2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Katzen]

There have been a lot of complaints about the mechanics of the game (combat/environment/interfaces and so forth) but for me the most important part of a Bioware game is always the great story and characters. DA:O hooked me on Bioware - sure the combat was a little clunky, and some of the quests/areas needed some refinement in terms of pacing, but the story, the customization, the emersion - wow! I played ME1 and ME2 shortly after and loved them just as much. Since then BioWare has been gold in my eyes, and I've been so excited about the release of DA:II and ME3.



Some of the Strong Points in BioWares Games:

- Epic storylines; whether your saving the world from robots, ancient aliens, or darkspawn they don't hold back on the scope and impact of your story. As you work towards whatever goal you have there's interesting twists which keep things fresh and unpredictable, and challenging decisions to be made that actually make you pause and think - what should I do here?

- Memorable characters; as companions or in more minor roles I've never seen a video game ellicit so much emotion through its supporting cast. I think BioWare comes the closest to simulating real relationships in their games regardless how fantastical the circumstances - I actually cared about many of the characters as much as I cared about my PC, loved them, hated them, wanted to smash them... the emotional depth really took these games to another level.

- Love and Relationships; what's an epic adventure without romance? Here's another unique area that really sets BioWare ahead of the pack. They've been pretty consistant at keeping it tasteful, and creating depth by having the characters grow together through their struggles - it's not about sex and flirting (not that there isn't a little of that), it's about romance.

- Pause and play tactics; not as big as the above but something that's been consistantly well executed in the past BioWare titles I've played. It adds a level of depth to combat beyond click and kill when to be successful you need to pause, evaluate the battlefield and issue orders to your team.

- Inclusion of the female gamer; I can only speak about my own demographic here, but it's damn nice being able to play a strong believable female character in a videogame. It's also amazing that BioWare designs slightly different responses for male/females characters in there games - It's a step above those videogames that just change the "he's" to "she's" and leave everything else the same.



These are the areas I think BioWare has traditionally done an outstanding job in - and beyond that they're what separate BioWare games from those of other developers. My dissappointment in DA:II is not so much from the mechanical changes (UI/Graphics/Environment), but from weakness in these areas.



Why I Was Dissappointed by DA: II

- The Story: I appreciate what BioWare was trying to go for a more subtle rise to power than the classical hero's journey - and DA:II had some incredible moments (especially in Act III), but overall it felt disjointed and lagged in too many places. Many of the side quests felt like a grind because the action/characters involved in the quest and the results weren't very memorable. I ended up feeling like a pizza-delivery girl rather than an adventurer. A quest doesn't have to be epic to be great - I missed people like Dagna the dwarf who wanted to study magic, or the Patriarch, the Krogan who just wanted some of his pride back. It's often the unique personas behind the quests and the results you know they'll have that make them awsome to complete - I felt this was largely lacking DA:II.

- Hawke; he/she's no Shepard. When I initially heard that DA:II would be fully voiced I was excited but the actualization isn't quite what it was in Mass Effect. Shepard had a very distinct and strong personality so that while you could decide his reactions the tone of the character was similar - a competent, takes-no-bull****, commander. In DA:II Hawke seems to be an amalgam of the freedom to roleplay your character in vastly different and subtle was a la DA:O, and the distinct commander Shepard of Mass Effect. The result is a character who doesn't really know who he is because he's torn between overbearingly saintly, snarky, and brutish. None of these options lend much charm to Hawke. I think in this genre of game many people prefer a variety of subtler response options and no voice (which also lends itself to more variety of heroes - dwarves/elves ect.) than a voiced character who is pigeon-holed into some pretty cliche roles because he's trying to be everything for everybody.

- Companions; why can't we talk to them anymore? Don't get me wrong, I throughly enjoyed most of the characters designed for companions in DA:II but the new "quest" system for talking with them made them feel less like the traditional companions in BioWare games and more like really fleshed-out quest givers. It was a little frustrating having to sit through a loading screen and rearrange your party just to visit one companion. I missed having them all it one place, being confronted by them if you did something they didn't like, and being able to ask them questions about who they were. Companion design has always been one of BioWare's areas to shine and I feel like the new ways of interacting with your team didn't do Bioware justice. It also ruined the immersion when after running around questing with them they'd act like they were seeing you for the first time in ages when you visited them in their home (ex. Merril: "I didn't think you'd come!").

- Love and Relationships; they felt more forced and less real. A lot of it had to do with the ease of being able to press the little "heart" button - being guarenteed to say the right thing to lead to a relationship takes all the fun out of it! That the "heart" responses seemed to very between cheesy, sappy, and a little crude really put me off the whole romance thing - I think the inclusion of something like this in a game can be brilliant if done well (and BioWare is probably the most qualified developer when it comes to pulling it offl) but there's a delicate line of subtly that has to be tread to make sure the result strikes the right note of maturity - DA:II was a little off mark here.

- Pause and play tactics; tactics seemed to have been largely ignored in this game. The spawning of mobs in waves makes conserving cool downs less important and the strategic positioning of your party frustrating. I paused the game to issue orders/asses the situation more in MEII than I did in DA:II (mind you I only played on hard). It seems like a simple enough fix - eliminate waves (select fights they're fine, but not in the majority), and make more interesting/surprising encounters that require solid strategy... the arena in Orzammar did a great job at this.

- Unique reception of character; I feel Bioware has backslid from acknowledging to seperate genders with their games to treating both exactly the same and just changing the pronouns. If you consider in DA:O people would react different based on class/race/gender... it really helped establish that this was "your" character not just a generic one with a different paint job.



So my disappointment in Dragon Age II isn't because It's not Origins - It's because it's weak when it comes to the characteristic trademarks I've come to love in BioWare games.

Anyways, I know that was long

Modifié par Katzen, 16 mars 2011 - 06:59 .

[General Malor]

Well I'll post this quickly. While it's still fresh in my mind.

Okay I just played through the game, and overall I loved it. I thought it was very ambitious and it met many of it's goals. But there were a few problems that kept bothering me.

First off I was disturbed by the time line. Ten years is a good long while and your companions rarely change. Wardrobe change was good, the different looks a few of them could get I liked, but this takes place over a decade. A whole ten years. I would expect some different hair styles, clothing changes, personality development and other things to occur. Some of them minor and some major.

One other problem I had was due to the lack of changes it did not feel, for me, like it really was ten years. A whole decade of a person's life. If people didn't mention the time at the start of every act I would have thought at most five years had come and gone. Again this is caused by lack of clear change in the environment and your companions and where you are in the world. It's set in Kirkwall so there was so much potential for environment change. Shops closing, new ones opening, city expansion.

