2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Terror_K]

Companions should have had access to the prestige classes at Levels 7 and 14 too, like they did in DAO so that you could make your other mages proper support/healer mages too and not just be limited to having to be a mage yourself or relying on Anders, who even then doesn't get all the full benefits a spirit healer would. It was especially silly that Isabella couldn't be a Duellist considering she came up with the concept in the original game and was the original teacher.

[Synthorasnow]

Combat
-        I love the combat animation. That’s the first time i really enjoyed auto-attack with a mage!
-        The combat animation could have been a bit slower, so there could have been finish moves like in DA:O.
-        I didn’t like that enemies „explode“ when they got killed, that’s too much!
-        Boss battles were really good, but i didn’t like that wave system most times because it’s just serious not    
         right if a group of enemies just say like „beam my up“ and that’s it. In Kirkwall fighting the gangs it’s ok,
         when they jump down from buildings or out of windows ...

Char-creation / Companions / Equip
-        The synchronisation of the main char (Hawke) was great, although I missed the possibility to create a elf or
          a dwarf (or what else).
-        There could have been more options at the char-creations, like the blood on the nose of standard-hawke.
         More accessories, earring(s), scars or what-ever!
-        I loved the unique companion-style, they didn’t just look like copies of my main char – well done! But i 
         missed the changing of their armors... you’re able to improve the armor four times in the game so why i’m
         not able see any of these improvements? At least small visible changes would have been nice.
-        I didn’t like that every ring / belt / necklace (and almost every armor) had some stats on ... that was way too
         much.

Story and Settings
-        After some time i really felt connected to Kirkwall because of the noticeable personal changes and
         spending a lot of time there. I had hoped that the city its would change more, like new buildings and stuff.
-        Visiting more different places (at least for side quests) would be perfect!
-        I love the Re-Design oft he Qunari and the Elves!
-        The story does not feel that epic (like DA:O), but the compexity and the changes are really made great!
-        The side quests and the companion quests were so much fun! Awesome job!
-        I need more atmosphere in Kirkwall. The city feels too empty.
 
Interface / Menus
-        I preferred the old inventory / journal style. It felt like reading your own written journal

Hope your able to understand my written english ...^^

Modifié par Synthorasnow, 17 mars 2011 - 12:51 .

[AngryFrozenWater]

Loot that I find has to have some purpose. Instead what we have now is junk and some of it is even called junk. Most of the armor could be classified as junk as well, because of the silly henchmen specific armor. If I find cool armor then I want to equip my party members with it. Some party members have a function which require a certain uniform, but when they are in my party they are obviously in their spare time. So, there is no logical reason which should prevent them from using armor that I provide them.

[Galad22]

Alright I am going to post my critisism here in hopes it might matter.

Now first of all fighting, there is far too much of it in this game. And this is even without stupid reinforcements that come around every damn fight. This was done just right in Origins really, there was only sometimes reinforcements in fights and they usually made some sense, say spiders dropping from the roof with webs or something. Not so in DA2 apparently reinforcements usually pop out of thin air which is just unacceptable. Fighting is already tedious in this game because you can't walk 5 meters without fighting some bandits or something.

Reinforcements just make all fights tedious, annoying and boring. Way to go.

Adding to fights are diplomacy, or lack of it really. You can't talk your way out of almost nothing, which is also very annoying to me. You would assume for instance that once you have killed around 50 bandits around the town, bandits would learn to avoid you. But no, apparently bandits in kirkwall are blind, deaf and raised in locked cupboards.

Diplomacy isn't that hard. Here is an example that would make the game (for me at least) so much better if you dropped these around sometimes

Bandit: Hi, your money or your life; and money.
Hawke: You know I hear that far too often. I have to wonder at times how you bandits aren't extinct in Kirkwall already.
Bandit: Uh, do you now? What... what is your name? (feeling little nausea)
Hawke: I am mostly called Hawke. Nice to meet you.
Bandit: Hawke? We, I... I am sorry, we didn't mean it. We are very sorry. Please don't kill us. (sniveling.)

Then third thing that makes fighting anything in da2 even more tedious are reused areas, these are fine first time but after time skips it just keep getting more and more annoying going to same areas killing same enemies that spawn behind you out of thin air and don't even bother trying to talk to you. It's like Bioware have forgotten that pacing is important.

Quests: Almost every single quest in DA2 involves killing punch of people or some sort of monsters. Not every quest in my opinion have to or even should involve slaughtering or maiming or killing. In fact it is horrible tedious because of the waves and waves of enemies that attack you in every fight.

I'll give an example of a quest that in my opinion would pe perfect. There is perfect opportunity in act 3 for a quest. If you click correct item in your home Hawke says she is invited to another noble party. You should be allowed to attend, to talk about politics with your fellow nobles, whispering how Meredith seems to be mad and nobles asking how you would feel to became vicount. Also to get drunk.

I really hated high dragon fight in this game, in origins high dragon was respected and you fought it alone. In DA2 you fought few dragons and 100 dragonlings along with High Dragon, that fight was 10 times as annoying as normal fights in this game.

There are more criticism I have for the game but I leave it at this for now. Hope my critisism comes around as constructive.

