Dragon Age II: EA boogaloo

[cambiata]

In contrast, when you play DA:I as melee, you spend half of all fights running after targets who can back up infinitely (meaning only ranged can hit them). Melee rogue is perhaps the most enjoyable class in DA2. In DAI it's an unplayable class. I switched every one of my rogues to archers. I had to.

I played an Assassin spec rogue in both games, it's not quite as broken in DAI as it is in DA2 but it'll still drop anything short of a dragon ridiculously fast with knives. You just have to use the movement abilities a bit more (and rogues are very fast in DAI).

I mean, of course it's playable. It's just not fun. Fun of course is an intangible and something that varies based on taste, but I feel like it's pretty close to a universal that Bioware is not great at combat, and they have an unfortunate habit of stepping away from a good thing once they find it. Both ME3 and DA2 had better combat then their sequels. Buuuuuuut in both cases I can cut them some slack for having to redo their entire library of actions in a new engine.

[ORCACommander]

well chuck there xbone controllers are windows compatible and a lot of games have built in support for them. unfortunately for me the few games i prefer controllers for i try and force them to use a dual shock 4 controller to mixed results.

[Deledrius]

Ugh, that dialog wheel. It doesn't work in Mass Effect either. My first time playing, one of the first interactions I had with it is when I met a guy who was freaking out about the carnage around him. I chose the option to calm him down. My character sucker-punches him into unconsciousness.

I don't need a sarcastic UI. That's way too meta for a game touted as being serious and having choices with consequences. That kind of thing can be funny in Monkey Island, but doesn't work in a dramatic Sci-Fi.

I didn't play it much farther than that.

[Independent George]

So I just finished my first play-through of DA2. Overall impression: they did the best they could given the circumstances, but the rushed nature really hurt it. Not in the sense of obviously missing content (like KOTOR 2), but the story felt like it went from points A to B because they had to, and not because of any natural progression.

Combat was more fluid than DAO, but I wouldn't say that it was better. Every battle basically became a case of running around in circles hacking away at the continually spawning enemies and trying draw enemies away from your casters & rogues. It was obviously optimized for it, as the constant stream of mooks jumping into action behind you ultimately didn't matter, but it still bugged me.

The plot had some good ideas, but ultimately failed for me because of how abrupt it was and the lack of anything to balance out the awfulness of the setting. Instead of going for ambiguity by making both sides seem like they had a point, I ended up wanting to murder everybody. The Grand Cleric is basically useless for the entire game. Thrask's plan to overthrow Meredith hinges on kidnapping the Champion of Kirkwall's sister and allying with a psycho blood mage. Meredith being driven insane by the idol felt like a cop-out, denying her free will and responsibility for her actions. Orsino decides he's had enough of seeing his friends killed, so he decides to use blood magic and kill his friends. And instead of being conscientious, Cullen comes across as self-interested when he turns on Meredith. The whole serial killer story just felt like a horrendously contrived way to add one more tragedy to the Hawke family.

As far as the companions... Varric, Isabella, Merril, and Aveline were wonderful. Anders was tedious even before he commits his act of stupidity at the end. I didn't really do much with Fenris, as my PC was a two-handed warrior.

My ideas for what might have improved it (even if it wasn't feasible in the accelerated development cycle it was produced under):

1. Have regular interactions with non-crazy Meredith and Orsino throughout the game. Instead of just seeing both sides at their worst, let us see them at their best. As it was, both ended up being just names and titles with whom I had no emotional connection while playing.
2. Let Hawke's actions have some influence on Kirkwall between acts. By act 3, Hawke (Champion of Kirkwall), Varric (a major merchant), and Avelline (Captain of the Guard) should be major political figures in Kirkwall, yet there they are fighting lowlife bandits at the docks.
3. Keep the PC's sibling as an integral part of the story in Acts 2 & 3, even if you can't control them. Especially since they're seeing the Mage-Templar tensions up close and personal.

