1012 réponses à ce sujet

[efrgfhnm_]

The graphics in this game were a huge improvement over the original, especially the character models, which I thought did a lot more justice to the characters and the city.
The combat was incredible, it makes the fights far more enjoyable and just amazing to watch in action, even if it annoyed me a bit that most of the abilities couldn't be unlocked.
The characters are on the whole good, Isabela and Varric are the two highlights for me, they were very entertaining and I actually cared about them. In all honesty though, the cast was not as universally involving as Origins, although that could just be because you could talk to people at camp, so now the people you don't take with you you don't really get to know.
The story was my major gripe with the game, mainly because it was so strong in Origins, and the bad guy in that game was believable and also intimidating. In this game I really enjoyed the Arishok as a villain, I respected him as a character and enjoyed the plot with him. However, the 3 year gaps between the Acts didn't really make much sense to me, they seemed unnecessary and just made the story seem evn more disjointed
After that it felt disjointed, as the Meredith revelation had no set up, the fight with Orsino makes no sense if you sided with the mages, and the ending was incredibly dissapointing. Especially the part about alll the companions ditching him. Cliffhangers bug me usually, but this one is even more vague then usual, and therefore annoyed me even more.
I didn't really mind the recycling of caves, in fact most of the remaining little nitpicks I had with the game don't matter compared to the issue with story .
One thing I forgot to mention was the soundtrack, which I thought was great in this game, much less run of the mill and just stood out to me.
Sorry if I've ranted, just my thoughts
And I also forogt to give a final summary, which I probably should haha, which is that this was an incredible game, I would give it a 9 out of 10 despite the poor story, because of the companions and gameplay. I probably prefer it to Origins, but that would get a better score from me. Also not as good as the Mass Effects and Kotor, but better then JE. Never played Baldurs Gate 1 or 2 unfortunately so can't compare

Modifié par efrgfhnm , 13 mars 2011 - 07:56 .

[Bachmors]

Combat

Overall, I really like the changes. The better responsiveness and the faster pace. In DA:O, the fights were a bit too slow. Now I look forward to every fight, simply because it's fun.

The new specialization-system is also a great improvement in my opinion. You really have to think now, before you put points into a tree.

Some things need improvement though: Enemies shouldn't explode just by looking at them. When fighting them in melee heads and limbs should fly away. When fighting them with magic, they should drop to the ground burning, wither (when finished off with an entropy-spell), fly about 50 feet through the air or explode (when hit with a force-mage spell). When fighting the enemies with ranged or melee weapons they should NEVER explode, because that reduces immersion.
One more thing that needs to go: The waves of enemies coming out of nowhere. This really hurts the feeling of realism in the game.

The endboss, Meredith, is just too much ... it reminds of Final Fantasy or MMO bosses and I don't mean this in a positive way. She jumps sky-high, is nearly invincible, gives life to metal-statues ... all because of a lyrium-sword?

Closing attacks: Yes, the "shuffling" in DA:O was annoying, but that doesn't mean you have to throw realism completely overboard. Why not just make warriors and rogues run very fast at the enemy. I mean really fast, but you still see the running. But just teleporting or jumping across the whole battlefield is just too much.

And last but not least: Why did you remove the free camera? It was a great tool, so why did you take it away?

Story + Characters

Nothing much too say about the story. I really liked it. Especially the part of the White-lily-killer and Leandra ... please more of that!

Some of the characters play in the same league as the DA:O characters (Varric, Merril, Aveline).

World

This is the achilles' tendon of the game. When I saw the exact same dungeon the second time, I thought: "Ok, I can live with that.". But when I ran around in the same dungeon the 3rd and 4th time I just thought: "WTF?!!". This is really a no-go and can't be justified by anything. Seriously ... the repetition of places in this game is just horrible. Dungeons, caves, warehouses ... everything looks the same.

I really like the new design of the races. The qunari look just awesome (the arishok is really intimidating awe-inspiring) and the elves now look different enough to separate them from the humans. The darkspawn would also look great, if they didn't run like monkeys on drugs.

One minor thing: There isn't enough money in this game. Why don't I get anything from the mine I own, or why don't I start with a little fortune at the beginning of Act 2? How am I supposed to buy a staff for 150g?

Conclusion

I would give the game a 7,5-8/10. It would be a 9,5/10, if there weren't the listed bad design decisions.

Modifié par Bachmors, 14 mars 2011 - 09:46 .

[Stormghost]

I just completed the game a few minutes ago - felt I should post my thoughts on it on here.  I'm not going to write a full review on the game, but just give my general impressions of it.

Firstly, wow.  I really enjoyed this - probably as much as Origins (which is a big compliment from me).  I was always a bit skeptical about the character of Hawke, as one of the main things I enjoyed about Origins was the creation of our own character, but the storyline of Hawke's family more than made up for this.

I also loved the little references to Origins that popped up - especially when I saw Alistair drowning his sorrows in the pub, and when we get a glimpse of Leliana at the end.  For me all the choices seemed to import correctly, at least as far as I noticed.

A few negative points...  Firstly, the game froze a few times for me (I play on PS3, if that's relevant).  This meant I had to repeat short sections, but luckily the frequent autosaves made this less of an issue than it could've been.  Secondly, the romance system (and the companion conversation system in general) I did not like.  The way we have to wait for certain points in the story to have discussions with the characters, and the way they're spread out in diffferent locations meant I found it harder to develop relationships (friendly or romantic) with the characters, especially when compared to the camp in Origins.  I think the new 'conversation wheel' system had a part to play in this - I would rather know exactly what my character is going to say.  I also managed to completely miss the side-quest that leads to getting Fenris...  Maybe that's my fault for not doing all the side-quests, but it was a shame I didn't get to meet the companion I was most excited about meeting!  My last negative is the redesign of the elves.  I understand you were criticised a lot for the Origins elves being 'humans with pointy ears' but I think you went a little to far with the elves in DA2.  They look like characters from A Bug's Life with human flesh stretched over them.

With the negatives out of the way, here are some of the many positives...  The redesign of the Qunari is excellent.  Much more appropriate look for their reputation.  I love how the Qun was expanded on too.  I also, as mentioned previously, liked all the little references to Origins and Awakening.  I liked the character creator - it seemed to create a more realistic character than the Origins one did, but that's just my impression.  I enjoyed the letter system - especially when I got the letter parodying 419 scams - absolutely hilarious.  I loved how sometimes the gameplay reflected Varric's exaggerations - like when you invade his brother's mansion, you first play as Varric alone taking on all the guards single-handedly.  I must also say I very much enjoyed the story in general.  It goes far away enough from the traditional Origins-style saving the world story to be unique, but still portrays Hawke as having a real impact - all over Thedas.

Overall, I loved the game.  It's one of those games that, after I finish completing it, I think to myself 'I wish I lived in the world of that story' - much like after reading a good fantasy book.  And that's exactly what I expect of a game like this.  If I was to give it a score out of 10, I'd give it a strong 9.  So thanks to the devs for making another great game. :happy:

[Lord Atlia]

What needs to be completely reworked:
Instances: Your dungeons all look the same. Their mini maps all look the same despite corridors being cut off. After ME2s mostly unique areas I find this completely unacceptable. Smaller quests could get away with this but any larger quest chain can't. In my opinion I would have fewer quests that are more unique visually.

What needs improvement:
The Trinity: I know many people will disagree here but I am a strong supporter of the trinity of tank, healer, dps. Tanks need more abilities to generate threat such as a single target high threat ability, multiple target high threat ability, single target taunt, in addition to their taunt ability. All mages should have access to a healing tree and this tree needs more than just heal, it needs a hot, a multiple target heal, and maybe a multiple target hot at least.

The Talent Trees: People will disagree here also but I found these to be a mess but better than DA:O. I would much prefer 2-4 trees per class that are more developed. Also more passive abilities should be added to the talent trees.

The Investigate option: I would rather the investigate option be just a single option that would trigger a back and forth between PC and NPC asking and getting answered questions that flowed better as opposed to choosing the questions that are asked.

What I would enjoy if it was scrapped:
Specializations: Both PC and NPC specializations in my opinion should be scrapped because it adds bloat to trees that are already unfocused in my opinion and because NPC specializations cause characters to become the healer character or the tank character. Aveline and Anders should have no advantage over Fenris or Merrill when it comes to the trinity. I want to be able to adventure with who I want without being slightly or severely crippled.

What worked:
Party Banter: A+, needs nothing else

Companions and their respective stories: B+, good, very good, not as good as ME2 but that whole game was vested in requirement/loyalty quests. Actually come to think of it my favorite quests are companion quests. I would like these to be throughout the game and more developed than just a whole bunch of random quests.

Modifié par Lord Atlia, 13 mars 2011 - 08:58 .

[jcapellman]

Just beat Dragon Age II so here are my thoughts and just as an FYI, I did not read any reviews from the Media or fellow Dragon Age II players so this is entirely unbiased aside from my background since I am a Senior Software Developer (I sympathize with the much shorter development cycle).

First off I really enjoyed it, definitely the best game since Mass Effect 2 came out last January. However, there were somethings that I really thought took a step down from Origins.

A few major things I had issues with:

The fact you only go between 2 locations (with the exception of the Deep Roads expedition). During ACT I which took me about 12.5 hours to complete every quest, I didn't get tired of it one bit. But I have admit I expected it to open the world up a bit in ACT II and III. I know the development time for Dragon Age II was a lot less than Dragon Age I so I didn't expect a huge Origins/Mass Effect area to explore, but even so it was something I have come to enjoy from Bioware games since SW:KOTR.