[Igib]

If it helps BW with designing future games, I'll add my bit:

story (3/5)
+ rise of one man/woman from nothing to champion instead of another "save the world" is quite refreshing, well done
- no real ending, just a cheap hook onto future products.. i thought you were better than this
- minimum references to DA:O/DA:A decisions and those few seem somewhat forced

pc and companions (5/5) saved the game
+ their personal quests and chatting include most of the game's best moments (i.e. Bethany's fate in the Deep Roads without Anders caught my femHawke completely off-guard)
+ they have much more to say, commenting on places, events etc.
+ Merrill, sweet and funny female elven LI at last!
+ default female pc preset (without smear) looks great and suits her voice well.. for the first time ever I have used preset face
+ voice acting is as always excellent (although it's hard to hear male Hawke and not that bastard from city elf origin)

locations (1/5), the biggest fail
- city itself is quite well done, but with zero/minimum changes over the years
- outside zones are even worse, too few and just pure corridors
- same dungeons/caves again and again with just different passages open/closed
- customizing your home with boss trophies or other items would make it more personal

graphics and ui (4/5)
+ new distinctive art style suits DA2 well
+ some new features, overall looks good enough (dx11/medium+hi-res texture pack)
+ improved ui, more user friendly
- crashing and freezing when using dx11 should have been corrected before release

combat (3/5)
+ responsive combat, animations, warriors and rogues (even mages) are a lot more fun
+ talent trees and upgrading
- just a bit slower melee swings would be perfect
- waves of mobs appearing from nowhere and bosses with tons of hitpoints are not tactically challenging, just.. boring
- enemies exploding after melee/ranged hits and their body parts flying all over the place.. what the?

items (2/5)
+ companions have their own distinctive look
+ clothing/armoring of npcs is more realistic than in the first game
- beeing able to only upgrade and not change companion's armor
- only a few reused models and textures
- star system not always works well (i.e. item with 3% phys dmg and 10 mana/stam looted 1 hour ago having 2 stars, whereas item with just 3% phys dmg looted 10 mins ago has four)
- crafting using nodes is not entirely bad, just.. odd

overall: 3/5
I guess with a little more time it could easily be your best game ever. Sadly, although it's not an entirely bad game, it's probably your worst.

[emirdumani]

In the Awakening I loved quests that concerned the governing of Amarenthine. When I first heard about DA2 and how it would be Hawke's rise to power, i expected similar quests to be honest. Maybe under consideration for a future DLC ?

I have read some of the cirticisms and agree with a few so I won't repeat them, but the above mentioned types of quests gave me great pleasue and wanted to reiterate.

Modifié par emirdumani, 17 mars 2011 - 01:22 .

[ZiggyT]

Over all i liked the game almost as much as DA:O.I guess ill list the three things that took something away for the game for me.

#1 with a bullet is the reused environment.I hate to beat that poor dead horse but this alone made DA 2 less than DA:O.

#2 no free roam cam.This while not a huge deal makes a nightmare run a fair amount harder.It can be a real pain in the danglers to spot your spells.

#3 the appearing enemies.As im sure more than one person has pointed out,this was a great thing about DA:O.The bridge in the Deep Trenches and the first major fight in the Anvil of the Viod were great exapmles of fights that had waves to them without enemies poping out of thin air.

*Edited for spelling

Modifié par ZiggyT, 17 mars 2011 - 01:50 .

[Systera]

In my oppinion Dragon Age should differ from Mass Effect. I don't see a need to mix both games, because it doesn't fit. Let Dragon Age be as it was meant to be: a RPG not a Dragon Effect.

[WarlordDM]

kingmea wrote...

Ummmm....I actually got a serious gameplay bug in the last section of the game. My mage's(hawke's) attacks are slowed down significantly in all difficulties, as well as the cast times. My ice blast or winter blast(w/e its called) takes around 2 seconds to cast, and my auto attacks with a staff take at least 1+ seconds to complete an animation. Not sure if theres some sort of attack speed aura, or some kind of slow that is inhibiting just hawke, but it does not effect my other party members.

Wow I had that too, but I thought it was intended because I had so much armor on my warrior. Clearly a bug.

In Origins it felt like there was much more of a sense of urgency. I remember finding Connor, and I had a choice for the easy way out. I chose the better path, to save his mother, which required me to run to the Circle of Magi. I remember Teagan I think it was said they could last for about a week, and it took long enough to get to the circle and back to feel like time was on the line. When I got there, I had to save the Mages in order to ask them to help, and I remember it was the most frantic and the most important thing I felt I had ever done in a game. Certainly time was probably not even a factor, but I felt like it was. 

DA2 did not give the same feeling of urgency to me. When I knew I had another main plot point (meet with so-and-so), I would be sure to finish every last meaningless sidequest before I went to meet with (whoever) so I wouldnt miss out on the EXP/Loot. 

Another point: I've finished the game, and the last thing I did was Pride Unbound before the finale. I'd really love to swing my new sword people and order some runes to go into the new shield I got, there is no game after it ends like in ME2.


Certainly loved the game though


Edit:
I just wanted to add that I didn't like the romance options. I had the choice between a **** and a blood mage. My Hawke deserved better!!!

Modifié par WarlordDM, 17 mars 2011 - 01:51 .

[Gromphadelic]

my pros and cons after finishing da 2

Combat
+ really liked the new animations and the faster fighting style
-/+ normal mode could have been less "hack 'n' slay"-ish. didn't like that in awakening, don't like it here. hard mode is ok, some enemy groups still to easy,in direct comparison a few boss encounters weigh to tough. i think the difficulties could be more balanced in general
+/- new skillsystem is ok,  although the avaiability of some more skills per character would have been nice. i had 4 attackskills, taunt , 1 sustainable and 2 activate skills in my skillbar, in da:o it was skills, pots and buffstuff from left to right^^
- fights don't differ very much: easy wave of enemies, followed by stronger enemies and a commander, not a lot of variety except the boss encounters

Companions/ Dialogues
+ liked the characters, this time all of them
+ the chatter of the companions in the party is very entertaining
+ cool companionquests, like that they spread through the complete length of the game
+/-  like the companion armors, gives them more individuality, although more notable changes through armor upgrades would have been nice. but hey, who would really want to see isabella in one of those bold leather armors form da:o
- no possibility of communication outside the companion quests, everything very restricted, bad for the general atmosphere, would have preferred long, complex dialogues like in origins
- generally not much freedom of choice in dialogues, very often, different answers lead to the same outcome
- often unpredictable why a certain companion gains rivalry or friendship because of something you say or do

Atmosphere/Surrounding
- few possibilities of interaction with surroundings or NPCs, generaly too sterile
+/- kirkwall in general isn't that bad and has some cool buldings, but generaly to small considering the fact that the whole game takes place in kirkwall
- city doesn't change throughout the ten years of the story, although this would be expected after some of the events
- recycled levels (caves, warehouses, mansions, some outskirts): absolutely a no go
- as i said before, not enough freedom of choice, not a lot of decisions to make that really have an impact on the story
- too little roleplaying elements in general

