77 replies to this topic

[WeeRLegion]

So, eh. Just finished things up. o-o

It's a good game, no questions about that, but for a Bioware title I think it's something of an letdown.

What first struck me was the awful, AWFUL escape from Lothering sequence. Getting thrown in with a bunch of strangers with short lines of stock action-dialogue, and fighting through a bunch of non-notable opponents with zero relevance for the following story... Well. Not very engaging. Hearing Aveline's fiery wovs to protect her man... Well, it was just meh, since they both were complete strangers. o-o
Irenicus' dungeon introduced the bad guy, and DA:O introductions brought in events and characters that were followed up on. DA2 intro... Well, you do get a first hurried glimpse of your family, but beyond that... o-o

It does pick up later on though.

Another thing that I felt could have used more work was the dialogue. There's good lines here and there, but for the most part it's quite unremarkable. Also, being purely an issue of poor writing, occasionally the shortened dialogue wheel options were quite ambiguous and the only way to guess at what they meant was the tone icon. o-o

Then there's the issue of enemies continuously jumping out from everywhere, that makes combat an very AI-tactic focused buttonmash fest, since taking up tactical positions would generally mean retreating through half the map just to be sure no one's going to drop on you. Sorta crappy. xP
The skill trees and general combat action was improved though; they went for an more intense pace, and it does work. the action is more fun to watch, so props for that.

My final complaint concerns the ending. It's very unorthodox, going all 'This is how things began', as opposed to the usual 'And that's how the story concludes'. While interesting, and certainly good for an sequel, it is obviously quite short on closure. xP


One good thing though. I was very happy with the technical works of the game. Though my computer isn't quite up to the recommended specs, it runs perfectly and the load times seem to be shorter than with origins. Very good. x3


So um, in short, I think it could have used maybe 2 more months for polish, to get in some more catchy and humorous dialogue. Also, an brief and peaceful introduction to your family would have been great, before everyone starts getting killed off I mean.


Overall though, I do like it, in fact I think I'll go and start an second playthrough right away.

[Ascension64]

I missed the boat severely between waiting for the game to arrive and finishing up on making Throne of Bhaal a 'better place'... I guess I can chip in a wearying first run-through of DA2.

I seem to have a knack for default options, because I think that BioWare might (or not) offer the most for sticking with the character type displayed on the splash screen (Hawke with a sword), so I went straight for a male warrior. I didn't really expect many characters or references to show up in DA2, since I imported a save from DA:O where the warden died. There were a few small mentions of the Grey Warden dying and Queen Anora, but not much else. Alistair's appearance was so tokenistic, he says a few words, and then next act, he gets up and leaves. However, Flemeth's appearance I thought was the best and stuck out the most.

My first impression of the escape sequence was 'golly, how linear is this?' following a twisting gully with forward and backward as the only options. I liked the open plans of DA:O much more for realism. Trench warfare just wasn't my thing. And then enemies fell out of the skies, in waves, like the game was a gauntlet of a king of the hill! That was disappointing, for the entire game. Plus, it is possible to Taunt a boss monster, run around in circles, and let Varric, Anders, and Merrill do the shooting.

I found the dialogue fairly decent. The voice acting wasn't the best at times, and I'd occasionally want to say something but get Hawke say something completely different. The illusion of choice appears to remain from DA:O in much of the dialogue though, except for plot/quest decisions, so you can be peaceful, theatrical, or angry, and you'll get an appropriate (or not) response, and then the character Hawke is talking to remembers his/her next script line to continue...

I really liked the way that most of the NPCs were in some way tied to the main plot (not sure about Fenris, because I told him to leave after the quest). The way that Isabela's (she ran away with the relic), Ander's, and Varric's 'side stories' were brought back to the central plot was really cool. Each act was like walking up cliffs and falling off them. I didn't fell that it really built up between acts but made you start all over again and work out what the hell happened in the last 3 years???

