2797 réponses à ce sujet

[panamakira]

My top problems with the game:

1) My biggest beef with DA2 among many things was the constant re-use of the maps/locations. I mean I could deal with a lot of other things and I know DA:O had plenty of recycled areas but DA2 was "incredible" in this aspect.

2) Lack of NPC interaction. It was so limited in what you could speak to your party about. Not everything was bad though, the love scenes were so much better, I just wanted to talk to them more. Party banter was great too.

Overall I like the game a lot. The thing I enjoyed the most and this game improved a lot upon was combat. Combat this time around is just really fun! Also DA2 offers high replay value I think in comparison to DA:O, which is in part due to a much better character creator.

[Satyricon331]

I've been meaning to write up a post for this thread for awhile now. I reread my post in the feedback thread on the other forum, and since then I've started other playthroughs, although I only have one full playthrough done.

I largely still have the same opinions except 2 small points:
- I was largely indifferent b/w DAO's large-numbers-of-talents system and DA2's upgrade system, but now I prefer DAO's. I just feel the DA2 system railroads me into a smaller number of builds; it's less flexible now and there's less replay value, to me at least.
- Similarly I wanted DA3 to have both CCC and spell combos, but now I've come to dislike CCCs. Individual characters feel puny unless they have their little helpers around (or are 2Hers), and there's too much of an MMO feel.

Overall my biggest request is for better storyline-gameplay-art integration. DAO might have had many traditional RPG elements, but the gameplay-story segregation was generally either minimal or very avoidable (like the Ranger summons issue). It made it feel more immersive. Warriors flying through the air, blood balloon enemies, mages who need warrior crutches to be threatening, all worsen the experience for me. I'd prefer DA to feel more like a coherent world again and less like an arbitrary plaything.

[Reddevil01]

 Bioware has seemed to have lost its aims with DA 2 and tried
to make a Mass Effect replica with swords. The fact that they have simplified
the game to this extent has means that a lot of the great things that have came
out of DA and other role playing games have gone lost. I miss the fact that you
do not have to work for your specialization skills and in fact that the skill
tree needs a lot more refinement is also up there. My personal opinion is that
Bioware is trying to reinvent the wheel, without take notice of what the
history of role playing games are. This might be the fact that they are trying
to up sales by dragging players away from 3rd person action games
but this tactic means disappointing those gamers that love role playing games.
Go back to what works and not what is fast

[Jenova65]

ms_sunlight wrote...

Dear BioWare -

Please help save my marriage by enabling your future games to pause during cut scenes. When my dearest one (who is not a gamer beyond the odd game of Zuma's Revenge) comes into the room and talks to me I would like to be able to pause and talk to him so he doesn't think I'm completely ignorant and divorce me. Also, sometimes I get actual telephone calls.

Yours,
Ms. Sunlight

If you play on 360 or PS3 you can just hit the hub button you know................Oooooh, have we found something that PC players can't do that we can? LMAO.................. JK............ That does sound like something that needs addressing tbh, I mean people DO have real lives that interrupts games (shocking I know, but there it is) And it would be massively game ruining for me if I couldn't hit the hub button as there are always people bothering me <_<

[Daniel_Sky]

I cant miss two disadvantages of this game:
- There are not russian localization (subtitles translation is porno, not product);
- There are too many bags.
This two features critical, because transforn this game to low-quality product. And all other simly developers point of view. Im sorry that bought this game, and lost confidence in EA and Bioware.

[Zeevico]

Satyricon331 wrote...

I've been meaning to write up a post for this thread for awhile now. I reread my post in the feedback thread on the other forum, and since then I've started other playthroughs, although I only have one full playthrough done.

I largely still have the same opinions except 2 small points:
- I was largely indifferent b/w DAO's large-numbers-of-talents system and DA2's upgrade system, but now I prefer DAO's. I just feel the DA2 system railroads me into a smaller number of builds; it's less flexible now and there's less replay value, to me at least.
- Similarly I wanted DA3 to have both CCC and spell combos, but now I've come to dislike CCCs. Individual characters feel puny unless they have their little helpers around (or are 2Hers), and there's too much of an MMO feel.

