2797 réponses à ce sujet

[BluGirl1968]

I have been exploring Isabella's story lately. While I enjoy some aspects of her story, I feel her romantic arc is anticlimactic and almost takes away from her more then it adds to her. If Hawke has been waiting years for a character to come around the resolution should feel like a reward ( i.e. Fenris rewards big time ). Isabella's resolution of the issue between her and Hawke is lukewarm and a bit cliched ( fireplace.....anyone seen Top Secret? from ages ago?). Granted there are other cliches but I found those to be almost RPG cannon (Arishok says, ".....but we have guests!", interrupting his monologue to take over Kirkwall, the music behind the "last stand" final speech & ect.) and as a result a bit more easy to ignore. Isabella may be acting as people do IRL but since this is high fantasy and we do not have to worry about such niceties as communication, daily grind, boredom ect. things should be a bit more dramatic in my estimation. Hawke should, at the very least, take her hand in his. It is almost sad to see Isabella's fire go out. I am sorry to be so intensly critical here I do still love the game though.

[Trollhawke]

+1 to the thread in general and the points made. My list of less-than-common notes are below:

The good:

• I think that friendship/rivalry is a better alternative to approval/disapproval, but I think a second dimension would have more potent effect-in the end, the system still feels like a series of alignment bars.
• I think the switching of narrative between the present and the champion was pretty good, although I am not too sure it would be right to use it again for DAnext.
• Save imports:Probably one of the things to keep. It would be nice to transfer both games other in the next game, though.
• The lack of easy choices (mostly at the end) really puts the player under pressure the first time around and, while some plot elements lead the whole thing to be facepalmable, I think a 'third way out' would only detriment the potency of the choice.
• The use of voices. Would pitch adjustment be available in the future?

The bad:
-The dialogue wheel, while at first a good idea, mostly contributes towards making the game a series of alignment choices. While alignment choices in and of themselves can be well implemented, having them repeatedly appear does not bode well, unless you are into games like Mass Kirkwall. i would propose a system which describes, or possibly just says what your character is going to do/say, with the option of hiding one element or the other. Which may be in a wheel. If we are to keep the wheel system, I would suggest that there is a 'logic' choice, which tries to use logical reasoning to convince people (although, with all the crazies in kirkwall, its uses may have been limited).

-The loss of backgrounds is... disappointing. In fact, I think the subtext of prejudice and conflict brought up in the game would have been wonderfully more potent if you could select different races and backgrounds-and have it make a lasting impact on the game.

-As mentioned by other posters, the key conflict is short-lived, short-loved. There are appearences of it between acts 1 and 2, but mostly it just seems like the decision is just there for you in the end, as if everything before it didn't matter, akin to Web of Shadows-remembered for its gameplay and comicbook-esque nature, but its story was not a strength. It's entirely possible to play pro-mage in everything and anything, and then at the end effectively go "JUST KIDDING TROLOLOLO" and defecate over all of your previous decisions. I understand a desire for player X's game and decisions to be theirs and entirely such, but the lack of meaningful consequence to most of my actions is quite disturbing-I think the only potent choice I felt I made was who to take into the deep caverns, and that was only because I lost a family member(I am including the final conflict in this estimation).
 I mean hell, even Web of Shadows, designed to be played 'exactly your way', had more meaningful choices.

-On the subject of faceless choices, I think that there should be limits to what friendship and such do to a character.

-Why in the blue hell am I under house arrest post-game? It would make more sense if I couldn't access Kirkwall, having disappeared and all(still waiting for DLC, probably, so it will probs be fixed then).

-Free specializations get to me. On the one hand, yes, you shouldn't have to wonder far and wide in order to find out the mystical art of being very angry. On the other hand, why in the blue hell can Mage Hawke freely use blood magic without so much as touching a demon, or being called out for it? In terms of ability trees, weapon trees and a background-specific tree would be a good starting point, with others being available.

-Mook killing tactics are generally samey, if little more than a hit-list heirachy.

The...iunno... 'ugly'?:
*You can one shot Fenris. This makes the fight more hilarious than anything else, but not being able one-shot the Arishok did make it scary dramatic. I actually had to RUN CIRCLES AROUND HIM/setup asassinate, but I'm sure it would be more dramatic as fight as a warrior (I did a blue rouge hawke run). Overall, some enemies should just not be one-shotted.

*Junk. At its base, it's a good idea-sometimes, you just need some extra cash. On the other hand, you're damn well making half of the game's codex of items useless. Couldn't 'Enchantment' (who, if possible, I would like to see in the next game in some form), fix us something up with the items we found?

*The plotlines feels a tad rushed and pushed in. Would more development time have helped?

The forlorn dreams:
-If there is DLC which allows us to do things which affect the main plotline (such as alt actions in a new game), PleasepleasePLEASE give us some troll actions such as putting kittens in the chantry before Anders blows it up, alongside the more serious ones like bashing both Meridith and Orisino's heads in together or something like that.

-If the new direction you attempted wasn't too similar to other games under your belt, I am sure that fans would have loved it (unless you made it, for instance, street fighter IV or Oblivion 2).

[AnzenTech]

Ryenke wrote...

Adding to original (good, imo) post

The inventory.

The junk-idea is not really fun (without descriptions or pretty pictures - why not just spare me the grinding back and forth to merchants and have the monsters drop me the money directly!)   I miss descriptions and history on non-junk items too!  I miss companion equiping!

ALSO, to paraphrase someone else on the general board - DA2 feels less like a role playing game and more like a choose your own adventure movie - I suppose that is what Bioware was going for, but disapointing for me. 

Same. I really had hoped that upgrading armour changes the looks of it but from so far it doesn't, also, If it is possible to have more armours in game.

[Navywife64]

Sefferz wrote...

 I'll just put a list of pros and cons I would like to see addressed/preserved in DA3.

+ Great combat animations, fun to watch. Shooting fireballs into a cluster of enemies or jumping out of an ogre's way just in time was really satisfying.

+ Spell effects and sounds are amazing! I love that weird gravity ball spell Force Mages can cast. And Anders with Vengeance active just looks awesome.

+ Gaining benefit from timing your use of abilities and having the need to dodge deadly spells compensates for lack of isometric view and I found it really engaging.

+ New UI is fast and easy to read and looks good, I especially like the way the talent trees are presented.

+ Love Interest shows support to Hawke after s/he goes through some rough times. I loved that. I don't think Origins really had any of this, and the companions didn't really care about what the Warden had gone through.

+ Hawke's personality and overall demeanor changes depending on the dialogue choices you make. This is a really sophisticated addition, but I wonder if it goes unnoticed to many.

+ Boss fights were amazing, they were some of the bigger highlights of the game.

And then the cons...

