Well, that giant rock wraith just kicked my ass. Killed the whole party before I got it even to half health.

3/10/2011 11:11:16 PM

I'm playing it on Hard and it's more like Origins than I originally anticipated. Playing the demo first may have tainted my viewpoint a little. Some of the changes are actually enhancements of the original and make the combat much better. I'm really enjoying it so far. I still think it's complete bullshit that we don't have free range to equipping gear to any character like in Origins, but somehow the storyline is making me forget about that. I have joined the dark side, it's pretty fun.

[Edited on March 11, 2011 at 8:11 AM. Reason : -]

3/11/2011 8:08:03 AM

Welcome my friends....there are RPGs beyond Baldur's Gate and DAO

3/11/2011 12:22:01 PM

perhaps i don't have the most discerning of palettes when it comes to RPGs, but I loved the shit out of DA:O, and I'm loving the shit out of DA2

still just taking care of all the sidequests and shit before the deep roads expedition. Only about 6 hours in, so maybe it starts to suck.

3/11/2011 2:42:06 PM

I guess I just need to bump the level up then, cause it was boring as shit on normal... I killed a Revenant at level 4 before it could even hit me once and they were some of the hardest creatures in DAO no matter what level you were

3/11/2011 2:47:14 PM

just beat my first playthrough. it's definitely well made, but i also feel somewhat cheated because i think it should've been better. they improved the overall mechanics from DA:O but every other aspect falls pretty far short. it felt like a big expansion pack set in a different city. and story wise it leaves nothing but questions.


if it wasn't made by bioware, and i didn't like DA:O so much, i probably would be saying this game was A++.

3/11/2011 7:04:01 PM

Yeah I'm still only 8 hours in, and while I am enjoying the hell out of it, it might be because I'm just a whore for wizards and faggots. I think the presentation is certainly better than DA:O, and I've upped the difficulty and it's more fun in combat now, but it does feel like a game that is catering towards the casual gamer a bit more than the first.

That being said, it is pretty damn good considering it's been a year since the first game released. The improvements in graphics, UI, and overall presentation are awesome, so maybe just because they had to crunch time they lost a bit of overall content. Perhaps with another year it could have been the title people were expecting.

It's still pretty awesome though, and one of the better games I've played in a while. I'll definitely overpay to get an expansion pack like Awakenings if they offer it, so far Hawke is a badass.


[Edited on March 11, 2011 at 7:33 PM. Reason : .]

3/11/2011 7:30:56 PM

Playing through this game was a mixed experience. I really loved the first act through the deeproads. In the first act there are several in-city locations to explore as well as interiors. There are also about 4 medium sized areas in the region around Kirkwald. That seemed decently varried for the first 1/3rd to half of the game and although I felt sometimes pidgeonholed into certain decisions it was well written and well acted.

Then in the 2nd act I started to get a little annnoyed that there were no new areas whatsoever. While there were more dungeons with different enemies in them and the NPCs and quests that popualted the existing areas had changed somewhat -all the areas were the same. Now this wasn't so annoying for the city and exterior hubs (like the Docks area or the Darktown area for instance) but I realized by this point that there were about 8 total interior maps.

That means that all dungeons, mansions, warehouses, etc. were the same couple of maps but they threw in different monsters and blocked off different paths. All caves are from either the same exact large cave/mine map or the same small cave/mine map. This is true even for many crucial main plot encounters. Have go go into a mansion to kill some crazy people? Well its the same mansion that houses a slaver mage and the same mansion that serves as a gang hideout and the same mansion where the family of an apostate mage lives and the same mansion where a suspected serial killer may or may not live, etc. There's also one warehouse you will go to about 20 times throughout the course of the game. Now when I see the composer (Zur) say in an interview that the game was a rush job I know what he means.

