2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Kurzan]

 So, where to begin?

Kirkwall:

Basically you should start by renaming the game "Commander Hawke's Kirkwall Adventure". Really. The only RPG I can think of that worked where you hardly ever leave the main city is Planescape: Torment. Now, maybe that's what you was aiming for, but you missed the mark pretty badly. Sigil was such a great city to play in because it was colourful, rich in lore and characters, had fantastic music and an epically good story driven straight through the middle. Which is pretty much everything Kirkwall lacks. Lowtown is bland brown, Hightown is bland grey, Darktown is a darker bland brown, the docks are beige. The streets are pretty much empty, there's no feeling of bustle, it feels like it's just you, your buddies, a bunch of enemies at night and some salesman. That's it. All the music in the city was recycled from Dragon Age Origins with the exception of Qunari theme, there doesn't feel like there's any overarching storyline and the first act was just painful. 8 or so hours of the same grindathon, please make it stop drudgery in the city. Why did everything have to be in Kirkwall? Why is everything outside of Kirkwall so bloody short? Why did you have to listen to all the special children with ADHD who didn't like the Deep Roads because it was "too long". Seriously, the Dwarven section of DA:O is by far the best part without doubt. You completely castrated the Dwarven section pandering to these people, but why!? You clearly loved the Dwarves in Dragon Age: Origins, why suddenly the change? Where are the female Dwarves? You created designs for them, why are there no females at all?


Combat:

You know what was good about Dragon Age: Origins combat? The overhead view, tactical decision making, friendly fire and dual-wield female Dwarf motherloving Warriors! Especially on Hard and Nightmare. That's what was good. None of that is present in Dragon Effect 2. Put that stuff back in for the love of god. Particularly the female Dwarves. Seriously. Sigrun, she was made out of pure as the driven snow awesome. Instead I have emo haircut Fenris. Who may as well be a woman. In fact, if I get the chance to murder him in Act 3, should I hate myself enough over the weekend to play any more of the game, I will. But seriously now. Waves and waves of randomly appearing enemies!? Who seriously thought that was a good idea? Whoever you are, you're a bad person. I'm sure you're not really, I'm sure you're actually a nice guy with a cute family, but by Jehova please do not repeat that turgid, festering piece of crap again in Dragon Effect 3, kk? It is literally terrible. It completely ruins any tactical planning you may have set into motion. Now if you're crazy enough to play on Hard or Nightmare for some fights it will literally make you want to rage murder people. Mother took my sharp objects away. It's a terrible, terrible feature that completely destroys any immersion you might have been desperately clinging on to. What's that? Captain Kirk just teleported in some more waves of trash mobs from a random direction. Joy of joys!!!

Persistent abilities eat up way too much stamina/mana. Abilities in general eat up too much mana/stamina. Anders' "I heal better" persistent ability eats up something like 75% of his mana, for what I'm not exactly sure, it doesn't seem to have any kind of effect, other than letter me use his other "I heal better" spells and not let him cast anything but healing spells. Which sucks. Why would he not be able to cast whatever the hell he wants? It's not like Justice has even taken him over which would make a little more sense. It's just plain old Anders, just without any nuking ability. Which is dull.

I personally hated you focing DPS warriors in to 2hand builds only. I loved dual-wielding in Dragon Age: Origins. Yea it was mainly because it was OP as gently caress, but so what,Dumbing the game down to two specs and two specs only is limiting what you're capable of. It's boring, it doesn't fit in with the scheme of an RPG. On top of that I, for some dumb reason, decided I would be a sword and board commander hawke. Which was dumb because Aveline does it better through her personal little tree no-one else gets. So basically a Warrior Hawke is 2hand or nothing if you like to powergame. It's just dumb.


Character creation:

Can someone kill Hawke in between Dragon Effect 2 & 3, so that in Dragon Effect 3 we get to play as something other than a human? Yea, it worked in Mass Effect 1 & 2, but poopoo, they were well made games with time spent on them. In a fantasy game, I dont want to play a human. It's fantasy right guys? Fantasy, repeat it after me. Dwarves were literally the balls out arse kickers of Dragon Age: Origins. You broke the mould with them. You turned the stereotypical stout, honourable dwarven folk into shady, political, greedy bastards and by christ on a shiny bycycle it worked like a charm. Compare the Elves to the Dwarves. You can't can you? The elves are so bloody meh. Now there is a point in here somewhere, and this I suppose is it. What are humans in a fantasy game? I'll tell you, they're the bland meh choice. They're the casual, I don't give a gently caress choice. The boring, I have no imagination and I never read any books as a child choice. They're the "Hey guys, Mass Effect 2 just bought me a gold plated toilet choice, but I want another one!" developer choice. I get it that EA told you to do whatever you did in ME2 again to literally create money out of thin air, but crap me a donkey humans are dull. Please can you let us choose what we want to be in Dragon Effect 3? Please. If you don't, and we have to play Hawke.....again, in another high fantasy street walking sim, I doubt many gamers will be happy. Does anyone actually think Hawke is cool? Show of hands? So like 5 people like Hawke, that's it. Let me be a Dwarf again. Meanies. Varric and Merril were awesome thought. Too bad Merril was completely useless for anything else.