A second major issue I had is with the in-ability to interact with your companions like in Origins. I could tell the designers took a bit from the Mass Effect 2 design of you have to go to where they live and speak to them, as opposed to Origins where you could freely talk at the Camp, but I think by limiting the dialogue as much as the designers did it hurt my ability to get attached to my companions like I have in other Bioware games. So please next time around do at least what we were able to do in Mass Effect 2, because frankly I didn't really care about any of my companions whereas in Mass Effect 1 & 2 and Origins I really did care when I would incur negative feedback to decisions I had made. As a result of my lack of compassion for them, in the third ACT when you get another round of companion quests, I only did one or two.


A third major issue I had with it was with specific times items would be available without any warning. I didn't realize until the 3rd Act that I had missed out on some of the items to give my companions fully upgraded armor. The only reason I even found out was from reading the game guide this morning. I pride myself of being very thorough when playing, it took in total 30 hours to beat the game, 12.5 for the first, 10 for the second and just shy of 8 for the third. So to not get certain things was disappointing.

In addition, some of the quests only being available during an ACT I thought was kind of disappointing as well. There were certain quest items, namely the books you collect that I was literally walking up to grab when the cut-scene to end the ACT was beginning (specifically I think it was at the end of ACT II in the Chantry with the Grand Cleric and Sebastian).

There were a few other little things that I didn't like:
-Music score was very limited in comparison to Origins and even more so than Mass Effect

-Abrupt ending, what happened with me and Isabella (she was the one I romanced with)? We had talked about setting sail after everything was done with. The only mention in the ending was that she stayed behind. I know by keeping it abrupt it leaves the door open for more DLC/Expansion Packs, but I would have preferred a little more of an ending.

So now with the things I liked:

-Dialogue system is much better. I like that the guessing of how it would be interpretted is gone now. There was nothing like saying something I thought was nice be turned into a really bad statement. The icons were a nice addition.

-The graphics are much improved, it was very pleasant surprise to see more detailed textures, architecture and better lighting. The player models seemed to have been improved as well, but I may be mistaken.

-The quests seemed to be more varied, which I really enjoyed. This really helped make the fact that you're basically in Kirkwall the entire time much more enjoyable. If it had been the same delivery question every time, I would have simply kept to the main plot points as opposed to finishing nearly every quest (save for maybe 10, most of which were the companion quests in the third ACT).

-Cinematic presentation, rather than the plain over the shoulder or wide static "tripod" shots in the cutscenes, I was very pleased with the interesting angles and the camera virtually always moving. It wasn't overdone, just perfect. Two thumbs up for whomever was responsible for that change.

So overall, like I said in beginning of this review, it's definitely the best game I've played since Mass Effect 2 last January. To give examples of some of the other games I've purchased and played since January 2010: Fable III, Fallout: Vegas, Force Unleashed II, Dead Rising II, Enslaved, Mafia II, Marvel Vs Capcom III, Starcraft II. I play a lot of different genres and certainly enjoyed some of those, but nothing quite to the point where I gladly sat in front of the TV for 8 hours straight (I took Wednesday off) and probably longer had my wife not gotten home That level of dedication I've only ever gotten from a few games since I started playing computer games religiously 16 years ago.

If there was one thing I could wish for (since time travel can't fix the issues I had with Dragon Age II) is truly engrossing DLC or an expansion to complement the great game Bioware put together. The last couple DLCs for Mass Effect 2 were really well done, I hope that level can be duplicated for Dragon Age II. Thanks Bioware for another great game, keep them coming.

[Luka Anduril]

My two cents...

I'll start off by saying that I am a huge Bioware fan, KOTOR, ME1 and 2, DA:O, I loved them all. And I really did enjoy playing DAII, it was ultimately quite dissapointing however.

I'll start with the improvements over DA:O...

- combat is greatly improved and much more fun, DA:O combat seems pretty boring in comparison

- better graphics - textures were greatly improved, which is much appreciated!

- voiced main character adds more emotion to conversations

- dialogue wheel is much better than lines of text

- a chest for storage!

Honestly, the main problem with DAII is how linear the story is. I enjoyed playing DAII, as an action adventure game with RPG elements thrown in it was a fun game, but as a Bioware RPG where ones decisions matter it was a complete failure. Dialogue really doesn't provide one with any decision making ability, you pretty much just choose whether to be nice, or funny, or a jerk. There are no intimidate or persuade skills to invest in, no way to pull people to your point of view. There are pretty well no major decisions that you get to make. In DA:O you determined the fate of a Dalish clan, choose the successor to the throne of Orzamar, you decided the future of the circle of mages.... for goodness sake, you decided who would rule over all of Ferelden! In DAII you don't even get to decide who rules the city! There are almost no decisions to be made in the game, and the decisions that you do make have pretty well no affect whatsoever. For example, I played a character sympathetic to mages. I helped Thrask, kept his secret, helped the mages in the cave, publicly supported mages, etc. etc. I was a known mage sympathiser and the Templars hated me for it. So far so good right, I made a decision and it's have an effect. But no, I hear from the head of the circle about some meetings, I go to investigate and discover templars working with mages. Awesome, a joint rebellion against Meredith, awesome! I'll join in, lead them to victory, and become viscount, sweet! Not so, they attacked me, and others after them attacked me, and so on and so on until I finally found Thrask. Finally we can stop this retarded fighting and work together, we want the same thing for goodness sake. Again, not the case, the lady mage I rescued early went insane and started another fight. Everything just seemed really forced. I couldn't do anything but stand arround and watch everything unravel arround me. The Champion of Kirkwall? A rise to power? Those are things to get excited about.... but you never get any power at all. All that happens is you get a useless title, and stand between Meredith and the mages bickering, saying, um excuse me, can we please stop arguing? Oh, and maybe make me viscount? No, you don't like that idea? Oh, ok then, I'll just stand over here then and listen to you. The whole thing is just extremely dissapointing and frustrating. And the ending, I get it, great battle, epic boss fight, ok, cool, but things turn out exactly the same no matter whether you sided with the mages or the templars! So what is the point? Hawke may as well have never existed for all the affect he had. I really wanted to become viscount, I wanted to reason with the two sides and bring them to a peaceful solution, then rule over Kirkwall for a couple years and watch it prosper. Failing that, I wanted to go off and be a pirate with Isabella, that didn't happen either though. It was also way to short. I beat it in about 35 hours, and thats with doing all of the side quests and everything, about half the length of DA:O. The whole thing just seemed really rushed, it seemed as though it was designed to be something that could be developed and rushed to production as quickly as possible. As a action adventure game DAII is fun. As a second expansion to DA:O, like awakening, Hawke's story would have been awesome. But as it's own game it's just too short. And the environments get so boring, it's just the same places over and over again. Kirkwall, the beach, the moutains, and that's pretty well it. In DA:O we had the Dalish forest, Orzammar and the Deep Roads, we had Denerim, Redcliffe and the Mages Circle. I love your games Bioware, I really do, and I have always trusted that you will keep up your commitment to quality. But how could you follow up DA:O this way? The Awakening expansion had more choice, more impact from one's decisions, and more varied environments than DAII did. I really enjoy the Dragon Age world... but I am now deeply worried for DAIII. And Mass Effect 3, and SWTOR for that matter. Is EA to blame for this? Normally I play your games over and over again, but there isn't really any point with DAII because no matter what, your decisions don't affect anything. I understand that pandering to the console crowd is good for business, but don't forget about your PC fanbase in the process. There is nothing for me to do now but wait for The Witcher 2 and Skyrim. I really want to play DAIII, and I think it has great potention, what with the mages and templars going at eachother and everything. But please return to focusing on story, and choices, and consequences. My favourate skill in RPG's has always been the persuade skill. I play video games because it's fun to have things my way, to shape the world arround me, to make decisions and be in charge, in control. In DAIII, please don't let the main character be what is essentially a ineffective bystander as in DAII, please put the player back in charge of the path the story takes.

Also, DAII was marketed as a game really focused on evolving relationships with other characters, but the companion system is less interactive than Origins. In DAII, trying to talk to a companion, unless it is for a quest, just results in a single line of dialogue, like every other NPC in the world, which was also quite dissapointing.

Modifié par Luka Anduril, 13 mars 2011 - 09:20 .

[Valus]

I could make a wall of text but I'll just give a synopsis.

8 out of 10. Bioware loses 2 points for recycled content. Obviously something we (along with critics) were very vocal about in DA:O DLCs. Something Bioware knew we hated yet still managed to incorporate as an overwhelming part of DA2.

To accidentally create a bad piece of gaming is one thing and totally understandable. To know full well what you are doing wrong yet not only do it, but do it more often than we have ever seen, is ridiculous.

Everything else about the game is wonderful. On par, and in some ways, surpasses what I expected. I just can't get over the recycled content. Not even worth playing a second time as much as I love the story and characters.

[AloraKast]

Now that I've finished the game, I can post my final thoughts here.

- The ending was... lackluster, rather sudden, it simply left me dangling over a very deep precipice, as well as it simply left me with many, many questions and very few answers. There was no opportunity to catch up with my party members, no chance to see what the future holds for my companions as well as my love interest. It simply.. ended and suddenly at that. *sigh* I wonder, will we ever learn the answers to the questions posed here, in Dragon Age 2, as well those that we were left with in Witch Hunt?

- With respect to my love interest (in this case, Fenris), all I got was the short dialogue in the Gallows (I sided with the mages) and a couple of words from Varric, suggesting that Fenris was the only one that stayed by Hawke's side. It would have been wonderful if we got a little bit more ellaboration on that... Perhaps one final encounter with my love interest before the final confrontation, I don't know, something would have been rather nice. Again, it all felt rather suddently cut off.

- The game, now that I've finished it, felt even more linear and restrictive than before. I did not particularly enjoy what choices I was faced with at the end of Acts 2 and 3... I am left with the impression that these "choices" were simply illusion and that I was being steered by the reins, I didn't experience that freedom I did in Origins. For example, the Qunari forced my hand, my only real choice was whether I faced the Arishok in a one on one duel or kill all of the Qunari with the help of my party. No matter what I tried, I simply couldn not go with what I wished I could do. Also Anders's actions (I stil don't condone what he did)... Anders also forced my hand and I simply hate this feeling of being backed into a corned and be forced to pick a side. It all felt so wrong, just pick something, and hope you are picking the lesser of the two evils. It felt very different in Origins, my goal was clear from the get go, I had to stop the Blight... and I definitely felt I had way more freedom than in here.