- Junk items. The whole point of junk seems a bit... Nonexistent? Why put this in the game at all, especially since none of the junk even has flavour text to read. You guys even put a button to sell all junk without having to pay any attention to it. I would prefer to just get more money out of actual quests.

- Fetch and return quests. Another feature of the game I thought was completely pointless (Hawke isn't THAT short on money...). The item you stumble upon has no flavour text, no codex entry (unless I missed it), no quest... And when you return it you get a random two lines of dialogue that do not relate to the nature of the item in any way.

- Randomly spawning enemies are boring, it's like hacking through an endless wave of baddies. I enjoyed the static group of enemies in Origins, which forced me to adapt and change my tactics around because I knew what I was up against.

- While I understand the story of DA2 mainly revolved around Kirkwall and its close surroundings and thus the areas weren't by design very varied, I think overall a good game has a little bit of everything. Having one coast, one cave, one mountain and one mine got boring quickly. It was especially bad because I often lost my way in the dungeons because I forgot what I was doing, when many quests involved going to the same place several times over. I also didn't bother looking into every nook and cranny and probably missed items and codex entries because, well, I had seen that place several times over already.

- Lack of dialogue with companions, especially LIs and not being able to initiate discussion by any other means but by receiving the quest. I was hoping for more chatting from the person I'm supposed to be romantically involved with. I suppose my expectations were just too high because Origins did so well with this.

I think that pretty much sums up the things I especially liked and the things I didn't like or found useless. Overall I'm still enjoying the game, but I hope BioWare can take more time to develop DA3.

This sums it up pretty much for me. I miss the companion interaction from DA:Origins. To me an rpg should have some personal exchanges, very blah to complete the companion quest and then nothing and if there is going to be romance then let it be a little more than one little incounter per act. Oh and my how anti climatic is a Fenris or Anders romance, a kiss and fade to black then fully clothed guy standing at your bedside. But there was major thought put into Isabela,daggers flying willy nilly. I liked the tasteful way it was done in DA:Origins.

The visual design of the armour and that ugly outfit you wear in your mansion are a little undesirable. Oh I guess fashion isn't that important as long as it works.


I enjoy the game in general, I must because I have lost track of time more than once.  Thanks for listening.

[xDxRxAxKxAxNx]

Last week I started replaying the DA series, beginning with DAO...the first thing that became clear to me:  The graphics of the landscapes were better in DAO than DA2.  And once I got to my first dungeon...cave crawling quest...the quality of the graphics was immediately evident.  DAO caves and dungeons looked exactly what one would expect to see in a high quality game.  Shoot forward to DA2 and the dungeons and caves look almost cartoonish.  Whoever would imagine walking into a cave entrance to find stoneworked floors with pedestals holding up a sculptured roof and a low level wall with flowing lava running alongside the walkway?  Come on guys...if thats the best you can come up with...why not copy the exact caves and dungeons from DAO ?  Trust me, they would look WAY better.  Even the trees of DAO looked better than DA2.  The combat system I think reacts too fast in DA2...I would have expected something faster than DAO but not as fast as it is.  In other words, IMHO...you went from one extreme to another.
 
To me, it looks like all the time that was spent on making DAO, for the most part was well spent and Bioware gave us a game that was worthy of our money and our time.  DA2 seems to me the result of too little time spent on making a quality game and more about making something that would be "passable"...so as to make the bank account larger.
Nothing wrong with making money...but come on guys...you should have hired more people if you had insufficient time to make something equal to DAO, in terms of story line, graphics and the combat system.
If you decide to make another Dragon Age game, I hope you will go back to more time spent on graphical quality and story line quality instead of the fast food type of hurry and shove it out the door so we can make Big Money.

[Display Name I]

Even though most of what I'm going to say has already been said by others and myself(I've posted this earlier) I have thought more about it and so added/tweeked/copied some new things in to my previous post.. appologies for double posting

"If we kill them we get their stuff." Isabella(the loveable pirate wench). I love a good dialogue option. I play RPG video games like a crack addict waiting for that next funny line. "Looking for a ditch to lay face down in? I can recommend one. " also Isabela. This is probably because I like reading book-n-****. Shhh..don't tell anyone but I do more video game playing than book reading these days. I blame video games, sigh... anywayz I believe that the writing in Dragon Age 2 was much sharper and in every way superior to Origins. While the first game did have fun and memorable characters such as Morrigan and Alistair the over the top good vs. eVil story cliché of Origins was a bit too in your face. The fact that they did away with this in Dragon Age 2 was good as it made the game feel less black and white/more mature. Incidentally this is one of the reasons I believe the Witcher to be the best RPG since the age of Planescape Torment & Baldur's Gates( I'm currently salivating like a little schoolboy in anticipation of the Witcher 2's release. Back on topic, Dragon Age 2 did many good things right but it also did some bad things. Like why recycle so many dungeons??? I really likes the game but if more time was put in to little details like not recycling dungeons DA2 would have been way better. I'm the sort of person who likes to visit every nook and cranny in a world. And in DA2 those nooks and crannies were mostly empty. I know you guys(Bioware) have deadlines but I know you know that little details help atmosphere and should never be shortchanged. Mass Effect 2 had just the right amount of polish so why when trying to make Dragon Age 2 somewhat like Mass Effect 2(I'm looking at you dialogue wheel) do you not follow though and finish/polish everything? Dark spawn are now silly and not scary looking and they hang out in a cartoony WOW looking environment that totally kill the dark foreboding atmosphere that any good RPG should have. Look at the Witcher 2 if you want to see how to do "noncartony/dark" environments right. Also you guys did quite well in ME and ME2 & to an extent in DAO. And why not let the camera zoom out a little further(like in DAO!). Not having that zoom out made complex battles a major pain. While the new quick reaction time and close visceral feeling of combat was truly effective and incredibly satisfying removing the camera zoom was not and it brings a little tear to my eye:-( this is an RPG after all....isn't it? And maybe a little less flipping around. Last I checked a thief was not a mortal combat ninja. Make combat deep again, instead of endless spawning low hit point thugs and spiders from the sky. With a game like this you can't have your cake and eat it too. Please fix the FPS/RPG identity crisis before moving on dragon age 3. Hopefully it's not half done by now:-(

I understand change is always risky business and I commend you for making changes as there are fewer and fewer developers out there taking such risks. My favorite video game risk takers were the fine people behind Planescape Torment(and look how well that turned out). Still, I do believe Bioware, like the people on Planescape Torment, deeply care about the story and as the video game industry is slowly leaving the story further and further behind it is good to know that Bioware is not among them. I consider good writing to be the most important element in having a game transcend the "game" stereotype and become "Art".

