2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Ken555]

Sterotyped and awesome:D  Varrick 's VA was excellent with yank accent but there are castes of dwarves, topsiders, worker and nobility.  So theres choice there.

[/quote]
I guess it would be fun to have lots of Gimli look alikes swinging axes.

[Ken555]

PillingPower wrote...

A couple of constructive suggestions here from a player who finished the game yesterday and enjoyed it - though not without realising it has some issues.

Companion Clothing - Some players love to customise what their companions wear. It doesn't bother me so much, but I can understand the desire to create your own unique 'look'. Against that, others find the tedium of having to constantly change a companions every article of clothing somewhat wearing. In true Dragon Age style, it seems to me a compromse might be reached: have the opportunity for different companion specific whole outfits to be found, or even constructed. Much as one could sometimes ask the Master Smith in earlier Dragon Age games to craft either a bow or a shield, so one might get a tailor to design something for one companion or another, for example - they could even provide sketches in advance. These 'suits' could similarly upgrade as the game progresses, but allow an element of customisation.

Companion Items - I'm all for companion gifts being useable in game, but what I found in Dragon Age 2 was that too often a cherished artefact would soon become obsolete and placed in the junk pile to be sold for scrap. It would be better for such items to 'level up' in much the same way as Bianca does. It would add a little character that way, and inter-party conversations might even allude to them, to add yet more atmosphere.

Just a couple of quick, simple suggestions.

Coming to your point about junk, In Origins junk was usually worth what you sold it for. In DA2 I was selling what would probably be quite expensive for a few coppers at most.

[Revakeane]

One thing that was really lacking in DA2 was a sense of change.

I would think that if one were charting the ten-year course of someone really important, it would be integral to show how things changed because of certain actions that individual undertook.

Unfortunately, things didn't really change in DA2. The environments stayed the same and  your companions stayed the same.

The Environments
- There were no new buildings or city areas in Kirkwall. I know that in Thedas' technological setting, they can't really build things quickly, but some new buildings or renovations to existing city structures would have been nice, especially if they reflected plot points and important decisions made by Hawke. The only real change I noticed was the statue in the Docks depicting a Kirkwall soldier standing with a foot on a Qunari's head.
- A 10-year period should open up new areas outside Kirkwall to explore, especially after Hawke becomes Champion... I mean I would think there would be many new responsibilities out there for him to fulfill that didn't always involve the same old places. He is sort of a representative of Kirkwall right? Shouldn't he be representing Kirkwall outside of Kirkwall?
- 10 years, and nobody changes Darktown or Lowtown? I know the Fable series is not the best in terms of RPGs, but one thing I did like about the Fable games was that they showed how environments can change over time based on player actions. So, if for example I destroyed all the bloody ganges that plagued Lowtown and Darktown, would it be too much to ask if I expected an increase in the prosperity and overall look of the area? Or if let apostates run loose and allowed unscrupulous characters to pay me off, wouldn't the surrounding areas see an increase in crime and overall rattiness?

The Companions
- Aside from the natural progression of their various plot points, Hawke's companions barely evinced signifncant change throughout the decade in Kirkwall. I didn't know much more about them than when I first met them, and our relationship seemed to stagnate accordingly... except when the plot necessitated action, of course.
- For instance, I would have liked to see them adapt to the changes in lives... Isabela being forced to stay on land when she loves the sea, and Merril's new life in the alienage should be interesting to observe, but these points were barely noticeable in Hawke's interactions with them.

There was very little significant evolution in terms of aesthetics and people over a period of 10 years... and i think that was a major weakness of DA2.

[BulletArray]

I do not know why I am typing this. It feels like a waste of time and a waste of your (bioware) time. But I loved the first Dragon Age game to much with hundreds of hour invested, I bought the original, all dlc and expansion... and then I bought it again as the complete pack. I have also been working a lot with the toolkit.

I tried to play through this game but couldn't manage to do it. Below I describe why and will give my take into the beginning of act 2.

Graphics
The graphics does not appeal to me at all. I read about something called low fantasy used in DA:O where as this is apparently something else. I do not know what is what and I do not really care so let's just say that the art direction used in Dragon Age: Origins was top notch and I loved every area and every armor, save from mages gear and dragonbone tint. 

I got the Black Emporium though and I must say that some of the weapons there and their design are really great designed!

I am not a big fan of weapons that are bigger than the wielder. Which always rules out 2-handed warrior in both DA:O and DA2

The new artstyle feels as if you are going more eastern than western fantasy and I am not really into that. Not much you or I can do about it though.

Animations
Eventhough I like the faster pace and smooth animations it goes over the top. The corpse explosions, the backflips, the throwing enemies back 10-20fett ... I do not enjoy these at all. Again comparing to Dragon Age: Origins the execution animations or specials with shields for instance all feel more down to earth and badass. I would have enjoyed that kind of animations, but more and smoother .. much more than the choise you guys made.

Combat
Trying to ignore the fact that I dislike animations and big weapons. The combat system seems great except from the awful feeling from tanking .I always play a warrior... I love warriors, But I love them with sword and board or dual wield. You can imagine my disapointment in this game by that. Sword and Board is my absolute favorite although I always try to go dps with it. This was achievable in DA:O on nightmare and he could tank through everything with a breeze. In DA2 I was so annoyed after a few battles in Kirkwall where enemies spawning faster than my one taunt cooldown and even if I had to run around to 5-6 different locations around my party to try to gather up all the archers that is spread all over. This was not fun gameplay.

As a dps the normal mode was... fun and exciting at first but after a while became more repetative and dreadful than DA:O ever managed to become. 

