2797 réponses à ce sujet

[DreGregoire]

Here's my critique to date, it's probably nothing new to the thread but I've been working on it for a while.

----------------------
I would have preferred an improved DA:O system instead of the ME 2 system we were given.
 
Combat: 
 
I. I found the visual and audio aspects of the combat system for the most part to be too fantastical.
  A. Staff: Using a staff as more than just a stick to shoot magic at enemies was great, but the sound effects made me feel as if it was some high powered modern weapon.
  B. Rogue: The use of acrobats in a fight was a nice improvement, but the disappearing and reappearing behind an enemy for backstab was over done. I enjoy maneuvering around the enemy to get in position for the perfect attack, not having the game do it for me.
  C. Fighters and Rogues: Springing through the air and jumping way up high to land a blow to an enemy made me embarrassed. It just seemed so unrealistic that it made me feel as if the characters were some mythical being or demon to have such capability. 
  D. The swirling buffs were too much. I'm hoping for a mod to remove that effect. Half the time I couldn't see what was going on in a close quarters fight.

II. I found the mechanics of the combat System to be too simple.
 
I don’t know what the exact formula that is used by DA2 to determine the outcome of combat. I have a hard time explaining this, but I prefer a system that requires a rogue to divide his abilities between strength, dexterity, and cunning to be a well rounded rogue. From what I have gathered from playing DA2 as a rogue is the only thing you really have to focus on is dexterity for weapons use and then cunning if you want to open chests; dexterity and cunning for armor. Again I don’t know the real formula used, but I find it frustrating that the system seems to have dexterity determining the power/strength behind a weapon or bow.
 
In my eyes changing the system to make it easier has robbed the player of the ability to micromanage their character in a manner that makes them feel truly connected to that player character.
 
III. Enemies:  Spawning. I didn't like that after defeating enemies more dropped down from somewhere; I mean if you want to make waves of enemies at least have them run in, not drop out of the sky. I didn’t like the demons and fade beasts, that appear by coming up from the ground. Shouldn't they just materialize in air instead? 
 
 
Game Play
 
I. The Art: I can't really understand why it was decided to make the art so extremely different in DA2. Too much was remade. I can understand changing the Qunari look but not all of the other creatures. I am disappointed with the character creator; it feels like it has been simplified instead of improved, which isn’t the direction I would have expected a sequel to go in. Also I wasn’t impressed with the Dragon Age Origins cameos face morphs particularly Alistair and Zevran; I had expected them to be a bit aged not to have had a complete face lift.
 
II. The dialogue system: The icons for the different types of responses is brilliant; however, I feel the dialogue wheel is a fail because you don’t really know what your character is going to say and from a micromanagement standpoint that doesn’t satisfy my need to be the player character. Instead I feel as if I’m just picking a random option that isn’t determined by anything but how I feel at that moment. Visually seeing what my pc is going to say before he/she says it allows me to really place myself within their shoes.
 
III. Relationships:
  A.  I like the rivalry/friendship system; it is an improvement
  B. The lack of getting to know you conversations was a let down.
  C. Romantic relations.
       1. Needed more getting to know each other
       2.  First intimacy and move in would have been better if they were separate times/quests, because doing it that way gave me the feeling of a shallow relationship suddenly being forced into a committed relationship.
       3. The time frame of the relationships seemed to be too long from the onset of interest to actual intimacy.
  D: More time needed to be spent on the animations for the cut scenes, some of the animations were wildly off.
 
IV. Quests
  A. Quests being delivered to our home. In DA:O I liked having to go to central areas for quests (chantry board and other go to people). Would it been so hard to add a quest board into the game? Getting letters begging for aid made me feel like I was everyone’s gopher (that's a polite way of saying it). Half the time I don't even know how I got a quest in DA2, it would just like appear. It would have been fine to get a note from home from friends/companions saying they would like to speak. 
  B.  Having so many quests is great; however, it seemed as if many of the quests had no rhyme or reason to them.

Modifié par DreGregoire, 24 avril 2011 - 02:49 .

[Huntress]

You have a home why not use it? Mail to the house is done very well, you can even take the oportunity to change companions! Meet with the Li after long hours of running around, i know no "fun time at home any time", but thats the rule!

