What I liked:
-I was unsure about having a voiced character at first. I thought it would pigeonhole us into having one type of character like Shepard in ME but I actually ended up really liking it. I thought the voice actors had a good range of emotion.
-Tone icons for dialogue options. Another worry I had with the ME style dialogue wheel is that with paraphrasing you didn't know what your character was actually going to say. I liked that the icons prevented you from making an unintentional choice like flirting with someone.
-The voice actors: I thought the entire voice cast was really good.
-I loved that a consistent personality changed how Hawke delivered lines and also opened up persuede options in certain conversations.
-I actually liked that warriors and rogues no longer shared weapon skills. In origins they were kind of merged into one class.
-I liked all the new hairstyles and the fact that you could pick the old ones too. I also loved the wide range of eye colors and how bright some of them were. In origins I never knew what color eyes my characters had.
-I liked the party banters a lot, the characters teasing each other was cute and funny. Also liked characters visiting each other while I wasn't there. It made them seem more real.
What I was mixed about:
-The battle system: I did like the faster pace, especially with warriors and rogues. I liked that the slow shuffle was pretty much gone, and the new rogue moves that allowed you to instantly move behind an enemy. I didn't like how few abilities there were compared to origins, it seemed like there were a lot but most of it was upgrades.
-I didn't like being forced into being one race/character, but I understand the need in the context of the story and the short development time, otherwise it would be under dislikes
-The romances: I really liked Fenris' romance in particular, but I wish you were able to have more interaction with your LI. They feel like really quick romances with people you don't really know very well.
-I like the creepy art being used to illustrate Varric's narration, but I thought it was done better in the beginning of origins, and I wish there had been more actual cutscenes showing your updates.
What I disliked:
-Re-used maps: I hated this SO much. If there's anything that will remind you you're playing a game, it's going through the same copy/pasted maps 30x. Even the NPCs know it's all the same map. I remember one time I had Anders' tranquil solution quest active but I went to the bone pit or somewhere on a different quest and he says his "don't tell anyone about this way into the gallows, etc..." line in that map.
-Waves of weak, mass produced enemies attacking you for no reason. They were annoying and a chore, it totally broke immersion to see them falling out of the sky and exploding when you killed them. I would much rather have fewer, stronger enemies that at least have some reason to attack you.
-The world seemed static, empty, and dead. There were very few townspeople and you couldn't interact with any of them. Even at the very least being able to ask ths standard "where can I get a drink/shop/etc..." to a guard or something would have made it feel less like me and my companions were pretty much the only people in Kirkwall.
-The music: there was so little music. Most of the game seemed pretty silent with music only during battle or sometimes very quietly in the background of a scene. This contributed to the dead feeling to me since music enhances emotion and mood. I really noted the difference when I played ME2 again last night. The music was so stirring and made you feel inspired/tense/sad/etc... depending on the scene.
-Accessories not being unique: I loved getting new awesome accessories that were unique rather than "ornate belt #7166" that had different stats than other ornate belts but the same name.
-No item descriptions: I loved reading all the weapon/armor/accessory descriptions in origins and learing a little more about the world with each one, it was another little touch that made the world feel more alive.
-Not being able to change your companion's armor. It made sense for Aveline since her armor was a uniform, but for chatacters like Isabella...why would you be wearing the same clothes for 7 years? It was unrealistic and I got sick of seeing them all in the same outfit all the time.
-Limited conversations/interactions with companions. I loved all the dialogue in origins and that you could stop and talk to your companions anywhere. It seems like in DA2 you should be able to talk to your companions MORE and have even deeper conversations since you've known them for years but it ends up seeming like you hardly know your companions or only know them on a superficial level.
-Hawke's origins/the beginning of the game. I remember it being said by the devs that in origins it felt like your character had washed up on a beach somewhere and they didn't want to do that for DA2. The complete opposite is true. In origins, no matter what your origin was you got a feel for the world, started learing about your character's culture, and got introduced to their life pre-campaign. You were shown rather than told. For example as an alienage elf you're introduced to your life as an average person trying to make the best of your bad situation. The storytelling was really good and you really felt as if your character had a life, got attached to their father, cousins, and people. In DA2 you don't have any of that. You're just randomly running on a road. There are no other refugees, you don't see any of the destruction of your village or your life before. You're not even really told much about it. All you know about your character's past is that they were on the run from templars and they lived on the outskirts of the village. I would have liked a bit of lead in where you see a bit of your normal life before (the calm before the storm) and actually flee the destruction of your village, leaving your destroyed home and dead friends and neighbors behind. It would have given much more of a sense of urgency and loss. As it was I felt nothing.