Companions
The only companions I have gotten even the slightest interested in is Varric and Anders. Where as Anders dissapointed me immediately by starting hitting on me. ??? No offense, I am not a homophobic or anything and I had fun with Zevrahn, but .. distasteful to answer "not interested" on my second conversation with a healer in a clinic.

In origins I enjoyed speaking with companions regulary and it normaly took an entire playthrough before having explored all there is to know about a character. For instance it took me to third playthrough before I got Wynnes quest and the story about the spirit. I love that kind of things. Really adds to the world, makes it more living. 

In da2 I get quests telling me when someone wants to speak with me, it is not as often, I can't speak with them if I do not have the quest, I can't seem to understand when I shall speak with them as all the time when I drop by for a chat I can't make a conversation. Also all characters meet and join you in the same manner as Leliana met up with you. Very, random and nothing in the beginning really binds them to you. 

The Mass Effect 2 conversations, relationships and teammembers is much more interesting than DA2's and THAT,I find scary considering DA:O was miles ahead ME2.

Quests
Some quests has been interesting. I liked the Qunari "Flashpowder" questline that started in act1 and I think it continues in act2, I liked to meet the Quanari and the conversation that was held with their leader in Kirkwall. 

I think that and a handfull of other quests has been a little interesting but most "mainplot", "companion quests" and most sidequests has been uninteresting and all I've done is follo a yellow arrow from point A to B where I kill a few things between.

The Deeproads endfight in act1 was probably the most interesting moment in act 1 for me.

Story
Havn't managed to play through the game so.. won't say anything else than: make sidequests until you can pay a dwarf 50g to go to deep roads where you fight a stonedude that you did not know of before you went into deeproads... does not create a story worthy of my time.

Levels
Kirkwall looks great, the indoor, outdoor, coastline, mountain, caves etc all looks awesome and well in detail. The fact that they are on different z levels with stairs etc adds even more to the greatness. But the fact that you reuse every area so much that by the end of act1 I feel that if I have to go through Lowtown on more time I am going to puke.. then I think you have reused it a bit to much. I played World of Warcraft for 5 years and never felt that way about any area in the game...

Character Creation
How could less become more? How can there be less options? It is the second installment! I was shocked by how little I could customize. You added a few more hairstyles... hairstyles... I can't be constructive here.. it is just so.. lousy

Overall feel
It feels like I am not the main character, Hawke is the main character and I can't transfer anything from me into him. Even the fact that you have a voice actor for him makes him even less as me or as I wish to have been if I was a refugee in Kirkwall. This was much better in DA:O and ME1 and 2 managed to keep that feeling even with a voice actor.

The game tries to something from two worlds... but fails beeing in both. I can't really place what it is trying to be. It feels like it has lost it's identity or then it is just not ... I don't know.

I used to place DA:O as THE RPG, so if we place that one to the left and then we take something like.. Assassin's Creed or Prototype to the right

DA:O |--------DA2---------| Prototype

One would think that one got an Action RPG such as Divinity 2 or similar.. but ... it just ends up as an abomination.

Summary
So.. I could have lived with the character creation, or the bad implemention or companions.. I could have lived with both of them. But when I take up every point above.. it just becomes to much.. loss of interest, I do not care about Hawke.. don't give a crap if he succeeds or not. I do not care for my companions or anything. Out of the few Bioware games I've played.. I have always cared about decisions I make. This was a huge let down as I do not care about anything in the game. As of yet.. My goal has been my greed for a fancy home in hightown? yay.....

I try to let the game stand on it's own and not care about comparing it with DA:O ... yet.. when I compare it with ME2, ME1 or Divinity 2, Two Worlds, Sacred, Sacred2 or even Assassin's Creed or a game like Rune.. this game falls short. Something went wrong with it. I enjoy both action games and rpg games... I enjoy mixes of them aswell but here the mix went wrong.

I regret I was blinded by "Bioware" and "Dragon Age" which made me preorder this game.. and buy the DLC before I set out to play. Now I stand here with a full game, two characters I can't get into act2 and a desire to go and buy Two Worlds 2 or Hunted: Demon's forge instead.

I will buy ME3 within the blink of an eye.. because.. well dooh? =)

But I will never buy the pig in the sack when it comes for DA games.
 
P.S, yes my english sucks, partly because I suck at it and partly because this does not deserve more time than I have givven.

[Atian]

Re-used maps:

I agree that the maps were too re-used. Certainly the dungeons in Origins also looked similar, but stll every time you went underground the dungeons were always differently build.


Weather:

Weather would also be a nice addition to the game.

Inventory:

The inventory was just horrible. Every sword ring and every other thing looks just like the other and there are no backstories to the items. The level system was the only nice thing in it.


Romances:

No offence to anyone, but the idea of making every romaceable companion bi-sexual is just plain silly. I can very well understand that it suits the backstory/personality of certain companions for an example Zevran and Isabela, but how does it fit into the backround of Merrill?

Continuity:

The few continuity errors were also quite strange. Zevran appearing even if you killed him in Origins or Nathaniel saying that the Architect lives  even if you killed him too.

Modifié par Atian, 21 mars 2011 - 02:18 .

[mad_mac_hl]

I agree with the majority of the head postings list of constructive criticisms. My two cents...

Equipment - customisation seems to have gone out of the window with the restricted (albeit very nice) armour sets of companions and massive restrictions on what items can be used by party members. Origins did this extremely well and had some really wonderful armour sets and weapons. DA2 seems to pale a bit in this area.

Bystander help - I noted a comment on bystanders not reacting in combat situations. Interestingly, I had a fight in the Hanged Man whilst Isabella was a companion but not selected as part of my party and she dived straight in to assist. I assume the same would be true for Varric in the same location.

