2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Pitrus]

I think there's a lot of untapped potential in every companion, love interest or no. As much as I think that the random party banter has been improved (major thumbs up for that btw) I wish there was an opportunity for more player initiated "one-on-one-banter" like that in the camp in Origins.

Asking Leliana if she knows any stories, or finding out about Sten's obsession with cookies may not be of paramount importance to the story, but it gives the player a sense of actual interaction at his or her own initiative.

Being told the sad story of the sailor Isabela lost in the hurricane when you really wanted to ask her about her life before she became a pirate, or even worse, Fenris saying "we should keep moving" when you're looking for some cuddling is horrid not only for self esteem but also for immersion and character dynamics.

Modifié par Pitrus, 22 mars 2011 - 12:04 .

[TEWR]

agreed pitrus. While not crucial to the plot of the story, if these people are going to be your best friends/person(s) you fall in love with, it helps to know a few facts about them.

The look of happiness Sten had when I said I'd keep an eye out for cookies was uplifting.

[Xaenn]

I enjoyed the new specializations for the mage, but I would like to see the old ones revamped, shapeshifter had endless potential but harder to implement due to balancing issues and believable size of the animal you're changing into in a small world enviroment.

ShapeShifter is DA:O was nearly pointless, only due to you had to have pretty precise stat allocation, would do decent, but not great damage in forms and with the allocation of stats thats about all you were good for.

Modifié par Xaenn, 22 mars 2011 - 12:24 .

[EddySpeddy]

Xaenn wrote...

I enjoyed the new specializations for the mage, but I would like to see the old ones revamped, shapeshifter had endless potential but harder to implement due to balancing issues and believable size of the animal you're changing into in a small world enviroment.

ShapeShifter is DA:O was nearly pointless, only due to you had to have pretty precise stat allocation, would do decent, but not great damage in forms and with the allocation of stats thats about all you were good for.

Instead of a Shapeshifter, they need a Summoner ^.^

[Shieara]

Aside from the things listed in the main post:

I just wanted to say that I really missed the overhead camera available in DA:O on the PC.  I'm one of those players who likes to pause and issue commands, and it gets really frusterating when you can't see!  

I also missed the main camp.  It made equipping your party so much easier. 

The story just didn't seem very cohesive to me.  It was all over the place with different plotlines that never really resolved into a whole.  The entire thing seemed rushed in the last act. It just felt very schizophrenic and unfocused.  My decisions really didn't seem to matter a lot.

I never really understood Hawke's motivations to do the things she did.  There was just no logical reason for them.  There was no reason for most of the companions to stick around over a long period either.

Last but not least, why were enemies just sort of popping out of the sky?  In DA:O they were behind doors or around the corner.  In DA2 they just sort of teleport in and then explode when you kill them.  Not sure what is up with that.

[EddySpeddy]

Shieara wrote...

Last but not least, why were enemies just sort of popping out of the sky?  In DA:O they were behind doors or around the corner.  In DA2 they just sort of teleport in and then explode when you kill them.  Not sure what is up with that.

Yes, while I don't mind enemies coming in waves, they should spawn out of visibilty, like behind a wall or something. Spawning Shades in waves under is understandable, because the things came out of the floor in Origins. But when a person just drops down from above it doesn't make sense.

[songsmith2003]

I just finished the game, so I'll throw in my two gold.

DA2 isn't a bad game. It could have been a great game. Instead, it feels like an unfinished game. I didn't feel like I was playing a Bioware game. I felt like I was playing Dungeon Siege (a fun game for what it is) with some voice overs thrown in.

This was especially true with the repeated locations and obviously single direction of some of the quests. I mean, come on, don't lock every door (or make it unusable) and force us to go in one direction only.

The constant respawn of enemies instead of more powerful enemies was annoying and often made no sense. This was especially true in the open when the enemies appeared out of thin air.

Find us something besides spiders and shades and corpses and raiders. It got to the point that I knew what I would be attacked with in each area. And what's with all the abominations and magical critters? They were rarer in DA:O and, frankly, scarier. Even the High Dragon was more PITA than challenging. Something changed from the bit dragon encounters in DA:O to DA:2, and it wasn't for the better.

Put lock-picking on a skill tree. I hated that my DEX based rogue had to put so many points into Cunning just to open chests.

For a Champion, my LadyHawke didn't seem to influence anything at all. Even if I reloaded scenes and chose a different conversation path, the outcome was the same. Very few choices from the first two parts ever had any ramifications.

Blood mages. For the love of the Maker, would you please show us some NPC mages that are decent people? Hard to decide to protect them when every single one you meet is an insane killer. You showed us some temperant templars, so why not some marvelous mages? I also would have liked to have been able to change my final decision when I saw that someone turned against all his principles after I said I'd protect them (and I am not speaking of a certain companion).

I liked the romances and some of the companion interactions. Aveline's quest was especially fun. However, I never felt like I really got to know any of them. I couldn't talk to them except for scripted events. I'd like more party banter, but more importantly, I'd like to be able to lift a glass or two with friends and really get to know them.

Remarks by companions often made no sense. My best example is Merrill prattling on about where the graveyard is right after we...well, I'm not allowed to spoil, but it was on her final quest. She definitely should have had a different line there. Also, I was never given the chance to talk to her in her home afterward to experience any sort reaction from her.

Also, seriously, Fenris? Get rid of the bodies in your house. Call my Warden from Feralden. She was good at dumping them into wells.

I really liked how Merrill's place changed. I wish I could have seen more of that with the others. I also would have liked some nice gossipy chat with Donnic.

I did enjoy the game. A lot of my frustration stems from seeing what could have been with just a little more time and thought.

