2797 réponses à ce sujet

[MS1983]

Probably somebody already told this but here it goes anyway:

Customization of companions: It is not possible, that sucks. On Origins I uses to collect armor pieces to use them on my companions, now it is useless because only you can wear it.

Repetition of escenarios and locations: All the caves maps ARE THE SAME map, and it is frustrating and boring to see the same escenario over and over again.

Dialogues: I don't like that i can't talk to my companions when I want to. In Origins you can talk to them to improve your relation with them or flirt. It was more fun when you saw them interacting with your mabari hound.

Companions: The dialogues between them are boring, and theres no diversity, no mabari, no qunari... the qunari look awesome, i will like to have one as a companion. Also you showed some sketches of female qunaris, I did't saw them :s

Missions: The mission are basically 'go find this person' or 'bring me this'. there's no variety. Neither on locations Bone pit, west coast, kirkwall, and some other locations that they all look the same.

Simplification of the game: The game is much more easier, I finish it in like 3 days and I'm no expert. Simpler potions, runes, etc

History: I did't like it. No the actual history but that it is much simpler than Origins. Also I took an origins character and load him into DA2, it summarizes my accomplishments but they didn't had any real influence on the history (not like in mass effect), you could see it in a couple of things only

I guess that's about it... if you are going to ignore all this, please do not ignore the customization of our characters and the scenarios issue for the next Dragon Age... please!!

[BobWalt]

It seems to me that some of the changes in DA2 have really detracted from the fun of playing the game. This sentiment has also been echoed in some of the revues. I will deal with these changes  one at a time.
The first issue is caused by the changes made to magic users.  Now most mage spells require upgrades to either deal enough damage or produce the desired effects, this is coupled to cool down times that remain too long.  All this means that the mage runs out of spells too soon and has to resort to his staff and the staff animations actually seem to artificially limit the number of attacks. It also seems to slow the reaction to movement orders so the mage gets hit by attacks that were avoidable in Dragon Age Origins or Awakening.  To add insult to injury the changes in Spirit Healer have made it a much less attractive option. To fix this I would recommend the following.

• It would be good to streamline the upgrades by combining all upgrades into one ability for each specialization and reduce the number of prerequisites required for the more attractive abilities. 

• Change the animations for staff use and eliminate the last flourish.

• Remove the no offensive spell requirement for Spirit Healer.

The second issue is crafting. Crafting in Dragon Age is too limited. It would be better to expand it to include adds to Mana, Stamina, and Health.

Last is the way companions are handled. Companions now have a completely fixed role. The only way to truly utilize all the neat rogue abilities is to pick Isabel and the problem with Isabel (besides being a crook) is that you have devote almost all the stat adds to cunning so she can open locks which means she can not use the good daggers. I recommend the following changes:

•  Do not fix companions specialties or allow them to switch to melee weapons for close in work. 

•  Better use of stealth it is now not possible to sneak up on a group of enemies.

• Reduce the cunning requirement by 5 for each lock level.

• Allow companions to equip items that give adds to lock pick

[/list]I also agree with many of the posts that mention the overuse of cookie cutter areas and too much simplification.  I would also eliminate the death of sibilings and the inclusion of too many things that sadden the user.  After all who wants to pay 60 bucks to be depressed.
Bob

Modifié par BobWalt, 18 mars 2011 - 07:10 .

[LPain]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

AllThatJazz wrote...

 
Companions


Wasn't too bothered about limited outfits, but maybe instead of just one outfit with a couple of upgrades (that still looks exactly the same after a decade) , you could find several different outfits for each companion on your travels. Would make them look a bit more interesting and give a greater sense of customisation. 

this is the exact same idea I had a few pages back! nice to know there's someone out there who thought the same thing as me lol. Great minds do think alike

Yep. I have to say I am totally in line with you guys. I was not troubled by the lack of customization. In fact in ME2 I liked the upgrade system. I may be a woman but jeez I hate shopping and trying out outfits. I liked in ME 2 that the outfit unlocked based on the loyalty. Maybe in this case it could change based on rival/friend IF you absolutely have to get another look... like story bound upgrades - not that goddamn clothes shopping in inventory window-
but then again. I have learned to live with the fact that I am a failure as a woman.

Modifié par Drained_Warrior_, 17 mars 2011 - 09:16 .

[TEWR]

Drained_Warrior_ wrote...

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

AllThatJazz wrote...

 
Companions


Wasn't too bothered about limited outfits, but maybe instead of just one outfit with a couple of upgrades (that still looks exactly the same after a decade) , you could find several different outfits for each companion on your travels. Would make them look a bit more interesting and give a greater sense of customisation. 

this is the exact same idea I had a few pages back! nice to know there's someone out there who thought the same thing as me lol. Great minds do think alike

Yep. I have to say I am totally in line with you guys. I was not troubled by the lack of customization. In fact in ME2 I liked the upgrade system. I may be a woman but jeez I hate shopping and trying out outfits. I liked in ME 2 that the outfit unlocked based on the loyalty. Maybe in this case it could change based on rival/friend IF you absolutely have to get another look... like story bound upgrades - not that goddamn clothes shopping in inventory window-
but then again. I have learned to live with the fact that I am a failure as a woman.

well I didn't like the upgrade armor idea, but it wasn't a dislike for me that killed the game. But I think the middle ground idea I thought of a while back, where you find various armor sets that are character specific, is truly the best idea. You can still customize appearance while still being able to give each character their own individual look. And of course, Sandal upgrades.

speaking of Sandal, what does everyone think of his new VA? I loved the original Sandal, Witch Hunt Sandal felt weird, and I'm pretty sure this is another different voice actor. If it is, I like the new VA.

I also loved the scene with Sandal in the Deep Roads.

[CaptainVanguard]

The only things I can crtisise I will list here considering that I have little bad to say about 2 given my obvious recent posts:

1.
Repetativity:
Yes, I do admit that Kirkwall does over time get a bit nostalgic, while I do however counter the fact that Kirkwall "was" the focus of the story which made one of the important things about the story relevant, being the city.
That said, it'd have been nice to have even more areas in it, some weather I agree would be more atmospheric.
I was hoping to go to other lands and persue other adventures but Dragon Age 3 I hope to see bring this where DA 2 Id rather see continue the story of Hawke, even if it does continue to take place in Kirkwall.

2.
Customisation:
Admittingly, I am on the other side of the coin here. I felt that Hawke had to many things to sell and buy and not enough things to simply "have".
Id like an "item is obsolete option" so that when an item becomes too weak for me to use I can stash it or ditch it later, letting me know that the item in question is simply weaker than the ones I could potentially use in my gear.
That said, I admit that id like some char customisation for the others, but I dont have much to complain on with this, most of the chars are companions. People have their prefferences when it comes to apparel and looks, not everyone likes to change theirs.

So in conclusion there:
Self customsiation: Less of it please, theres too many peices of equipment laying around my inventory towards end-game and im not really sure which ones help.
Companion customisation: A little more please, I dont mind the idea of them just have one or two new suits but it'd be nice to see them wear casual ware when they're not fighting, for example in their homes.