Graphical interfaces - the main screen layout of icons is awful to be frank. Character icons should be near the top of the screen and larger, not tucked at the bottom! Everything seems a little too small. On the talent menu screen, I like the tree diagrams over the Origins talent tree but the look is too far removed from a fantasy setting - some balance between the feel of Origins with the practicality of DA2 would be nice here. Attribute page, I like the information showing what an attirbute is directly affecting. What is missing is the information on campaign progress such as most powerful killed, time played, percentage complete etc. Very poor omission imho.

Linearity - yes and no. The focus of the main story is very good. The wandering element through a whole land is missing though. Fereldan was a big place with a lot to do and flexibility in how you went about it and I agree that while the start and end was excellent, the middle could become a little unfocused. Kirkwall, whilst very pretty and sprawling in its own right, is not sufficient. I would work better if done in the vein of Baldur's Gate 2 where you have the vast city of Amn, along with a huge outlying area to explore.

Gifts - the gifting system seems a bit weak.  I like that you get hints on where gifts should be given but Origins had too many whilst DA2 doesn't have enough.

The re-use of maps is quite simply cheap. I can accept that developers need to re-use features of levels but in year 1 alone, I've seen the same cave system layout 6 times at least. And they haven't even gone to the trouble of blacking out the unaccessible parts of a level - you can still see them on the mini-map so they are presumably physcially there to access if you could walk through walls. Not the professional approach I'd expect from Bioware.

Exploding bad guys - funny, maybe but so OTT the joke wears thin after a while. In contrast, I do like the more visual combat moves though they do start to become a little repetetive.

The sudden freezing/lagging - this bug is seriously hampering my enjoyment of the game. I see there's a sticky so its a widespread problem but the game should not have been allowed to ship with such a significant error.

Modifié par mad_mac_hl, 21 mars 2011 - 02:13 .

[Xaenn]

Hmm. Never thought of it that way Dexter111. Although I got an idea what the ability did it still kinda failed at explaining it 's full capabilities. I usually played with damage number values on so I could see what it did, that and watch the proportions of health get pealed off, but I still had to get the ability first.

Guess I just felt I had a lot of choices for a lot of situations, played warrior and rogue majority of the abilities are passive or sustained, had I think 6-8 abilities on my bars actually usable (DA2). Now in my DA:O I used the majority of my spells constantly (including sustained and passive).

Oddly in DA:2, game about mages and Templars, I didn't fight many mages, comparatively to melee counter-parts, they didn't see (few mages that were) all that big of a deal and unimportant to kill first. *Bubble* Ok.. kill everyone else save you for after.

Modifié par Xaenn, 21 mars 2011 - 02:20 .

[Zodann]

Love your game but you really did bad work with the areas, way too much re-use to fit game into one DVD for xbox, you should not do this.

[DarkCloudd]

Since this thread has been stickied then I guess I'll put my 2 cents worth in also. Most of what has been said in the OP I pretty much agree with. Some things were over the top but I can overlook a somethings in favor of a good story line, which I felt like DA2 was lacking a bit.

Don't get me wrong the concept of what they wanted to do was very sound. I loved Hawke and the compaions and portions of the story were very well written, but with Origins and even Awakening to a smaller degree you had an actual tangable threat, the Blight and the 2 factions of Darkspawn that are terrorizing the countryside.

Then we get to DA2 and they hyped it up as a story spanning 10 years, but unless I missed something the actual playable amount was closer to 7 years. What really bothered me about it was that right before a "time jump" something big happened, (since its a spoiler free zone wont go into it but everyone that has played it should know), then after the jump its regarded as meh it happened over 3 years ago. Huh? You mean to tell me that after it everyone just said "oh well back to the daily grind". And your compainions having a 2 or 3 minute conversation about what they have spend the last 3 years doing and then its right back to what we were doing?

It just seems like the time jumps were put it to make it longer than it actually needed to be. I think the story could have taken place over just 3 years or even 5 years to make it seem like eveything is actually a powder keg that is ready to blow, not hey something big happened and now we have 3 years to calm down to start again.

To me this just didn't seem like it was Bioware's best story. If they would have made the amount of time shorter then I would have had and easier time believing that the world really was coming down and not acting like a roller coaster going over mountains. If it was rushed because of EA, (from the rumors) then shame on EA, I would gladly have waited for a couple years for another game as engrossing as Origins. Just my thoughts.

[Cybermortis]

I think it is about time I tried to be fair to the developers, or at least the poor souls who had the job of putting the game together. It is very easy for an 'outsider' to be critical of what was or was not done, not realising the pressures or limitations the people involved were under. What makes this worse for DA2 is that many of the problems don't come from the development team, but are a result of PR and Marketing decisions based on money rather than common sense.

The game itself had potential, as I think I noted at some point before I could see the intent behind many things. However the game never lives up to its potential, and this is clearly because there was not enough time to finish things or really look at what had been done to see if it worked as intended. If the game had used the same basic system as it predecessor the short development cycle might not have been as much of a problem, since the team would have been able to concentrate on content rather than appearance.

Combat is a good example. The combat system works well and is quite fun over short periods. But had the game been in development and play-tested for longer it would have been clear that it is lacking after a while. In DAO you could, if you got tired of fighting battles the same way, try something new through tactics. Here that isn't really much of an option, since the waves of opponents make tactics difficult and the way the combat goes usually limits your tactical decisions as to which mob you can attack before your companions kill it.