Overall my biggest request is for better storyline-gameplay-art integration. DAO might have had many traditional RPG elements, but the gameplay-story segregation was generally either minimal or very avoidable (like the Ranger summons issue). It made it feel more immersive. Warriors flying through the air, blood balloon enemies, mages who need warrior crutches to be threatening, all worsen the experience for me. I'd prefer DA to feel more like a coherent world again and less like an arbitrary plaything.

1. I like the new talent tree and upgrade system. I think it works well.
2. I like, but also dislike CCCs as they railroad you into bringing along certain characters. (Aveline in particular: I like her character, but the fact is, there's only one of her; no one can tank like her; and Fenris takes damage like a rogue, even w/ full upgrades, making him a less attractive choice). On the other hand stagger+explosive strike is a pleasure and can take out a boss quite easily.
3. I somewhat dislike that the roles of the characters are constrained. Would the game break if a rogue could use s+w and s+w talents? Or if a warrior could use archery? This is not a mocking question or one put in sarcastic tone--I'm genuinely interested in why the devs chose to limit class roles in this way. Is it balance or flavour? Or both?
4. Unique or special armour sets. You need them. Make them rare and equippable on all characters. That way we don't agonise over whether to equip Anders with Robe vs slightly better Robe. This was how BG2 worked by the way, and I think it struck a near-perfect balance.

Modifié par Zeevico, 06 avril 2011 - 12:03 .

[Ieldra]

OK... I don't recall if I've already posted on this thread, but I'm going to mention a few things not among the common complaints:

Companions and interactions with them:

No free talks:
If I have not a single free talk with my companions - i.e. a talk I can have at any time instead of only when the journal tells me - I feel increasingly that I am not in control of my character's personal life. That would, perhaps, not be so much of a problem if the main plot offered more freedom. But DA2 is deliberately designed so that Hawke's influence on the big picture is limited in the end. I happen to like that. However, removing free talks and thus making me feel I have no control over an aspect of my character's personal life I should have control over, that's going one step too far in that direction.

Lack of content in companions' backstories:
I like the companions (as usually, I like even those I dislike), but in spite of having more dialogue than their counterparts in DAO and ME2, they feel less complete and engage my emotions less. I suspect that is because they rarely tell stories of their past but exist just in the present (Fenris is an exception in that). If Isabela told me a few stories of her life as a pirate, for instance, especially those stories which might have made her what she is, I would feel a stronger connection. I should also mention that these things would be perfect subjects for free talks (see above).

One-dimensional banter:
Is there a single banter Isabela initiates that is not about sex? Well, there is, but I don't recall more than one. Is there a single banter initiated by Fenris where he doesn't talk about how evil mages are, or by Anders where he doesn't talk about the injustice done to mages? I get that characters are designed around one or two key concepts, but narrowing them down too much makes me feel as if I'm in a bad comedy, not an epic drama.

 

Modifié par Ieldra2, 06 avril 2011 - 01:04 .

[Andronic0s]

 Did not went through the whole thread so I might repeat some stuff, but here is my criticism, form greatest to least

1- No way to influence the main story, this is what I expect from earlier Bioware RPGs so was disappointed that even end bosses stay the same, when it does not makes any sense for them to be there. I lost count of how many times people died in front of my Hawke with him being an spectator rather than the hero is is meant to be.