Now on to the dialogue wheel. It worked in Mass Effects I & II but putting it into DA2 is surprising, as you don't know exactly what Hawk is going to say, but it also removes the ability to choose most closely to what you would say when you're actually role playing that character! Not to mention you get to see the fine writing all up front. There's a charm to the old school Baldur's Gate esc dialogue options and it's sadly missing in DA2. There's a reason ALL past, good role playing games have done it this way. Mass effect 2 was a great game but making DR2 like mass effect kills the RPG element.

So in summary we all know money rules the world but please take fewer shortcuts when making the next RPG. You guys have what it takes to make a truly great one, it's why I keep buying all your games.

P.S. It is probably too much to ask for a faithful remake of Planescape Torment(a game from a simpler time that stands high with great works of non "video game art" even if Roger Ebert will never play it) oh and could you also pretty please remake Baldur's Gate 2 as well:-) that one was truly a perfect RPG:-) I'm sure that even today that kind of game(with Dragon age 2 type of graphics) would sell quite well:-) but keep the dialogue option wheel out of it;-) and allow more than 3 companions to join you at a time:-) more potential for dialogue options;-)

Modifié par Display Name I, 25 avril 2011 - 08:57 .

[silentassassin264]

 Time to add a further review/constructive criticism after playing it several more times.

Spoilers of  course

Story
First of all, you all did not utilize the resource you added as well/much as you could have.  Since the premise of the game is that it is this framed narrative being told by Varric who has a penchant for lying/exaggerating, openings like super Varric to Bartrands estate should have happened more often (of course it should be for a good reason only) to play on the fact.  Refusing to help Ander at the ingredient gathering part of Justice, for example, should warrant Cassandra cutscene intervention since that shines a lot of insight.  Or perhaps playfully after a romance scene for her to ask how in the world Varric knew that and why he even added it.  You get the point.  You all were all excitied about using the framed narrative and then did not use it for all it's worth.  

Second, the not using the framed narrative for all its worth allowed us to have to deal with the negative side of the framed narrative, largely the disconnected nature of this game.  From early in Act I, you can tell that the game wants to set up part 3 as Mages vs templars.  The problem is that the way the story jumped around from self contained stories, there was no reason this couldn't be Dragon Age 1.5 starting at act 3 with a ghostly Duncan narration telling you how you where a Ferelden refugee who got rich, gained prominence by repelling a Qunari invasion and now that makes you in  a position for your opinion to matter, roll act 3.  The reason why it feels so disconnected is each act really has very little to do with the others and any choices are usually just companion approval fodder.  For example, regardless of your choice in Sheparding Wolves, Aarvarad attacks you and Sarebas dies and your decision has no impact in the rest of the game.  In Act of Mercy, regardless of your choices Grace and the runaways end up in the Gallows, Grace blames you, and you have to deal with her later.  You may have more of a fight or get Bounty Hunter or Midnight meeting but neither of those has any impact on the story.  

The main quest of part one is the Deep Roads expedition and the only choice you have is whether to kill the Hunger Demon now or later, or never if you are a wimp.  To recap, you are in an Ancient Thaig with magical lyrium stuff alll around and a Hunger Demon in solid for that is probably willing to deal.  Instead of something deal for power with the Hunger demon for demonic/lyrium powers to put Fenris to shame, or something else that could really be game changing, all the expedition does besides to requisite rags to riches is change the status of your sibling.  If someone made a skip Deep Roads Expedition mod like the skip the fade mod from Origins, you are seriously missing nothing besides the explanation of were Meredith gets her sword from which you would get in Varric's mission later anyway.  And this isn't limited to Act 1.

Act 2 has the ignomious position as being the most contrived plot point I have seen across any medium.  If you forgot or just didn't tell the Arishok you killed Aarvarad, it makes absolutely no sense that he would remember you or ask for you.  That would make your only interaction with him showing up being a mercenary from a greedy dwarf trying to pick up your reward and he already made his opinion clear of mercenaries if you ask him about the Tal-Vashoth.  You are worse than a Tal-Vashoth and end up gaining his respect.  That makes no nug humping sense.  Him bothering to find your name makes even less sense.  Him asking the Viscount for you is sheer insanity of contrived nonsense.  This makes the framed narrative seem rather insane.  Act 2 is just about making you the champion by beating the Arishok.  The jump from Act 1 to 2 is so contrived is just makes it seem very disconnected.  It feels like another story from Act 1, seperate, and insane.  Yes we know your opinion on the Mage/Templar issue has to gain legitmacy through getting an elevated postion but this way just made no sense.   It also was slightly annoying because in the Gamespot Story Dev Diary you all got me all excited over actually having a choice to the rise to power, making the the story more personal with several options to it.  Instead you get one of the most forced storylines ever.  In addition, the final Demand of the Qun quest is just like the Deep Roads Expedition.  If you skip it the only real choice you gloss over if whether you killed the Arishok in an all out melee or in a duel which also has no real purpose storywise beyond Cassandra's amazement.  

When you start Act 3, Acts 1 and 2 instantly have no purpose and are only vaguely relevant to the overarching mission and none of your "big" choice (or the lack thereof) even matter.  This disconnected story telling clearly dropped the ball. 

Another massive ball dropping was Orsino.  You at least get to hear of Meredith and her possible insanity beforehand but I don't even think anyone mentions Orsino's name until he does at the end of Act 2.  The guy is on the freakin title screen and is the leader of one of the largest Circles of Magi in Thedas.  How does he get ignored for the greater part of the game?  

Specializations
Verica Hawke is a blood mage.  She went through Decimus' lair ripping any apostate apart with their own blood.  She made Decimus dance for her with his blood exploding through his eyes before ripping him apart with hemorrhage.  What does Carver say when I decide to help my fellow blood mages, "These mages aren't like you and Bethany, they are BLOOD mages!"  Seriously.  W. T. F?  I know it would be more work to write dialogue if your Hawke is a Templar, blood mage, or perhaps Shadow for the Coterie/ Assasin for Nuncio (who cares you all don't care about rogues anyway) but for heavens sake, if you are going to add blood magic to the game it creates a MASSIVE disconnect when Anders is talking about me being a voice for all mages and stuff when he vehemently hates blood magic and my blood mage Hawke couldn't live without it.  Yes it is extra work but yes it is worth it.  It just seems lazy and stupid when nobody maleficar are such a huge part of the game and it completely ignores it your character is one.  Plus I wanted some blood magic bonding with Merrill.  Exchange spells maybe?

Another issue with specs is more my preference than a must fix issue like above but I am used to picking your job and sticking with it.  In fact your title would probably change from warrior to Reaver.  I would prefer that you only have one specialization and make it define you rather than having two available to you like that.  I would much rather have more specs (six maybe just bring my Ranger back) and have it be one really large tree/web.  Possbily unlock an additonal part to the same spec at level 14 if you want something more like say adding summoning shades and demons to blood magic at 14 but the whole two spec thing seems odd to me.  I would much rather have one spec with twice the talents (being much more in depth) than having two that probably won't even mesh Spirit Healer/Blood Mage for example.  Yes coding 6 specs each with like 15/20 talents is a lot of work but I think it would be worth it...at least to me.  I am being selfish maybe....moving on.