Interface/Loot/Items
+ interface is ok, not very fantasylike but I don't mind, inventory is ok, too
- weigh too much crap loot and junk
- chests: if i invest enough points into cunning in order to open chests that need master lockpicking skill i want something useful to come out. 90% of the chests with skill restriction contain nothing but junk and crappy items. the good items are usually in chests that don't have any restrictions at all

Story/Quests
+ story is nice, i like it's unpredictability and the seeming lack of a certain leitmotif until the middle of the 2nd act. it made me curious of what might happen
- i miss the freedom of choice, what you do and with whom you side has little impact on the general outcome. although hawke is definetely an important character in the history of thedas, he is more of a bystander who can take sides without having a real influence on what will happen or any possibility to prevent it (hope that isn't considered a spoiler:whistle:)
+ i like the impact the outcome of the story has on thedas and therefor I'm looking forward to dragon age 3, hoping for some conclusions^^
+ the cameos of some of the da:o and awakening companions were brief but nice and if i'm right, they give some hints to possible themes of dragon age 3?!?
+/- some really nice sidequests, sometimes restriced by the lack of changes in setting

Over-all
generally an "ok" game which is weigh behind it's possibilies. some improvements which are overshadowed by a lot of steps in the wrong direction. a year more in development and it would have been a really great game.
this way, it's just ok. even disappointing, considering it is a bioware game.
i beg you bioware, take your time with dragon age 3 and make it again a gaming experience as epic and as emotional as  origins.

edit:

WarlordDM wrote...

Edit:
I
just wanted to add that I didn't like the romance options. I had the
choice between a **** and a blood mage. My Hawke deserved better!!!

well you also could have had some nice man-on-man action with a fanatic mage activist or a slightly ill-tempered elf 

Modifié par Gromphadelic, 18 mars 2011 - 01:35 .

[Obsidian Gryphon]

Many positive and negative valid points have already been raised so I'll just briefly put my 1 cent.

Positive
Fast responsive combat
Smaller areas = faster resolution of quests

Negative
Armor restrictions and loot that made no sense. I got rid of those that just will not work for the PC.

No immersion / atmosphere / empathy - example; the frighening "poem" recited by Hespith at the Deep Roads for DAO. What she said was creepy and lit one's imagination of what horrors had befallen the dwarves (I was feeling curiousity, pity for the dwarves and anger). Then when the brood mother was revealed ... it was disbelieving terror. Those things did that?!!  When the confrontation came for Branka, shucks, I was totally HAPPY to whomp her straight into the ground.

I'm not feeling  anything as I moved along in DA II. Merely: I just want to get this over and done with.

P.S. The female Hawke does not get my vote of affection: character or voice wise.

Modifié par Obsidian Gryphon, 17 mars 2011 - 02:36 .

[Kreidian]

Kinda glad to see a registered owner's forum, though it's odd, feels a bit ... I don't want to use the word "elitist" so I'll just let it go.

Now for some of that constructive critisism.


First, because I believe it has not been said enough, here's what you all did RIGHT.

This game was fun, lots of fun. In its duty as a gaming media it did its job extremely well, so for that alone this is a title worth the price of entry in every way. Keep in mind I was originally not even that interested in Dragonage II but after playing the Demo and then the game itself I've just been having a blast with it.

Interestingly, some of the things people complain the most about are the very things I love about this game. Including:
I love the new action oriented combat system!
I love the Companion armor system.
I love the new simplified crafting system.
I love the Hawke character most of all. I utterly enjoyed being able to see her fully voiced and interacting with the world around her; not just standing there like a dumb mute. I mean it's sad when Sandal is more communicative and expressive then you are.
( thank you for actually showing female hawke in the occasional ad by the way, wish you'd do that more often, especially for ME3! )

And keep in mind, I'm not some dumb console player begging for immediate gratification here, on the contrary, I'm a long time hard core PC gamer who has been known to spend hours tweaking every detail I can in my playthroughs, but the way Dragonage II was setup it allowed me to focus my tweaking on the more fun elements of the game rather then the more joblike mechanics like crafting and inventory management.

Don't let the "haters" steer you wrong from what worked, Bioware. I fully support these enhancements, just try not to go overboard.
( The ME2 "inventory" system, for example, would be WAY too simple for any Dragonage player. )


Now for constructive critisism of what went wrong.

Not enough veriety in dungeons, obviously.
When you see the exact same cave, and the exact same generic sewer, wherehouse, estate, dark room, etc, well it just doesn't work. It was very immersion breaking. And what's sad is that clearly so much work when into creating these few areas, I thought they all looked amazing. But that all quickly goes out the window after you've seen the exact same room for the 100th time, no matter how pretty it is.

Not enough conversations with your companions.
This is something that I saw happen in ME2 as well. Which, if you notice, is the reason for my Sig. It is annoying and infiriating to me personally when my own companions refuse to talk to me. Considering how significant and important these characters and their relationships are to the story there is very little opportunity to really develop either. What's more is that this lack of conversations makes these interactions very limited. If I want to, for example, build rivalry or friendship with someone I just don't have as many opportunities to move one way or another. Which means in order to get the desired result I need to select a very specific set of answers. I end up feeling like I have fewer choices because I have fewer opportunities to talk to people.

I get that there are production limitations but even so, this is a Bioware game, we expect better then this. In all seriousness I would actually prefer having fewer companions if it means having more meaningfull conversations with them.

Hawke is still a slave to the gear system.
It is a fundamental flaw in any gear based upgrade game mechanic that ultimately the gear that a player will wear will be based entirely on what gives them the better stats and nothing more. As fun as it is to get new shiny upgrades, most of them are, unfortunately, rather ugly. And even if they're not it's still gear that the players will feel they have to wear because it's an upgrade. So in the end I don't really get to have my character wear what I want or look how I want with a style of my choosing. There is no real choice here when the only real choice becomes "whatever has the best stats". Sure this sort of inventory system is very common in RPG games, but it still bothers me, and I think you guys can come up with something better.