[fuji7x]

 Some of my thoughts.

1. Pacing of Act 1

It was long... too long and you had no direction.  Well actually, that's not fair... I can see it now, but it's far too subtle that I didn't pick up on it the first go-around.  The driving force is that Hawke wants to do well for his/her family.  However, it never seemed like my family was being harassed after reaching Kirkwall.  Perhaps leaving lothering overpowered the feeling of slumming it in Low Town, but I never really felt my family was in any danger.

While Carver did well to indicate his distaste with, everything... Bethany never once really confided in me about her fear of the Templars.  Lines were delivered "There's a lot of templars in Kirkwall" but were never really responded to, decreasing the impact of this fear on the player.

One possible solution would be to play up the Bethany vs. Templars angle from a fear perspective.  Next have templars rough up some people in low-town with varric letting you know that up in high town bethany would be safer.

Next, let the player know how much soveriegn it costs to buy a mansion.  Say 300-500 soveriegns or some other ridiculous amount and that the only way for Hawke to get Bethany to safety is to get a house in High Town.  This lets the player know that the 50 soveriegn you're saving for the expedition wouldn't solve your problems... because that's how I felt.  I saved up 50 soverigns, why do I need to go on this quest? The mother should have been denied access in act 1 by the viscount to reclaim their mansion as well.  Close that sub-story quickly.... no shortcuts for Hawke.

Perhaps have your home in lotown broken into one day when you get home.  Come home by yourself in the middle of a home invasion.  Make the player feel unsafe at home down in Low Town.

In short, give the player reasons to want to undergo this expedition, real reasons like the safety of my family.  Especially in the Bethany route, as Carver complains enough that I get it.



2. Area Re-Use

I've seen interviews from Mike Laidlaw where he acknowledged it.  As for possible solutions, I came up with 2 which I do not think take up as much time/work as it would require to create something brand new.

- reskin a dungeon.  If a dungeon is fire and red, change the flowing fire to ice and reskin it.
- Lighting -- I don't know how long it takes to re-light an area, but changing the lighting can make things look new and fresh.  It's sort of like how Kirkwall day and night are identical, except for the light.


3. Bloodmages

Nobody seemed to really mind blood mages... you'd think it would pose a problem, especially after all those quests where you run into blood mages.  You can't use blood mages as a reason for Hawke (insert spoiler here) and not have anyone mind (insert spoiler here)... If the player chooses, great... but I, as the player didn't even get a chance to let Hawke verbalize her thoughts on the subject.

4. Lack of unique quests

It's a standard quest if you've played enough games, but in Origins when you're captured near the end and are locked up in Fort Drakkon it provided a change in the standard kill this or get this quest.  The escape could go multiple routes.  Sure, the outcome was the same, but you could solve this issue in multiple ways.  I found that aspect lacking.  Sure, I could always get Varric to talk me out of trouble but that was all Varric.  I didn't really have any control over the matter other than choosing the unique "you handle it varric" dialogue option.

While the FedEx quests were simplified in that you didn't need to get the quest, you simply got the item and delivered it, all quests involved killing someone/something and returning for rewards.  

Of course I understand that coming up with unique quests is tougher than it sounds, perhaps it is something you could strive for.  



That's really all I have for constructive criticism.  I enjoyed the game, enjoyed it a lot actually.  I didn't appreciate the story until act 2, which I saw as a problem.  Sure, I have gripes about other issues, but for the most part, I can understand why they were done.  While I may not agree with some of the design decisions, or more accurately, the implementation of the choices, they didn't bother me enough that I no longer wanted to play.

I wonder if BW actually reads this thread.  If they are, I have one thing to say to you,

Don't ever stop experimenting.  I may not always agree with your innovations, but I think I'd dislike you more if you stopped being so bold

 - A linux client for NWN
 - A MMORPG-in-a-box with NWN's toolkit and online abilities.
 - Sex scenes and love interests, slavery and racism, religion and morality
 - An old-school RPG with a design philosophy from 15 years prior in an age dominated with FPS / Action games
 - Taking on the Star Wars universe and ignoring every known character from 6 movies
 - ... those are just off the top of my head.

[Vaegrin]

Conversations and Choices

I am a huge fan of the conversation wheel and of having a main character with a voice. I have just one problem with the conversation choices in Dragon Age II: a little too often, the three "attitudes" (diplomatic, charming, and aggressive) are attached to choices such as whether to agree or disagree with some body.

For example, if Merrill says something dangerously naive, I might be given the choice to diplomatically agree with her, charmingly agree with her, or aggressively disagree with her. But what if I want to diplomatically disagree with her?

Conversations would be improved if somehow there was always a way for me to choose my character's attitude and decisions. When my Hawke is Mr. Superniceguy for 95% of the game, it's a bit jarring to see him turn suddenly aggressive just because he disagrees with someone.

[Harbid]

Hi, greetings from germany!

First of all, I would like to say that I'm a long time Bioware-Fan and that I have played every Bioware Game since Baldur's Gate 1 (except NWN1). I became an avid fan with KotoR and JE.
In my opinion DA2 is still a good game but falls short of every other Bioware Game I have played.
While still enjoyable it is no AAA game in my opinion. Although I still liked the game, I would not recommend it to people who are not bioware fans.

Reused maps:
Well, this has been said a lot of times, but this is what annoyed me the most. Part of a good RPG-experience is for me to discover new and diverse locations. I love to visit snowy mountains, deserts, forrests, coasts, castles, cities etc. 
KotoR with its diverse planets and DAO did very well.
I'm okay with revisting a location, especially if it's fits in the story.
It's okay to revisit familiar locations like the chantry, hightown or lowtown etc. because it remains the same location and there are reasons in the story to do so, esp. as kirkwall is your home.
But revisting a map over and over again representing different location is boring and breaks immersion.
Please do not do this again in the future.