A few things could have helped this. Things as simple as home changes, home development and personal general appearance. One thing I really didn't like was after ten years there was a corpse just hanging out in Fenris' house. That I found odd, but that also might have just been a bug specific to my own game. One glitch. But still for things to change more than they did it would have been nice.

And while I'm on the topic of Kirkwall I would have liked it if you created some way to become more invested in your new home. Some form of guild or something to make you feel more like a citizen. For the first twenty hours I still felt like a refugee, and not a new citizen of Krikwall. Joining the guard, becoming a champion in some underground arena, forming the Apostates Dead Poet's Society, anything to make you feel more at home in your new home.

Back to the time line though. As I said it felt more like five years and not a full decade. I really would have enjoyed being involved in each passing year. Nothing bothers me more in games than when the story is advanced years and it's completely out of my control. I did not like it in Fable or Fable 2, and it's something that I found irksome in this game. Three years is such a long time and instead of those years just going by without any involvement on the player's part they could have been filled with the aforementioned activities.

I liked the romance options I pursued and I felt they went well. A problem I had though was how detached I felt from my romance once the "quest" line was done. After you court them, bed them, and suggest whatever you chose if felt like it was simply done. I thought that could have been better. From things as simple as planning a nice evening out for your partner, surprising them, being surprised, or even being able to activate scene of varying intimacy. Something to feel connected to your chosen partner would have really made the romance arcs something else.

With the romance arcs, with the main story I just feel like it can't be too much. Getting to know the world you created should be a solid and rich experience. Getting to know your party members, the people your character bleeds and kills with should be fulfilling. It can't be over done. You should be able to do something social with your party at all times. This is one problem I have with games and it's almost like the anti "Band of Brothers" affect. It's where instead of your companions feeling like the true blue friends and allies they are more like just some people around you who get bent way out of shape if you do one thing around them they don't like.

Like when you achieve a friend status that should fully embody what friendship is. You don't jump down your friends throat for every little thing, you talk with them, hear them out. You communicate with them, not just react to their actions and have everything keep going. Interactions with your party while you are in the middle of a quest line shouldn't be them interjecting a sentence, but instead an opening of dialogue within the existing dialogue. Like how an actual relationship works. There's a constant feeling there of unity.

This was done to a point but as I said it really can't be too much. Unless you aim to overwork the point, but that's ridiculous.

Well I'm off to start my second play through. As I said I really did like the game and in my hyped up delirium that is all I could remember to say. I hope that came across civil, as I meant for it to be taken as anything else. I loved the game and I'll inform you of my thoughts on it.

Also a nice side-note I really like that you actually take the time to hear out your customers. It's both smart and polite. It's nice to know that you actually care what we all think, and really smart to make sure the people who keep you afloat are happy.

[Dsentinel]

I think the armor was heading in the right direction. I do agree on the loss of many armor sets, but DA:O had some of the worst mage and light/medium armor. They all looked the same and very bland at that. So I do like the direction the armor went, with the many unique styles. I'd like to see in the future those styles plus more additional and diverse looks.

Companion armor is a great idea, with upgrades etc it gives each companion a unique look. But...I'd really like the option to also replace their armor with a choice of my own. Time after time I receive loot on my mage, for a rogue or warrior. I want the choice to be able to give it to my companions.

Personally I like many of the improvements to combat. New mage spell animations, the flashy rogue abilties, and even the warrior moves. What I didn't like was the exploding darkspawn, loss of Iso camera, and loss of varied fatalities.

I really liked the graphical enhancements to buildings and armor, many of the textures were more distinct and colorful. Some of the art design on hurlocks were so-so, but honestly didn't bother my gameplay.

Relationships definetely needed more. I liked that each companion was off at their hangout or home while they were not in the party. I did not like that I was only allowed to engage them in conversation when they had a quest or a specific "something" to talk to me about.

I thought the fully voiced PC was exceptional, and brought more immersion into the game.

Disliked that I was stuck within Kirkwall and surrounding area. I understand it had a lot to do with the story, as did many of the repeats in scenery but I felt like I was caged in. Never wanting to actually explore because in all honesty there wasn't much there to explore.

Overall it was a very enjoyable game. Finishing my second play through, and all I can think is that it could have been a game that set the standards. Could have been great but was only good imo.

I would like being able to join different guilds within the game. Thieves guilds, templars, blood mage societies, and then actually be able to gain rank with them. The occasional templar and mage help quests were alright but they never made you feel a part of something greater.

Modifié par Dsentinel, 16 mars 2011 - 07:41 .

[ReViliTy]

DA2 for me was a great game, but didn't top DAO.  If the best aspects from both were put together along with some closure, DA3 could be a behemoth unlike which we've seen before.

What worked:

+More distinctive looking races helped push why these races are so different and might not get along constantly.
+dialogue choices had bigger repercussions than one could have guessed.  This game was also much more grey than the last. This ment more thought into the choices made.  It also really encouraged not playing good and appeasing everybody all the time.
+improved texture resolution thanks to the HD texture pack.  I really wish DAO had this because it was one of my only true gripes.
+New combat system was a step in the right direction.  While not perfect, it helped separate rogues from shield/sword and two handed much better.
+new combat animations gave the combat the power it needed.
+Some of the character redesigns were done well.  Flemith stood out as somebody important instead of looking like another npc.
+hawke's family appearance changed depending how you made the pc look. 
+streamlined ui and webbed style abilities were also a welcome.  Being able to spend more points on what I wanted instead of wasting them on things I didn't want to get others was an improvement.

What didn't work:

-the missing years.  This really hurt the idea of going from a refugee to a champion.  It didn't really feel like Hawke struggled to get there.  The scope of the game would have felt much bigger if more time was spent showing Hawke's early struggles.

-Never aging, and less detailed environments.  The parts of kirkwall could have been made much distinct from another.  The city also never aged or shaped around the struggles that were currently going on with it.  It did not help sell the fact the game toke place over many years.    From top to bottom, Sundermount felt the same.

-Recycled Dungeons.  I was really shocked witnessing this.  One could come across the same dungeon a couple times during a quest.  Change of props, textures, and lighting could have helped make this less apparent.  Instead it gave the game a sense of being rushed.

