240 réponses à ce sujet

[Gentleman Moogle]

 So yeah, I'm one of those folks who pre-ordered it. I'm a bioware fandude, not gonna lie. I've loved Bioware since BG1, and I've got all their games (Yes, even Jade Empire). For the most part, when I start a Bioware game, I play it straight through to the finish. 

DA2 though... I swear, I tried. I got through act 2, got half-way through act 3... And realized, about fourty hours in, that I just didn't care anymore. 

Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters, enjoyed the combat... But, there just wasn't any THERE there, y'know? There was no sense of over-arching plotline, no sense of accomplishment in anything, there wasn't even a proper villain. Even the choices I was supposed to make didn't really seem to make a whole lot of difference in anything. 

Even as I write this, I'm trying to think back over what my favorite plot point was... And I'm having trouble remembering what the plot points were. Okay, I take it back, there was one absolutely awesome scene at the end of act 2 where you have a verbal showdown with the Qunari leader. But, other than that... Everything's kinda forgettable and isolated 'cause there wasn't any main story to speak of. 

So yeah, halfway through act three, I just stopped playing. Haven't really had the desire to go pick it up again, either, because I just don't really care. Don't care about the plot, don't care about the characters... Am I the only one who's had this kinda reaction to the game? I'm kinda bummed about it, truth be told. I really really wanted to love this game. 

[Rykoth]

Here's my questions for you.
- Did you take your time? Unlike DAO, where you can probably skip all non main/companion quests, and still get a serious emotional investment, DA2 seriously requires you to take your time, and do every Secondary Quest, Companion Quest, and then all Main Quests if you want any legitimate emotional investment. That's why I kept restarting my second playthrough, I found myself rushing, and thus numb to everything

- Have you paid attention to the dialogue? I know there are folks who run around, don't pay attention to the party banter, and so they do miss out on char. development that way.

[HyperLimited]

Nope. I imagine I won't stop playing until I've explored some of the outcomes I've wanted to see unfold in the story. Rival romances seem pretty fun too.

Modifié par HyperLimited, 20 mars 2011 - 02:08 .

[Gentleman Moogle]

Yes and yes, actually. Completed every quest, got everything done right up through act 3, loved the banter... But it all just seemed disconnected, like nothing ever really mattered. There's nothing to work towards, no end goal, no Big Bad, just three disjointed main stories spread over three acts.

Heck, there's not even a decent reason for most of your companions to stay with you beyond "eh, why the hell not?" when you first get them. Okay, sure, Merrill and Bethany/Carver I understand, but Fenris? Isabella? Anders? There's no reason for them to cling to you like they do, but they do it anyways because you need a party, right? Sure, I recognize that as you get closer to them, they get more loyal and stick around because of it, but there's no reason for them to START staying with you.

It just all feels so disconnected. I'm a guy who likes his immersion. I love being drawn into games and making the character my own... And it just felt like there wasn't any REASON to play DA2. Like I said, no big enemy, no real 'cause' to fight for... The one character who would have made an amazing and interesting foe was killed off...

Add to that the enemy spawns, the repeating levels, the fact that enemy spawns often cancel out party banter... I just found it real hard to care about anything that was going on in the game, with a few notable exceptions.

ETA: Wait, rival romances? What?

Modifié par Gentleman Moogle, 20 mars 2011 - 02:11 .

[Jman5]

You're practically done! You could probably skip all the side quests and finish the game in half an hour.

I thought the storytelling was one of the strongest points Dragon Age 2. They moved away from the formulaic RPG story model we've seen 100 times. (mega evil thing you have to kill, but to do that you have to do a million side tasks). Instead DA2 tells the story of a single man struggling to survive after the events of Origins turn his life upside down. The only sticking point I had was the ending which you haven't gotten to yet.

[Meltemph]

I dunno, I liked the story in DA2 a lot, specifically because there was no "monster at the end of the tunnel" to focus on. I liked that you got to see the politics of a city and its surroundings. It probably feels more disconnecting for you, simply because the story IS disconnecting in the sense that you are going from one growing problem to the next, being stuck as the middle man between a bunch of crap going wrong and your family being caught in the middle.