2- Re-used assets, I am ok with using the same tileset as long as the map layouts are different (why can't I go to different areas of Hightown or lowtown as the years go by? it feels like I'm always in the same tiny area of a very large city)

3- Companions dialogues are too short sometimes, it irkes me to no end to get a call from a companion to go meet him at his house only to exchange 2 lines of dialogue, I was expecting a conversation (however short) but 2 lines is just... ugh

4- Combat is too frequent and last for too long, can't even take dog for a walk without having to fight 30 thugs, but this would not be such an issue if most of the opponents did not had such insane HP bars my SnS Hawke has to wail on a thug 20 times to kill one? really? I get that I'm supposed to use CCC (and I like them) but surely some balance can be achieved so that my character are not useless when not performing a CCC

5- Warrior combat seems too repetitive, as a SnS warrior by end-game (lvl 24) I had with all the upgrades, passives, sustainables and useless skills I had to pick up (to get to the good ones) mybe 7 or 8 skills to activate in combat from which 2 or 3 where situational (Silence, for example), leaving me with about 4 or 5 skills to use most of the time, the same 4 or 5 I have been using since lvl 8 or so, which made combat for me personaly very repetitive as im always using the same stuff.
Why are there no skills that lower an opponents resistance to damage for a while? or Increase suceptivility to a specific kind of dmg or bolster my allies something else that is not just medium dmg or a stun. 

Modifié par Andronic0s, 06 avril 2011 - 02:33 .

[The Sum of all Evil]

No more aggro management:

I find it highly immersion breaking that I can learn to taunt an intelligent being into attacking me (the tank with his puny dmg potential) instead of the meage who is obviously (everyone knows how dangerous mages are) about to turn him to dust.

Either make it some kind of blood ritual (just like a weaker form of blood slave; or some other REASONABLE excuse for inducing said intelligent being into behaving against his best interest) or just give my mage some teleport/contingency/mirror image etc. spell (for example let me do what the AI mages do).


EDIT:

Also: I don't mind a dialouge wheel (or an APC track or whatever) I also don't mind dialoge choice to be an abstract of the spoken lines, but please make it a good abstract not some very vague semblance of what is said. I plan my char in advance and like to chose dialogue optins that fit him best. In DA2 my evil blood mage slave-driver (blood mage/spirit healer) sometimes comes across as caring to others (thabn himself) due to poor paraphrasing of dialogue.

Modifié par The Sum of all Evil, 06 avril 2011 - 03:32 .

[caridounette]

Overall, i did appreciate DA2 alot. The thing is, since its a sequel, its always gonna be compared to DAO, which is way more rich in lore, descriptions and interactions. Here are my 2 cents:

WORLD. Kirkwall is very beautiful and i understand you spend most time in and around it so the maps need to be reused. The night/day cycle is a good addition.That said, since the story is happening over a 7 years span, the city should have changed more. Using the same maps instead of building new ones should mean there would be more customization. Also, adapting the minimap to the reused maps would make it less tedious to run around searching for a passage that has been cut off.

STORY. I enjoyed the story very much up until act 3 and storytelling mechanism was great. Im ok with the character trying to build up his life in Kirkwall one little quest at a time. its not epic but its not boring either. But by act 3 i was a little fed up of mages and templars, not that issue shouldnt be central to the game but by then i had a good idea of what my character would stand for, having done all secondary quests in act 1 and 2. Thats when every single mage turns out to be a puppy eating blood mage (and theres still no consequences to your own blood magic if you choose to develop it). I understand the goal was to make no clear good / evil path to take, but the way it was done is by giving you the same type of quest youve been doing all along (mage vs templar) but with mages turning to demons everytime. A political way could have been nice to fallow, even if it would not have saved the city. It would have been a nice change of pace from bashing everyones head in. Or maybe start the whole mage vs templar later in the game? I also dont understand why both endings turned out to be so similar (storywise as well as same boss fights). Also, hows Kirkwall faring at the end of the game? Is it being reconstructed? Do they miss the Champion or are happy to be rid of him ? Who took control of the city? I saw Kirkwall as something for me to shape (cause really there was no goal to the game, no nemesis or vilain) and i cant say i was made aware of how much i shaped it in the end. Instead i got thrown into a big war that i wont even be able to play.