- On a related note, I am not fond of how practically half my party wasn't available to me. Just before I wanted to set things right with the Qunari and wanted to give them back the book, Isabella just ran off, never to be seen again (sorry, was romancing Fenris). And even though I can understand Sebastian's anger at my choice of sparing Anders after what he's done... well, throughout the whole game, we are being reinforced with the idea that even though our companions disagree with our choices, they still respect us. That was certainly the case with Fenris, had him maxed out Rival, but yet he stayed by my side when I chose to defend the mages. Whereas Sebastian pledged to raise an army against me because I refused to kill an old, old friend (oldest of them all in fact, since I got to him rather well in Awakening AND one that I plan to romance at some point in another playthrough). I just don't get the contradiction... unless because I had Sebastian maxed on Friend.. but no, I still would have refused to kill Anders, despite what he's done (and yes, I was furious with Anders for forcing my hand... don't like it one bit).

- I was not fond of the whole restriction on conversations with my companions. Once I met certain criteria, basically I got a message informing me that a companion was ready to talk to me. That was a bit infuriating, as I was not able to talk with them and get to know them better when I wanted, it had to be on their terms. It was like once I hit Act 2, I had 2 consecutive quests to talk with Fenris and then nothing for what felt like ages. Ok, so let me get through all of these bazillions of repetative quests and see whether at some point you will feel like talking with me. Bah! That doesn't work for me at all. In Origins, it felt that my companions always had time for me when I wanted to talk with them, even if we were talking about things already discussed, or hearing stories already told. The player could set the pace of the conversations and the relationships with the companions and not the other way round.

- Oh, speaking of companions, I felt that my brief interaction with Ketojan, the Qunari Saarebas, was rather splendid, he was such an intriguing character... I suppose he reminded me a bit of Sten and I was immediatelly overcome with a desire to have him in my party and have a chance to get to know him. Ha, can you just imagine the reactions, of the Qunari in general, the Arishok and everyone else when I started hanging out with Ketajan in my party! Ah, that wold have been such a splendid opportunity which was completely missed IMO, as I feel he would have made a great addition to my party. Heh, just imagine the conversations between him and Anders... or him and Fenris! Lols

- I did find it rather strange that basically every singe mage I came across, if pushed far enough, turned to blood magic or became an abomination or whatnot (perhaps it was supposed to illustrate just how desperate things in Kirkwall have become - but it was done in a way that was taken too far and thus made it unbelievable - not sure if I am explaining myself well here). It became rather unbelievable after a while. Yes, I am guessing that a point was trying to be made, perhaps a case for the Chantry and the Templars, but it went a little overboard, IMO, even the First Enchanter himself.. it all became rather unbelievable after a while. If you will recall in Origins, during the Circle quest, some mages did give in but not all of them, and I missed that feeling of my faith in the mages being justified, that mages are people just like you or I, with some of weaker character and with some honorouable and strong in their beliefs. It basically said that everything that Fenris has been saying was true, that every single mage is a danger and should be controlled and not trusted. I always argued with Fenris about that and felt it rather improbable to see it all play out in front of me.

- A few of the quests were bugged, for example, in Act 3 there was a quest to rescue someone in the coast area, but that never triggered for me, despite there being a bandit NPC in one area who I simply couldn't not intereact with. Also, the Questioning Beliefs quest for Merrill I wasn't able to trigger, despite me going to her home. She just said something generic, but the cutscene never initiatied. Also, the quest in Act 2 with Sketch, I was able to complete it but it remained in my active quests log until the end of the act.

- Finally I had some trouble with the conversation wheel, namely the paraphrasing. The text provided sometimes did not reflect what was actually said. I don't know how it works, but for some reason I didn't have this difficulty with the Mass Effect wheel, it was much more clearer and the conversation system in Mass Effect felt natural to me, while in Dragon Age 2, it did not.

- All in all, this game felt linear, restrictive and it definitely felt rushed. I understand having the builds and the lore in place already, but rushing a game out in a year clearly shows in this end product.  It would have benefitted greatly from another year in development IMO. This experience felt more like watching a movie than actually playing an interactive game. I didn't enjoy being restricted, nor did I enjoy being backed into a corner and forced to choose. I felt I had more freedom in Origins. And while Awakening had some bugs and used the conversation system I was not fond of (let's venture deep into a dungeon and click on a rock to get any interaction with my party, instead of being able to get to know them in the safety of the camp when I decided I wanted to talk with them) and while yes, the ending felt a little sudden, perhaps even rushed to me as well... even in Awakening I didn't experience that feeling of being so restricted that I did here.

Final score:
Origins - 9
Awakening - between 7 and 8, just because of the silly conversation system
Dragon Age 2 - 6

[Sonris89]

Likes

Combat

Looks better

Much more interesting main story, Dark spawn are evil stop them blah blah blah was cliche, free walking bombs from opression or join genocidal maniac to preserve society was a much more interesting main story

Expanded on the interesting political landscape of Thedas

Love the charecters and the housing

Dialogue options define Hawkes personality, I really like Hawke, cheesy name and all.

Dislike: alot of unavoidable choices that are made for you, forced to do alot of quests I see no reason to do.

I was a blood mage, it was barely ever mentioned that I killed people by making their blood shoot out of their body at jet velocity. I expect to be feared and hated when becoming a blood mage.

This game was advertised as a rise to power... I bought a house and killed a bunch of people who gave me no choice but to kill them. How is that a rise to power? I expected the game to catch up to Varric telling the story and finish and I don't even become a king over everyone for at least one act? Thats not a rise to power. Thats buying a house and self defense.

This game was much too short. As noted above entire acts could have been added to add closure and an epic feel to the game which would have saved it from alot of flakk it now has to take on the chin.

It makes me question two things, why was the development time so short and why was there day one DLC? is bioware expecting to sell the last part of the game seperatly?

[EmoKittiteh]

Its awesome

[Persona]

I give it a 3 and thats being nice. The game was way to easy, the romance was lame. For a male it was either get with the ho or get with the blood mage. Only way to see the diffrent armor was to play as a warrior/rogue/mage. I played as a warrior and I am not going to play again(cause the game blows) You can already buy it preowned at any ebgames or any other game store. That should tell bioware/ea that it was a epic fail. I will not preorder DAO3 I will buy it preowned for like 20$. I will be waiting for witcher 2 and Elder Scrolls 5 they will not be an epic failure like DAO2 is.

[icMojo]

I'm not going to post 5 miles of text that will just get dumped - so, to sum up:

Score: 2/10

Pro:
For a console game it was pretty good. Like Dark Knight or that ilk.

Con:
It was NOT a Role Playing Game.
It reused the same levels (even when it didn't make sense).
Poor plot design and implementation - Very poor.

[B3owulf0013]

The Good:
-The graphics are definitely improved.  No more brown teeth!  The character models especially are a step up.
-The voice acting stays pretty solid. 
-Improvements to combat, such as the two-handed sword hitting multiple enemies, and rogues being much better at getting around the battlefield and avoiding damage.  The mage switching to melee when engaged by a melee attack is a nice touch too.
-Some new abilities, especially the ones for the rogue.  Now that rogues can confuse and misdirect opponents, they are more useful.
-Isabela was a pleasant surprise.  In DA:O she was just a nasty skank in a ****house that happened to be good at fighting.  DA2 made her into a decent character that was worth having around.  That was quite a feat.
-The new Qunari models are great. 
-The Deep Roads area was very well done.
-Here there be dragons!
-The art when Varric was telling a part of the story that you don't play was really neat.
-The Arishok was an interesting character, and I enjoyed hearing him explain more about how the Qunari think and what their culture is like.  Sten was a bit terse on this point, so it was good to get more information.
-Hawke having a family was really cool.
-The banter between companions during exploration continued to be very enjoyable.
-The two-handed warrior was greatly improved. 
-Coming from an apostate family made all the bickering between templars and mages more relevant.
-The default Hawke character model (both male and female) was excellent.  This is the first time I haven't made a custom character in a Bioware game.
-More options for Rogue armor!  Before all rogue armor looked the same, but if you spent a lot of dough you got--purple! Some of the new designs were awesome. 


Neutral:
-There was nothing wrong with the abilities system in DA:O, and I don't know why it was changed.  Not that the new one is necessarily bad, it was simply a superfluous change.  I prefer the DA:O system, but that may just be me. 
-On the console, it is necessary to tap A about 20,000 times by the end of the game.  I'm hesistant to say its bad, but again, there was nothing really wrong with the auto-attack in DA:O, and having to constantly tap A is a distraction from taking a tactical approach.  It also has the positive effect of making engaging an enemy one-on-one a little more personal though, so its a mixed bag. I guess my feeling is this Dragon Age, not Mass Effect.  Auto-attack in Dragon Age made sense; auto-attack with a fully automatic weapon doesn't.
-Why do enemies constantly explode?  It's not really a negative, but it seems a little silly to hit an enemy with a sword and then watch 'em blow up.  I really miss the finishers from DA:O.  Decapitating a hurlock was sweet; pouncing on an Ogre was totally awesome!; making people blow up is weird.
-Rogues can't use swords now.  It doesn't really affect much, but it was also another pointless change.
-The new Hurlock design is, well, different.  I guess its not bad, but after 60+ hours of fighting Darkspawn, making an unnecessary cosmetic change like this seemed a disservice to veterans of the series.
-I don't like the changes to some spells.  But as this may just be me, I won't call it a detriment.  I loved fireball and cone of cold in DA:O, but thought both were not as good in DA2.  I miss being able to watch the fireball fly at a group of enemies and then explode, knocking them all down.