-Companion gear was visually too restrictive.  It was not being able to change the armor constantly that hurt it.  It was never seeing their personal armor change from the found upgrades, or simply from time itself.  While Hawke had a sense of evolution, his companions still wore the same rags they came off the boats with.

-Too many quest given at once.  There was no true flow into how quest were given.  At the start of each chapter, the player is bombed with a bunch.  It made everything feel less fluid and less coherent. It also hurt the rise to power theme further.  Being able to wonder around the higher class areas openly at the early stages of the game didn't make hawke feel like much of a refugee merc.

-Over use of gibbing and loss of finishers.  Seeing an enemy explode from a back stab just looked silly.  Explosive bloody deaths were over done, and should have only been allowed from certain attacks.  It was also a loss to see the finish moves gone.  Yes they did get repetative in DAO.  But they could have been expanded greatly.

-Too many enemies at a time early on.  This is something that usually reserved for later parts of games.  A low life Hawke is bulldozing through hordes of dark spawn.  A Champion Hawke does the same.

-Middle chapter syndrome.  DAO left many doors open, but did a good job at giving the player a sense of closure.  DA2 opened even more doors, and closed very few of the old ones. 

Modifié par ReViliTy, 16 mars 2011 - 08:38 .

[Eivea]

Level design

The issue of reused maps has been brought up many times so I won't get into it. It brings up another issue though, the "corridor" design. I mean, almost all of the latest Bioware games use that but they do a good job hiding it. Reused areas, limited open areas and poor background in most outdoors areas (the background is literally fog everywhere) made me feel that I was running down a corridor through the entire game.

Combat

I generally enjoyed it, especially the class design however there are some areas I think that can be improved.

Visuals for starters, some animations need to calm down and make more sense. No, I don't think it's awesome when my rogues do a roundhouse kick on their Miasmic Flask instead of, you know, tossing it at their target. Seeing my warrior charge in a pack of weak enemies while they spontaneously explode around him is immersion breaking and gets old really fast. In Origins, I felt thrilled when my character would perform a finishing move after a long hard won battle, in DA2 i was happy when a mob would just fell over and die instead of exploding.

Cross-class synergy felt a little basic to me. Sure I used it a lot, but it cycles around 3 states that each class applies, where in Origins it had more depth (freeze a target then have your warrior smash it with his shield, lay tar then set it on fire, etc)

Waves of mobs, as others have mentioned. Some made no sense like humanoids materializing out of thin air, and waves need to be more consistent with ability cooldowns.

General

DA2 is shorter than Origins, but it has more cinematics. Dungeon Crawling got the short end of the stick here. You got a good basis for a combat system going, and I'd like to see more of it on DA3. So, larger more open adventure areas with enemies layed out across them instead of them droping on your head from the sky please.

[jfp2004]

The Reused Maps and the Minimap:
Like most other people, the reuse of the same area over and over again (caves, warehouses, etc, with the same layout) got old pretty quick. I wouldn't have minded this too much, however, if it wasn't for the minimap. The minimap shows areas of the map that you can't access because they're blocked off by something, but the first time I encountered it, I didn't know that was the case. I spent at least ten minutes retracing my steps to see if I had forgotten something or if there was a key hidden somewhere, but no go; eventually I figured it out and moved on, but it kept tripping me up later on. I would sometimes forget and go "did I forget something?" and it would take me out of the moment.

Companions:
There's a lot of characters that I loved, but it didn't feel like I really got to know them like I got to know the companions in DA:O. That's somewhat unfair of me to say, since I played DA:O a lot, giving me a chance TO get to know them so well. Regardless, most of the conversations relate to a quest or a specific mission, and not general information about the companion themselves. Combine that with losing one of my favorite companions at a certain point in the game, and I felt a bit distanced from people.

Also, like others have said, not being able to imitate conversations with companions outside of their homes when they have a quest is annoying. A lot of conversations that I had with companions in DA:O was on the road or in a town, which was kind of nice.

Not A Lot of Locations:
I like the fact that Kirkwall is the main setting and that you get to see how the city changes over the years. But on the other hand, it's very limiting. Even though it's a more personal story than Origins, I sorely missed being able to travel to exotic locations like the forest or Orzammar. For that matter, your interaction with other cultures is fairly limited compared to Origins. It wouldn't have been so bad if there had been a stronger dwarf and elven presence, but that didn't seem like the case.

The Story
Overall, I liked the story that was being told. But it was very disjointed. There were strong moments - which were generally VERY strong - and then weak moments - which were generally VERY weak. There's not a lot of explanation for events and it feels very rushed at times. One of the strongest moments in the story for me was towards the middle of the game, or about two-thirds in at least (hard to pinpoint without using spoilers) but unfortunately it felt like it faltered after that. It's a shame, because a strong narrative is usually the entire reason I get a Bioware game. Don't get me wrong, the story we have is still pretty strong, but overall, it's weak compared to their other efforts, and lacks a bit of the depth we had in Origins. There's lore, but you have to look for it, whereas in Origins, it was everywhere.

Mostly everything else I had a problem with seems to have already been discussed, but I thought I'd bring those up with my thoughts on them.

[Icinix]

Story wise I didn't feel there was enough interaction with members of the family after Act 1...it would of been nice to get a bit more to make that Act 3 decision a bit more difficult...hard without spoilers...but a certain family member was brought back from the brink at the end of Act 2 and all I had to say was 'Good too see you.' Would have liked a tali hug option or something there at the very least. They were so important early on, clearly setting up confrontation and choice...then the promises of that just trailed off...

kind of like...this.......

Gameplay wise some of the bosses health was just too large. A few of the boss fights I got bored with because although difficult...it was effectively several minutes of repeating the same collection of tactics. Maybe environmental triggers to help speed those along?

If you're set about not having the tactical camera, allow at least a greater level of zoom out. So many times in fights the camera would get caught in a wall or something, or my team were out of camera range causing some minor frustration.

Finally...if you ever, EVER, do to another recurring character what you did to a recurring character in DA2...I will get on my knees and curse the maker until my throat bleeds. That was not cool. It went against everything my carefully crafted DA:O, Awakenings, Witch Hunt save game stood for and indeed contradicted the ending of what I received in earlier games / DLC. Not happy.

[Rock Mu]

Some good points made so far on both ends.

I'm sure a lot will disagree with me here, but... while I like the new combat style.... It just does not work as well on the PC as it does on the consoles (yes I bought the game twice...). I think Bioware should have just included a control set up for game pads alongside the default kb/mouse controls. Hack & slash actiony combat just works better with a controller in my opinion, and I have quite a few friends who bought the game only on PC that agree with me. Origins worked far better with kb/mouse than a controller, but DA2 (IMO) does not.

