2797 réponses à ce sujet

[BomimoDK]

Advice. Have DLC be at least relevant to the current story. Origins DLC was very disconnected and felt very out of place. Even WH and GoA felt like they didn't belong. If you make an actual Expansion (which i really do hope that you will) Please let it be adding to the original campaign or expanding on it. DO NOT set story in some "near furure" like awakening was. You've got a nice half story here, aim to finish it or expand on it. Disconnected stories really wouldn't go with this and i realize that you've already recognized it but i just felt i had to mention it. (possibly the Nth time in this thread).

Look to Tales of the Sword Coast and such for proper examples. With such an open ending, something like an after story would work well if it's NOT a wholly new, disconnected plot and isn't set in the far future. We would love to deal with the story we're half-way though right now. Please just finish what you started, don't open a new can yet. That's what future games are for.

Thanks for reading, hope i wasn't too harsh or unrealistic.

[Cell1e]

Well I guess I must be a huge DAO fan. I checked my hours spent playing that and to me and my husbands horror I spent 1006 hours on DAO. (Hehehe)

I have finished playing through Dragon Age 2 three times and can't finish my fourth, my hours spent on this game are 148, not very many.

For me personally; the reasons are probably because of the much lesser degree of character development and interaction in DA2. Of course there is some but not enough to make me feel compelled and entranced and delighted, the way I did with origins characters.

I find it hard to find the words to express... but it felt so frustrating not to be able to chat to my characters whenver I wanted, to not have my romantic interest give my character a gift, compliments, hugs and kisses whenever, well the simple romantic moments really lacked, I missed the soft and romantic music that should have been playing when the two or three 'romantic' moments did happen.

Im not sure if the same person wrote both stories, but I feel as if I know so little about the characters in DA 2. I didnt feel compelled to want to save Isabella from the Qunari, or Merrill from the elves, I hardly knew them, not the way I was able to know Morrigan, Shale and Leliana.

I also felt the same way about Awakenings, it could have been so much better with a lot more conversation moments with the characters.

DA 2 left me feeling so very disappointed. Has games like DAO gone forever? Will developers ever put the time, care and money into making a product like that again? 

( PS. If anyone from Bioware actually reads this, just to let you know, I did love the mirror of transformation, a small thing but really enjoyed by me. Thank you!)

[Teddie Sage]

Short but important for me:

Dear DA2 Programmers, if you are returning for DA3, could you please bring back Dog as a playable character and not a summonable ally? It really annoyed me in DA2.

Thank you for listening.

[Angmoo]

My biggest issue with DA2 (and this has probably been brought up a bajillion times already but I don't care!) is how the game takes place over 7-10 years, but the only thing that seems to change is moving from one house to another. Hawke doesn't age, your companions don't change, shops don't move/close/open, etc.

[iamthespark]

Cell1e wrote...

Well I guess I must be a huge DAO fan. I checked my hours spent playing that and to me and my husbands horror I spent 1006 hours on DAO. (Hehehe)

I have finished playing through Dragon Age 2 three times and can't finish my fourth, my hours spent on this game are 148, not very many.

For me personally; the reasons are probably because of the much lesser degree of character development and interaction in DA2. Of course there is some but not enough to make me feel compelled and entranced and delighted, the way I did with origins characters.

I find it hard to find the words to express... but it felt so frustrating not to be able to chat to my characters whenver I wanted, to not have my romantic interest give my character a gift, compliments, hugs and kisses whenever, well the simple romantic moments really lacked, I missed the soft and romantic music that should have been playing when the two or three 'romantic' moments did happen.

Im not sure if the same person wrote both stories, but I feel as if I know so little about the characters in DA 2. I didnt feel compelled to want to save Isabella from the Qunari, or Merrill from the elves, I hardly knew them, not the way I was able to know Morrigan, Shale and Leliana.

I also felt the same way about Awakenings, it could have been so much better with a lot more conversation moments with the characters.

DA 2 left me feeling so very disappointed. Has games like DAO gone forever? Will developers ever put the time, care and money into making a product like that again? 

( PS. If anyone from Bioware actually reads this, just to let you know, I did love the mirror of transformation, a small thing but really enjoyed by me. Thank you!)

I agree with everything you said, including the mirror of transfiguration!  That thing needs to come with us through every game.  I'm addicted.

[Shimmer_Gloom]

Okay. This thread is a beast. So I'm just going to say my piece and move on.

