I was even on board with Bioware trying to churn out a Bioware game in 16 months. The shortcuts they made involving the production of art assets, like setting 90% of the game in one city, cutting out companion armor, re-using areas almost to the point of satire, that stuff didn't bother me. It also didn't really bother me that the game was a good 10-15 hours shorter for me than Origins.
I was on board with all of that. But then the ending happened. Or didn't happen.
I liked the idea behind how the narrative was told. It was interesting to frame the story using the current interrogation between Varric and Cassandra and showing Hawke's actions in a sort of flashback. My problem isn't the frame of the narrative, it was that that frame was never resolved.
In every other instance I can think of in which a story was framed like that, the story eventually comes back to the present for what I think of as the big rock finish. Alpha Protocol used a similar framing, and it's big rock finish involved finally finding out the circumstances of the interrogation and then having to bust out of the place you were being interrogated at in order to reclaim your life and your freedom. The third season of Castle opened up with Beckett, the lady detective, finding Castle, her writer partner, at the scene of a crime holding a gun. Through flashbacks we found out why that situation occurred, and then they hit the big rock finish with Beckett and Castle teaming back up to track down the real killer.
But in Dragon Age 2, there was no big rock finish. Instead. we finally get caught up to why Cassandra is interrogating Varric, and then it's over. That's it. There's not even an Origins/Suikoden style epilogue. There's just nothing. Where did the Champion go? I agonized over the decision about whether or not to join Isabella at sea, but ultimately told her that the people needed me in Kirkwall. Apparently I didn't think they needed me too much, because I seemingly fled the city at the first moment stuff went down.
And what happened to my companions? I was loyal friends with many of them for literally years. And the only resolution I get is "circumstances forced us to go our seperate ways"? What circumstances? Why did Varric leave my side? Why did Aveline stop trying to protect me? What happened to Anders after I reluctantly parted ways with him?
And of course there's no resolution whatsoever to Cassandra tracking down the Champion, which was how the entire story was framed. Just like in the beginning of the game, she's still trying to find Hawke and get some answers. The only difference between the beginning and tne end is now I'm trying to find Hawke and get some answers as well.
It's such a shame, too, because I was absolutely loving the first 30 hours of the game, but now that it's over, it's just hard to shake my sense of disappointment.
Modifié par Bishmon, 14 mars 2011 - 03:03 .
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