Gamplay
The webs were a failure.  Case in point, Specialist for rogues, Vanguard for Warriors, and Entropy for Mages.  Specialist is pointless unless you invest in something you are not going to use as you can only have one on at a time.  Same with Vanguard.  For entropy, I just want the Hexs and Entropic cloud.  Instead I still had to get horror and sleep which I had no intention of using.  The whole point of the webs if having the option to skip some basic things that you would never use to get what you wanted, or at least that is how it was marketed to us.  Yeah, it was more of the same.

The waves again.  Sorry but the kill all tactical balance in the game.  Who cares how much you set up your plan puasing and playing if a bajillion archers spawn right by your vulnerable mage and turn Anders tender mage flesh into a pincushion.  The only warning is one teammate yelling that they are bringing reinforcements which may not even be audible sometimes or issued late...like after Anders has already been spawn killed.  You probably have gotten this beaten over your head over 80 pages but it was really bad.

Mages and Assassins.  Despite ignoring the Cardinal rules of magic, Sarebas in particular were horrible characters because they would just teleport up a ledge (in Blackpowder Promise specifically) and then nuke your whole team in what most of the time be an insta kill on nightmare.  That isn't fun.  That isn't hard.  That isn't strategic.  (Arcane horrors included)  Mages just going out of reach and then total team killing near instantly is fake difficulty.  It is cheap and annoying since across class there is no way to target and counter the Sarebas in Blackpowder promise if he decides to nuke you from that ledge while all your team is below.  I don't like trial and error gameplay.  Assassins are this unleaded.  since they are ony stealthing, you are supposed to be able to still hit them with AOE things.  Unfortunately if one stealths right in front of me and I do Mind Blast, Fireball, Fist of the maker, Miasmic Flask or whatever, chances are, it will not hit him.  Only rarely have my AOE talents been able to knock them out of stealth.  This means they get to erase all aggro, insta kill Anders, stealth again, insta kill Isabela, and then my other characters are horribly out numbered and are about to be insta killed.  Completely cheap, unfair and once again, completely not tactical if your tactics get disrupt them.

The completely random immunities on nightmare.  Yes it made it difficult but only because it was completely insane.  The Red Iron recruitment has you fight a bunch of immune to fire completely normal people when Bethany has no choice but have a fire staff.  Tal-Vashoth have an immunity to fire and lightning for being...shirtless?  Everyone on a bitter pill has immunity to ice because...Hadriana is a frost queen?  Seriously it made no sense and just made me abandon using elemental weapons on my nightmare run because it was so elfing stupid.  

Characters
Yes I realize it costs money to add dialogue and interaction but you are aware you never actually get to hear said storytelling as his main trait dwarf ever tell a story?  Yes it costs money and time but I am a fanatic Bioware defense force member who bought DA:O and DA2 twice because I could.  The least you could do is reward my fanaticism by letting the defining character triat of characters you know, actually get displayed.  I don't care if you have to ME2 two disc it, you all have made your characters and writing of said characters legendary so you should put more of it in.  Don't tease me again or I might only buy DA3 once.


Other
You know, making the classes more distinct would have been great for origins but that whole initiative made little sense here.  It would actually make more sense to have had Hawke be an omnidisciplinary mage/warrior/rogue like what I hear the hero in Skyrim is supposed to be.  You are a Hawke with magic coursing through your family line on both sides.  Making the distinction here is...pointless really.

For the love of all that is holy.  STOP. MAKING.  THE. QUNARI. VILLAINS.  You give them the greatest culture in Thedas and some of the most compelling characters and then force you to kill them all like genlocks.  The Darkspawn are mindless beserkers sans the Architect but I believe in the Qunari and you can't join them, can't solve anything peacefully.  Your only option is to kill them like straw villains.  This annoys me.  It is bad enough you won't let me play as a kossith character but them you make me have to kill them.  All these blood sacrificed squirrels around here have their blood on your hands bioware.

In Origins, Alistair says templar imbued lyrium powers only work on mages and to anyone else he is just a man in a metal suit.  Fenris proves that is wrong and Meredith proved that lyrium alone makes you more magical then any mage in Thedas save possibly Flemeth.  Lyrium powers and explanation plz?  Pretty plz?

The main difficulty of Nightmare was mighty blow/winters grasp/etc. accidentaltly killing your teammates.  One little bitty splash from one of those moves could even kill Aveline while doing next to nothing to the enemy you targeted.  They had so much freaking health it turned most battles into marathons because you had restrict your own abilities to avoid team killing but even if you didn't, they did nothing to enemies above mook rank.  Combine this with the instakilling assassins and you get the point.  Way to much health to justify playing all the way through on nightmare.  Combine this with the apparent ability to ignore aggro inducing things (Aveline's poor useless taunt) and you end up with all the fragile teammates being killed first in these marathon fights and as soon as Anders is killed because the Dragon ignored taunt, Aveline's massive armor, and Isabela's Across the Bow the fight is over because you are so dead.

After I accept the trouble of letting my Dalish lover move into my Hightown mansion,  WHY DOES SHE KEEP ON TALKING ABOUT SANDAL!  For love of the maker, let her say at least a romantic line over and over again.  Andraste's knickers, it was like a romance scene, comforting scene, and then they forgot they are supposed to be  in love with you.  At least patch it to make it her awkward and hilarious "I love you!" from the romance scene repeatedly.  That would please me.

The Darkspawn retooled artwork was bad.  Really bad.  Downright clownish.  Also unncessary since they weren't even a major part of the game.  Why?  Just why?  Nevermind.  Just retcon it.  For the love of the Maker retcon it.

Please get unique battle cries for the Tal-Vashoth.  It annoyed me to have them yell Anaam essum qun every five seconds when they obviously are not Qunari and had rejected it.  

Little Summary
I am not asking for a return to the Origins based 6 possible protagonists.  That results in a detachment from the personal of the character  because you would essentially have to make 6 (12 counting gender) storylines and make them all make sense to avoid such nonsene of my Dwarf noble saying Andraste's blood.  Origins also ended up being about the Blight and how it was stopped.  Your Warden was insignificant individually as the other origins proved someone needed to do it and you just happened to be there.  With the Origins, you have to sacrifice a degree of specifity and individuality to make everyone fit or it would cost far more than you all would be willing to pay.  The story has to be generic and the choices can't be too personal across the board because you could be one of six vastly different origins.  The problem was DA2 got caught in the middle.  It did not embrace the linearity of one person one story because it liked to give the illusion of choice for like my rant in the story section.  This left DA2 more personal than Origins certainly was giving you a character you could feel was an actual character instead of a plot device like the Warden but it did not go all the way leaving it in kind of a limbo where it lacked the real impactful decisions of Origins where you could actually tell what you did made a real difference but it did not completely embrace the coherent intricately woven story of having it completely linear (see rant about the jump to Act 2).  This nebulous region of interaction made it hard for many of the rabid Origins fanboys/girls to latch on but also made it rather difficult to catch your Call of Duty audience.  Compromise is bad.  You only end up pissing off everyone instead of just people who don't care about you.  