What I would prefer in this case is to give Hawke an equipment system more like what the companions use. You can still pick your armor look, and swap out different armor sets and styles, but the stats on the various armors actually have minimal impact. The gear upgrades themselves would come from the same sort of armor upgrades you provide your companions. In this way you get to choose your character's own style tailored to how you actually want them to look, then upgrade your armor accordingly during the game while still keeping to your personal look.

If nothing else at least provide an option to remove the helmet visual all the time so that my personalized character isn't going around everywhere wearing an ugly hat.


My biggest critisism for the game however is that it was so obviously affected by its deadlines. It felt rushed in every sense, and it's particularly sad because this game is so clearly on the verge of greatness. If only you had spent the time to get there, this would have been a far superior product in every way.

Yes we know that EA was pushing you guys to make this release date. The fact is they should not have done that, and you should not have allowed it. (and if there's an email for someone at EA I can complain to about this, I will!) Dragonage 2 simply wasn't up to the level of quality that people expect from Bioware. This game needed another year to get it right; and you should have held off that extra year to release it. Yes I realize this would mean I wouldn't be playing it at all right now. And I'm fine with that. I would have much rather played a better game one year from now then end up with a dissappointment this year.

Certainly people cry loudly about wanting new games, new DLC, new everything, and wanting it right away, but these are nothing more then the vocal minority. They are far better then the huge outpour of rage and dissapointment that you are seeing now with the rushed release of this game.

[JayCatt]

I have to say I feel really let down by DA2 comparing it to Origins, when I first saw the new combat in the demo I thought to myself it was a great new system to have some more fast paced battles compared to the slower paced ones in DA:O it was a step forwards, it's just a shame after taking this big step forwards they decided to take 10 or 20 steps back right into the lazy pool with shamelessly copy/pasted maps (I mean seriously ? there's 1 or 2 cave maps in the entire game that are copy/pasted with different doors blocked off to make different routes?).

I know the story is set around one place over a series of years (infact I thought this would be a really good setting when I first heard about it) but it's somewhat clumsily handled, we were told we'd see the city change over the years but there's no real evidence of this (sure a certain friend rises through the ranks of the guard). When I first heard about this setting I imagined the citys map itself changing over the years depending on your actions.

Also (and I've seen a few other people saying this) the story behind the main villains was a bit weak, comparing them to the likes of Loghain, who many felt was a very realistic character who's motives could be understood, whereas the villains in DA2 pretty much just boil down into being crazy.

That said I'll still play through it a couple of times (nowhere near the amount I played through DA:O however) I just feel that there's a good game in here somewhere, and if they'd taken just a little more time to add the finishing touches it could really have surpassed DA:O.

To sum it up for those who dislike walls o' text:

Good:

Combat was good, faced paced, fluid movement between enemies with the new charge style attacks, a variety of different skills for each class/spec (though I was dissapointed by the removal of such options as dual wield/archer warriors or pet using rogues).

Constantly spawning enemies was ok (but spawning them out of thin air was NOT, make them jump from roofs, out of doors etc) It meant you at least  had to think carefully, do you drop that Glyph on the origional enemies? or save it for those who will flank you later in the fight ?

The story, the story was ok I just feel a bit let down by the ending (as I mentioned above).

Bad:

Constantly reused maps ( I understand its set in the same area so some maps will be simular but at least change them slightly, and using the same map for every cave in the game was a really bad move).

Atmosphere, as someone above said, there's not really any moments that pull me in, like the deep roads in DA:O and the Peom. I remember playing that section early  in the morning and I was genuinly terrified by that which was good.

Modifié par JayCatt, 17 mars 2011 - 02:39 .

[Lestatman]

I just can't seem to care about the story whereas in Origins it felt I had more of a purpose, destroy the Archdemon and save Fereldan and on the PS3 I am getting a bit tired of button bashing but that's just me. I honestly don't see why Bioward had to make so many changes when Origins was so good.

[Sirei]

Would like to have more atmosphere.
The squirrels and Halas in the forest, chickens and playing children in the city, beggars and dogs (yeah there were dogs in DA:O and I don't mean the Mabaris).

People who complain about weather, miners who lament about the great catastrophe. Just more of those things.

Also more chats  with companions. While I like my family I expect my friends to become one as well (especially with that plot!). I miss the sex scenes (gosh yes I do, in Dragon Age they were fabulous but DA2 has nothing -.-)

I would like to have funny anecdotes maybe even a group discussion (hell you can let other groupmember talk in a companionquest with each other but not let them meet in my house where we can chat together? =( very sad )

Templar don't react to my using magic right in front of them, a little bit sad. I would have liked a bit more cloak&dagger if I play a mage and know that templars are near and can arrest me.

For the german version: The synchronisation of the DA:O characters. Sadly there are not the same and the look of them is sometimes too different.

Otherwise :sign: the first post.

[Gill Kaiser]

Igib wrote...

If it helps BW with designing future games, I'll add my bit:

story (3/5)
+ rise of one man/woman from nothing to champion instead of another "save the world" is quite refreshing, well done
- no real ending, just a cheap hook onto future products.. i thought you were better than this
- minimum references to DA:O/DA:A decisions and those few seem somewhat forced

pc and companions (5/5) saved the game
+ their personal quests and chatting include most of the game's best moments (i.e. Bethany's fate in the Deep Roads without Anders caught my femHawke completely off-guard)
+ they have much more to say, commenting on places, events etc.
+ Merrill, sweet and funny female elven LI at last!
+ default female pc preset (without smear) looks great and suits her voice well.. for the first time ever I have used preset face
+ voice acting is as always excellent (although it's hard to hear male Hawke and not that bastard from city elf origin)

locations (1/5), the biggest fail
- city itself is quite well done, but with zero/minimum changes over the years
- outside zones are even worse, too few and just pure corridors
- same dungeons/caves again and again with just different passages open/closed
- customizing your home with boss trophies or other items would make it more personal

graphics and ui (4/5)
+ new distinctive art style suits DA2 well
+ some new features, overall looks good enough (dx11/medium+hi-res texture pack)
+ improved ui, more user friendly
- crashing and freezing when using dx11 should have been corrected before release

combat (3/5)
+ responsive combat, animations, warriors and rogues (even mages) are a lot more fun
+ talent trees and upgrading
- just a bit slower melee swings would be perfect
- waves of mobs appearing from nowhere and bosses with tons of hitpoints are not tactically challenging, just.. boring
- enemies exploding after melee/ranged hits and their body parts flying all over the place.. what the?