[mhendon]

My constructive criticism:

reused areas--Besides the obvious obnoxious cave, the entire lack of travel was a problem for me.  Kirkwall looked very interesting.  It certainly had more character than Denerim but being there all the time made me hate it. Kirkwall and surrounding areas never changed and I was forced to run through them over and over again.  Going to new places, discovering new things helps you stay engaged with the world.  It also prevents you from becoming irritated with any one place.  

Companion interaction-- I think the friendship/rivalry thing was a step up from the approval system. I also adore the fact that they had their own opinions and they voice them freely.  Despite that I felt very unattached to the companions even though I liked them.  Copy/pasted from another thread:

The way
companion dialogue was handled in DA2 made my Hawke feel exceptionally
isolated. Hawke kind of felt like the boss nobody really wanted to talk
to unless they had to (which I guess makes perfect sense for a rivalry.)
Example: When Anders moved in with me, I still felt very alone. What if my Hawke
wanted to come home after a long day of adventuring and give him a kiss?
She couldn't. She could only pass him by at the banister.

Mass Effect might have done it
"better", in that you can always initiate a conversation with someone.
Even if they don't have something new to say you can ask them about the
last mission or about the people you went out with.

If
David Gaider feels like the dialogue system of DA:O was "rambling",
maybe it was but it gave me a lot of insight into the characters and
made me feel very attached to them. They seemed more fleshed out in my
opinion. Sometimes I just wanna hear Leliana's stories, ya know? It
made the world feel much less empty. I for one liked the companion
dialogue in DA:O best, but if they are not going to return to it than
they can definitely do it better than DA2. Maybe all it requires is a
few more opportunities to interact. We shall see...

Combat animations--I think, overall, combat looked and played better.  Sometimes, though, it felt too over the top.  It made the game feel less serious.  For instance, I liked all the mage animations but the disappearing and backflipping rogues were unrealistic and, frankly, silly.  Also, Meredith...she can fly.  That entire encounter was over the top and not in a good way.

Item description-- I suppose this is considered flavor but it adds a lot of depth for me.  I was really frustrated when I picked a very interestingly named trinket and was unable to learn anything about it.  Surely, someone had a little story for it.  Where else would the name come from?  Why can't I know the story behind Heartbreaker and Backstabber?  Item descriptions have given me plenty of laughs, chills, tears and chin-scratching moments.  That was simply removed form DA2.

Redisigns--some of them weren't needed.  Qunari definetlly benefited from the redesign as they are much more unique and simply awesome looking but the darkspawn did not need to be changed.  I don't think  there was anything wrong with them before, granted thier walking animations is now satisfyingly disturbing.  They're just so...meh looking now.  I'm on the fence with the elves.  Ambivalence leaning towards dislike on account of the way thier noses (septims?) look.  It makes them very not pretty.  They're also a little bobbly headed, also not pretty.   Lastly, the deep roads.  They now look sort of cartoonish.  Before, they were very creepy and even awe-inspiring.  It made me sad that they were lost to the dwarves.  Now they're surrounded by lava which was silly enough in Orzamar but done better.  They're too bright which I think goes a long way towards making them not creepy.  They don't really look like something the dwarves lost, just something they don't really both repairing regularly.  The big swirls of lyrium, while kind of cool looking, should really stay with the Anvil of the Void.  They were very whimsical which is not how I think the Deep Roads should be described.

Thats it for now.  Possibly more later.

Modifié par mhendon, 24 avril 2011 - 06:23 .

[erynnar]

I know, I know...I keep adding more. Please don't hate me devs.

Please, please, please bring back the little descriptions for items. Pretty please, no more 'ring' or 'belt'. I miss things like Ser Galan's sword -- "Somewhere on the battlefield is a knight fighting with his dinner fork, pity him." I still get a huge giggle out of that. I miss those so much.  Andraste's knicker weasels, I would gladly help make some up for you all to save time, I work cheap. Oh, wait, I'm cheap and easy? Damn!

Modifié par erynnar, 24 avril 2011 - 03:32 .

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Combat
On the whole I felt it was faster and more exciting than in DA:O. Some of the animations, like leaping ten feet into the air, felt a bit *too* flashy and Mortal Kombat, but I will just pretend those are aesthetic choices and not an accurate reflection of Hawke's incredible acrobatic abilities.

