Dragon Age II

[DeadPoolX]

I was merely emphasizing my point.

[Tawmis]

I am finding the quests to be pretty easy. Nowhere near as complicated as Dragon Age: Origins. But I am also finding the quests, thus far, to be pretty lack luster. And because the fights are so easy - I don't even really get to see what my enemy looks like before he splatted into blood.

What difficulty level you're playing at? I've heard that Normal is the old Casual and that if you want more of a challenge you should play at Hard or Nightmare. I, for once, am going to play at Hard : )

Sigh. Why would they do that? I am playing on Normal.

Anyway, about the game... I'm not sure I'm liking it very much.

So I wasn't alone in my spoiling rant?

I've met Anders, Fenris, Merrill, Aveline, Varric, Isabela and of course I've Carver with me. Well, amongst them, I like Anders very much, Merrill is sweet, Varric is fun, and the rest... just meh.

Wow! You have gotten farther than me... I have not yet met Anders, Fenris or Isabella...

The dialogue wheel. I'm simply hating it. Sometimes Hawke responses are highly different from the paraphrasis shown by the writers, with the result that sometimes he says something that really makes me cringe. And the flirt lines... Oh gods, they are simply awful. You don't believe me? Try the first flirting possibility with Anders. It makes me want to cry, since it seems taken straight from a Twilight novel.

I can't help but feel that they're trying to snag some market here... Because teenagers may be playing DA2, they're dropping the dialogue down to a level they'd understand and cling to more (like Twilight). I have not found anyone to do any flirting with...

BUT... I did go to the whore house (I know, I am such a classy guy! - No, really one of the quests takes you there)... and wanted to see what they'd do. So I did the 50 silver one, and it was nothing - a quick zip of the clothes. I thought, "Okay, that's because it was cheap." So I did the 2 gold one - and same thing. At least in Origins they showed the woman in her undies and bra - this was nothing! And when I did the 2 gold and picked Serendipity - because it looked like a female dalish elf - it turned out to be a male!

The story. What story? In the first act there is simply no story to speak of. I'm sure things will change later on, but having to do gazillions of side-quests just to build up some money seems to me like a very feeble attempt to a plot. And many of these quests are so easy, so straight-forward that there's almost no fun in them, also because they're simply filled with... uh... filler combat.

Filler combat? Yeah, right. Just walking around the city can spawn groups of ten-fifteen bandits that pop up out of nowhere and, even at Hard, the combat is incredibly simple. After three hours of playing I only found one challenging combat, against a Rage Demon, but that was easily surpassed with just a bit of strategy. Moreover, the lack of a tactical camera makes combat feel clunky, at least for me. Sometimes I can't see where the enemies are coming from, sometimes I can't target them properly and sometimes they sneak behind me without any opportunity to spot them.

Not found the Rage Demon yet - but I assume that's because I haven't found Anders yet. Sounds like something Anders would be involved with. But so I wasn't far off about the combat either, in my rant. Even if you're playing on hard, you're saying it's easy.

The inventory. How lame is it that many objects, even thos bearing special magical abilities, are simply labelled "Ring," "Belt," "Gloves" and so on? Where are the fanciful names of DA:O and the interesting descriptions that accompanied each and every one of them?

Ah yes, another good point.

[Tawmis]

I was merely emphasizing my point.

Yeah but you started with:

"You're not listening. "

Which I don't think was the case...

[DeadPoolX]

I was merely emphasizing my point.

Yeah but you started with:

"You're not listening. "

Which I don't think was the case...

It didn't seem like you were. Perhaps I was mistaken. That does happen once every century or so.

[AndreaDraco]

Here's the flirt line I was reffering to. It's not exactly in these words, but very close. It's not spoiler-y, but I'll put it under Spoiler Tags nonetheless.

Anders: (paraphrase) I have a spirit/demon inside me
Hawke: That explains the dark sexy look.

And before you wonder, the above is the only line that can possibly lead to a romance.

I mean... Really? REALLY?

[AndreaDraco]

OK, turns out many quests are not as luckluster as I said they were.

Sure, many of them seem fetch quests taken straight of a bad adventure game but some others are huge, full of challenging combat and filled with testing choices. These are very rewarding.

Tawmis, since you're playing the game and you had my same concerns...

Do the "Wayward Son" quest. It's really, really good. And if you have Anders in your party, all the better.

[Tawmis]

OK, turns out many quests are not as luckluster as I said they were.

Sure, many of them seem fetch quests taken straight of a bad adventure game but some others are huge, full of challenging combat and filled with testing choices. These are very rewarding.

