companions or family (if you're
  fortunate enough to have any family left at this point). It really
  does make this game seem less like its own entity and more like a
  prelude to the next game.
  
  I wish you had taken more time with this game.  There is little meat to it, and I am now convinced that you were directed to produce a console-friendly product that doesn't completely suck as quickly as possible, with just enough of a hook to induce players to purchase DLC while they wait for the next major installment.  It will probably work, so from a financial perspective you will have been successful.  And yet somehow I still feel cheated.

[BP20125810]

Plusses
-Great charachters (Especially Merrill)

Minuses
-Ending (I get the cliffhanger part, but I need a little closure.)
-Lack of dungeon Variety
-Overuse of enemies spawning in waves

[dainius4745]

Pros:
-Love the companions each one i liked and were interesting
-I find the new combat better, I won't complain about that
-Adding a voice to the protagonist deffinetly helped, made dialogue and cutscenes better
-Still an amazing soundtrack
-Graphics deffinetly improved

Those are the pros, now the cons, which i will go more into detail

Cons:
-I felt that the game lacked dialogue, what made origins amazing was the connection to the characters, Dragon age 2 had great characters, my personal favorites were Varric, Isabella, Anders, but the lack of dialogue was a shame, it would have bin nicer if there was more dialogue
-Everything was set up, so that it would play out in one way, there was really no "different" results, for example, the qunari; There is no peaceful way or any other way to work out with the qunari, its as if they have to attack
-Lack of The Grey Warden: To be honest i loved the Grey Warden because I imagined that to be me and not someone else, when i played hawke...i played hawke, and in this game the Grey Warden is barley mentioned, and there was no real impact that the Warden did in Dragon Age 2
-The Story: I hate putting blame on anyone, but it seemed that the story was rushed, my belief is that it has something to do with EA, but anyways, the story was rushed, its a shame because I saw so much potential in the story, don't get me wrong I liked it, but it seemed rushed to me
-The Ending: Alright, the ending felt like a punch to the face, all this work you put into Hawke, hoping to achieve something great in the end, but it was all a waste. Just to find out that Hawke and the companions split (except for the romance companion), that mages revolt, and that Hawke and the Grey Warden are no where to be found, is a tough drink to swallow, it felt like the whole game was but a waste

It feels like Dragon Age 2 is but just an intro to some other dragon age game, which hopefully will be better, but Dragon Age 2 has certainly made me lose faith in Bioware, which before this game I ranked it #1, now its going down, but don't take this the wrong way, game was still fun, it deffinetly had potential to be great, but didn't succeed

Personally what i wanted to see more was:
-More of My Grey Warden
-More Sten (From DA:O)
-What happened to Morrigan and the Eluvian (that mirror), that still wasn't answered

I'm now expecting Dragon Age 3 to be about the Crumbling Chantry, and maybe, and hopefully the Grey Warden returns, Massive Qunari invasion, and either Hawke, The Grey Warden, or someone new on the rise, has to do something about it
-Next Companions (What I want):
Sten
Allistair
Isabella
Varric
Morrigan
Oghren
And a bunch of new ones
And all these characters better have lots of dialogue, COME ON BIOWARE!!!

[knightnblu]

I know that you guys are busy and have a lot more to do than to read volumes of recommendations. Therefore, I will keep it to just three.

1. Loved the characters, but wish the Champion had more interactions with them. Role playing games are meant to get into the meat of the characters. Particularly with love interests. Sleeping with your LI and professing your love is great, but after that...little or nothing. In almost every game I have ever played from BioWare this has been the result with the exception of HoTU. That was done very well.

2. You are too stingy on money drops. Sweeten it by 25% more and I think that you will have the problem solved.

3. Some of the bosses on the "Casual" setting were just too tough. It should not take 30 minutes to kill the Arashok. I am probably exaggerating, but that was one tough, long, drawn out fight. High dragon, sure I can understand that, but the Arashok is nowhere near as tough as a high dragon or at least he should not be. Of the two, I would rather battle the high dragon than the Arashok again.

Those are my gripes. My thoughts on the overall game is this: it is a winner. The world was dark, gritty, and life doesn't always have happy endings. I absolutely loved it. The sign of a good RPG is that it makes you feel something. It pulls at emotions and makes you uncomfortable. That is damned good writing and execution and I appreciate it.

