2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Riosred2]

My Dear John letter;

LOVE

The different areas to "gather your party" - soooo handy!
Being a Mage (combat and spells are awesome) - haven't even tried other classes yet (having too much fun!)
My voiced protagonist - very cool
That my party has a life and their own places - makes it very real, however I wish that they paid more attention to what I was doing or have more opinions (I liked that Alistair let me know his thoughts before making a choice sometimes and seems less of that here)
My mansion! - so happy to have a home base and it's beautifully done
More LI choices/even non companions (I know that's a tough one)
Quests were shorter and sweeter - not too long or tedious and plentiful (I agonized over redoing the deep roads/fade and was SO happy it was a shorter trip this time!)
Having siblings - I love Carver!!
Hearing my crew worry about me when my health is getting low (like in ME)...wish my LI would?


Would have liked

My fairytale prince...(sorry, being girly here but Alistair was my fav.....soooo sad about Sebastian!)
More communication/chances to interact with my companions and LI - disliked the Awakenings feel on that - wanted to talk to my crew from time to time
Better loot - how many moldy scarfs can one find?
Choices for companion outfits - more wardrobe choices - liked not having to worry too much about it but wanted to see them change their clothes sometimes (maybe just a few options?)
Not such tomboyish wardrobe for my female hero - where's my Origins sexy gear?
More detailed story for my LI - not just a few chances to flirt and then end of story (felt hollow to me compared to Origins)
More imagination on caves and mansions (Stop me if you've heard this one..)
Longer hair for females (love the newer styles but still feel women had longer hair back then)
Not such a dark character creator (I thought I had right color make up then start game and it's totally different because I can't see what I'm doing)
Felt weird to have character creator after first cut scene - then my girl looks totally different
Didn't appreciate enemies materialising out of nowhere
Didn't appreciate the health potion cool down
Freakishly long/disproportioned thighs make the legs and walking look bizarre

Overall I really love it and am having a blast - can't wait to see what is in store for us next! (love you John!)

Modifié par RIO_AB, 11 avril 2011 - 05:40 .

[Kubriki]

Like I'm sure many people here, I've purchased every last game that your company has released since Baldur's Gate. This is the first time I've been disappointed by a game. So I'll cut ya some slack! That being said,

I agree with pretty much everything here.
* Recycled area's -- nuff said
* Waves of mobs -- I'd rather have 6-7 tougher mobs than 3-4 waves of 5-7 mobs that are dispatched fairly quickly.
*Lack of companion interaction (outside there little quests). -- I can remember going into Camp just to run around and talk to all my companions.
*This is the first game that I didn't really get or enjoy the story I guess. I've played through twice now to see if maybe I just didn't get it the first time. Other than picking to destroy the templars or destorying the mages it didn't feel like I did much of anything. All that was decided at the last 20 minutes of the game. I was talking with a friend that also played through DA2 three times now and he believes that this was just an Origins game for Hawke, That you planned on giving DA3 a "real" story that we play through as Hawke.

[freche]

 I found the game more and mroe enjoyable the more I played.

The thing that annoyed me the most was the so much terrible AI.
Companions:
1. "Ohh, there is something up the stairs in the next room I need to shoot, I guess I'll run past every enemy, eating some AOE damage and die in the process of reaching that particular enemy that yet posed no threat."
This problem I would think is due to a mix of poor base AI and lack of advanced tactics.

2. Or the scenario when I tell an NPC to go to a sertain location I then swap to another character and "boom" only because I don't have "hold possition" enabled tactics takes over and the companion does not go where I pressed but stops in his/her track and start charging into some rushing ogre or similar.

3. And on Nightmare, the companions constantly walking into other friendlys melee swing arc. I mean com'on, the NPCs should be able to think a bit for themselves: "Ok, Hawk is standing there in the front swinging his giant twohanded sword, maybe I shoudn't just run past him tap him on the shoulder say "Hi, mind if I help?" and then take a hit or two when he swings."

The poor AI also becomes quite noticeble when playing on Nightmare, and this is something that happens in everygame, the crappier AI the more HP boost enemies get. It's what I call the Fallout 3 effect: "I go up to someone put my pistol to his head empties two magazines of bullets, and he  responds with "You'll pay for that!".
The first time I played on nightmare and got Isabela almost imediatly, me playing warrior with a two handeded weapon. I go up to an high hp mob (not a boss), hit him with Mighty Blow at the same time Isabela decideds to join in, she flew away like a ragdoll dead, the npc had lost 2% hp. I was like "WTF happened ?!?" reloaded, the same thing happened again and I discovered that I can easely overkill my companions and baerly scratch the enemy.
> Better AI, less HP boost please.


* Other the the AI then we have the recyled maps as everyone have pointed out.

* Though I like that the companions have their style, I'd like to see some more variation, a couple of different looks to choose between.