Combat
I'm okay with the new combat system, though I liked DAOs system a little better. I didn't like that in every encounter there was a respawn. It's okay if you're suprised with enemy reinforcements in some fights or major battles or having a mage conjure some creatures, but please not in every fight. Reinforcements should not be predictable.
Oh, and I would like to have a larger variety of enemies.
I did like the new talent trees.

Companions
I missed a little depht in my copanions. I like it to talk to them and learn more about than in my camp / home / spaceship. Please let us have some kind of party-base in the next game. I really missed that in Awakening and DA2.

What I liked very much is that the companions are much more involved in the main story line than in DAO or ME1&2. I won't go into details since this is a spoiler-free forum but I like it when the companions are tied into the plot and have their own reasons to act as they do. In DAO it was basicly only Alistair who was relevant to the main plot, in some extend maybe Morrigan. The rest seemed to come along and risk there life for no major or personal reason (well...except fighting the blight).

Deep Characters with major involvement in the main plot would be perfect!

Story
[This segment includes KotoR-, DAO- and ME-Spoilers for comparison!]

The story was okay, though I missed a goal to achieve for a lot of the time. At some points the game felt like a loose collection of sidequests. A RPG should have both interesting sidequests as well as a strong mainstory.
KotoR did that very well for example. It had a strong antagonist, a clear task to complete, a brilliant storytwist and yet fun sidequests.

Speaking of antagonists, for me it's important for them to have a "face" and to appear from time to time and do something evil. The Blight in DAO or the Reapers in ME are a faceless threat, more like a natural desaster than like an enemy, something that just occured.
Okay, ME1 had Saren, but he only appeared rarely and had no major victories. Malak for example regularly appeared in cutscenes and did some evil stuff like destorying taris, the jedi council, abducting a companion etc. He was a villain with a face who actually had a face, a personality and gave you plenty of reasons to hate him.

Another point is that choices should matter, the choices should lead to different outcomes. For example in KotoR you could either become the selfless hero of the republic or the next sithlord.
An epilogue is a very good way to satisfy the player for completing the game since she or he learns how the choice made during the game affected the world and characters. An epilogue in text boxes like after DAO, Awakening or JE are a good way, maybe even a choice of different cutscenes for the epilogue.

I did like the the Mass Effect dialogue wheel and the voiced player character.

The narrative was enjoyable, too. Maybe you should have switched to varric and cassandra a little more often or have the narrator drop a comment on certain actions now and thend. It sometimes took 15 or so hours to see the varic as narator again.

The soundtrack was great btw.


Thank you Bioware for supplying me with great games for over a decade! I'm very much looking forward to SWToR, ME3 and hopefully an improved DA2 addon or DA3.

I apologize for my bad english, its not my native language and I didn't use it very often in the last years.

Modifié par Harbid, 22 mars 2011 - 01:19 .

[Vaegrin]

Area Maps

In one sense, I can see how the reuse of areas was a brilliant idea. But I think it could have been better executed. There are a few ways this could have been done.

Minimap

First, and most importantly, the minimaps should have been adjusted. The closed parts of each dungeon should not appear on the minimap--it only accentuates the fact that the areas are being recycled. As soon as I see that minimap, I know instantly that I've been there before. I might not notice it as readily otherwise, because of the changed layouts. As a gamer, I'm accustomed to recycled textures and doodads, so the appearance of the environment would not tip me off as easily.

Moreover, the first time I encounter a recycled dungeon with its layout adjusted by the use of non-selectable doors, the minimap makes it all too obvious exactly what BioWare did to try to keep the recycled dungeons fresh. It is a peek behind the wizard's curtain that only makes matters worse.

Doors

Second, the non-selectable doors are a bad way to alter dungeon paths. Especially when the minimap (not to mention prior experience in that dungeon environment) indicates that there should be a path through the door. Using rockslides, solid walls--anything--would have made a huge difference.

Embrace Recycling!

Finally, the game could have embraced the familiarity more often. It might make sense for a group of criminals in Act 2 to be hiding out in one of the same caves Hawke discovered in Act 1, instead of some different, identical cave. Instead of having two or three quests take place in separate, small parts of the same recycled environment, maybe multiple quests could have taken place in the same large cavern or sewer, perhaps accessibleby different entrances and closed off from one another until both quests have been completed.

An advantageous byproduct of doing things this way would be that it would potentially allow for a return to areas previously visited. It does not aid in suspension of disbelief for dungeon entrances to somehow disappear as soon as I've walked through the exit.

[TEWR]

I just found another thing I don't like. I just completed the Qunari sword quest in Act 3, and I wanted to follow the Qunari just because I could.

He walks forward, up the steps to the viscount's keep but on the far right steps, turns into the little alcove area, and turns again and walks into a wall and vanishes.

Yea...... um...... hmmm...... well....... ok......


WHAT?!

[Cybermortis]

I will add that having your dog as a pet you can summon, rather than a full companion, was a good call. I wish he would stop running off to attack mobs I can't see even on the mini-map, and that the summon ability was automatically reset if you left and area when he was there - so you could recall him instantly on entering 'new' areas. But these are very minor gripes, with the first being somewhat in keeping with a Dog. Heck, every dog I've known will happily run off to chase something no matter how much you shout at it to come back.