The Bad:
-The story sucks.  After beating the game, I realized that even if Hawke never came to Kirkwall, its likely the Circle would have rebelled anyways since Meredith was such a tyrant.  I never once felt like I had a real purpose.  Nothing drove the action at all.  In DA:O, the Grey Wardens, just by being Grey Wardens, were very interesting.  And by having all the Wardens in Ferelden killed when Loghain betrayed Cailan, my character became indispensable and the game had real purpose and meaning.  This is mostly lacking in DA2.  Hawke is just some guy that likes to get in trouble (apparently).  To make up for the lack of story, you spend hours and hours fighting random gangs in the street and running errands for random people so you can fight monsters for no particularly good reason.  I never knew why I was I roaming around getting in fights all the time.  It always seemed like none of my business. Apparently Hawke just chilled out at the masion in the time gaps, so why does he all of the sudden need to start fighting everyone?
-Character interaction was pretty shallow, at least compared to other Bioware games.  Instead of in-depth conversations with your party members, every conversation was basically a two minute business transaction.  No real depth.  I kept trying to talk to companions and apparently we had nothing to say. Fail.
-The option to switch weapons has been taken from both the radial menu and the inventory screen.  Now switching weapon types, like from daggers to bow, or sword and shield to two-handed, requires manual change in the inventory every time.  This is clumsy and inefficient.
-Party members can't equip armor.  Epic fail!  What is the point of picking up loot when 95% of it is useless?  
-Armor distinctions are gone.  That is, silverite looked different from Red Steel, which looked different from Dragonbone.  Now it all looks the same.  Its pretty hard not to notice when Red Steel isn't Red.   
-The finale.  Orsino all of the sudden turns to blood magic and becomes a giant monster?  Uh...ok.  Then Meredith has a magic sword and channels her innner Dragon Ball Z?  All the flying around and making giant statues come to life was pretty lame.  Not to mention Meredith's glowing red eyes and the red light streaming from her  and the jumping around was a rip-off of the Saren fight in ME.  The difference being that made sense; this doesn't. Then there was no epilogue.  It all felt very contrived.
-The elves look like the fish people in Ocarina of Time.  This is a time where I would say its good idea to take a cue from LoTR.  Also, why are elves all 5 feet tall and anorexic?
-Aveline.  "A woman shaped battering ram"?  No thanks.  Just make her a man and lose the politically correct angle.  Its the fictional world of Dragon Age, not Europe.
-The dialogue system.  This is another area where Dragon Age got Mass Effected.  I'm not a moron, and I don't need little pictures to tell me what a response means.  Also, in DA:O, if I selected "What was it like growing up in the Korcari Wilds?" then I knew I was saying "What was it like to grow up in the Korcari Wilds?".  Now I might end up saying, "So was it cold in the swamp?" or something like that.  If this is the price of a voiced main character, I would rather go back to a silent protagonist. 
-The Mini-map was really annoying and a distraction.  There should be an option to toggle it off.
-Flemeth looks like an anime character.  The old hag look was more convincing and sinister.
-Zevran was dead in my imported save, and yet he showed up anyways. 
-DLC equipment was all pretty lame.  The Staff of Parthalan, Blood Dragon Armor, etc. looked cool, but all become weak and ineffective pretty quickly.  By comparison, all the special items in DA:O were awesome. 
-The star ratings for equipment is stupid.  I can read you know.  I look at the stats and decide if I want to use it.  Its really simple.
-Rogues are either archers or melee fighters.  Now its necessary to have two Rogues (or play Hawke as a rogue) if you want both skill sets.  Not cool.
-Party members can't specialize now.  Yet another edition of "Dragon Age gets Mass Effected".  Forcing players to use a pre-made specialization seems a bit crass.  I really noticed this lack of flexibility, especially with mages.  Want a Spirit Healer?  Take Anders, or you're out of luck.  Boo.
-Being stuck in Kirkwall!  Aaaaah!  Go to Lowtown.  Now go to Darktown.  Now go to Hightown.  Now go back to Lowtown. Now go to that cave you already went to three times, because apparently there is only one cave in all the Free Marches.  Now go back to Hightown... (bashes head against wall)...  Ugh.
-The ability screen is harder to navigate now.  Before it was all laid out plain as day on one screen.  Now its annoying to have to cycle through mutliple little screens.
-Cool-downs on potions?  Uh...why?  Its a potion.  Pre-made for instant use, you know?
-Limited inventory options.  Ring, Ornate Ring, Neckale, Ornate Necklace, Armor, Superior Armor, etc. That and tons of worthless crap like torn trousers, broken bows, etc.  Who would actually pick this stuff up?  (There was a lot of junk in DA:O too, just not as much).
-Bioware's continued fascination with sexual perversion.  I mean...really?


Conclusion:
DA2 is a solid game that is fun to play, but it is also a definite step down in the Dragon Age series.  Whereas the Awakenings expansion took the best parts of DA:O gameplay and improved on them (though the story was a little weak in Awakenings), this game throws out too much good stuff and makes too many big changes.  The bottom line is RPGs are about story, and this game has no compelling story.  There is no clear antagonist, no real reason to fight, and no real feeling of how this is a Dragon Age game.  I kept wondering "Why am I doing this?" the whole game (after I reached Kirkwall). I haven't played much in the way of open world sanbox type games, but that is what DA2 reminded me of.  Instead of the Champion of Kirkwall, I felt like the Busybody Errand Boy of Kirkwall.  I was really excited about another Dragon Age game, but I was (mostly) let down.  I think this game would've have worked better if it was half as long and an expansion pack.

The best part of the whole game for me was the surprise visit by Alistair.

I've been hooked on Bioware games since I played ME.  Then I played DA:O, and that is my favorite game of all time.  ME2 was a lot of fun too.  So whatever comes next, I'll play it (and thats a ME2 DLC by the sound of it), but Bioware has set the bar so high, I can't really like DA2 that much--I know they can do better! 

Fainlly, I feel like this game was not made for DA:O veterans, but an attempt to make an RPG for people who don't like RPGs.  DA:O was a huge success because it gave RPG gamers just what they wanted.  This game is so dumbed down in so many ways (button-mashing, pictures so you don't even need to read responses you can just look at pretty colors, star ratings for armor, exploding enemies, limited inventory, short and to the point conversations with party members, etc) it almost feels like EA is saying screw RPG gamers, the money is with casual/action gamers.  The thing is people who like mindless action games aren't the kind of people who invest 60+ hours into a complex story with tactical gameplay.  I guess we'll have to see how the game does financially before we'll know how DA3 will be.

Modifié par B3owulf0013, 17 mars 2011 - 10:30 .

[tallon1982]

Likes -

I liked the idea of the storyline that was being put forward here and to be honest I could see this coming considering things that happened in Origins in regards to the Circle questline and then with Anders in Awakening in how he 'jokes' about the Circle as well as his escapes. In all honesty I could figure out where this was going. The revolution is a nice touch but I do have a few problems with it that will be expanded upon later.

The other things I liked were the upgrade to the graphics and combat system. It was more fun for me. Just had one little gripe with the character creator which will be put in my dislike portion of this post. The dialogue wheel was fun and gave some amusing responses. I also found the party dialogues while running around very funny especially when Hawke joined in. The armor changes were a major plus for me. I hated how Origins made everything look the same just with different stats. The variety in DA2 was welcomed and very much appreciated. I also enjoyed having a voiced character rather than the silent type aside from combat where the Warden wound actually say something every once in awhile.

Having returning characters was nice but....

Dislikes -

The game was supposedly suppose to span ten years but it seems to stop short at 6-7 years which means I sort of feel cheated in that regard unless you're doing to tell me that the quests leading up to the whole revolt took three years which I highly doubt. With that said the storyline felt too rushed and by the time you got to the end of the game I felt like it was left unfinished. I don't get the connection between the Warden going missing and Hawke being missing as well. Granted they are both from Ferelden and have mutual friends there doesn't seem to be a good reason for their disappearances to be linked. On top of this Varric says circumstances made them part ways...Okay can we elaborate on that or is that going to be put into some sort of DLC that will be coming out later? In all the game came off as a DLC in a sense rather than a full blown sequel. I don't mean the length really but just content. I couldn't care less if it was more cinematic or dialogue options but I really wanted to know more about the results of my choices not some glaze over by Varric at the end.

The romances were fine for fluff reasons. Granted I haven't romanced every character I can at the moment it sort of felt like they were an afterthought here. I'm not complaining about the actual 'love scenes' here just that it seems like you're doing a lot of the work whereas in Origins you had party members show interest in your Warden that led to some funny conversations. I miss that bit...Which leads me to another thing is the conversations with your party. I do miss that you can talk to them at any point whereas in DA2 you had to wait on some sort of notification in your journal to talk to them or you had to take them around with you to trigger events. It could be because I got spoiled on Origins but the bar was set there and you can't blame a player for wanting something just as good but hopefully better.

Flemeth was nice to have in the game but I honestly was expecting her to show up again after bringing her in the amulet to the Dalish. It was a let down after all that 'advice' she gives saying change is coming that she doesn't show up to gloat or something. Would have been nice to see her smash the lyrium statue of Meredith...I'm not bitter haha

The returning characters like Zevran, Leliana, Alistair and Nate were nice but it seems like they were there for fillers. It was somewhat cool to see Zevran and Nate join the fight at the end but why would they join? Just to repay a debt? I mean it would have been nice to have some sort of talk with them before you just leave should you choose to save the Mages. I mean all I got was one look at Cullen that sort of said ****** off and walked out. Felt like a scene from the Good, Bad and the Ugly for a second. Not that there's anything wrong with a classic Clint Eastwood movie.

Overall I do like the game but it doesn't feel complete. To me this is KOTOR 2 all over again and while I know that game wasn't made by Bioware I would have expected that lessons would be learned from that game...Don't put something unfinished out despite demands of the fans. I'm hoping that there is a DLC that clarifies some of what happens after Hawke left or whatever. I feel that the glass is half full at the moment.

