otis0310 wrote...
Personally I think DA2 is a pale imitation of DAO.
If that were true DA2 would have imitated DA:O's absolutely bland and generic basis, the very typical, "Hero saves the world from ____" trope. The reality is that DA2 moved quite far away from DA:O, and for the better if you ask me, its limitations were in being rushed out . . . not in its basic concepts, and never, even once, in being nothing more than an imitation.
As a result I think DAO is better since the developers had the time to do things better and were not rushed. That is not to say it is without flaws however.
They had more time, but many of the flaws remained the same - there were just less of them. Repeated areas are often attributed to DA2, but DA:O even with its far greater development time still had this to a far lesser extent, but still present. This was especially obvious in the random encounters when travelling from one area to the next.
The truth is many of DA2's faults, that people point out, are present in DA:O, just to a lesser extent. If anything that tells me something more about how Bioware develop their games than anything. Mind you, many of the 'supposed' faults in DA2 that were 'not' present in DA:O, that people might bring up to counter what I've just said, I'd argue as to whether they were faults at all.
I started playing a game recently, and I really hate the silent protagonist, it makes my character seem to lack any personality at all. Worse yet, as you said, were the giant hands. I thought I was watching Disney's Wreck It Ralph.
This doesn't actually bother me in DA:O. Things like the game dragging, the basic setting being terribly generic, the world being drained of life and color in an attempt to make it 'realistic' but ignoring the fact that reality is anything but dead, dull and colorless, that the bodies of people were terribly proportioned and suffered from universal giant hands, and Loghain being an absolutely GREAT character, and the Landsmeet being a wonderful set up, that are both wasted on a tired rehashed save the world plot . . . are all examples of things that actually bugged me in DA:O. Also the God child plot is an exact example of the type of storyline I hate in any and every fantasy setting ever.
So the protagonist being silent? I'm fine with that.
Now, one may make the mistake of thinking I dislike DA:O, the truth is I don't dislike it. I love the game's better ideas, in fact, which makes me more frustrated at how the rest drag down those great ideas (DA2 is guilty of this as well though). I LOVED the origins, every single one of the origin stories. I loved playing through each Origin. You know what the problem with the Origins was though? That they all had to lead into the boring main plot. Each origin was an incredible experience for me, each building up to something I was eager to see yet more of, and then . . . suddenly, "Nope. You saw all that? You loved that origin? You want more? DO YOU? WELL GUESS WHAT!? You can't have anymore play this instead." I loved Loghain and the Landsmeet set up. I loved the way you could combine spells, and more. One of the biggest things in DA:O I'll hold over DA2 is how you acquire the specializations, in that you actually 'acquire' the specializations in DA:O where in DA2 you just have them for some reason.
DA:O had plenty to love but so many of those things were tied into things I didn't like. I didn't like the main plot of DA:O. It wasn't even Bioware fault really, aside from choosing the plot, it's that I've seen that plot - sometimes 'nearly' the exact plot - so many times I know it by heart . . . and I'm sick of it.
When I say I like DA2 more, it's not at all suggesting it doesn't have its own flaws, it's simply suggesting that, like DA:O, despite the flaws, there are things I like quite much. In DA2's case it simply has more of those things. Hawke. Female Hawke's voice. The snarky dialogue options. The story that's not all about your character. The stories being things that happen around you, than necessarily specific to you (though there is some of that too). The Mage staff weapons moving away from being simple stat sticks in to full on mage specific weapons. The ability trees (which, while better than DA:O, could still use yet more evolution). The light mage armor. The armor on female character's. The decisions effecting what Isabela does in the second chapter and whether she stays, or not, and what happens to her one way, or another, if she does stay. The Qun, the entire second chapter especially. The second chapter of DA2 was easily the strongest for me. Starting from nothing and earning my way up, coming into my own home (though I thinkt he Home aspect could have benefitted from Mass Effect 3's Citadel DLC, in regard to home activities and decorating your home).
Isabela's example is one of those, "your companions make their own decisions" things I like, and I view her character arc as that 'done right' whereas I point at Anders as an example of, "your companions do their own thing" done wrong, mostly because you can 'see' what Anders does coming miles off, and you're never once given an option to call him out on it and do something about it. I'd have stabbed him long, long ago in the game if it'd given me a chance.
So, yeah, both have good and bad (maybe not even bad, bad is too strong a word in many cases, just things that I 'know' Bioware is capable of better than, because I've seen them do better), I just find more good in DA2 than DA:O.
It's too easy to take my wording as damning though, and I'm not damning either game . . . I like both games in their own right. I love many Bioware games. My critical viewpoint on some aspects of either game isn't ever meant to be a, "OH GOD BIOWARE YOU'RE TERRIBLE WHY DID YOU DO THIS?" because that's not what I'm ever trying to get at. I just know Bioware are capable of doing a lot, and I always want to see them live up to that.
"Why are your hands so freakishly big?"
Yeah.
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