Bethany's death was rather sudden after I took her down to the Deep Roads, although I have to admit it was better than 'oh Carver hack an ogre and get pounced all of a sudden'. I was really surprised after I refused to give Merrill the Dalish artifact given by the keeper that I still managed to unintentionally romance her. I don't know exactly how negative affect in DA:O worked, but I was expecting Merrill to just leave at some stage, but she rushes into the mansion after she shoos Hawke out of her alienage home twice, says sorry, after a few dialogue options they kiss, and they go into bed. After all that, the rivalry increased. Call that weird... and then after seeing Merrill cry and then destroy the mirror and saying that everything that Hawke said was right and that the Dalish will kill her if they see her, I got another quest to fix the mirror, which was utterly confusing. Known bug, I think.

More gripes: recycled areas are annoying, especially when all the bandits bases look the same, and tweak a few dungeon doors to make one cave work slightly different to another... cheap.

Overall, I found the game tiring mainly because of the pacing and the lack of continuous buildup of suspense between acts. I liked the characters the most and the way many of them were tied to the main plot, which kinda makes everything matter more. It was great fun when approaching the end of each act.

[princesspurpleblob]

I'm trying the Fenris rivalmance... but not really loving it. I'm still planning on dumping him for Anders. I've got Dissent and Bitter Pill quests on deck, Anders at 100% friendship, Fenris at about 90% rivalry, and it should be fun. Just gotta make sure to talk to Fenris first after all quests are done.

I'm almost done with Fenris romance in my 3rd playthrough... not liking it much. I've saved after Fenris dumped my Hawke and got Anders back<3 but I don't see too much difference. He just says if Hawke is sure that she wants Anders. That was about it. Apparently you get interesting dialogues but I've never seen it.

**SPOILER** (from Bioware forums)

Spoiler

I did a test on this. After Fenris walked out, I rebounded with Anders. During random dialog with Isabela, Anders, and Fenris, the convo went like:

Anders: You were an idiot for leaving Hawke.
Fenris: You didn't waste any time taking my place.
Anders: I love her. Something you can't possibly know anything about.
Fenris: You don't know what you're talking about.
Isabela: Oh stop you two. You're like two dogs fighting over a b* in heat.
Fenris: We were talking about Hawke, not you.


I reloaded and did not rebound with Anders after Fenris left. The similar random dialog went like:

Anders: I don't know what she sees in you.
Fenris: It's done.
Anders: Oh that's good. I'm glad she came to her senses.
Fenris: Leaving was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Isabela: Oh stop you two. You're like two dogs fighting over a b* in heat.
Fenris: We were talking about Hawke, not you.

[berelinde]

I'm almost done with Fenris romance in my 3rd playthrough... not liking it much.

Yeah, I've read a lot of gushing about the Fenris romance, but it left me feeling a bit flat. Maybe if I'd stuck around until the apology in Act 3, it would have helped, but I never managed to feel anything for him.

It's surprising, really. I generally like David Gaider's characters best, Alistair, Zevran, Shale, Morrigan, Anders in Awakenings, Nathaniel, but I never really formed any kind of emotional attachment to Fenris. DG himself once said that if he wouldn't write a fanservice character because the character would wind up shallow and lackluster. Maybe he made an exception with Fenris and got what he expected? Yet there are forums full of people that make the opposite point, the Fenris is the most compelling of the cast. Go fig.

[Kulyok]

Folks, will you please advise me how to uninstall The Exiled Prince DLC? Sebastian really ruins my day with that Chantry scene(and his friendship "ability", too), and I just don't want to see him. My first playthrough without any DLCs was way better than with him. But while in DA:O switching off DLCs is easy, in DA2 I just don't know what to do.

[Kwiat_W]

It's possible to disable installed module by editing its manifest.xml file, but you would have to start a new game. Old saves will refuse to load, even if you haven't met Sebastian in game yet.

Edited by Kwiat_W, 01 April 2011 - 12:49 AM.

[Kulyok]

Thank you! Yes, starting a new game is my intent. But what exactly do I have to edit in manifest.xml(because I've no idea, honestly)?

[Kwiat_W]

In the file "Dragon Age 2\addins\da2_prc_seb\manifest.xml" change Enabled="1" to "0". Just to be sure you can also change RequiresAuthorization="0" to "1". Make a backup copy first, just in case.

[Kulyok]

Finally got to try it, and it worked perfectly! No Sebastian. Yay! Thank you!