I loved DA2. It is a fantastic game. I think the dialogue and character interaction was on par or superior to anything Bioware has ever done. I felt this way for many reasons probably but I think it was chiefly because of the character interactions with EACH OTHER more than with just Hawke. Party banter was actually a vital element of character building.

Though maybe this wasn't the best idea? As much as I loved having things like Isabella and Fenris talking about their secret trysts behind my back while I was exploring, why have such a vital character moment be something so easily missable. It felt like party banter was much, much more prevalent in this game? Could it have better been served as something else. Maybe not so missable? Like a cutscene? Just thinking outloud.

Back to previous point. I especially appreciated letting my squadmates jump into conversations.

Combat was excellent. Keep it up. Waves of enemies? I actually liked having my strategy being torn to bits and having to reformulate one on the fly. Felt realistic to me. 'Best laid plains' you know? Though I get why people may have not liked how much you relied on it.

I had a WTF moment when I couldn't which gear sets on the fly? Why remove the feature?

Reused environments. Lame. I get this is as a development strategy. I even support it. But the frequency was very, very annoying. Also, the bugs were maddening. Having the story play out of sequence (Merrrils ending scene playing at act three) or just freezing all together is very frustrating. I know bug are not avoidable but some of these bugs just... well... they really suck. I really care about Merril and I want to see her story unfold the way you intended.

Also. Import bugs make me reluctant to replay the game. I want to. Really bad. But if the game doesn't import my save correctly I will feel like I did all that work for nothing.

[Shimmer_Gloom]

Okay. First post was more negative than I wanted it to come out as. My experience with the game has been overwhelmingly positive. I want to convey that.

I love the speed and frantic pace of a dagger rogue and I thought the spells and attack animations for mages overcame my initial reluctance to play a mages. I generally like characters to have cool attack animations instead of going 'pew-pew' with a staff then 'woosh' cone of cold. The new cone of cold "spears of ice from the GROUND" was way more awesome.

I approve of the 'awesome button.'

[kglaser]

I confess to neither reading this entire massive thread, nor having yet quite finished DA2, but despite numerous improvements, I have to say that, at least for me personally, the game overall feels "dumbed down" to the point that I was somewhat...well, insulted, I guess. Did you really have to have arrows pointing EXACTLY to EVERYTHING? "Hey, go *here*, don't bother to explore or something!" My impression is that the game feels more like a laundry list of things I have to accomplish to get to the end, rather than an actual story, and it makes me quite sad to have to type that.
Plus, the party banter seems like each conversation is notably shorter than in DA:O. Am I exaggerating that? (still WAAAAY better than ME2!)

Having said that, the combat and spell tree system are GREAT improvements over the first game. And I love the new Qunari design!

[Shimmer_Gloom]

Okay. Last post. Honest. Now I'm going to speculate. I think the reason the game has been less well received in general than the first game was the ending. I love the ending. I love Meredith. The VA gave me chills when she said "do not brand me a tyrant!" This reminded me of Loghain. In a very good way.

I won't go into spoilers. But I think the kind of situation that the PC is forced to go through really put people through the ringer emotionally. And that they didn't like it at all. And it colored their view of the game as a whole. It likely made them less willing to take more beatings through a second playthrough.

And that is too bad. The game holds up VERY well on multiple plays. Though, its very telling when I appreciate it more after playing it four times. The game should leave the player feeling good impression the first time through. And this game does not.

But I loved it. I just don't think all of the players really give the game a chance and look past the flaws. Because I would love to see you guys keep taking chances. Just. Maybe. Less bugs. Better polished. Etc.

You made a fan out of me guys. Keep it up.

[craigdolphin]

My earlier wall-of-text post was generally pretty negative about many of the changes. I did think of one other feature that I greatly appreciated in DA2 though. The 'hide the helmet' option was great. And as I thought back to some of the criticisms of DAO, I realized that was one feature that some of us requested. So, thanks for listening on that occasion.

[kglaser]

While I have some negative things to say about the sequel, at least so far, it speaks volumes that while I am not done with the first PT yet, I would already entertain a second. The game is definitely fun.

[AndrewTombs]

Figured I'd add my R0.02 seeing I finished this now. I'm sure some of this has been said before but I'm not going to read through 85 pages of comments to find out :-) Out of the characters I really liked Varric and Isabela, Merril and Avaline were okay, the rest I didn't like too much but then again I didn't really use them unless I had to so take it with a pinch of salt. Strangely I used Anders in awakening but I didn't like him in dragon age 2. And I really hated not being able to arm my party members with the armour I found. Levelling up and finding new equipment is one of the best things after storyline so this is a must.