* Exploding bodies was a bit over the top

* Items should have much much lower requirements, to allow people to spend points in other things they just str , con (if playing  a warrior) the first 15-20 levels.


Thats about what I can think about at the moment, thanks for an otherwise great game.

[Cybermortis]

Humm. It seems that all the problems people are writing about boil down to lack of development time given to the game. This has clearly resulted in some choices in design that haven't gone over well - the reused maps, 90% of items sharing the same name, waves of enemies ect.

Other complaints are (probably) not due to choice by lack of time to polish the game before release. This covers the bugs, the way combat is handled, the wheel not always relating to what is said, plot holes and the over all 'flow' and feel of the game.

We could continue for another 100 pages with opinions as to what could have or should have been done better. But in the end I think all of them would boil down to development time - any future DA game will simply require more of it than was given here.

[TOBY FLENDERSON]

An epic story where you really feel like your a hero, not the worlds most amazing intern. The story isn't bad its just not epic and is far more period drama than fantasy story.

[Adara]

I'm not good at this but I would like to see Bioware add more to the love interests. And i agree with others that I would like my fairytale prince. I was very disappointed when Sebastian (my favorite romace) was not a fully romanceable character. I know his story isn't finished so all I can do is hope! While I loved all the characters in some way I felt that Anders and Fenris were to tragic and broody ( i know they were meant that way) , Although Fenris is a bit less tragic than Anders. I miss the more normal fairytale romance we had in DAO with Alistair. I mean don't get me wrong Alistair had his issues but it was closer to a storybook romance that some of us would like to see. Also I would like to see some of the elements in the love scenes in DA2 combined with some of the elements in DAO love scenes for any future projects to make my experience more enjoyable. I felt it was lacking with the fully clothed scenes. They were sexy but I would like to see sexy and sex (like DAO)

Also, Bioware I love the game but I think my experience would have been better if there wasn't so many waves of mobs. 2 or 3 I'm cool with but there was 4 and 5 in some instances. Just a suggestion to maybe look into this in the future.

My other issue was while the champion armor was really cool. It would be nice to have some more feminine looking armor for FemHawke. For example: I really loved the design of Bethany's armor. While not too revealing or fantastical it was very feminine and still covered some vital parts. Even Avelines armor had an air of femininity to it. Then as far as heavy armor I even liked Meredith's armor design slim at the waist but was pratical. Another suggestion maybe for future armor design for our main protagonist.

Anyway, overall I love Dragon Age 2 and think you guys did an awsome job! Thanks Bioware.

[Katzen]

Dear John (it's really cool that your checking in on this thread still!)

I'll try to keep my complaints as constructive as possible:

The environment felt dead because you couldn't interact with any of the NPC's and most of them just stood their like statues or repeated the same lines for 10 YEARS. This really broke the immersion of the game by making the environments feel stale and artificial.

You did a great job at making environments feel alive in DA:O (think about the mage tower which had NPC's casting spells at eachother, teaching lessons, holding political discussions ect.). You could talk to every NPC (and get a one line response) and even hold conversations with a few. This really helped you get a feel for the entire area. Bring this level of detail in NPC design back for DA:III!

Not being able to talk to companions all the time made me feel really disconnected from them and made the game feel more linear than open. It also wrecked the immersion. For example after travelling with Merril in your party for hours she would express surprise that you came to see her (ummm ok?). An option to talk to your companions about their lives (like in origins) would have made it seem like they had been doing things during the 3 year periods and contributed to fleshing out their characters.

As a female gamer, I felt the female voice for the protagonist lacked a certain "hero" gravity that female Shepard was able to embody. I ended up choosing the judge-mallet responses because they were supposed to be direct and no-bull****. My problem was often these would lead to comments from my character that I couldn't guess. Responses would swing wildly from saying something vicious but necessary (something along the lines of "we have no choice - they must die", to saying something over-the-top and excessively brutal towards my enemies ("we will crush their skulls and drink their blood!"" to being excessively rude to my companions ("you're pathetic, do as I say!"). It was upsetting because you never really had a good idea of what direction your response would take from the context of the question. Even when being asked about my enemies sometimes the judge-mallet response would put down my friends.

[Sinnch]

I've been a fan of BioWare games since Baldur's Gate (yeah, I'm one of the old-school guys) and I just finished my first playthrough of DA2.  While I do feel that the game falls far short of many of BioWare's previous releases, I don't think it the end-of-the-line product that many are painting it to be.  That said, knowing what I know now I would not have preordered the game, and probably would have waited for the price to come down before purchasing.

I'll start off with the stuff I liked:

Story- Very well done, as I would expect from BioWare.  I particularly like that it wasn't a typical "save the world from the great evil" bit, and focused in tightly on one city and the political conflicts there.  A breath of fresh air.  The codex entries also remained excellent - I very much enjoy how they flesh out the story of the world.