3.
The continueation to Hawke:
I do not want to see DLC's become fillers for Dragon Age 2 but continueations of its current story. One of the big problems with previous games DLC's is that they focus too much on giving you chunky bits to fill the gap but they dont really "continue" the adventure, they only distract from it. Thats something I strongly disliked about ME 2.
So my advice here is: Rather than make DLC that focuses on adding new things to the present game, focus on adding more to the end of the story. What happens after the ending? There are things talked about that id like to "see" with my own eyes or even do.

4.
More challange to my experience:
Admittingly, I did switch over to casual to most of the bosses because they were a bit "too" hard for me at least on any other difficulty setting. Now what im saying isnt make them harder but give mobs and bosses more veriety thus requiring more tactical use of chars.
I love the gameplay for DA 2 contrast to alot of peoples hatred for the fast-paced atmosphere, it gives a feeling that your actually playing a game rather than just choring away at a boring old grind like DA Origins.
If theres one thing you must keep in DA 3 its the gameplay, but... add more challange to the mobs, strike a balance between the origins fans and the DA 2 fans by giving more challange to the mobs thus requiring more tactics, while retaining the atmosphere and gameplay mechanics of 2 to give more action.

5. Finally:
Depth of Consequence:
DA 2 nailed this perfectly in every way possible, it had a far darker atmosphere than origins in that certain choices were fatally disasterous, you will definatley loose companions if you make bad decisions.
I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of DA 2 in that the main story gives a feeling that no matter what you do, there is a dark-fantasy setting here and something will bite you back. Origins biggest problem was the "get out of jail free" story that made it too light for my tastes. Origins failed to be a true Dark Fantasy because too many of its story decisions oriented around a happy ending.
What id like to see in Dragon Age 3 and DA 2 DLC is the concept of more consequence. I want to feel that my actions will backlash me as much as reward me, im not a sadist and im not a masocist looking for pain, I just enjoy the idea that what im doing is going to have a consequence on Hawke thus advancing his story.

Keep that in mind Bioware...

Oh and one final thing:

DA 3:

PLEASE do not make DA 3 a continuation of DA 2... I love Hawke and I love the story of DA 2 but I want DA 3 to be seperate and not another Shepard scenerio.

That said, it would be "awesome" if you could make Hawke a companion in DA 3.

[nelly21]

My God...actual constructive criticism discussed in a peaceful manner. OP, you deserve a Nobel peace prize my friend.

Honestly, while I prefer DA 2 to DAO, I realize the game is far from perfect. I won't go into detail with my points since they have undoubtedly been discussed on this thread already.

In summary:

-Repeated environments: While all beautiful, it does become monotonous after a few visits.
-No companion armor: Iconic looks were good, but I would love character specific gear drops.
-No companion interaction: You can't make characters this awesome and not let us talk to them =)

That's pretty much it for me. I loved everything else about the game. Please supply me with a steady stream of expansions (More Awakening less Darkspawn Chronicals please) and you will have a timeshare in my wallet Bioware = ).

OP, thank you for making this thread. Seriously dude, you're my hero.

[tishwad]

-Story and character depth were incredible (ALL of the companions were well-written, and thank you for not having as many as ME2). There was such a philosophical and psychological appeal to the major decisions that could be made and the interactions and consequences of them. I like flawed characters. And I especially like being able to hold conversations with them while exploring. Which existed in KotOR and DAO, and then gets pulled from everything since. If I'm at my house, and my LI is living with me, why can't I start a convo? Why just a generic canned response that's the same if we're in a cave or walking around town? Why can't I kiss my LI whenever I want like I could- for example- with Alistair? These are culturally relevant things I wish weren't just left out for the sake of being left out.
That's one of the things that pulled me into the first game. There were no journal updates that told me to talk to Alistair (or Wynne especially) to hear something new, they just always had something to say. With how much extra party banter and voiceover work DA2 required, why wasn't the option to hold random conversations included?

More importantly, why does it seem like Bioware is making a move in all of its games to prevent this exact mechanic? Nowadays, you have to go to the person, in their little space, at a designated time, to talk to them. Life just isn't always like that. Sometimes good conversation just happens. Call it chemistry.

-

Companions

The homebases are a good idea. Or, at least, it's a good idea to have some characters with day jobs - Aveline in the barracks and Anders in the clinic really work, I think. But there also needs to be a place where they are all together, or at least a screen accessed from the Options menu where I can look at everyone's stats and sort through their kit. The campsite in Origins was great - I could sort through everyone's inventory, buy stuff from Bodahn, have a chat with everyone, without having to go to loads of different places, and constantly switch out party members. Perhaps everyone should have a room in the Hanged Man - from their room (much like the lockers in Mass Effect), you can change their personal effects, check their stats etc, even go directly to their home/place of work etc.

Wasn't too bothered about limited outfits, but maybe instead of just one outfit with a couple of upgrades (that still looks exactly the same after a decade) , you could find several different outfits for each companion on your travels. Would make them look a bit more interesting and give a greater sense of customisation.

-^This also. Nothing was more time-consuming than going in and our of your house with different companions to keep everything upgraded. Or at least have the storage box somewhere near a party-changer standee thing that doesn't involve a loading screen, please.
I was also initially a little put off by the inability to change outfits entirely, but it makes more sense to not be able to. So, fine. There isn't really a workaround short of bogging down your pack with a change of clothes for everyone. Just don't pull an ME2 and eradicate inventory entirely. So help me god.

-Speaking of loading screens, bring back the bloody footprints. Even if I'm the only person crusading for these, they were a cool way to transition through locations, and were totally identifiable as a Dragon Age thing. I realize DA2 was polished and clean-cut, so if not bloody footprints, something similar?

-Friggin jewelery, taking up slots and all being equally useful. That stuff was showing up as loot way too often. I wish I could've previewed the loot before agreeing to take it, so I could at least opt out if that necklace was a piece of crap that I had no space for to begin with.

-So the story takes place over the course of ten years, but instead of stuff happening every few years all at once, why not have more distribution of events across that ten years...? It's like, hey you have a nice house now, go live in it for a while until you're needed again all of a sudden, for a bunch of random unrelated stuff on top of important stuff. It's like you hibernated for a few years. And crime doesn't sleep!
I can see this being done the way it was to save the dev team time, and if that's the case then that's the case. But, you know, if you're thinking of doing it for DA3...
Act 1 was rusty to establish (it was good in the sense that your character is directionless and working toward such a strangely grim goal, problem was it kept pulling me out of the game by being so tedious), and Act 3 felt so short for how much I'd been doing by that point to really get going. And there was a lot of throwing quality loot at me in Act 3 because I guess the mindset was, 'this is the end, might as well give them all this nice crap they could've really used earlier'.
Act 2 was quality. I just rushed it the first time around because I had high expectations for Act 3. I wish it didn't take a playthrough for me to see that. Such is life.

That's one thing DAO had, was an ultimate goal. Considering the time frame in DA2 this could be argued many ways. Personally, the driving force behind a game is to do something bigger than you ever could in reality. So while I contradict myself by saying I want an unrealistic fantastic storyline but realistic characters and situations, it DID work nicely enough in DAO.