Speaking of which, please give dragon age 3 a proper name. Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Awakening, Dragon Age 2. How boring does Dragon Age 2 sound after the first two. My biggest complaint is that the game world seemed really small and lacked the epicness of other RPG's. I did like the qunari and the mage storylines but there was no end of the world feeling to any of it and my part didn't seem very important. They also weren't any real twists, it all seemed like just picking a side and going with it so it felt predictable. How about being part of a questionable invasion next time instead of always defending from something. And make it easier to be evil.

Also please bring back the isometric view as an option. The current view reminds me of world of warcraft which is rubbish. The isometric view reminds me of Baldurs Gate which was amazing. Surely this is a small thing to do.

[Wizard of thay]

finished the game loved it. started playthrough 2.
my main suggestion is that if the main plot is about the nasty evil of blood mages, and there is an option for your character to be a blood mage, this is a very major plot point justifying its own questline and reactions from party members. my understanding is that htere is not one.
also my understanding is tha tif you are a mage you are not imprisioned in the gallows at all and once again this plotpoint is glossed over., again thi has the potential to disrupt continuity.

moving nto the DLC.
first of all thank you for creating new content for DA2. some days reading these forums it must be very easy to want to wipe your hands of the entire game...don't its brilliant.

but the dlc.
it looks great! BUT
1) $3 price mark for each item essentially could leave you open to criticism
2) the plotline of the game is that you come to Kirkwall with nothing, a poor impoverished family. how can you be when you have this chest with all this legendary stuff in it!
it sorta disrupts continuity and with all the early fetch quests ripe for expanding as well

[thegrimfandango]

kglaser wrote...
 Did you really have to have arrows pointing EXACTLY to EVERYTHING? "Hey, go *here*, don't bother to explore or something!"

You know you can turn those off right? And to play Devil's Advocate, there ARE a number of quests you'll only find by wandering around or revisiting areas.

Something I'd like to see improve on a purely aesthetic level in all Bioware games is clipping. The clipping was atrocious in DA:O, it was better but still bad in DA2, not too bad in ME2 (though that's a different engine and it has its own weird things going on, like FemShep's scenes just having her recycle the bigger MaleShep's animations so her hands would be missing or hovering over stuff)
I can't be alone in finding it difficult to maintain immersion and/or character believability when apparently they are as substantial as a phantom, and everything is clipping through everything else all the time and people are being impaled by their own beards and shoving hands through plate armour (Fenris excepted) and so on.

[DownyTif]

Hi,

I want to contribute to this massive thread. I did it in the first pages but I didn't complete my first PT at that moment. But I can't critic this game without writing spoilers. So I decided to write a personal review in the spoiler part of the forum and I will link it here. It's a huge post, a long read, but that's my participation!

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/304/index/7233889

Please feel free to comment in my thread since there are spoilers!
Thanks for your time!

[macrocarl]

2nd play through and second feedback. Really like the replayable aspects of the game. More than not, people really react to my character being a mage much differently than my rogue 1st time through.
Also, after the last patch on XBox360 did the graphics get even better? Maybe it'sw my new glasses. I have 2 things to say about the graphics. First off, thank you for no more banana fingers! Hand gestures are much much more believable (and less creepy) in DA2. My only graphical problem is the weapons or wizard staffs on a character's back. They hover way way too far off the character models' backs. It's pretty crazy when they bend over to pick something up or what have you. Looks really bad and there's more than one time during a scene where it's thrown me out of the drama and I just sit there wondering what those hovering knives are on Isabella.
I know ME solved this problem a la futuristic Lego pile of weapons on a character's back which fits for ME, but do you guys think you might be able to get some sort of sheath or something to make that look less wonky?
Thanks BW! Love the game, can't wait to see what you cook up next!

[88mphSlayer]

thegrimfandango wrote...

kglaser wrote...
 Did you really have to have arrows pointing EXACTLY to EVERYTHING? "Hey, go *here*, don't bother to explore or something!"

You know you can turn those off right? And to play Devil's Advocate, there ARE a number of quests you'll only find by wandering around or revisiting areas.