Voice acting- Top notch pretty much throughout the game.

Art style-  I really liked the reworked Qunari, and the elves I felt were good as well.  The armor styles were good (for as many as there were) and the loading screens also were nice to look at.

Combat responsiveness-  Much improved, as advertised.

Companions-  In my opinion, they were equal to those of DA:O, which is to say very good and memorable.

Magic effects-  Very powerful-feeling and cool.


Now for areas that I feel could be improved:

Areas (zones)-  Should not be recycled as much as they were.  Two warehouses my be similar, but using the same few areas repeatedly with different doors locked or caves blocked with carts just seems lazy.  Also, they were very linear, which is OK and expected for indoors but makes the outdoor areas seem forced.  I never got any sense of exploration in the game, which is something I very much enjoy in my RPGs.

Combat- Problematic in several areas.  First, enemies exploding when stabbed is just ridiculous.  DA:O's kill animations were cool, and I looked forward to seeing them.  DA2's combat reminds me of a bad anime cartoon - frantic pace with enemies flying all over the screen and exploding by the group.  My warrior in full plate should not be able to leap 20 feet across the battlefield (maybe in a section where Varric is stretching the truth, but not always).  A middle ground between the slower, tactical combat of DA:O and DA2's crazy madness would be perfect.  Also, the "waves" of enemies is just cheap.  Shades and skeletons, it kind of makes sense - but typical human enemies should not drop out of the sky (it's frustrating to plan out your ability usage and think you've won only to have another wave show up and it makes you feel cheated).

Equipment-  More variety, please!  Every amulet and belt seemed practically the same, with only a few exceptions.  Let me equip armor on my companions, even if their look remains the same (or give me a lot of companion armor upgrades to choose from - choice is good!).  Also, items that give interesting bonuses are better than those that just have better stats of damage numbers.

Stats-  Give me a reason to put stats into something other than the 2 "primary" ones for my class.  It's more interesting to plan out your character's build, but in DA2 it's next to impossible because if you're not dumping every point into 2 stats, you won't be able to use any of the good gear.

NPCs- They need to have some reaction to what's going on around them, or it breaks the immersion.  There's this crazy, full-tilt battle going on, and people don't even care.  Also, for a city that couldn't take in any more refugees, Kirkwall sure seemed pretty empty.  Take a look at how the Assassin's Creed games handle both of these areas - NPCs react realistically to combat, and the cities seem truly alive.

Difficulty levels- Might be a personal thing, but I feel like the gap between Normal and Hard is too wide.  I can play on Normal and never have to pause the game to issue orders, while hard takes every bit of micromanagement I can muster, and I still need to do most fights a few times before I win.  I understand this will be different for every gamer, but for me there needs to be another option in between there.  A difficulty slider would be ideal.


As a closing thought, I would like to say this:  BioWare, don't forget about players like me.  People who loved the freedom to build and equip your party and enjoyed the micromanagement of your earlier releases- the BGs, the NWNs.  We're still here, we're still playing your games, and we don't have to ask our parents for money to buy your products.  DA2 was not the complete failure that some would make it out to be but it is an oversimplified step back from not only your previous titles, but from the first game in the series.

Modifié par Sinnch, 10 avril 2011 - 01:31 .

[LeatherWood WP_]

I WANT FULL COMPANION CUSTOMIZATION BACK, AND MORE OF A VARIETY OF ITEMS LIKE IN ORIGINS.

[Arngrimmar]

Hey guys, just chiming in with my 2 cents now.  My names James, and I have DA2 on the ps3, and for the record i absolutely loved it.  I would have had a few more things to say, but i noticed the OP covered them, so that leaves me with just a few small things.

Combat
I loved the responsiveness of the new system.  You guys managed to make it -look- like an action game, with high quality effects and animations, all while maintaining the control of an RPG.  This is what RPG combat should be these days.  Anyway, a couple things...

- More weapon choice.  I understand the need to give individual classes thier own distinct feel, and the added time/cost it may take to implement new styles.  That said, giving the player choice over multiple weapon styles serves to further personalize a character.   I myself play as a rogue in my 'preffered' games.  Daggers were cool and all, but i miss swinging around various combinations of sword/mace/daggers.  

- Finishing moves.  I loved them from Origins, and I'm sad theyre not present here.  Theres something so satisfying about the headlopping animations, or the shield slamming kill, of the first game.

- Cross class combos.  They were certainly cool, but only really available to certain builds.  Take the mages for example.  You could only embrittle an enemy if you had ice spells, or petrify.  Considering how many other paths a mage could take, that leaves alot of room for completely missing out on the brittle combos of the class.  Rogues as well seemed to miss out on some of this, but to a lesser extent.  I built my rogue to be a standup fighter though, so it didnt make sense to take disorienting skills.