-Minor gripe, but I wish the automated tactics would update when a skill was added, instead of there only ever being a handful (like, 6), the system should auto-fill at least more of the available slots. I didn't use all companions regularly, and when I finally had to bring Sebastian along for one teeny thing, for example, he was a total fail for the duration of the quest. I never planned to use him much, and I didn't want to have to sit for an hour to maximize his skills and tactics so I wasn't down a party member when a boss shows up. Like I said, minor gripe, but irritating when you're in it. And irritating fast if you're trying to play on nightmare.

-I hope Bioware can make a quality post-game DLC or expansion similar to Awakening, that focuses entirely on what happens immediately after you run away and includes whomever you may have run away with. This is probably asking too much. But you can't make us love a fictional character without wanting some added depth with them.

-(Misc) Black Emporium face-changer mirror should probably come standard in everything forever. At least let me fix some aspects of my appearance in future games. Tattoos, makeup, hair cut and color, facial hair for the boys. I'm a girl. I dig that crap.
And half of your demographic is female these days. Fully canon fem main character would be really appreciated (KotOR 2 did it, but that was Obsidian).
Keep the grey-and-grey morality. That makes the situations real. I LOVE that. Let the kids without perspective sit with their heads cocked in disappointment. I have more money than they do, and I'll gladly throw it at you, Bioware.
Oh and Rod of Fire Request Form in DA2- huge lol. Points.

Modifié par tishwad, 17 mars 2011 - 09:58 .

[HawXV2]

Gr8pillock wrote...

I'm so glad this thread is here, because I have things to say! Who knew?

To start, I want to say that I am on my third play through right now, so I am not going to say that the game is terrible, but it was disappointing. (In fact, my first play through, I was so disappointed that I almost didn't play again, but I'm so glad I did. That second play through saved the game for me. Thank the man who created Fenris and Inon Zur, because they singlehandedly made me love this game.)

I like to start positive, so I will say this first -

1) the soundtrack is brutally perfect. It is haunting, moving, and helps to create the world where I desperately love to escape to.

2) The game play and combat are pretty seamless. Some complain about button mashing, but I play as a Mage or Rogue and still pause at the beginning of each fight to go at them strategically, so it didn't really bother me. In fact, I found it as smooth as an Antivan.

3) You had some fantastic characters. Fenris is probably my favorite character that I've ever encountered in a video game, ever.

4) The return of previous DA:O party members and the events of DA:O being integratable. Fantastic.

5) The sibling consequences depending on your class choice. LOVED IT!

6) The in-play banter between a love interest Fenris, a married Aveline and Isabella was hilarious! I love the mystery of potential three way banter and want MORE. Perfect!


Now, I gotta start with what isn't working for me -

(Many people have already made comments on map repition, and button mashing and all that, so I will focus on the major thing I found lacking.)

Character Interaction, Character Interaction, Character Interaction...

1) (Why can't I randomly talk to party members in game? When you're out with friends and you want to shoot the breeze, do you say, "Hey, let's go to the mansion you're squatting in and chat"? No, you turn to them and talk, with the onlookers interjecting as they see fit. The absence of this aspect was the first BRUTAL disappointment I felt. Literally, it made me miserable.)

2) (The romance options were immersive in the first DA. When you were putting the moves on Alistair, you knew it in every interaction and in-play banter that he was in love with you. You could smooch and jump him whenever you saw fit. The loss of that was yet another spike driven between player and the DA world. Even when Anders MOVES IN WITH YOU you can't talk to him unless it is quest related? Though seriously, why would you want to talk to him, since he only ever talks about his agenda. Even so, when you're in a romance/friendship, you talk to the person more than six times in ten years. I'm just sayin.)

3) (And let's be real, where are my cutaway sex scenes for a female Hawke? Where are my random make outs or fights? Why did I not see Fenris' full body tattoo at any time, but a male Hawke DID see Merrill in her underwear for three minutes? As a girl, I feel I got shafted, and not in a good way. )

4) There were story/character inconsistancies as well
(in play banter about Fenris and Hawke not being together when they were officially back together - Sebastian being for mercy throughout the WHOLE game until it came to "The Last Straw", etc.- This one is a bit nitpicky, but again, they cause a rift between gamer and game which Dragon Age (and Bioware) has been known for completely tearing down.)

5) A common party screen? In DA:O I could go to camp and change out everyone's weapons/trinkets. Now, I can only do that if they are in my party at present. This is a HUGE inconvenience when you're trying to equip everyone with their best items and you can't compare unless you are near a GATHER YOUR PARTY location and change it out six times.

6) Gifts? What the hell? They were such an added plus to the first game, trying to figure out who will like what by the conversations you've had to that point. Yet again, a character layer that was lost.

My first playthrough, I chose to Romance Anders. (I play these games FOR the story, and when there is a romance angle to the story, I am involved. When there isn't, I'm not. I'm clearing that up right now. And I speak for 99% of all the girls that play your games.) By the end, I was SO disappointed with the game due to reasons others have mentioned, but mainly because it was as though my choices in character relationships made NO difference on Anders' actions/comments/words/intentions. I still wanted to play it through again whilst romancing Fenris out of curiosity because he seemed a more interesting character and Anders was SO unsatisfying. That second play through, Fenris literally saved the game for me. He actually seemed to react to my choices, unlike Anders. Hearing "I'm yours" when clicking on Fenris was the defining moment for the romance comparison. Anders would have said, "Hey, you remember that quest you need to complete for me?" Had there been more opportunities for mingling with the companions, I may have felt more immersed with Anders, but there wasn't. At all. And when there was, even if a character was 100% in love with Hawke, it didn't affect a conversation. Tore me right out of the game. Fenris literally saved it.

I've heard comments that these characters weren't as deep as DA:O characters, but the truth is, I think these characters were brilliant, but the casual player doesn't get to find that out because interaction is SO limited. Carver was my preferred sibling, Isabella was AWESOME, Fenris was perfect, and VARRIC! Don't even get me started on Varric. Yet, we weren't allowed to just 'get to know them' because interaction was only allowed when coupled with an agenda.

Character interaction is HALF of the game, maybe more. The stabbing and maiming is a blast and all, but the story and the companion dynamic IS where you gained classIC status. This was NOT the area where there should have been "shaving off."

There's a saying "You can't please ALL the people ALL of the time, but you can please SOME of the people ALL the time."

We are those SOME. We expected more of what made the first so great. I think in "Shaving off" some of the old, you shaved off the stuff that made the first game SO AMAZING in order to make it more accessible. More accessible shouldn't be LESS immersive, and more accessible shouldn't alienate the diehards. 

I understand that Bioware was hoping to branch out to the less hardcore RPG lover's, but the first game was a blockbuster, you had a bestseller on your hands no matter what. There are enough button masher games out there to fill the great divide. Dragon Age stood apart from all of them. It isn't NEW DA gamers who were lining up to buy this or preordering it, it was the people who worshiped the first. We loved the first because it was fully immersive, the characters were a constant, and it was like literally writing your own fantastic novel as you cleaved your way through Thedas. Now, if button mashers want to play DA2, they can and just skip through the dialog with an easy click of a button. Sadly, the hardcore DA fans CAN'T just click a button and have those conversations back because they never existed to begin with. That's not fair. These were the people Bioware should have been reaching out to, not the people who may STILL never play DA in their lives.