Sadly the increased pace of combat was undermined by the ultimately tedious way 'enemy waves' were utilised. It felt like there was no such thing as a short combat, and that you wouldn't be able to rescue someone being mugged in an alley without twenty of the mugger's friends suddenly swooping in. It was overused, random encounters were *everywhere* as though the devs were afraid players would get bored if they went five minutes without combat, and fights were always *always* drawn out too long, not by tough, challenging or interesting opponents but by numbers.

While on the subject of waves, they did seem to spawn from some improbable areas. Used sparingly and logically I have no problem with the concept of reinforcements, but when they pop out of thin air or from the inside of mansion roofs as though they had been literally a part of painwork...a bit immersion breaking when your archer is picking off foes from a safe vantage point only to have a mob of peasants armed with clubs pop up like daisies all around him. There's adaption to the ever-changing field of combat, and then there's being able to *anticipate* some of those changes so tactics can be adapted. I make an exception for ninjas.

Dragon Age seems to have a problem with Solo Plot Boss Fights--we're given the chance for our PC to have an heroic duel, but skills get in the way. Either it's absurdly easy (Loghain vs Crushing Prison), laughably long (Loghain vs Sword&Board Warrior) or the exact opposite of heroic (Arishok vs just about every class in the game). Why everyone would consider Hawke's epic duel amazing when it comprises mostly running away in front of all of Kirkwall's nobility is, I suppose, a credit to Varric's storytelling skills. I don't know how to fix this...maybe there's some way to make a boss's skills more fluid rather than set, something that directly challenges the skills of the PC.

Tactics seemed fairly intuitive to me--I barely had to touch it, for which I'm glad since I hated the UI. I found DA:O was faster to navigate.

Dialogue & Companions
Bioware usually does well with this and did so again, but it was rather a shock to find the sequel to DA:O with much less character interaction. Was it more character focussed? Yes, but this was because every time you had the opportunity to have a simple conversation with your companions it popped up as a journal entry or quest, and once these were over you couldn't directly talk to them until the *next* journal entry or quest unless they came to visit your dog.

I appreciated how the *important* dialogue and companion quests were stretched out over the game so you couldn't get an infodump all in one session of talk like in DA:O, but inconsequential 'flavour' dialogue has its place too, and can serve to provide a stronger connection to the NPCs. I didn't feel for any of the DA2 characters (or BG/2, JE) as strongly as I did in DA:O, largely because I just didn't feel as close to them. Like it or not, talk and socialising (not just killing things) is how people connect. I am not certain how *much* more you would need, but DA2 was lacking.

On the subject of companions, I have to compliment whoever did Aveline. I thought she was perfect I (and others) had been waiting a while to see a convincing strong female warrior, and she was awesome--one of my favourite characters from the game, and thankfully *not* sexualised. She was perfect, and The Long Road has to have been my favourite quest in the entire game (for once, the Endless Waves were worth it)

Dialogue wheel worked better than I thought, but I still dislike the paraphrases. In an RPG you just...should know what you're going to say, and 'context' isn't always enough. There were a few instances where I picked something that turned out being not what I expected to say, so much so that I reloaded. I get the feeling the Wheel/Paraphrases is because the writers want to 'suprise' players with their brilliant, witty lines but I have to say that the game shouldn't be about the writers' egos, but the player's character. We should be able to see what we're going to say--and I promise you we'll still appreciate the writing.


Other topics another time, maybe...

[Tommy6860]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

<snipped for brevity>

On the subject of companions, I have to compliment whoever did
Aveline. I thought she was perfect I (and others) had been waiting a
while to see a convincing strong female warrior, and she was
awesome--one of my favourite characters from the game, and thankfully
*not* sexualised. She was perfect


Other topics another time, maybe...

Geart summary (to date anyway)!

I also liked your take on Aveline in DA2, something totally lacking in Origins. I so wanted a female warrior ally, still feminine, but tough as nails to fight by side, but alas, it was not so.

Modifié par Tommy6860, 24 avril 2011 - 05:34 .

[erynnar]

Tommy6860 wrote...