There will also be times where - without needing any outside knowledge - you will know something's a trap or that someone is lying. Unfortunately your character will almost never be as perceptive. There will be times where you will be standing 3 feet from an NPC holding someone hostage or about to do something stupid and find yourself wondering why you stand there and watch them slowly do whatever stupid thing you can't imagine why you wouldn't try to stop them from doing. In particular there was one encounter where I found myself waiting right next to someone who I just finished telling I would protect when the person I knew intended to murder them came for them. Apparently the game decided I should stand there silently while the person my character aknowledged in dialogue would do them harm slowly walked across from the other side of the courtyard. I then guess the game decided I would stand idly by, again right next the the potential victim, while they slowly waddled over to their would-be murderer. Then it made me stand quietly while the cutscene proceded with a couple lines of dialogue between the two and the not-unexpected murder of the person I swore to protect. Then my character finally decided to speak up - saying only "not again."

My thoughts exactly - unfortunately this sort of forced idiocy on the part of my character only gets worse as the game goes on. There are other points where you will find yourself going to meet with allies who, after lengthy monologues on their part and no attempt to correct them on yours, describe the flimsy reasson why they think you're not an ally and are going to attack you just as soon as they finish talking.

There will also be times when you'll find yourself saying "ok I know this chracter will betray me - it's obvious and my chracter just said it out loud in the game." Sometimes this betrayal or, sometimes more accurately "action you greatly dissaprove of and see coming" will be something that will happen 20 minutes later. You know they'll do it but your options are to tell them not to, have them say they'll do it anyways, and say "aww shucks, you win" or to close the game. This will be immutable whether or not you have maxed out friendship or rivalry for that character. There are times when you can sway people from one course to another but they are few and far between.

The game also likes to let you make a decision and immediately follow up with narration from the dwarf (I do like the character though) talking about how little did you know that it would be the greatest mistake of your life. Sometimes bioware's penchant for constant feedback on your actions gets a little bothersome - particularly when iit turns out that the actual alternatives tend to be fairly samish in the way they effect the game. I'm starting to kind of wish they didn't use a meter for approval/influence/etc. anymore. Its not so much a problem when players use it as a crutch to second guess their actions - but it's becoming a crutch the game writers are using so they don't have to actually demonstrate the effects of your speach and actions.

In good story telling you don't say "Isabela didn't like it when Hawke said that." You say something like "Isabela's unconciously clenched her fist more and more tightly as hawke spoke. While her face displayed a practiced and unmoving smile, her arm began to shake and her nuckles grew white as Hawke continued to speak." I mean I'm a god awful writer, but you get the idea. You want to tell the player the character hated what they said - well now that you've got such decent character and facial animations put in subtle and not-so-sutble proof of their reactions. The reaction scale and notices didn't bother me so much in the past but they can come across as downright incongruous with the character actions, voice acting, and dialogue in the scenes they punctuate.

Anyways I'm going to stop ranting before people think I hated the game. I enjoyed it - but I was increasingly annoyed with the story and dialogue and railroading experienced in the 2nd and 3rd acts. I also kind of wish that since they seem to have been partly inspired by their mass effect way of doing things that we had the mass-effect style interupts. Trust me - you will find yourself saying "no... I'm right next to him and he's walking past me to attacker while giving a big long monologue. I stab him in the face. Umm... I guess I stand there like a moron and looked confused. Oh god is my character going to start saying 'Enchantment!""

Liked:
-Improved Graphics
- I liked most of the characters and even the ones I didn't like had some great lines
- Good start and interetsing concept
- Combat can be pretty fun and challenging
-Pretty good coice acting for most of the characters
-

Disliked:
- Lack of options to do the seemingly obvious smart thing
- Standing still like a confused child while something you sword to stop or should be able to stop happens 5 feet away from your character and not-too-quickly
- Lack of actual difference in the outcome of major plot elements based on your decisions. Some of them I can understand, but others are related to the "lack of the obvious choice" problem
-Lazy lack of different interior/dungeon spaces. I understand the hub areas (city and wilderness) being the same throughout each act. That's sort of the point. But really, make more than one cave/mine. Except for the 1/2 room caves there really is only one cave/mine map. There's also 1 dungeony map too but it's just a big rectangle and is also used 5 times.
-You can see plot "twists" from a mile away but you won't be able to do anything about it nor often be given the option to even try. Sometimes your character will actually acknowledge seeing such a trap/betrayal/eventuality but will most often just follow that up with a grandiose variation on "oh well"
- Sometimes the game will have a character come on to you and your only options will be to be enthusiastically interested, be interested but suprised, or be offended and rude to them in response. Some people have complained because they noticed this with the same-sex relationship options but it really can happen with any of them. Your options will sometimes be 2 different versions of yes and one version of "I'm offended you would feel like that"

Overall:

Rent it

[Edited on March 12, 2011 at 8:29 AM. Reason : yea]

3/12/2011 8:16:52 AM

Are there set bonuses in DA2? I've got my blood dragon armor on from origins, but I don't see anything in the interface about set bonuses?