Ps. Just one more tiny thought. What is it with you guys and nudity? The game is rated "M" for the love of God. You have to be an adult to purchase it and presumably we have all seen "R" rated movies. I just don't get it. Perhaps another software switch to enable "adult" mode or something if it offends some people, but if being naked offends them what about the blood spray and gratuitous violence? As I said, I don't get it.

[Windkun]

10/10 Tied for favorite RPG of all time along with Origins. NOW BRING ON DRAGON AGE 3.

[Siduri]

A lot of people have had very considered, nuanced things to say. I just wanted to drop a quick review to say I just finished the game and thought it was completely amazing. I was blown away. I still feel a bit shellshocked over the ending (I too was romancing Anders)...but in a good way. It was a wrenching, heartbreaking story. I really think DA2 has replaced Planescape and KOTOR at the top of my list of best games ever.

[mscotch]

Quick review

Positives:

The graphics were great, especially with the high-res textures patch. Also customizing the character appearance was much improved.

I love how the new rogue class plays. Definitely feels more like a rogue.

The fact that the main character has a voice made the conversation system much more engaging.

I found most of the characters were interesting. I had Isabella, Merill and Aveline in my group most of the time and their banter was entertaining. I found the individual conversations with them were well-written as well.

Bethany and the mother were also well developed. The quest for the mother was very compelling.

I liked the story for the most part.

Negatives:

Definitely wasn't enough variety in the locations. The city looked nice but it would have nice if there were more buildings to enter and more people to interact with.

The ending was sort of disappointing. I felt there could have been more choices in how the handle the situations.

Not being able to switch other characters equipment was kind of annoying.

Conclusion:
I enjoyed DA2, despite a few negatives it's still one of the better rpgs I've played recently.

[Doomflame11]

I just beat the game and i gotta say i'm dissapointed.....First ever for Bioware and me. The game itself is more a prelude to the next. and cut-and-paste environments are just weak. And im not sure if my game glitched or bugged or something; but I went through the entire campaign without recieving the campanions Isabella and Fenris(or whatever his name is). I'm super chapped about that last part....now i'll never no what they were like and i missed out on like 2 hours of content from them....

[Kuolonen]

Well here's my two cents:

Pros:
-Combat feels really meaty, just as promised. This was something I really liked.

-Story was awesome, the Anders "no compromise" -moment was nothing short of epic *fistpump* Viva la Revolution!

-Graphics had a good upgrade.

-The time skip gave a since progression in the game, but there should have been bit a
longer recap with it.

-the choices. This game had just insane amount of choices to make and it felt good when you could see the consequences of your choices. Im just dreading how on earth Bioware will keep these choices on to DA3, since there are a LOT of important choices to make.

-Inventory system. These designated junk really cleans it up but I dont think thre was need to dump the description option from DA:O

Cons:

-The glitches, the bugs. I had the Merrils glitch where shes crying for the massacre of her people before it event happens. Then anders quest to talk to him, he has the golden arrow on top of him but when you try to talk to him he just responds "You will not regret your faith in me". And in the end when Varric tell how companions went their seperate ways, he says "well, except for Isabella" ...I was in romance with Merril , wtih all the sweet eternal love talk before the final battle. This left a really ****ty taste in my mouth at the end

-The companion interaction. Its good to experiment but aside from the aftormentioned bugs, it really wasnt as good as in DA:O

-The feeling that I just played a prologue to something, that might not even exist. A lot of things are left hanging for DA3. Also while story was interesting, it was not as epic as advertised. We only get to see Kirkwall and thats it.

-the ending could have elaborated a little further what happened to evryone. This thing really needs an awekening expansion at the very least.

Now im left waiting for expansions and bug fix updates. Wont play a second playthrough without these.

Modifié par Kuolonen, 13 mars 2011 - 10:24 .

[Cajeb]

-Zevran is alive even though I imported a save where he is dead
-The ending jumped the shark a little bit with all the statues and Meredith soaring like an anime char
-I
sided with the mages but it was hard to justify when I was fighting
abominations and I'm on their side. Seriously wtf Orsino. I side with
you and you turn into a boss and battle me?
-Glitched Achievements for Sebastian
-Why is the DLC for outfits/items so expensive?
-They reused the layouts way too much
-Merril was glitched with her companion stuff
-Fenris never had a companion mission for me
-Anders is only healer
-Why is Bethany/Carver gone for so long? Would have been better to have them around for bonding and reaction to mother's death

I liked the plot, the setting, the time skips, the framed narrative, the characters, and the cameos/references to DA:O. The parts with the Qunari were especially strong.