Dragon Age 3 (And even an Awakenings style explansion) should have more character interaction and freedom, less repetitive maps, and it should be BIGGER not smaller (as DA2 is in comparison to the first game). I love you guys and I love and respect what you do, but don't lose what makes you amazing by trying to be the other guys. I don't play the other guys' games.

Where are guys getting this button masher insult from? It's no more of a button masher than Origins.

[avantoreon]

I like the new art style in general, although mages could use some better clothes and the champion and darkspawn armors could use fewer unneccessary pointy bits.

The combat is good in general, but I miss the Storm of the Century-style AOE magic spells that took a long time to actually cast but were devastating if you pulled it off.

Dungeons are recycled too much, and it would be nice to travel outside of Kirkwall.

The journal could use more information about the quests you're currently on---who, what, where, and why should be answered by the quest descriptions.

Loot is mostly useless. 2/3rds of the equipment can't be used by anyone in the party, and the junk is just clutter.

Framed narrative works pretty good. I like the story, and the storytelling.

Voiced protaganist with the dialogue wheel is cool and worked for me most of the time (although sometimes Hawke would say stuff that I didn't mean to say).

Combat waves are silly.

Companion armor is fine, but maybe have each companion have 3 or 4 variations? That'd be dandy.

Would be nice if the camera wasn't locked to the controlled character during combat (at least, it could unlock when paused, so you could place AOE spells and abilities better).

REALLY liked that many of the quests forced you to make a difficult decision, without a clear right or wrong answer. DA:O didn't do this as well, often the moral dilemmas it gave had a clearly "good" solution that was best for everyone.

For the future, I think DA2 could really use an awesome expansion pack that integrates in with the main game and extends the quest line. And, perhaps, takes place primarily in areas around Kirkwall, rather than solely in it---although it was a little disappointing in Awakening that you were restricted solely to new areas.

I strongly support the idea of future content that is a continuation of the main story, rather than adding side-plots (not that Return to Ostagar or Leliana's Song weren't fun). A long expansion pack would be absolutely amazing. I'd pay full price for another 40 hours with Hawke extending the current story.

Modifié par avantoreon, 17 mars 2011 - 10:27 .

[Vuokseniska]

Story: though i am in act3. story wise it is very good especially when you have to make a choice. it isn't clean cut and i really had to think on some issues

Quests: overall ok, but the bring item to guy quests are awful. it doesn't really explains itself and it is really rewarding because you don't really know why you bring item x to unknown person. The reuse of dungeons is annoying. it really makes the quests bland because you go to rooms you've been before.

armor sets: i haven't really seen a lot of them. i might not have found them but i think per act only one armor set is available. that isn't a lot

gameplay. I like the difficulty settings. It is a challenge though with some bosses itcan be toned down a bit like the mature dragons but that might be me. The day and night effect is cool but should be expanded. for now it doesn't really add much value

[They call me a SpaceCowboy]

I thought my biggest beef would be with the combat, but it wasn't. The recycled dungeons were by far the worst part of this game. I'm disappointed that Bioware didn't learn anything from all the complaints about recycled environments in the DAO DLCs.

One thing maybe someone could help me with.. During the love scenes I saw, everyone was fully clothed. Was there some setting somewhere that enabled the underwear scenes to play? lol

[Taura-Tierno]

I just finished my first playthrough, as a male 2h warrior. Took 49 hours.

In truth, there was just one thing that was, in my opinion, catastrophically bad. The repetitive environments. At first, I didn't mind it, because they weren't as frequent early on. But by act three, well ... I accept that the same areas will look the same. You visisted the same back alleys and warehouses several times; that's quite alright. But when there are 3 different types of manions? That felt really awful at the end of the game. And all of the tunnels in the undercity were the same ... and all of the warehouses?

Especially annoying was the fact that all of the warehouses had a small dock for boats, even when the location of the place meant that there should not have been any water at that place! The mansions and dungeons were just annoying; having water where there should be no water shattered my suspension of disbelief, which in turn broke the immersion of the game.

I could accept that all mansions don't have to be unique, and the same goes for the dungeons. They were rather large, and in some cases, you only saw different parts of them, and didn't realise they were the same until you got the explore the full version in another place. This really, really, really needs to be fixed. It's the single greatest issue with this game.

Apart from that, there are some more minor things, but that nonetheless were annoying.

* The graphics weren't what I expected. I've got a 3Ghz quad core and an overclocked gtx 460 card, so I could run the high graphics settings. From everything you guys at Bioware talked about directX 11, I expected something more. This was better than Origins ... some animations were a lot better, like the spells, but the characters and the environments were just okay. They weren't bad, but I expected more since I'd heard so much about how you'd make some great improvements.

There were plenty of weird graphics bugs, too. Characters' feet meltet into stairwells. In some cutscenes, when characters walked past and shoved another, the armor of one would just pass right through the other, as if armor doesn't count as "borders" of the characters, or whatever you'd call it.

A few characters had hideous hands that looked like the hands of a rotten corpse.

On the plus side concerning the graphics, I think you managed to do the faces and eyes really well. You managed to capture lots of emotions there; I liked it, especiall during the my Hawke's romance with Fenris. You could really tell how ... well, brooding he was. Good job on that.


Now, for things that I liked.

The companions. All in all, they were as well-written as the companions in Origins. I did, however, enjoy them more, here. They felt much more like real people, and not just some random followers who just tagged along for whatever reason. Here, they've got their own lives, and I got the feeling that they really did grow over the years. I enjoyed the romance I played, too. Those were some really emotional scenes.

I especially loved the banter; Fenris and Isabela were totally hilarious together, for instance. They're my favourites, but the rest were good too. I really enjoyed the visits at their homes, when you got to see how the companions interacted with each other. That was great, it really felt like they had their own friendships and rivalries.

So, an amazing job with the companions. I loved it; continue on this road, please.

What could've made the companions better? More dialogues. I'm not sure if I'm right, but it felt as if there were fewer dialogues with them. They weren't few ... but not a lot either. I wanted more deep, serious conversations with the companions - especially in the romances. I'd have loved to hear more about the love interest's past and feelings on different matters and all of that. More talking! That's half the fun of RPG's, in my opinion. I really, really enjoy the dialogues. More of that would've made things even better. Especially on the romances, which felt a bit ... lacking. It was "sufficient", I guess, but not enough to be remarkable. I'd like to see more in-depth romances

The talent trees were much better here than in Origins. I really like how they work here, and I'm a big fan of the new unique talent trees for the different companions. I also think you made the right decision in making the choice of what weapons they should use. That was, I think, a part of what made them feel more real here than in Origins. Unique outfits (loved them) and their own choice of weapons. Felt really good. And also, Varric and Isabela had some hilarious descriptions on their unique talents. Cracked me up.

I really enjoyed the story. I always felt awkward when I tried to explain why Origins was so great to friends; "Yes, I know the plot it fantasy 101 save the world from evil, but ..." There's no such thing here. It was a fantastic perspective. I felt more personally involved in Hawke and his quest than I ever did in the Warden's. The interactions with Haweke's family, and how their lives progressed ... well, it felt really personal. I was happy when they were happy, and it grieved me when they weren't.


And now some minor comments ...