- More Dragons!  Or demons.  Or other optional ancient evils.  I adore those questlines.

[Arngrimmar]

Sinnch wrote...

I've been a fan of BioWare games since Baldur's Gate (yeah, I'm one of the old-school guys) and I just finished my first playthrough of DA2.  While I do feel that the game falls far short of many of BioWare's previous releases, I don't think it the end-of-the-line product that many are painting it to be.  That said, knowing what I know now I would not have preordered the game, and probably would have waited for the price to come down before purchasing.

I'll start off with the stuff I liked:

Story- Very well done, as I would expect from BioWare.  I particularly like that it wasn't a typical "save the world from the great evil" bit, and focused in tightly on one city and the political conflicts there.  A breath of fresh air.  The codex entries also remained excellent - I very much enjoy how they flesh out the story of the world.

Voice acting- Top notch pretty much throughout the game.

Art style-  I really liked the reworked Qunari, and the elves I felt were good as well.  The armor styles were good (for as many as there were) and the loading screens also were nice to look at.

Combat responsiveness-  Much improved, as advertised.

Companions-  In my opinion, they were equal to those of DA:O, which is to say very good and memorable.

Magic effects-  Very powerful-feeling and cool.


Now for areas that I feel could be improved:

Areas (zones)-  Should not be recycled as much as they were.  Two warehouses my be similar, but using the same few areas repeatedly with different doors locked or caves blocked with carts just seems lazy.  Also, they were very linear, which is OK and expected for indoors but makes the outdoor areas seem forced.  I never got any sense of exploration in the game, which is something I very much enjoy in my RPGs.

Combat- Problematic in several areas.  First, enemies exploding when stabbed is just ridiculous.  DA:O's kill animations were cool, and I looked forward to seeing them.  DA2's combat reminds me of a bad anime cartoon - frantic pace with enemies flying all over the screen and exploding by the group.  My warrior in full plate should not be able to leap 20 feet across the battlefield (maybe in a section where Varric is stretching the truth, but not always).  A middle ground between the slower, tactical combat of DA:O and DA2's crazy madness would be perfect.  Also, the "waves" of enemies is just cheap.  Shades and skeletons, it kind of makes sense - but typical human enemies should not drop out of the sky (it's frustrating to plan out your ability usage and think you've won only to have another wave show up and it makes you feel cheated).

Equipment-  More variety, please!  Every amulet and belt seemed practically the same, with only a few exceptions.  Let me equip armor on my companions, even if their look remains the same.  Also, items that give interesting bonuses are better than those that just have better stats of damage numbers.

Stats-  Give me a reason to put stats into something other than the 2 "primary" ones for my class.  It's more interesting to plan out your character's build, but in DA2 it's next to impossible because if you're not dumping every point into 2 stats, you won't be able to use any of the good gear.

NPCs- They need to have some reaction to what's going on around them, or it breaks the immersion.  There's this crazy, full-tilt battle going on, and people don't even care.  Also, for a city that couldn't take in any more refugees, Kirkwall sure seemed pretty empty.  Take a look at how the Assassin's Creed games handle both of these areas - NPCs react realistically to combat, and the cities seem truly alive.

Difficulty levels- Might be a personal thing, but I feel like the gap between Normal and Hard is too wide.  I can play on Normal and never have to pause the game to issue orders, while hard takes every bit of micromanagement I can muster, and I still need to do most fights a few times before I win.  I understand this will be different for every gamer, but for me there needs to be another option in between there.  A difficulty slider would be ideal.


As a closing thought, I would like to say this:  BioWare, don't forget about players like me.  People who loved the freedom to build and equip your party and enjoyed the micromanagement of your earlier releases- the BGs, the NWNs.  We're still here, we're still playing your games, and we don't have to ask our parents for money to buy your products.  DA2 was not the complete failure that some would make it out to be but it is an oversimplified step back from not only your previous titles, but from the first game in the series.

I swear this guy is my clone.

[BluGirl1968]

Have your code monkeys look at the pointers to the cut scenes in Merril's story. The last two are flipped around. Makes for a major 4th wall break. I figured you knew but I have not seen anything done in a bit so I figured I might poke ya'all on it. so *poke*.

[Tessaeva]

does anyone know what the heck is going on now, i have bought every dlc they have and the darn site wont let me log on to my game saying that i am not logged on to my account ,in which i am so i am totaly locked out of my games, right before i was going to buy the last dlc for mass effect 2,which i wont cant stand being cheated out of what i have paid for already,some one help please

[JedTed]

A better use for the Junk tab:

I don't know if anyone's suggested this already but i really like the option to put unwanted loot in the Junk section for quick selling at the next merchant.  The RPG Too Human has a cool feature where you can automaticly sell low level items as soon as you pick em up.  Perhaps DA could have something like that where all items of a certain level are deposited in the junk section.