CHARACTERS. You guys did an awsome job with characters, as usual. The way Hawkes personality changes the responses of ppl is a keeper. I hope they use that in ME and the next DA. The thing is you only become aware of it if you replay the game so many ppl might miss it. And i can see why: its hard to replay a game with the maps being so much the same. The fact that theres no big goal makes the whole game stand mostly on the relationships you build with characters. The rival/frienship paths made it work for me. But relying so much on characters means there should be more depth to them, more conversations. Its easy to say that the romances are facultative, but with no other goal then surviving and roleplaying your character... well relations are made to have a big impact.

COMBAT. the new trees and the animations were awsome. I enjoyed the combat mostly. Saddly the multiwave thing makes it more about remembering where the enemies will come out of after you reload from olur mage being killed in 2 sec then real tactic. Boss fights were very good, but id cut back on the number of groups to clear to get from point A to point B.

OTHER. Junk: if you wont bother making those items interesting, why put them in at all? Same goes with the 'return the object' quests. Also i need to be able to outfit my companions from my house... we could say i sent Bodhan to give them the goods

I hope you guys will do a good job with the DLCs or expac because there seems to be much more to be told about Hawke. It would be a way to make the story feel more complete instead of going in all directions. Also please use the companions we have instead of bringing in new ones.

[whatever87]

Constructive criticism, well that is going to be hard. Well, this was the first game ever I preordered. And it will be last, or at least when regarding this particular series.

I am sure most of the things I am going to write have been written over and over again. But I am still going to write them. Who knows, maybe someone will acutely listen. But I really doubt that.
The reusing of maps, it should have been obvious to any who had any part in the production that this would be an issue. But you still released the game. Well for me it seems lazy, and it makes the game repetitive. I am running through the same old places, over and over. And when you have it, like you have in this game that time passes over years you could at least update the game with some small and superficial changes to mark the passing of time. One example that comes to my mind, is the house of Fenris, after 6 bloody years, the bodies are still there…. I mean come on! It would take such a little effort to just throw in some small changes, move the people around at least. Or give them new dialog. But no, the world remains more or less the same.

I personally did not feel any strong connection to the characters, and in my opinion that has to do with the lack of dialog. Removing the opportunity for interaction on a more regular basis was a mistake. But in other notes some of the characters had kind of a silly story. One dimensional is a better word acutely.

The wheel, which you use when talking just gives the illusion of choice, there is very little freedom to walk your own path.

That bodies can blow up no matter what I do to them is not cool. It’s just fun if you are younger than 14. Elves look horrible please change them back.

A distinct lack of new lore. There again, a lot of the information is reused from number one. And I really like things like that, and sadly there was just so little of that.

The fighting is stupid as far as I am concerned. Now I run around here and attack a bit, then the boss does something and I hide. Back and forth. Very fun.

Now I am sick of writing, for me it seems like you wanted to earn some easy money on the success of number one. Well you did. Good for you. But the game is mediocre.

[Stick668]

Stars On Gear: Great idea, but if the five-star stuff frequently have lower stats than three-star stuff... something's off.

Armor Sets: Maybe more than one per act? Particularly since it's possible to be an insane completionist and still miss the last bit of at least one set. Someone suggested tying the completion of the sets to a trackable quest, which seems sensible. (Even if it's like the Herbalists Task thing where you have to wait for some areas to be opened by other quests.)

Robes: I like not advertising "fireworks merchant in the house". Given the theme of the game, it sort of surprised me how hard it was finding bog-standard pants.

Area Recycling: Yes. Everybody knows. I just want to add, I actually would've found it less glaring than - say - ME1, if not for the fact the whole game is built around Kirkwall. The big centre is consciously reused - and I liked that - but it means the small sidetrips really need variety. If you see what I mean.

Content Y/N?: When the moral dilemma is "get involved or not" I will get involved. Any other considerations go out the window. And this sort of "choice" is just painful. (But to be fair, it didn't happen a lot.)

Horse Armour: DLC consisting of stat tweaks and cosmetics in a very moddable game really doesn't make sense to me. What? Oh, right, you haven't actually released any. Sorry. "I would enjoy Shadow Broker scale DLC" is what I meant to say.