On a side note I hope there is something in the works for the quest Who Needs Rescuing? because it's bugged out and I'd like to finish it to see what the heck happens.

Score for the game: 7.5/10

[Vengal345]

First i'll go ahead and say that the game is a good game but unlike ME2 it wasn't able to improve enough to make it better then its predecessor. If I rated DAO a 9/10 this would be a 8/10. 

Combat: 
I feel combat overall was improved but some aspects aren't articulated enough and the way mobs spawn is not really that interesting. Its fine for rogues to pop out of no where, dragons to fly from the sky, and spiders to descend from the ceiling however its not reasonable for 8 fully armored templars to just jump out of the sky. Mass effect used doors you couldn't enter and I honestly cannot remember how DAO handled it but it seemed better. 

Assassins were not really a fun or interesting part of the game. Difficulty pacing in all of the Dragon Age games has been fairly poor. Even on nightmare most the game will be too easy and then specific moments will be far too hard for the wrong reasons. Entering a situation with two rage demons, an arcane horror, and a reverent is not hard its just poorly designed. The only way to really win these situations is to get really good combinations going with your party while hoping both of the demons/assassins/hunters don't decide to gib anders or another soft target.

If you have a less then optimal group some situations are entirely impossible and even with a good group the same situations are entirely too hard and made trivial after an extra level. Difficulty scaling needs to be better. 

Threat generation and tanking do not work well, much like in DAO. There is no sure fire way to keep everything contained short of having two tanks and never using stuns. Even so a well geared and speced rogue will eventually pull or boss mechanics will cause threat dumps when taunt has a very large cooldown. This forces a strat of kiting large boss monsters around while ranged kills it then moving to the next character to kite around some more. This makes having a tank in the first place on a boss a questionable choice. A tank should be a stone wall unable to be knocked away or stunned. Capable quickly charging to an ally and pulling targets away from them and able to take no damage for short bursts of time. The fact that there is no guardian or tanking specialization somewhat reinforces the role of a tank in the game. 

Itemization: 
Overall this was one of the weakest points of the game for me. Its fairly clear that originally they intended companions equipping of armor (this is an optimistic estimate). Too many items that hawk wouldn't use drop be it weapons, armor, rings, and so forth. Granted companions can wear weapons, and accessories but that seemed more like a concession or a means to soak the ridiculous amount of worthless items that drop. 

Junk items initially seemed like an inspired UI choice to show what had value and what did not however in retrospect I feel it was utterly pointless. What are the odds anyone would seriously loot moldy pants? I feel like maybe the junk materials should have been able to be broken down into something else and used somehow for crafting.

Items end up being too good too fast. I don't entirely like how streamlined Mass Effect 2's weapons and armor were however I feel there should be some sort of mid ground between streamlined into nothingness and having endless amounts of random garbage being thrown at you that cannot even compare to the extremely good items that drop. Using Buldar's gate is a terrible example but the Holy Avenger pretty much was peerless for a paladin. There wasn't the Holy Avenger JR which you got in the previous act and used that till you got the Holy Avenger, then got the holy avenger sr. There should be maybe 1 useful extremely powerful item for each class/build and they should be very difficult to get and require you to do something off the beaten path. 

Thats just weapons I was in a full sets of armor for most the game there was no choice. You're handed them after doing specific story driven or otherwise non-hidden tasks. These pieces of armor are better then anything you can find short of DLC items. This is problematic and DAO was guilty of this in some respects as well. However crafting the Dragon armor or getting kings armor took effort outside of the main campaign or being pushed in those directions. 

Item stats seem worthless, so many items have magic resistance on them that you never even deal with or its unnecessary to even worry about. This could be more problematic if you try to play without a healer however with one its a non-issue to worry about having nature resist gear for rogue groups or fire resist for dragons. 

Companion equipment is not really that good. I honestly don't mind the idea of not being able to equip armor on the companions (So long as items hawk cannot use do not drop) however it should have been approached in a different way. Buying random items to reinforce their armor seems cheap. This should have been approached with crafting in someway. An upgrade tree where you could choose how to build the character's armor. 

Story:
I am still on board with the whole story telling aspect of the game and how its a flashback however I'm bothered by how helpless the champion really is at stopping any of the events surrounding him. The warden by contrast had supreme control of his story allowing you to save entire factions or kill everyone. 

The champion however really was only able to kill everyone, anyone you saved turns on you or attacks you without reason. All of the mages turning to blood magic in the end was cheap and pointless much like them also attacking you when you side with them. I'm not sure if the whole situation was meant to feel like a hopeless struggle if you played a high moral character but every choice you made seemed like it went nowhere. I'm confused why anyone (the chantry) would think the champion could help stop the mage uprising when literally everyone you tried to help ends up dead or 100s of people involved also end up dead. 

The warden is a good choice to stop all of this as the wardens are a neutral group looking out for the best interest of the whole world where as the champion just leaves bodies in his wake even under the best of intentions. I'm almost hoping the warden can put the champion down in the next game the whole situation ended so poorly that someone with that power should not exist. 

Companions: 
I liked most of them and thought they were decently developed however it bothers me that you cannot talk to them whenever you want. Even mass effect 2 which is a much more streamlined game allowed you to go chat with party members on the ship and get opinions on plot missions and sort stuff out with them. When awakening did this I was disappointed and that a non-expansion would choose to do it bothers me even more. The only way to build relationships with people is to use them strategically to build rep however its unreasonable to use some party members (well mainly Fenris unless you're controlling him on nightmare). 

One healer was stupid really really stupid. If not the worst one of the worst aspects of the game. Not only is there only one healer he's a terrible person blinded by vengeance and betrays your party and the whole world. Another character should have been added to the roster of Merril should have had a spirit healer tree as well. 

Wish List for DA3:
-Firstly don't call it DA3, I think many people would be less put off by this game if it was called Dragon Age: Kirkwall Chronicles as suggested in another thread. It doesn't entirely matter what the next one is called but this game was in no way a sequel (which is not a bad thing) so it shouldn't be marketed as one and more then likely the next will not follow the champion or warden so it also should not have the #3 attached to it. 
-Find a better way to do companion equipment or open up the option to full equip them again. If protecting how the companions look is vital for some reason allow for gear to change their appearance in a personal way to each character. For example one piece of gear on Isabella may add armor to her shoulders and arms (a buckler or some sort of thing) where as on Verrick it could just be light scales on his trench coat or maybe a under layer of armor under his jacket. 
- Allow the option to talk to the companions at any time much like ME2 and DAO. 
- Don't reuse environments as blatantly as DA2 did, especially for companion quests and main plot quests. Its reasonable to revisit areas or homes to be designed similarly but coming back to the same foundry three times seems way too cheap. 
-If a transition of time occurs show changes. 

[zambixi]

8/10 on my first playthrough with the 360

Things I Loved:

• Graphics, expressions, and movements seemed greatly improved.  There were a lot of subtle facial movements going on that really added to what the characters were saying.  It did not feel as awkward as the head-bobbling from DA:O, and there were points where I was really engrossed in the scene, even as I was selecting options from the dialog wheel. (9/10)
• Combat is greatly improved!  The pace is much faster, and it is a lot less boring than 'A', 'some random button for effect', 'A'.  It did get hack & slash at times, but despite what people say about combat, I actually felt the need/want to use a bit of strategy once in a while, something I never did with Origins. (7/10)
• The End-Game Choices were very difficult for me to make.  I had to think for a long while to decide what to do with the mages/templars, and even moreso what to do with Anders.  By this time all of my companions were my friends and stood by me (except Sebastion), but it was still difficult to decide what to do. (8/10)

Things I Hated:

• Many of the Companions felt shallow, or nondescript, even late into the game.  I think this a problem more with the way relationships are set up rather than the companions themselves, and wonder if the 'home base' approach, where logical, did not really work out.  I had very few (only one I remember), conversations with companions outside of their homes and not part of obvious quest lines.  I did not really feel like I knew any of the characters, and this is one of the things I look forward to most in a Bioware game so it was really disappointing.  4/10
• This story felt more like an 'origin' story than DA:O.  When the game ended, I felt as if I had only finished a prologue; there were so many questions I had that were left unanswered.  There were points in this story that were phenomenal (pretty much anything to do with the Dalish, the family scenes, etc.) but some of the story didn't have the urgent or emotional appeal that I was looking for.  The ending especially is a double-edged sword.  I am SO excited for DA:3 or DLC, because I was left with such a cliffhanger and it seems obvious that the Warden, Champion, and possibly others have a huge role to play soon.  However I also feel a bit cheated.  6/10
• Please stop using the same area maps over and over again.  I understand re-using maps for some minor quests, but it almost seemed as if there was one map for each type of place (1 underground dungeon, 1 'dwarf cavern', 1 mansion etc.)   When the entire story is focused on one city and its outlying areas, the re-use of maps makes the world seem SO small and unmemorable.  I would have liked to have seen different maps for different areas, and would have LOVED if areas had truely evolved with the time jumps.  2/10

Things That Were Cool:

• This goes with graphics but hair moves hooray!
• The random conversations that NPCs have are entertaining, even if they are sometimes repetative.
• The crafting system makes much more sense to me, and I actually made use of it.
• I liked the friend/rival system as a way to move away from strictly good and evil choices.
• Listening to the soundtrack without the game made it much better.  It just needs to shine a bit more in-game

Things That Were Meh:

• I like the unique companion outfits.  I DON'T like that they don't have alternate outfits and that I don't really notice a difference until the final transformation.
• Timing seemed a bit...off.  I felt like so much should have happened in the gaps that didn't, or like Hawke only came out of her mansion once every three years.

Overall:

A good game.  I know my math doesn't add up when you tally the good/bad, but overall I liked this at least as much as I liked DA:O if not more.  PLEASE come out with DLC or DA:3 soon (but take all the time you need to make a good game of course).