3/12/2011 10:51:34 AM

There are, but I don't think BD armor has any in this game.

3/12/2011 12:39:08 PM

For each class you might find maybe 3-4 sets throughout the game - one for each act and one more if from some of the bonus content. That might be roughly the same or more than in DA:O but it feels like fewer since you don't equip your companions armor the same way. By the time I tend to find the last piece of a set in the act some of the leveled non set armor pieces are so much better than there's no point using them. The one exception for me was the champion set.

3/12/2011 12:54:01 PM

I'm thinking of bumping it up to Nightmare now. Some fights are getting a lot easier with better gear.

3/13/2011 9:37:06 AM

Nightmare is much more difficult than Hard. I think it's the only way to actually challenfe yourself.

3/13/2011 1:14:08 PM

"I'm going to play dragon age for 2 hours then start doing HW"
4 hours later
"Wow i just wasted the last 2 hours not playing dragon age BETTER START THIS SHIT BACK UP"

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

3/13/2011 6:51:09 PM

definitely a lot more fun on hard, still not as good as DOA, not even close, but its a decent time filler

3/13/2011 10:29:15 PM

anyone having problems with their game freezing? Mine has done it periodically and i've been playing it for the last few hours, and its locked up on me in around the same area about 3 times in the past 15 minutes. It is becoming very annoying. I've already returned one copy for freezing up permanently

3/14/2011 8:55:36 PM

Quote :

"still not as good as DOA"

JB likes him some bouncing video game titties.

3/14/2011 10:52:22 PM

Try using DirectX 9 instead of 11.

3/15/2011 11:55:56 AM

^^^ mine has froze on me a few times, mainly when I click on a chest or crate, but it hasn't happened enough to return it or anything.

3/15/2011 12:05:01 PM

Will I finished my first run, and I have to say I'm still really impressed with this game. I can definitely see where more "hardcore" fans of DAO can be frustrated with this game, but for me I think the gameplay revamp was a great thing. The story was damn awesome...much more personal and political than the first one (I actually felt the story in DAO was a little lazy for the sheer scope of lore and history they put into creating Thedas).

The coolest thing about this series so far is that I feel that its meant to be played more morally ambiguous than Mass Effect. There's no slide rule to tell you if you're a good guy or bad guy other than your companion's approval levels, and even that scale is different per character and takes several factors into account. You can be a "bad guy" and still do righteous things...and vice versa...and there's not always an easy way to tell if the good or bad action you take will have positive or negative effects for the future.

All in all Bioware gets an A- from me for this game...and I've happily started my second playthrough!

3/16/2011 8:44:44 AM

On my first play-through with Hawke, I'm going (Str/Con/Will) 2-Handed Berserker/Reaver Warrior. Anyone doing mage or rogue?

3/16/2011 10:21:26 AM

I did a mage the first time, mostly primal and force magic with a little entropy. Now I'm doing an archery rouge.

3/16/2011 11:06:36 AM

Did a sword and shield warrior for my first playthrough...it was interesting to do that in a non MMORPG aspect insofar as threat management was concerned. Going with a mage this time though...but seeing as how I went pro-mage last play I'm finding it hard to go anti-mage when I'm raining down tempest on the enemy hordes

Which begs the question...since I don't really like Avaline...could Fenris make a viable tank?

3/16/2011 11:12:52 AM

I'm doing a rogue and i fucking rape on DPS, but if i forget to run aveline in to get aggro first i die sometimes haha. I guess i could put some points in subtlety or whatever the stealth tree is

i'm astraladvent and i approved this message

3/16/2011 11:54:34 AM

Fenris makes a very good tank if you pump his specialization tree and use the upgraded glowy sustain, as well as a threat increasing talent like bravery or battle synergy. He won't be able to do nearly as much damage as if you went full 2h and vanguard with him but he's a great tank.