That said I am still getting DA3 at launch regardless.  Thank you for your service.

Modifié par silentassassin264, 26 avril 2011 - 08:43 .

[Biotic Budah]

I think they were in a rush to get this out, hence the reused underground areas. In fact I think a great deal of the problems stem from the game being rushed. Aesthetically speaking fire the art director. The mage robes were bland and you really didn't get to see much until you get to the Champion armor/Robes. Even the mabari. He looked just fine in DA:O. Now he sorta has the face of a German Shepard which to me took away from the hound being a distinct creature.

[Silverfox4]

I loved DAO. I thought DA2 was ok. Good enough for me to playthrough twice.

Cons-

1. Reused maps -- Everyone has a problem with this. Bioware should know better by now.

2. Decisions dont really make a differece -- Something simple like the prolouge at the end of DAO would work wonders.. I have a feeling they want to continue the story with Hawk, but why even give us the appearance of fake choices in DA2. Might as well devote more time to storytelling and voice acting instead of giving us fake choices.

3. Companion armor -- I dont mind not having to equip them with every piece of armor that gets dropped. But.... how about when we complete a companion quest or arc it unlocks another costume appearance. Then we can choose between choice A and B on a whim. And we keep earning these armors, so near the end of the game we have maybe 5 to 10 choices of appearance for them. That way bioware could still make their armor look unique and give them more personality.

4. Companion LI -- Its a personal opinion but i was way more attached to Lelianna and Morgan. Isabella is hot but way to dirty for me to have a long relationship with. Merrill is cute but the voice annoys me to hell.

5. Hawks armor -- My first playthrough was with a mage and i only wore three sets of armor throughout the whole game. I would also like a few choices on some highend armors to wear.

Pros.

1. Combat -- I enjoyed the faster pace combat of the two handed warrior and the mage. To me its way more fun. I feel like i actually cause damage with my weapons. In DAO the attacks were so slow and didnt do any damage. I haven't played rouge but Isabella flys around way too much.

Notes.

Where are the Qunari and dwarven women at?

Of course they did a fast product. They still sold millions. Their production time was extremely short. So they dont care if DA2 sells less. They actually make more money on the faster product.

If your going to streamline Bioware, get with the times and show some skin. Look at some popular games such as GTA GoW and coming up the Witcher 2.

Can we start getting rid of drab robes for mages yet?

[Sussurus]

@SilentAssassin, I definitly agree about specialization picks like BM not having an effect on story and dialogue. That bugged me a lot of times, Fenris, Anders, Grace, Carver... etc.

The many one shot talents of enemies again is true, Saarabas, Horrors, Bosses among others.
It would be a lot better if the system of enemies was handled as PC's and companions.
Lots of talents, some strong, some weak, but none one shot without a cross combo.
However since there are no similarities between PC's and NPC's at all this game.
Health, talents, strength, challenge or otherwise it's too late to change I'll bet.

Modifié par Sussurus, 26 avril 2011 - 11:50 .

[tmagalhaes]

Two things:
For one, there's just too much combat.
A huge fight will breakout at the slightest anything. And because of this, the issues with enemies just appearing out of thin air is exacerbated.
Yes, scripting in a fight is much cheaper way of creating 5 more minutes of content instead of a conversation, but do it too much and it becomes ridiculous. Sure, combat is ok, but I was expecting an RPG with an enphasis on dialogue and character interaction, not a poor God of War clone. :/

And the other thing is that dialogue options are not really options. Many (most?) of the times, the option you chose has 0 effect on the response. They are just going to put out the same generic response that can fit on any of your lines. Why are you giving me the option for then? The illusion of choice just falls flat on its face too many times. The person talking to me will give the same response wheter I'm nice or not, wheter I'm a smart ass or not. Sometimes maybe my companions will get a +5 or -5 if I choose to be sarcastic at some point. but that's about it.

[Cybermortis]

silentassassin264 wrote...

In Origins, Alistair says templar imbued lyrium powers only work on mages and to anyone else he is just a man in a metal suit.  Fenris proves that is wrong and Meredith proved that lyrium alone makes you more magical then any mage in Thedas save possibly Flemeth.  Lyrium powers and explanation plz?  Pretty plz?

Alistair notes that Templar powers are specifically designed to counteract magic. He also notes that while Templars are told that lyrium makes their powers more effective, he suspects that it does nothing of the sort.

The real reason Templars are given lyrium is so the Chantry - who controls the lyrium trade with the Dwarves - is to control the Templars. Lyrium is shown in both games to be addictive, and therefore the Chantry could cripple the Templars by cutting off their supply if they became a threat.
This is all explained in DAO, and at least one Templar in both games is seem going through lyrium withdrawl.

Lyrium itself is basically essence of magic, which is why mages can use it to suplement their manna or use it to power spells with. Again, this is noted in DAO when the Circle performs the right of harrowing. And later when Jowen is discussing ways to get into the Fade to deal with Connor - he notes that the ritual can be powered either by Blood Magic or a lot of lyrium.

I think they were in a rush to get this out, hence the reused underground areas. In fact I think a great deal of the problems stem from the game being rushed.

Agreed. In fact if you look carefully at the game you can see that all the individual parts had a considerable amount of potential, and indeed could and should have worked very well indeed. However it is also clear that all of these areas needed more work and probably play-testing to bring them up to something like their full potential.

I'm wondering when they started planning the details of the game if they didn't originally expect to have more time to develop it. That or they badly misjudged how much work was involved. Otherwise I can't understand why they would try to make so many changes all at once, knowing that they had such a short amount of time to get everything done in. If I'd been in the same position I think I would have done as little as possible to the basic DAO game since I knew that already worked for the most part.

Modifié par Cybermortis, 26 avril 2011 - 01:53 .

[Zeevico]

Where are the Qunari and dwarven women at?

Qunari women stay in the lands of the Qun. They're not soldiers.
As to dwarven women--don't know. The cost of it? Who knows.

[silentassassin264]

Cybermortis wrote...

silentassassin264 wrote...

In Origins, Alistair says templar imbued lyrium powers only work on mages and to anyone else he is just a man in a metal suit.  Fenris proves that is wrong and Meredith proved that lyrium alone makes you more magical then any mage in Thedas save possibly Flemeth.  Lyrium powers and explanation plz?  Pretty plz?