You can still view those items just incase there's one you might want but this way you don't have to manually dump unwanted items in the junk.  This would be great for players of a certain class you keep picking up items they can't use.


Companion Armor:

Unlike most people, i like my companions in static outfits with upgradable armor.  However i think this idea could be taken even further by creating more armor upgrades geared toward your companions, not just one or two items found in each act.  Maybe have one upgrade that give a bonus to the defense boost of Isabela's Savvy talent.

These upgrades could also make subtle changes to the companion's outfit, giving you a reason to collect them aside from just making your companions more powerful.

[yellowpride]

I actually liked the waves of enemies and the more advanced AI for enemy lieutenants (assassins and such).  The fact that they occassionally explode is a bit much, but I kind of love that they just leave behind little piles of coins for you to pick up.  I also really liked the linearity (I think that's the word OP was looking for) and the pacing of it.  To me, I like that Hawke became this epic character even though s/he started out as just a normal person who got caught up in the events of this city.  I thought there was enough warning before the end part of each act that I never felt like it was rushed or unexpected.

I know the issue about the recycled maps has been brought up by several people, but what annoyed me almost more than that was that they weren't consistent.  For example, you might go through a certain door in year one, and it would be an abandoned warehouse, then in year four it would be a back ally, and in year seven it would be a mansion.  I can accept that maybe all the caves in/around Kirkwall look eerily similar, but going through a door that used to lead to a back alley and finding a mansion instead is just stretching my imagination a bit too far.

The only other real criticism I have is that the inventory was a lot more difficult to manage.  I thought the star system seemed like a good idea, but I'm not really sure what criteria are used to determine an item's star rating.  There were times when I'd have two rings with identical stats where one had four stars and the other had one.  I don't know if there's a glitch there or if there's some criterion that I'm missing, but it makes it kind of confusing when you're just trying to get rid of stuff you're sure you won't need.  I would have also liked to see more unique weapons and accessories, if only to make them easier to browse through, and junk items that were worth just a bit more (i.e.  I think there was a pouch of precious gems that was only worth a few silver).  Also, it would have been nice to have one single location where you could manage the whole party's equipment. 

On that note, I also want to mention that I really liked the companion armor.  I haven't read through all the posts in this thread, but I know that some people had complaints about it.  To me, it's along the same lines as having companion-specific talent trees, in that it helps give them each unique identities.  In Origins, you could put Wynne in Tevinter Mage Robes and have her be a Blood Mage if you wanted, even though it's obviously out of character for her.  Likewise, you could put Sten in dwarven or elven armor, even though it theoretically shouldn't fit him.  Overall, I just think the companion-specific armor makes a lot more sense.

[biomar]

biomar wrote...

Sometimes when I right click to get a character to move somewhere or to attack someone, nothing happens.

I've been switching characters by using the F1, F2, F3 and F4 buttons, and when I tried to fix the quoted bug by switching characters, it didn't work. But the OP in this thread prompted me to try again, this time switching characters by clicking on their potraits. And this fixes the issue for me. So if a character won't follow my commands, clicking another character's portrait and then clicking the troublesome character's portrait again will make the troublesome character follow my commands again.

I think that I noticed that this technique sometimes doesn't work, but I'm not sure about that. But even if it does work, the issue does keep recurring throughout fights. At least it's a temporary fix so that I can actually win fights.

[IncendiarySheep]

Deleted because I was being all spoilery in a non-spoiler forum - sorry all, but I got it quickly so I hopefully didn't ruin anyone's game!

Modifié par IncendiarySheep, 10 avril 2011 - 10:58 .

[Cybermortis]

BluGirl1968 wrote...

Have your code monkeys look at the pointers to the cut scenes in Merril's story. The last two are flipped around. Makes for a major 4th wall break. I figured you knew but I have not seen anything done in a bit so I figured I might poke ya'all on it. so *poke*.

This is a known bug and will be addressed in the patch.

[MelfinaofOutlawStar]

Cybermortis wrote...

Humm. It seems that all the problems people are writing about boil down to lack of development time given to the game. This has clearly resulted in some choices in design that haven't gone over well - the reused maps, 90% of items sharing the same name, waves of enemies ect.

Other complaints are (probably) not due to choice by lack of time to polish the game before release. This covers the bugs, the way combat is handled, the wheel not always relating to what is said, plot holes and the over all 'flow' and feel of the game.

We could continue for another 100 pages with opinions as to what could have or should have been done better. But in the end I think all of them would boil down to development time - any future DA game will simply require more of it than was given here.

I think the dialog wheel often betrayed the player so I don't know if you can chalk that up to development time or not. It was utilized fine in Mass Effect but it seemed the personalities Hawke had oftentimes made it awkward. This is where the writting could have been better. Oftentimes Diplomatic Hawke really meant Pushover Hawke.