[jones0901]

first off, DA2 is a very fun, good game with alot of potential. For all its problems (or the things people are angry about) its a good game and fits well in the series. so many story options for the world are added by this game.
second, im glad there is a thread like this, without people shooting of fireballs, pro old school vs new style. ironic that the game caused a chantry vs templar conflict

what i would like to see-
A NEW class or two. I think the game needs this because in most cases, whichever class you take, one or more companions become basically useless to you. if your a tank, why use Aveline, a DW rogue, why use Isabela. You can of course and i do, but it ends up that you use the same party composition for all major battles- healer, damage rogue, tank, ranged rogue- you can sub the 2nd rogue for a healer but thats about it. if you added a class that was dps with moderate tanking, or maybe a healer/tank paladin type, it opens up more strategic options
           for example- instead of using two rogues as in the first party build, why not have a class that is between rogue and warrior. this class could have some tanking, enough to pull two enemies and take them away from the mage and rogue-they would use a bow to pull enemies, and aoe spell, and then switch seemless to melee weapon....or you could have a healer/tank with lower damage output. there are alot of options here. ALSO, the more classes you have, the happier people are.

I would love to see some MEMORIZED SPELLS OR TALENTS, with like 30 minute cooldowns or a camp rest that are just massive, say like a death field, (or that pull apart spell hawke has for that matter) that will kill everything in an area thats not elite or boss, and mass crit the elite. Rogues could have a darts or something that did serious bleeding damage, like he was hitting it continiously for say 20 seconds, warriors could have a 1 minute invincible or 10 second kill all enemies not elite or boss. Basically, you would have them at the beginning of a dungeon. Again, if you keep dropping adds, it makes the game more strategic.

The VOICED PROTAGANIST was great, but that voice could have worked for a city elf, which hawke would have been. I know it doesnt really work with hawke's story, but it could work in future games

THE REUSED DUNGEONS-  i think Diablo had a DUNGEON RANDOMIZER, could this work for the tech DA2 or future games might use?

QUESTS-nothing in DA2 compared to the Urn of Sacred Ashes or even the deep roads. thinking of the great quests bioware games have made, to me its  Durlags tower, the Underdark, the overmind guy in fallout, or New Reno in general, and the last quest of Jade Empire (please make another). without these, the game is lacks the really memorable moment. 
ex. lengthen the deep roads expedition, have a camp scene or two, and add a choice at the end that has the same impact as URN or Deep Roads

ADD A 5th PARTY SLOT-again, it would make your choice of party more important, add new banter options, and generally make people happier. i assume this would require an overhaul of fights, and cant be enacted for DA2 retroactivly, but the next game....

THE ARMOR SYSTEM-is good and it makes the characters far more individual, but i think it could be expanded, Isabela wore the same tunic for 7 years.  Dave of Canadas post was good on this.

CHAMPIONS ARMOR- i just ran mage because i loved that armor....WHY NOT BUILD THAT  ARMOR THROUGH THE GAME? you could start with a basic shell and add to it....THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU WOULD ALWAYS WEAR IT. you could change armor whenever, and at times found armor would be better, but you could find components, enchant them to add defense, or resistances, armor, etc. There could be some variance in how it looks, etc. 

BACK TO CHOOSING RACE- obviously this is harder in the era of voice protaganists and i dont know how much having different voice actors would cost, but doing this allieviates alot of the criticism  people have. i know i would have been happy with Hawkes voice if i could have used it for an elf (again, i know the story didnt really work for elf or dwaf hawke)  

NEW WEAPON STYLES- one handed blade, add crit and defense, use talents to put effects on targets then use something like explosive strike to trigger them....onecould stun an opponent when it is knocked off, cause bleeding damage, or high crit
you could add halbreds or spears,  again lots of options
for mages-sword and staff like Gandalf in the fims.

LEVELING- after about 30 levels things get kind of redundant, and early talents arent as good, thus arent used. why make levels take longer, but in the interim, maybe at each quarter you get to upgrade abilities and add attribute points. Levels would be big things, where you gain a few new talents and a higher tear of abilities

SPECIALIZATIONS- to increase varriance among characters, have specializations be big changes, with stat requirements and talent requirements. that wayffor example, Fenris and Carver would not be basically the same character. Make quests to get them, training to get higher level abilities, and make them also story based. Not just assassin, Antivan Crow. If you become a blood mage, you have to find a book  or a person and work to get the skills. PRESITGE classES would be great, like Warden, Chevalier, (id add Blood Mage and Templar here). there was that great ash warrior group you saw in DAO that could be a great specialization, you get a mabari and get a talent tree that gives him what Rabbit had, it makes you less strong, but with dog you get a tank with a few damage abilities.

PARTY TALENTS- what if every 8th or 9th level, you got a party talent where each member would preform  scripted action at once? these would be a huge attack, or heal, buff, debuff etc, and have long cool downs.

DIALOUGE OUTSIDE OF SAFE HOUSES- while id love for it to be as much as DAO, i can see why not with a voice actor, but you could definitly add some times to talk outside the safehouse. i hate going back to hand someone a gift for example

GIVE SOME TYPE OF HEALS AND REVIVES TO OTHER classES- this a big problem for me in DA2, im pretty much stuck with Anders if i am anything but a mage. making characters different aside, you really have to use anders for all of act two, three and four if you want to fight big bosses like Xebinek(misspelled) or Hybris

PUZZLES, RIDDLES, ETC-
i always enjoy these, and like in the URN quest, where its basically optional on the riddles is a good compromise.
SKILLS-please bring these back. there are so many options they gave and it gave the game more depth. it doesnt have to be a hugely intensive thing, but having coercion, potions, traps made the game so much better. I doubt bioware would go to doing what NWN2 did, but i loved that.