items (2/5)
+ companions have their own distinctive look
+ clothing/armoring of npcs is more realistic than in the first game
- beeing able to only upgrade and not change companion's armor
- only a few reused models and textures
- star system not always works well (i.e. item with 3% phys dmg and 10 mana/stam looted 1 hour ago having 2 stars, whereas item with just 3% phys dmg looted 10 mins ago has four)
- crafting using nodes is not entirely bad, just.. odd

overall: 3/5
I guess with a little more time it could easily be your best game ever. Sadly, although it's not an entirely bad game, it's probably your worst.

I agree entirely with everything this man/woman says, except the node-based crafting, which I thought was a good idea.

[spineshade]

i jst finished it about 10 minutes ago. i was truly disappointed. i definetly side with the people saying the recycled maps were horrendus and just the fact it felt like a small game. you never went more then 20 places. mostly in kirkwall. the tease with flemeth and morrigan were nice but yet in the same respect could have been used more. 
I didnt believe people when they said the game felt rushed until i got to the end and thats when i truly felt it. 
even the end didnt feel as epic as fighting the Arch Demon. i really hope there will be some DLC/ expansion that will really help the story along. 

[ozenglish]

My two cents worth.

Cons.
#1 Directx 11 support failure straight out of the box. For those of us running higher end systems, this kind of hurts. I have gone through all the tech forums and found that the issue still remainds, I hope this is resolved very quickly.

#2 I have to agree, that in a decade of world time, things didn't seem to change. The Viscount didn't age, the city didn;t look like it was starting to age due to the infighting between factions. The characters didn't really give you a I have done such and such since we saw eachother 3 years ago, or there appears to be no enhancement of the love interests. It makes me wonder if the Hawke character is desgined around a socially incompetent recluse if it takes 3 years to get a relationship to even kissing

#3 Changing the voice actor for Anders. That made me rather disappointed. Anders original va was awesome, gave me some seriously sore abs at times. I know Justice has more than taken over, so unless there is some sort of quasi-metaphysical excuse for his larynx being changed, then that just bites. Glad this did NOT happen to Zevran, the ultimate jiggalo!

#4 While I like the smaller areas quite a lot, I found it tormenting that you could see the Map for areas that you hadn't gone through in the caves section, I would stop and say, I wonder if item x is in there?

#5 having just re-converted back to PC gaming, the one thing that DA:O had me hooked on, was over the head tactical view. Very important for archers and mages.. where is it? Why was it removed?

Pros, I left it last, because I found a lot of them.

#1 The game does not feel like a dungeon slog. Due to outside interests, I don't desire 60hr games as much anymore. this coming in at around 35 on casual is nice. It does what I want my games to do, something to come home to after a day at work and a hour or so in the gym, and just relax to. I don't want to have to do PNP D&D calculations to make the ultimate killing machine.

#2 I enjoy the set style for characters. I could not imagine Varric running around and not seeing his, in Isabella's words "Paragon of Manliness" chest hair. It makes me proud as a chest hair man to have one of my most entertaining and nearly always in the party character not change his outfit every five minutes, that I expect from my FemHawke.

#3 I don't know where most people get this from, but I do like the fact that there is a wide range of set armours, and also different levels of base armour. If anyone has the gameguide, they would see that BW didn't slack out on that. I am more happy that they don't look like retextures of the same armour, like in DA:O

#4 Gameplay changes: FIghting imo was a huge improvement. Having the R key allow me to bear down on the nearest foe was great considering the fact that overhead was removed/restricted. I also liked how R key also let you auto loot, nice touch.

#5 Combat generally: I like the enemies in this game. Since Kirkwall seems to be a city of thugs, then it makes sense that more enemies are rogues. I love watching the reinforcements jumping from balconies. It would be more entertaining, just to watch a random one break an ankle on landing or something. Can that be done at all? I like the Qunari with their ranged weaponry, those spears are nasty. The one thing I don't get is where are the advanced weaonry? Or did it all end up in the ocean because it didn't float? Hmmm anyways, I do enjoy the combat more.

#6 Art.. Fantastic. It is nice to see an RPG, that doesn't look like WoW, Elder Scrolls, Baldurs Gate *insert favourite MMO/RPG game here*. It gives it it's own feel. It says I am DA2. Also, I love the Coptic/Byzantine feel to it.

#7 Characters. MUCH BETTER!!! Thank you. I actually enjoy the looks of the characters much more in this game. And the best part, was to see the visual improvements on Leliana and Zevran. I like how my current FemHawke looks. Also the you can tell that your family is related, that was pretty cool. also.

#8 Flemeth! Damn you BW, that was mean. I know Flemeth can change her form at will, but even my girflriend had to comment on how Flemeth looked now. I think I have made the comment somwhere in here that she reminds me of some of the women in their late 40s' early 50's who spend a lot of time on making themselves look great. I am guessing that in DA3 she is going to make Morrigan look less attractive if you keep her de-aging 20 years LOL.. I think Flemeth's personality in this game was just brilliant. She was one of my favourite characters, and the few times that I did kill her in DA:O, I felt much guilt about doing it. She has grown on me even more now.

Conclusion. While it was not a 100% improvement over the original, it improved in the areas I wanted improved the most. I don't know what it is with BW and male lead VA's but I can never take to their voices. Thank goodness we didn't have Kaidans VA.. I guess it could have been worse. FemHawkes though, was just....... yeah, her voice is pretty spot on. So was Bethany's.