Something I'd like to see improve on a purely aesthetic level in all Bioware games is clipping. The clipping was atrocious in DA:O, it was better but still bad in DA2, not too bad in ME2 (though that's a different engine and it has its own weird things going on, like FemShep's scenes just having her recycle the bigger MaleShep's animations so her hands would be missing or hovering over stuff)
I can't be alone in finding it difficult to maintain immersion and/or character believability when apparently they are as substantial as a phantom, and everything is clipping through everything else all the time and people are being impaled by their own beards and shoving hands through plate armour (Fenris excepted) and so on.

yeah i'm on my 3rd playthrough and still finding quests i didn't realize existed, the game rewards you for clicking on everything and exploring every map multiple times over

[Kallikanzarid]

The point is, it's different, and I don't like things that are different.

Seriously, it went from serious and nuanced to cartoony and schematic, and the change is just too abrupt. There was a difference in style between ME1 and ME2 too, but it was much more reserved and careful. Here it's just way off, NOTHING looks or feels the same. And it doesn't help that the first returning character you see is Flemeth. Why does she have a tiara and an intricate hair style on her head? She's a hermit, she doesn't care for her looks anymore, she was all unkept in DAO! It's like the completely different team made the sequel after reading a recap of the first game's plot.

They threw all subtlety and veracity out the window, and now DA2 just looks juvenile, like a 90s comic book. Just wow.

Modifié par Kallikanzarid, 28 avril 2011 - 08:19 .

[freedemshouldbefree]

I am not really a person who posts on forums a lot but after
watching the Game Informer interview where Casey Hudson explains how Bioware
listens to feedback I decided to. I have completed the game twice now and that
is a good indication of the fact that really DA2 was a good game as there are
many games I don’t even bother to finish. However, there are also some things
wrong with it so here are my top 3 good and bad things.

First Good things.

1.      
Characters. I thought they were great as always
with Bioware games you do make some fantastic characters and I liked how they
had lots of banter with each other. One thing I also really liked was how they
talked to each other when you weren’t there. You would arrive at their location
and two of them would be talking to each other. This was a great improvement on
ME2 for example where the characters felt more like strangers then a group
living and working together. More of this please.

2.      
The companion armour system. I liked it. I know
many people want to control and customise everything about a character but I
liked it. Your companion characters are all adults with their own personality
and style, and them choosing to wear what they wanted was good. It helps to
express their personalities through their appearance instead of them just being
in a generic suit of armour, which often with characters of the same class, is
armour you decided wasn’t good enough for your own character. One thing I would
like is when you find an upgrade for their armour to change a little. New greaves
or pauldrons etc to show that
they are advancing too. More of this please

3.      
Crafting. I thought this system was really good
and simple. I like that you found resources that didn’t run out after one use
which meant that you didn’t need to carry around lots of “elfroot” all the time
just so you can make a potion. I also liked how it allowed you to have as much
of things as you wanted and didn’t need to conserve items or runes in case you
found a better way of using it later on. More of this please.

Bad Things.

1.      
Choice. This one was really disappointing.  In the game I always felt that I couldn’t
change anything. You couldn’t save your sibling in the introduction and the
events that happened to your other sibling and your mother couldn’t be changed.
You couldn’t stop Merrill or Anders or Meredith or Orsino or the Qunari…etc.
the list of huge game decisions which you can’t change is enormous. This is
even more disappointing if you compare with ME1+2 where your actions could save
or kill you crew, your companions, the Rachni, the Geth, the collector base, the
council…etc. Or DAO where you could choose elves or werewolves, mages or
templars save the Arl’s son/wife or kill one of them, live or die at the end…etc.
DA2 is an RPG where I am “The Champion” and yet I had a real sense of impotence
throughout the major decisions. I know that Bioware wanted it to be a more
personal story but in ME1+2 I feel like it is my Shepards story whilst in DA2
that it is Bioware’s Hawkes story. Less of this please

2.      
Time skips. It was good that the story was set
over many years but I felt in the end you never used this. The characters never
aged, the city never changed the surroundings never changed. Again your actions
and choices never had an effect on the world. A game like Fable 2 and 3 which
aren’t great games do use the years so that you can come back and see how the
world has changed and evolved. Why two large time skips of three years and then
nothing be any different? In those three years I got the feeling you never
spoke to your companions or did anything. So why have the gap at all? Either no
gap or a gap that you us.  So not necessarily
no time skip but a better implemented one please.