Lastly, this is a great series with a great future, and i really look forward to seeing what happens. thanks for reading if you did, good luck bioware, now back to the thesis i decided not to revise this spring break and have to turn in the revised 50 pages in about 3 hours.

Modifié par jones0901, 22 mars 2011 - 02:40 .

[PoisonDagger]

I have enjoyed the game so far, this is also my first post but things that i think could be fixed in a expansion? or something.

-Difficulty- Why should you be able to change the difficulty at anytime? i think you should only be able to do this ONE TIME, i find it silly to be able to set it to casual on a hard boss then switch back to normal, not that i do this just u should get my point? And the game is also just to easy i am a rogue and i have a tanker and a healer, and pretty much i never ever die even on nightmare, it is little to no challenge.

I agree about junk, you should at least be able to do something more useful with it, like so many components can build to create something? And why not show some complex chest early in the game so you can have something to look forward to if u see what i mean, and then have to come back to them to be rewarded if u remember.

The leveling glitch...if anyone knows what i am speaking of it simply allows you to raise your level but it also raises the enemies, still this needs to be fixed. I do not know how all these fixes can be made anyways without having to update the game, but there is not check for updates on the ps3 for da2... You could just add in a expansion that is free to work on all this or make it cost somewhere along the line... i know none of this is easy to do and takes a long time, but i hope to see improvements or something even if it is a half a year but probably by that time...da3 will most likely get rushed into development. Also i disagree with the 5th party slot it is already a hassle to take care of 4 but that is just me

Modifié par PoisonDagger, 22 mars 2011 - 02:50 .

[Drasanil]

Alrighty then, since we’re doing the constructive criticism I thought I might as well chip in.
 
From the start, when they announced you would not actually be able to choose your character like in DAO, I was kind of sceptical about the game especially since Hawke didn’t seem like the type of character I wanted to play nor actually care about. But in the end I still bought it on the hopes that I might be pleasantly surprised.... After it all, I have to say that while some of it was fun, on the whole the entire DA2 experience left me rather underwhelmed, I wasn’t disappointed since I wasn’t expecting all that much but at the same time the game lived up to my expectations exactly as they were, which is to say rather low.
 
The game on its own wasn’t bad per say, but I felt no connection to my character and really didn’t feel invested in the story, I finished it to “see what happens” but I doubt I’ll be replaying it any time soon, unlike DAO which I replayed a tonne of times. It kind of feels like Bioware didn’t even try on this one, they just fixed the main console gripes about DAO, put in Full VO and shipped off a game that trying to pass itself off as Dragon Age. Any ways here is a list of my main bugbears about the game, I’ll try to clump them in categories for ease of reference.
 
 
Gameplay
 
-Lack of Top Down View: I know this seems like a minor thing, but I did my play through as a mage and let me tell you using AoE spells to their fullest without a proper top down view like in DAO was a major pain in the arse. Bioware said it would design both the PC and Console versions separately to best utilise their capabilities, but in this aspect the PC game play really felt limited by the console’s handicaps. The talents themselves and the diversity between mage, rogues and warriors were good, on the whole I’d say I like DA2’s talents better, but that actually using them could be far more of a pain than in DAO.
 
-Dual Stat Requirements: being pigeonholed into specific set of armour based on class due to the choice between gimping your character and wearing what you want really blowed. I must say I liked DAO’s system better when it came to armour and clothes, (even though I though some of the stat requirements in DAO were kind of pants too, high quality plate should have less requirements to wear than cheap chainmail). Putting clothes on shouldn’t require insane Willpower or Magic, and really gimped my mage in other departments, I wanted to pump Cunning more and only put some minimal points in Willpower but couldn’t due to item limitations. This reeked of arbitrary game balance and MMOs and I felt really broke immersion for me.
 
-Lack of Skills: I was hoping you’d fix the skill system not outright do away with it, I liked skills as it added another dimension to your character beyond class description. Lock-picking and trap disarming really should have been a skill available to all classes, given my rogues often only seemed to detect traps as a was about to step on them which defeated the purpose of making them essential in the first place.
 
-Multi-piece Vs Single-piece Armours: I get that in part you were trying to cut down on excessive content by introducing single piece armours and such for companions and NPCs, while keeping multi-piece for Hawke, but the overall effect wasn’t too impressive, most of Hawke’s armours really just looking like single piece stuff any ways, along with a severe lack of variation at least as far as wizard gear is concerned. As such I would suggest going forward it would be best to either revert to the DAO style for armour. Alternatively one could just keep the helmets as separate slots for both PC and NPC alike and just focus on making distinct single piece outfits that can be freely interchanged between the PC and companions to put back in some variation on customisation.
 
-Weapons Restricted by class: Ok this part really bugged me and felt like an artificial limitation that was simply put in for its own sake, much like the dual stat requirements for armour. I agree that weapons should be restricted in some sense, namely by a key attribute, but flat out banning them unless you were the right class just felt really... meh. Warriors should be able to use bows if they want to, rogues should be able to pick up a shield and just because you’re playing a mage doesn’t mean you can’t figure out how to hold a sword. It might not be the wisest thing to do, but people should have the option to equip their characters the way they feel like, especially when you have boss fights like the high dragon where you’re screwed if you’re not packing at least some manner of ranged fire power.
 
-Companion Limitations: I understand part of it was to make companions more distinct but they were far too specialised and greatly restricted player choice. I get companions having their own unique specialisation as their branch but at level 14 they really should have gotten a second specialisation. Case and point Anders/Merill, am I ever glad I was playing a mage because Merill can’t heal and I would have been forced to have Anders (who I severely disliked this time around) tag along. Same with Aveline/Fenris/Carver.... if you’re playing on a higher difficulty guess who you’re saddled with.
 