Modifié par zambixi, 15 mars 2011 - 01:42 .

[bl00dsh0t]

 After having "invested" around 700 hours of my life in dragon age origins between its launch and the release of da2 it's safe to say that I loved origins to bits. It was the first rpg I ever got further than the character creation screen since its simplification compared to the ones I had tried before was just enough for me to grasp the basics of what I was doing.

I was rewarded with the pure awesomeness that was dao and replayed it to no end, starting over again and again with every dlc release, running around the commons in orzammar while switching up my party to hear all the banter and playing all the origins to see just how different the narattive would make me feel about the various issues you had to resolve. 

Long story short: I loved DAO like hell, and that set the bar for DA2 too damn high to ever reach it. 
So despite knowing that DA2 would have close to nothing to do with origins, and that the changes were severe I steeled myself for what was to come and found myself enjoying the sequel a lot more than i expected to.

To avoid going into too much of a rant....well too late for that, rant it shall be 


Hawke: 

Despite my initial dismay over the announcement of the voiced pc back in summer I found myself positively surprised by how much I enjoyed hawke as a character. My fear over him/her becoming another Shepard and pigeonholed into either a paragon or renegade stance was mostly unjustified, allthough the ability to choose compromise between to factions about to kill eachother was at times tied to you mostly using the olive branch choices. I.e. the time where I encountered a group of dalish about to lynch a former werewolf. 

Allthough i did enjoy hawke a lot no matter the gender, I often found myself thinking what if all the resources invested to make hawke talk and the changes to the dialogue system were instead poured into the party members....

The companions:

I did enjoy these fellows a lot, and the chained companion quests were great when compared to the pretty short ones in origins. The banter was everything from hilarious to heartwarming and at times sad, so thumbs up for that as well. Each one of them felt like they had a place in the story, some more than others and some less of course, but none of them managed to blow me away like the origins companions did. I do not think this had so much to do with the writing or their role in the game, but it had to do with the segmentation of their dialogue and quests into the 3 acts.

What was there was great, but it was just that it had to compete with the way you could really feel like you were getting to know a character at camp in dao. Of course dao's system with the gifts and approval unlocking more of the dialogue had its flaws, but the amount of character development and the feeling of peeling away layers of defences on morrigan, or bringing sten around from seeing you as an inept warden to becoming referred to as his kadan were just sooo much more satisfying. 

While there were many moments of hawke affecting the lives of the party members, few of these occasions felt as significant as those of origins. But to be fair the level of interaction and character development still towered far above the vast majority of games I have played so kudos still ^^

Overall companions couldve been done differently, but by all means still great and they were what kept this game from falling into the mediocre category 

8/10 for this (DAO 9/10)

The combat: 

This is where I find myself going WTF on a per minute basis. And no its not the animations or the removal of the dual wielding warior...it can be summarized in one phrase: "another wave" 

While it was refreshing at first to tackle enemies coming from all sides it got boring after act 1 when you came to realize that every damn battle, besides the occasional one, was a carbon copy of the next with different models and different reasons to kill the opponents. Sure mages cast different spells if they were bloodmages or qunari, but the monotiny of blasting dozens of weaklings to shreds with cross class combos and then dealing with the tougher ones which took a boatload of damage to take down untill you had the next cross class combo that deals unholy amounts of damage... knock a 3rd of their healthbar down. 

DAO's combat had plenty of things to complain about, especially the shuffle. But what it did have was variation! For instance the battles that lead into orzammar with few but very strong opponents forced you to think, to pause and decide who to take down first.
Spiders were a unique opponent because they frequently spawned behind you, now everyone is a spider appearantly and jumps from high buildings to join the fray or get mystically teleported into the battle. You cannot enter a fight, pause and prioritze targets because every bloody fight you know there will be another friggin wave and another wave on top of that. The result was i used hail of arrows combined with a firestorm or tempest to clera out the weaklings and then use the next spell and ability combo followed by hacking away a % of hp per hit on what has spawned untill you could nuke again.

The fights in dao where you got tons of weaklings mixed with stronger opponents, for instance the fight at the side of the black legion at the bridge in the deep roads was exciting because it had a defence part where you saved the black legion from annihilation and then you pressed forward through wave after wave of darkspawn. It made you feel strong because of how the encounter differed from a lot of the tougher fights and the end of it where you faced the ogre, shrieks and an army of archers switched up the pace again. This is something DA2 lacked more than anyting. 

Overall great ideas of speeding up the combat got ruined by a lack of variation in the encounters: 5/10 (DAO 8/10)

The bosses were a step up though. Most of the fights with several parts to them were improvements over the fights in dao and positioning became more important. At times it still did feel like too many of the bosses just had massive healthbars to compensate for the cross class combos though so while abilities were on cooldown running around them like headless chickens seemed like the only option. At least that was more entertaining than watching their healthbars barely move from critical hits. 

Once again a mixed bag, but more entertaining than your run of the mill fight: 7/10 (dao 7/10)


Story: 

The bread and butter of a bioware game I have been told, and honestly a lot of awesome to be found here. Despite the fact that there was no clear goal of the game like in origins most of the main quest lines were interesting, although you at times were left wondering why something that would have been seen as a sidequest in most games became central to the story. The sister petrice questline was amusing and scary at the same time and gave you a nice nemesis to work against, and was also one of those occassions where it felt like the repercussions of what happened during what started like a simple quest turning into one of the many things that cause the tension to rise in kirkwall before the great finale of act 2. 

Overall I would say the game starts off weak. Seeing as the origin stories were scrapped one of the expectations I had was that the beginning would give me an insight into the family, perhaps see lothering before it gets burned down and get some insight into the family before they loose a mamber to the ogre. While I have known how the beginning of the game plays out for quite a while now it still irks me that the talk about the importance of family in the game seems to have been a great exaduration.

In ANY of the origins of the original you met characters that during the course of one hour felt like either family or clan or friend because you got to see them in their natural element before sh!t hits the fan. Here we just get to know one of the siblings for 2 conversations and then they die. Damnit even wesley's death evoked more emotion than that of a sibling, that can't be right can it? More time to flesh out the family would have made the deaths at least feel on par with the deaths of your family members in the human noble origin, or the feeling of betrayal by behlen, etc etc. 

Act 2, or well the year hawke becomes the champion, was the highlight of the game much because of the qunari storyline and its epic ending. Sadly act 3 feels rushed as both orsino and meredith are just not introduced to you as well as the arishok. The conclusions of the companion storylines are great here but the conclusion of the story it self is one hell of a "gotcha!" moment that cannot be avoided and ends in a cliffhanger that makes DAO's ending seem like the most satisfying one EVER ;D

I get the whole sequel baiting thing but did it really have to be this hardcore? Ahh well I'm just hoping there will be a continuation to this game now that you have managed to make me give a damn about the new cast , and the war on the horizon is quite interesting since it might give the game some focus that DA2 at times was sorely lacking. 

Damn this thing is getting long... soo much more to say but ill try to avoid wasting even more of anyones time: 

Interface: Great improvement in every regard

Changes to class system: Good ideas but some of the requirements made it pretty linear and forced you to take skills you didnt want to satisfy the "needs 3 points in tree to unlock". Also while the companion skill trees were great the ability to turn merill into a spirit healer or at least let her learn from the creation tree felt like an unnecessarily removed option since it forces you to choose between being a healer or bringing anders along all the time on higher difficulties. May mods make this problem go away eventually ^^

Leveldesign: Oh god the reused warehouses and caves really went over the limit. I mean 2 or 3 times sure but the number is just astronomical. When building a sequell to a game with tons of unique locations you should keep in mind that people will expect some of that variety to return. Kirkwall was a great setpiece, and the 10 year thing made it make sense to be within the city most of the game but there was just not nearly enough variety outside of kirkwall and in the areas around it to warrant the length of the game. Some locations that could have seen a trip or two more wouldve been the circle itself, which could have had some questlines within or you couldve reused some assets from the brecillian forrest or another dao area to make something different to explore. My guess is though that the engine has its limitations in that as details on the characters went up a notch the ability to render more complex environments on the consoles went plumetting down like hell, but thats a somewhat baseless assumption so Ill leave it at that.

Puh thats a lot of text noone is gonna read  

TL;DR -> DA2 is a good game with a boatload of problems that I somehow managed to overlook while playing due to the great characters and an urge to see where thedas was heading. The more I think about what was great the more i remember that DAO was just that damn much greater in the majority of aspects.

Hence DAO - an 9.5 on a scale of ten
But DA2 - an 8 at its best and a lot lower then that when its at its worst

Modifié par bl00dsh0t, 14 mars 2011 - 01:03 .

[Greetz_DK]

Cant say anything that hasn't been said, so in short:

Good game

Bad Dragon Age game

Bad Bioware game

Way below the standard you set for yourselves.

[JoltDealer]

Well I don't want to put out a huge review, but I'll say the things I need to say. Dragon Age 2's gameplay was greatly improved and felt better. Playing through as a mage, I felt the specializations were very disappointed and the spell progression was weird. Companions were all great characters and were very funny, but I missed being able to get to know them in side conversations. Then there was the ending, which I felt just punished you for whatever choice you made and lacked any real form of closure.

All in all, I enjoyed Dragon Age 2, I feel Bioware cheated us out of the depth they usually put into their stories by putting it into a framed narrative. Companions seemed like good friends or rivals, but it seemed that these relationships developed off screen. I hate to say it and I never thought I would say it about a video game, but Dragon Age 2 felt like filler.

[Jilez001]

Good things:
I enjoyed the combat pace and controls. The characters of Varric, Aveline, Isabella were interesting.

Bad things: There were others but I'm going to focus largely on the one that I found to be most damning to your game as a whole.

The storytelling. Please note that I distinguish that from the story itself.