I really don't know how DA3 will look, but I hope it is more along this line of game, maybe a little bit longer, but not much. If it is going to be over a period of time, then I want to see ageing in the buildings, and characters. Oh, and please, I beg you PLEASE, if Seeker Cassandra is returning, and you change her VA, I will be very very annoyed.

In total, I would say about 8/10

[gingerbill]

i think the games great but the OP makes some good points , pretty much agree with all his points. First thread ive read thats negative but actually makes sense.

[Chanegade]

The Combat
You fight way to many enemies and most of the enemies have low health and the fact that you can't get friendly fire unless your playing on Nightmare makes it so there is less reason to use crowd control spells. You can just use all your area damage spells in the very begining of a fight.

Also the camera was better in Origins.

The Story
There was no central conflict. A story dose not need to be good in a game, it just needs to have a conflict that gives a reason for players to get into the game.
I would have liked to see something like as soon as Hawke comes to Kirkwall, a sige starts in Kirkwall by some force and all the side quest have something to do with the sige. Like helping the smugglers bring food to the city but at the same time breaking the law or do the opposite by puting a smugglers head on a pike as an example so you can get rid of crime in the city.

Thanks for reading! :happy:

[LPain]

I have to mention here why I specifically liked new friendship/rivalry system. In my playthroughs of Baldur's Gate series I was never able to use certain chars due to their completely different alignment. After many playthroughs I finally found a mod that prevented them from leaving me due to the alignment difference and thus I finally got to experience these characters. I never had this sort of issue in DA because of lack of "evil" companions, but I am most pleased with this rivalry system as it really allows you do disagree and thus experience a completely different relationship than "yes dear"-ing. As someone mentioned before this brings about more natural feel: you simply cannot get along with everyone in real life either. I wish this change would stay.

[Excellector]

Finishing up act 2 now, and just wanted to point out a few things that really stood out...

Not-so-good things
1.Re-used Maps
Having us go to the same area over and over....wasn't the best idea. If two quests (in canon) take place in the same area, by all means, have us go back there. However, if two quests (again in canon) are in two different caves, they shouldn't lead to the same map. No bueno. However good the environments might look, (and yes, they did look very good,) an area loses its charm when I have seen it 5 times in the last hour.

2.Random spawns
The first time I defeated a group of mercenaries, I went "WOOT!" Then I was ambushed by a second wave and panicked. I said "That was unexpected. Neat." I got ambushed by a second wave of mercenaries in the next battle and said "Huh...ok I'll prepare for the second wave next time."....technically, I wasn't ambushed ever again in the game.
Things like this can't be overused or they lose effectiveness. A group of street thugs, for example, probably wouldn't have the...coordination to make an effective ambushed. That is something I would expect from, say, a group of templars. Plus, that means I am not always getting hit by waves, so I am not always expecting waves.

3.The DA....atmosphere (for lack of a better word)
The world in 2 simply lost it's feel. DA:O was marketed as a "dark fantasy epic"...and it was. 2 was not so dark. For example, I never encountered a scene in 2 that pulled me in and really felt as dark as the scene in 1 Cailan's troops were lining up for battle with a priest waving her candle, or incense, or whatever. (Quite Lord-of-the-Rings-ish if I may say so, and I loved it.) Kind of tossed in here on a smaller note is the new darkspawn design. I played the demo and reeeeally hoped that they looked like that just to save space...or something. Frankly, the ogre reminds me of a gorilla...and I guess the genlocks were all killed off for shaving down the hurlock's teeth while they slept. (There might be some lore here I'm missing but I didn't catch it.)

4.Dialogue selection
The fact that it looked like Mass Effect didn't really bother me; that's not what I'm getting at. What threw me off a couple times (and even caused a few re-loads) was the fact that the text selections that didn't necessarily match up with what Hawke said. Actual in game examples...
Text option:Thank You
Hawke says:I'm glad you're here. Eh?? Or probably the -worst- I encountered...

Text option:No (in response to a certain question)
Hawke says:Am I making -you- uncomfortable?.........I kinda threw up in my mouth cause that isn't what I was going for at all. The only saving grace on this point were the symbols that kinda helped...guide you to what you are trying to do.

5.Umm.....Aveline's chin...yeah...I just wasn't feeling that. Great personality, but that -chin-...killed it.

GOOD things!
1.Excellent story so far
I can't really do this point justice without spoilers, but there have been two instances that I can think of where I actually put my hand over my mouth in shock for a second...epic. Choices in DA2...can really come back and bite you in the backside, to say the least. Great carry-over from DA:O and its expansions as well. *Thinks of a particular....umm...two?...(lawl) characters from DA:Awakening.* Bravo.

2.Companions
WAAAAY better. You can start a relationship just about anywhere in the game. Not just in that single critical moment where either you do or you don't (DA:O.) Definitely added much more depth. It was also a great idea to have them hang out in their preferred places in the city. They do have lives of their own, after all.

3.The oh-so-many different versions of the worlds you can play through.
I mean really...your first -real- companion (out of two) is chosen based on -your- class...and they don't have the same personalities at all! Plus, as far as I can tell, two different things can happen to each of them, which means a total of four playthroughs -minimum- just to see everything that can happen to them! Epic.

4.Areas
While it is a small point, even though there weren't as many areas as I would like, they still looked great. The beach area in particular was very scenic

5.Mage basic attack! Huzzah!

Welp, there is my book for the week. Overall, I would say 7.5/10, great work. (Since re-using maps is a serious thorn-in-my-side from -any- game, honestly, I would have given it an 8.5 - 9 if it hadn't been done.)

[SidheKate]

One of the most interesting shifts in character development came with the inclusion of Hawke's party into the quests - far more than I had ever seen. Whole different choices, with vastly different outcomes, can appear depending on the people in the party at the time of the quest. From one perspective, I loved having a new way to get to know the characters and shape my DA2 experience. From another, I reloaded SO MUCH to see if there were other options if I just brought a different team with me. In a broad sense, I appreciate Bioware continuing to experiment with script efficiency balanced against character development. I know the party camp in DA:O was unsustainable, and I do think this was superior to having conversation spots on the map as there were in Awakenings.