3.      
Story. This for me is the least forgivable of
everything. Bioware makes such fantastic stories and even is changing a whole
genre of games, the MMO, to include story because it is so important to you and
for that I love Bioware games more than any other. But here DA2 really fell
flat. Particularly with the ending. In the run up to ME1 many years ago Casey
Hudson (I think) said even though it’s a trilogy with an overriding story arc when
you finish ME1 you will get a sense of fulfilment of having completed
something. With DA2 I got none of that. To prevent spoilers I’ll describe it as
the end conversation between Sister Nightingale and
Cassandra about the fates of the champion and hero of Ferelden was lazy to me. You
can spend the whole game saying how Kirkwall is your home now and you don’t want
to leave. All I got at the end was just the sense that the rebellion that
starts throughout Ferelden is the result of someone else’s actions and that had
you been absent nothing would have been different. Stronger stories and better
endings please.

In the end it’s not that DA2 is a bad game as I said at the
beginning I have played it though twice and here I will come out and say it. Dragon
Age 2 is a good game! However, for me that’s the problem ME1+2, DAO, Jade
Empire, KOTOR, NWN, Balder's Gate are GREAT games. Unfortunately Bioware you
are victims of your own success.

Sorry of the Long post.

Modifié par freedemshouldbefree, 28 avril 2011 - 10:26 .

[Kyda]

I finished my first playthrough and these were some of my thoughts:
I didn’t like the fact that no one realized (except by the end of act 2) that I was a mage. It didn’t make sense specially when talking to Templars.
I liked the combat speed but it felt to me that the waves were a little too much when it was a difficult battle mostly because of your cool downs times for spells, abilities and potions (especially potions). Either you can use them more often of reduce the amount of waves of enemies. I am no complaining about the difficulty since you can set it in normal and everything just flows but when you play in a harder difficulty it just gets tiresome to deal with that.
I liked the interaction with your companions but in the case of romances it felt sort of short. I romanced Fenris in the rivalry path. I was pleased with how things went since it was different from the typical romance, but it felt too spaced in between. I haven´t tried the other romances but I am thinking they probably work in a similar way.
The Orsino "thing" didn’t seem logical at all. It felt like: ok so they needed something to bring this back (sorry if it is too vague, I am trying hard for it to be spoiler free).
I had a DAO import problem. My dalish elf kept the "Mahariel" name instead of the one I gave her. I am wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that my Hawke and the warden had the same name. Still it was disappointing to hear about her as someone else.
I have to agree with others about the loot. There is no point in getting so many regular armor stuff if you are the only one being able to wear it. I did like the fact that the companions had their own clothing though, but I would have changed it a little at least when the time jumps happen (like some do).
I have to keep thinking about a few things. Mostly I really liked the game. I am in no way disappointed with it and I am enjoying my second playthrough. I liked a few things better in DAO and others in DA2.

[orbit991]

Ok here's my take on DA2 War and Peace style, if anyone other then a dev bothers to read this go to the disclaimer at the bottom first...Obey!

Story

It was decent, the concept was interesting overall to move through time, but as many have stated it made one to disconnected from the world. For one you skip the first year entirely and Hawks rise through the ranks to make a name for him/her self would have been very interesting.
The big problem I had from the story telling point of view was that nothing really branched.
In the first DA you could have been arrested before the landsmeet, which was something that actually provided alternative gameplay and made Anora betray your plans. There was nothing like that in DA2 in fact after the first chapter I realized there were no consequences and it didn't matter what I said to whom and what I did, there was only one path through the game. This gave me a shallow feeling from the point of story development.
I stopped reading quests and ran from one marker to the next blindly just to check the next one of the list, leaving the main quest for last.
Another big thing to me was that very few things had a build up. Oh Im dead, Oger got me, who are you? we just met. Or, I got the blight, huh? when? why is your face puffy just now? Little build up to certain events would have helped a lot.

Combat

You had some decent ideas but went way into the left field with them. The whole idea of combat is for it to be gratifying and not to be the flying walendas For instance the rougue jump, after doing this jump three times in a row from enemy to enemy it felt as if I was playing frogger, now having said that the final hit was very gratifying you could feel the blades slam into the enemy, but the distance that he jumps is cartoonish, speaking of cartoonish the 2h warrior, insted of him swinging a giant sword like a rubber duck it should have had a nice slower animation and a gratifying slam on the oponent with a good chunk of HP taken, by default there could have been a knock down chance as well.
This brings me to the waves of the first airbourne battalion, it just felt cheap, in the first you had these nice set battles that required a different strategy depending on the enemy placement, here it was just a big slamorama, insted of having a different approach to many different battles it was always the same, you get sourrouded you defeat them and you know the same happens over again, after a while I turned down from hard to easy just to get it over with.
Overall way over the top for my taste, maybe do some motion capture like other studios have done for some realism. I'm just not into Asian action movies where people fly, but thats just me.