3/16/2011 12:15:36 PM

I'm taking my time and playing the game on hard right now. I just got to the Ancient Rock Wraith. What the shit?! This guy is crazy hard with my group setup. I had to do the event at least 12 times to beat him.

3/17/2011 1:11:11 PM

I didn't realize you had to hide behind the pillars the first time I fought the rock wraith.

3/17/2011 1:15:35 PM

I'm kind of on the fence on whether I want to bother with this title. What's the general consensus on this game? Most of what I hear is non-detailed criticism that DA2 isn't as good as DAO.

I played DAO without any DLC (acronyms) and it held my interest long enough to finish, but not long enough to try multiple playthroughs.

3/17/2011 1:27:43 PM

Really just boils on how you liked the combat aspect. If you thought it was too slow, took too much effort, etc then DA2 might be for you (at least on low-middle difficulties)

3/17/2011 2:20:28 PM

Kind of makes me want to play KOTOR again

3/20/2011 9:58:01 AM

Maybe I haven't played through the game enough, but they use the same levels over and over. The entire game feels like they had to really cut down the budget and just getting a playable version out. Everything from the use the same same rooms and levels over and over for different quests and places tot he extremely limited inventory system. The only thing that changes is you might enter from the exit compared to the first time through, or there is different decorations but the exact same layout of a house.

Even the cave levels, the only difference is that you have stone doors that open up and let you into certain areas for certain quests but not others.

But the fighting is still good.

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 10:39 AM. Reason : sgfd]

3/20/2011 10:38:32 AM

Game is down to $49.99 via Best Buy already, should hit the $19.99-29.99 rack soon

3/20/2011 11:52:12 AM

I finished it in just under 30 hours. One of my first thoughts after beating it was "I want to go through Dragon Age: Origins again."

I really screwed up at the end by not using the two best runes (+27% attack speed, +10% damage), but my paragon bow rogue was awesomely over-powered anyway--I think I had a 95-100% chance to crit. I'm going to go through again as a two-handed warrior anti-mage jerk, but I don't think it will be as much fun (I won't get the Assassinate skill, for one). I really got tired of the repetitive locations and missed the more wide-open experience from Origins.

Merrill's companion quest got really weird at the end. Maybe I missed an event trigger at the end or something, but after the keeper died and the rest of the camp attacked the party, all she said afterward was "Gosh, I'm homesick, I wish I could go back to all my Dalish friends," rather forgetting that we'd just killed them all.

3/20/2011 2:05:19 PM

Quote :

"Maybe I haven't played through the game enough, but they use the same levels over and over"

This is the worst aspect of the game in my opinion. It just reeks of laziness and a rushed game. I think there are about 5 maps that are used over and over and over again. I prefer DA:O/BG combat, but I don't mind this style, and while I dislike the lack of customization of companion gear, I can get over that to. But the repetitive maps is really a deal breaker, it's that bad.

3/20/2011 2:07:34 PM

I have found a bug in the deep roads(yea I know its taken a while to get there).

It seems that if you run far enough away from a part member you can get a constant health regeneration that you get when combat is over. So essentially you cant die. This happened to me and was the only thing that saved me from not dying vs the giant spider....

3/20/2011 6:28:55 PM

Lot of weird bugs flying around this game

Fun game, but map reuse is kinda a downer. Plus I, too, hated how blasé Merrill was about her Act 3 quest.

3/20/2011 6:52:26 PM

level re-use is gay. companion storylines are weak and hurt by the fact that they all take place in the same city and 3to4 dungeons.

If you havent bought it yet i'd say wait till it price drops to around $30

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 7:24 PM. Reason : j]

3/20/2011 7:24:42 PM

My rogue is also getting pushed around a lot. What is the best way to prevent this? Fortitude?

I somehow don't think I can get enough to actually help it.

Also, I run into some bugs where unless I dont spam to attack, the character I control doesnt attack. I think this bug happens at the same time the bug I mentioned previously occurs.

3/20/2011 10:03:18 PM

Yeah without fortitude you get batted around like crazy.

There's a mage skill that gives you max fortitude and warrior has plenty since they upgrade strength, but I don't know if there's anything for rogue except whatever equipment you can find.