-Weapon Sets: Ties in part to the above.... what did you remove the two weapons sets and the ability to switch between them without going into the inventory? I mean really that just seems like a thoroughly pointless cut.
 
-Enemies Spawning in Waves: You can tell this was due to the console’s limitations. I don’t want to harp on console gamers since it may well have been a good work around for them to give them longer fights. But given that you said the two versions of the game were being worked on simultaneously you really had no reason to do this to the PC version, I don’t mind things like undead crawling out of the ground or deamons being occasionally summoned but fully armoured templars or mages just dropping in from the rooftops and such was just “ugh” inducing.
 
-Boss Fights: Ok these felt really really... action-adventury, beat on the boss a bit have him pull back and send in waves of enemies from a distance, then have him come back beat on him some more... the DAO Boss fights were better.
 
-Tactics: The tactics system seemed to be more or less a straight import of DAO’s tactics system with a few additions to take in account new status effects. However there were already a few gripes about the tactics system and its limitations adn an extremely popular improved combat tactics mod... It seems like a rather easy thing to have fixed and yet it wasn’t done.
 
 
Characters/Story
 
-Hawke: I’m sorry but Hawke was one of the weakest points in the story for me, the Devs originally told us he/she was central to the happenings and that the story wouldn’t make sense if he was an elf or a dwarf...
 
Problem 1 with this is that: the two major plot points revolved around someone who was not Hawke to whom all the Qunari troubles could be attributed and once again to someone who is not Hawke causing the kerfuffle between the mages and templars. Really at best Hawke was some manner of passive accomplice and at worst a failure who had no real input in how the events played out, the ending in Act III being an especially egregious example this.
 
Problem 2 with this being: I feel the Devs outright lied to us with regards to “Hawke has to be human or it wouldn’t make sense” thing. In all honesty Hawke could just as easily been a surface dwarf or city elf, the only real story element that revolved around his humanness was his Amell uncle bungling things which could have easily been worked around. The VO discrepancies could have been explained away by virtue of being from Lothering and having picked up the accent. Given the city authorities seemed to have been perfectly happy to let Fenris squat in a dead man’s mansion for seven years instead of simply evicting the elf and appropriating the place to sell it off, you can’t even really claim it would be impossible for Elf/Dwarf Hawke to have gotten a place in high town. Alternatively a few small tweaks here and there, like there were in the different origins in DAO, would have gone a long way to adding the feeling of character choice. Say Elf-Hawke becomes Haren of the Alienage instead of buying a mansion, where as Dwarf-Hawke gets a smithy or something.
 
Suffice it to say, if we’re stuck with another human-only PC option in the next DA game not only will I be extremely sceptical but I probably won’t even buy the game, given it’s not the type of character I really enjoy playing and Hawke proved that to me. I’d rather at least have the illusion of character choice even if it is somewhat shallow, than flat out not having any input. I really hope Hawke was just a phase Bioware was going through.
 
-Anders: You basically ruined the character for no good reason, I loved him in DAA and hated him in DAII, really there was no need to turn the character on his head and ignore what we did in Awakenings. Anders in DAII was so different from the Anders in DAA, that you might as well have just made a new character wholesale and used it instead of ret-conning an existing one to serve your purposes.
 
-Overall: I found the story to be rather weak and disjointed, there really didn’t seem to be an overarching goal, rather three smaller unrelated goals that were loosely tied together. I don’t mind a lack of save the world or epicness, but DA II really seemed to lack a proper sense of progression or end goal. It’s just random stuff happens and Hawke happens to be around. Hardly the most important person in Thedas if you ask me, and to have him/her heralded as such, for basically doing very little, kind of cheapens the Warden and his/her accomplishments.
 
 
Design:
 
-Overall: I liked the change, it gave the DA universe a look of its own and a good feel, it certainly made it more remarkable than DAO, but then again I also liked the DAO’s grittiness especially since I downloaded super high res mods.
 
-Elves: Over all I really liked the new design, the only thing that really bugged me about it were the Avatar noses. Switching from seeing the front and side of an elf in convoes it was really jarring and didn’t seem to mesh well with the overall sleek body and face aesthetic you had going. The ears could have also been pulled a bit closer to the head instead of sticking out like they did, but at least they weren’t WoW’s atrocious donkey ears.
 
-Dwarves: Only complaint is the conspicuous lack of females in DAII, you had pretty much imported them straight from DAO, so why no women?
 
-Weapons and Armor: Overall, it looked better, how ever there was some obvious copy and paste design wise and a noted lack of variation, every time I’d get an unique looking weapon or piece of armour I’d soon find some generic looking piece that outstripped it performances wise, which was kind of disappointing. Unique items, or rare looking ones would have been better off if they scaled with level like Bianca.
 
-Copy and Paste Dungeons: I’m just putting this in for the sake of it, plenty of other people have already sufficiently gripped about it.
 
-Darkspawn: The new design a wee bit too cartoony and the lack of genlocks and shrieks was noticeable and unfortunate.
 
-Kirkwall: It felt rather barren, once again this is likely due to the console’s limitations in handling large numbers of NPCs, but that’s no excuse for not putting a few extra in the PC version. Also the remarkable lack of progression in the city was jarring, like Fenris never bothering to even clean up the mansion after seven years.
 