However, aside from the list above two other things bothered me.

1) Less interaction with the characters than normal
2) I was a mage sympathizer until they were like, "We kidnapped your sister! "

I
mean...here I am trying to support peace and overthrow Meredith and I
go to the templar/mage meeting that is for this, they attack me, and
then I find out they kidnapped my sister.

It was times like those
I felt like the game was on rails so to speak. Also when Hawke gave the
speech. He said way too much stuff without a wheel choice in this game.
I would have preferred if we did the speech a'la Mass Effect where I
still choose

Overall, I thought that Hawke was a poor VA and the wheel was too ambiguous. I was never sure what Hawke was actually going to say with the wheel.

Great game though

[jabajack]

 

• The graphics have been vastly improved from giving the game a crisp and orignal look. I found that when playing the game on certain TVs that during cutscenes characters tend to shrink/flick.
  
• Combat feels alot more satisfying. though one minor issue is with the 'horde' when new enemies arrived. Once or twice i found i had to play hide and seek with one enemy who had got stuck in a wall/door when they spawned.
  
• Picking class talents I wanted was alot easier than in origins though it was frustrating when i couldn't pick the next talent simply because i had to have opened up more of that spec.

• Characters are alot more solid in their motives and beleifs (not that they weren't in DAO). I was affected by the fate of the Hawke family though i did feel cheated when you loose your surviving sibling not matter what. It completely removed a whole characters not only from gameplay but also from interaction. Bar from a letter we don't hear or speak to them at all until end game, I would have expected Bethany to have made an attempt to get out of the Circle to talk to Hawke in regards to their mother (I'm basing this from Bethany, not sure what happens to carver).  

• I have to say the story and development of the world is truly amazing, Dragon Age does feels like an entire world not just a series of locations for Hawke. The underlying questions of what is right/wrong made the story richer. Of course i love the mystery of the the disappernce of Hawke and the Warden (allows for great speculation)

    
Overall i loved DA2 and i wonder what Bioware has planned for the story in the future

[Grahagogilala]

Well here are my opinions on DA2;                                minor       ******SPOILERS******
First of all I would like to say that I was very doubtful of how I would like the game after having played the demo. My number one concern was the new flashier look of combat. After having played the game through (took me 28h, did most of the side quests found, followed mages) I can say that my fears were confirmed, and more.

The word to best decribe my feeling towards DA2 would be disappointed, not incredibly much so, but still disappointed.
The reasons for this fall in one of either two categories: New artstyle or lack of variation.

First the new artstyle, in short I do not like the flashy jumping around like crazy and blood spraying everywhere look of it. It reminds me too much of JRPGs, which I really do not like. The best example of this would be the ending if siding with the mages. Both the horrible recycling of an old enemy to fill in an end boss (First Enchanter suddenly becoming the harvester) and the theme of mage desperation (more on that later) and the jumping around, making statues come to life and hovering around instead of moving, and all of this because of some sword...  (Meredith)

The second thing which I did not like was the repetetive themes and locations. The theme which I am talking about was the desperation of the mages and the following daemon possession. A game of nearly 30h length does make it feel boring after a while.
Also the reusage of the same cave, warehouse, noble estate, thaig etc. just giving us different pieces of it removed everything which might be called exploration for me.

These two reasons and some other minor ones leave me in a position of probably not buying anymore games in the Dragon Age franchise, which I feel bad about since DA:O was such a great game in my book.

(just to be a little bit positive I'll mention that I did like the compainions interacting with eachother more, a very well voiced protagonist, giving us more than two choices in most important decisions, and a fun (albeit ugly) combat)

//A sad Grahagogilala, who will now play some other RPG

[magnuskn]

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

The good things:

- Voiced Hawke was a much more emotionally engaging main character than the Warden.
- Some of the party banter was hilarious and most of it gave good insights into the companions.
- Combat felt very responsive.
- Some major emotional moments in the game. Especially when Anders betrays you.
- Overall satisfying cameos and callbacks to the first game.
- The story of Thedas was advanced significantly.
- New Quanari models look bad-ass. Makes one wonder if Sten isn't a "real" Quanari, though, as he does not have horns.
- The game made me make some decisions I would normally not make, like killing that woman who mind-controlled Hawke and the entire party. I really appreciate that sometimes choices are hard.
- The cutscenes of your companions sometimes talking to each other and doing things together. That was one things missing from DA:O or ME1/2.