Voice acting:

Yo, I know Fenris is playing off to the emo, I hate myself and everyone around me angsty teenagers, but seriously, a little inflection to your tone, a little more emotion? A little more of anything to not make him a droning, irritating emo haircut annoyance? Anything at all. I don't care what the hell you do, shock the voice actors with a cattle prod for all I care, but dull, flat voice acting pretty much killed parts of the game for me. Like the bit where Hawke is talking to Aveline in her office about how he's heartbroken over someone dying. He's heartbroken huh? So why does he have absolutely no emotion in his voice whatsoever? Heartbroken. Indeed. Varric and Merril, they were done well. Give those actors a shiny gold medal. Merril particularly as she was Welsh, and it worked really bloody well. She owns the character. Varric, well he had to be good or your oh so awesome....framed narrative would have fallen pretty flat wouldn't it. Well it kinda did but that's another story, If you're going to have the main character voice acted, get it done right for god's sake. Emotion motherlover, do you speak it?


Import saves:

Tell me why I bothered spending the two weeks leading up to DA2 coming out making the perfect import save for the game, only to discover than NONE OF MY DECISIONS MATTERED. LOLOLOL. I think two of my choices were referenced. In brief lolcompanion quest dialogues. One was about King Harrowmont and one was about King Alistair. That was it. So what exactly was the point? There was no point I guess. Which is terribly dissapointing. I think you should possibly hang your head in shame a little about that. I imagine you wanted to put that stuff in, but the year and a bit you had to develop the game in wasn't long enough and you had to cut it all short to please the EA overlords demanding more dollars from a fantasy version of Mass Effect.


Talking to companions:

Why can I not talk to my companions? Why are my only opportunities the bloody quests? Streamlined you say, well you know what I say? You can take your streamlining and throw it somewhere deep, dark and damp. And after you've done that, throw the guy who thought up the spawning waves of enemies. So yea, I literally had no connection to any of my characters. I literally do not give a gently caress if any of them die. I've not had the opportunity to interact with them to even remotely begin to care. Now if you tried to kill Oghren I'd probably chew your arm off and beat you to death with the soggy end because I care about those characters from DA:O, because they were developed through solid interaction at my choosing. Not arbitrary quests at the start of any given act, and then alone. This really, really sucked.


The inventory:

Yea it was terrible. Junk loot, what a geniously bad idea. What does that actually add to the gaming experience? Nothing, it adds nothing at all. My favourite moment was probably when the elven keeper gives you junk loot as a reward for saving another elf. Literally given junk loot as a reward for a quest. There's no right click, read the book, or anything useful. Just junk loot book reward. Cheers. What a waste of time? What happened there? Did you run out time? Did someone creative call in sick that day? Are you creatively bankrupt? What's the issue here? Why is giving junk loot out a good thing that adds to the overall experience of the game? It doesn't add anything. It's just useless, meaningless filler. That's it. Now I get the whole character appearance thing. You're going to sell alternative appearance DLC just like ME2. It's a marketing decision, I can handle that. It sucks though. Whatever happened to the guys who made the last game? Or ME1, or BG 1 & 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2? Planescape: Torment etc etc? Why all of  a sudden is it just the main character we can modify. Oh wait, I forgot. The memo said, make the game Dragon Effect 2 and we will literally swim in gold. If you want people to like your games, dont get rid of features everyone likes and call it awesome streamlining that improves the experience. It's crap. A spade is a spade.

[nijnij]

Okay, first of all, here are some of the things I like about the game (yes, I believe it's part of constructive criticism) :

- loading screens. When it comes to big games, as annoying as they are, loading screens are a necessary fatality. The fact that there's plenty of different ones, all location or quest related and pretty cool looking keeps that annoyance to a minimum, and actually reinforces immersion instead of breaking it (for most of the game anyway). That is quite unique and I thought that was a really welcome idea.

- combat mobility. I loved the fact that Isabela (or any rogue for that matter, I imagine) had a different way to rush towards enemies according to their positioning : if they're far, she'll jump, if they're on the sides, she'll give kicks etc. As much as I hated the most exagerate elements of combat (enemies exploding), I thought that sort of mobility as opposed to the awkard Origins shuffling was not only better-looking but also more realistic.

Another thing I liked is enemies attacking a la Robin Hood (= jumping from a roof), never gets old for me, and compensates for enemies spawning out of the blue, which is annoying as the OP points out (especially in the prologue).

- unlike many, I found the game much less linear than Origins. The whole Ostagar + Lothering section of Origins was a drag IMO. Yes, DA2's beginning is too linear, the very first thing you see being an uncrossable fire barrier followed by a monotonous corridor of Darkspawns (not like the origin stories in which you got to learn the lore a bit and talk to people). However, that beginning is also very short, and as soon as year 2 begins, the game really feels open and all.

- combat is actually more tactical than Origins' IMO, although the new shine they gave it gives it the opposite feel. It has its flaws though, which I'll mention later.

- I liked the fact that the game has so many plot twists, important decisions that were really distillated throughout the story unlike Origins where it's mostly during the Landsmeet. The integration of the friendship/rivalry system into plot elements was a real surprise and made everything feel epic. Interactions with companions are great.

- no more fatigue, skills, useless talents... That's the sort of welcome simplification I call "smarting up" rather than dumbing down. Really declutters gameplay.

- Isabela = most stunningly crafted video game chick ever. Robes and hoods look great. Some of the environments (Lowtown in particular) are beautiful. Sky, lighting effects... It's a shame Bioware decided to focus on marketing Lothering and some ugly exploding darkspawn when other areas and enemies looked so stylish. I mean, just take a look at these 3 screens (that's on low settings !!) :





Now, here are some things I didn't like :

- junk serves no gameplay purpose. At least, you were kind enough to create the "junk" category to sort it out, but here's the thing : if the ONLY purpose of junk is to be sold, why not simply replace it with money ? Weapons, armor and ingredients can be either used or sold, it's up to the player. Junk can only be sold, therefore, it's purely a waste of time.