Sebastian: You're only hurting the ones who love you. (I coulda woulda shoulda preordered, but I didn't and now I'm resentful miffed vaguely annoyed.)

Tactics: Beautiful job, really. Only two niggles: no options to script for explosive strike / unforgiving chain. And since there were skills that had bonuses vs. stunned targets, I was a bit surprised to find there was no actual "stunned" conditional.

General Engine Stability: I've. Not. Crashed. Once. Maybe I got lucky with my recent hardware upgrade - and maybe I can thank WinXP - but it's been ages since I had a game run this smoothly while looking this good. I'm seriously impressed.

All I can think of right now. Carry on.

Modifié par Stick668, 06 avril 2011 - 05:41 .

[Wishpig]

Fix beards... I like the fact the devs actually gave use diverse and cool facial hair options (many games do not)... but it kind of defeats the purpose when having a beard eliminates many other customization options and forces you to look like a drug addict. Not only that, but even then the beards don't fit the faces. There is a gap between cheek and beard in nearly every case and some-other glaring problems.

There is really no excuse for not letting us adjust the face to fit the beard, even if it leads to clipping problems (something very much present with even simple hairstyles) it's better than noting. And at the VERY least, this should not effect mustaches/other facial hair that wouldn't interfere with speaking animations.

[Alex Kershaw]

PirateT138 wrote...

Get your damn timing right (more than one instance of this, the other glaring errors is Anders presence in Act 1 when he should probably still be bumming around with The Warden or at least still a member of the order). Act III, a meeting with a certain royal ex-warden talks about returning to Denerim to see the Hero of Ferelden.

Witch hunt takes place 2.5+ after the blight, so we're at Blight+3.5 years (roughly Act II time frame) for the final events of the DLC and the Warden's story.

My warden goes with Morrigan into the Eluvian (remember, Blight +3.5), there is no way in high hell for him to be in Denerim like the NPCs say he is at Blight +7 years.

Herp durp, 7 is not 3.5.

How stuff like this slips through is beyond me.

The romance flags are bugged.

[Lumikki]

Tactics behavior setting.

Now some of tactics behavior setting it says stay close to player. Why would I want to companions to stay close to me? Example IF I'm range attacker and companion is melee class?

My point is that many behavior rules are done like player is center of the universe. I want melee fighters stay close to TANK (other melee fighters) and range attacker close to other range attackers. Player has nothing to do with this.

Example, why is my tank running to me if there is still enemies in battlefield? Just because I'm so far?
Of course I'm far, because I'm range attacker, what that has to do with tank behavior?

Modifié par Lumikki, 07 avril 2011 - 04:49 .

[EugeneBi]

In general, I am with the majority of the thread: great sound - good, dungeon reuse - very bad, etc. So, I want to note only one point that I think is underrepresented here.

Truth in advertisiment

During the pre-release campaing one of major motivations to limit it to a small location but spread across 10 years was decision impact. I.e. small decisions made in Act 1 may have pronounced effect in Act 2 or 3. This is an outrageous lie, don't do it ever again.

The only such decision I found is to take your sibling in the deep roads or not. Everything else like let Fenriel get posessed and have insignificant mob encounter later or not does not qualify as apronounced effect.

On my firts playthrough I killed the Orlesian mage and it ended up in the family disaster. I thought: here, this is probably the decision they were talking about, let me let him live on the next playthrough and he will help me to catch the villan before it is too late. Well, no such luck. And the game is simply peppered with these lost opportunuties to fulfill the promise.

The bottom line

The game would be OK if it costed $30 with both DLC. As of now, I feel cheated. Which means it is highly unlikely that I buy any future DLC for this game (free DLC are welcome, though) and won't preorder ME3 or other game until some brave souls try it and spare me such disappointment.

Modifié par EugeneBi, 06 avril 2011 - 10:23 .