Spells and abilities were pretty good overall, but taking away a choice on who can use what spells/abilities is always a bad idea. Many of us want choices.

Armor

There was some very nice designs, but so damn little of it, my excitement was wiped shortly after I kept seeing the same armor over and over that I thought was special. Also got a great shield with a nice name, good stats, I equip and its a crap trash mob rectengular shield, big dissapointment.
Companion armor, well speaking of choices, this just didnt work for me, same gear the whole game? It's my crew and I want some survivabilty, nevermind that I want them to fill certain roles, again more choices. Every time I found something with good stats I was about to throw it on one of the companions and got the "Hawk only" line. Dissapointing. If you must do this at least have 5-6 sets for them spread through the game. It's at least something to look forward to. This is why I played ME1 5 times and ME2  two times. There was far more to find and look forward to.
Though I still play parts of ME2 just for the combat.
Variety of enemies was very small as well.

Graphic changes.

For me, a big hit with the Quanari, they look great, far more convincing then Stan. Elves on the other hand look like someone liked Avatar way to much, they are supposed to be beautifull but they looked like space folk.
This bring me to Zevran, wow, he looked like a generic farmer npc, where was the slick and sly look he had in the first game.
Darkspawn miss there also, they looked silly and generic, maybe something a child might have feared, sort of that mad clown look, but they did not look like humans/elves turned into polluted corpses. I used to like that laugh they did in the last game, you really wanted to kill them and shut them up. These details go a long way. Sadly it was missing.

Companions

Bit of a bummer you couldnt talk to them, its another detail that makes a great whole. Also I didnt care for the forced conversations with them before moving on, the old style gifts were a mini game in themselves, to bad you got rid of that as well. Details details.
Other then that I didnt mind any really, but Fenris, yes he complained way to much and was beyond self absorbed(thanks for that great option at the end when you choose mages though!!) The anime teen look was a big turn off for me as well.
Please make a DLC where I can kill and ressurect him over and over. Thumbs up.

I'll skip levlel design as plenty was said about that already.

Dialog wheel

Was meh and I actually wanted it after the first, I was wrong. I still like a voiced character but the wheel just doesnt work for DA. There was a poll somwhere where majority wanted voiced but the majority also wanted the old style line choices, Im in that camp as well.

Making the game more modern.

This is just my take but it's one thing to improve gamplay and another to change genres.
See Bioshock, Fallout, Assassins creed 2 may have less stats, but they have a high degree of detail in themselves.
Bioshock had a good story and incredible style. Asassins creed 2 just oozed with 16th century city atmosphere, Fallout had a dull story but its an exploration game and it had a good deal of gear and locations. Each game is rather deep in it's own way. DAO was deep in it's own way, but you did not improve things, you gutted a game's chemistry that made an attractive whole.

Heres a couple improvement ideas

Traps they are gone now, but what if they didnt just stop an enemy, what if they caused them to catch fire, freeze or get picked up by a whirlwind and slammed into a wall. Imagine how interesting that would look when a group of enemies got pulled into them. Thats an improvement in my eye at least. As of now we have one less element in the game and no improvement.
The pause mode, why totally stop the game? Witcher 2 does this differently it drasticly slows the game down, hence keeping you in the game while you make decisions. ME could use that also.

In the end this game lacked detail some have described it as sterile or a game made with a "to do list". In the first when you picked a companion he said something , when deselected he cursed, great little detail, nevermind that there was an actual background instead of the black hole the DA2 companions stand in. Detail makes a good game great. Sadly you guys dropped the ball, there were just no significant surprises to me in this regard and to many elements were taken out instead of being improved on. Good luck on the third!

Disclaimer

By no means was this post made to pee in somones cornflakes, if you disliked some of these  things, theres no need to slam on the keys and try and evengelise me. Write your own novel, no converts here.

Modifié par orbit991, 29 avril 2011 - 01:19 .

[ApostleinTriumph]

I have not touched DA2 yet, due to still playing Mass Effect 2 and finishing it for the millionth time and the game just not getting my attention like DAO did.

But I just played DA2 up until you meet the dwarf guy in the city, and from what I've seen so far, the game doesn't have that feeling to get you immersed. You are not presented into a story of life and death, where there are many things at stake and only you can affect what is going to change in that story. DAO, KOTOR, Mass Effect, hell even in Diablo, which can't be compared to any of the aforementioned, you are THE man. In DA2, you are just..nobody. Some type of Champion from what I've heard at the beginning of the game, but still, Champion against what? For what purpose? There is no Duncan, no Blight (well there is but what is your role going to be there? You're just nobody) In DAO, you became a Grey Warden. And here, a Champion? I'll take Grey Warden any moment over the Champion.