Tawmis, since you're playing the game and you had my same concerns...

Do the "Wayward Son" quest. It's really, really good. And if you have Anders in your party, all the better.

Need to find Anders first. (Don't tell me where he is yet!) Going to probably play it when I get home tonight. But unlike when I played Origins, I couldn't WAIT to get home to play it. Thus far, it's been a bit too slow for me. Like you said, it's like a generic adventure game. It's almost like an MMO, "Go find this and bring it to me." Go kill 10 baddies, bring item back. "Excellent, we got news there's more baddies and they took item_b." Go kill baddies, bring back item_b. There's no sense of story so far. And thus far, NPC interaction has been horrible. I think this game severely misses the idea of the Camp from Origins.

[AndreaDraco]

When you do more meaty quests, so to speak, the companions start to be more vocal about your choices. They intervene in the dialogues and you get a chance to know them better. And these meaty quests are... well, they are good and compelling. Still, I miss the Party Camp too. I've exhausted - I think - my conversations with Anders, Carver, Varric and Fenris and now, if I speak to them in their "houses" I only get generic responses and yes, this is a bit of a letdown. However, slowly, the game is getting better...

However, tomorrow night, where I'll be able to proper unlock the European version of the game, I think I'll start over with another mage. I made some very wrong choices of spells - one in particular is haunting me through every battle - and, since I'm not too far in Act 1, it won't be an hassle to start over. I might even make some different choices, since certain conversations played out rather differently than what I had envisioned.

On another note, I had a chance to test the first Mage specialization, Force Mage, which is very similar to ME biotic powers. I like it however, even if I miss Battlemage, which was, by far, the best of the original Mage specs.

[Maiandra]

I find it ironic that you would say that about it not being "your" character. You seemed to have the opposite viewpoint about importation from Origins to Awakening and said it did matter that it wasn't importing your choices, even if you weren't using your Origins character.

Well, with Awakenings, it's YOUR character from Origins being imported over. So when I made the Ultimate Sacrifice with my Warrior in Origins, and suddenly "He Got Better" (as they say in Monty Python) - that was a bit of a disappointment. (Would have been better to have some ceremony and begin a new character). [snip]

With DAII, it's not your character from Origins. Granted, yes, I am bummed that certain choices are apparently not working/importing properly - but in the end, it's not a game breaker for me, since I will be playing a new character - so it's not like my old character is importing, or any of his armor, inventory, etc). And since it's a new character, it's not like this character's personality will have any effect with the previous relationships you had with the NPCs you traveled around with. So, despite that - I am bummed - but not disappointed. It's not a game breaker for me. Now if Dragon Age II was importing your character from Origins/Awakenings, I'd probably be a little more upset - because then it's going to impact my relationships with these characters, and the choices this character made along the way.

New character, new day, really, is how I see it.

But that's why I find it ironic, because in the other thread I asked you why you didn't just start DA:A without importing (so that you wouldn't be playing a "dead" character) and use the new default character that was supposed to be a Grey Warden from Orlais. You said that it was important to you to import the choices you'd made in DA:O.

Which is pretty much the opposite of what you're saying here, since in both cases you'd be starting with a fresh character. If the small details didn't matter to you, then for the sake of your character continuity, I would have thought picking the Orlais Grey Warden would have made more sense.

If they weren't mentioning previous events from DA1 in DA2, I wouldn't care about importing, but having them refer to a male Grey Warden, having Alistair being king, or not having Anders story match my ending would be disconcerting to me. I would rather they had just not bothered making detailed references to the first game at all, since the story of DA2 is mostly unrelated anyway.

Regarding the apparent issues with DA2, I'd rather just wait until they're resolved, especially if it will affect continuity. In DAO, the ending dialogue with Alistair wasn't recognizing the choices I'd made and it was very annoying (until I used a dialogue fix mod). So I'd prefer to wait to play the game than get frustrated during play once I'm already in it.

Did you guys already purchase it? Would you consider running through it with a brand new character, until those bugs are fixed? Or just going to hold out for the import to be fixed (if ever?)

I'm going to wait and see what happens for now. We have bought it already, but we haven't opened or installed it yet.

I'd like to see if at least the continuity issues from DA2 itself are fixed, otherwise there's not much point in playing. I would like the import continuity issues to be fixed as well, but that wouldn't stop my from playing it permanently. Like DPX, I don't often replay games, so I'm not going to start up a character just yet.

I wish they'd just prolong the release date and do it right, instead of releasing a buggy game. BioWare's problem is that they commit to a specific release date too soon.

Better than Blizzard and "Whenever Diablo III is done is the due date."