Alistair notes that Templar powers are specifically designed to counteract magic. He also notes that while Templars are told that lyrium makes their powers more effective, he suspects that it does nothing of the sort.

The real reason Templars are given lyrium is so the Chantry - who controls the lyrium trade with the Dwarves - is to control the Templars. Lyrium is shown in both games to be addictive, and therefore the Chantry could cripple the Templars by cutting off their supply if they became a threat.
This is all explained in DAO, and at least one Templar in both games is seem going through lyrium withdrawl.

Lyrium itself is basically essence of magic, which is why mages can use it to suplement their manna or use it to power spells with. Again, this is noted in DAO when the Circle performs the right of harrowing. And later when Jowen is discussing ways to get into the Fade to deal with Connor - he notes that the ritual can be powered either by Blood Magic or a lot of lyrium.

Yeah but no.  The annulment ability is specifically from having lyrium in your veins and it doesn't matter how much you pray to the maker, you cannot holy smite people with just a righteous conviction.  Templars are (anti) magical through and through.

[Cybermortis]

Yeah but no. The annulment ability is specifically from having lyrium in your veins and it doesn't matter how much you pray to the maker, you cannot holy smite people with just a righteous conviction. Templars are (anti) magical through and through.

The skills can be taught and used by people without needing lyrium. Alistair is a case in point. He has and can use Templar abilities, but notes that he left the order before he was given (or became addicted to) lyrium. He notes that the abilities are all related to training, which is also why he can teach a warrior Warden to use Templar abilities.

This seems to be backed by the lore of the game as much as the game play. Cullen was able to resist the blood mages in the tower - and one would assume the demons - for several days without having any access to lyrium.

Lyrium may or may not make some Templar abilities easier or more effective, but it very clearly isn't required to make use of those abilities. The main function appears to be a form of control, and Alistair will note that this is also why the Templars haven't or can't take control of the Chantry.


Anyway, this is off topic. Sorry for the digress.

[angry_succubus]

It's really annoying to enter the same maps all over again in the game. I understand, is the same place, justo other quest, but annoying anyway.
It would be nice to be able to customize the companions appearence (it's not logic than in 7 years they don't change their clothes).
The game it's full of secondary quest, the main plot is very good but need to be exploted... it has potential to be exploted.
What I love is the full voice Hawke, just as I love Shepard. It was strange to play DAO, hear everyone speak, and you character saying no word. Oh, I love the mage moves too.
Hope there will be an expansion soon.
Sorry for my crappy english.

[Jones7602]

I'm finally done with DA2 and wanted to post some additional comments about the game and my overall opionion. I sincerely hope someone at Bioware reads this... So to start, is DA2 a good game? Yes, for me it is, meaning I enjoyed the overall experience. However, it is not a great game, it can't stand up to its competitors or predecessors. My overall fealing is, that DA2 is unfinished and unpolished with a lot of potential for greatness never explored. Whats available feels like the inner core of the game, we got what was absolutely necessary to tell the story, but nothing on top. Let me get into detail, I'll solely focus on the story, enough has been said about technical issues.

The small things
I had the overall impression that I'm not playing the game just watching it. Hawke is unable to react to the world and influence it and the world is unable to react to him. Why can't I warn my female friends about a killer on the loose? Why can't I investigate who sold him the lillies? Why can't I do anything to stop Huon? Not even yell, cast a spell or let Varric perforate him? Why can I can cast blood magic in broad daylight and not even Fenris does complain? Why am I fighting a freakin pirate army in the city and my guard captain doesn't call the guards? It feels like watching someone else playing the game and I'm not liking his playstyle.

On a larger scale
My main purpose is to become the champion of Kirkwall which only makes sense if I care enough about the city to fight for it. But why should I? Kirkwall is an empty shell, there is no life in it. No realistic NPCs, no social life, no cooking, no shops, no farms, no fisher boats, not even a single cat or a stray dog. While it looks awesome, it is nothing but facade, you can't even imagine Hawke living in his manison because basic things like a kitchen, a bathroom or a sleeping room for his mother are missing.

The personal things
Another main topic is family and friends and the relationships inbetween. For the story to have success I need to care about these people. Otherwise there is no grieve, no excitement, no hard decisions like how to handle Anders in the end. But the game never gives me the chance to care. While it is great to see my party interacting I'm not part of it. I never have the much talked pint with Varric, I can't go to Aveline for a happy chat about Ferelden or take Merril for a walk at the coast or play diamonds with Fenris. They have nothing to say and no backstory apart from a few scripted sequences. There is no interaction like a social event, I am virtually not part of the city life or the life of my friends. Family is even worse, I start on the run with people I don't know.

The cut scenes
Cut scenes are missed very much in this game and there was so much potential for something great. I'd like to have seen Kirkwall when I arrived (or left), I'd like to see it change when time passes and Varric narrates it, I miss scenes like Duncan and my Warden walking and talking through Ostagar and most of all I miss scenes outside of Kirkwall. Kassandra could be used to insert parts into story Varric can't know. Just imagine her telling of a meeting between the Devine and Leliana in Orlais, sending her off on her mission to Kirkwall. That would greatly enrich the story telling.

The epic things
DA2 had many chances to feel epic and wastes pretty much all of them. It starts in the beginning, why doesn't my Hawke have an origin? I start at the latest possible moment, compared to DAO that would mean starting at Ostagar with a nameless grey warden send out to complete his recruiting. The story would never have been the same because I wouldn't have had any motivation to be the warden. I'd like to begin DA2 a few years earlier, having a chance to experience my family and to shape Hawkes character. For me, Hawke can only be a mage, so it would have been nice to start with the first discovery of his powers, some talks about the nature of magic and good and evil with his family, angry reactions from Carver, admiration from Bethany...

Next I would have liked the see Lothering tying both games together. Let me meet Leliana earlier, let me see the Grey Warden, let me prepare for fleeing with my family and let me take part in an epic battle, dark spawn overrunning Lothering. When Bethany is killed it should be like in the launch trailer, there should be anger and hate fueling Hawkes magic, him picking up Bethanys staff (which should be the Staff of Parthalan) and blasting dark spawn. That would be the way to get an epic weapon, not finding it in a special delivery box. By the way, why is the best looking weapon, a signature of the game, not evolving?`Thanks to all the modders fixing this!
Another waste of opportunity is the denial of the first year. That is what I want to play, I want to make friends like Tomwise, I want to do some smuggling, building alliances which keep the templars of my back. I want to be constantly reminded of the threat and I want to feel the urge to go on the Deep Roads Expedition to earn enough money to buy some savety. Nothing of this is possible, I start once again when the fun is over.