The plus sides are the clear attempt to give different races different appearances . The dwarfs don't seem to have changed much, but then there was nothing wrong with them to start with. Likewise humans didn't need much doing to them. The Quinari look great, and in fact their new look makes better sense of some of the comments made about Sten in DAO - for example you can ask him 'What are you?' in Lothering, when the answer would seem to be 'a big human'.
The elves I'm not as happy with, it is good that they look noticeably different to humans. But the current design looks a little daft. Their ears, sticking out at that angle, look like they were taken off the elves in World of Warcraft and shortened slightly so hopefully no one would notice. The faces also don't seem to work as intended. We were told several times in DAO that humans frequently consider elves attractive, but I'm not seeing it here. I think the problem is the noses, which often look thick and squat compared to the rest of the face and body.

The UI works OK while walking around. Yes it doesn't really fit with a sword-and-sorcery RPG, but it isn't totally out of place either. The equipment/codex screens however are too much out of place and could have been taken directly from ME or ME2. Having the task bar automatically lock when you enter combat, but unlock for tinkering the rest of the time was a brilliant idea. I lost count of the number of times I had to unlock the taskbar to sort out the abilities in DAO, only to forget to lock it again and delete an ability from the bar when I tried to use it in combat.

The graphic are largely fine, although the hands are - as has been noted before - awful. I also noticed that if the Champion has the darkest skin tone it can become patchy during some conversations and lighting conditions, and lighter at other times. In my case it was while talking to someone in the hightown market about his missing wife. I recall ME had the same problem, in dark skin tones going patchy or lightening in some scenes and darkening in others. This isn't a lighting issue, as the changes I've noticed take place in the same conversations. (Strangely this doesn't happen with Isabella).

[Cybermortis]

Atian wrote...

Romances:

No offence to anyone, but the idea of making every romaceable companion bi-sexual is just plain silly. I can very well understand that it suits the backstory/personality of certain companions for an example Zevran and Isabela, but how does it fit into the backround of Merrill?

From the view of replayability being able to romance every single companion regardless of your gender is a problem. In DAO, ME and ME2 you had to play though the game several times to romance everyone since you couldn't sleep with some characters unless you were a particular gender. So you had to play through the game at least two or three times if you wanted to see everything.

I also dislike that some of the companions proposition you, a total stranger, five seconds after meeting you. This makes sense for Isabela but not for Anders.

[Einhild]

• The story felt too last minute, not epic to me.
• It felt like Hawke and Aveline running the city guard taking out thugs-Age. I didn't see an OBVIOUS threat until "The Last Straw". We don't even get to know why this is happening until this quest, and it takes a catalyst to provoke it. This almost felt like a good backstory for another game, or an expansion, not meant to be the main storyline.
• Game was too short. Not enough side quests, or even companion quests for my taste.
• Ninja mobs materializing out of nothing - jarring.
• Prefer the way Origins handled mob assaults. Less with the waves. More of the swarms.
• Combat wasn't as enjoyable. ("Dumbed down.") Not a deal breaker for me since I care more about the story and companion interactions than combat. Liked the complexity of the old system though, and the overhead camera.
• Ending felt insufficient. I *really* want a full on crazy happy cinematic, or at least a "this is where everyone is now and what happened after" run down like we got in Origins.
• Plot holes.
• More clarity. How does Hawke know to bring X item to Y NPC? Is it a psychic intuition? Can she actually *see* the little golden arrow pointing the direction? At least make me talk to a few NPCs and try to suss out where it came from?
• What was the point of any of the characters from Origins? (Not that I ever mind seeing Alistair or Zevran.)
• Lack of game-long certain impending doom (i.e. obvious point) left me feeling the characters were complacent, or fickle. Anders managed to become my favorite, probably through sheer complaining (Fenris a close 2nd, same reason).
• Re-use of maps made the game feel repetitive.
• Side quests made the game feel repetitive.
• SPIDERS. Why not more other critters, like bears. Or... Darkspawn. I love the Darkspawn. Yeah, I know, Blight's over. Still. (I'm not Arachnophobic, though it does startle the heck out of me when they drop down from the ceiling OVER MY CAMERA.)
• I found Act 1 to just be flat out boring. Which... was the longest act?
• I would have loved more romance scenes and dialogue.
• Miss other playable races and character creation options.
• Really wish we could style our voice. I miss my sultry female voiceset. "*decapitates darkspawn* Lovely!"
• Loved the new interface. Much cleaner, though as OP and others have posted, feels less epic fantasy. I'm mostly indifferent to the interface all other things considered.

Sorry this is more about the story/plot elements than technical aspects of the game. I really think the first game got it right. I cared about those characters and enjoyed the story enough to play through three separate times - which I don't typically do.

Cybermortis wrote...
I also dislike that some of the companions proposition you, a total stranger, five seconds after meeting you. This makes sense for Isabela but not for Anders.

With this, I definitely agree. 

Modifié par Einhild, 21 mars 2011 - 03:42 .

[Ser-Michael]

Sammyjb wrote...

Presentation:

I liked the presentation of Dragon Age ][. The framed narrative really was used well to tell the story, and the intro made the game easy to get into to. The UI looks a little sci-fi, and doesn't seem to fit with the "Medieval" type story. The menus also suffer from this issue. The dialogue wheel worked fine, but it also looked a little to sci-fi for my taste.
8/10

Characters:

I really liked some of the characters in Dragon Age ][. Merrill was so very cute and shy, Aveline was likable, and Fenris had an enjoyable backstory. The Meredith vs. Orsino fight was fun, but I feel like they made Orsino more likable and that took away from the end of the game choice. Some of the side characters were entertaining, and but none of them were too memorable. In this section I also include cameos from Origins. I actually (believe it or not) feel like there were too many cameos, as it is a different location. Cullen, Leliana, Zevran, Nathaniel, Merrill, Anders, Isabella, and Sketch made it feel forced. But I really shouldn't be complaining about that
9/10

Graphics:

I love the new graphics style. The team really succeeded in their goal to have it be recognizable as its own IP and not just another Tolkien style fantasy. However, the exploding limbs and such really took away from the immersion. No one who gets stabbed bursts into forty pieces.
9.5/10

Story:

A lot of people felt the story was a little lacking, but I disagree. The main story arc took some very interesting turns, with the murder of Leandra and the destruction of the Chantry. I do wish that the three arcs were a little more connected, as each felt like a different tale. The framed narrative was used well, but I would have liked to see more examples of Varric exagerating as that would have made viewers question what he was saying more often.
8.5/10

Combat:

Despite my worries, combat has remained tactical. The fight with the ancient rock wraith required quite a degree on micro-managing, and was very fun. But the simplification of the level up system was a little dissapointing. I would have liked to see a wider variety of powers, but I do like the upgrades and the companion specific specializations. I just wish they could have chose another one as well, in case you wanted to change what their roles was.
7.5/10

Improvements over Origins:

There were many areas that were improved upon from Origins. The characters now have multiple quests, not just one. The story was more focused and the storytelling was excellent.The side quests felt more like regular quests, and there was a greater variety of them.
9/10

Things that were removed from Origins that shouldn't have:

I really miss the old speak. It seems to me that the people are talking a lot more modernly, and throwing in curses just for the sake of cursing. The rehashing of areas wouldn't have pissed me off so much if they had said they were the same area, and not just tried to pass of Fenris's mansion was five other ones too.
6/10

Favorite part:

Varric's personal mission in Act 2. Combined some cool myths with the lyrium idol, to some epic battles, and some awesome use of an unreliable narrator. Really fun mission and a funny one too.
10/10

Least favorite part:

I can't really think of any part that really pissed me off. I guess when the first re-using of areas occured, and then the second, and then the third, I started to get mad. And the Arishok battle was completely unfair and unbalanced.
7/10

Bang for your buck:

I capped off my adventure at a little over 40 hours. It was a fun time and overall, I liked the game.
9/10

Final Score: 83.5 out of 100.

You forgot to mention how your post is filled with spoilers. In a NO SPOILERS thread. ;)

[ScotGaymer]

Revakeane wrote...

One thing that was really lacking in DA2 was a sense of change.

I would think that if one were charting the ten-year course of someone really important, it would be integral to show how things changed because of certain actions that individual undertook.

Unfortunately, things didn't really change in DA2. The environments stayed the same and  your companions stayed the same.


There was very little significant evolution in terms of aesthetics and people over a period of 10 years... and i think that was a major weakness of DA2.

This here is the biggest thing for me, really. Everything was the same, and recycled. Nothing changed and because of that it makes the bugs and other flaws (like previously scary enemies like the Revenant being completely gimped) all he more glaring.

The worst part of it is they PROMISED that this wouldnt be the case.

They promised companions would change clothes several times during the course of the game; and they promised that there would be visible changes to Kirkwall as time passed; and as a result of the Champions choices.

Neither was and is true.

The only noticable thing that changed during the course of the game is Aveline changed outfits twice. Thats it. The rest only change outfits if you romance them; and in the case of the Bro/Sis they get taken away by the GW or the Templars/Circle.

Its kind of bad that they made promises that they didnt deliver on; they ought to know better by now. I mean how many times do they have to watch companies like Lionhead being ripped to bits for promising the world and not delivering before they get the message?

[Clammo]

JohnEpler wrote...

Hey folks!

Just wanted to say that you've given some excellent feedback so far - the vast majority of you have given clear answers as to what you liked/disliked, as well as the reasoning behind those thoughts.

Everything's still being read! It's a long thread, so it's going to be a lengthy process, but thanks again for the great feedback. And keep it up!

Can I just check, is the other review thread on the General forums, where many game owners have left their feedback, still being read please?

[Witchking Angmar]

 Please add an option to turn off AoE spell snapping. 

[PillingPower]

A thought on improving the boss fight single combats.

I must admit I was looking forward to this, but my attempt to go toe-to-toe was quickly stomped on. I soon had to resort to a tactic that I've only found out has it's own verb by reading these forums - 'kiting'. Basically, my 'Champion' was more a gold-medalist marathon runner than he was a swordsman. Whilst I did feel some accomplishment upon victory (more relief, to be fair), I did find the episode slightly ridiculous. I wonder if the 'mano et mano' stuff could be improved upon, because it was a good idea.
Perhaps one might have the chance to buff one sustained talent and potion at the start, with companion advice. The choice might be important. For example:
Fenris: 'Strike hard. Strike fast.' (Take a potion of Might)
Avaline: 'Wear him down. Pace yourself' (Take a potion of Rock Armour)
You make some choices, then the fight begins proper. What follows is a cutscene into which pops the image of the odd button or trigger, which you quickly have to jab in time to benefit. There might even be the odd choice - Mighty Blow or Pommel Strike for example. After the victory one could enjoy the whole fight as one cutscene, without having to keep the eyes and fingers poised for sudden messages which tend to distract from the experience at the time.
It's not a perfect solution but I think something needs to be done to avoid the Benny Hill type chases.

Modifié par PillingPower, 21 mars 2011 - 04:31 .

[heathxxx]

Brodyaha wrote...

If Bohdan and Sandal are going to make an appearance in the next DA game, alrighty. But please don't force me to have them in my house. No offense to whomever wrote them, but they are not my favourite characters. And my Hawke wouldn't have let them move into the house in the first place. o.O

Well, at least his vocabulary has improved... a little bit! 

Anyway, I secretly suspect that Sandal isn't as dumb as he seems. He'll turn out to be the evil arch-overlord at the end of DA:3...

...just you see! 

Modifié par heathxxx, 21 mars 2011 - 05:14 .