I'm with DPX on this one. I'd prefer they just take the time to do it right than get people all excited and then disappoint them just to meet a deadline.

[Tawmis]

But that's why I find it ironic, because in the other thread I asked you why you didn't just start DA:A without importing (so that you wouldn't be playing a "dead" character) and use the new default character that was supposed to be a Grey Warden from Orlais. You said that it was important to you to import the choices you'd made in DA:O.

Which is pretty much the opposite of what you're saying here, since in both cases you'd be starting with a fresh character. If the small details didn't matter to you, then for the sake of your character continuity, I would have thought picking the Orlais Grey Warden would have made more sense.

If they weren't mentioning previous events from DA1 in DA2, I wouldn't care about importing, but having them refer to a male Grey Warden, having Alistair being king, or not having Anders story match my ending would be disconcerting to me. I would rather they had just not bothered making detailed references to the first game at all, since the story of DA2 is mostly unrelated anyway.

Like I said before, I completely understand why you (and DPX and everyone else could be upset about the import). But for me, DA:O -> Awakenings is different than DA:O/A -> DAII. Because DA:A was directly following your character's choices. DAII, doesn't follow your character directly. I just wish Awakenings would have imported my choice of Final Sacrifice. Everything else, wasn't too important. What bugged me about the DA:O -> DA:A is suddenly, despite my ending (choosing to sacrifice myself) was thrown out the window. To me that's a BIG thing to throw out the window. What I did with Loghain, Alistair (is he king or not?), all of those seemed trivial compared to making the ultimate sacrifice. So despite that choice, which I think is a big one, DA:A slaps you in the face and says, "Yeah, you ALMOST died, that's what happened there."

It's that single event that really bugged me about Awakenings. Everything else, who was king, queen, what I did elsewhere - not as much of a big deal.

But that's - me. That's what irked me. For others, they might feel every choice they made is VERY important - and they have the right to think that! I am not arguing that! (I don't think I was every arguing anyone's opinion of whether or not to be mad! I was certainly trying to be as clear as possible that I was speaking for my own preference).

[Maiandra]

It's that single event that really bugged me about Awakenings. Everything else, who was king, queen, what I did elsewhere - not as much of a big deal.

But that's - me. That's what irked me. For others, they might feel every choice they made is VERY important - and they have the right to think that! I am not arguing that! (I don't think I was every arguing anyone's opinion of whether or not to be mad! I was certainly trying to be as clear as possible that I was speaking for my own preference).

That wasn't the impression I got from your post in the other thread, but maybe it just seemed like it was more important to you there than it really was.

Anyway, I was just commenting on the seeming discrepancy, because that's what I do. (All. day. long. Every. day. and nooneeverlistens!! GAH! Sorry, I'm better now. Work issues.) I'm certainly not trying to tell you that you didn't know what you meant, since that would just be silly.

For myself, I just want the game to work how it's supposed to work. The smaller details aren't a huge deal to me, but I'm not so eager to play that I can't hold off for a while to wait for them to be fixed. If it takes too long, then I will probably just go ahead anyway.

[Tawmis]

Anyway, I was just commenting on the seeming discrepancy, because that's what I do. (All. day. long. Every. day. and nooneeverlistens!! GAH! Sorry, I'm better now. Work issues.) I'm certainly not trying to tell you that you didn't know what you meant, since that would just be silly.

Who knows, you may be right. Maybe at the time of Awakenings it was bugging me - but at the moment, all I recall is that the Final Sacrifice is completely disregarded. That still bugs me even now.

For myself, I just want the game to work how it's supposed to work. The smaller details aren't a huge deal to me, but I'm not so eager to play that I can't hold off for a while to wait for them to be fixed. If it takes too long, then I will probably just go ahead anyway.

Don't set your expectations as high as Dragon Age Origins. I will just say that.

[DeadPoolX]

Don't set your expectations as high as Dragon Age Origins. I will just say that.

I think the overall let down probably has to do with how BioWare "built up" the excitement around DA2. Whenever that happens, the fans are almost always disappointed to some degree.

And... on that note:

[AndreaDraco]

In hindsight, he was spot on.

However, if it may help, the more I progress through the game, the more I like it. Not quite as much as Origins, true, but still I like it now more than before.

[Tawmis]

David is one of the main (if not THE main) writer of Dragon Age. To me, what he presented there was something that George Lucas would have presented after Episodes I, II and III.

I can't help but wonder if David was/is a fan of Star Wars, and what his initial reaction to Episode I was. And if he has moved on to "Accept" it as well if he was a die hard Star Wars fan.