[Archmage Silver]

Well, I finished the game on Nightmare. I didn't like how it was handled though, as I would have preferred smarter enemies instead of the I'm-dum-so-I'm-just-gonna-auto-attack-while-you-kill-me type with a huge hp/armor boost. The final battle with Meredith was a joke, I beat it on the first try with Hawke, Merrill, Varric, and Aveline.

While the game was somewhat better than the demo let on (I really hated it back then, as per my post), I still felt like it was an ARPG-lite for consoles. The only improvements over Origins were graphical, and the overall performance of the game. It was heavily simplified and repetitive in comparison to Origins, even if some people choose to think of it as "awesome convenience tweaks to save time". If this is BioWare's new bag of tricks, then they're spiraling towards the Void.

I sided with mages in the end, as I couldn't stand for Meredith killing them all. Plus I wanted to hear Orsino admit that he was the "O" in Quentin's letters... and then kill him. I romanced Merrill, and my three favorite characters were Aveline, Varric, and Merrill, in that order. (Where is my Aveline romance, BioWare?) I told Fenris to get lost, Bethany died at the beginning, Carver left for the templars, Isabela ran off with the relic... and Anders had to die. Sebastian sticked around for the end game.

I would rate Dragon Age II as a whole 7/10 for "OK".

[Vicen]

Finally I can look and view this topic now that I have beaten the game twice...once with mages...once with templars!

Anyways for the first game I beated it with a Male Hawke Warrior...I romanced Merril and quite enjoyed...she certainly is the definition for cute! I also used Anders a lot...Bethany went to the circle and I choose just about every time the "Nice" option for most convo's...I enjoyed the game quite a bit...but I will admit the reuse of every warehouse and cave being pretty much the same got old quick...

Did not kill Anders at the end kept him with me...Isabella left with the relic since I did not use her at all in my first play through and of course Sab leaves if you dont kill Anders...

For my Male Hawke Rogue(Choose the Charming options all the time)...I went with Isabella this time for a romance...eventually I let Anders go at the end and that rat bastard comes back and tries to kill me in the gallows! Isabella romance was decent but...they need to have more then 2 chicks romance wise...Avaeline(spelled it wrong I am sure but you know who I mean ) does not count!

Ah well...a good game IMO...I would give a 8.5 out of 10...would of been higher if they did not reuse so many places as different places...and that you could outfit your companions like you could in origins...rather then their set gear you see them in the whole game(unless you upgrade or do all their quests)

Oh and like WeeRLegion said earlier I would of love to at least seen a scene before them being thrusted to run from Ostagar(Well Hawke and Carver that is to make it to Lothering to save mama and sister!) and on the path that they start with at the beginning of the game...Would of nice to of seen them in lothering or at least running from Ostagar to Lothering and meeting up with mother and sister...Ah well whatever...

Off to play a female mage now who is a total !@#$ to everyone! Oh its going to be a joyful day to be a prick to Anders...(I had max friendship with him in my first 2 games) Though it pains me to get rivalry with Merril...Gotta do it at least one game though!

Edited by Vicen, 10 April 2011 - 12:20 AM.

[Crazee]

I just finished the game last night, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it as an overall experience. I think people are too quick to look at the changes made and run around throwing baseless accusations at Bioware. I'd like to think that if people took a step back and viewed the game as an entirely separate entity, they wouldn't find it so bad. I mean, some of the comments you see over at BSN are just ridiculous.

The game was not perfect. My two main gripes would be the the re-used areas, and the lack of life in Kirkwall. I think the plot actually worked out really nicely, but I certainly understand when people complain about a lack of direction between the time skips. Hawke doesn't really have an over-riding objective in Kirkwall, apart from living, but I thought it was a nice change of pace.

There were many elements I like. One of the biggest of these likes was the way side-quests were handled. Many (I'd even go so far as to say most, even) had twists and turns, and a real story driving them forwards. I wanted to do these quests to see what happened, not just get more XP, and I was surprised to find myself caring for characters outside my immediate party. In a way, it reminded me of BGII, and the sprawling chapter 2 quests, which were little tales in their own right. DA2 side-quests were certainly an improvement over DA:O, even if I did sometimes get confused between all the many winding plots that spanned multiple years.