My opinion might change or not about these things, but I can tell, from the very little time I've spent with DA2, that it doesn't have enough to catch my attention to play it. When I take a break off the ME2, I will give it a chance. But for now, only reason I don't regret the purchase is that I got ME2 free with the code.

[Mezinger]

freedemshouldbefree wrote...

Bad Things.

1.      
Choice. This one was really disappointing.  In the game I always felt that I couldn’t
change anything. You couldn’t save your sibling in the introduction and the
events that happened to your other sibling and your mother couldn’t be changed.
You couldn’t stop Merrill or Anders or Meredith or Orsino or the Qunari…etc.
the list of huge game decisions which you can’t change is enormous. This is
even more disappointing if you compare with ME1+2 where your actions could save
or kill you crew, your companions, the Rachni, the Geth, the collector base, the
council…etc. Or DAO where you could choose elves or werewolves, mages or
templars save the Arl’s son/wife or kill one of them, live or die at the end…etc.
DA2 is an RPG where I am “The Champion” and yet I had a real sense of impotence
throughout the major decisions. I know that Bioware wanted it to be a more
personal story but in ME1+2 I feel like it is my Shepards story whilst in DA2
that it is Bioware’s Hawkes story. Less of this please

Totally agree with this... my biggest disappointment with DA2 is the lack of meaningful choices, how come I can't be pro-mage and anti blood mage? It's ridiculous given the DA cannon that I can't play that kind of character. Merril should just be put to the sword and Anders too when he starts going all crazy. More broadly I have little incentive to finish my 2nd playthrough as everything turns out the same way regardless of my choices... so why bother? Also A for Awesome was a terrible idea, thank you for releasing auto-attack for the consoles. Don't like the new art direction of combat animations. Overall I'm very disappointed with DA2. 

[Jewelisms]

I've completed 4 play throughs so far and here's some of what I like and don't like about DA2.  This list probably isn't complete, but it's a start.

The Good:

• Voiced PC -- I love that my Hawke has a voice!
• Battle animations and the speed of the battle
• Updated graphics - the blood, for instance has a more liquid look to it and the whole game is more beautiful, really
• Dialog wheel - I actually love not knowing exactly what Hawke is going to say. The diplomatic/humorous/agressive, etc, tones give variety to the game. 
• All the LI's are Hawkasexual.  I know there is a lot of polarization with this one, but I really like it.
• The sustained talent visual effects only show in battle.  The "always on" method in DA:O really bugged me.  Thanks for improving on that.
• I think the new interface is cleaner and I like that
• The story shows a lot of potential.  I hope it gets fleshed out more in future DLC's
• The characters seemed to have more depth than in DA:O.

The Not So Good:

• Companion interaction - particularly with the LI's - is too limited.  I read David Gaider's response in this thread and I see what you're going for and I agree that DA:O didn't really handle the conversations as well as it could have.  I'm good with the new format of the conversations - ie at particular plot points  or locations - , I just want more of them, particularly with the LI's. 
• Along with the companion interaction, the romance scenes are almost non-existant in DA2.  There are no repeatable scenes, no hugs or kisses and no pre-battle kiss from Anders if you side with the mages - that's very dissapointing.
• Cut scenes tend to play before I get a chance to loot the bodies and then the loot is gone after that. 
• The camera - the top down view is gone and I used that a lot in DA:O to navigate.  Also, in DA2, the camera tends to drift unless you have it zoomed all the way in and that is beyond annoying.
• The overused maps - this one has been said over and over.  And more than the map being reused, it would be nice if the interiors didn't also look exactly the same.
• Spiders.  That is all.
• The time gaps between the acts gave the story a bit of a disconnected feel.  It didn't seem that anything really happened in the interem years.  I'd love some DLC to take place in the gaps between acts.
• Character creation - the sliders without being able to 'single click' through the options make it difficult to get what I'm looking for.
• I'm kind of luke warm to the waves of enemies during battle.  I think they were overused.  I'd rather the battles were a bit harder/enemies a bit tougher than have the spawning of new waves where it doesn't make sense for it (ie in a closed room templars dropping from the cieling). 

Overall, I 've enjoyed DA2 and I think many of the changes were for the better.  I'm hoping that the story DLC's and any expansions incorperate into this story rather than take place outside of DA2.  I didn't particularly care for the DA:O DLC's that were outside of the main story.