Anders: "Can I move in?"
Hawke: (Choose "Yes", say.....) "We'll be together until we die!"

The romances were painful to watch and so was the flirting. But this has never been Bioware's strong suit. In DA2 though I felt like I was playing out Twilight and it's even worse when you realize male Hawke plays out the same way. Makes me feel like Bioware needs a bit more experience in romance because what they're doing now isn't it.

[Kinaori]

Yep, I'm late to the party too, but now that I've done 3 and a half playthroughs, I think I'm ready to contribute

Voiced Protagonist
The survey by FreyaWazHere backs this up, it seems most folks like the voiced protagonist.  I really loved it, and hope it stays for 3 - just made it feel more real.  The awesome voice talent helps a ton.

Dialogue Wheel
While I am fine with the concept (and I like that I know whether I'm being nice, sarcastic, or rough respectively) often I found myself saying "whoa, that's not what I meant to say!".  If it could parallel a little more clearly what I'm really going to say, that would be nice.

Combat
Oh hell yes.  Really loved the improvements here.  I could still futz with tactics and micromanage if I wanted to, but I didn't feel like I had to.  Love the effects, the sounds, the "frenetic" feel.

Maps/Locations
Like most folks, I found the repetition of maps to be a negative.  It just got a bit boring seeing the very same thing over and over.  *That said, if having fewer maps equates to more dialogue or companion interaction, I'll take that trade.*  No idea if that's the case or not, just throwing it out there.

Inventory
Definitely preferred inventory management here vs DA:O, and the auto-sort of junk particularly.  Easier to clean things up.  Although it would be nice to be able to equip companions all at once in one place; there's no reason not to be able to is there?  That way all the upgrades could be distributed and I could sell off all the unused stuff without worrying whether I'd just sold something nice for one of them.

Main Story
Unfortunately, I felt pretty disconnected from it, and rather railroaded.  It didn't give me the sense of 'epicness' that I so love about these stories, and I often felt that my choices didn't matter.  And in the end I did not feel like the lynchpin I thought I was supposed to be.  Any further reasoning would be spoiler-y.

Companions
While I didn't feel as attached to them as I did in DA:O, I did eventually get sucked in.  As such, I wish I could have talked to them more, and felt like they wanted to get to know me better too.  It seemed weird to me that over that span of time, I only really spoke to them when they wanted something from me.  I miss the party camp.  For me, rich and varied companion interactions' importance is second only to the main story, and that by a very slim margin   That's what, IMO, differentiates BioWare titles from the rest of the RPG crowd and makes me come back for more!  I would love for the protagonist to feel truly, truly in danger, and only the companions can fix it.  OK that's pretty specific but I sooo love the idea

Romances
This is pretty specific, but I gotta say it; I am worried it will be removed.  I LOVE the idea of companions initiating romances.  Please don't get rid of this!  As long as we have the option of letting them down gently, I am SO all for it.  It would be weird for them *not* to occassionally initiate them, IMO.

[MelfinaofOutlawStar]

I'd like to ad to the post above mine that the trend for the female player romances seems to be to introduce a guy that needs his layers peeled back before we can get down to business. For once an aggressive approach is fine. The chase isn't as fun anymore several games in.XD

Like seriously, having Sebastian go "F the Maker" and just ripping off his armor would have been titillating.

[HeroicAntagonist]

JohnEpler wrote...

If people have a duplicate concern, well, that's useful information too as it helps to tell us what the frequency of a particular concern is. If something comes up twice,  it's still worth looking at but it needs to be viewed with the knowledge that most people didn't have much of an issue with it.

If it comes up multiple times, then it's obviously a more pressing issue and will be viewed with that mindset. Thus, duplicate concerns are just as useful as everyone posting individual concerns.

EDIT: Edited to be a little clearer.

So, I just read this thread with the "Bioware comments only."  Thought, then, that it might be useful to say my part without reading the other replies.

Story: I liked it.  I really, really did.  "Forcing" the player to be Hawke was a great move, as it allowed Bioware to bring in his past, to bring in relationships, and to develop the character more than the Warden.

Smaller scale than Dragon Age: Origins?  OK, sure.  That's fine, though.  Thank you for giving my character a location to really care about, because I think it actually panned out quite well.

However.  The end was a bit rushed, and it's obvious.  And seriously... without getting into spoilers... Orsino, if you sided with the mages, was ridiculous.  I just fought back dozens of enemies without any casualties.  I'm on your side.  You have the Champion of Kirkwall, slayer of dragons, who saved Kirkwall from [removed spoiler], and just plain all-around baddass on your side.

One ending where all my choices didn't matter?  I'm definitely in the "This is not Origins 2" camp, but... give me back the PowerPoint presentation epilogue, please.