-Full VO: I feel this was a mistake and that it further limited character choice and dialogue which could have best been used for companions and NPCs, however I also realise that the “mute-puppet” was a problem. As such may I suggest that a compromise may be in order? During regular banal conversations with party members and NPC, just switch to first person view and use text responses, to save on VO and while avoiding the mute-puppet sydrom by simply not showing said puppet. While reserving VO for party banter, crucial turning point convoes and cinematics. This would save on the VO budget and allow more content and character options, while still giving a feeling of life for the “Movie-Players”, for lack of a better term, at the crucial and climatic points in game.

[Matdeception]

Here we go...

Reused Maps...

While Bioware has become some what masterful at reusing maps and making them seem original at first, from different perspectives, to breaking it down into different smaller pieces and the like. It can distract a player from realizing he's just going through a reused area for a long while at the least, but not when the same area is rehashed into the majority of the game.

I speak, of course, of the cave map specifically. It's used in many areas, from two caves in Sundermount, with the third using the generic 'Deep Roads' dwarven design, all the way to the outlying caves in many seperate areas. The biggest annoyance tends to come from the several 'Areas' in Darktown that use that same map, such as Blondie's second mission quest available in Act 2.

This was a similar issue in DA1, thought not nearly as acute. It tended to lean primarily towards DLC and the like, and while irritating to see in DLC like Leliana's Song, it was understandable given the context of the story in Witchhunt. Lel's Song gave a rather abstract explanation for it, saying that it's her story and what not, but it was a weak excuse.

In future installments it would make, at least from my perspective, to at least reskin the reused maps a bit. A perfect example of this would be the DLC's character mission, the underground section was a reused map but had been reskinned and was thus a better experience to go through.


Enemy Encounters...

I found this function thrilling, honestly. I never had the problem of them just 'appearing', they tended to drop in from roofs and run around corners and the like. Given real world reactions, that when a fight starts people come running, either to watch or join in, I loved it.

Higher difficulties made this irritating to deal with from time to time, and certainly makes a tank's job more challenging, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.


Love Interests...

My only complaint here is a small one, but it's certainly a topic of much debate and general flaming on the boards. Seeing as every love interest sans Sebastian is bisexual, I was left asking myself if they were bisexual by character design/concept or if they were made bisexual to satisfy the 'Gay/Straight' conundrum that sends the fans into fits of pyschotic rage.

Thinking over the characters, I can only disagree with one of them being bisexual.

Isabela we understand, she has been sexual open since Origins, and no one is surprised here. 

Anders. Well, he's a iffy one. Given his actions/banter in DA: A, he really doesn't seem anything other then straight. However, that aspect of him wasn't touched upon and for all we know he could be lying about it, but I suppose the lynchpin comes with Justice. An intelligence with no true concept of attraction, or the differences between male and females being combined with Anders could change his viewpoints on such things.

Fenris isn't hard to understand either. He may have been either sexual orientation before the Lyrium... investment, but the side-effects of that make such things certainly possible.

Merril... here's where I have a problem. Merril is a Dalish, a group of elves in limited numbers who roam around the world acting superior and frollicking in secret so trees don't get jealous. They don't have the numbers to be socially 'accepting' of such differences. Simply put, there culture seems to be dying, and I wouldn't be surprised if they force relationships and the like just to keep their population up. Merril being lesbian is in contradiction culturally from this and presents the one issue I've had with it. This isn't to say there aren't any such relationships in the Dalish, just that it would be frowned upon heavily unless said couples were still doing their duty by procreating/creating heirs with other Dalish. Yet a Keeper, even just the First, would make such actions even more frowned upon given their positions among the tribes.

To be fair, I can see her being bisexual, there's certainly nothing to stop her from exploring that side of here now that she's free of the Dalish's purist views, it was just the one little nitpick I had with her character. 

So we go back to the initial critisim: Were they made Bisexual because their character simply is, or was it made such way to appease the Gay/Straight flame throwers crying for such?



Bugs...

The bugs in the game are few but terrible. Merril's out of order bug was extremly disconcerting, and I can't help but curse the game testers who happened to miss such an obvious issue that, more then anything else, ruins immerision and actually caused me to restart a playthrough simply because I thought I had missed something important.

Several quests, like Sketch and such, are either buggy or just entirely broken (Such as the A3 rescue mission), and even Zev's mission had a weird bug were he would *repeat* his initial conversation when you had already killed the people to finish the conversation.

I hate Carver, especially his armor. When I... made him something else, his new armor went into my inventory, and not on him.

More thoughts to come later...

Modifié par Matdeception, 22 mars 2011 - 03:05 .

[Vaegrin]

Items

Junk

Why create the unnecessary inventory clutter? In almost every other area of the game, you "trimmed the fat," so to speak. Why not here? Decrease the inventory limit, and get rid of junk drops in favor of plain money drops. That's what junk is anyway, right? It just requires a merchant to act as a go-between. Why not just cut out the middle man?

Equipment

Every piece of armor not made of Hawke's class is junk. Why have it in the game? It just creates an unnecessary headache when I have to go through my inventory later to sell the stuff I'm not going to use.

Loot

Do we really need so many junky weapon and armor drops? Personally, I don't want loot for loot's sake. I only care about loot when it (a) gives me something to make my character better, or ( gives me money to buy something to make my character better. Like its predecessor, Dragon Age II had a very high percentage of useless loot. As a result, loot was not fun or rewarding. It was a chore.

For some, the excess loot may create an illusion of choice. But it is only an illusion. I may be carrying a dozen suits of armor, but I'm only really choosing between one or two viable options. Like as not, they both have the same appearance. Why not give players meaningful choice in both appearance and statistics, while at the same time creating a better sense of reward in the  loot system?