[Jaulen]

I'm on my second playthrough and some thoughts:

1) Recycling of maps....OMG....talk about making the game seem tedious! First playthrough, okay, I was able to ignore it (for the most part) but the second playthough...geez....will make it REALLY hard to do a thrid playthrough. Over 10 years, should have new areas/outlying cities to explore.

2) Graphical issues....hands (*shudder* creepy creepy hands), poor 'solidity' of clothing compared to limbs. Again, first playthough, it bugged me, but wow....super duper glaring on second playthough.....Graphics really really badly done (although for the most part they look pretty). Like Marathari's armor.....looks painted on. No depth or detail compared to the main companions.

3) Spawning of enemies....Really done VERY poorly. I'm okay with the troops jumping off the walls (but so many?) or coming from around corners.....but having an Ogre or human archers/melee troops POP UP OUT OF THE GROUND RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME (or in some cases UNDER me)? Oh my god......so so so so annoying. Humans can't just teleport and pop up out of the ground....I may be able to ignore it for the darkspawn/demons/corpses.....but humans/elves/dwarves? No way.

4) I like the new talent tree system and the info system on leveling. Like the junk tab. Dislike no interesting descriptions on items.

5) LOVE the look of the new armors and weapons. Some beautiful stuff there.

6) LOVE that the companions interact with each other and seem to have their own lives with each other. Also like that they have something to say when talking to NPCs and decisions you make....or when you walk into an area. This was pretty well done and a vast improvement over DA:O

7) LOVE the interactions you can have with the companions, and the conversations....although some of the responses were kind of like "WTH? That sounded really stupid" Want more interaction, especially if it takes place over a 7-10 year span of time...there should be more that you talk to them to get to know them and why they are still following you around (especially if you're rinvalry)

8) Love some of the sidequests and how they were 'secondary' but still related to the plot. That was well done.

9) really like some of the comments random NPCs make as you're walking around....like people saying "Hi Captain!" or "oops excuse me! when you bump into them...that was a nice touch.

10) Disliked the elf redesign.....but it's growing on me. Some of the proportions look a little freaky....but starting to like them. (Orsinio is HOT!)

11) Love the voice acting, and the voiced main character.....didn't think I'd like it at first, and it took a while to get used to, but I do like it.

12) I'm okay with the conversation wheel...again, didn't think I'd like it, but I do.

13) the sustained spells or effects should be over the left side of the bar instead of the right, and maybe make the icons a little bigger....I kept forgetting if I had something in use or not and would accidentially turn it off.

14) Love the seemingly randomness of certain optional sidequests....In second playthrough I've already had a number that didn't pop on the first playthrough.

15) Can I say that I like the companions? They were very well done....they frustrate me to no end (Isabella and Fenris), make me laugh and cheer them on and irritate me (Aveline), irritate me make me want to hug them (Anders), bemuse me and make me want to pick them up and squeeze them (Merril), and make me wonder how someone could be so conflicted (Sebastian).  And I can't think of it right now....but there are plenty of times with Anders and Fenris I just wish I could slap them at some point and say "Can you hear yourself talk? You are an IDIOT!"

16) Really like the new crafting system. Altough I find myself not using the runes.....and I really like some of the new bombs and potions....tell ya....my Rogue with no knockback immunity really needed some of those when going 1on1 against the Arishok....although I don't understand why you can't use more than one bomb (of different types) at a time....that's just weird.....a tar bomb follwed by a combustion bomb would have been a sweet combo.

17) I like having a house and having people and stuff show up in it.

18) Like that some of the decions you make show up in other acts....like the elf slave...she's living in my house instead of totally forgtotten about! Better than DA:O where you can give people money or tell them something, but you never see them again.

19) the exploding bodies is way over done. Way way way overdone. Didn't know my rogue with a non-leveled up strength could make people explode into quarters after just being stabbed...with no special abilities in use.

20) Bugs in the import flags from DA:O.....and bugs in the ending sequence in DA2.....me and ZombieAnders went off into the sunset together I guess.....


Overall the game is growing on me, and there are things I like better than DA:O, but not to the point where I obsess about DA2 like I did DAO.....DA2 is a much easier game to put down and walk away from.

[Moirnelithe]

PillingPower wrote...

What follows is a cutscene into which pops the image of the odd button or trigger, which you quickly have to jab in time to benefit. There might even be the odd choice - Mighty Blow or Pommel Strike for example.  

No offense but a solution like that would make me avoid the game like the plague. That's way too much 'action' for me. I'd go with the kiting.

[heman14]

This maybe just a brief rehashing of what was said. I liked the game, but couldn't help but feel it was missing something.

I enjoyed the game for it's story. Though that itself had some flaws.

I didn't feel connected to it at all. There were some great character moments, great plot twists, which are all Bioware staples, but it lacked motivating me to care about what was going on. All I wanted was to find out what happened to my Warden...even after a full play through. Don't get me wrong, Hawke did play a very big role and is a fun character, but I kept having this sense that the story was trying too hard to distance itself from the Warden's tale...all the while throwing in shout outs to the original game. Made it feel more like an expansion. As with Origins, this one left me wondering way more things than were answered in game. After all the DLC and all the little nods to DA:O...I still don't feel like that story was finished. Same (and maybe DLC will fix this) can be said about DA2.

It got tough to see who was doing what during combat. Other than that, I think it was an improvement over the DA:O system.

That's really all that bothered me enough to want to say something.
Minor things bugged me here and there throughout, but that can be said about most games. The one thing that stood out above all others though was the re-use of maps. It wouldn't have been so bad if things changed from year to year (and no...the opening of a cave that coincidentally reuses a map doesn't count), but they didn't. We found ourselves exploring the exact same dark corners of each region looking for side quest stuff that was meaningless to the story or wasn't developed enough for me to even care.