It's obvious that the combat was designed with consoles in mind moreso than the old school PC rpg combat style that Origins had, I honestly don't have a problem with this at all... however if you are taking the game series in this direction, no controller support for the PC version is just lazy IMO. I actually find battle strategies easier to pull off on the PS3 to be honest, combat wise it just feels alot smoother to me.


Truth be told besides the god awful Darkspawn re-design (I actually like the way the Elves & Qunari look) & terrible, terrible re-using of the same 5 or so dungeon areas (seriously..... the copy pasted areas here are worse than that 2nd Final Fantasy MMO that came out last year... just terrible....), this was my only major problem with the game.


There were a few other small things that were kind of annoying to me, but I've seen them all cited in other posts in this thread.


As far as suggestions....

1. Port the Xbox 360 control settings over to the PC version. I know this won't happen since the game is already on shelves, but figured I'd throw it out there anyway. At the least add both options to DA3 OR bring back the tactical camera & futher tweak the new combat style to be smoother on the PC with a kb & mouse (ie; an auto target option would work wonders).

2. Please no small DLC quests ala Return to Ostagar/Warden's Keep, unless it adds a character or something. The game itself already feels somewhat small as it is, DLC for this game should be somwhere inbetween Shadow Broker & Awakenings in size. Or just full on expansions like Awakenings. New environments would be nice too.

3. For the next game, bring back the (non quest based) conversations with party members. Even Mass Effect 2 had these, come on now.

Modifié par Rock Mu, 21 mars 2011 - 09:26 .

[Balander79]

Well i always looked at Bioware as a friends and family company that produces only extremely high quality games just like i did with Blizzard before the merge with Activision.

Thats the 1st game i bought (pc version) original since WoW like 5 years ago despite the cracked version beeing up on torrent sites when i made the purchase because i wanted to support them so they can keep doing what they do best.

But have to say now that i do feel a bit let down after i finished my 1st clear of the game (normal mode). It wasnt a bad game. I did had fun but not even close to what i was expecting.

It wasnt an rpg to begin with it was a hack and slash with rpg elements and tons of cutscenes. Char customisation was minimal and not beeing able to fully equip your allies was simply horrible. Infact it didnt even cross my mind that i wont be able to fully gear my chars on an rpg and until the early chapter 3 i was looking around in case i missed anything till i visited forums to see that indeed we cant.

Combat wasnt bad but that was hack and slash combat and not rpg one i needed tactical positioning on just 1-2 fights on the entire game and only on the pulls. I didnt had to even touch the tactic panel since group was destroying everything while i was waiting in the back to toss a heal or 2 (mage hero speced for heavy healing when the tree got available) whenever needed.

Also the world in terms of size is really tiny. We got the city that has like 7-8 areas 5-6 areas outside of it and some dungeons that get replayed over and over. Just doesnt feel like a real world the way its expected inside one of the biggest rpg's on the market. Its just way to tiny

Also elements like runes and pots and scrolls and enchants etc and the currency itself feels just useless. You can finish the entire game without buying a single item or gear piece (you cant really use half of them at least anyway) from the vendors (normal difficulty as i said above). I mean literally nothing you simply dont need them to beat the game i enchated my chars on last chapter only for example and due to curiosity simply to see what those runes do.

There are other smaller details also that i cant remember now. As i said i did had fun with the game but it wasnt what i expected felt rushed out a lot. I dont regret buying it and i ll definately play it 1-2 more times to clear with warrior and rogue as well.

And a friendly afvice dont fall on the trap Blizzard fell with Activision with rushed out and more casual friendly games. A 70 % of their European servers sits on normal/low atm on peak hours and on a weekend just 4 months after the Cataclysm release and thats for a very good reason.

Hope to buy more quality games from Bioware in the future and will probably check the extra content for DA2 at some point, But i dont like EA and i think the impact they had on this one is kinda obvious.

[HawXV2]

Balander79 wrote...

Well i always looked at Bioware as a friends and family company that produces only extremely high quality games just like i did with Blizzard before the merge with Activision.

Thats the 1st game i bought (pc version) original since WoW like 5 years ago despite the cracked version beeing up on torrent sites when i made the purchase because i wanted to support them so they can keep doing what they do best.

But have to say now that i do feel a bit let down after i finished my 1st clear of the game (normal mode). It wasnt a bad game. I did had fun but not even close to what i was expecting.

It wasnt an rpg to begin with it was a hack and slash with rpg elements and tons of cutscenes. Char customisation was minimal and not beeing able to fully equip your allies was simply horrible. Infact it didnt even cross my mind that i wont be able to fully gear my chars on an rpg and until the early chapter 3 i was looking around in case i missed anything till i visited forums to see that indeed we cant.

Combat wasnt bad but that was hack and slash combat and not rpg one i needed tactical positioning on just 1-2 fights on the entire game and only on the pulls. I didnt had to even touch the tactic panel since group was destroying everything while i was waiting in the back to toss a heal or 2 (mage hero speced for heavy healing when the tree got available) whenever needed.

Also the world in terms of size is really tiny. We got the city that has like 7-8 areas 5-6 areas outside of it and some dungeons that get replayed over and over. Just doesnt feel like a real world the way its expected inside one of the biggest rpg's on the market. Its just way to tiny

Also elements like runes and pots and scrolls and enchants etc and the currency itself feels just useless. You can finish the entire game without buying a single item or gear piece (you cant really use half of them at least anyway) from the vendors (normal difficulty as i said above). I mean literally nothing you simply dont need them to beat the game i enchated my chars on last chapter only for example and due to curiosity simply to see what those runes do.

There are other smaller details also that i cant remember now. As i said i did had fun with the game but it wasnt what i expected felt rushed out a lot. I dont regret buying it and i ll definately play it 1-2 more times to clear with warrior and rogue as well.

And a friendly afvice dont fall on the trap Blizzard fell with Activision with rushed out and more casual friendly games. A 70 % of their European servers sits on normal/low atm on peak hours and on a weekend just 4 months after the Cataclysm release and thats for a very good reason.

Hope to buy more quality games from Bioware in the future and will probably check the extra content for DA2 at some point, But i dont like EA and i think the impact they had on this one is kinda obvious.

Problem found.

[Firky]

This is going to sound silly but it will be easy to add, if OP deems it appropriate.