One of my major issues is how the fight with Arishok is done. The destiny trailer sets high expectations and the game really fails here. First of all, this battle should not be about a girl. While I appreciate fighting for Isabella (she is rather hot) this should be one man standing up to a threat to his home. Isabella could be done in a first step with me not being able to defeat the Qunary, Varric could come up with an ancient armor helping me to survive this fight, in the next step we could steal the champions armor from a manison, museum, whatever and I am finally ready for the confrontation. And that fight should be done on the outside with a large crowd of spectators, Hawke should approach like in the trailer and in the end everybody should see him ripping the Arishok appart with magic. That would feel epic, inside in nondistinct robes brawling for a girl feels lame.

Another main problem is the end of act 3. While I feel that the game ends at the right moment, the final battle is not done very well. Bringing the statues to life is awesome, I love this, but Meredith jumping a 100 foot into the air? This is so... manga.

My personal conclusion
As said before, with all its flaws I still enjoyed DA2 because it is a rich story in a rich world I like to explore more. I'm thinking about another, slower playthrough of both DAO and DA2 to get deeper into the lore and find out, what might be hidden,like Sandals prophecy, whats going on with Flemeth, all those gods and dragons and so on. Did anyone notice that Hawke is a lot like Fen Harel moving between two factions at war? What is the primeeval thaig, could this be Arlathan sunken into the ground?

I really hope that Bioware adresses some of my issues. Correcting all of them would essentially mean to redo the game, but I think we deserve some polishing and a bigger DLC could easily get us some story up front. I hope even more that a possible Dragon Age 3 won't be as rushed as this one, while I can cope with technical deficiencies and reused environments and reduced inventories, I can't live with an incomplete story, bad story telling and obviously missed opportunities. Honestly, if I can come up with this stuff it must have been in discussion and things like an earlier start  or some cutscenes had to be dropped at some point to save time.

Please Bioware, do better next time!

Modifié par Jones7602, 26 avril 2011 - 07:12 .

[Jack Devlish]

I have played through DA2 twice now  on two different systems, and just started to replay DAO, now here's my question, is this the same team that made the original game? I ask this because the first had an  Epic story line, vast and diversed areas to explore, in depth dialog with companions, I liked the diversity and depth the game offered in the inventory and character powers upgrades, lack of game bugs. By contrast Da2 is buggy, has glitches, small repeated uninspired areas to explore, very little cause and effect that Hawke decisions have on events happening, and with the exception of slightly improved character graphics and dialog for hawke character much less to offer. The developers say the time frame takes place over ten years, yet we don't really see change, no weather, no ageing of characters or clothing, the city, etc., no change!  I did not mined some of the changes in style, however I find the over simplification of everything not an improvement. The game seems rushed out the door and the huge sales profits they made off the initial release of DA2 was due I believe because of what people were hoping for from playing the original DAO. There are elements of DA2 I liked, but it is a shadow of its former offering, please BIOWARE STAFF TAKE NOTE OF THE IMPUT that the fans are offering on this forum, we want the game, we just want it better, we deserve better than we got in this last time out!!

[Geert2010]

game looks nice, but is just misses dept and plot, the game doesn't grab you and doesn't force you to play for hours wondering what's next...

I miss the good old days with Baldurs Gate, Neverwinternights, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, hell I even miss Eye of the Beholder III !!

Dragon Age I was a lot better, more rpg and less console game

[Sussurus]

The hard set questioning beliefs companion quests, based on rivalry - friendship points.

This just adds to the posssibilties of bugs or oversights, setting one path to follow up no matter what.
If you play to exactly set out and do everything to PO a character or make them happy it won't be an issue.
You play to character, not take a companion to every choice to set them one way or the other it will.

Having the mark at 25, 50, 75, 100 is just silly and leads to annoying missed events and plot holes.
You already have quests set up in each chapter, and are allowed to choose how to handle them, pro vs anti companion.
The meter is already tipped significantly one way or the other, why force the player to specifically go out of their way to enforce it again and again.
If by the last chapter if you've not PO, friended everyone to at least 90 pts, it is practically impossible to resolve story lines.

If you have to use this system set it a softer target, 75+ third chapter rather than 100.

Modifié par Sussurus, 27 avril 2011 - 11:15 .

[Barheet1]

Why, for the love of all that is Holy, are there no plot point markers on the maps for 360? That is so irritating. I search for a certain person. I search for a certain cave. I search for some guy on the Wounded Coast. I search and search and search. Lame. Fix it.

[Flank Steak]

Just finished the game on Hard. Not much more to be said that hasn't already been covered; but I would like to see what would've happened with this game, had there been more time to develop.

It's a good game in it's own right, but definitely not what was expected from a Dragon Age sequel, and unfortunately is still considered "dumbed down" especially if you're an old Bioware fan.

Just some thoughts:

-Making the game more action-packed/arcade like is OK; but there needs to be a compromise between the tactical/slower paced combat aspects from DA:O and the insta-gib blood splattering you get in DA2.  I understand the direction taken, but the combat did not feel as satisfying as DA:O.  

Didn't like the removal of the tactical view either, but with the game like it is, it makes sense. Team damage, enabled only on the highest difficulty; but specfically with the AOE of warriors and other skills, the lack of indication of the splash damage (will this mighty blow instantly kill anyone surrounding the target?) bothered me. There are ways to get around it though, not as big an issue

-Enemies spawning out of nowhere. You can't make proper tactical assessments because what you see initially doesn't indicate how many more enemies will appear. You could be facing 1 wave of enemies or you could be facing 5 waves, you have no idea; so you might overkill initially only to realize you have no mana/skills to beat the next wave. Less of a problem as the game progresses.

I don't mind new enemies running in after the initial wave, but it could be used sparsely and have it make sense; it's like clockwork in this game. At least have them run in from a doorway or something logical - not just pop out the ceiling, because it punishes attempts to gain good positioning; it's just a non-factor because you never know where new enemies will spawn.

In other words, I want to be rewarded for making good tactical decisions; the game still does to an extent, but not in the situations I described above.

I'd write more, but I think the problem in general was just not enough development time. Not enough time to pull all the plot points together, not enough emphasis on particular (no spoiler!) items that become key in the story. Re-used dungeons/action areas. A real crisis of content creation (in terms of the art department), likely why there are fewer customization options for armour on each character. No time to create a proper story/dialogue for unlocking specializations. The spawning enemies are a symptom also. I know you guys were looking for ways to shorten development time, especially with the length of the first game, but it's come at the cost of losing a lot of the charm of the original DA:O.

[Killer3000ad]

I'd rethought some of past criticism of DA2 and would like to make some amendments regarding the issues with DA2.

I can tolerate certain drastic changes with DA2 namely the lack of overhead camera,streamlined companion inventory, elf, darkspawn and qunari redesign, but there are major things that really ruined DA2 for me and MUST BE FIXED in DLC, expansion or DA3.