I would've wanted some party statistics. I enjoyed that in Origins. Not only was it fun to see who had slain the biggest foe, it was a great deal of help for planning pary combinations, when you could see who had killed most enemies and dealt most damage. So statistics are both fun and useful.

More engaging NPC's, such as the quest givers. They were generally better in Origins ... there were a few good here as well, but not as many. Since the rest of this game felt so personal, I was a bit disappointed in the NPC's, generally.

I liked the crafting system here. Felt better ordering stuff than having Morrigan brew like a thousand health potions.

Uhm. Not sure what else.

[Taura-Tierno]

Oooh.

One bad thing: The close-ups on kissing scenes were awful. Fenris ended up snogging my Hawke's nose ... It looked good from a distance, but not close up. That reaaaally weird.

And ... Fenris's mansion should've changed over the years. It felt weird that there were several-years-old corpses lying about ...

[The Real Juhani]

Okay, here's some feedback from me. I know I'm not adding anything new to the discussion, but still.

Generally speaking, I liked the game. It's a good action RPG, though nowhere near as good as DA:O and the Baldur's Gate series. Yes, I'm old and conservative, I like the old school RPG's better than these modern, overly simplified console action games. But I enjoyed the story and the characters, and also the new art design. There were also many excellent quest in the game. Well done!

But there's one thing that's absolutely awful about DA2: combat. It's so incredibly repetitive, boring and tedious. It was fun for a couple of hours, but then I realized that every single encounter is composed of nearly endless waves of enemies that appear out of thin air on the battlefield, making any sensible tactics useless. For challenge, I tried playing at the harder difficulty levels. I just couldn't do it for long, because it was so tedious. Soon I was playing on casual, which made the battles end somewhat sooner, but it was still extremely repetitive and not at all fun like it should be.

This is not how combat should work in a CRPG. I've never had such boring and tedious battles in any Bioware game before DA2. What happened to your combat design? I can live with all the other design decisions, but when a game has so many battles as DA2, it absolutely needs a better combat system, and not the kind of mess we have in DA2. All those crazy acrobatics and the suddenly appearing waves of enemies, many of which have ridiculous amounts of hitpoints, are complete rubbish compared to the combat of BG and DA:O. Sorry, but that's how I feel as a paying customer and your long-time fan.

Too bad the game didn't record the number of kills. I imagine my rogue Hawke ended up killing more people than all the Blights combined, and then some.

[-Conspirator]

COMBAT

As the OP mentioned - assassins are waaay overpowered. Although there are ways to evade their backstab (take the targeted character after assassin disappears and put him with his back towards a wall) - this isn't justifiable.
Also, Knockdown!
It's really ridiculously frustrating to see one party member being constantly knocked down by any enemy (archers, spiders, melee enemies) and there's nothing this one guy can do against it but die.
Yes, usually other party member can sort of help out, but it isn't rarely the case that they can't and then frustration kicks into overdrive :|

[Ryleh]

I loved this game, and its problems could largely be fixed by choosing quality over quantity. I want to address how that affects the story in another post, but the maxim also applies to the smaller details of the game.

I am one of the many people who are bothered by the fetch-and-return quests. What is the likelihood that you would find a stone toe in a chest in a random location and know exactly who is looking for it? Zero. These quests detract from realism in a totally spurious way. Just get rid of them, and make the rewards for important quests bigger. There's no reason to invest when all we know is the name of the item and the name of the person we're returning
it to. I'd rather play through four involving, gripping quests than four
good quests and eight "give that thing to that guy" quests.

A questline that I thought was really well done was Fenris' series of personal quests.
Danarius' personality and his and Fenris' motivations were
well-established right away. The timeline for the quest was completely
sensible. The unpredictability of the villains' actions kept me
guessing. And the "sister" twist was effectively integrated, followed
through, and given some closure, while still leaving open the possibility of
future story development. In short, it was PERSONAL, in a way that fetch-and-carry quests are emphatically not. I realize that you need to add content in order to increase playing time, but why not choose to develop existing strong narratives rather than mucking up your good stories with irrelevant ones? 

Waves of enemies: like others, I would prefer to see fewer enemies that are more powerful and have unique attacks. The waves are fun sometimes, but after a while, they made combat very tedious.

On that note, I didn't like the random bands of robbers that relentlessly attacked me as I wandered the city. Sure, it's realistic that you would be attacked in the city at night, but sometimes I felt like I couldn't go anywhere without being ambushed three times along the way, in locations I had already cleared out.

I think there were at least five separate robber factions, and after killing off several bunches of them I was suddenly informed that I had been tasked with ridding the city of that particular group. What? Why is this suddenly a quest? Why should I care about the "Followers of She" if I never get the opportunity to learn anything about them? If you're going to make "ridding the city of brigands" a quest, commit to it from the beginning, rather than dropping some vague notes on dead bodies as an afterthought.

Speaking of locations - like everyone else, I would rather have fewer, but larger and richer locations, than a large number of small, repetitious ones. Return to Ostagar was one of the highlights of DA:O for me. The cosmetic differences that allowed you to see the evolution of time were incredible.

Seems to me like "less is more" would have been an easy solution to development time crunches. 

[levannar]

 Having read through the thread, I have to say a lot of very good points were brought up, and it's nice to see a discussion that has stayed civil so far.   So dear Bioware, I'd like to give you a little feedback on my own (a loong one too, but you guys did say you wanted details).

First of all, my general feelings about the game (note that I haven't finished it yet--I'm in Act III though, so I've seen most of it). I'm one of the people who preordered the Signature Edition, and I'd like to say that unlike some, I was not disappointed. I do have a few issues with the game, but overall, I've been able to get past them so far. I haven't encountered many glitches--there was one crash to desktop, and there's a weird bug that causes the game to start in windowed mode sometimes, but overall, it has been stable so far. I haven't even bothered to check for a solution to these minor problems.

Art, style and atmosphere:

Overall, it is splendid. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love the new art direction: Dragon Age finally has its own style instead of looking like a generic fantasy game. I enjoy the modern character designs like the new hairstyles (am I right if I assume that perhaps some of the awesome Origins hair mods had something to do with this? If so, that makes me even happier as they deserved some recognition.)  Also, the new combat animations! Lots of love for them. And the new weapon designs, or more precisely how many there are. Big thumbs up.

To offer some criticism though (after all, this isn't a 'praise the game' thread): the locations, on the other hand, feel a bit plain compared to Origins. Kirkwall has a homogenous style, and there's no problem with that, but I can't help but miss the beautiful designs from the first game. Places like the temple of Andraste's Ashes, or the Anvil of the Void, or even Ostagar--I still stand in awe whenever I see them. Probably because I'm a sucker for monumental buildings and halls. The Deep Roads still look gorgeous though, and were a real highlight of the game. Well done on that entire part, in both design and story.

I'm not sure how I feel about the UI. Perhaps it would have been better to stick with something just a bit closer to Origins--it feels a bit too streamlined and minimalistic to me. The codex in particular was a little disappointing as I'd have liked to see something more like, well, a codex. A sci-fi game like ME can get away with it, but it didn't fit the DA universe. The game menu could have used some background too, if only just the paused game screen darkened and blurred out.

