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[ExiledMimic]

First of all I want to thank the team who worked hard on the game for trying to skip the typicall "save the world/universe" mentality.  It's good, I like those games, but a story less tied to such an awe-inspiring topic is something I'd like to give a solid play with.  So when DA2 unveiled this as being a departure to that sort of thing I was happy.  I always wanted to see something less grand and more detailed from my favorite gaming company. 

However when I played the game (even the demo) I noticed something was missing.  Now like I said I was hoping for something that didn't lead to me saving the world, but I didn't get anything else in return.  Except a lot of side quests.  Which wasn't so noticeable until later.  However the story sets me up to be protecting Bethany from the Circle my whole life.  Even going so far as getting in the face of a Templar when he even took a step towards her.  Yet when she is taken to the Circle... I got no way to say "Nope.  You leave without her.  Pick the number of pieces." and actually do what the narrative says I should.  Ok.  That's a strike against the game, but hey there's always one part of a game I hate (the fade in origins).

The companions (other than Bethany for me) had little life.  You got the sense of who they were, but I never felt like I knew them.  But they felt like they knew me because they were my friends and apparently loved me.  Yet at the same time most of them came across as unstable hirelings.  Avaline being an exception.  I learned more about Varric through the voice over than by the person.  His only memorable moment was when he told Merrill to keep the string he gave her.  Aside from the Scarface moment.

All three acts felt like they had deep intent in them, but I felt like Hawke's part in any of them could have been anyone.  Nothing about him was special, and nothing he did had any lasting affect on anything except the last battle.  In fact he was so replaceable it felt like I was playing an alternate Origin from DAO.  Only with no Duncan to show up weilding his plot sword.  In the end I felt like each act was fun... but really were not game worthy.  In fact the whole experience could have been described teasingly in codex entries and would have perked interest, but would have cut out the fat that festered on it's sides.

Overall the game was a great attempt, but I'd love to know where it came together.  All of it in it's self was good (except daggers exploding people, that's just silly) but it never went to gether.  It was like playing pieces of 5 different games that just didn't go together.  Something I didn't expect from a DA game, and certainly not from Bioware.

While I loved the company for years, at this point the blind buying power that I once associated with anything that had Bioware on the title is not there anymore.  This got lengthy, but those are my gripes associted without thinking back on Origins.  I could point to dozens of things in Origins that beat this, but in the end this is my gripe with the game in it's self and outside the shadow of it's larger than life father-game.  Someone is going to smash me for being lengthy, and someone is going to say I'm being picky.  I know that.  But really... this is how I feel and I welcome EVERYONE to point out the things they loved or hated about this game without comparing it to Origins.  I think that'd better serve further development in the series.

[dgcatanisiri]

ExiledMimic wrote...

All three acts felt like they had deep intent in them, but I felt like Hawke's part in any of them could have been anyone.  Nothing about him was special, and nothing he did had any lasting affect on anything except the last battle.  In fact he was so replaceable it felt like I was playing an alternate Origin from DAO.  Only with no Duncan to show up weilding his plot sword.  In the end I felt like each act was fun... but really were not game worthy.  In fact the whole experience could have been described teasingly in codex entries and would have perked interest, but would have cut out the fat that festered on it's sides.

The fact that in a technical sense, anyone could have been Hawke was what I took to be at the core of the game - I saw Dragon Age 2 as deconstructing the traditional idea of a hero, the one who does what no one else can. Hawke is thrust into events, and manages to survive, and as such, gets labelled the hero. Our heroes are cast from a mold, they're the ones who set out to reshape the world. Hawke is not that, but the tales and legends that spring up about him cast him as such. The world of Thedas hears the legends. We see the truth.

The scenes with Cassandra sum this up best for me - she starts out insisting that the Champion 'HAD' to know the results of his actions going into things. To her black and white view, the Champion is the responsible party because he was there. That's all the motivation she has to blame him. He was there, and he managed to walk away. She's heard the legends and the bar tales told of Hawke. When she hears the truth from Varric, she slowly comes around to the idea that Hawke isn't responsible - so she turns to the next apparent villain of the story, Meredith. And Varric quickly responds with other parties who can be considered as being equally responsible.

Throughout the game, we see that there is no black or white to the main players of each act. Bartrand gets it worse, the sympathy for his character not coming until we see what the idol did to him. We understand the qunari as being different and accept why they strike out against the chaos of Kirkwall. And Meredith and Orsino... Yeah, there'll be debate about them for quite a while. None of those characters walk away without blood on their hands, but we also get reasons why they aren't outright bad guys (Well, okay, Bartrand, but again, we find some sympathy for him when he goes crazy).

And Hawke's the same. He does what he can in each situation, but he can't find the 'perfect' solution - he can't save his sibling from the ogre, he can't save the remaining one from the taint in the Deep Roads unless he leaves them behind and watch them leave when he returns, he can't stop his mother from being killed... We as the player often will stop and reload to get a more 'perfect' result. The story has to have some less optimal results because Hawke is not a perfect person. No one is. The whole game is based on the idea that Hawke is a person, not a hero. He just gets given the role because he walked away and the legends grew up around him.

In real life, when people do something that we consider as being 'heroic,' what is the usual response? 'I was doing my job.' 'I did what anyone else would do.' That's what's Hawke does. We aren't playing the legend of a hero who sets out to change the world. We're playing an everyday hero, doing those tasks to the best of his ability in an extraordinary situation.