1) An unneccessary frame narrative
I was initialy quite intrigued that you had chosen a novel approach to the story element of this installment of the Dragonage franchise. However, upon completion of the game I do not understand what was added to the story by its inclusion. As far as I can tell all it serves to do is introduce Varric and establish that he embelishes things. This fact has no consequence or involvement in Hawke's story.

A typical use in many frame narratives is the establishment of the narrator's lack of reliability. Yet the two instances where Varric knowingly transcends 'reality' the seeker instantly somehow? knows this and we are brought back to the 'real' story. 

Ways this could have been implemented well:
Steal the usual suspects: The whole thing/parts are inventions of Varric to escape the seeker. In fact you could have done so much with a near variation on this I'm astonished it wasn't used. Hawke could have been the warden! Granting continuity between the stories that is otherwise only established by ansellary characters the actual games. 

2) Characters and their actions not making sense.
This was so pervasive that I felt I was in a Star Wars prequel.
-Merril: Her character is established well early, as a naive altruist. Her introduction is well done and we see important qualities of her character. Primarily that she is willing to disregard even the opinion of her mentor. This disregard is driven because of the level of importance she places on PROTECTING HER PEOPLE. This altruistic goal is tempered by her hubris to develop her charateristics.
Fast-forward to the culmination of her questline- We kill the keeper. So far so good, this element teaches an important lesson to Merril as we witness the consequence of her earlier failure to listen. Then....
Story telling EPIC FAIL: As we leave the cave we are stopped by the rest of the Dalish. 
And somehow, we end up fighting and killing them all, WITH MERRILS HELP. X number of quests and character development are squandered on this massive breach of character within the story. 

-Anders: Again, his character is well developed and we know who he is as a character. He care about and tries to help people he identifies with, fereldens and mages. He shares space with an enraged spirit that takes control of him. These qualities are expressed as you go through the story, he shows remorse when his spirit takes control at one point and kills/almost kills a mage who you save from templars. This crucial establishment of regret and evidence of internal struggle clearly define who Anders in.
Story telling EPIC FAIL: At the end of the story we find ourselves in a struggle between the mages Anders want's freed and the Templars trying to crush them all. As the warring elements consider taking their greivances to a neutral third party, Anders nukes the chantry/tower/templar office. Filled with innocent people INCLUDING SOME OF THE MAGES HE WANTS FREED. He has previously shown no tendancy to look beyond the importance of a single life for a greater good. Yet we see no struggle with Vengance. If he could do that much damage why the hell wouldn't he strike the target of his hatred specificaly? Absolute non-sense that doesn't fit with his established behavior. 

[el91]

I, el91 am posting to verify my vote for the Dragon Age 2 companion survey

[Shadow Wing]

Ok here my take to it. I'm 2/3 into the game now and so far i'm enjoying it a lot. I'm a bit surprise by the amount of people/reviews claiming that it failed to match up to DA:O. There are issues here and there but overall I think the game does take a step forward.

Likes:
-Art design and visuals: I really like the new visuals and the art style they employed for this game. I especially like that the armor and weapons look. And more importantly that there are more variety to the armor. They don't look like similar armor with just different shades anymore. I'm looking forward to trying out every new armor now.

-Combat: The new combat is more fluid and exciting.

-Dialogue: The dialogue is witty and smart for the most part, kudos to the writers.

-Soundtrack: The new music is more nice and more varied. It is much more attuned to the mood, it doesn't just become really loud at wrong places now. Also the soundtrack doesn't too much like sythesized instruments anymore.

-Story: Story is pretty solid, its not as grand or epic  as the last but I enjoy the politics in the game. I love the framed narrative style. There are some problems though which I will address at the dislikes.

-Acting: Overall pretty descent, not as good as ME but still pretty strong especially to the actors who played Varric and Isabela.

-Characters: The party characters were much more interesting and memorable compared to the first. Plus romancing Isabela was much more interesting. I know there are a lot of leliana and morrigan fans out there, but i just find it annoying to romance them, plus the fact that isabela face actually looks good in game compared to leliana and morrigan, who for some reason doesn't look good in game compared to the trailers, is also a benefit

-Production value was much better

Dislikes:
-Race: My biggest beef with this game when it was annouced was the lack choice for a race. After playing it now, I can understand why you did it that way but still it is a feature a miss.

-Sibling: Losing your sibling especially bethany was a really nice touch to the story but it annoyed me that there was no possible way you could have kept him/her, considering its an RPG, I would have thought there would have been a way or more choices. Act 1 was quite long so by the time I lose bethany, I had already emotionally invested into the character and losing her was a big punch.

-Bad scenes for crucial parts in the story: A combination of bad writing and acting on certain important scenes. For example, after the deep roads when you come home and find out they are taking your sibling, the scene was just not done properly, considering the emotional aspect to it, you would think the character would be more emotional or they're would have been a bit more struggle to it, but it was so calm and emotionless, just like watching paint dry.

-Story: The bad aspect of the main story is giving drive to it, the story was good but there were too many times when i did some sidequest and come back to do the main story and got confused for awhile. Characters are quickly forgotten.

-Recycled areas: Using the same dungeon structure too many times. It doens't really bother me too much on the most part but it is something that can be improved.


Additional Notes:

I just want to point out that for people who are saying that the story is not good because it is not grand and epic, its just a matter of taste, a story can be good even if its not grand, i like the politics and the more personal story. I appreciate the fact that the developers tried to deviate from the a "quest or journey" plot line that has been the main plot line for most mediavel type fantasy games. That said, after seeing the new redesigned grey wardens in DA2, I would love to play a grey warden again in DA3.

Overall, I think the game is a well made game and a good succesor to DA:O.The complaints of most poeple are all just a difference of personal taste rather than quality of the game.

[ArawnNox]

I could write an extremely long review going into the various aspects of the game, but I'll avoid doing that for now and just give a cliff notes version based on my first play through and a few of the things I've read on the forum.

I'll start with the things I didn't like/I feel need work (I'd hate for this to end on a sour note).
Having the sibling removed from the party for nearly two-thirds of the game, because there's a chance they can die cheapens the experience. Yes, the setting is supposed to be a dark fantasy, but it shouldn't be superficially dark. The way Hawke's mother dies is dark and grim, but that was very effective. If your choices don't lead to the sibling's death in the Deep Roads, we should still get more personal interaction out of them as the story progresses, rather than a single letter.

The narrative structure wasn't what I was expecting. By using Varric's storytelling as the vehicle for propelling the plot forward, I was hoping for the writing to take more chances: Jumping forward and backward in the plot. Seeing things at their height then going back to explain how we got there. More over, we were told that Varric had a tendency to embellish. That only happened twice. I would have liked to see things go into "Legend Mode" more often. Or more chances taken with the Unreliable Narrator angle.

The reused environments are a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I'm okay with that: It's a cost cutting measure and I've seen it done in other games, but... could you have done a bit more to redress them, rather than just blocking off passages? Just a color swap and some plug in/remove props to change the outward look would have been nice. On the other hand, limiting the space inside the various dungeons was nice, in my opinion. It never became a tedious slog-fest like certain areas of Origins. *Cough* Deep Roads *cough*

Now, what I enjoyed:
The facial animations were really nice. Seeing the tongue move, Hawke's brow wrinkling when he/she raised an eyebrow. All really stellar. Along with that, the sheer amount of tone variation from Hawke, even in a single play through was amazing. I was really blown away over how I could play Hawke how I wanted (within the parameters) and get a consistant vibe from her.

Playing a Warrior was a boat-load of fun, and I found them boring in DA:O. It took me a bit to learn how the new system was set up (and, lets face it, it's not all that different than DA:O; dump points into two stats and you're set), but it was still a whole lot of fun.

I was consistantly challenged throughout the game and I never felt that I was under-powered (unprepared, maybe, in the case of certain bosses) and I didn't experience any of the difficulty spikes that were present in DA:O.

On the whole: Not a perfect piece of game creation, but they so seldom are. I had a lot of fun playing Dragon Age 2 and I'm sure I'll continue to have fun on subsiquent play throughs. I hope Mr. Priestly and other Bioware people read these. I'll get around to posting a huge review in my profile blog and maybe repost/link it here.

[Viggo Vickers]

SPOILERS

Just completed it, I tried doing a good guy save, though obviously towards the end there there isn't really a right choice.

I did run into two bugs, the first as after playing for a long period non-companion allies (dog, the Qunari Mage escort) bug and stand still. The other was in the final chapter to save some Orlsian (spelling) daughter on the coast from Raiders. Couldn't trigger the event, just some non-interactive Raid Leader standing on the east path.

Overall I enjoyed it, does get annoying sometimes when you get companions locked out from your group, or required to use another because of a quest. Maybe infuture you could have it set up as when you have to involve a certain companion they follow like the Dog does.

Kinda cool that Fenris didn't side with me, he was listed as a rival and chose not to help me with the Mages. I was kinda aiming to help the mages but stay neutral if I could, then the Anders thing happened and I'm like, well you done bad, chose templars, but gave me a chance to back out after a scolding from some of my companions so switched back to Mages. lol

Couple annoyances I can recall from my game, first was the lack of guidance for some of the lower quests, like find the scrolls to uncover a dark ancient secret, that sort of thing. I did a good scout of all the areas (night and day), but couldn't find it, was another like that, just annoying doing all that looking when alot of the quests are right there for the taking and just wanna give up so you can continue the story.

Second was the Quanri Arishok. I didn't try too hard to help him but tried to be neutral, to be a welcoming guest, help, but again be neutral, but hes so hard to relate to, why would anyone want to help him, nothing he says makes sense 90% of the time and the little help you do give you get nothing from him, no gratitude. So I'm not sure what the idea really is behind him. Like I said I tried to be neutral, but in the end he just becomes a pain and I ended up saying f' it I want you done and over with and give up on them. No incentive.