I like the quick bar and that it has more room for spells and talents--this time, I didn't run out of slots like in Origins. Also, it was a great idea to give potions their own buttons! I approve. However, I'd like to have bigger portraits. I was often taken to the Level Up screen in the middle of a battle when I tried to select a party member.

Last but not least, the new creature designs. I have to say, I don't like the new Darkspawn designs--the first time I saw them, I thought they were zombies. I'd prefer their old designs if possible. The Qunari, on the other hand, look amazing.  A word of warning though: I think we have enough horned people now. There are the ogres, desire demons, now the Qunari and even Flemeth (kinda). As for the new elf design... I'm pretty much neutral on this. I like that they became more distinguished from humans, but they look a bit like a cross between a fairy and some kind of imp. Their ears and eyes are too big, making them cartoony, even a little anime-esque. This is just personal taste though.

Oh, and I almost forgot: the new music tracks are gorgeous. However, I would have liked less re-used music that was taken directly from Origins. You guys were bold enough to change the art style completely, you should have been bold enough to change the music accordingly. Not entirely, though--listen to how Mass Effect 2 tweaked tracks from the original, offering something new while also retaining the atmosphere. That's what you should aim for.

Gameplay:
Love, love, love the new gameplay.  IMO it has improved a lot compared to Origins--I might even start a 2h warrior playthrough, and that's a huge deal as I couldn't stand that class in Origins. The fights are fast, fancy, and not the least bit tedious (even as a mage, I have no problem with the camera, although aiming AoE spells does take a few seconds sometimes--but hey, that's what pausing is for). I'll say it now, though, that in terms of fighting, I count as a casual player--I play games for their story, not to spend hours trying to beat a boss.

Personally, I don't really mind the waves of enemies, although I wholeheartedly agree that using them more sparingly would improve battles a lot.

I will add here that the difficulty system does seem inconsistent sometimes. I like that the bosses are more difficult, that's not the issue, but some enemies seem overpowered. Rage demons come to mind, some of them took longer to kill than a desire or sloth demon. Revenants, on the other hand, have become little more than your average Shade or undead. Is it possible that they are glitched? I'm asking this because sometimes they seem to be doing their Mass Pull animation, yet nothing happens.

I like the new skill trees, I think they are an improvement. However, I liked the specializations as they were in Origins--right now, they are no different than normal skill trees other than being locked until a certain level. I want to have to search for a way to learn them, let them have their own quests. Make the specializations special!

Story (warning: spoilers):

What makes or breaks a game, at least for me. And Dragon Age 2 does well in this aspect. It makes me smile when people complain that it isn't as epic as the Bioware standard. It's not worse, it's just different, and let me tell you, I'm extremely glad that you're starting to experiment with different plot structures than your usual formula. I can't quite put my finger on how, but the story manages not to feel disjointed despite being broken up into several different plotlines. It's like all of them are pieces of a puzzle, adding to a great mosaic of Kirkwall and the Free Marches. The political tension is portrayed extremely well throughout the game, with all the machinations and power struggles going on in the background. It makes the game so much more realistic. Very well done.

Spoilers coming!
There was, however, an issue with one of the main plot lines, namely the Kirkwall killer plot. If there was one thing in the entire story so far that didn't mesh at all with the rest, this was it. It started out promising enough, but I did not like the ending at all. It felt like a death was thrown in only to justify that it was made a part of the main plot. Really, killing someone off like that? I get it that such things happen in real life, but it felt cheap, the kind of weak writing I don't expect from a Bioware game. I don't mean to sound harsh, but... IMO, this should have been a secondary quest. It added nothing to the story. Had that one death been caused by, say, the Qunari, I wouldn't feel like this. I guess it's supposed to help set the stage for the mage/templar conflict, but frankly, it did nothing for me. One psychotic killer won't make me condemn an entire group of people, especially if I'm one of them. Although I guess it provides a roleplay opportunity to change your views... still, it's kind of meh. A plotline should make sense without having to sit down and try to figure out why it's there.

I like the framed story structure. I admit, I wasn't sold when I first heard about it, but I love the tension and foreshadowing. And the parts where Varric exaggerates are pure genius! What a great idea, it would have never occurred to me, but it works so well. I applaud whoever came up with it.

On the other hand, I feel the story was stretched a bit too much. As someone said before me, there could have been months or a year at most between acts, and it would have changed nothing, only perhaps made the static city less of an issue and the gap in Hawke's interactions with characters not as glaring. It's also not the best to have Hawke acknowledge people the player has never met as old acquaintences because it all happened during the years we skipped. It distances us from our character. I think a way to solve this would be to skip less time. For example, I would have been interested in what being a mercenary or smuggler is like. Hawke could have advanced through the ranks, made a name for him/herself, gained contacts, explored Lowtown&Darktown. It could have added some more replay value if we had two separate subplots to choose from. Being a smuggler could have provided unique interactions with Isabela, heck, we could have even met her earlier. As a merc, we could have been hired by people who would become important later on--Fenris, for example. See what I mean? So much lost potential. Skipping a few months at a time would have been better, made the story tighter.

I'm not sure if I should put this here in the Story section, but I have mixed feelings about Act I. I enjoyed the quests and all, but... all right, let me just write down what exactly I experienced. I started out with the side quests, wanted to get them out of the way before going back to Bartrand. I'd been grinding them for six hours straight, and in the end, I got fed up. It was at around 2 in the morning, I had the money and the maps, and I wanted to progress with the main storyline, to go on that exciting expedition. So I went back to Bartrand... and the game refused to let me progress. I can't remember which of the quests I had yet to do, so I don't know if there was something important I hadn't done at that point, but it was like a smack in the face. 'Have you just spent over six hours doing quests? Oh well, go back and do some more.' I'd never stopped playing a Bioware game before without having to force myself, but at that point, I did exactly that. I picked it up again in the morning, but I think this is a sign that it was a bit too much. Perhaps the fault is mine, I don't know. I just wanted to share it, because I got pretty close then to putting the game down for good.

Characters:

First of all, I'll say that Bioware characters never cease to amaze me. They are so believable, so easy to love and to sympathize with. The ones in Dragon Age 2 are no different. I've already grown to care about all of them, even that jerk Carver. It's interesting to note how the interactions have 'shifted' since Origins, from chatting with them to having our decisions determine the way they feel about us. Unlike some, I don't feel like I don't know them, it's only that this time, we got to know them indirectly, through banter and their reactions. And I've got to say, I'm amazed at the banter in this game. It feels like no matter where I go, no matter whom I take with me, they always, always have something to chat about. And that's awesome. This is exactly how much banter we need, well done!

On the other hand, I missed being able to talk to the companions whenever I wanted. It was great how they interacted with each other, but I felt that in turn, Hawke was kind of left in the cold. Though, the few direct interactions were very well-implemented. I loved it when my Hawke's LI appeared to console her. Oh, and the choice to let them say/do something in conversations was a great idea! Made me want to go back and see if things turn out differently with other characters in my party. The personal quests were also quite engaging, and I loved how they connected to the main story.