It probably doesn't help that its story is so much different in that it is a personalized story and not an "Epic" like DAO was. But not everyone is going to enjoy the same story, just like not everyone enjoys the same book or movie. IF you can't find yourself finding a way of getting into the story, just mark it down as lesson learned and be more selective with the types of stories you buy into, I guess.

[CenturyCrow]

It doesn't have a lot to draw you in like DA:O - plus the bugs, the DRM, loss of camera tend to drag down the good parts. Just waiting for the patch so I can finish at least one game.

Modifié par CenturyCrow, 20 mars 2011 - 03:09 .

[Gentleman Moogle]

Meltemph wrote...

I dunno, I liked the story in DA2 a lot, specifically because there was no "monster at the end of the tunnel" to focus on. I liked that you got to see the politics of a city and its surroundings. It probably feels more disconnecting for you, simply because the story IS disconnecting in the sense that you are going from one growing problem to the next, being stuck as the middle man between a bunch of crap going wrong and your family being caught in the middle.

It probably doesn't help that its story is so much different in that it is a personalized story and not an "Epic" like DAO was. But not everyone is going to enjoy the same story, just like not everyone enjoys the same book or movie. IF you can't find yourself finding a way of getting into the story, just mark it down as lesson learned and be more selective with the types of stories you buy into, I guess.

See, that's one of my problems; it never felt like a personal story to me because everything I did never had any impact on the outcome of things. At least, I don't think it did. Kirkwall never changed because of what I did, important players never lived when they might have died, or died when they might have lived, because of the choices I made (with one exception). All I did was run around, complete a couple of 'kill this dude' quests in order to advance the story. 

I can compare Dragon Age 2 with an old DOS game called Wing Commander in the 'it feels like your personal story' category; in Wing Commander, how well you flew had a direct impact on how the story went. if you f*cked up, people died. If you did well, those same people lived It made it feel like what you did mattered. In DA2, no matter what I did, the end result always seemed to be the same. Oh, sure, the clothing might have been different, but Bethany still disappears regardless. 

[Zhijn]

Act 2 sort of leave me hanging with a "meh", and i end up trying a new character and go through Act 1 again. I like some of the groups own missions like Avelins hrmf, dating scene. But other then that i find myself pretty lost and bored within Act 2.

Will try again tomorrow.. If i dont end up trying rogue this time around!. =P

[DariusKalera]

Jman5 wrote...

You're practically done! You could probably skip all the side quests and finish the game in half an hour.

I thought the storytelling was one of the strongest points Dragon Age 2. They moved away from the formulaic RPG story model we've seen 100 times. (mega evil thing you have to kill, but to do that you have to do a million side tasks). Instead DA2 tells the story of a single man struggling to survive after the events of Origins turn his life upside down. The only sticking point I had was the ending which you haven't gotten to yet.

Problem I had was that there was no sense of struggle.  There was no compelling reason for the protagonist to actually stay in Kirkwall after his year with the mercenaries/smugglers is up.  Especially after he gets his 50g.

[DieHigh2012]

I played straight through my first run, but now in my second I'm stuck in act 3.

I don't want a certain someone to do that one stupid thing again. (I think that's spoiler safe)

[Cody211282]

DieHigh2012 wrote...

I played straight through my first run, but now in my second I'm stuck in act 3.

I don't want a certain someone to do that one stupid thing again. (I think that's spoiler safe)

But after he does the dumb thing you can relocate that persons inferior vena cava, thus making you feel better.

[fpngan2001]

I just kinda stopped as well. I honestly didn't like it from the beginning.....Yeah, lets make the first thing they do is to grind out 50 sovereigns before we can continue! But I continued for about 20some hours, and I havent been able to pick it up much since. I did those 20ish hours in about 3 days, and have now been picking it up for about 5-10 minutes a session.

[DieHigh2012]

Cody211282 wrote...

DieHigh2012 wrote...

I played straight through my first run, but now in my second I'm stuck in act 3.