Hawke: I have seen a lot of negative criticism about how the Warden was a better character because the presentation allowed the player to develop his backstory in their own minds, and claimed to be evoking classic RPG elements.  I call BS.  I'm a tabletop gamer.  I pride
myself in not only creating awesome characters myself, but the ability
to correctly portray a character who is not me -- and sometimes that
includes portraying characters I did not
create and flesh out on my own.  You are PLAYING the ROLE of Hawke, and
you have time to be exposed to people close to Hawke.  You care when Hawke gets hurt.  The effect of [a single event] was emotionally more significant than the combined deaths of the entire Cousland family, the king of Fereldan, and Duncan combined.

I like that Hawke is from Fereldan.  Origins players will think of Fereldan as their home and Kirkwall as this strange new place just like Hawke.  I believe this is actually a very old storytelling technique... I say, good job.

Bugs: Too many, and you know it.

Party Members: Isabela, Merrill, Anders especially could have been great stand-alone characters without being DA:O cameos.  I thought I would hate Varric, but he ended up being awesome.  Sebastian was, by far, my least favorite character, followed by Fenris.

On Sebastian: he added nothing to my party.  I strongly disliked his personality.  He didn't fit in with the group at all, personality-wise, in philosophy, or conviction.  His flip-flopping on his life role was silly, and I don't see why Hawke would care about him.  In fact, my Hawke would probably lead a march on Starkhaven to restore order herself.  The decision I made at the end of the game regarding the fate of a certain indiviual was probably 40% to spite Sebastian and get him out of my party.

I would have liked some more warrior variety; another choice for a tank, specifically, as I wasn't a huge Aveline fan.  All the mages were apostates... eh, I guess that's OK.

I liked the Friendship/Rivalry system for the most parts.  Sometimes it was difficult to balance the needs of your party composition with decisions that affected Friendship/Rivalry.  Consistant decisions should have resulted in consistant Friendship/Rivalry accural, but did not.  You made many decisions very difficult, yet the companions had unchanging black & white views.  I still don't get why I gained Rivalry with Aveline for killing someone who obviously needed help, and a Friendship with Isabela was sometimes hard because this type of game lends itself to "Complete All Quests or You Miss Something," while Isabela's mindset was 'stay the f out of other peoples' business.'  My only other critique here is that I should be able to increase Rivalry without being a dick (i.e., choosing the harshest response).  I should be able to listen to Fenris (as opposed to telling him to quit whining) and still disagree with him regarding mages.

You could've done better than the public telephone for party switching - and make it more believable.  It will always seem a little contrived, but you could play with it.  Maybe as Varric leaves the party, Fenris approaches and says, "I've been looking all over for you."

Enemies: Far too many enemies, and too many of every type.  Combat was still fun, but... I am quite certain that I depopulated Kirkwall by several magnitudes single-handedly.  I must have killed hundreds and hundreds of blood mages, and every blood mage had dozens of demonic thralls.  My advice would have been as follows: the game starts with very hard, very desperate fights against significantly smaller numbers of opponents that the entire party has to focus on to overcome.  These opponents do not scale with Hawke as much.  Toward the end of the game, as certain forces begin to unite against Hawke and what he represents, your party gets hit harder and with more people.  This will also showcase Hawke's rise to importance.

The boss of Act II had stupidly high Health.  So I had to kite the crap out of him while my Abilities were on Cooldown.  Not fun.  And that special attack animation was ridiculous - I'm pretty sure that sword pierced my character's heart and both lungs, and I'm glad I spent all that money on armor that did... nothing.

Antagonists: Good job, for the most part.  My critique here would be to take a step back from "He did it because of corrupting influences by supernatural forces."  Take a page out of your own book with Loghaine.  Why does every bad guy need to a blood mage/influenced by demons/corrupted by an outside force?  Someone's paranoia was more than enough to make for antagonism.  Every unhappy mage is a blood mage?  He couldn't have been actually really greedy and selfish in order to close that door?  Downplay the role of demons causing people to be evil -- people can be evil on their own.

NPCs: For the most part, good.  Thank you for the "Who are you, again?" dialogue options.  I think that, sometimes, the reasons for opposing Hawke were a little weak.  Play up the decisions I've made, or who I have as a companion.  Maybe enemies are really after Isabela, but they have to fight through me first (and maybe they're reluctant to do so).

Abilities:  Give me more Ability points!  I'm only half-joking here -- a lot of awesome abilities that fit my character concept that I never get to use, or only use for a little while.  Why not make early character development heavier on Ability points so that I have more choices in combat?

Lots of good Abilities got sucked into Companion specialties.  I wanted Indomitable for my 2-handed swordsman, dammit.  But that's OK.  Overall, I liked the new approach, a lot.  Some of the Warrior's attack abilities could have used a little more variety, but maybe that's more the point of being a warrior.  Speaking of which, the warrior needs something that increases Attack Speed (or did I miss it?).