- although I can live without the tactical view, the fact that AOE abilities can't be locked on specific enemies make them useless in many situations : for instance, if my mage is facing a bunch of stairs with ennemies on top, the camera doesn't allow for a clickable horizon, so I should at least be able to click the foes themselves, to compensate for the ground missing.

Even when the camera is not a problem, the fact that you can only click the ground itself makes targeting AOE abilities tricky in a room full of enemies (since the more enemies there is, the less clickable ground you have). It also makes AOE tactics likely to fail (Bethany for instance, systematically throws a fireball where she sees the enemies ; since enemies generally will move as soon as they see you, she tends to miss them very often. That wouldn't happen with lockable AOE. I suspect that may be related to the new mechanic of being able to dodge attacks though. Still, even if they can escape my AOE attacks by moving, I'd like to be able to target the enemies' original position not simply by clicking on the ground for the aforementioned reasons (no top view and not enough space).

- not a very specific complaint but the game is quite buggy. Mostly texture bugs (fixed when you reload the area), nothing that crashes the game. The only major bug I had was in the Wounded Coasts : I got a scripted attack from a character (won't mention who not to spoil anything) taking his revenge, which apparently broke a side quest in the area, and disabled right-clicking. The game otherwise is quite stable considering how big it is.

- when I've used a conversation option, I'd like for that option to disappear (though I'll admit I sometimes reselected one just to pick up on a line I had missed). It would make conversation more realistic.

- I found myself surprisingly pleased by the dialogue wheel system, although I'm not fond of male Hawke's VA at all. He's a good actor but not neutral enough for a PC I thought : cute flirty lines sounded cocky or creepy, light humorous lines sounded corny and pretentious, agressive lines sounded psychotic, diplomatic lines sounded pedantic... Again, I think he's a good actor, I just don't like the nuance he gave Hawke, more emotion and less attitude would have made it easier to relate, at least IMO.

- I can only agree with recycled environments. Going back to the same place several times makes sense (it's actually quite cool to know the city like your pocket), going to identical places that claim to be different places is less tolerable (especially when it's more than a couple of times).

Even though I loved the fact that the game takes place in one big area (very cool, different experience from all the traveling in Origins), some itineraries start to get repetitive at some point (I'm in Lowtown, you're in Hightown, join me in Darktown then in Lowtown !). I might be a bit biased on that point since after all, I finished the game in 70 hours condensed in hardly a week (*shame*) and did pretty much every side quest I stumbled upon ! Which also proves the game is potentially MUCH LONGER than what has been said.

- enemies explode far too frequently. That should only happen with specific spells, not with an arrow or a stabbing. I toggled off consistant gore (thank god) but even then, I found the game's bloodiness needlessly goofy. You don't want to pause combat and take screenshots like you did in Origins because the blood hardly lets you see anything. That's a shame.

- Like in Origins, there are locked chests before you get to recruit your first rogue. That's bad design.

- Oh ! One more thing : BEARDS. Instead of having 10 different shaving patterns for the same density of stubble (which is a bit weird, because few men actually cleanshave just half of their stubble, no offense to guardsman Donnic), why not simply have a few textures of different fullness ? Like 1- hairy stubble, 2- not so hairy stubble, 3- little stubble, 4- no stubble VS some actual beardstyles some of which would be textures too instead of tapestrial 3d thingies that mess with all your features.


I could think of many other things, both positive and negative, but I'll stick to those in that post for now. Overall, very pleasantly surprised with all the negative pre-release talk. I think a lot of it was due to the fact that Bioware marketed this game pretty strangely, focusing on the suppressions rather than the additions : awesome story mechanics, some beautiful environments, very tactical cross-class combat, complicated storyline, awesome villains... If you had shown just some of that instead of marketing the game as a vague burned-village-refugee-becomes-big-badass button-masher (which it is not), fans wouldn't have freaked out like that. It is good to try and appeal to a new audience, but if you still have elements likely to satisfy your original audience (and there's plenty of those), why hide it ?

Modifié par nijnij, 17 mars 2011 - 01:23 .

[BlackVader]

I got a few minor complains to add. Haven't read the whole topic so sorry if those have already been adressed.

1. Displaying enemy ranks by health bar length is stupid. Ok, Bosses are easy enough to identify, but Elites? I often find myself surprised by which enemies are identified as Elites by my companions' tactics setting and which are not. Seriously, what was wrong with the color-coding in DA:O?

2. I like the floating damage numbers but the blue "Resisted" and "Interrupted" need to be placed somewhere else. Put them below the enemy or something. At their current position (above the enemy) they often block the view on important stuff like CCC-debuff icons and even healthbars. It's not too bad for a melee character but when I control my mage in the back row, I often have to switch to my tank just to see if the enemy is staggered or not.

3. I can't willingly interrupt my own attack animations. I can't begin to count how often I missed the timing of a CCC just because my mage was waving his staff around for 1-2 seconds finishing his basic attack before he began casting his spell. Especially on bosses that are only staggered for second, it toally messes up ANY kind of CCC timing.

[Caja]

I think that a thread like this is really a great idea. I will try to give constructive criticism but since I’m not a native speaker and don’t live in the US or Canada I hope you bear with my English.
 
 Cutscenes:
What I love about Dragon Age 2 are cutscenes and dialogscenes. The facial animations are well done and I enjoy the conversations a lot. The voice-overs and the soundtrack are great, too.
 
Dialog-wheel:
However, I’m struggling with the dialog-wheel. The selection of answers and the answers that Hawke gives do not coincide. What’s in the selection never appears when Hawke talks. Often Hawke means something different than I do and I’m rather surprised in what direction my conversation is heading for. But I do like that you can ask your companions for advice in certain conversations with none-player-characters.
 