[RenownedRyan]

Here's my 10 cents.

Graphics
Although an improvement over Origins, the graphics still leave something to be desired and still fall far short of Mass Effect.

Small Glitches/Oversights
As was the case in Origins during conversation, weapons still appear to float about a foot away from the character's backs as they speak

Mages are able to enter the Chantry with staffs clearly visible on their backs.  If the Templars are so inquisitve of Mages how do they fail to notice this giveaway?

Large Glitches/Oversights
Exploding Corpses.  Entirely ridiculous.  It defintely looks cool, but this could have been caused as a reaction to a new spell as opposed to say, a slashing blow with a dagger.

Large group combat. Oftentimes, Hawke deals damage with his blades from twenty feet away.  This problem seems to occur when facing many foes or a boss.

Enemy Spawning.  This almost certainly could have been prevented with a group brainstorming session.  The fact that enemies appear out of thin air is at best frustrating and at worst humorous.

Recurring Locations
Each dungeon is exactly the same.  This causes the player to begin to avoid side quests.

80% of the game takes place in Kirkwall!  One of the most intriguing aspects of BioWare titles is the variance of culture and landmarks in different cities or planets.  This truly hurt the game's replayablility.


Story
I like the idea of telling the story of a man who isn't out to save the world, but a sense of heroism or danger is lost entirely as one plays through Dragon Age 2.

Companions are an improvement over Origins, but the romance options here are perhaps the worst of any BioWare title.  Merril seems to be an attempt to recreate the cute awkwardness of Tali from Mass Effect, but she comes across as more of a ditz.  Isabela's status as a **** is firmly established and negates whatever attraction she may offer.  As for Female interests Anders is whiney and Fenris is too anti-magic to get along with.

Conclusion
Dragon Age 2 is far from being a bad game.  It is more exciting than its predecessor and dialogue is a terrific improvement.  As one plays through the game and seems to experience the same locations however, the game begins to feel half-baked.  Dragon Age 2 was clearly an effort to replicate the success of Mass Effect, but some minor and major setbacks prevent the game from being a serious contender for Game of the Year in this year of enormous sequels.  

[nopho]

Ok, my try on giving constructive criticism.
(warning,  no native speaker here but i give my best)

first of, i will not hide that i was really disappointed by that game (i like to compare it to the new star wars trilogy) but than again what someone else said here might be right, maybe bioware is like the A+ student who brings a C home, an okay grade but not what you'd expect.

i expected something along the quality and depth of DA:O but it reminded
me more of the god-of-war like games. many people here wrote many smart
things but i guess writing this will help me to get over it.

so first thing i'd like to criticize positively and on a negative way is the decision wheel. while i think it is a good
idea it just found it to be to few. i tried to play a witty and evil character but on times (when varric got a piece of a certain object for example) the wheel just gave me 3times the option to say (nice/witty/evil) that "i think it isn't a good idea." where is my "brilliant idea lets take it and discover it's powers for me...er...us to use. what honestly maybe made me throw my headset to the wall was that i could skill deeply into blood mage but had to demonize every bloodmage i find "you know that this isn't the solution to your problems? oh don't mind the blood forming mana around my arms" that forced hypocrisy just felt bad. furthermore i'd just
loved more ways to say something (along with that i want to agree/disagree with things) one thing that really made it for me in DA:O was following: I played an evil female mage, she already knew that alistair had the chance to be king and had him dancing to her tune, in orzammar i could then choose the option "the paragons will is that I shall decide who is going to be king" that may have had no influence on how things went at all, but for me it felt like my char had the chance to gain influence in orzammar as the king maker for events after the blight. (along with destroying the golems so the dwarven army would never be strong enough to endanger the feralden king and queen)


another HUGE point for me is the 10year (7?) thing. i guess you heard that a lot but you could have made 10years into 10weeks and no one would have felt the difference. for once a great idea would have been to let the player tell the game what s/he did in between the 3 years since the last arc and made that make a difference (made
friends within the politics, helped the smugglers, helped the poor, stolen from the poor, exploited people in the mine). rather than that it is just "bam 3 years are over, you now live in a big house and..seem to just have read some books in the meantime or so" also all your companions seem to just have been doing almost nothing for such a long time span.

pretty much along with that comes that your character doesn't seem to develop. i mean sure you get the champion of the city (guess no spoiler as it is clear from the beginning) but you still just grab your buddies and go out killing stuff. one idea would have been (trying to keep it spoiler free) there is a certain area which for the first parts of the game is inhabited by people which aren't there after part...2 i think plus there is one quest where a city noble
asks you to help his son who isn't...a nice person. so power: as more influence you got within the city and the nobles the more you can decide what happened to that area during timeskip. say at the end of arc 2 you are asked what should be done with the place "make it a chantry/place for the wizzards/place for the townsguard/my
new big mansion" and as more unlikely it is the more influence you would have needed to gain during questing. (i liked that a lot in DA:O where on my first play through as an elf i had to decide to kill a nobles son to get revenge for my people or to let him alive to get political support later)


i miss the slow motion finishers, DA:O when i killed the high dragon during andrastes ashes quest, alistair was jumping on it and decapitating it ins slow motion, that kicked ass. away from coder-lazyness i see no need to put that out of the game. (maybe with a button to turn it on/off if people aren't patient enough to see this)

speaking of turning on and off, i like that you can let the head wear now activate or deactivate being shown, with so many silly magehats in DA:O my char mostly just ran around without one.

i also liked the dungeons being three dimensional now with walking up and down, that was very good.