I think you can do this by taking a page from the companion armor book. Let me loot a helmet with a unique appearance, then use other loot to enhance its potential for enchantments, and finally use even more loot to create enchantments to improve the helmet's actual capabilities. As the game goes on, I gain access to new helmet styles, new ways to enhance helmet potential, and new enchantments. Along the way, every piece of loot gives me something I can use either to customize my appearance or to enhance my abilities. Suddenly, post-fight looting is fun and rewarding instead of a tedious chore!

[Alice Alive]

Here's to hoping someone at Bioware actual reads this and takes these into consideration!

First of all, please do not rush DA3. Please. Because already I know that most of the things I'm going to point out about DA2 are likely explained by, "the game was rushed."

The characters are interesting and endearing, but I simply cannot get attached to them like in Origins. The conversations are limited only to quests, and do not offer nearly the depth, length, or overall content that its predecessor had. I do like that, if I intend to be cheeky or witty, I know I can do just that. The wheel is a nice touch. But there’s so little to get me to really care about my companions! The game takes place over several years; wouldn’t you think I’d be a little more attached to the characters by now? Even the dialogue between the characters while roaming the city doesn’t make the characters seem any more real. They just bicker, mostly.

As for the dungeons, the heart and soul of the game play… Main quest dungeons were short and, over all, not too rewarding. In Origins, I did not complete the Deep Roads in one sitting, or the Circle Tower, etc, etc. But going down into the Deep Roads in DA2, I was pumped for another adventure of long tunnels and hoards upon hoards of darkspawn. But alas, it was over in, I don’t know, maybe an hour? I finished Act One feeling like I’d missed out big time, and as the main plot went on, the feeling didn’t go away.

Also in the topic of dungeons… Now, I know the game was rushed, but really? The recycling is CRAZY! At first I thought I was imagining it, but no, just seal this door here and it’s a whole new dungeon!

And then, bugs. Serious game-breaking bugs, and for me it was the one where, following Act 2, Hawke loses attack speed to the point where the game is UNPLAYABLE. How did that get past beta testers? I know it’s a joke that “beta is what goes on the shelf” and patches come later, but this is ridiculous. Please fix!

And also, I guess on a smaller note, I sure would like more spells as a mage. I know my mage in Origins had way more spells than this.

I hope this is constructive, and I really hope that people at Bioware read these and know what the issues are, because I LOVED Origins, and I wanted very badly to love DA2, and hopefully I’ll be able to love DA3. Fingers crossed, Bioware—I really do want to be a satisfied customer!

[Elhanan]

For myself, the largest error may be the choice to further restrict classes.

No more may a Rogue wield a longsword or any other large weapon which now requires Weapon & Shield talents. While I can try and make a STR/CON Rogue to wear heavy armor again, this does provide larger weapons. Warriors do not seem to be able to become archers or try their hand at DW, and Mages seem to be only wield staves.

While their are plenty of new shiny Talents for each class, and it is perfectly acceptable to only have a single race as this is not DAO, the general builds for each class in DA2 would seem to be exactly alike for every player, and that makes me a little sad.

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Here's the main constructive criticism I've got to offer:

1. More dialogue, those voice actors are worth their weight in gold! Its an RPG, and talking to our party makes us feel closer, especially for the romances. Also, more details with the dialogue like in Origins, where if you raise friendship or are in a romance, party members will say nicer things during play to reflect that.

2. More focus on the romance in general, it realy is one of the standout strengths of Bioware games.

3. Take more time to playtest everything and iron out all the bugs. Tell EA you need the time, it'll be worth it.

4. Try to keep out choices canon, as much as its difficult to juggle them all.

[Thomas9321]

I dislike the dialogue wheel. Whilst it works pretty well in Mass Effect, here it doesn't really fit with the tradtional RPG feel. I also dislike how I have to guess what I'm going to say, honestly I don't mind having Hawke's response in full at the bottom of my screen: it worked just fine in every other RPG prior to Mass Effect.

I am a convert to the voice acting however, I think it's excellently done and adds to the game. Playing a deadpan snarker is much more satisfying when you can hear the delivering and see facial expressions. However, I do not feel it's worth the trade off to be stuck playing a human. Whilst I get that this was mostly a story thing I think being able to play as a dwarf or an elf adds a lot of replay value to the game.

I think we need to switch back to a DA:O style party dialogue system in every single way. I feel like I could talk to my campions a lot more in the original, and feel I could get to know them better. However, the inidividual story arcs branching over the whole game is a massive, massive, MASSIVE improvement. Also I miss having a central hub for all my party member's. To talk to them all in this you have to go across the entire city multiple times and all the loading makes it a chore.

Also, please don't rush DA3. If we have to wait three years, so be it.

Modifié par Thomas9321, 22 mars 2011 - 07:32 .

[Jenova65]

Elhanan wrote...

For myself, the largest error may be the choice to further restrict classes.

No more may a Rogue wield a longsword or any other large weapon which now requires Weapon & Shield talents. While I can try and make a STR/CON Rogue to wear heavy armor again, this does provide larger weapons. Warriors do not seem to be able to become archers or try their hand at DW, and Mages seem to be only wield staves.

While their are plenty of new shiny Talents for each class, and it is perfectly acceptable to only have a single race as this is not DAO, the general builds for each class in DA2 would seem to be exactly alike for every player, and that makes me a little sad.

Haven't played through as a mage yet only a rogue and I agree that the loss of being able to wield even one sword hurts the class and not being able to switch to ranged with melee bosses that only warriors can survive against is annoying. Imagine only having daggers available to beat the Archdemon? 
As for mages, I love the Arcane Warrior class in DA:O you were always capable as a mage with a sword, it was great. I loved the spellweaver and think there should have been more Arcane specific swords available. Shame it isn't available as a class specialization in DA II.................