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

<snipped for brevity>

On the subject of companions, I have to compliment whoever did
Aveline. I thought she was perfect I (and others) had been waiting a
while to see a convincing strong female warrior, and she was
awesome--one of my favourite characters from the game, and thankfully
*not* sexualised. She was perfect


Other topics another time, maybe...

Geart summary (to date anyway)!

I also liked your take on Aveline in DA2, something totally lacking in Origins. I so wanted a female warrior ally, still feminine, but tough as nails to fight by side, but alas, it was not so.

All of Shadow's review (especially the dialogue wheel and paraphrasing) and this^.  I adore Aveline! She is so human. Fem without being over sexed (love the romance quest for her, that was one of the best of the game imho).  She is a great character.

[DreGregoire]

Not having a Conversation Journal was another thing I was disappointed to lose in DA2. When I had to take a day or two off from playing it was helpful to come back on and read the conversations journal to get a feel of what was previously played.

Modifié par DreGregoire, 24 avril 2011 - 06:14 .

[Gotholhorakh]

I can live with the game being a bit sub-Fable for a bit - who doesn't like fun, right? I mean I don't really want another game of that sort in the Dragon Age series, but OK, I can deal with it. I can also live with the fact that the player models are bad and look like people from Doom 3, that the cone of cold effect looks like something from a quake 3 mod, and that terrain is a bit ugly - they seem like a huge step backwards graphically from DA:O, but while that stuff is important for many players, I can't honestly say it stacks up against playability for me.

I can live with all of that stuff, but here's the rub:

I am not in control of the dialogue.

When I choose an option, there is never a feeling of input as the character just says whatever the hell they like - the only feeling this ever inspires in me is a slight sinking feeling, kind of like if I pulled the arm on a slot machine and it started playing easy listening rather than doing slot machine stuff.

What this leads to, is me being bored or sometimes slightly frustrated by dialogue (I guess it's because there's a complete disconnect)...

...and what *that* boils down to is that I click through as quickly as I can, because ultimately the character will just say whatever. The dialogue wheel might as well be a "Next" button.

If I can ignore the cut-scene, I probably do because it might slightly annoy me, so I find myself looking at the TV while it's on, and if I see "investigate" on the dialogue wheel, it amounts to being given a chore - I am always going to do my best to get through without bothering.

I'm sorry, there it is. I've heard various rationalisations for it, and if other people enjoy it, that's fine, but to me it feels like choice and input in dialogue have been wrested from the player, and that it would literally be more enjoyable if they were just played as cut scenes, or if we were given a "Next" button, than choosing from a list of things the character will not flipping well say.

I don't know what is behind the decision to do this, but I can only do my best to offer my input. It's NOT enjoyable and while I have purchased Dragon Age 2 to financially support you guys, and I've been playing your games for a long time now, the reality is I can't see myself going for any more games that follow the "choose between X, Y and Z: OK now I'll say Q" model.

I have, like most people, real life stuff that's stressful to a normal level, and my idea of relaxation in my downtime is not to sit through hours of low level irritation.

You can lend this some weight, or no weight - but let me put it this way - that one thing is bad enough to eventually stop me buying your games. I've bought every game I am aware of you releasing - I've bought BG2 three times, and I bought DA2 after a weekend at my friend's house playing it and deciding it was awful, purely to support a developer that has always provided me with such great entertainment.

I'm mentioning that not because I expect anyone to care, but to say, if that lack of dialogue control is enough to (potentially) drive someone like me away, IT IS LIKELY IT'S A PROBLEM.

Modifié par Gotholhorakh, 24 avril 2011 - 02:21 .

[MikoDoll]

Someone mind telling me how much is revealing too much in terms of providing constructive criticisms? I may just add a thread like this in the spoiler thread...dunno.

[Vortis Nosnikrap]

Gotholhorakh wrote...
I've bought every game I am aware of you releasing - I've bought BG2 three times, and I bought DA2 after a weekend at my friend's house playing it and deciding it was awful, purely to support a developer that has always provided me with such great entertainment.

I'm mentioning that not because I expect anyone to care, but to say, if that lack of dialogue control is enough to (potentially) drive someone like me away, IT IS LIKELY IT'S A PROBLEM.