Romances and conversations:
I love the fact that there are romances in the game. Hang on to that. But the pace doesn’t seem right. Between act 1 and act 2 years go by and while Hawkes relationship to his/her love intrest might have deepened during that period I, as a player, got the feeling that everything was suddenly very rushed when the relationship gets intimate. I wish for more opportunies to talk with my companions and to learn more about how they “tick”. And why can’t I start a conversation on my own? I always have to wait for a certain event to trigger before I can talk with them.
 
Story:
Well, I haven’t finished the story yet (currently I’m in act 2) but act 1 was a bit “sluggish”. I missed some plot-points. The deep road expedition however was great, because it had an interesting story, creative environment and a challanging boss fight. It’s not the amount of enemies that makes a fight enjoyable but rather their intelligence. In act 2 I miss a goal for Hawke. Yes, there are political conflicts, but why are they Hawkes problems? What holds the main character in the “melting pot”?
 
Dilemma and choices:
I never got the feeling that my hero is in a real dilemma. Do the things I say and do really matter? Because I receive the impression, that everything leads to success. Well, since it’s Hawke rise to power it probably has to be. But it’s not that much of a challenge. In Origins there were several encounter where I thought that the choice with whom to team up was not so easy, e.g. Zathrien or the lady of the forest.    
 
Level Design:
I think that enough was already said about the level design. Admit it, it is boring .
 
Imported save-game from Origins:
Personally, I thought my imported save-game from Origins would have a greater impact but I understand that this might scare new customers away.
 
Camera:
Also, I’m not a fan of the camera. It never stays in the position I want it to, e.g. I want to look up so I can see what’s in front of me and the camera “looks down” again. Makes me seasick.
 
Map:
I like the new map (“M”). I know that some people don’t, but I think it’s clearer.

Edited to add: I'm also a member of the "more skin" party. The sex scene was really very tame. I'm not asking for porn here but would a little bit of naked skin be really that bad?

Modifié par Caja, 17 mars 2011 - 02:53 .

[BluGirl1968]

Hello,

More Skin in Kirkwall girl here. I have been thinking about what prompted this initial response from me. Please take the following as a minor criticism, this is a fabulous game.

Beside the fact the things involving the showing of skin are fun and wonderful, I would really appreciate more displays of a connection between Hawke and her love interest.

You see in Origins, when Alistair died on me the first game, I cried - I do not even think I have it saved because it crushed me. I was half in love with him myself.

The Men in this game are devestatingly attractive, both of them - but the emotional link is missing. I got sexy time with Anders and when the end came I was stunned, shocked - I could not bring myself to do it.......but if there had been more connection, your writing would have turned me into a puddle of emotional goo the way you did with Alistair.

Also - I simultaneously love and hate you all for the forshadowing because you told me everything and I didn;t see it coming. *shakes fist in mock fury*

Anyway. Thank you and More Skin in Kirkwall.

[Iakus]

Warning:  This is kinda long, but wanted to get my thoughts down now while impressions are still fresh:



DA2 has proven to be very stable so far. I haven’t fond any major bugs, haven’t had a single crash, and only a couple of slowdowns ::knock on wood::. One problem I have had is probably more of an aesthetic thing. The overuse of black on the menu screens is a strain on my eyes. Unless the lighting is just right, reading the menus can be very difficult.
 
Skill trees are a big improvement over DAO the branching, nonlinear aspect makes for a far more customizable character. Thumbs up!
 
Graphics and sound are both overall quite good. Yes there’s not much variety, but it takes place in a much smaller area, it’s to be expected. I do have a couple of points that bugged me though:
 
Mage staffs: the “pew pew pew” sound really grated after a while.
 
Reuse of areas: kinda corner-cutting, even by my standards. Simply walling off passages we aren’t supposed to take, but leaving them to show up on the minimap? Really?
 
Combat: Kinda Diabloesque for my taste, but that’s a minor thing for me. I don’t play rpgs for a combat fix. Pause-and play fixed most of that for me anyway (still missed the top-down view though). A bit more of a problem for me are such things as shield-bashing an opponent and watching them explode. Seriously, things don’t have to get that “awesome” when I push a button.
 
Conversations: These are okay. Being able to involve companions in decisions was a stroke of genius, I have to say. Mood icons were useful too. However, in the end it almost always boiled down to the blue choice (nice), red choice (jerk) or purple choice (neutral) This is a flaw that is likely destined to plague voiced protagonists for some time. 
 
In short, the dialogue wheel needs more spokes
 
Companions: Overall good. I’m really glad to see they participate in your conversations, banter with each other, and express opinions (something I feared had been forgotten thanks to another Bioware game with a “2” at the end) And I shall repeat, involving them in the conversations themselves=genius. 
 
I also like the new friendship/rivalry system. Now if I decide to me a mage-sympathizer, for example, I don’t have to worry about antagonizing Fenris too much. I’m not missing a part of the story, I’m steering it in a particular direction.
 
One thing I did miss, though, was the lack of one-on-one talks you can have with your companions. They just seem so few and far-between. I know from Hawke’s manor that he presumably has kept in contact with them, and had them over. But I would have liked to see some of that myself. I wanted to chat with Aveline about her experiences in the guard, or Merrill about the Dalish and her clan. Or hear Anders’s perspective on the events at Vigil Keep. Unfortunately, what I kept getting I kept was Aveline brushing me off saying she had calibrations to do. Not really, but kind of the equivalent. 
 