One complaint I had about some characters is that their introduction felt rushed. Isabela in particular seemed to treat Hawke as her best buddy after only a few minutes. Her entire quest came out of the blue, and I think we should have had more time to get to know her. Anders also suffered from this--he was all over my F!Mage!Hawke in a heartbeat. 'I could hurt you, and I don't know how I'd live with that.' Really? After what, an hour? Though, I admit they both came a long way after that. I love the Anders romance, and Isabela was great at the end of Act II. It's just the beginning that was a bit rocky.  Isabela also didn't seem to be an organic part of the story at first. Varric, Merrill and Anders joined Hawke as a natural result of the main plot, but that wasn't the case with her. I had to wait till Act II for her to have any kind of relevance in the plot, and that wasn't right. It's the same with Fenris, except for that I'm in Act III and he still hasn't had anything to really add to the plot. I'll reserve judgement, but characters should have a better reason than 'will function as plot device after 10 hours' to stick around.

One more thing I almost forgot to add. I cannot describe how much I'm floored by all the improved expressions and gestures of the characters. They were so realistic, and made for more believable characters than I've ever seen in a game before. I'm glad Hawke is voiced, as a silent pc would be far too dull in comparison.

Small stuff:

Junk. No use, should not be there if you're streamlining. Also, when I received the Tome of Slumbering Elders, I was baffled. An ancient elven tome containing priceless magic, and all I can do is sell it for 70 silvers? WTH? Or did I miss something?

Star system. Good idea, but the stars of equipped items should also show. It's tedious to unequip things if I want to check their rating. Also, it would be great if we could see the highest rating of an item (since they are rated differently for each character). I often end up selling stuff that could be useful for someone other than Hawke, because I can only check if the three people currently with me need it.

The minimap. It irks me that I see markers there but have to open the map to check which quests they are for. The name of the quest should pop up when the cursor hovers above them. Also, I think the clear, defined edges of the path on the map do a lot to make the locations feel small and linear. Just look at, say, the map of the Denerim Market and Kirkwall Lowtown. The latter is actually a larger area, but it feels smaller because the former has no clear perimeter around it. In Origins, the houses are shown on the map instead of just having black holes in their place. It's a small detail, but still.


So, I think that's all. Longest critique yet? Lol, I can't imagine anyone would willingly read through this monster. At any rate, I think I covered pretty much everything that came up when I was playing. Minus the repetitive dungeons, but that has been said enough times. Take care everyone, and I hope to see an even better Dragon Age 3!

[TEWR]

Ryleh wrote....

I am one of the many people who are bothered by the fetch-and-return quests. What is the likelihood that you would find a stone toe in a chest in a random location and know exactly who is looking for it? Zero. These quests detract from realism in a totally spurious way. Just get rid of them, and make the rewards for important quests bigger. There's no reason to invest when all we know is the name of the item and the name of the person we're returning
it to. I'd rather play through four involving, gripping quests than four
good quests and eight "give that thing to that guy" quests.

I think the stone toe type quests would've been better if we had a little backstory on each item and had to ask around as to who it goes to, coupled with having to fight some enemies if it seems like it's a rare or priceless item.

[defpotec22]

-          Reused environments. This has probably been said a thousand times on these forums, and is probably my single biggest complaint with the game. Not only is the same cave/mine/mansion used in every quest/side quest, there’s also the issue of exploration. I have to re-explore every environment in the game each act to find loot/designs/gifts? And the environments either barely change or don’t change at all from act to act? Not fun.

-          Kirkwall. I don’t mind that the game takes place in and around one city. Okay, maybe a little. But that’s because Kirkwall doesn’t feel like a city. It feels like a small collection of environments that are representational of a city. The “red lantern” district is… a brothel, some crates, and a guard. It’s underwhelming. If Bioware were to do something like this again, I would suggest looking at games like GTA4 or Assassin’s Creed. Yes, these are obviously very different types of games, and I doubt an open environment would work for the DA franchise, but they’re far better at simulating cities.

-          Combat. This is tricky. My first play through was on a two handed warrior on normal mode, and I found it a bit too easy. Towards the end of the game I wasn’t using a tank at all, and was happy when there were finally enough waves of enemies to make combat last longer than thirty seconds. Right now I’m playing a mage on hard mode, and while the challenge is good, sometimes it’s infuriating, for the wrong reasons. Get trapped in a corner with a spider hitting you? Even if you’re at full health, you’re dead, there’s no getting out of that. Assassins? You had better just hope they target a warrior or your mabari (I love the sustained dog). Mages? Get ready to reload your game if they’re blood. Archers? Hide behind a corner and hope they don’t agro you because you looked at them funny. It’s challenging, yes, but it doesn’t feel particularly balanced as much as it does frustrating due to a few enemy abilities.

-          And yet… I love that there is no more shuffling. I love that it’s faster and I love that I can actually use aoe abilities on the mage without fear of friendly fire.

-          Waves of enemies. If they spawned in locations that made sense, okay. But sometimes they literally just appear out of nowhere. Spiders descend from… the sky? Darkspawn just appear behind my mage. They don’t pop up like demons or descend like spiders, they’re literally just there. It’s silly.

-          The story. This is tough, because the story is both very ambitious and vague in its goals. What I’ve realized is, this isn’t a story about Hawke (a “he” for the sake of argument). Sure, he’s important, he’s how we perceive the world and he makese some decisions, but the story, really, is about Kirkwall. The events in act 1 are just a vehicle to get Hawke into a more important position within Kirkwall for act 2, which in turn puts him in a more important position within Kirkwall for act 3. Hawke’s rise to power is necessary for us to be involved in the events of Kirkwall, rather than he himself driving the events of Kirkwall. At times, he seems like a passenger. And once we finish the game and see what the new status quo is, the entire game feels more like a prelude or prequel to something bigger and better, it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. Which leads to…

-          The framed narrative. I like it and its use, but I don’t see why it was necessary to have the story cover “ten years.” All the events in DA2 could have easily transpired within, say, five years, and it would have been more believable, because the characters wouldn’t have had to age significantly. I can’t emphasize how important it is that in a story that takes place “over ten years,” no one ages. It’s not believable, and it either lazy or a silly oversight.

-          Act 3. The fact we barely see Orsino or Meredith throughout act 1 or 2 severely hurts the game. They’re not given time to develop as characters, which makes them more like representations of opposing viewpoints, rather than people.

-          Companions. Seriously great cast, with Merril and Varric being the stand outs, for me at least. All the banter is great, and all the characters seem mostly well developed, believable, and relatable. I understand that many people wish that they could talk to their companions at any time. I only sort of agree. I wish the love interests were a bit more interactable post act 2, but I think what Bioware did was eliminate pointless clicking. How many times did you go to talk to Garrus in ME2, but he had to calibrate something? Or talk to Sten in DA:O, who had nothing new to say? DA2 eliminates this by having character interaction via quest, which in turn helps produce more cinematic exchanges. I like this, however, there should be more of them.

-          Customization. I don’t mind that all characters wear the same thing. I understand a characters appearance helps to characterize them. And personally, I hate inventory management in games with multiple party members, so only having to adjust weapons and non clothing items works for me. It would be nice if each character had an unlockable alternate outfit that you could toggle. I loved Merril, but once I romanced her, I seriously wished I could get her back in her green outfit, rather than the white one.