close to my part with the 10years i found that your characters decisions made few difference. i mean in the end for example you will always fight the same two bosses. period. i mean in DA:O you will always have to kill the archdemon, but:
1: you can let someone else (2 people to decide) do it, or you can live/die doing it (4 decisions)
2:killing it was basically the aim of the whole story and not part of the decisions you made (while it at least looks like you have to decide in DA2)

this basically always brings you back to reality, that you just play a game someone created and no matter what you do, what the programmers want to happen will happen. i personally consider myself a fan of role play, where i can get lost into my character letting them have habits and such, knowing i just play some beat em up ruins that for me. i mean there is another quest for example, where you learn that two rivaling factions have "traitors" working together in secret. but what? no matter what i will always have to kill 90% of them, and always have to fight them at the end of the quest. i can't find that it makes any difference at all which decision i make during that quest nor what decisions i made prior to that. i also got the feeling that you can just make bad decisions. either you help the people who REALLY seem to be 90% bloodmages or you help the people who suppress the innocent. while i understand and really like that DA usually shows you that there is no black and white it seems like you took it over the border here, that your side always gets some shades more black the moment you aid them. i mean really the mages in this game, clearly a sign that cunning is a skill for rogues and not mages.


and more to quests, they were too easy, far far far to easy.
and i do not talk about difficulty setting here. i was super excited to get back to deep roads at the end of act one, but it was barely longer than a sidequest. DA:O, the finding the paragon questchain, when meeting the legion of the dead and basically invading a blight-controlled city it really felt like "damn we (my team) are deeply beyond enemy lines, with enemies in front of me and nothing but stone above me. in DA2 quests are usually short and over before they begun. plus actually every quest just requires you to walk from A to B and kill/get C. in DA:O along with finding the paragon quest-chain the quest to andrastes ashes is one of my favorites of all time, talking with the ghosts of andrastes pasts, solving little riddles and that way (emotionally not through kodex) learning about the lore was just incredible good (and the possibility to desecrate the ashes after all or not just great)
(on a positive note, the quests were you support aveline with getting closer to a guard or the one with varric telling his version of getting into his brothers house were a good laugh (but again, on the brainside not more challengeing than tetris)


now let me get to the characters we meet, there some good and a lot wrong with that one. first, merril was wonderful done and i really loved the facial expressions my female hawke would get when making a disbelieving statement. but away from that most characters just felt like puppets. they had barely character development and if there is a way to harden them i haven't found it or didn't notice the change. plus i just can talk to them when the
game decides it would now be fitting to talk to them, away from that they'd just stand next to me and always make the same statement when i talk to them. you know what i liked in the kotor series? the possibility to influence people. not just you having to find the answer they want to hear if you want to gain influence (yes "npc name"
lets save this puppy) but getting them to see things your way (yes my evil master"player name" let's kills this puppy) while i appreciate that you now also get benefit from them getting your rival it still just seems like "find the answer they like" also i'd really liked to have more cool characters within the game, for once, flemeth really looked better than in DA:O (i guess from not hiding her powers like she did in front of the warden) and lets be honest,
(very minor spoiler) who of those who played an evil char didn't want at the quest to take the control staff to the qunari mages armor and have an option like "no, you belong me now, on your knees" -bam, new awesome partymember-


also what always bugs me is that this game is at parts a big insult to logic. i mean running one night through kirkwall you kill more people than you see at daytime in the whole city, you get the feeling that 95% of the cities population consists of people trying to kill you, also you encounter like 40bloodmages/mages working for thieves outside of the circle while seeing maybe 10 mages in the circle at all times, it feels more like meeting a non bloodmagic using circlemage is the exception what basically ruins (for me) the feeling of wanting to help them. i mean it's not like you help the mages in the city, you help the 3 out of 300 mages which are in the circle.

coming to the end of the game, the fight versus "M" was great, if something like this had happened midgame well...i guess than this thread would be half as long, but at the end...basically the story of the game is presented to you at the end if you think about it. and this, in my eyes, screams loudly "buy an expansion pack/addon" (and actually this was the only bossfight that i really enjoyed, the bossfight in the deep ways felt more like super mario)

my last point is also the one most people said, the area recycling. so many people said so much smart things about it, but what you did there was just so awful wrong i simply can not not write about that. i mean for me at the very early parts of the game when i was still full of "woha this game will rock" i came into a cave and thought "wait, why am i in the mountain cave near the elves place?" it really took me a bit to figure out what was just happening. call me stupid if you want but i never realized that in DA:O (i mean i obviously realized that in denerim but
that was random encounters and even for those there were 2-3 different maps, just for random encounters in one place of many) and this just makes me so incredibly disappointed because you simply can't sugarcoat that no matter how hard you try it is just plain laziness and kills (for me, not all others as seen in "fanboy" answers) the mood.

i imagine it like this: 18 months or so ago i bought DA:O now what if i had illegally downloaded it and send you 20euro with a note "had no time to earn enough money" you'd just said "yeah, speak to the lawyer, full
game means full money." so what now? i paid, again, full money but did i get a full game? i mean can you call a colourless sidequest wich brings me to a location i have been 10times before to fight waves monsters contend? you could easily copy paste those with very minor changes and make the game last for years...boring years. so now i got, in my eyes, half a game for full price. so imagine the first scenario i described, thats how it feels to me.
and actually i do not care if you got less time to make the game, i paid full price i got half game reasons for that do not matter once the harm is done, i mean i often read "EA gave them to few time it's not their fault" but if thats the
case than bioware isn't bioware anymore anyways, it's a company useing the label for brand recognition. and thats what puts me off, how do i know the next dragon age isn't going to be like that one? or rather being just good enough to sell again but not as brilliant as you people have shown you can do? but i guess that hardly matter for this thread.

Modifié par nopho, 21 mars 2011 - 05:44 .