Do you honestly want anyone to believe that you purchased a game which was aweful purely because you support the game developers? To top it off you then type out an essay complaining about said aweful game after buying it? WTF is the matter with you? You aint playing with a full deck are you 

My comments about this game are pretty much in line with what everyone else is saying, the reuse of maps and animations is just downright criminal, I have no doubt this is as a result of the corporate profiteering EA which has driven a previously awesome company, Bioware, to release a mess like this. It reminds me of what Activision did to Infinity Ward.

The story (thus far) is pretty cool although some of the "quests" amount to fast traveling from one place to the next and recieving a reward - very little emotion attached which is sad for a game where I would expect to invest some emotion.

And what is with spiders dropping out of the blue sky? Have they attached their web / silk thingy to the freaken clouds? Again - this is classic reused animations taken from when they are indoors and this type of thing makes sense? Without spoiling anything there is a certain diaglogue with a Qunari where it looks like he is on a loop with his jestures which made me giggle and wonder if I was not trapped in some timewarp of repitiion.

I wonder if there was an editor, director or similar involved in the making of this game as it looks like it was released without any quality control / assurance?

Anyway time for me to go back in and play some more cause yes - it is quite enjoyable if not as good as expected.

[Gotholhorakh]

Vortis Nosnikrap wrote...

Do you honestly want anyone to believe that you purchased a game which was aweful purely because you support the game developers? To top it off you then type out an essay complaining about said aweful game after buying it? WTF is the matter with you? You aint playing with a full deck are you 

I honestly don't care what you believe, my feedback stands as a constructive and honest appraisal of what was wrong with the game for me, I'm not interested in justifying it to you.

"WTF is the matter with you" indeed. Who the hell do you think you are.

Modifié par Gotholhorakh, 24 avril 2011 - 12:13 .

[Cybermortis]

DreGregoire wrote...

II. I found the mechanics of the combat System to be too simple.
 
I don’t know what the exact formula that is used by DA2 to determine the outcome of combat. I have a hard time explaining this, but I prefer a system that requires a rogue to divide his abilities between strength, dexterity, and cunning to be a well rounded rogue. From what I have gathered from playing DA2 as a rogue is the only thing you really have to focus on is dexterity for weapons use and then cunning if you want to open chests; dexterity and cunning for armor. Again I don’t know the real formula used, but I find it frustrating that the system seems to have dexterity determining the power/strength behind a weapon or bow.
 
In my eyes changing the system to make it easier has robbed the player of the ability to micromanage their character in a manner that makes them feel truly connected to that player character.
 

IV. Quests
  A. Quests being delivered to our home. In DA:O I liked having to go to central areas for quests (chantry board and other go to people). Would it been so hard to add a quest board into the game? Getting letters begging for aid made me feel like I was everyone’s gopher (that's a polite way of saying it). Half the time I don't even know how I got a quest in DA2, it would just like appear. It would have been fine to get a note from home from friends/companions saying they would like to speak. 
 

II; The core combat system is the same as Origins, in that daggers and bows used Dex rather than strength. This is not easilly apparent since Rogues can't equip weapons that use strength or Warriors weapons that use Dex.

IV; There IS a chanters board located in front of the Chantry, but I don't think you can get any quests from there until act II.

[YohkoOhno]

I think the good thing about this thread is that for the most part, each person has a single vote and it's been going that way for many pages. (I'm writing my own feedback, it's just taking time) Let's not start side conversations in this thread or answer other people, as I assume this will derail it quickly.

[contentredeem]

Non appropriate combat dialogue. I have Merrill tricked out for support/damage. Five sustained abilities wipes out mana. She uses blood magic to power active spells. Why does she constantly whine about not having much left when her health bar is 80 per cent plus. If they have switched to blood magic mode they should use amount of health left to drive dialogue rather than complain that their mana tank is empty.

[Ulicus]

Time and Space

I've seen a fair few people on this forum comment on how Dragon Age 2 felt "less epic" than its predecessor due to it being set almost entirely in and around the city of Kirkwall. I disagree completely. For me, concentrating on a smaller area in more depth and a longer period of time made Thedas feel quite considerably larger than it did in Dragon Age: Origins.  I do agree with the general complaint that DA2 needed more unique areas -- and definitely more variety in dungeon design -- but I don't at all believe that the next sequel needs to go back to forcing our party to trapse across an entire country.