The bad things:

- The new darkspawn models look extremely bad. Very much LOTR ork-ified. Please go back to the old models for DA3.
- The new elf models also did not improve the race. It brought out that they are a different race, though. For some reason, Zevran mostly looked the same as before, though. Interesting.
- Alistair looked horrible. Just absolutely horrendous. Please, someone, re-skin him to his old model.
- Dungeons and locations were re-used way too much.
- The constant "three waves of enemies" fights got tiring very fast and took up way too much time of the game.
- Overall the story felt disjointed. The time-jumps, however, weren't really felt as much as one would like. Two jumps of three years and it felt as if nothing had happened in that time? Not really well done.
- Enchanter Orisini turning into a blood magic abomination out of nowhere in the final stretch of the game. It felt really out of place.
- Some major bugs, dealing with flags from the last game ( Architect always alive, Leliana isn't with the Warden, who is her lover ) , companion  delopments in this game ( Merril! ) and, finally, some of the epilogue dialogue ( WTF, why did Isabella stay with Hawke but not Merril, who was the romantic interest?!? ). Please fix those!
- Only one companion who stays with you throughout the game, Anders, can heal. If you don't want to use that character, you either got to make a mage yourself or rely on healing potions, which got a really long, shared cooldown. And given how Anders story turns out, making him the only healer was an extremely bad choice.
- On a personal note: The game was a bit too much of the "You lose, whatever you do" variety. Hard choices, yes, but they should not all be bad choices.
- Romances were very shallow in comparison to DA:O or Mass Effect 2.
- The loss of freedom to have a conversation with your companions anytime you want in party camp. Only getting the option to talk to them sometimes in their house was a definite step down from DA:O or ME2. I'd really hope that BioWare isn't following this trend to dumb down options in their next games.

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

Modifié par magnuskn, 14 mars 2011 - 01:58 .

[punkass]

Problems:

Isabellas rune slot is unlocked so late in the game, I couldn't even get her in my party anymore (useless item - the upgrade to runeslots). Either she has ran off because I sided with Aveline or she ran off with the relic.

Fenris' runeslot is also unlocked so late in the game, theres like 5 quests tops left to do. Would be nice if these upgrades could be found around the world at lvl 10-15, not lvl 19-20.

Black Emporium: Useless
The gear is outdated when I reached lvl 13 (first time I went there). I noticed the inventory updated later but it was too late, too little and most importantly, too expensive. 100+ gold? Never had on me, EVER. Only useful thing was the skill + attribute reset potion. To try a different build.

Warriors:
Upgrade the damage they do, seriously. My warrior hits for 50 while rest of my party does 200-500 damage. Yes, it is a tank but does my tank have to fight with a toothpick? And that is with a tanky dps build (no, not reaver or berserker).
Pure tank would be 30-40% less dps...hitting for 25-30 damage? Get real. I've heard of meatshield but this is ridiculous.

Can't think of anything else right now. Hoping to see lots more content coming our way, I'm addicted =). Played thru the campaign 2 times in a row now =). Great game!

EDIT: As post above says, it is either go with Anders or health pots and I did the health potion-thing on 2nd playthrough...Well, Bethany joined me for the last fight but still...more healer mages needed, considering Anders does what he does and Bethany leaves party one way or another early in the game (grey wardens or circle).

Re-used interiors (areas): Too much of this. What is there? Roughly 2!!!!! different cave-setups?
Make better tools if it takes so long to make a simple cave. Even DA:O used same areas extensively, especially in the DLCs. It just gets boring seeing the same place for the 100th time.
"Remember that dragon we killed here? The elfs that danced? The mushrooms we found?" Yup, ALL in same 4m x 4m freaking cave!

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

[Tamcia]

I was writing lond text but hit "back" on my mouse so lost all text Will try to write in short this time. 

Hawke didn't feel like my character, but a companion in DA:O, had no connection to him. 

Dialogue wheel - bad!!!! Bring back DA:O. Also drop voiced main character. I liked DA:O, I liked KOTOR style - please, let me read those longer lines that are in depth, not the short replies from him - when he talks his mood changes with every line. It was ind epth responses, now it just makes me want to cry. Don't take ME features just ebcaus eit worked on that game - diversify! Please.