[macrocarl]

Let me say right now that I really enjoyed DA2. While I loved DA:O a bunch and played it through almost twice (that’s a lot of game hours for me), I have to say I feel this is the right direction for the franchise. I’ve been buying Bioware games since NWN and have bought everything that BW’s put out since. Way back I used to be a pen and paper AD&D, turned based guy, and I’ve always felt your company has hit all the key things with role playing that I loved. The one thing I’ve always appreciated with your company is the willingness to experiment with streamlining game mechanics for video games.
I’d like mention a couple things I really was impressed with and a couple things that broke emersion for me in hope that the next time around some stuff gets straightened out. I loved the story and my minor beef is in the mechanics. Maybe I should title my biography, ‘My Beef is in the Mechanics: A Story’. What do you guys think?
Anyway.
The story was dark and rich and at times scary and at many points had totally hilarious/ awesome dialog. I was totally engrossed. I played a wise cracking rogue male and loved how the character reacted to everyone. I wish the ME-verse had more wisecracking……. It really felt like new ground was being broken. THE VO was great, the Rivalry/ Friend meter was a HUGE improvement and I think the choice wheel was the way to go.
The only problem I had at times was how the pacing was being juggled. I loved most, if not all of the side quests, but felt I was losing the thread of what was supposed to be going on after a while. When I finally had Hawke run down to the Deep Roads I remember feeling that I had forgotten what it was we were actually doing. I know the side quests are optional but for those who want to complete everything the only reward in the end story-wise is we lose a sense of taut story telling. There’s something wrong built into the approach somewhere. Unfortunately I do not have a solution. I felt DA:O had this too.
Other things I’d like to see improved:
The waves of bad guys got a little heavy handed and I hope to have a mix of one mob fights and waves the next time around. Waves when waves make sense are all I’m saying.
The reusing of areas is less than stellar. If I had to choose between how thoughtful and interesting the side quests were vs. new looking areas I would always choose thoughtful and interesting. Can we have both next time please?
More flirting, more sex scenes like DA2 has please! Also, the scene after what happened to Hawke’s mom with your LI was really good. Felt real! Felt right! High 5!
Then the fighting…... Loved the new animations and how quick stuff lit off when I pressed a button. The only thing that struck me a bit negatively is that we couldn’t pan back far enough to see the whole fight and it felt cramped. I read somewhere that the distinct costume for each NPC was chosen to be on modifiable is because they would be more distinct on the battle field in a fight. I think that argument would be stronger if we could actually see a better view of the battle field. I don’t care about dressing up my NPC’s at all but we should get to if we can’t see the field or vice versa. Or hey! Can next time around, can we have both? Actually I’m fine with one pair of magic pants as long as we can actually see them clearer.
I’ve seen people on the boards comparing Bethesda games with Bioware games. I think Bethesdia games are really boring. Yes, we get to run around everywhere but I always prefer Bioware games because of the solid story telling.

[Furtled]

Side Quests
The good: After fiddling with imports and saves I now appreciate the amount of work you guys put into different quests triggered by different choices in Origins and I probably still haven't found all of them yet. Thank you for that

The inevitable but: But the sheer volume of fetch quests and the gangs really drag the game into tedium, especially towards the end. I get why they're there in Act 1 and that's fine, Act 2 it starts to sag but it's bearable; by Act 3 it just feels like an unending slog of magical thugs, dropping from the skies like deranged medieval ninjas that burst when poked with something pointy.

I think that's part of what makes the the main quests feel like they happen too quickly towards the end of Act 3, it's such an odd tempo shift after hours of 'make a sweep of area x then hit a house and repeat' interspersed with the odd 'you appear to have dropped a corpse'. It might have been better to set them as optional quests found on the Chanter's board or pinned up in the Guard barracks.

The combat is fun as I've said before (OTT cartoon aspects aside), but by the time the inevitable second wave hits in the later acts I found myself just wishing they'd bog off, extra XP be damned, because it was starting to feel less like a game and more like a to do list that needed to be got through before the fun could start.

Characterisation (the little things)
Like a lot of others have mentioned having ME style constraints on when and how much you could talk to companions really had an impact on how well I connected with them, they are fantastically done (Aveline's talk about her father actually left a lump in my throat and Merril is adorable her own tragically Shakespearean way), but sadly some of the magic of the connections you felt with Origins characters has been lost. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ME, but I have very different expectations of depth for stories set in the DA universe.

