suspect I'll get torn to shred, so I'll put the tin hat on.
I first played this outwith the DLC The Exiled Prince. my free downloads were my dog, and the Black Emporium (rip off prices)
I was dead peeved to find I had to pay extra for something that we realised that it should have been in DA2 from the start.
It wasn't until we got Sebastian that there was proper interactive companion chats, and boy did we miss that;
suddenly Leliana appears warning of Holy War, now the Seeker's inquests and the ending made sense.
Unless you download the DLC Exiled Prince there no long good chats with team mates, there are a few comments, but there's no feeling of spending a lot of time together.
There were great ones in DAO egg Zevran's obsession with resting his head in Wynne's comforting breasts; Alistair wheedling Wynne to mend his socks; Leliana asking if Alistair was any good!
Early thoughts were:
Fighting’s over the top, Hawke as a rogue fights like a demented Jackie Chan as do the rest of them. Couldn't there be a happy medium between this and DA:O
Miss being able to dress your team, you find good stuff but they can't wear it, no interchanging of decent boots etc
Missed being able to travel through a quest; it’s mostly jumping to very close to the end e.g. help Nathaniel, getting there's just a click of a button but they refer to trudging all this way!
Having a set character's got its plus points, it’s nice not having to faff about with complete personalisation, although I so like doing that especially in a re-run.
Playing again with Hawke, interesting. Have done one male and one female and become very fond of both but can I re-run with them having different relationships with their siblings and romances? Not sure my emotions will stand it.
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Old friends:
Didn't Alistair make them take Anders as a Grey Warden? So they’d met (in my games anyway), just “weren't you a Grey Warden?”….
And “ball and chain”!?! Not they way those two were together, not even after 6 years.
Voices: Anders’s original voice could do jokey and dramatic, he does Cullen’s emotional voice excellently, his new voice can’t joke convincingly, but he can tear your heart out with emotion.
Thank heavens Zevran, Leliana & Alistair had the right voices.
Looks, the weird changes.
Isabella’s hot now, but frankly she shouldn’t be as Aveline comments on her being unattractive
oh ye gods what did they do to Zevran and Alistair? I couldn’t look at them. Especially when Alistair turned up as a grey warden with Carver, his voice made my heart flip and stomach lurch, but I had to shut my eyes and remember the REAL man we fell in love with.
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Lack of follow ups:
end of companion quest, end of talking about it. Why?
would Merrill still have that mirror? at least you could make some conversation around it.
Why hasn't Fenris cleaned up? Even when romanced you can’t ask him why there's the same dead body in his entrance hall after 6 years! Imagine the stench
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Romance
fall in love, get to the nookie then you never even kiss again, unlike in DAO where you could kiss anywhere at any time, with a giggle from your team, sometimes with a comment ... ahhh Alistair
the lack of any chats or cuddles in your house.
the unreality of Hawke not discussing why the ingredients for explosives would separate Anders from Justice, and why we didn't see the ceremony; why he wasn't suspicious of Anders being smuggled in to the chantry (my man would worm it put of me). Then post explosion, why no discussion along the lines of: I hope that was Justice and not you Anders? I approve of what you're trying to do and back you to the hilt, but that I cannot approve of.
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it's always the same line when you talk to them in their domain - for first year Merrill had an untidy house whenever someone came round, second period she'd still not done anything about the hole in the roof.
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Love the use of mostly British actors, makes me feel Thedas is a home from home. nicer than having the US accent as default.
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why did the Qunari have to look so different? it's a Klingon moment
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shades, rage daemons etc appear for no apparent reason
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why couldn't we go to see Bethany?
what happened to Gamlen's daughter?
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lack of time passing, could have least had some cut scenes of Hawke living a "normal" life during the three year gaps as he settled in. no sign of aging
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Why do all the mages go berserk? anything goes wrong and they either do blood magic or morph into abominations, tad weird as we're trying to point out these are people who aren't bad.
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Where are the cats? I wanted to get Anders one as a wedding present
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why did all that evil stuff appear in the Templers keep at the end? Could see no apparent reason for it.
and how did we get from The Gallows to Lowtown without us moving?
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Liked the abilities section. Although the old one worked just as well
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The choices when we make conversation often don’t relate to the line we click on, we've reloaded a couple of times because “that’s not what that said!”
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What magic keeps Isabella so buoyant?
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the voice acting is bang on (other than changing Anders around)
I'm surprised how good Eve Myles is as Merrill, so different to what she's really like.
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Anders black renegade coat and boots ... very Scottish and very sexy. Thank you!
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the story is brilliant, I love a dystopian ending .. there'd better bloody well be a DA3 that sorts this out and gives everyone freedom!
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Idea for other games: homes with bathrooms, gardens etc; markets selling food, not just supplies for adventurers, buying and eating an apple as you wander around town wouldn't go amiss. Meeting old friends who look as they should, and with their real voices.
Please don’t make us hunt Anders or kill Alistair in a follow up. Although I know the games masters are evil and will want to break our hearts, just because they can.
keep the whatever the addictive magic is, something all Bioware games have
the romances are better done than any chick lit (though not reading it I shouldn't comment!), they are believable all consuming passionate love
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