Don't make the game more shallow. Too often I heard - "we want players not to spend time on something xxx, but rahter focus on "important" stuff. Many drops simplified stuff and it was crap. I want to have options and choices and stuff to do. Its fine what you did with crafting for example, but so many things felt dumped down. Again dialogue wheel - so shallow now. 

Combat - too hack and slash. I want Old school stuff, not God of War Enemies spawning on top of me ruins immersion. So many enemies and so many "explode" into meat - killing blows were fun in DA:O now it's ridiculous, everyone is chopped into pieces. Warrior was boring - lacked active abilities. 

Locations - copy/paste? Seriously what happened? So many places are the same thing just with closed/opened entrances. So boring. ACt 1 2 3 - go to the cast and its the same and I have to go there over and over and every time explore the map. No random encounters? Felt like I wasn't travelling. AS action took place in the same locaiton, it felt like I'm an errand boy, running ofrth and back in the same place over and over and over. Also Fenris house as an example - the dead bodies of servants stayed there for years... Also in the world - corpses and bones left and right. In abandoned dungoens, because of the same zones, in an abandodned cave you find a desk with a burning candle and food, yet no people near the place - yeah......

Kirkwall - felt so small. Felt like 100 people lived there. Didn't feel connection between lowtown, hightown, unlike for example Orzimmar. Randomly walking NPC and  chatting didn't add "liveliness" to it for me. Didn't feel like it was "my" city as in Awakening my Keep - it was MY home. Kirkwall felt smaller then Denerim. 

Companions - no random chatting with them to learn about them - again ME influence? Why? I loved it in DA:O - was super awesome, now I go their homes and they say 1 line... Yeah during quests they talked more, but it felt so shallow I liked the additional scenes of companions talking with each other before Hawke walks in. I liked camp over them spread out so much. Romances - so you get a short scene, what then? Nothing... Sure Hawke and Isabella sailing somewhere but Varic told that in the end...

Hawke - no connection with him. The story felt like stuff was just happening, there was NO rise for power, he was just some random guy at right time in right place with some ambition. Again - don't voice next character, I liked DA:O - voicing added nothing for me, but removed a lot. His options often felt forced - do this or that, in the end it turns out the same anyway... He gets a  new house and suddenly hes famous... Dwarf commoner story in DA:O was better, Human noble was better. 

Overall story - not driven by it, rather pulled into it. Felt uninvolving and forced upon me. No real options for me, just an illusion of choice. Many of the outcomes are very bad in the game, felt depressing, not like in DA:O - basically Hawke made a mess in Kirkwall and left, going back to square 1... 

DA:O choices from save import didn't make any influence, so I imagine DA2 will have only some random dialogue lines as reference. 

Inventory - did not like companions itemization - running around checking vendors for upgrades... Hawke couldn't use 80% of the items dropped. I liked DA:O Book style journal, abilties, items, codex. Hate DA2 approach to this. 

Momsters - Darkspawn terrible. Dragons - make some reason as to why they are there... Cloned monsters everywhere in masses. 

It felt like a game in between DA:O and DA2. 

Awakening>DA2, DA:O > DA2. 
You are killing and RPG - DA2 is not and RPG but something else. Please BW, make next expansion DA3 as DA:O! Don't kill the series for me. DA:O was something awesome, this is not worthy of DA title. Please just PLEASE work as if on DA:O expansion. 

Modifié par Tamcia, 13 mars 2011 - 02:25 .

[Lilunebrium]

/walloftext: On

Let me start by saying that I haven't finished the game yet (I have just reached Act 3), so I imagine this post will get a lot of edits along the way. And I'm quite sure I'm still too high on my excitement while writing this, and will thus inevitably wince at what I'm stating here once a few days have passed.

But so far? Well. Speaking for myself, BioWare has fulfilled all my expectations.

Reading through this thread, there are apparently hordes of players who feel differently, but I'm honestly unable to say with a straight face that this game has disappointed me. Perhaps it's because I focus entirely on a game's story and feel instead of gameplay and -experience. The plot intrigued me right from the start (probably due to all the fangirl squeeing done throughout the months prior to release) and, bearing in mind that I have yet to finish the final act, has managed to suck me right in, without letting me go so far.

The All That Remains questline in particular deserves a mention here. If Mass Effect 2's opening scene got an award for most memorable scene in a game (I'm afraid I forgot the exact name for the award), this questline deserves no less. I might blame the inhumanly late hour of night when I played through it, but I cried like a baby at my Hawke's reaction. (Should I ever meet the one who wrote it, I shall cling to their legs and never let go.)