As an example: in Origins actually getting Sten to give more than one word responses felt like a mini-game all on it's own and I was ridiculously pleased when he finally cracked and confessed his love of all things cookie, that kind of thing's half the fun for me and was sorely missed. The banter in DA2 is brilliant and I loved the way various characters interjected with their own opinions during quest conversations (Fenris in particular shines there), but it's not enough to make up for the loss of additional interaction.

Some examples of the little things: In Origin's character selection screen there was a very in-character reaction when you picked/discarded characters, the same when you took control during battles. I missed that in DA2. There's also some odd reactions in dialogue, for example if you're rivalmancing Anders and have helped him he's still being an antagonistic so and so with only one comeback, there's no difference between the romance response and the friendship one. Hope that makes some semblance of sense!

Artwork (minor points)
I loved the loading screen images, they were gorgeous; I don't know if they're better or worse than the bloodtrails across a map in Origins gameplay wise, but they were pretty to look at. However given we all get to choose between male and female PCs I was a little mystified by the Hawke in the images always being male, same for the champion statue that appears on the docks. Also I know it's a daft thing to complain about but Hawke's mother's chest was a little over the top, either Fereldans must have invented the first strapless wonderbra or she had the family silver stuffed down there.

Modifié par Furtled, 07 avril 2011 - 12:31 .

[neubourn]

I dont know if this has been mentioned yet (theres alot of pages here), but one thing that is REALLY beginning to get frustrating is BOSSES THAT DISSAPEAR. Im not talking glitching stuff, just "dissapear" in the sense that everyone seems to be a Rogue.

Im playing a Rogue myself on this playthrough, and on fights with bosses, im taking care to set up a cross-class combo on the boss, pausing battle, casting a mage Brittle spell or Warrior Stagger Spell, and switching to my Rogue for an upgraded Assassination cross class-combo for heavy damage, everything seems lined up right, then i unpause it, and as the combo starts, the boss suddenly dissapears, essentially ruining the combo and putting all those spells on cooldown.

This is highly frustrating. 

[Brockololly]

Furtled wrote...

As an example: in Origins actually getting Sten to give more than one word responses felt like a mini-game all on it's own and I was ridiculously pleased when he finally cracked and confessed his love of all things cookie, that kind of thing's half the fun for me and was sorely missed.

Exactly!
With characters like Sten or Morrigan in DAO, it took a certain amount of player driven effort to get them to open up. Whereas in DA2, you only talk to the companions when they give you the ok to come to their house to talk to them. I think if you had Sten initiating all the interactions with him  or Morrigan constantly calling you over to her fire at camp right off the bat in Origins, that would hurt your view of them as characters overall. So there is definite value is providing truly player initiated interactions, something that DA2 lacked.

Furtled wrote...
Some examples of the little things: In Origin's character selection screen there was a very in-character reaction when you picked/discarded characters, the same when you took control during battles. I missed that in DA2.

Yes!
I missed the little quips you got from the companions when you selected them- the cool thing was how they changed based on your approval, so Morrigan might sound disgusted if you had low approval but pleasant if you were friendly/romancing her. Its the little bits like that, those little neat details that were missing in DA2.

[Ramus Quaritch]

I don't like the fact that the items in the inventory do not have descriptions that go with them (like all of the items in Origins did). Origins had a lot of cool lore with the item descriptions. Dragon Age 2 cuts that out and the items, as a result, do not have much personality. Also there are fewer unique items. For example, there are a million amulets called "amulet," that each have different stats but are called the same thing.

[LUCYM0N0]

The only complaint I have regarding this game is the recycled content. Recycled character models from DA1, recycled environments present throughout the game. If there were one thing I could change about this game, it'd be to make all the caves/dungeons/etc. have a unique appearance and layout.

[Orcadian]

Overall I thought the game was okay, wasn't as good as Origins, but wasn't the worst game out there either.

