I see a lot of opinions, but not very much in the way of specific information about the differences between the games, so I'll try to provide some.
The Warden was unvoiced, presumably delivered the dialogue lines exactly as written with whatever personality characteristics or tone the player imagined or role-played. Hawke is voiced and the player selects dialogue from a wheel of paraphrases that generally fall into the categories of
diplomatic, snarky, and assertive. The actual line delivered may or may not match the player's expectations in making that choice. In their desire to make it more cinematic, the writers in many cases filled in details, such as the character's motives, in the actual spoken dialogue.
Hawke can develop a predominant tone if the player selects one of the 3 tones repeatedly. The predominant tone exerts some control over what the character will say later in the game, particularly concerning auto-dialogue.
Yes, Hawke has auto-dialogue. There are times in the game where Hawke will speak and act with no input from the player. Because Hawke is fully voiced, Hawke also participates in party banter. (Some of my wardens did, too, but that's a role-playing thing.)
Hawke not only speaks, but also acts and emotes with facial expressions and gestures per the devs' assumptions, interpretations, and programming, which may or may not be compatible with the character that the player thought s/he was playing. The conversation log was removed.
There is no camp or central gathering place for the followers; each has their own home location, which is where Hawke has most of the "major conversations" with them. The Warden could engage followers in conversation anywhere / anytime; Hawke cannot. Hawke has quests assigned that require her to visit followers in their homes to have some conversation.
Non-combat skills (such as coercion, herbology, poison-crafting, survival, etc.) are gone. Potions, poisons, and runes may be ordered from a vendor once Hawke has discovered (or purchased) the required resources and recipes.
Combat was changed immensely; the classes are more distinct and the secondary weapon slot is gone. Warriors can be set up as sword & shield or two-handed; they cannot dual-wield or use bows. Rogues are dual-dagger or archers. One follower has a crossbow you cannot change, and it is the only crossbow available in the game. Followers each have their own unique skill trees, but some skill trees are not available to them. For example, the follower that is a blood mage cannot access any healing skills and the dual-wield rogue follower cannot use a bow. The game essentially pushes you into using each companion in a specific way, which may impact your party composition.
You are also restricted in customizing your followers' armor and appearance. There are "accessories" you can acquire in the game that will provide some upgrades and rune slots for your followers, but any change in their appearance only happen if you romance them (with one exception of a companion whose gear changes appearance regardless). Except for the companion with the crossbow, you can equip your followers with weapons you acquire during gameplay.
The approval meter was replaced with a friendship/rivalry meter. If the meter reaches either end of the spectrum, it will stay there for the remainder of the game. Gaining friendship points (approval) is the equivalent of losing rivalry points, and vice-versa. There are a few specific follower gifts in the game that add friendship points.
Some character designs have changed immensely; in particular Kossiths (Qunari), Elves, and Darkspawn. There are a few cameos of characters present in DAO, but they look very different due to the changes in how characters are rendered. The overall art style is also very different.
There is a higher degree of gameplay / story segregation in DA2. For example, a DAO mage was able to avoid being hunted as an apostate due to being a Grey Warden; whereas a DA2 mage somehow avoids being harrassed by Templars just because.
Storywise, the Warden had a specific goal and project plan; Hawke does not. Hawke's is a "personal" story, and the player is left to create motivations for the character that may be negated by the authored narrative. Hawke does not instigate much activity so much as react to things that are happening around her. Also, the story is a framed narrative told by an unreliable narrator, and takes place over 7 years with major timeskips between acts.
The base game provides 4 romanceable characters (2 men, 2 women) and all of them are available to Hawkes of either gender.
DA2 has (or certainly seems to have) a lot more cutscenes than its predecessor. The triggering of these cutscenes invokes much more control of the pacing and gameplay experience by the devs instead of the player.
Generally speaking, the quests in DA2 are much shorter, as is the game as a whole. Whereas in DAO, an excursion into the deep roads might take several hours, "going deeper than anyone has ever gone before" in DA2 might take 15-30 minutes, and is less taxing for those with more limited attention spans.
The inventory now has a "junk" slot, and anything the character can't use is automatically placed there upon collection. There are some unique and special loot items, but quite a few of them carry generic names and are indistinguishable. The game provides a loot star-rating system which is unreliable, as it will rate two different instances of an item with the exact same stat descriptions with different star ratings and merchant prices.
I think that fairly well covers most of the differences, from a higher-level perspective.
All that said - I'd suggest you look at some youtubes to get a sense of how different it feels.
In all likelihood, playing DA2 will have a significant impact on your overall impression of the franchise. It certainly did mine.
Modifié par Pasquale1234, 27 août 2012 - 06:28 .
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