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 10:33 PM. Reason : ]

3/20/2011 10:32:48 PM

Quote :

"Maybe I haven't played through the game enough, but they use the same levels over and over. The entire game feels like they had to really cut down the budget and just getting a playable version out. Everything from the use the same same rooms and levels over and over for different quests and places tot he extremely limited inventory system. The only thing that changes is you might enter from the exit compared to the first time through, or there is different decorations but the exact same layout of a house."

This may be due to EA telling them they could not have the game span more than a single DVD. That would possibly explain both the level reuse as well as the fact that the high-res textures for the PC version require a 1 GB download.

According to a interviews, including the one with the lead composer Inon Zur, the development schedule was rushed. This might explain the absence of a Mass Effect style interupt system that had been originally stated to be a planned feature in some conversations. if you look for them you will notice several interactions where your character just stands there while action is occuring 5 feet in front of them and wonder "why can't I smack someone or say wtf is going on here" and that might be due to that feature being cut.

This apparent accelerated release might also be part of the reason that so many level maps are reused. This also would explain any appearence of a lack of ability to affect the progress of events. If you have to limit your development time, branching in quest and plot becomes harder to do even if you had still planned on having those branches recombine towards the end.

So maybe they focused as much on the playthrough options they didn't prune out and getting the gameplay down despite these compromises made at the direction of EA. It probably wasn't helpful that the restrictions on development instituted by EA caused one of the principal development staff to quit early in the project, but I think the game they did have time to make is not that bad. I did enjoy it, but the illusion of choice becomes much more obvious if you try a second playthrough. It really feels like they meant to have your actions have a meaningful impact in things like NPC subplots and even maybe the ending but had to prune those down and limit the real effect those decisions had during the game. Ah well - maybe DA 3 will get a longer dev time.

3/21/2011 2:45:04 AM

Yeah i'd rather have the same 15 high res textures used shamelessly than a completely different enviornment to be in. Also A+ on the plot for this game.


I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

4/4/2011 1:22:41 AM

glad i goozex'd this game before i opened it.

4/4/2011 9:29:09 AM

I'm still really pleased with this game. Guess I'm in the minority

4/4/2011 10:14:20 AM

I just played through this and finished it tonight (on ps3) as a berserker on normal. I was at level 19 during the last boss fight and i downed it with ease. I thought the game was overall easier than origins, and the graphics update was nice to boot.

I'll agree with the majority in saying that I was disappointed that you essentially never left kirkwall for the whole game. The deep roads expedition definitely made up for it slightly though and the end boss of that quest was a challenging experience, but it would have been nice to travel a little bit more.

The storyline kept my interest the whole time and I did most of the side quests during my playthrough, I definitely plan another playthrough as a blood mage perhaps. I kinda wish there were a couple of different endings, but thats nothing that affects the game as a whole.

4/15/2011 7:46:37 PM

After seeing how many quests use the same levels over and over it makes me realize how much more it would have cost to make more levels.

At least they use each one like 20 times.

4/15/2011 8:04:20 PM

I haven't quite finished the game with all three classes, but I'm close. I'm very tired of opening up locked chests to find junk. I feel like there aren't enough good items in this game, I guess because you can only fully customize the player character.

4/15/2011 10:22:25 PM

finished the playthrough as a rogue on hard(switching back to normal every now and again for the really, really, really hard boss fights). Had alot of fun. Those that think its "Too easy" are probably playing on normal and need to switch to hard. The difficulty spikes pretty drastically. It never took me more than twice to beat any fight on normal where as on Hard there were some battles where I would have to reload about 10 times before beating it.

4/16/2011 1:36:05 AM

^^^ like 90% of all other games seem to manage, even more for GOOD games. Lack of money isn't really an excuse for bioware...

I'm AstralAdent and i approved this message.

4/17/2011 11:31:33 PM

garbage game... still going to play it out, but it sucks. The storyline is completely not important. Most of the time you can pick any dialog and the same outcome results (tried several encounters to see if different choices would lead to different results, they didnt). Basically unless you make yourself "care" there is little to no impact game wise on the actual role playing elements. Much more like Diablo than DAO

4/18/2011 12:09:38 AM