Also, I thought the friendships between the party members were a stroke of genius, and really, really added something to the game. Bioware has never done this quite as well as I would have liked, but they really nailed it this time around. I only wish someone would make a mod for the BG series with something similar, where NPCs not in your party live out their lives instead of just waiting for you to show up., maybe even interacting with each other. (Resisting the urge to start writing for this mod, as we speak..)

For all the atmosphere lacking in the city, I felt that the new cinematic style really helped improve it in dialogue sequences. There were a few really powerful moments that pulled at the heart-strings. I don't think these would have been possible in DA:O. There was one moment in the game where I felt such an overwhelming connection with Hawke, that I had to stop and think, "Wow, I'm really enjoying this." Specifically,

Spoiler

after Carver had joined the Grey Wardens, Hawke's mother had died, and Bodahn announced that he would be leaving soon. Hawke had no-one left, and his house was empty (save for sad little mouse-like Orana and Anders, who spent most of his time obsessing over the mage cause)

. There was something about the whole melancholy of it all that just.. worked.

M!Hawke romanced Anders this time around, and I guess it worked, but I never really connected with the relationship. I guess there just wasn't enough of a build up. A bit of flirting from Hawke (to which Anders mostly ignores and continues talking about mages), and then he announces that he's been aching for Hawke for 3 years. Calm down, buddy! Felt more could have happened before that.

Probably have much more to say, but I can't think of it now. I didn't like the voiced Hawke or dialogue wheel when they were announced, but now I'm just a little 'meh' about them. I thought the combat was a lot more exciting, but I don't really mind about it either way. So.. yeah. Good game. I'm already planning my next run-through (Isabela romance, siding with templars, bitchy female warrior).

[Galsic]

(Where is my Aveline romance, BioWare?)

I, too, see the appeal of Aveline as a romantic interest, but I prefer the idea that my Hawke is, by most respects, a normal person who can't charm the pants/panties off everyone he/she gets to know. I was actually glad Aveline looked elsewhere for love, and I was even happy to help her get her man (she was so helpless on her own ). I feel Aveline's a good reminder that Hawke's not the center of the universe.

I finished my first game a while back, too, and shall refrain from starting another game until the impending official patch is released. I liked most of the changes. I'm even used to the lack of tactical view. Gotta admit, battles in DA2 look more impressive with the available views. I think hard is a good difficulty setting for me. Given the faster pace of battle and the multiple waves from everywhere, I'm not sure I could manage friendly fire very well (not that the multi-wave feature was necessarily a good idea, but still).

You know what's one thing that bugs me, though? Where the heck are the Qunari ladies? Not a serious peeve, mind you, but still. They tease us with cool concept art, but do I see any in-game? Bad, BioWare, bad. Someone elsewhere pointed out that the codex mentions them never leaving the Qunari homeland, but if that's the case, then it at least explains the rarity of ogres. More than that, though, it just sounds like yet another excuse to avoid making extra models, and we all know how BioWare likes to do that (ME).

I'm also not sure how I feel about the way Anders steals the show toward the end. On the one hand, it's yet another reminder that my companions' lives don't revolve around Hawke, but, seeing as you don't necessarily have a hand in the set-up of such a pivotal event, it also makes Hawke seem less relevant to what happens afterward.

There were other little things that bothered me, some of which have already been mentioned (reused area maps, unappealingly ugly hurlocks, MIA genlocks and shrieks, relatively unchanging Kirkwall), but, given all of DAII's strong points, none of these significantly took away from my enjoyment of the game. For better or worse, BioWare tried to do something other than Dragon Age: Origins II, and, if you ask me, that's one move I really appreciate.

[Crazee]

(Where is my Aveline romance, BioWare?)

You know what's one thing that bugs me, though? Where the heck are the Qunari ladies? Not a serious peeve, mind you, but still. They tease us with cool concept art, but do I see any in-game? Bad, BioWare, bad. Someone elsewhere pointed out that the codex mentions them never leaving the Qunari homeland, but if that's the case, then it at least explains the rarity of ogres. More than that, though, it just sounds like yet another excuse to avoid making extra models, and we all know how BioWare likes to do that (ME).

And the female dwarves! Really, Bioware? I don't think I saw a single one. And I bloody love the female dwarves!!