To put it bluntly: I'd much rather splash around in a deep pond than a shallow sea.

Framing the game's narrative over a longer period of time was great but sadly undermined, somewhat, by the overall lack of change in Kirkwall and its inhabitants from act to act. Even very simple things, like the seneschal having a new haircut/outfit, or a shop in one area having closed down with another one taking its place across the street, could have done much to avert the underlying (and somewhat distracting) sense of stagnation I often felt. An opportunity to change Hawke's appearance between acts would have been welcome, as well.

As for the unique appearances of the companions: I thought they were fantastic, all, but Aveline's changing wardrobe further underscored the lack of change in anyone else. I imagine giving each companion three totally unique models would have been far too time consuming, but I think some basic reskins and tweaks of the existing base model would have served well. Have Fenris show up with a scar in act 2, or give Isabela a new piercing. Little things like that would have helped to sell the passage of time.

Uh, okay, that's all for now.

[PaulSX]

I summarize my opinions as follows:

the Bad changes:

1. No attribute/skill check in dialogs. I know there is a similar function in DA2 that let companion deal with certain situations, but this really somehow limited the your choices
2. Weapon style restriction. why cant warrior dual-wield or use bows
3. nearly No Moral Choices in dialogs. I liked the attitudes choices, but eliminating moral choices make the game too linear
4. Can not set up Traps. At least let rogues be able to use traps
5. Cant change companion's armors. This turns too many good stuff into trash
6. Too many repetitive fetch quests
7. The enemy waves. like someone pointed out, it will be better to have less waves but more foes in single wave
8. The Friendly Fire in Nightmare is not well balanced
9. No tactical view
10. Reused maps

The good changes:

1.Friend/Rivalry system. really like this, give more freedom for the main character
2.How the interaction with companions works
3.Crafting system
4.Gift system
5. The distinct appearances for Elves, Qunaris and Dwarves

Modifié par suntzuxi, 24 avril 2011 - 03:44 .

[DreGregoire]

Cybermortis wrote...

II; The core combat system is the same as Origins, in that daggers and bows used Dex rather than strength. This is not easilly apparent since Rogues can't equip weapons that use strength or Warriors weapons that use Dex.

IV; There IS a chanters board located in front of the Chantry, but I don't think you can get any quests from there until act II.

Origins: I did not refer to origins in my statement about the DA2 combat system mechanics. So your point means nothing and is therefore useless and a waste of time and space. to me. Disagreeing with my critique by quoting me and voicing your disagreement is off topic and does not belong in this thread.

Chanters board: I played the game, I know what is and isn't in it and how much things were used or not. So you are stating the obvious; another exercise in uselessness and doing it in a thread that isn't about your opinion on my opinion.

Write your own critique and leave mine to me.

Edit: Lines crossed out and changed in an attempt to make them less attack sounding while still clarifying my point. 
                                                                                                    
Warning: When on a bridge beware of the troll beneath it.

Modifié par DreGregoire, 25 avril 2011 - 06:28 .

[Dave of Canada]

DreGregoire wrote...

Origins: I did not refer to origins in my statement about the DA2 combat system mechanics. So your point means nothing and is therefore useless and a waste of time and space.

Chaters board: I played the game, I know what is and isn't in it and how much things were used or not. So you are stating the obvious; another exercise in uselessness.

Aren't you friendly? Rather unnecessary to say things like this, you're valid to critcism but saying "USELESS AND WASTE OF TIME AND SPACE" isn't helping it get across.

Modifié par Dave of Canada, 24 avril 2011 - 08:29 .

[Selene Moonsong]

Let's keep it civil, People, the topic is for Constructive Criticism, not for argument or disagreement with another community member on their opinions.

[HawXV2]

Phew, 80 pages? What have I done...

[_Motoki_]

mhendon wrote...
If David Gaider feels like the dialogue system of DA:O was "rambling",
maybe it was but it gave me a lot of insight into the characters and
made me feel very attached to them. They seemed more fleshed out in my
opinion. Sometimes I just wanna hear Leliana's stories, ya know? It
made the world feel much less empty. I for one liked the companion
dialogue in DA:O best, but if they are not going to return to it than
they can definitely do it better than DA2. Maybe all it requires is a
few more opportunities to interact. We shall see...