- Get rid of AoE on brittle boosted Winter's Grasp.

I'm playing on Nightmare, and accidentally keep freezing companions who are close to enemies. It can lose the entire battle.

Edit: Oh, and more general. Please bring back tactical camera in DAIII. Combat is so great, but I can't see me whole party!

Modifié par Firky, 16 mars 2011 - 09:58 .

[Lurklen]

 My number one criticism of DA2 is the way much of the character of the setting was removed from the gameplay. By this I mean the player isn't as exposed to the themes and character of the setting through gameplay as in the first game.  I'll list the things I think are examples of this. 

• Item descriptions, At any givin point in the game I have up to five different items in my inventory that have very impressive names  which I know nothing about, oh sure I know it's dps and sometimes what it's made of(an onyx sword really?) but I don't really know why it's called the  "The Sword of the Red Birth". This makes the items just a bunch of numbers and sometimes a cool design. Instead of a cool addition to the setting  
  
• Ambient npcs, When you are first presented with kirkwall in DA2 you are told that it is teeming with people that there are so many refugees that Kirkwall is closeing it's doors. You are told this in a giant empty square holding about five people. Once you get into the city you are told constantly how crowded the city is with Fereldans. This despite the fact that the streets are again mostly empty. Now if the Npcs had things to say like in DAO I would understand there only being a few, but not only are there very few Npcs in this massive city the ones that are there refuse to talk and just sit there going through the motions or standing in place like statues. In DAO the npcs might not all have been amazeing but they seemed like people in a living world just because they spoke. In DA 2 I feel like my characters and the few people they talk to are the only real people.
  
• The general design of the interface, I understand changing the interface from the first game, because the devs felt that it, like the rest of the art design was a little generic. But I think it's gone too far the other direction there is no character to the interface at all, it is completely barebones once again making you feel like you are playing a game. now of course you are playing a game but when your menus have some kind of theme you don't mind looking at them as much as if they are just an opaque black.
  
• The inventory, Now really I don't have a problem with the inventory except in the areas I've already mentioned, except for one thing. I don't think it makes sense for me to "have" items that I can't see in my inventory. The main offender is plot items I wasn't really sure what plot items I had and which ones I didn't and at times even what quest I had the items for. Now the first game had an easy fix for this, you just had a designated space for plot items.
  
• The codex , The codex list is a bit of a mess it's just a massive list of title headings, now in the first game it wasn't perfect. But something about the page seperation made it a little easier to navigate.
  
• Specializations, The specializations meant nothing to me when I got them, it was just another ability choice. I had no investment except how it affected the battles of the game. The first thing I said when I got them was "How can I be a Templar?". My character knew nothing about Templars, in fact later Hawke asked about how Templars get their abilities. The first game made the specializations part of the characters story, it felt really cool when I talked Alistair into teaching me how to be a Templar or when Isabella taught me to be a dualist.

 
The first game had tons of character, in fact it was one of it's defining features. At first glance if you just took in the art style it was rather generic fantasy but if you took the time to look at those little details you fell into the setting. every item had a description, every item(except your cutscene knife) was visible in your inventory and it all added to the setting. My point is that a large amount of the game audience of rpgs(from my perspective) will overlook little flaws if you heap a good setting upon them and make them feel like they are playing in a cool world.  I really like Dragon Age 2 I don't have an issue with many of the problems other people seem to be having. I don't mind the repetative maps, or the waves of enemies that appear out of "nowhere"( I always see them jump out of windows and over railings and stuff). And I don't mind the companion armor as much as I thought I would, though I would like it if each upgrade actually changed the look of the outfit. I'm not a game designer so I'm not really sure why these choices were made or how you could fix them all, these are just the things that bothered me about your otherwise very enjoyable game.  Hope this feedback helps.

 

Modifié par Lurklen, 16 mars 2011 - 10:02 .

[Evaine Dian]

Another thing I liked very much is how the companions comment on quests you're doing - if you do Merrill's last quest and walk up the hill, Varric, Aveline and Merrill talk about what they will find on top of the hill. Loved it!

[Seb Smith]

To start off with I prefer Hawke over the Warden, the conversation wheel was a step forward from an emotional robot that just stands there. You now know the tone of what he is saying, on top of this it doesn't ruin the immersion of a character interacting with a mute.

Narrative -

I prefer the fast rise to fame of the Warden then this narrative, it ruins immersion having the story re-told by Varric. Not only this how can he know about the parts he wasn't involved in. The ending blew too, it had zero closure and poorly did wht convicton had handled so well.

Combat -

No complaints here, as a console gamer it far more impressive and my character actually feels more powerful, damage no seems proportional to the attack the enemy is recieveing.

Companions -

Are no where near as engaging as in DAO, you have less interaction with them and thus find out little about their back stories and why they behave the way the do. Also what ruins immersion is the fact that all characters seem to be bi-sexual. So what Hawke no only goes around recruiting people he can sleep with? Anders was ruined for me when he started hitting on male Hawke, especially as throughout Awakening all he did was talk about women. This seems like madness and catering to the minority. Due to this there was no chance to develope a bromance like in DAO.

Armour -

No where near enough variety in the armour customisation, only like four sets of armour in the game. And the most unique armour "Champions" is only avaliable right at the end of the game. Which was a shame seeing as it was advertised throughout the promotions of the game. Not only this the inability to change what my characters were wearing, wearing a clothe into a battle is just stupid.

Also why can't I quick change between two hands/sword and shield, daggers/bow why was this function removed. Also the fact that now weapons are locked between classes, why prevent us from making cross ability classes.

[Rob Sabbaggio]

I havent quite completed the game yet, but overall its been fantastic so far.

Still, there are some elements I would like to see refined -

1. Combat was a little too unrealistic. While I don’t agree it was dumbed down (the tactics and most combat options were all present after all), I did think some of the combat movements (jumping instantly to attack, victims exploding etc) were a little too over the top and unrealistic. More Golden Axe than Dragon Age, which is usually quite serious most of the time, and I personally would have liked combat to be a little more so.
2. Our character customisation options were still limited, and interface (especially for beard lovers like me!) had the same bugs as before.
3. While I liked the voiced participant, I didn’t like the fact there was no real neutral “lets get the job done” option. I was happy for my character to have the option of being virtuous, jokey or aggressive, but many times I would have liked to be silent, or say as little as possible to see what the other person does. So, in future, I would like to see if the dialogue wheel can be expanded to include an extra neutral option.
4. The lack of customisation for party members. I agree that dictating what other people wear is probably a bit unrealistic for fantasy members (I don’t remember in LOTR Aragorn saying to Legolas can you wear the tunic of the wood, or some such), but if there are no options for changing it, it would be good to have them change clothes themselves more often (especially given the timescale). And you should still be able to buy them upgrades, I know there was a few available, but not many.
5. More interaction with party members and romance interests. I really liked the homebases and the longer/more detailed companion quests, but this game would have lent itself to even more. It is a personal story of a family and friends over 10 years, so it would make sense to have even more stuff to do with them.