1. Story
-Pulling you in
This is DA2's biggest issue. Allow me to explain why this is a big woobie. You start the game and Hawke is fleeing from darkspawn, family in tow, within 5 minutes, one of them is dead. Bummer, I felt nothing about losing Bethany/Carver.

Now compare this to DA:O, namely the human noble origin. When my Warden had to abandon her parents, I felt a heartstring being pulled. Everything about that moment made me spit on Rendon Howe. Then came Ostagar and the vivid moment when Duncan realized they were betrayed and he sees the Hurlock Alpha charge and swing his axe at him, another heartstring being pulled. CURSE YE LOGHAIN!

See my point? The intro section of DA:O really pulled the player in and gave me vested interest in seeing the game through to the bitter end. With DA2, we are just... I don't know how to describe it, moving along somewhere. Once you get into Kirkwall you suddenly get hit with a timeskip which leads to next issue with the story.

-Far reaching goal
After the intro we aren't made aware of any far-reaching goal the way DA:O did. With DA:O we had several things in mind to shank, the darkspawn and Loghain and Rendow Howe if you picked the Cousland origin. With DA2 all we had was some promise to deliver an amulet and even that didn't lead anywhere with regards to the main plot.

To summarize, we are given an important goal early on to work towards to but with DA2 we are playing pizza delivery boy.

The problem persists in later acts. After Act 1, we get to act 2 which is sadly DA2's strongest bit. The problem with the Qunari becomes evident and we can see a clash of cultures, ideals and personalities in play between the Qun and Kirkwall. Now here things get muddled. The Qunari are pissed off at looking at the degenerate ways of Kirkwall plus that whole issue with the stolen artifact which we don't learn about till the end. Hawke has dealings with the Arishok and ultimately the Qunari attempt to seize control of Kirkwall. Really now the Arishok was the better villain of the game as we see him more often than either Meredith or Orsino so it's really quite jarring to suddenly have Meredith/Orsino as the end game bosses when we only get to see them at the end of Act 2, two thirds into the game!!

2.Timeskips
Timeskips can be used properly but in the case of DA2, the time skips between acts ruins the immersion and leaves the player wondering what Hawke was up to. Example, after getting into Kirkwall we are told Hawke spent a year making a name for him/her-self with either the mercs or smugglers, the next moment we see Hawke trying to get on the Deep Road expedition. Then comes the time skip between act 2 and 3 and Hawke does exactly what the entire time the mage vs templar issue is brewing? These timeskips where we don't get a say on what Hawke is doing really ruins the story for us and leads to the next major problem.

3.Choices
Or lack thereof. DA:O really gave the player a multitude of choices with most quests.Eg Nature of the Beast where you could side with the werewolves, elves or take the third option and make Zathrian end the curse. Then we the Broken Circle where we get to choose to annul the circle or save it. I don't need to mention further. DA2 doesn't give us much meaningful choices especially when they all lead to the same result. Case in point, the choice of siding with the templars or mages results in you fighting Orsino then Meredith regardless of who you picked. Then comes Anders who blows up the Chantry regardless of whether you help him or not. About the only choice that had any visible effect was bringing Carver/Bethany along for the Deep Roads trip. Other than that, the lack of choices of lack of illusion of choice is another flaw of DA2.

4. Recycled environments
I don't need to elaborate, you know the problems. Whereas DA:O ensured we had unique maps for major quests, DA2 shameless reuses the same maps for multiple quests. The worst example is the Fade sequence whose map is the same as the Templar base, or the same cave being used for countless quests. I don't need to elaborate.

5. Waves
The next major fail of DA2. DA:O correctly used waves in certain boss fights, but DA2 uses them IN EVERY FIGHT and shamefully has them spawn out of thin air alot. What sort of boneheaded mind would think it's perfectly fine to throw waves of enemies at you and even have them appear out of thin air? The use of waves totally ruins preplanning and frustrates the thinking gamer who now has to babysit his mages and archers with enemies somehow appearing from behind them from a path that was clear. NO WAVES please.

To summarize, I would have loved DA2 if it at least delivered an immersive, emotional satisfying story but as it is, the story comes across half-baked, rushed, with massive gaps(time skips) and locks the player out from having any effect on the outcome. The recycled maps, waves, dumbed down inventory, lack of overhead camera are merely icings on a badly made cake.

Modifié par Killer3000ad, 27 avril 2011 - 05:52 .

[Zeratul20]

Hello,

I haven't finished the game yet. I'm at the end of Act 3 (right before "The Last Straw").

First off, I must admit that I've thoroughly enjoyed the game. The criticism I have is mainly gameplay-based (seeing as I haven't finished the story yet. I'll come back when I have.)

COMBAT
I get the impression that there are still some bugs that should've been ironed out. For example, Hawke got stuck between the VArethal's leg and the wall. He kept staggering backwards, but the wall kept pushing him back into the leg. I got him out by using Backstab, eventually. Most "massive" enemies have this problem, as they seem to stagger you for no apparent reason.
Knockback is somewhat peculiar, as well. For example, there isn't enough time between the first knockback and the second to initiate a counter-attack. It has happened quite often that Anders wasn't able to perform an attack (e.g.: Mind Blast) because he kept on getting knocked back (and subsequently killed.) Another party member has to intervene. Is this intentional? If it is, don't mind me. 
It's very chaotic. Without a tactical overview cam, it can be difficult to maintain oversight. Aiming AoE spells or abilities is quite difficult as well, seeing as the AoE targetting camera doesn't seem to work on the PC... Also, the endless reinforcements can get tiresome. It's peculiar to see men jumping off of buildings to get to you, and combat tends to take up a lot more time because of it. I wouldn't mind more "slow" moments, and shorter combat rounds, but that might just be a matter of personal preference. 

AREAS:
Frankly, I don't mind the recycled areas as much as I thought I would. I'm used to it, because we used to do it ourselves as DMs on our old NWN servers. That, and you seem to be using "template" areas in a decent fashion.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Now here's something I -really- enjoyed. With the exception of a few scenes (E.g.: "Ohai, I'm your sister"), the characters are presented in a very enjoyable fashion. You feel like Hawke actually gets to know them, and they share in his accomplishments and failures. The pace at which they reveal their secrets and form relationships with the main character seems to be excellently done. The copious amount of inter-party banter really seems to contribute to this.
One of the most enjoyable scenes so far was [SPOILERS] when Hawke lost someone in "All that Remains"[/SPOILERS]
That said, sometimes the opposite is true as well. When the story skips ahead, Hawke suddenly seems to know a couple of people you've never even seen before. You are expected to sympathise with them, even though you, as a player, have no idea what their connection to you is.  Nevertheless, this is only done at the very beginning and in some exceptional cases with minor NPCs.

I'll get back with more stuff when I actually finish the game. >_>