-The fact that your choices have no effect on anything. You save Grace and the other blood mages? Well too bad because she still decides to hate you and get her "revenge" later. Force Feynriel into to the circle even though you know how cruel they are and that he's pretty much doomed? Well that's ok since he considers you his BFF no matter what you do. I was especially annoyed with Orsino and Meredith at the end.
-Disjointed/unfinished feeling plot. Each arc has it's own mini plot and they don't tie together well. Even within each mini plot there is very little going on and the plot feels almost non-existent. In fact the first time I played the game I thought "oh look at all these fun random little sidequests, I can't wait 'til I get to the main story!" and then the game was over.
-Random useless junk: it would be better if more enemies dropped coin rather than crap that clogs up your inventory and you can only sell.
-Junk delivery quests: annoying and stupid
-All of the quests were short and easy: this is one of the reasons I thought they were sidequests. There's no exploration since all the maps are reused, there are no puzzles or things you have to figure out. As much as people have whinned about how long the deep roads and the fade were to replay in origins, they were interesting, fun, they made you think, there were story points within the dungeons and not just within. There were so many things to do and find. In DA2 almost every quest boils down to: go to cave/warehouse/lowtown house and kill some enemies. That's all.
-The redesign of pre-existing characters and races: Alistair, Teagan, and Zevran were all very cool looking and attractive in origins and in DA2 they looked hideous. (Leliana and Cullen looked good). The elves looked good in origins and in DA2 they look like an annorexic mix between Gollum from LoTR and the Navi. The qunari all look exactly the same with the Arishok and Saarebas being slightly different. Getting to know Sten in origins made me really interested in the Qunari, making me think they were an interesting looking people with a culture I'd like to know more about. DA2 made them into random generic beastmen that didn't hold my attention at all.
-Nothing changes as time goes on. It seems pointless to me to make the game over a several year period when you don't actually show the passage of time. The same people are still standing where they were 6 years ago, the same shops are selling the same things, the city looks the same, nothing new has been built, nothing has been torn down or vandalized, everyone is wearing the exact same clothing. I don't feel like i'm experiencing the passage of time at all.
-Contrary to advertising, Hawke doesn't feel epic at all. You never have any badass moments (well there's ONE if you're a rogue on the wayward son quest) or moments of great heroism or self sacrifice. I thought since the game was going in a mass effect direction you woule be able to have a more epic character like Shepard. (headbutting Krogans, throwing guys out windows, saving every single crazed colonist at great personal risk)
**edited to add**
-Mages! The game gives you very little empathy for the mages. In origins mages weren't allowed to leave the tower at all unless they were on some official circle business. They were manipulated and tricked and tempted to use blood magic (by the first enchanter and knight commander) to see if they would resist and if they didn't they were made tranquil or killed. If a mage became pregnant, their child was taken away against their will. Also very few mages seemed to have turned apostate/blood mage until Uldred rallied them all. You really got a feel for the unjustified oppression. In DA2 mages can aparently leave the gallows at any time although they are supposed to ask for permission. It felt more like a teenager being grounded (yet not enforced) than a prison. You get no indication that they're being pressured into blood magic although pretty much EVERY mage you come across turns to blood magic/demons for little to no reason. You can be about to save a mage from some templars yet they decide to contract with a demon and become an abomination instead. O_o Add Anders being super militant and confrontational about mages all the time. Frankly it's hard to feel sympathy for them even if you're a mage yourself. On the other hand the templars are so uninteresting and one dimensional and you're almost always doing their job for them so you can't really feel anything for them either. Since the whole plot is mages vs templars you should have strong feelings about the issue but no. It doesn't help that the ending battles and the end itself are the same no matter which side you choose.
I know it doesn't seem like it, but I did like the game, I was just very disapointed with it. I loved the first game so much and I made the mistake of stalking the forums waiting for DA2 to come out and hyped myself up. DA2 was "pretty good" but I expected a lot better from Bioware. I'm also feeling kind of left out since it seems as though DA2 was made to cater to a new, casual audience. I hope it's a one time thing and this isn't a permanent new direction. It's happened before with companies I liked, Nintendo switching their target audience to housewives, square-enix making childish games for preteen girls like ffx-2, kingdom hearts, and all those ff7 spinoffs.
Modifié par Nefla, 11 avril 2011 - 02:31 .
Retour en haut![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