Kinda sad that getting the mabari added so many more conversations to the game. 
 
Romances: I’m all for them, but making all LI options available to everyone strikes me as…cheap. And in more than one sense of the word. It takes away from a characters’ individuality, making them less a potentially love interest and making them a definite LI, regardless of who you are.   Plus I don’t alike accruing renegade points for shutting down admirers' advances. But that’s just me.

Outfits:  As I feared, very hit and miss.  Call me a prude or whatever, but I don't want my companions going into battle wearing a "tunic" that appears to be a crudely-sewn shirt with a long tail.  Or armored with an overcoat and an unbuttoned shirt.  This may be "cool" but to me it's just stupid.  Other outfits, like Aveline's Sebastians, Anders, were much better.  Even Fenris's outfit made sense once I got to see his abilities.
 
Story: Clearly, it’s smaller and less epic than Origins. That’s not a bad thing. IF DAO paid tribute to epic fantasies like “A Song of Ice and Fire” then DA2 seems a homage to “Thieves’ World” Make no mistake, I prefer epic myself. But that’s just a preference. I liked this story too, with a couple of exceptions:
 
I thought the openings for the Acts were rather abrupt. While it gave good context for the overall situation, Hawke’s personal situation you kind of had to pick up as you went along. “Why is the Hawke family so well armed?” “Why is Hawke talking to that dwarf?” 
 
After the Deep Roads, the pacing suffered a bit. I found myself thinking “Hawke has achieved pretty much all his goals. He’s rich, famous, and has regained his family estate. He’s reached the upper tiers of Kirkwall society. What’s left to do?” From then on, it seems to be more of an epilogue, tying up loose ends, than moving towards becoming the Champion.
 
But yes, overall the story was decent. I like it when adventurers start out as nobodies and become heroes, over those destined for greatness by prophecy, destiny, or whatever.
 
So overall, an enjoyable experience.  Not Bioware’s best game, but far from it’s worst. I think it suffers in part from being the follow up Dragon Age from the sheer greatness that was Origins. But I’d give this game a solid B.

[Zan Mura]

Ah and to chime back in with something that once more killed my group:

Please, *NEVER* have again have the need for pretty little casual attack animations delay my activation of abilities. This is a huge drawback for the gameplay. Few things are as annoying as dying 10 minutes into the fight because your mage wants to use 2 seconds to do 3 twirls and a boom with his staff and refuses to cast the damn spell before someone dies. Talent activation commands should *always* override any and all regular automatic actions instantly.

[chzrm3]

I think there was a missed opportunity with the companions this time around. In Mass Effect, Jade Empire, KotoR, etc... the adventure that you go on with your companions happens over the span of a few weeks, maybe a month at most. So we kind of take it at face value that, during this time, your companions become best friends with you, fall irreversibly in love with you, etc.

Mass Effect 2 was the first game to change this, since Shep had been dead for two years, giving your party members plenty of time to miss you. So it made sense that you couldn't romance Tali in ME1, but you could in ME2 - after losing you, she realized how much she cared about you, and was willing to risk her own health to be with you.

Dragon Age 2 could've stepped this up even further. Now we've got 10 years, over the course of which we could really forge deep, meaningful relationships (or rivalries!) with all of our party members. Instead, it seems like every time there's a time skip, Hawke stops interacting with the party members for that set amount of time. It's kind of weird, especially in the case of Isabela - he says, after seeing her in the hanged man "You haven't moved from this spot in three years!"

Remember at the end of DA:O, when you get to talk to your party members and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life? That was really cool. You weren't just restricted to your love interest, either - as one example, you could go off with Sten in search of fulfillment of the Qun.

I think it would've been nice if DA2 had these sort of options to bridge the gap. So if you've been paying attention to your party members, a conversation will have come up asking about something you'd like to do. Maybe you offer to help Aveline out with her guard duties, or something less committal like making a comment to Isabela that you'll be sure to stop into the hanged man often and hang out with her.

These wouldn't have to be exclusive, either. It'd probably be okay if Hawke was spending quality time with all the party members. The real point would be that, after 3 years have passed, it's not just "Hi, remember me? Wanna kill stuff together some more?", but you've forged a deep friendship with these people, and not just in a "hey, remember when we did that thing that was never mentioned before and will never be mentioned prior to this? hahaha, good times now let's move on" sort of way.

[DarkWulfy]

nijnij wrote...

Okay, first of all, here are some of the things I like about the game (yes, I believe it's part of constructive criticism) :

- loading screens. When it comes to big games, as annoying as they are, loading screens are a necessary fatality. The fact that there's plenty of different ones, all location or quest related and pretty cool looking keeps that annoyance to a minimum, and actually reinforces immersion instead of breaking it (for most of the game anyway). That is quite unique and I thought that was a really welcome idea.

Okay, I just wanted to add that I fully support this, and really appreciated the variety of loading screens in the game. Bravo.

[Damoadrthade]

Dragon Age 2 does have some good changes and alot of bad ones.

The Good:

Revamped graphics and animations.
Better selection of unique Armours.
Player character voice over.
Excellent voice over cast.

The Bad:

Very short.
Lack of any main story.
Cant get to know your companions.
Cant equip your companions with armour.
Game has no sense of purpose.
Highly repetitive dungeon layouts.

Overall:

The game starts out well but once you hit " Act 1 " it seems nothing more than a series of side quests to make money for a very short trip into the deep roads which itself has no real purpose at all and leaves you asking WTF!!?? did i just spend a few hours doing sidequets !!