I don't want a certain someone to do that one stupid thing again. (I think that's spoiler safe)

But after he does the dumb thing you can relocate that persons inferior vena cava, thus making you feel better.

I so want to awnser that, but I don't think I can and stay spoiler safe.

[Meltemph]

See, that's one of my problems; it never felt like a personal story to me because everything I did never had any impact on the outcome of things. At least, I don't think it did. Kirkwall never changed because of what I did, important players never lived when they might have died, or died when they might have lived, because of the choices I made (with one exception). All I did was run around, complete a couple of 'kill this dude' quests in order to advance the story.

I can compare Dragon Age 2 with an old DOS game called Wing Commander in the 'it feels like your personal story' category; in Wing Commander, how well you flew had a direct impact on how the story went. if you f*cked up, people died. If you did well, those same people lived It made it feel like what you did mattered. In DA2, no matter what I did, the end result always seemed to be the same. Oh, sure, the clothing might have been different, but Bethany still disappears regardless.

I think that was what they were going for though with the story. Hawk was some random Fereldan family running from the blight and apparently was in the middle of the biggest change in Thedas since the fall of the Tevinter and creation of the circles. Well "you" may not have had an impact on Kirkwall but Hawk did have a couple impacts.

As for your companions... Outside of the ones you mentioned, I never got the feeling the other companions were hanging around cause of me, except Fenris because he was a slave forever and finally found a person who would actually help him if trouble comes. Isabelle cause well, she likes you and want's to use you to her advantage and Anders... Well, he had is own reasons for sticking around.

But the biggest things that kept me so hooked honestly, was all the codex's and all the questions I had about half the things I've seen and hoping for answers.

But I guess it is all in your goals of why you wanted to play the game in the 1st place. I didn't care to "make an impact" or not, I just wanted to learn more about the world of Thedas.

[Gentleman Moogle]

I didn't mind the 'grind out sovereigns' questline (S'how Baldur's Gate II started, after all), at least at first; but once it was finished, there didn't seem to be any point to it. Woop-de-doo, some dude stole a certain item. I still have no idea how that item factors into anything important.

Ultimately, it just boils down to feeling like nothing we do has any consequence of any import. That would be okay, if we were on a 'go save the world' quest because there'd always be something else staring us in the face wanting to rip our daddybags off; but sticking with one dude, in the same town, over a period of years... I feel like my decisions NEED to have weight to them, because I ought to experience the consequences since I'll still be around.

But I didn't really get any of that. Kirkwall never changes because of my actions, life and death always work out the same, people always react the same way to me... Heck, even the locations never change. Ten years, and Fenris never cleaned the damn corpses out of his house.

It'd be different if Hawke had his family play an important part in his story... But nope, don't even get that. Act 1 was awesome with family, but apparently when act 2 rolled around, the developers forgot Hawke had any family (or in the case of one of them, decided he'd be better off without 'em), and so removed them from the picture except for very brief -- and massively unemotional -- cameos.

[Gentleman Moogle]

Meltemph wrote...

See, that's one of my problems; it never felt like a personal story to me because everything I did never had any impact on the outcome of things. At least, I don't think it did. Kirkwall never changed because of what I did, important players never lived when they might have died, or died when they might have lived, because of the choices I made (with one exception). All I did was run around, complete a couple of 'kill this dude' quests in order to advance the story.

I can compare Dragon Age 2 with an old DOS game called Wing Commander in the 'it feels like your personal story' category; in Wing Commander, how well you flew had a direct impact on how the story went. if you f*cked up, people died. If you did well, those same people lived It made it feel like what you did mattered. In DA2, no matter what I did, the end result always seemed to be the same. Oh, sure, the clothing might have been different, but Bethany still disappears regardless.

I think that was what they were going for though with the story. Hawk was some random Fereldan family running from the blight and apparently was in the middle of the biggest change in Thedas since the fall of the Tevinter and creation of the circles. Well "you" may not have had an impact on Kirkwall but Hawk did have a couple impacts.

As for your companions... Outside of the ones you mentioned, I never got the feeling the other companions were hanging around cause of me, except Fenris because he was a slave forever and finally found a person who would actually help him if trouble comes. Isabelle cause well, she likes you and want's to use you to her advantage and Anders... Well, he had is own reasons for sticking around.

But the biggest things that kept me so hooked honestly, was all the codex's and all the questions I had about half the things I've seen and hoping for answers.

But I guess it is all in your goals of why you wanted to play the game in the 1st place. I didn't care to "make an impact" or not, I just wanted to learn more about the world of Thedas.

Ah, see, that might explain some of it. I'm playing on an SDTV, so I avoided the Codex like it was a bubonic rat wielding a machete. 

Which is another reason DA2 annoyed me. It felt like Bioware was telling me I wasn't worth it because I had an SDTV. 

[Meltemph]

Eh to each his own... Although I do admit, I also was quite disappointed that you only got your siblings for a act and a 1/3... Specially since I rather like Bethany and Carver.

Modifié par Meltemph, 20 mars 2011 - 02:43 .

[andocrack]

I'm taking a break, probably just for the week, but maybe less. I think it might mainly be because I was hoping for more of a connection between Origins. Sure, there might be some familiar faces, but I went back to fix my files to be playable on DA2 to see what happens...and well, not a whole lot so far.

I also don't love the changes to the combat system. I really feel like I can interchange any companions and probably be just fine.

[Gentleman Moogle]

Meltemph wrote...

Eh to each his own... Although I do admit, I also was quite disappointed that you only got your siblings for a act and a 1/3... Specially since I rather like Bethany and Carver.

Well, given the choice, I'd have read the codex, but trying to read anything on an SDTV is essentially trying to read the fine print on a legal document from across the room. 

And I agree, I was really really REALLY looking forward to the family dynamic in DA2, just because it's so rarely touched on in RPGs. Every story I've ever seen, either your family is already dead, or they've been kidnapped, or they're the bad guy. I was really looking forward to protecting my sister from the templars, getting my mom back into the dating scene, watching as they flourished next to me...

But nope. This is a fantasy story, so you don't get any meaningful familial relationships. Thankyoucomeagain. 

[Mavkiel]

They could have made it a wee bit more memorable with some character building. Life before blight, leaving your house behind etc etc.

I didnt stop playing, but halfway through act 2, I dropped the difficulty to casual and just started skipping every optional quest. Combat simply wasnt fun, and cutscenes playing out of order ruined other quests. Heck, even my ending was probably bugged. I romanced one person, got them to move in, and they game said another npc stuck with me

Modifié par Mavkiel, 20 mars 2011 - 02:49 .

[Teddie Sage]

After one playthrough, I usually stop playing my games. That's probably what's going to happen with my Mass Effect 2, too. But I guess I'll do another PT for this, with different jobs, options... stuff like that...

[Cody211282]

DieHigh2012 wrote...

Cody211282 wrote...

DieHigh2012 wrote...

I played straight through my first run, but now in my second I'm stuck in act 3.

I don't want a certain someone to do that one stupid thing again. (I think that's spoiler safe)

But after he does the dumb thing you can relocate that persons inferior vena cava, thus making you feel better.

I so want to awnser that, but I don't think I can and stay spoiler safe.

Were you one of the people who kept that person around because that person was rather good at doing that one thing?

[Gentleman Moogle]

Mavkiel wrote...

They could have made it a wee bit more memorable with some character building. Life before blight, leaving your house behind etc etc.

I didnt stop playing, but halfway through act 2, I dropped the difficulty to casual and just started skipping every optional quest. Combat simply wasnt fun, and cutscenes playing out of order ruined other quests. Heck, even my ending was probably bugged. I romanced one person, got them to move in, and they game said another npc stuck with me

Oh yeah, in fact, that's where I stopped playing, come to think of it. In act three, I had a cutscene with Merrill where she mentioned some things (okay, a LOT of things) that I just couldn't remember happening. The dang thing played out of order, completely shattering my immersion and yanking me right out of the game. 

I was so pissed I turned off my Xbox. Haven't turned the game on since.