Overall though, its been great so far. I approved of most of the changes, and I appreciate the amount of work it took to bring them off so well. I especially thought some of the side quests, including the ones on the Fade, catching the killer and Varric, to be amongst the best I've played.

[misterdde]

One last thing just gone throught my mind. Don't try to mix ME and Dragon age. I don't really mind playing a really action oriented RPG, but i would prefer the good old fashion way of origin rather than a hack'n'slash with stats. This is not what i'm waiting from dragon age even if i like it ^^

[darkshadow136]

I agree with you totally HAWXV2 this game was junk in my eyes. I wrote a review for it in my blog for anyone that is interested. But to hit on a few  points.

1. Reuse of maps for dungeons and homes no variety

2. lack of customizing your companions armor

3. inventory system is horrid.

4. whole game plays out in a city the size of Denerim with some outskirts. There is no world to explore, and this really destroyed the game in my eyes.

5. reuse of many armor and weapon template from Origins. A real lack of creativity on Biowares part to create new armors and weapons.

6. game just felt unfinished if you want to call it a full game.

7. no real graphic improvements from Origins.

8. no new toolset or updated toolset for modding at lauch of game.

9. targeting, and camera angles are horrible

10. enough with every male companion trying to hit on my male characters. If people want that, that is what a modding community is for.

This supposed game felt more like an expansion for Origins than a epic full game like Origins was. Bioware should have continued releasing DLC content like they said they would, and released this as another expansion for Origins, and upon completion of this unlocked Hawke as another companion for Origins and through in some speial item rewards like armor and weapons for origins.

I remeber Bioware saying the reason they were going to stop DLC early was because of how well and quick DA2 was coming together, and that they would rather give us another full epic game rather then little bites here and there. Well it looks like they lied. This is not a full game it is an Expansion at best, not much larger than Awakenings, and in gameplay felt rushed and unfinished all over it.

For me there will be no more pre-orders of Dragon Age Games. I will wait and see how other gamers review it before I spend $60 for a game that should have been priced for an expansion.

PS. at least I have the Witcher 2 to look forward to soon.

Shame on you Bioware:devil:

Modifié par darkshadow136, 16 mars 2011 - 10:42 .

[Jenova65]

 I turn off persistent gore, because I feel no need for it and I think it looks stupid, so why in the name of all that is holy to gamers is there blood EVERYWHERE except my face? Seriously not cool...... If I wanted to chop people into little pieces I'd play a horror game not an RPG. Blood spatter does not thrill everyone (I assume I am in the minority, but still why allow me to toggle it if the only difference is cleaner clothes) 
Relationships are a real bugbear for me. We were told they were deeper and more meaningful because the relationships develop over 10 years - Dress it up how you like BUT the relationships to the gamer are developed over around 40-50 hours and feel less meaningful than the ones in Origins. I see what BioWare were going for but it isn't ten years, our connection to the characters is over the 40+ hours we spend on one playthrough the connection has to be made with that in mind. The devil is in the details, it is the little things that often mean more.
Example - Zevran talks about his mother's gloves, his upbringing in a ****house he talks about his love for the smell of Antivan leather. These aren't set pieces that happen regardless, I have to talk to him, get him to like me to open up or I never get to know him. He has an entire history a background and you can see a real growth in the character as he learns about love and emotion or the changes in characters like hardened Alistair and Leliana. The things our companions share with us are things that delight us and make our connection to the character. I could know someone for 20 years IRL and not know anything about who they really are, connections are not that easy to make. You need interaction (which feels lacking in DA2) not set piece conversations. All you will ever have is the time it takes to play the game for the player to feel compassion and caring for their party members. Don't get me wrong some things are lovely like the way Fenris looks at Hawke in some cutscenes, there is a real tenderness that has the capacity to melt but without knowing anything about him other than he was a slave who bought his ingrate family's freedom with painful lyrium tattoos and now he hates mages (oversimplyfing but you get the idea) it means nothing. 
The love scenes.............. Fish or cut bait BioWare.  They aren't very good, they were better in Origins  cos at least the characters removed most of their clothes. If you are making mature games don't be afraid of your own content and don't apologise for it either. Cheesy as they were, in Origins they still felt like they meant more.
I have more, I'll be back later, when I have more time ;) 

Modifié par Jenova65, 16 mars 2011 - 10:22 .

[Jenova65]

Oh and Alistair's nose.............. WTF? What did you do to his nose? Not pretty, more upset about that than Zev's completely new look :/

[Syonica]

 I hate to say it but I was enjoying the game until about an hour ago.  These are the reasons why I'm putting the game down at 37 hours and not planning on investing more time nor money in the franchise.

-Location-  I am a fan of exploration, a person who enjoys true roleplaying in a massive environemnt.  The fact that 90% of the game takes place in a extremely bland city is a huge turnoff and if I would've known that I would not have gotten the game.  And why are there a mere few maps the game takes place on?  Very small linear paths with no exploration or diversion in scenery what so ever.  Just one of the 30 or so zones that Warcraft has would be alot funner to play on and explore then this.

-Combat-  Having to pause the action and micromanage your useless teamates gets old.  As much as I love options and strategy this is just beginning to be a headache.  Mabye this will change in DA3 when multiplayer is presumably introduced.  Controlling 4 characters at once wouldn't bother me so much if it was more simple to match the quick buttonsmashing the game seems to be for me.  (Given I know its quite a bit easier to play with on PC then my Xbox, and yes I know you have to pause and strategise alot on Nigthmare.)

-Replayability-  So what is there to do after completing the game?  Not a damn thing.  Unless you want to walk around this bland city, or explore about a mile's worth of walking in boring scenery outside on paths about 4 feet wide.  It's an rpg game, instead of rolling another character there should be dungeons with bosses that can be reran.  Something to farm for, whether it be for a particular piece of gear or more xp/gold.  This is why Oblivion lasted me 500+ hours and still not done with the game.