Act 2 has been slightly better put together plot wise but i quickly got tired as it was apparent each act was seperate and i would have been alot happier had they actually made it 1 game with 1 story rather than 1 game 3 stories and it just left me feeling like i bought a second rate game that had been put together very quickly with out much thought or purpose.

As in Awakening you cant actually talk to your companions except at pre-determined points of which i found there to be very few and did not feel like i got to know any of them at all and the romance i choose i have no idea at all how it happend since my pc and merril had barley spoken enough to find out about her let alone to ask her to move in!!!

The good points pretty much speak for themselves i found this an amusing game but in no way upto the standards of an RPG let alone a Bioware RPG. Very poor show indeed guys.

[Lumikki]

Okey, I have played 28 hours now and Hawks story ends, not because game ended, but because I refuse to go forward anymore. If someone surender, I will NEVER side the one who wants still kill everyone. I don't know why you want  to force player to kill innocent people in your story.

END of story.

Point is, you can't make choises like it's one or other and force Hawke to do something stupid, like what choises has  be done in past still affect choises when situation change in future.  Hole story situation was made so extreme that it did not anymore make any sense to choose at all.

PS: I'm talking here the "Year seven" mark and where it leads.

Modifié par Lumikki, 17 mars 2011 - 11:38 .

[Irish Coffee]

Ok i'm only half-way through page 3 of this thread but I plan on reading all of it (the opinions are fascinating and everyone is being so insanely mature it makes me realize why I love Bioware and it's fan base)

I just wanted to chime with what i feel is a fairly unique opinion on the Combat:

I love the new combat but understand PC gamers not digging it (i'm a PC gamer myself so that's weird huh?) In fact I love it so much I want the ability to change the interface to work with a plugged in Xbox Controller rather than mouse and keyboard. That's right, you heard me, I want the console experience on my PC. The reason I play on PC is games always look 10x better (and DA2 is no exception) and in general you get far more options. This is an option I would LOVE to be implemented. I've played a bit of DA2 on a 360 and loved the feel way more, just not the look. Basically I want my cake and I want to eat it. That's a unique opinion I wanted to express. Now back to everything else, and i'll get back to reading this amazing thread!

[DA_GamerGal]

Sefferz wrote...

 - Lack of dialogue with companions, especially LIs and not being able to initiate discussion by any other means but by receiving the quest. I was hoping for more chatting from the person I'm supposed to be romantically involved with. I suppose my expectations were just too high because Origins did so well with this.

I also was hoping that DA2 would allow for more interaction with your companions and your love interest. I would have loved to be able to find out more about the background of each companion and what their thoughts may be about various events or situations that have happened to Hawk and the world around them. I think you would be able to have a more emotional connection to your companions if this was allowed. I really feel like I had a more of a connection to Alistair in DAO then I had with Anders in DA2. I mean, Hawk spent years with some of these companions... you'd think they would have a whole lot more to talk about!


“In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.” Grey Warden motto.

[Lethys1]

While this isn't my largest criticism personally, it is the one I feel is most inexcusable.  A game taking place over such a focused area should have better graphics at the very least than a game like Two Worlds 2.  I don't know anything about the game's engine, etc. but I know that the game, because of its small focus, it should at least provide lots of attention to detail when it comes to graphics.  The game should be far superior on that front than it is now.


I hate how the game treats time jumps.  It makes it seem as though I haven't seen certain companions for the whole three year jump, which simply would not happen.  Like the small quest to see your uncle....you haven't seen him in three years?  It's a small detail in the writing, probably won't be a problem next game, hopefully.


On that note, there is simply not enough character building with anyone besides Varric and your sibling, which was Bethany in my case.  Fenris is the character who was least developed by far for me, and honestly he felt like a stranger.  I guess that's the character, he never wants to talk when I went to him.  Even Jacob from ME2 had more lines than most of these characters.  Bioware needs to give all their characters as many lines as they did in ME1.


The game loses the balance that these types of games have normally by spawning enemies in weird places, having some classes simply perform much better than the others, etc.  Tanking isn't as effective or useful as it normally is....it does work for the most part though.  Rogues are useless as melee, I only bring the ranged rogues.  Mages are way too powerful, though this may have to do with the lore.  On the hard difficulty, I tore through enemies like a hot knife through butter, then would come to a wall.  I never felt it was really fair, either, like in the case of Anders' companion mission.  The Rock Wraith from Deep Roads was also waaay too difficult for a game which isn't nearly as tactical as one would need to do this efficiently.


I never seemed to care about the story that much.  I'm gonna play through it and finish it but honestly I'm not that red hot about the story.  We did a bunch of chores, really.  This was the problem with the first game, too, it all felt like chores when you really gave it a good look, but this time the chores-thing is immediately evident.  Never felt that way for me in Mass Effect 1.  I want some level of control in the next Dragon Age....make me a king or a viscount or an arl, with some power.  I want to make some decisions about peasants and fight in a war that I control, but also actually fight in.


TL:DR Version- More plot, more freedoms and choices, more conversations, more controlled combat (no more 90 MPH combat) and better graphics.

[Quionic]

1) The conversation with your allies. One of the best things in DA:O was being able to talk to them WHENEVER, unlike DA2 and DA:A. I miss that.
2)The level up system, in my personal opinion, needs to be back to "normal" (again, like in DA:O), I liked how I could put all of my points into strength or something and the bonus points into persuade or pick locks.
3)Better text, it's too hard on my eyes (and yes, I have an HD TV). Maybe a font option?
4)Gifts, I loved how I could go all over and find gifts litterally dozens. But now in DA2 I'm nly stuck with a few

But other than those few gripes, I love this game!
And thanks BioWare for all your work and reading the forums.