Which brings me to my next point. I can't begin to describe the relief at discovering all my fears about having a dialogue wheel and a voiced protagonist were unfounded. I feel just as attached to my Hawke, as I felt to my Warden.


Now. While it should be clear at this stage that I'm quite excited, there are still a few eyebrow-furrowing aspects.
   One of them being Anders. I'm a bit confused as to why the decision was made to actually use Anders, but strip away everything that made him what he was in Awakening and overhaul him completely, as opposed to simply introduce a new character. The change in voice actors doesn't really help. While Adam Howden does an impressive job, he has the bad luck of voicing a character in a way that is quite different from fan experience and expectation. I was pleased to see the snark wasn't completely gone, and I still liked Anders, but nevertheless found myself wondering at what caused this change, and how the game would have been with a different character.

Another thing, which has been raised quite a few times, are the recycled areas. I'm to understand that the designers didn't have enough time to create more diverse stages, though, so while it is an annoyance, it is hardly a big one. Let it be clear that I mean the areas used in side quests, such as caves or mines, and not the fact the majority of the game takes place in Kirkwall.

Which actually brings me to another positive point; the fact the game mainly takes place in one city, works quite well for me. It feels quite a bit more realistic than the whole "Travel to point X on a land map to do that, travel to point Y on the land map to do this, then travel to point A for the endgame". While that fit Origins and Awakening, it would hardly feel right for Dragon Age 2.

Another wonderful, and perhaps the best part, is the general vibe of the game. I've experienced it (particularly referencing the design of the areas) as quite fitting for a story such as this one. I'm particularly pleased at this, considering I was quite annoyed at how light and bright Origins looked, which for me undermined the dark feel of the plotline.

All in all, Dragon Age 2 is already one of my most cherished games.
Now excuse me as I sprint back to my dark and gloomy lair previously known as my bedroom to finish the game.

Thank you, BioWare.

/walloftext: Off

Modifié par Lilunebrium, 13 mars 2011 - 02:39 .

[QwibQwib]

Dislikes:
~ Game is too short, not enough quests and content.
~ exiled prince didn't feel like a dlc, what happened bioware? You gave pretty long and awesome dlc in origins

[Revakeane]

Few other things that occurred to me on second playthrough:

The new inventory system is slightly frustrating: I preferred the greater flexibility of the original system, where you could outfit your warrior and rogue with similar equipment and armor. It gave each item more value, and I didn't have to constantly check every value all the time. The inventory junk thing was also somewhat annoying... it kept filling my inventory with non-essential and virtually worthless items. I would prefer more useful items to be dropped... weapons, armor, potions, runes even... make looting more appealing please.

Also, in DAO, you got through travel throughout the whole of Ferelden. You could travel to areas that differed aesthetically and culturally. Each area had its very distinctive flavor, and it really enhanced my experience of the game. DA2 on the other hand, is just Kirkwall and the surrounding areas. Kirkwall didn't really feel that much different from Denerim; the people spoke in similar accents, dressed similarly, and didn't really have a really unique or distinctive culture (none that I could see anyway) besides the aura of fear engendered by the Templar-Mage conflict. Besides the dalish camp (which as we were already exposed to in DAO and full of unfriendly elves), didn't really have that much of a refreshing or engaging impression it did in DAO. More flavors please! Expose to the variety of societies, towns, villages and cultures of Thedas.

I really appreciate that Bioware tried out something new with the framed narrative. It made things interesting and put a unique spin on RPGs... but it made me feel detached from Hawke. I think I mentioned this before, but I didn't realize how much I missed the feeling of identification with my Warden... the feeling of responsibility, that the character was MINE. Hawke, awesome as he is, is not MINE. He is constantly put in situations where the outcome is beyond his control despite the illusion of control (Leandra's death, Siblings' death/alienation Templar-Mage conflict, Anders' terrorist act). I understand that some quests have to be inflexible based on plot considerations, but the frequency of these repetitions was somewhat depressing. I don't want to get into the whole concept of choice in RPGs or whatever, but the feeling of responsibility, power and control was integral to my identification with the Warden. With him you felt you could bend the reality of Thedas and make everyone happy at the end... With Hawke, everything seems so far outside his control... Championship is overrated.

I was really happy in my original review, so this negative stuff balances it out