Not a bad game but if these three things were drastically changed it might turn out to be a hard game to put down.  (stoked for Skyrim)

[Jazharah]

Something I'd like to see added to the list please:
AoE talent snap-to-target. PLEASE make it a toggle, or remove completely. It'd be really nice if I could aim my fireball of miasmic flask where I want it and not be forced to turn my camera 4 times to get an angle so that the spot that I want to hit is not drawn away from by an enemy, that would make me miss half the others I intend to get in the AoE.

That sentence was probably way too long and skewed as hell, but the message should be clear

Modifié par Jazharah, 16 mars 2011 - 10:38 .

[Gill Kaiser]

Pros:
- I like the majority of the art style changes, especially the elves and the qunari (although I don't think the qunari should all look identical, and I really dislike the new darkspawn look).
- I like voiced Hawke, and the dominant personality system.
- I thought many of the quests were well written and interesting.
- The combat animations and spell effects were great. Very fluid and pretty, especially with DX11.
- I like the companions and their dialogue (par for the course in a Bioware game).
- The overall story and conflict is interesting.

Cons:
- The waves of enemies. Seriously? This design choice completely negates positional strategies and cooldown management. You don't know how many waves are coming, where they're going to spawn, and sometimes 5 elite archers materialise on top of you or your healer whom you were trying to keep out of danger, and annihilate you within one second.

- The egregious reuse of assets and locations was just poor. That said, if even the minimaps had been altered to reflect the blocked off areas, it would have been a notable improvement.

- There is an overall lack of motivation pushing the player forward to complete the game. The prologue doesn't do a good enough job of easing the player into Hawke's shoes, and as a result Act 1 is a completely disorienting experience as the motive of making money seems meaningless. It's meant to be Hawke's only way out of poverty and servitude, but I don't think the poverty was emphasised enough, and the servitude wasn't even shown, just mentioned in a flash-forward. I think the game's beginning would have benefitted enormously if the prologue had begun in Lothering pre-Blight so that we could see the Hawke family in their element before it was taken away, and I also think it would have been helpful to have had to carry out a few of the unsavory missions that Hawke apparently did for the smugglers/mercenaries during that first year. Show, rather than tell.

- The lack of choice regarding party member equipment. The large selection of armour, that can only be used by Hawke, really emphasises how much freedom has been taken away from the player in this regard. Coming across a high-level piece of rogue armour as a mage and then selling it because you can't give it to Isabela or Varric is infuriating. There should have been a way to transfer the stats of your loot to your companions' unique armour, which would have provided the best of both worlds.

- The lack of choice regarding party member abilities. Merrill doesn't have the Creation tree, which, as a mage, pretty much forces you to take Anders at all times or to spec healing yourself. Isabela can't be trained in archery. I really think that taking the party customisation options away from the player in this way was a step backwards.

- The codex doesn't provide enough information about quests you're on. If you have accepted a lot of quests and sidequests, the codex doesn't really help you remember what each quest was about, as the single line objective it provides is woefully inadequate. You end up forgetting which quest was which, and when Hawke mentions people and events you have to try to recall who was who and what they wanted. The codex is meant to prevent that.
Likewise, quest items such as notes often aren't readable in the codex (the letter during the clearing of the Amell estate, for example), leaving the player to surmise what they say based on what Hawke tells others.

- Most of the equipment has no description or even a unique name. Having 10 items named "Ring" and "Belt" is just mundane.

- Finally... the removal of the top-down camera on the PC version. I understand the reasons for its removal, but why couldn't the standard camera just have been made detachable instead? It's infuriating being locked to a character all the time, when you want to direct the actions of four. You have to fight the camera, being unable to click where you want your characters to go because there's a doorway in the way, or an invisible fence, or an enemy... it's painful.

Modifié par Gill Kaiser, 16 mars 2011 - 11:55 .

[viverravid]

No time to read 14 pages so I'll just add my 2 cents and hope it includes something no-ones said yet (or adds weight to those things said over and over)

THE GOOD

The characters
It's a Bioware game. Duh.

Party Banter
Just brilliant. I find myself experimenting with party combinations and running around town just to trigger it.

The writing from Act 2 onwards
Tied up various seemingly unrelated elements in a masterful way. (but see also THE BAD)

New ability tree system .
Actually not a tree, but a directed acyclic graph .So incredibly cool. Massive improvement over Origins and pretty much every RPG I've ever played.

The new UI.
I know many don't like it, but I thought it was excellent. Some RPG purists want something that looks olde worlde in a fantasy game. Stuff 'em. I'm a helvetica person.

Super easy to tell what school each ability is from, and which are active, sustained, passive, poisons, grenades, or pots. Other pages and menus all great. 

New art style
Way more interesting. Has character.

Voiced character with alternate personalities
Ignore the haters, this is brilliant. The dominant personality thing addresses the issue of playing a set character - you can personalize them a bit. I don't imagine you'll make another game without it. This is as it should be.

THE BAD

Camera locked to characters.
I understand why the overhead view isn't possible given the constraints of multi-platform development and the extra work involved in making the levels work for overhead view. Just give us a key to unlock the camera from members of our party. Especially needed for targeting AOE (see also, THE UGLY). Put a move radius limit on it so you can't use it to scout.

Story in the first Act.
There was no reason to care particularly about what was going on in the first act. Yes there was a tragedy near the start, but no time to connect with the character before you offed them, so it was meh. I was just watching other people care about it. The Flemeth encounter was interesting but did nothing other than foreshadow YOU WILL BE IMPORTANT. I knew that already, I'm the player character in a cRPG. 

Preparing for the deep roads expedition was not enough to move the story along. In Origins, you had the origin stories, which became interesting just because you knew they were an option - you would wonder about how it was going to link up with the main story arc, and they recurred in interesting ways throughout the main game. Then after that, you had Ostagar, with the sense of dread and tension leading up to it, and the two plot twists that drive everything on from that point.

Fetch (actually return) quests that made no sense. 
How do I magically know where to take these things? This was better handled in ME2. First you overhear a conversation about the item, then you come across it. Even if you can't have unique dialogue for these, maybe use the mail system, at least for quest follow-up. For example, after returning the item you get mail - "thank you for finding such and such because [interesting backstory element or flavour text]" - that's a fairly lightweight way of adding optional content that doesn't feel like it was a pointless time filler.

Taunt
Rather than generating aggro, it seems to just transfer existing aggro to the taunter (according to my playing and the in-game text). So you can't use it when a bunch of new mobs teleport in, as they don't have aggro on anyone yet.