I agree with this. The intimate conversations with the various party members in DA:O was one of my favorite parts of the game so it's disappointing to me to hear David Gaider or others at Bioware commenting as if it was a negative thing.

I know that writers have the old axiom of 'Show, don't tell' but I don't think that necessarily always applies to games because youy don't just watch them, you directly interact with them. To have the conversations with the companions and be able to work to get to know them over time and then finally have them reveal parts of themselves to you just made me for so much closer to them and the world than if I had just watched it as a 3rd party observer.

Also much of that sort of conversation with the various party members was optional or skipable. I had to pursue it myself as the player if I wanted it or I could also not pursue it at all if it didn't interest me. It was my choice and I liked that. It made the world feel more real and me connected to it.

On an unrelated note:

Re: Aveline

Count me in also as one of the people who really liked her character. She was a warrior who happened to be female, and not the other way around. I also felt she was very well written and well acted. I wish I could say the same for most of the rest of the DA2 characters but I honestly can't.

If there were a mod or DLC to grab Aveline and Wesley on the way through Lothering in DA:O I would get it in a heartbeat.

[craigdolphin]

_Motoki_ wrote...

mhendon wrote...
If David Gaider feels like the dialogue system of DA:O was "rambling",
maybe it was but it gave me a lot of insight into the characters and
made me feel very attached to them. They seemed more fleshed out in my
opinion. Sometimes I just wanna hear Leliana's stories, ya know? It
made the world feel much less empty. I for one liked the companion
dialogue in DA:O best, but if they are not going to return to it than
they can definitely do it better than DA2. Maybe all it requires is a
few more opportunities to interact. We shall see...

I agree with this. The intimate conversations with the various party members in DA:O was one of my favorite parts of the game so it's disappointing to me to hear David Gaider or others at Bioware commenting as if it was a negative thing.

<snip>

+1. To be honest, DG has lost a lot of the admiration and respect that he had garnered with me in DAO. Not that he should give a rip about that. But it's kinda sad that he's gone that way as he was one of the main reasons DAO was so awesome.

[Shibibiba]

just_me wrote...
Story
- liked the general idea, since it was not a generic "save the world story"
- didn't hate the end... game had to tell the story how Hawke became champion and it did...
- some more "boring stuff" would have been goof to create a better connection to Hawke

• like starting the game in Lothering to have more interaction with the family
• show some more of the first year in Kirkwall and the family's struggles to make the Deep  Roads expedition more plausible

- in general reasons for Hawke's involvement were a little weak, it feels like Hawke just "stumbled" in ... s/he was just "lucky" to be at the right spot at the right time
- the "rich yet poor champion" issue should have been addressed (like Hawke had to spend  ALL money to buy back the estate), how did they make so much money anyway? and why only Hawke?
- time skips were too long thus created awkward and noncredible situations like:

• Bodhan thanks Hawke after 3 years
• Merills needs years to recognize the artifact is not enough to fix the mirror
• nothing interesting happens in three years and suddenly "everything" at once

I believe  this issue is less problematic with shorter skips
- Mage/Templar conflict in Act III was too short, too little interaction with Meredith and Orsino
- "grayscale decision" options at the end felt both kind of wrong instead of "both parties could be right"
- although there were decisions during each act they did not affect the "state of the world" in the next one thus felt unsatisfying
- One single conclusion to the story was a good idea
-  more distinct ways to reach this conclusion would have been nice

                                                                                                                                                                                                      I've only one thing to add to this: And that's that i wish there was a 'Orsino! Do you know how many Blood mages I've killed? Help Meradith find them! And meradith! Stop being a moron, not ALL mages are bad! Help them, work WITH them"[*]Honestly, I have yet to finish a playthrough where I sided with the templars. Meradith is just SO in the wrong with her motivations and excuses I can't even force myself to pretend to agree with her. While I don't support a mage uprising, it really is a case of the lesser of two evils. 

[Chanegade]

I made a short review at Gamespot here If anyone cares to read it.