I do kind of wish, though, that DA2 had been cooked a bit longer.  I think if given another 6 months or a year in development, DA2 could have been a lot better.  My hope for DA3 is that it won't be rushed out.  I'll be happy to wait longer to get a better game.

[TerraMantis]

Many of the game's drawbacks have already been listed. Map reused over and over...and over and over and over. The "passage of time" doesn't do what passages usually do...take you somewhere. The world minisculely changes physically in a long ten year period. The plot is trapped in this unchanging little city and its tiny beach. When entering a fantasy world I want just that...a world. Companion's armor is unchanging...they might even try to go on "dates" or various different events and wear their armor to situations that would be obscene. And so on.

The largest drawback of Dragon Age II, for me, was the battle scenarios. Not so much the combat mechanics, but the actual battles. I really liked the new combat system of cross-class effects like; Brittle, Stagger, and Disorient. They made your skill-tree abilities feel paramount and encouraged "cross teammate skill interactions". Which enhanced the combat experience.

On the other hand, the lamest horse was the one that goes hand-in-hand with combat, Battle Scenarios. The battle situations felt regurgitated. The battles seemed unchanging throughout the entire game. I never felt intellectually challenged throughout. The fights seemed to always fit a "formula" and contained many archers and melee pawns. Enemies would "pop-out" of nowhere making fights seem tactically childish. Team placement was meaningless. Between the "formula" and the "pop-outs" battle's situations seemed as though their mechanics were extremely oversimplified. It felt like no one actually sat down and really thought of unique and interesting combat scenarios. In combination with the reuse of maps it also made them pathetic. This is because you began to know every nook and cranny of each map from going there repeatedly and you know exactly where each and every "ambush" will take place. The pitiful "ambush" is used so often in the game that it is not an ambush...and ambush is only an ambush if it doesn't happen 95% of every enemy encounter. The game seemed to have basically one single battle mechanic which was throwing additional enemies at you, "adds". More than often, adds would be thrown at you which was a sorry excuse for a mechanic in every situation. Really the only boss in the game that had a interesting battle mechanic was the stone giant in the Deep Roads. His mechanic involved two different forms with different fighting styles and his "power blast" required you to position your team behind pillars to protect you from the power blast. Although, even this fight had "adds" that would come out during certain health percentage intervals. What was the Arishok surrounded by? What happened when you fought Meredith and the Mature High Dragon that gave you your "Champion armor chest" piece? Oh that's right, adds came during health percentage intervals. I almost forgot. Where are the fights that take some trial and error...or intellect? With these combat mechanics you could easily run a boss around in circles to bide time and slowdown your aggro. I want an actual challenge...intellectually.

The battle scenarios need to be stimulating even for "non-boss" pulls (trash pulls). Sure it doesn't need to be much different than it was for normal, but the other difficulties should have introduced unique battle mechanics. The difference between Normal, Hard, and Nightmare shouldn't just be the weak implementation of...you guessed it, more adds. On hard there will be more adds than normal and on nightmare there will be MORE ADDS than HARD MUAAAA HAHAHAHAHA. Great brainstorming. What i am getting at is, even these trash pulls should have intellectual mechanics and thought thrown into their development. The difference between Normal and hard shouldn't be just more guys, it should be a special battle mechanic. Maybe a single new special enemy among the group. That if not killed first and if you kill the other peons first the special enemy will actually absorb their souls and enrage it making it next-to-impossible to kill. Perhaps vice-versa that situation. Wherein, you need to kill the special enemy last or when he dies he explodes and hits the remaining enemies with his blood which enhances their strengths. A real game about tactics and battle situations...not just throwing more adds and trash at the player and slapping a battle mechanics sticker on it.

The way Dragon Age II's battle scenarios where made it feel like the game was nothing more than a childish Dynasty Warrior's game with deeper RPG elements.

Lastly i think that the "click on your enemy from far away and close the gap as melee" is a bad addition to the combat. I do really like it aesthetically, but the ability to "close the gap" should be just that, an ability skill. Your travel time to the enemy, as a melee character, is part of mechanic. If you don't want it to take so long to get to your enemy...use a range attack and take it out of the equation then.

I think BioWare seriously misjudged why the fans loved DA: O so much. They really spent a lot of time on the aesthetics of the game to make it more...prettier...er. It almost feels like a slap in the face that they thought we were so shallow. I want a beautiful challenge through intellect, not a sexy shell that is only skin deep.