[Galsic]

And the female dwarves! Really, Bioware? I don't think I saw a single one. And I bloody love the female dwarves!!

Ah, yeah, forgot about the lady dwarves. And seems to me BioWare didn't even bother explaining their absence, just like with the genlocks and shrieks :/ .

[Vicen]

And the female dwarves! Really, Bioware? I don't think I saw a single one. And I bloody love the female dwarves!!

Ah, yeah, forgot about the lady dwarves. And seems to me BioWare didn't even bother explaining their absence, just like with the genlocks and shrieks :/ .

The same thing sorta happend in ME2...In ME1 you speak to a decent amount of Hanar...yet in ME2 you speak to none in the whole game...What is with Bioware and not give particular races any face time in their second titles of games? I cannot believe you do not encounter even ONE female dwarf in all of Kirkwall...and you do not fight any genlocks or shrieks...Genlocks are unacceptable...there should of been some at least in the beginning of the game when you are departing from Lothering...and of course when you go to the Deep Roads...you would be bound to find a decent amount too...

In a some what related twist...the genlocks in the facebook game "Dragon Age Legends" The genlocks almost look like gorillas...I certainly hope they do not get that look in DA:2 if they are in any DLC or the future expansion...

Here is a picture of them in the facebook game incase anyone has not seen or cares

Edited by Vicen, 10 April 2011 - 06:45 PM.

[Archmage Silver]

(Where is my Aveline romance, BioWare?)

I, too, see the appeal of Aveline as a romantic interest, but I prefer the idea that my Hawke is, by most respects, a normal person who can't charm the pants/panties off everyone he/she gets to know. I was actually glad Aveline looked elsewhere for love, and I was even happy to help her get her man (she was so helpless on her own ). I feel Aveline's a good reminder that Hawke's not the center of the universe.

I finished my first game a while back, too, and shall refrain from starting another game until the impending official patch is released. I liked most of the changes. I'm even used to the lack of tactical view. Gotta admit, battles in DA2 look more impressive with the available views. I think hard is a good difficulty setting for me. Given the faster pace of battle and the multiple waves from everywhere, I'm not sure I could manage friendly fire very well (not that the multi-wave feature was necessarily a good idea, but still).

Yeah, I liked Aveline's courting quest as well, it was one of the actually funny ones (not to mention what she said prior to the quest related to her dowry). I would have liked a romance track for her though, but I guess they thought it would just be Jaheira vol.2, although I think her romance is the best written one in the BG series. They probably wanted to cut costs and development time as well... at least the amount of recycled areas was ridiculous.

I'll hold off from another playthrough until I've finished my current Origins game, as I want to have two separate stories going through the series. This one was Male Human Mage Warden Import --> Male Mage Hawke, and the next one will be Male Dwarf Rogue Warden Import --> Male Rogue Hawke. I want some patches for DA II for sure as well, as I had to grab some unofficial fixes along this playthrough.

Personally I also missed the top-down camera, as it would have been useful in Nightmare mode, although not necessary. I just hate it when you group characters next to a wall but can't zoom out to isometric view.

In a some what related twist...the genlocks in the facebook game "Dragon Age Legends" The genlocks almost look like gorillas...I certainly hope they do not get that look in DA:2 if they are in any DLC or the future expansion...

Here is a picture of them in the facebook game incase anyone has not seen or cares

A Dragon Age II expansion pack: Ape Age™. Play in arcade awesome mode and face the fearsome Donkey Kong genlocks! Now with added RPG features, such as customize your trousers - you can get either red or blue! Future DLC will include a third color! By BioWare, a division of Electronic Asshats.

[Kulyok]

Finished Dragon Age 2 with the latest patch. (I suddenly found out that playing "main quests only" route, without doing minor quests, recruiting any NPC in sight and checking every crate, seemed to be much more exciting). Good news: casual difficulty seems to be easier - my party got slaughtered before, but not any longer. Also, Nathaniel now correctly says that Architect is dead, although Aveline still says "King" in her "I've been dead for seven years" conversation, not Queen(about returning to Ferelden), and she definitely wasn't referring to Cailan. All in all, it's good to see the patch - looking forward to the NPCs.