I do agree with others that commented that there didn't feel like as many choices that had a huge impact. The end of each chapter seemed inevitable regardless of what we chose. The feeling - or illusion? - of choice in DA:O came from the player having the chance to make outcome-changing decision at the end of each section. For example, we choose who will be king in Orz, and that has a lasting impact. We couldn’t help the various kings from perishing, but we decided who went on those thrones. The reverse seemed to be true in DA2, we decided how we got to the big events, but the outcomes were inevitable.

I appreciated seeing some of the outcomes sooner than the epilogue tags, and loved that some of the choices came back to bite me in the bum. I was amused that, on one level or another, all of the love interests are out of their minds. But the game as a whole seemed less... fun? Maybe it has been long enough that I've glorified DA:O and think of it as funnier and quirkier. Not that DA2 is ‘darker’ than DA:O, they both had heavy decisions and weighty issues, but overall I found myself smiling less. Was the party banter generally meaner? That said, some of the dialog jokes that were geared for the fans were fantastic (e.g. “Isabela, you look different…”)

The combat was interesting and I really enjoyed the talent tree style, and I found the upgrades to be often more valuable than a new skill. I agree with other people’s comments about the maps. If we’re basically staying in the same town and running through basically the same maps, can we have them at least customized to the area? Why have the minimap show a corridor that we are never able to access, other than it is just a reuse of a map? Still, the backgrounds were amazing and I love the enhanced detail.

Regarding some issues that I shall not detail – but the big spoilerific things that happen that so many people feel the need to weigh in on – thank you. I love it when a game and a bunch of sound bites and pixels challenge people to think and make hard decisions about what they believe. Good for you guys. I know what I believe, and it is fun to discuss with my friends what they think, and then we all try to convince one another that we are right. If there is anything I hope you guys hold on to, it is this. Challenge us. We love it.

[Count Viceroy]

I might as well add my own two cents. It should be noted that I've played Bioware games to death since Baldurs gate and I haven't been disapointed once, well that is until now. The game has strong points and flaws like any other game, what suprised me the most is where these flaws are.  So here's my summary.

It should be noted that I only play on nightmare, I like a challenge, and I've completed the game on nightmare alone. So all my impressions are from what I experienced on this difficulty setting.

Combat- Pro

• Combat is gratifying. Most attacks and moves feel powerful and rewarding to use.
• classes are diverse, even between class specs. I had a hard time deciding which class to stick with and ended up playing the first part of the game many a times before deciding.

Combat - Con

• The exclusion of friendly fire on every difficulty bar nightmare has seeped into the class and talent design. I feel it makes nightmare more of a hassle than it should be when many of the skills you have at your disposal become very situational at best due to the way the wave mechanic presents combat. Basically, nightmare feels like an after thought. .
  
  The encounters seem to be designed from a normal or hard perspective and unfortunatly, the rules of the game do not apply in the same way on nightmare. Resulting in a cheapened experience. This is not me whining that it is too hard, I've done it. It's just that it required obvious cheap tricks and work arounds that clearly were not intended. Nightmare is hard, but for the wrong reasons.

• Simply put, the respawn mechanic is deeply flawed, and it puts an emphasis on cheap mechanics such as pulling back and line of sight pulling to combat it. Fighting against a big crowd of hard enemies only to have 2 elite assassins and a wave of archers magically teleport in from an area you previously cleared is tedious at best. Friendly fire included on non mage classes is interesting.It demands careful positioning and tactical control, which I appriciate. It's just that the respawn mechanic ruins this every chance it gets. Many a times I found my self holding an obvious choke point only to have an equally large group of enemies spawn right on top of me as the one we were currently fighting.

• Nightmare over all feels balanced, with a few expections. The rock wraith fight, which incidently enough is one for the first real boss fights in the game, provides what I feel the hardest challenge of all. The high dragon and the last boss was a ****** in the ocean by comparison. I don't mind the difficulty. It just felt out of place that early in the game. There are a few expections to this though. Assassin npcs and mage npcs. Assassins are the only npc type that presents a problem. And they only do so because of cheap design. They require a steady chain of CC to combat. Which becomes a problem when there's more than one of them. I realize that you're supposed to combat them by taking them out of stealth again before they one-shot anyone but the tank with a backstab, but the crowded quarters, the small army of respawning enemies and melee friendly fire makes this venture risky.
  
  Again the best solution to fighting them is to stun lock them from start to finish. I don't think that is good design. It just feels cheap. There's one specific fight where I just facepalmed, and said out loud angry video game nerd style "what were they thinking" 1 boss rogue + 2 elite rogues + 2 normal archers to start with. The first respawn wave added more trash + 2 more elite rogues. And then another final rogue after that, all with assorted melee and archer trash of course.
  
  Mage npc's on the other hand seem totally broken. Apart from the 3 or so blood mage mini bosses you fight in the game and Qunari Saarbas, most of the normal human mages only channel their invulnerability shield over and over. Even if they are left alone. Making them a non issue.
• Anders as the only healer, unless the player is a mage. I don't like Anders. Going through nightmare without a healer makes the whole thing exceedingly more tedious than it should be. Merrill should have access to it as well, just to balance things out. Sure don't give her access to the spirit healer tree, she's a blood mage, but for gods sake give her access to the creation tree. I suppose the intent was to prevent her from activating her blood magic, and then turning it off again to heal up.
  But it's really really annoying if you don't like Anders, or if something else were to happen to him, without saying too much.
  
  It's not like you can potion chug anymore to work around it either. Both Aveline and Fenris can tank just fine, going through nightmare without a healer however is very tedious at best with some encounters being nigh impossible without one.

Story - Pro

• It's a personal tale, one that I over all, enjoyed. It's a nice change from the unknown hero must rise to fight the big bad evil of the world kind of fantasy.  The 10 year time span is great in theory. The focus on politics is also refreshing. The focus on family is appriciated. 