Two things I would have done differently: base Abilites more on Attributes, and more variety with passive boosts.  Rather than simply multiplying my damage by different numbers, add my Strength to it, or my (Strength + Constitution)/2.  Double my Dexterity for purposes of Critical Hits for a few seconds.  Add 25 to my Magic for the purposes of determining Magic Resistance.  Maybe I might put points into these so they count more!  You really encouraged me to increase Constitution only to wear armor and dump the rest into Strength (ended the game with 97 Strength after equipment modifiers).  As far as passive boosts go, why not give me +10 (Attribute), or increase my attack or move speed?  Giant's Reach was a great start, and there were some other good ones.

Specializations: social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/6953605/9#7019597
Note: I only took Templar as my main Hawke, and never spent my second point.  Beserker did not appeal to me, and Reaver was strongly out-of-character.

Combat: When all is said and done, I did enjoy DA2 combat.  There was too much of it, though.  Give me more speech options to avoid fighting (without losing out on XP/rewards).  Has your studio ever played the game Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura?  Give it a spin, and try to make a diplomatic character.  Very good implementation.  Regardless, give me an opportunity for violence to NOT always be the answer.

Repetitive Environments: OK.  I understand budget - both financial and time.  Believe me.  However, the environment repitition was pretty bad... but forgivable.  What really grinds my gears is that you didn't modify the mini-map.  I'm a completionist.  I wanted to explore every available nook and cranny.  However, I also have a job, a social life, and I'm trying to plan a wedding.  If the map made the boundries clearer, I would have wasted much less time.  Of course, what gamer can honestly complain about wasting time... but still.  It was irritating, and it kept happening.

Cameos: Too many.  Intentional or not, Dragon Age II is not Dragon Age: Origins II.  It's a big setting, and a lot of those Fereldans really could have stayed home.  But... I'm probably a minority here.

Decisions from Origins: I had a lot of fun with Origins.  I put hundreds of hours into that game.  I'm glad you tip your hat in this game, and I actually feel that you could have used fewer of the Origins decisions (see Cameos, above).  I didn't like that my big DA: Awakening decision was improperly flagged, though - a little distressing.  I'm OK if the Warden doesn't return in the main series.  Feel free to make a spin-off sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, though.

The End-Game Conflict: This is really my biggest complaint about Dragon Age II, mostly because of its effect on immersion.  So I'm an apostate and my sister was an apostate.  I have two apostate companions.  I use magic in Kirkwall all the time, all over the place.  I'm also quite famous, and I've been here for a long time.  The viscount's son saw me use magic.  I used Cone of Cone and other spells in front of the ruling nobles of Kirkwall in a certain fight.  Oh!  The Templar are cracking down!  Better watch out!  ... eh... just kidding.  Nothing.

But, it goes deeper.  So I can become a Blood Mage, right?  By making a deal with a demon (aka, clicking "Blood Magic" with an available Spec point -- totally different issue).  No one cares?  Further, I can berate Merrill for using Blood Magic?  I kill hundreds of Blood Mages, so many that their corpses could be stacked high enough to scale the viscount's keep because... they're Blood Mages?  This is the biggest city of hypocrites in Thedas!

---

So that was really much much more than I intended to write.  There's probably more.  Overall, I do not regret buying DA2.  I might regret pre-ordering it, though, if you come out with an Ultimate Edition in a year or so.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: Fixed a formatting error.

Modifié par HeroicAntagonist, 10 avril 2011 - 05:47 .

[HeroicAntagonist]

As a closing thought, I would like to say this:  BioWare, don't forget about players like me.  People who loved the freedom to build and equip your party and enjoyed the micromanagement of your earlier releases- the BGs, the NWNs.  We're still here, we're still playing your games, and we don't have to ask our parents for money to buy your products.

(emphesis added)

Bioware, this is really, really, really important to remember.  Bring it to the next board meeting.

[Moirnelithe]

MelfinaofOutlawStar wrote...

I'd like to ad to the post above mine that the trend for the female player romances seems to be to introduce a guy that needs his layers peeled back before we can get down to business. For once an aggressive approach is fine. The chase isn't as fun anymore several games in.XD

Like seriously, having Sebastian go "F the Maker" and just ripping off his armor would have been titillating.

I'm all for that  

[Kinaori]

Evainelithe wrote...

MelfinaofOutlawStar wrote...

I'd like to ad to the post above mine that the trend for the female player romances seems to be to introduce a guy that needs his layers peeled back before we can get down to business. For once an aggressive approach is fine. The chase isn't as fun anymore several games in.XD

Like seriously, having Sebastian go "F the Maker" and just ripping off his armor would have been titillating.

I'm all for that  

Erm... hehe... me too :innocent: