2. Act 2: The Arishok either leaves or is killed; the Qunari leaves in any case. The Qunari start a war regardless of your actions. The Count dies regardless, as does his son. Hawke, once again, is an expendable battering ram: easily substitubale for Orsino and Meredeith, who could easily have come to the rescue instead of him and his three sideckicks.
3. Act 3: Templars and Mages. Your choice is to side with one or the other (but in any case, you take on Orsino and Meredith). Your involvement is (or seems) practically irrelevant; the war comes in any case. The only substantive effect of your choices is to save or kill Anders.
In sum:
- it is possible that DA3 will latch on the Hero's choices in Act 2 or 3. We might meet the Qunari again, or see some effect on choices made in Act 3 (siding with one or the other). There are no real choices to be made in Act 1 (that's not good, Bioware). Some brave design (see "Yes Minister" for a definition of bravery) choices will have to be made if Bioware wants people to feel a real payoff for making these choices in Act 2 or 3. They may have to make the game one of diverging paths--in effect, a somewhat different game depending on those outcomes. This is what they ought to have done in DA2, imo, but didn't. If the effect of these choices is simply to pass by the Arishok and have him ask you for a cigarette (see "Sketchy on the Details" for quests like these), then the game will not be about choices or consequences.
Now, you can make a good game that it isn't about choices or consequences. DA2, for example, is not about the consequences of your choices in DAO. Those choices are basically irrelevant to the story of DA2.
Moreover, there is little incentive to really make a game affected by its prequels. It involves a lot more design and work on the story. Newcomers to the genre may be confused by this in particular, so it will take more effort to introduce them to the game and the genre if this path is followed. For practical, business reasons, it makes little sense to have the sequel be influenced substantialy by a previous game. In all, it is a very "brave" (in a Yes Minister sense) sort of move.
It is easy for fans to imagine that their actions might influence the course of the game, but such a game is difficult to create without the resources to do it. It is apparent that DA2 is a game in which resources were not invested to achieve this goal. It is unlikely that DA3 will be any different; at any rate if it is different, that will take consumers some time to accept.
DA3 is likely to have to stand on its own merits as a separate and almost entirely independent game, though it is unlikely to advertise as much. It will not be the sequel fans expected DA2 to be. It is more likely ot be akin to DA2 than DAO.
The consumer metacritic score for DA2 currently stands at 4.3 from 100. DAO stands at 8.3 from 100. (BG2 stands at a higher 9.4, albeit with less than 100 reviews; both DAO has 1,200 reviews and DA2 has over 3 thousand).
Modifié par Zeevico, 09 avril 2011 - 07:28 .
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