Story - Con

• Character interaction over all is very lacking. Companions specifically. It's like you have a random conversation or two in every chapter, and I assume the time skip is supposed to imply that we shared some kind of friendship that we're not seeing. But I saw nothing of that. In the romances I did this was very apparant. As far as I'm concerned, all the companion dialouge could take place in year one spaced out evenly and it wouldn't make an inch of a difference. In fact, most, if not all of the content outside the main quest feels this way.
  
  The feeling I got is that the whole story could just as well have been one continous adventure ala DAO. With some weeks tops to change some scenery. No more was this apparant than in the Isabella romance. Where a conversation in year 7 I believe referenced a single sentence that took place in year 4. For the player, it's only been 30 or so hours ago so it's not a problem. But in the the story it took place 3 years ago, yet both characters reference it like it did in fact just take place 30 hours ago for them as well.
  
  This is my main gripe with the whole game. The core essence of a bioware game for me, is the interaction with characters and their interaciton with each other. Even mass effect 2 which isn't any where extensive in this territory pulled it off better. I believe the reason for this is that DA2 has the amount of interaction that would work for a continous 1 year adventure ala DAO. But it doesn't cut it in a 10 year long story. It just comes of as artificial. After each time skip you check up on your companions who sort of imply that you sort of had some lite relationship over the last 3 years but that's about it. I'd like to summary the whole character interaction portion with
  something like. "Like DAO, except that all the good bits are implied and only touched briefly in a codex entry"
  
  
  

Graphics, enviroments etc - Pro

• I like Kirkwall. It makes sense for the story that most of the interaction takes place there.
• Graphics have taken a step up from DAO, and it's pretty impressive last effort on what was an already outdated engine by the time DAO shipped. I'm not a graphics **** though so I'm sure someone disagrees. They are servicable, and that's all I require.
• Ambient music is very good.
• I've seen some call the new art design to be more standard fantasy, almost cliche territory, but I found it to be very refreshing. The art along with the viceral combat makes for a very 'pretty' experience. even if the graphics could be shinier.
• Companions wearing their unique outfits really adds to the character.

Graphics, enviroments etc - Con

• Let's start with the obvious. There's 1 cave, 1 dock warehouse, 1 mansion etc etc. It's very sloppy. The fact that the game takes largely takes place in the same location, Kirkwall, makes diversity of the sparse frays away from the city even more important. Going from copy pasted city to copy pasted locales outside the city just doesn't cut it.
  
  And Like I said, Kirkwall it self makes sense. It's just sad that the other areas weren't given any attention. It's just too much copy paste. One would think that spending most of the time in a single city would free up art resources that would normally be used on world locations to be better spend on non mission critical areas. But I suppose this is one of the reasons you were able to shorten the development time.
  
• The Combat music is horrible and repetitive. I really wish there was a separate toggle for ambient music and combat music. I found my self turning off music constantly in combat heavy areas, only to have to turn them on later when there were cinematics or walking. In a combat heavy game like this, the combat music should be top notch. It's a bit weird considering the ambient and cinematic music is up to the usual bioware top quality.
  
• Weapon design is very flashy, and it fits the combat over all. Pointy ends here and there, not always practical. Rule of cool applies. It's just sad that armor doesn't follow the same formula. Over all it looks very bland and functional. Which by it self wouldn't be a problem, but it doesn't really fit with the sometimes ridiculous weapons and combat style we have now.
  
  Also, what the hell is up with the female and male robe discepancy. Yes, women have breasts and hips. But that doesn't explain why female robes have entierly different models. The item of clothing isn't the same at all. Is there some modeling issue I'm not aware of here? Can't you take a male robe and reskin it a bit so that it looks more feminine. Or hell, just have a robe be a robe, instead of transforming into a tight fitting dress when worn by a woman. I understand this shouldn't be an issue since companions don't wear armor. It's just very jarring to play a male mage and a female one wearing the same robe, looking totally different.
  
• Companions wear the same clothes through out the whole adventure, with the exception of Aveline. Which is a bit jarring. But it's not my main gripe with the system. The player character will always be superior to any of the companions at any role due to the loss of stats they can't access because they lack the ability to equip armor. Their talent trees sort of make up for this, but it's talent points the player character would have been able to spend on more skills instead.

This is just on top of my head. For a too long didn't read version. I'd say the dragon age 2 team did what the Mass effect team did going from 1 to 2. Only they took it too far in the other direction in key areas that are Bioware staples.
TLDR summary

Good

- Combat, class diversity
- Refreshing story

Bad

- Wave respawn mechanic
- Character and companion interactions are lacking.
- Reused areas.

Modifié par Count Viceroy, 17 mars 2011 - 07:15 .

[Night Prowler76]

Recylcing areas isnt that much of a problem, it would have been less noticable if there were just a few more different looking locations, Id rather have the extra content in other areas of the game.

It seemed to be lacking in the amount of weapons and armor etc, I really did miss not begin able to deck out my party members the way I wanted them to look, it took away some of the immersion of being the "general" so to speak, most of my friends agree on this as well.

Writing was pretty good, the one problem with the framed narrative was that it felt like you were watching the game instead of playing alot of the time, I didnt feel as though I was Hawke, only that I was along for the ride if that makes sense, as where with the Warden, I felt that he was my guy etc.

Graphics are fine.

Combat is improved greatly, some of the Animations do take away from the fantasy experience for me tho.

Dialogue wheel was ok, both styles have their own pros and cons.

NOT being able to talk to companions whenever and wherever I wanted to was an immersion killer for me and everyone I know, its the thing that I dislike the most about the game.

I think the main things holding this game back from being rated in the 90's are the lack of custimization for the party, not being able to chit chat with them while you are questing and walking around town, and maybe a few less of the smaller fetch quests and some longer more notable ones.

The game is an 8/10 for me, with a bit more content and some of the Origins style and custimization it would be a 9.

Games should add features more than they take out.

Modifié par Night Prowler76, 17 mars 2011 - 04:12 .