[standardpack]

Main problem I had was reused maps. I mean sure it made navigating each dungeon easier but Origins just made me go 'WOW' because nearly everywhere I went was a new and different area, which in turn made it more exciting for me.

Another thing I had a problem with was which missions to take first or last. In origins the map was centered around different areas of ferelden, but I atleast knew to go to the circle first if I wanted to settle a few things in redcliff (players know which). And that orzammar was a good place to save for last. In DA2 I was so confused as to where to go first I missed getting Isabella, there was nothing to indicate that she was even in the hanged man, atleast in origins the companions showed up as you plaued the main story or in Shale's case had their own area/DLC.

Conversation wheel was an improvement and let down for the following reasons: It showed the intentions of what you said from understanding to '**** off', origins didn't do that. The problem was sometimes my character says something completely different to what I clicked, sure it was still in the 'understanding' category but it was like he completely changed the subject. I can't think of an example but I haven't finished the game so when I come across another one I'll post it here.

Next was the voices. Anders was completely changed, maybe that was to go along with his personality changed but sometimes I forget that the guy I'm talking to was the same guy I traveled with in awakenings. And Hawke's voice, I know it isn't intentional but whenever I hear him talk I think 'That Bastard Vaughan Urien!!' Which made it harder to relate to Hawke, perhaps it would have been better to find a completely different voice actor for protagonist, or atleast someone with voice differentiation. This one might just be a pet peeve on my part.

Darkspawn, why the change in graphics?  What was wrong with the first one?  In Origins I could actually see the corruption whenever one got close enough to show it's ugly mug.  Now I see one in DA2 and all I think is, 'It's a giant naked Mole Rat in armor'.

Positives: I play the pc and I just LOVE how combat mostly stayed the same, with some added perks. Combat for one is a lot faster, I wouldn't use the two handed fighter to save my life in Origins because he was slower than a snail, but in DA2 he is a freakin' jugernaut on the field. If you played origins on pc then you can still follow the basic in DA2 for pc. I heard however that console users where dissapointed with their change to combat but I can't relate to them since I only have PC version. Though I understand that myself and many others miss their duel wielding...

That's it for now, this is just what I gatehred from my first impression of the game, If I come across more I'll post them here.

Modifié par standardpack, 17 mars 2011 - 12:47 .

[fallingseraph]

Constructive Criticism:
It wasn't right to reuse 7 areas over and over
It wasn't right to remove micromanagement of companion equipment
It wasn't right to restrict weapons to classes
It wasn't right to remove so many of the ability trees (Bard, DW warriors, Arcane Warrior)
It wasn't right to have ~20 hours of content for 60 bucks when previously it was 120ish
It wasn't right to leave so many bugs in the game, speed rogue cooldowns reduction doesn't work.
It wasn't right to make it only one playable race in a game with many
It wasn't right to cancel Dragon Age Origins/Awakening DLCs for this game.
It wasn't right to reuse so much music
It wasn't right to change and reuse enemy models making them simplified and not unique.
It wasn't right to give so little bagspace and so much merchant junk.


Where is the depth of DA:O and Neverwinter Nights?
Where is the content of multiple stories and endings?
Why does every choice lead to two unremarkable outcomes?

The things they did right:
Graphics seem a little prettier
Plenty of romance options for the GLAD folks.
Had some connections to DA:O's story.


I swear in DA:O I spent more time in Orzammar on my dwarf beginning to end than I did in the entirety of Dragon Age 2.

Modifié par fallingseraph, 17 mars 2011 - 01:20 .

[Kimberly Shaw]

Criticisms:

- Reused maps - taken to a new height. This is something I have seen no one, ever, defend. The game world is small, one city and surrounding areas. Day and Night only change the NPCs present and the lighting, so there isn't much really there. I think what is there is pretty, but come on. One mansion, one cave, one warehouse and you're done? I can excuse that in a game like The Elder Scrolls series because their game worlds are extremely large in comparison, but even it seemed less repetitive than this.

Bring back dialogue with companions not quest related. A lot of people enjoy the game for the companions and how real they feel. When they won't say anything to you because they don't need you to go fetch something is immersion breaking.

I hate the way NPCs drop from the sky or appear from no where. Bring back the stationary red dots from Origins for enemies, PLEASE, and only have waves appear when it makes sense in a way that makes sense (Undead corpses raising from the graves, darkspawn critters burrowing from the rock, dragons flying in, etc.).

I really disliked the ending, because I felt the third act was rushed and poorly done in general and that my choices meant nothing. It's fine if you're trying to say that we cannot stop the inevitable/fate etc. BUT Bioware games are about choice. This game has ONE ending and ONE ending only except for very insignifacnt details and there is no epilogue. Also, the game was billed over 10 years and it was only over 7 years, and the time skips were meaningless...3 months instead of 3 years could have passed between act 1 and 2 or 2 and 3 and it would have made no difference.

Too much Junk with no purpose or item description, why have it? It's just coin with the stat -1 inventory slot. Dumbing down superfluous loot so that Johnny Xbox 360 the 13 year old doesn't get confused what to do with it is ridiculous. If you're going to dumb it down that much, just give us coin instead of "JUNK" with a trash can inventory slot. Who the heck came up with that idea anyway? The same people responsible for the brilliance that is Baldur's Gate1/2? I bet not.

The game was far too short compared to Orgins and felt the last act in particular was rushed.

The Exiled Prince content was very weak compared to Shale as a new NPC in Origins.

[Kimberly Shaw]

OH, and Specializations aren't that specialized if you get to pick 2 of the 3 choices and there is no lore behind getting them. Make several specializations and only pick 1 and have to learn them in game like in Origins. This would make specializing SPECIAL and take thought to pick.