-          Talent trees. Not much to say here, I like them. However, characters are a little too locked into their roles. I had Anders with me for 2/3 of the game because he was literally the only person that could heal. I made a decent tank spec for Fenris that worked, but it was tricky. Carver can’t use a shield? I seriously don’t understand why. Merril can’t heal? I really wish she could. Isabella can’t use archery? This actually doesn’t bother me, but it does some people. The major roles (tank/healer) need more options.

-          Same day DLC. This is something I’m morally opposed to, but will always get suckered into depending on the game. The sustained mabari is fantastic. Literally. The Black Emporium feels like a wasted opportunity for some crazy quests. Sebastian is no Shale, and I really never use him that much, but his presence towards the end of act 3 is so powerful, at that point I couldn’t believe he wasn’t part of the main game.

-          Sound and graphics. The soundtrack is great, the voice acting is fantastic. I’m running a slightly older system, so I can’t turn my graphics past medium, but the game still looks great. However, I don’t see why I can’t adjust anisotropic filtering in game because my card is dx9. I can adjust it in the video card menu and it does affect the game, but really this is an annoyance.

-          Art design. I really like the familiar yet different art of DA2. It looks better than DA:O, though occasionally I wish the game was more detailed. Still, with the exception of bland Hightown, all the environments (as few as there are) look great. However, the new darkspawn look awful. They look weak and mindless and silly, with little to no variety in body type. The great thing about them in DA:O was that they looked menacing with a purpose, even if they weren’t particularly smart. The new ones are just blah. The new elves, qunari and dwarves all look better.

-          Dialogue wheel. I prefer this system, though there are a few instances where more accurate paraphrasing is needed.

-          Importing saves. Not as impressive as importing a ME1 save to ME2, but still appreciated and used well.

-          The Merril glitch. There is a glitch in act 3 that will cause her post-act 3 companion quest dialogue to trigger before the quest itself. This is so widespread and gamebreaking that I’m shocked it made it into the game at all, and seriously hope it gets patched soon.

I enjoyed DA2. I found it less sluggish and more fun than DA:O, but it has some serous issues, and I wish there was more of it. And no, more fed ex quests wouldn't suffice.

Modifié par defpotec22, 18 mars 2011 - 12:54 .

[SarcasticApple]

One of my biggest complaints is that I didn't get the real feel Ferelden. What changes did the Hero of Ferelden REALLY make? Your previous choices were supposed to effect the game play but as said it all comes to its linear storyline. The only significant difference was who you chose as King and Alistair in my play through was only there for a minute.

Also, I'm just going to say this: The characters are horrible. Except for maybe Varric. They need to be more real like in origins. In DA:O I was SURE about who were my favorites and now I can't even decide what the companions are. Anders was probably the weakest of all. Especially in the romance.

(Possible spoiler.)

Also, never leave the ending a cliffhanger. Its just doesn't satisfy enough and it ended up making me feel like I didn't do much. I felt like that was simply the start. I was seriously expecting of more things to do.Its a thirty hour game with a ten minute storyline. Well thats how it felt atleast. Hopefully an expansion will help. If they release one that is.

Rant over. :X

[Cybermortis]

Observation; It seems that even those people who really liked the game have the same problems as those who didn't - reused maps, re-enforcements in battle, bizarre drop quests, act 1 being frustrating/dull/fractured, no real impression that any time has passed between acts and the inability to stop and talk to your companions outside their own homes (usually when they want you to do something). Romance, or at least the scenes, are usually noted in the negative when they are brought up.

Story and companions themselves seem to be in the eye of the beholder. Some don't like either, some do. It is, however, interesting to note that my impression is that those people who say the story is good also tend to be those who haven't finished the game.
Likewise the dialogue wheel and voiced Hawke seem to be a matter of personal opinion. Some don't like the voice actors (which was always going to be the case anyway), some don't like the limited choices or colour-coded replies on the wheel and others simply dislike that the written responses on the wheel seem to bare little in relation to what is said.

Combat some seem to love, others hate. The lack of an overhead camera and the respawn's are cited as problems for those who wanted a more tactical combat system. While increasing the speed is rarely complained about much. The majority however seem to agree that there is far too much gore in combat, with mobs exploding at the slightest pin-****** being stupid.

The inventory system, specifically the junk seems to be universally disliked. The inability to outfit your companions with armour appears to bother some people but not other, but ending up with a bag full of armour no one can wear does seem to annoy many. Likewise the lack of meaningful descriptions for items is annoying, as is the inability to switch between weapon sets.


These seem, from my browsing this thread, to be the universal complains about the game.

[tartusterre]

Yes I have ploughed through all 26 pages so far... and my tuppence worth is pretty much along the same lines as everyone else...

I really like the story, but I really miss the customisation of the companions armour and the ablility to sit down and have a random chat with them.. I keep clicking hopefully but nobody is talking. The repeated maps are beyond annoying as the minimap will show an available path (that you will have traversed before) but in reality there is a rather poor fake stone door in the way. Quests... now you're not going to get people to play through something multiple times if it's just a basic run from A to B to C and then back to the guy at A, frankly my legs hurt from all that running nowhere. The whole inability to change weapons on a whim is also a step backwards as some of the beauty of playing tactically is that you don't necessarily want all your close combat peeps to charge recklessly into the flames.

It's a bit too easy... I say this from the point of view of someone who has only ever played DAO (and very recently The Witcher), my husband introduced me to it last year when I was ill, it's the only game of this sort I've ever played (I don't think Suduko on the DS counts) and I'm currently half way through my second playthrough thinking "I'm way overpowered here". I never expected on my first playthrough to finish without wiping on any of the big fights, especially as I just charged straight in, and whilst I think I will play it through a couple of times more I don't think it will hold my attention for 6 mths like its predecessor did as I do like a bit of a challenge.

I do like it, I just get a sneaking suspicion that a lot of effort went into it at the start, and indeed people all sat down and said "let's do something that beats the pants off it's predecessor", but about 2/3rds the way through some people wanting returns on investments started pushing for an earlier release and so the fine tuning of what potentially could have been outstanding went out the window.

On the good front, the story is great, it's actually a lot better than I expected, and I must say the ending with Anders brought a lump to my throat, and in fact I might play through as many times as possible to see if it's possible to avoid that (don't spoil it for me!). I enjoyed it, I'll probably play a few more times yet, but I don't think I'll be waiting for part 3 as excitedly as I was waiting for this.

[Kendaric Varkellen]

Art direction

Weapon designs often seemed like heavily inspired by WoW or JRPGs and looked horribly over the top and non-functional. I found myself most of the time using weapons that were completely outdated just because they didn't look ridiculous. A sword should still look like a sword, even in a fantasy setting. There is nothing wrong with having runes or ornamentation etched onto the blade, but the shape should still be sword-like (or whatever weapon type it is).

[Aenima82]

at the end of the day my opinion can be summarized by the following Q&A. Is this a great game? no. did i buy it? yes. Will i buy the next one? yes.

end of discussion for the seller of the product.

[tishwad]

The ending wasn't nearly as epic as I'd hoped. It wasn't Mass Effect.

BUT, keep giving us quests like All That Remains.
That was so profoundly well done that I was floored.

Modifié par tishwad, 18 mars 2011 - 12:07 .