Story with a mage character
Making templars versus mages be the focus of the story throws up a whole lot a challenges in this area. Sometimes it was handled well, sometimes not. I know doing it well means redoing a whole bunch of cinematics, voice acting and writing specially for mages. But perhaps it could have been better handled with a game mechanic : explain that the player (or Bethany, for the non-mage characters) is in hiding from the templars, then make the mage armors available to the player not look so mage-y, so it makes sense that the characters aren't noticing. (This was done pretty well for Bethany. Also the mage champion armor does this well). In fights like the Ser Cullen initial encounter, put some limitation on party magic use, then tune and scale the encounter accordingly. Otherwise having him go into an anti-mage rant after you just saved his behind with mega-spells is a bit silly.

THE UGLY

Forced snap to mob when targeting AOE.
Combined with the limited camera options, this is hair-tearingly annoying. AOEs are mainly used to hit multiple mobs at once. Snap-to-mob with a stupidly large radius makes this very difficult. This has to be easily fixable in a patch. Just add a toggle or keybind letting you turn it off.

Endless waves of enemies.
The first time this happened in a major encounter, I felt completely betrayed. I was playing on Hard, and still learning the combat system. I came across a mage and his guards and carefully planned out my party's positioning and ability use. We killed them all, not without some effort, and then suddenly my casters are dead and I see ANOTHER mage and a whole bunch of other dudes have shown up from nowhere. This takes away the best part of combat in rpg - coming up with a plan to handle the encounters. 

In order to "think like a general", wouldn't you need to roughly know the number and composition of the enemy forces? Origins had this. DA2 is all "Fight like a Spartan".

Yes, I know the wave mechanic requires a different plan of not burning all your cooldowns at once, but it is much less rewarding. Harder difficulties become save/die/reload fests until you learn the waves. Plus kiting while you wait for abilities to recharge. And it makes party positioning irrelevant unless you move your party out of the spawning area (otherwise your squishies die when people teleport in on them). It's excusable for some trash mob packs and bosses who can summon. For main encounters, it sucks mightily.

Think that's it. 8/10.

Modifié par viverravid, 16 mars 2011 - 11:59 .

[Lurchibles]

(originally written as an email, was told to post on here!)

Dragon Age: Origins was a fantastic PC game, it completely blew me away
in with it’s levels of emotional depth and some of the best characters
I’ve seen in a videogame over the last decade. I love Bioware games, I
feel the Bioware name is something that I can trust and means “epic
adventure here” when I see it strapped to something. Obviously, the
moment Dragon Age II became available to pre-purchase on Steam I
relished the opportunity to brush the dust off my staff and return to
the Free Marches.


I’m writing this after uninstalling Dragon Age II with only 2 hours of
play and the feeling of incredible disappointment. I’ve never actually
emailed a developer about videogame issues before, but today I’m making
an exception. I trusted the Bioware name and feel let down by the
destruction of one of my favourite (if still relatively new) game
licences.

It’s relatively clear from the outset that Dragon Age
II is not the RPG Dragon Age: Origins (now abbreviated to DA2 and DAO
respectively) was. You can probably see the community backlash with the
user comments on “Metacritic” and the average review score on retail
websites, such as Amazon.

The problem
with DA2 is that there is no clear sense of direction from the outset.
In DAO no matter which “Origins” path I chose it lead me through an
epic introduction that lead to my eventual becoming of a Grey Warden.
The game was then focussed on defeating the “Blight” and at all times
throughout the game I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing:
There’s an “Archdemon”, let’s work towards killing it.


DA2 has no clear purpose after the short (and disappointing)
introduction, and that (amongst other reasons) is why I find myself
uninstalling after 2 hours. It’s probably one of the major reasons for
the community backlash, but I’ll list the 4 major issues I had with the
game below:

• Character talking: I have no problem with this in
games like
“Mass Effect” (mostly because Jennifer Hale is a superb voice actress),
in DAO however my character didn’t speak and I was fine with that.
Hawke however does talk, and often speaks lines that don’t reflect the
option I chose from the options wheel. Regardless of gender, Hawke
sounds arrogant and pompous and I really struggled to get past this. My
Grey Warden character in DAO was a mute yes, but a loveable mute.

•
Combat: There has been a massive overhaul of the combat mechanics, and
yes I agree if there was one problem with DAO it was that the combat
wasn’t always satisfying. However, in DA2 the “waves” of enemies that I
have to work through by bashing buttons (literally) is insane. The
combat in DAO was always tactical and always required well thought out
strategies. In DA2 however I find myself bashing buttons and watching
blood spray everywhere, whilst this was initially satisfying button
bashing gets old very quickly.

•
Likeable characters: DAO had strong characters from the beginning. Even
though Duncan wasn’t around for very long he was a major character for
the beginning of the game that I felt emotionally attached to from the
outset. Alistair was also a fun and sarcastic character that I
instantly feel in love with, and enjoyed the humour he brought to the
game. The characters in the introductory moments of DA2? I couldn’t
care about them less. I feel no emotional attachment to my family
characters, and no emotional attachment to the Elf mage and Dwarf rogue
I met. I know from reading articles that the characters get
better at about 8 hours in, but I don’t want to be playing that long
before I care about my companions.

•
Story: In DAO it felt like the developers (you) said “Let’s make a
story about a Blight of Darkspawn and centre the entire game around
that” and it worked fantastically. I always felt like my actions had
purpose and that I was always working my way towards this epic battle.
As I’ve already mentioned, DA2 has nothing like in terms of story. I
literally feel no urge or compulsion to continue playing the game.

There
are other “niggly” issues that I have with the game as a PC gamer, but
I won’t mention those as I feel I’ve said enough. I’m not looking for a
refund or anything, after all you don’t return a DVD just because you
didn’t like it do
you?

[MDarwin]

Sen4lifE wrote...

Enemy encounters

Why do they randomly appear? In Origins, you guys had it perfectly. Behind a door they would come streaming, or when you turn the corner, bam! Darkspawn! Now, they just...apear. Literally. I've defeated many a wave quickly, just to see a warrior phase through like Star Trek! Very immersion breaking.

Though you might not have noticed, this did happen in the original Dragon Age, also.  I definately noticed at the end in the final battle, where I very quickly killed the darkspawn, waiting 10-20 seconds, and saw the new men get "beamed down."  Doesn't really bother me, TBH.

That was a special feat of the Archdemon. "Summon Darkspawn".