[Jenova65]

OK, I am back.
Kirkwall is nice as place to explore, but I want more than one town in any game.
Also my main issue with ME2 was that it is very claustrophobic morphing from one place to another (not being able to walk off the Normandy as an example) and this feels like that. Just not having other towns to travel to is sad.
Not nearly enough gifts and conversation opportunities. I want to strike up a conversation randomly not because talking to my party members is a flipping quest WTH?
I care far more for my silent warden than I do for Hawke, the voice seems to have replaced substance with style, for me! I care more about the party members in DA:O even the ones I don't like than I do for DA II
I have enjoyed it but if DA:O was an 9/10 DA II is 7/10 it feels shallow and opportunistic (cashing in on DA) It had the potential to be an amazing game but is just a good game.
I know the length is not much different but some of that is the silly waves of enemies that appear from nowhere and not that story that is carrying the length. As a result it felt, storywise, a lot shorter and I get that you can't always be saving the world but it felt a bit petty as RPG stories go.
And what's the deal with everyone f***ing off? Isabela cos I didn't get to know her fast enough Anders cos I won't trust a terrorist, Sebastian because though I won't trust Anders, I am not going to kill him either and Carver/Bethany for no reason at all......... Crisis moments should offer a chance to make things right as in DA:O and don't come until such a point as you have no good reason to not be their friend unless you don't want to be.

Modifié par Jenova65, 17 mars 2011 - 01:01 .

[Kimberly Shaw]

ALSO - missed opportunity huge to have something from act 1 cause changes to Kirkwall in act 2 or 3, in terms of things besides NPC A sends you a letter. Like someone you saved or not saved in Act 1 becomes the leader of the Coterie or Circle or something in Act 3; or if you go pro Alienage early on by Act 3 the alienage is much nicer and the people are happier etc. Just such a wasted opportunity to use the time skips to reflect the choices made, instead they did NOTHING. Which I blame on the rushedness of the game.

[Tamirel963]

Sorry if some of these have been said.

Let me play more story! I understand the time jumps but my preference would be to play Hawkes time as a mercenary or to play the unrest and culling of the Qunari remnant after the fall of the arishock.

Bring back companions armor as well as talking to companions at any time.

Dialogue needs to have separate end points. If all talking points end at the same conclusion what is the point of choice? On this not have multiple endings so our interactions actually matter.

I think my other criticisms have been mentions in this thread. But I really think the biggest problem were the reuse of environments and the story always ending the same regardless of choice.

[Tamirel963]

One other thing to add. Maybe give our characters a dodge or roll ability? I remember being pissed at the fight with the lead Qunari because I had to run away. He would begin to attack and I would not be able to move quickly enough (mostly cause of the wide range of his swords). But each time I would have been able to dodge roll. As long as DA is becoming an action RPG add in a type of evasion ability for fights were evasion is paramount.

[DA_GamerGal]

BluGirl1968 wrote...

Hello,

More Skin in Kirkwall girl here. I have been thinking about what prompted this initial response from me. Please take the following as a minor criticism, this is a fabulous game.

Beside the fact the things involving the showing of skin are fun and wonderful, I would really appreciate more displays of a connection between Hawke and her love interest.

You see in Origins, when Alistair died on me the first game, I cried - I do not even think I have it saved because it crushed me. I was half in love with him myself.

The Men in this game are devestatingly attractive, both of them - but the emotional link is missing. I got sexy time with Anders and when the end came I was stunned, shocked - I could not bring myself to do it.......but if there had been more connection, your writing would have turned me into a puddle of emotional goo the way you did with Alistair.

Also - I simultaneously love and hate you all for the forshadowing because you told me everything and I didn;t see it coming. *shakes fist in mock fury*

Anyway. Thank you and More Skin in Kirkwall.

I feel exactly the same way you do. DA:O allowed me to have such an emotional connection to the characters- especially Alistair.

The first time I played DA:O I chose Alistair as my love interest. The tent cutscene in the party camp was great... also enjoyed being able to steal a kiss from him when I felt my character needed a little pick-me-up on the road. This all helped create such an emotional tie to my companion that I actually jumped up off of the couch and shouted "No! You can't!" when I got dumped by him after making him King. I actually felt my heart break. It was if my own husband had just dumped me and tore my heart out ( my hubby thought I was crazy and we had a good laugh together). I have played DA:O 13 times and each time my connection to my character and companions have not lessened at all. Needless to say, I was hoping that DA2 would expand on this and take it to a higher level... sadly it has not in this department.

Not to say that DA2 isn't a great game- it is. I love it. I am on my 2nd play through and I simply love playing this game. I love the fact my character has a voice now (something that was sadly missing in DA:O and Awakenings) . I just think that Bioware could have done so much more with the companions that Hawk interacts with. I mean 10 years is a long time to spend in one place and not have some type of a more in depth interaction with the people in your life. Especially after a major event happens in your life. Wouldn't you want to discuss it with your close friends and lover? Wouldn't you want a little more then "I'm sorry this happend to you" and  let's just move on to the next quest?

Not to say that DO2 did not have some major emotional punches, because there were. It just could have been so much more. It could have been a perfect 10.

Already looking forward to DA3 and another try for the perfect game.

[DA_GamerGal]

Also...what's with all the junk?!? I don't get it. If you take the time to open all the chests and containers you come across, you'd think you'd be able to find more usefull and interseting things then all that junk! I spent so much time going back and forth to merchants so I could unload all the junk and clear up some room for the equipment that really mattered.