JohnEpler wrote...
...
Just letting you guys know that we're still reading these.
Great, because here comes a big one
First of all, thanks to the OP for the initiative. I tried to start a thread (for PC only) and got 9 pages of comments, but died in the end. So I will chime in here with some ideas that were in my thread, plus personal things.
Before I go ahead, I'll just say that I'm not far in the game. So I won't comment on the story and general elements, I'll do that later. I've been a gamer for many years, a Bioware fanboy (you can call me that since I loved BG, BG2, NWN, ME1, ME2, DAO) but I play other games like Fable, Starcraft, CoD, bla bla bla.
And I'm gonna use Mikeunicus method to write this
Liked: New Art Style
The new art style taken for Dragon Age 2 is splendid. The Wounded Coast was wow, even if I play DirectX9 with MED resolution. I think the new art gives more character to the game and the colors are bright. It feels better.
Disliked: New Art Style
I really don't like the elf race in Dragon Age 2. Personal thing, but DAO was spot on in my opinion.
Disliked: Area recycling
Nothing to mention here!
Disliked: Combat (including difficulty)
This is probably the most frustrating thing for me. I really don't like the direction this was taken. First, the Nightmare difficulty, which I want to play because that's the only one with Friendly Fire. I totally dislike this level of difficulty. It looks like it was not tested or I became really poor at gaming suddenly. Pair this to the new fast and furious combat pace... too fast. For a tactical player, fast paced combat means a LOT more pausing in combat... and because there is a lot of battle, this gets boring. Pair that with the wave system of enemies and now it's totally killing the tactical aspect of the game. The cooldown on healing spells and potions is really slow related to the combat speed. So when you unleash everything you have at the first wave and are in the cooldown period of your healing, there comes the second wave... with a mage!!! Another thing that removed some tactical element is the removal of the 2nd Weapon Set and it's a concern for me. I played a rogue twice in Origins and I loved to enter the battle with a bow and switch to dual-weapons during combat. Now it is long and dull to do, so I just stick to daggers. And, the lack of free camera or tactical camera on PC is killing my experience, especially with the new pace.
To summarize, I hate the combat in DA2. I would have hoped for Origins speed of combat, or a little quicker to please more people or (DA2 slowed down). But definitely no waves. Oh and Nightmare in Origins was perfect. So what I did yesterday, after shouting at my computer, was to put the difficulty to normal and explode everything to at least enjoy the story and other elements. Because combat is extremely frustrating for me and unfortunately, it's a big part of the game.
An exemple of a battle: I fight spiders. My 3 other companions have more than enough opposition and there is a poisonous spider behind. So I send my rogue (Hawke). I receive the poison spit and I’m knocked back. For some reason, the timing between each poison spit is exactly the timing of the knockback effect. So, the spider kills my rogue because I wasn’t able to do a damn thing. Never got the chance to jump away, go stealth, etc. because of the sync between the attacks and knockbacks. In the meantime, Aveline is fightning the spiders. Her health drops quickly, so I take a potion. Then, seconds later, the cooldown of the potion is halfway, she is back the to exact same critical health and wasn’t able to deliver more than a few hits because she was knockback all the time.
My suggestions: keep the new animations, but add a little time between each attack, this will slow the pace. Balance nightmare and knockdown effects and balance potions and heal cooldowns. Oh and remove the waves! or apply waves were it means something, not every battle. It’s fun to progress in the story, not just fight.
Disliked: Origins finishing moves replaced by exploding corpses
Finishing moves where a nice nice small detail in Origins. I loved to see the finishing moves of Alistair on the Ogres, or my rogue on a darkspawn (head cut). Now what we have is exploding corpses... for no reason. It gives a feel of power yeah, but Origins moves gave a feel of competence. If you want to stick with exploding corpses, well two-handed weapon and magic is more suited than daggers to produce this.
Disliked: Free camera or tactical view missing.
As mentioned in Combat above.
Disliked: Side Quests
There are a lot of side quests I really don't care. I find things on the ground somewhere and follow a marker to deliver that something to a person I really don't care. So far, seriously, there is only one quest I read in the journal and it's the main one. For all the others, I just follow the markers and complete the quest without knowing what I was really doing. I don't even know what quest is related to the name on the marker because there are so many insignificant ones... I mean, in ME1 and ME2, I read all the planetary descriptions... In DAO, I read almost all codex entries. Now in DA2, because of the pace the game wants us to have (see combat), I haven't once read a codex entry. I just feel that there is a big disconnection between the pace of the combat and the pace of the rest of the game.
Disliked: Companions conversations
I won't judge them at the moment, but I'm just gonna agree that dialogs were simplified a lot. I loved to talk to Leliana about her bard tales, Morrigan about her past, Zevran about his missions, etc. Now it's just... the essential. But then you have a huge amount of insignificant sidequests... and a lot of codex entries.
Liked: Friend/Rivalry system
That’s a nice thing. Instead of buying their love (gifts in Origins), not companions reacts to what you do and become rival or friend. I like that idea and actually hope it’s just a start and will be built on for the future.
Disliked: Customization removal
I hate what happened to customization. I understand that to some players, having to care about the equipment of companions was boring and not interesting. But for some, it was one great element of fun. What do we do then? I think that there should have been a compromise to satisfy both side of the fence instead of just removing this feature. I don’t know... less armors in loot. Have armors not fit everybody or need a smith to adjust the armor for a companion only (to keep the original look), etc. There are tons of ideas for this on the forum. I just hate to not be able to equip a longsword+dagger to my Rogue... to have Varric restricted to crossbow, to have all armors locked for companions... Plus the 2nd weapon slot.. for Rogue, especially Hawke, that would have been nice.
Disliked: Disconnection between elements
In a city full of templars, having apostate mages in my team... being attacked by a lot of people in city streets for no apparent reasons... This all doesn’t connect. In the middle of the street, during day, I launch crazy spells and make bodies explode everywhere. People around... well don’t care because there is no reaction. Templars don’t show up or wait for you at the city gate. People know Hawke around the city because people talk (some dialogs give us an indication that Hawke is well known)... but nobody seems to know that her sister is unleashing fireballs like crazy to help Hawke. I know this is probably really hard to be consistent in this matter (Origins, at least you had the excuse of being or helping a grey warden against a Blight), but there is some major disconnection there, especially because everything is in one city and not in a region (Origins, more placed to hide). Suggestions: I don’t know to be honest, it’s just something that I noticed. Maybe restrict magic in the city? I know, probably boring.
Liked: All the rest
So far in my game... I don't feel a big connection with Hawke, I mean... no connection at all. But I'll wait to see the story pan before talking about that.
So, to me, from where I am in the game, I don’t like the decisions that were taken in development of Dragon Age 2. Decisions about priorities according to the time constraint they had. It’s just that instead of changing some features to adapt, they decided to remove them. In all the points I mentioned above, there is only one that is a total gamebreak for me: combat. All the rest I can live with it and still enjoy the game (to a certain degree), but combat....
Thanks for reading this really long reply
Modifié par DownyTif, 17 mars 2011 - 04:03 .
Retour en haut
) in future titles. I felt a lot more satisfied in DA2 (way more than Mass Effect 2--that was just disappointing), and there were so many little nods through dialogue, letters, and cameos; I loved it.