Another is characters doing complete U-turns, oh blood magic is bad, 5 minutes later their using it. I understand some of it is people getting pushed into a corner, or that everyone has a darkside, but it's like there is no tell. Your then told to make a decision based on the evidence you've been given then feel cheated cause they do a complete Uturn. It then makes further decisions a bit random, why care what decision your gonna have to make when you think 'well they switched it on me last time, why should I care the outcome this time, will probably only change on me again'.

Lastly the drop off in story from some of the quests, you feel like the quest should make a difference in the enviroment or companions around you yet it doesn't, or the story just goes cold. Like Mirrel, she goes on and on and on about making that Mirror, you go get the demon to help, the keeper thing happens and dies and the whole dalish turns on you, yet you go back to the city and Mirrel doesn't say a thing, the mirror is forgotten, hell I go see Zevran 5 minutes later and the Dalish he helped by having them not lie to me are now all dead and he does react to it. I guess the biggest thing that urked me was nothing else was done about the mirror, story just went cold from the story path I took, it's annoying there was no pay off, especially when I feel like I did everything asked of me, basically agreeing with everything Mirrel asked, get me this, ok, get this demon (don't agree, but wanna see how it plays out so I allow it), ok, keep says kill her, ok, dalish attack, and we're left with nothing to explain what happened and left feeling let down.

Sounds like alot of negatives, but I did really enjoy the game. Graphics were very nice, combat was smooth and fluid, the difficultly and gradual improvements in the fights were good. Some great 'holy cow' moments, and the story was good overall. Though I won't be buying any of the DLC content, as I don't support DLC, though a full expansion (20+ hours) I would be intestered in, or until the sequel. Thank you Bioware.

Modifié par Viggo Vickers, 14 mars 2011 - 02:25 .

[trembli0s]

 Just finished the game on the PC yesterday and wanted to leave a few comments on the game. Took about 43 hours with both the Templar and Mage sides of The Last Straw Completed: 

Pros:
Art Style - Pretty much loved the new art revamp. Playing a on decent PC the characters and the city of Kirkwall looked absolutely fantastic. The narrative and the loading cutscreens were especially impressive and I never got tired of seeing them, I really enjoyed those. The high res texture pack was awesome. Spell animations looked great! All the companions looked great and more realistic. Having an actively participating Hawke also helped a whole lot with immersion instead of having the blank, glassy stare of DA:O/Aw.

New ogres were intimidating as were the new Qunari. Dalish looked more elvish and less human (a good thing). The accent is a bit of a stretch though, maybe change that in the future. Its fine for Merril but for random voiced NPC's I found myself laughing at it often.

Did NOT like the new Hurlocks, feel the old ones had a more intimidating/dark look to them.

Combat - I played a warrior in Origins and a mage for DA2 and I found the new combat to be enjoyable. Mage spells were well done although maybe the cool downs are a bit high as I found a lot of time was spent staff spamming. I feel playing a warrior or a rogue on the PC would be less rewarding as I'd end up spamming Attack 20,000 times, although I did enjoy playing Isabella as a rogue for certain encounters.

Kirkwall - I really enjoyed Kirkwall despite having to the spend pretty much the whole game there. Loved the design of the Gallows with courtyard and the statues. The rest of the city was equally impressive and I felt connected to it by the end of the game.

Companions/People (kind of) - As a mage I rolled predominantly with Aveline, Varric, and Isabella mostly, although I did use Merril frequently as well. Dialogue with all of those was hilariously funny for most of the part. The VA's did a great job giving those characters distinct personalities which didn't change just because you selected an option and their world view inexplicably shifted. The party banter between those 4 was absolutely hilarious at points in the game, what with Isabella and Varric tearing into Aveline, Aveline biting back, and Merril just being Merril.

Loved Isabella's development and her awkward romance conversations, made her feel particularly real and this also extends to Aveline. Varric is just epic, I played the whole game with him because I actually felt connected to him, not because I thought he was the best option. Poor Merril got unsurprisingly screwed by her own decisions and Sebastian was a decent if preachy guy. Anders was a bit of a PITA for most of the game but redeemed himself by going full Psycho Vengeance at the end.
New Leliana looks great [smilie]http://social.bioware.com/images/forum/emoticons/w00t.png[/smilie], Alistair looks a little more worn (he is king after all), Sandal is hilarious and creepy with his prophecies, and Bodahn just makes me smile, a decent man in a mad world trying to do right for his unconventional son. Meredith is a badass, despite her crazy and people seem more realistic this go around.

Story - This is kind of mixed bag for me but I'll put it in the pros because they outweigh the cons. I do enjoy the way that Hawke is seemingly just reacting to the situation around him for the most part. Events moved him and he reacted and affected those events. I couldn't just erase the prejudice the Templar leadership had against the mages which is realistic. The Arishok and the Qunari were equally inscrutable and frustrating but real, and I enjoyed the closing although I can see how some would be frustrated if Isabella had ditched them. Losing your mother sucked in that there was nothing you could do about it but at least you helped Gamlen reconnect with his daugther which led to me liking him much more at the end.

And the ending, BAM, SURPRISE! I had a faint suspicion about Anders but no idea what was going to happen. Although I was pro-mage I had no choice but to murder him for his actions. It did totally redeem Anders because otherwise I thought he was a mopey little ****. I'm sure some people were disappointed they had no neutral ending choice to send both sides off the cliffs but I do think it was needed in relation to the overall story of Dragon Age.

**** is going to go south FAST and it had to start in this game. Now we've got Morrigan and the Warden (my ending) preparing for change, Flemeth stirring up trouble, the Chantry fighting the Circles and its own Templars apparently, and the Architect plotting somewhere. That's not even including things in Ferelden, Orlais, Tevinter, the Anderfels, the Grey Wardens (who are dealing with a new threat!), and the Qunari!

Force Mages - This specialization was freaking awesome. Coupled with the Elemental tree I felt like a total badass during the game. Gravity wells, throwing enemies around, pummeling them into the dirt, AND THEN dropping a rain of righteous fire and ice was never tiring. It was even better when I brought Merril with me and added Wounds of the Past. We probably could have killed the entire Templar army without blinking. Love the idea of different cities having different specialties in magic, keep it!

Cons:

REUSED DUNGEONS - I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS. I'm going to place 90% of the blame for his on EA rushing for you guys to milk the market before the Witcher and Diablo 3 hit but it SUCKED. Entering the same cavern/warehouse for the 10th time was immersion ruining. At least you tried to shift the chests and barrels around but this was just brutal.

ZEVRAN - I'm not 100% what you've done to him but undo it. He looks completely different from the first game where he was a favorite. 

Mages (story) - This bugged me. No matter who I sided with the mages were ALL blood mages with FEW exceptions. Even Orsino, who knew better, ends up flying the coop and turning into Harvester 2.0. This was weak and disappointing as the Mage ending was the SAME as the templar ending even if you sided with the mages. Anders was the only one who redeemed himself even if he was crazy.

I killed the Arishok, a lumbering 8-9 foot behemoth of muscle in 30 mins of kiting and grav wells, slayed Pride Demons, and generally was just doing work, easy for the Champion. Instead of trusting me to Pull of the Abyss and AoEMURDER the Templars, he goes psycho and stabs me in the back. What gives? I'm not sure what ending I'll import to the next game because its the same anyway. You disappear even if you're king and the mages revolt, hooray.
 
Side Quests - I can't quite put my finger on it but the side quests this time seemed completely disjointed and random. "Oh I found a random finger in a chest, return to Lowtown" What??? Most of them were pointless and added little connection to the game. 

Not Kirkwall - The areas outside of Kirkwall kind of sucked. Sundermount and the Wounded Coast were a PITA to cross and it didnt help that all the caves in both were the same. I was sick of them by the end.

Healing - Let's be honest, if you didn't roll a mage you were **** out of luck. You were stuck with Anders for the whole game even if you wanted to kill him and because of it some people got screwed out of having Sebastian end the game with them. Even the heals themselves were kind of weak and the potion cooldown was a little ridiculous.

Ending - So there was a bit of foreshadowing with the lyrium idol during the narrative sections but then all of a sudden at the end BAM! LYRIUM SWORD, ANIME POWERS IGNITE!  Perhaps a hint during Bartrand's quest would have been appropriate. As it was it felt a little deus ex machina. Instead we have to conjecture that she got the idol after the Deep Roads and that she was crazy all along. This knocks Meredith's character down quite a bit in my book because prior she was just a hard-line Templar doing her duty. Seeing her tell Orsino it breaks her heart to resort to Annuling the Circle and then having her go bat-**** crazy in the next 20 minutes doesn't work.

Bugs - Had Fenris bug on me and couldn't complete his quest, Merril spoiled her own quest for the mirror. Bugs of this magnitude are pretty disappointing considering this game is 60$. Good thing I didn't care about Fenris really. Quests were bugged, etc.

Encounter Design: Oh looks, there's 8 guys randomly sitting in lowtown/hightown/darktown/docks who want to fight me. Surprise. This got old, really fast. Coupled with my next point I lost interest. You'd think they would have figured out not to mess with the Champion by Act II.

Waves: Absolutely hated this. Kill 8 guys, another 8 guys jump out of the roof, kill them, and ANOTHER 8 jump out. Used sparingly this could be interesting but as it was it was overused and frustrating, not difficult. You could have just strung out 50 or 60 enemies on a linear path to where I needed to go instead of continual waves.

OVERALL: This is a VERY good game. I have never been disappointed by a Bioware game and this continues the streak. 

Unfortunately, this is not a GREAT game. I've replayed all your other games numerous times but I feel no need to this time. The endings can be changed with a little under an hour of gameplay if you saved correctly and are essentially the same.  Its readily apparent that this was a bit of a rush job due to EA's insistence with the recycled content.

That's a bit disheartening because with a few more months I'm sure this game could have been great.

Modifié par trembli0s, 14 mars 2011 - 05:57 .