What I did not like:

1. Low replay value. I played origins 3 times in a row just to try out the differences in the 3 races, on top of that the classes felt very different therefore making each playthrough seem completely different. With DA2 I only played through the game once and then had no drive to attempt a second playthrough as I felt no matter what changes I made, the story was basically going to go through the same path and the gameplay would feel the same and the story would only have minor differences.

2. The battles were a bit too fast paced that you didn't really set up the battles like you would in origins where you would sometimes micromanage all of your characters. In DA2 you just kind of rushed in and didn't really bother with the switching around as it didn't make much of a difference. The rogue/warrior classes seemed very much the same due to the pace of the battles making multiple play throughs more repetitive.

3. The re-using of areas was pretty horrid. Don't think a single person was ok with this decision, I am sure there were time constraints but even some kind of random dungeon creator or something would of been nice, otherwise it just gets repetitive and boring as you don't even bother paying attention to the area after the first time you've been in it.

4. Could use more open areas. Origins had or at least seemed like it had a lot more open and brighter areas. I may be alone on this but I like the more open spaces, big fields, bright sunlight, that kind of thing. DA2, most areas were small and cramp, a lot of areas were very dark.

5. Better companions. There were only 3 companions that I enjoyed in the game, 1 of which was lost early on. Bethany, Verrik and Isabella. The others seemed too emo/whiny. Bethany probably would of made the most logical of personality/looks for being a romantic interest for the hero, unfortunately she was made to be his sister. Not much for dialogue with the companions either which would have been nice, also I didn't mind the not being able to change equipment on the companions, but maybe have a couple of clothing options for them that we can switch between. I believe some of them did change their looks at different times, but would be nice to be able to choose myself what look they have.

6. I didn't get the whole champion thing. It seemed to unimportant, we didn't seem to get any preferential treatment from it, we were asked our opinion on some things, but didn't make a difference what we said. We did not rise up and rule or anything, we were just given the title of champion but with no power or influence to go along with it, which made it seem like a bit of a let down.

Stuff I did like:
(Its pretty late, and I'm pretty tired, so this list will be pretty short)

1. 3 of the companions. Isabella was a fun character, had lots of good inter-party conversations which made bringing her entertaining. She was an interesting character if you can get past the whoring thing and her having had sex with, or attempting to have sex with, or thinking about having sex with everyone and everything. Bethany had a nice personality and funny conversations between her and Isabella. She is the only mage character in the game I felt like having in my parties.

2. I liked the new skill trees with leveling up, the new abilities and the upgrades to those abilities made it more interesting than origins, although could still use a lot more variation.

3. The ending left open the game to get a lot more exciting, so although we didn't quite get the exciting part of the game, it makes me hopeful that future expansions will continue where we have left off which promises for a much better story.

[Jenova65]

 Question/constructive criticism....Am I right that if you kill Zev and Nathan dies they don't turn up? But Leliana regardless of choice is alive? Let me make it clear... I am of the ''no one gets left behind'', mindset and have never killed any of them ever.. HOWEVER... why do the female BioWare pets get plot armour or retconning and the guys never seem to?

Apologies if am I wrong (looking for clarification here....)

But it is an insult to people who chose to 'off', Leliana in Origins if she is part of the main plot in DA II... Shows a total lack of giving a damn imo, for people's in game choices. At the very least have a one rule for all attitude. Then maybe people won't be so fed up that all the NPC DLC's that BioWare do seem revolve around the girls - specifically LI girls..... ¬_¬

ME2 LOTSB - Liara

DA:O Witch Hunt - Morrigan

DA:O Leliana's Song...... well, Leliana....
I have a ton of respect for the BioWare writers seriously....  but this niggles me....

Just sayin'

Edited to re add the paragraphs the SN removed........... <_<

Modifié par Jenova65, 07 avril 2011 - 11:34 .

[ostemanden]

 I tottally agree, also the next thing we will see in DA3 is the weavers and the female nature godess.