[Steve]

Actually, given that Carver or Bethany can end up either dead or Grey Wardens if you take them with you on the Deep Road Expedition, I wonder how the Thrask story is supposed to work then...

[Winter]

For all its faults, of which there are many, I do like DA2, in the same way I like the Star Wars Prequels in that they're flawed but I still had got some enjoyment out of them. With that said i would say that I enjoyed the prequels a lot more as the things that bugged me in DA2 have more to do with the mechanics of the game, namely the repetitive combat, the reused maps and the lack of impact your choices have in the game.

I remember one review of DA2 trying to defend the lack of impact of Hawke's choices which pretty much went like this. "Well in the real world your choices don't determine the fate of the world so why should it impact the world of Dragon Age?" Now for the record the review itself was actually very interesting and did address a number of the issues with the game but this one bit bugged me of a couple of reasons. First off the game itself goes on and on about how important Hawke is and how s/he will shape the fate of the world only for it to turn out that Hawke is ultimately a minor player in the story and that the villains and Anders have a much bigger impact on the story. Second, in both the first game and Dragon Age: Inquisition you are impacting the story and while Solas and Corypheus have a huge impact on the game's story it is made clear that you are the most important character in the game.

In DAO and DAI you decide the fate of nations, lives are put into your hands, you build armies and steer the course of history and are seen as a equal to empresses and kings.

Which is why Hawke seems to weak as you don't really impact anything as it will always end the same way no matter what. However, I will give DA2 this, its upfront about this, the opening flat out tells you that things will come to a bad end no matter what you do so unlike ME3's ending, which was stated to change wildly depending on your choices throughout the series (AND YES I'M STILL BITTER!!!) DA2 comes right up to you and says, "This is going to end badly, just FYI."

Doesn't stop the ending from being annoying and unfulfilling but I was at least prepared for it. And I was at least able to help change my companions stories which game me some satisfaction in the grand scheme.

[Independent George]

The recycled maps honestly didn't bother me, nor did Hawke having a pre-ordained bad ending; it's that nothing about Kirkwall seems to be affected by any of Hawke's decisions.

You spend six years as a wealthy noble in Kirkwall, three years as a Champion (during a time with a major political vacuum), and are close friends with the Captain of the Guard and one of the most prominent members of the Merchant's guild. The time skip is a chance to see in-game what impact your decisions in previous acts had on the city. Instead... it's like you weren't even there, because the same old crap is going to happen anyway.

Re-open the bone pit to create economic growth for the city and employ a bunch of Fereldan refugees? Nope! Dragons fall and everybody dies. Drive out the a crap ton of slavers? More where that came from! Clean out the dockside gangs and install an honest and competent guard captain? Ha, like anybody would ever notice. Help some mages escape the Templars? Captured again, and now they're psycho blood mages. Kill some psycho blood mages? See above.

Siding with the mages, then watching Orsino decide at the last minute to defile the bodies of his friends and attack the allies who just risked their lives for him really stands out as a WTF moment for me. It makes everything leading up to that point meaningless.

I don't want to gripe too much, because there were a lot of good things about the game and I understand how the development was screwed by EA, but the the flaws really stand out.

[Independent George]

Ok, new post because I don't like to complain without suggesting solutions. And yes, I know it is not realistic given the accelerated development cycle they were given, but this is what I wish the game did:

1. The three renegade mages you hunt down in Act 3 to kick off the finale should have been people you interacted with in Acts 1 & 2, with your actions influencing their final fates.
2. You should have opportunities to complete quests for Meredith and Orsino starting in Act 1. Make it a cold war between them, with Hawke having the opportunity to support/betray either side, or play them against each other.
3. The choices made in #2 should change which quests are available in subsequent acts, as well as coloring subsequent interactions with Hawke. Consistently supporting either side has the obvious effect of gaining trust with one vs. the other; being a mercenary leads to a reluctant commercial relationship with them; playing them against each other can, depending on how it's done, result in either both sides mistakenly believing Hawke is on their side, or being held in contempt by both sides (but nevertheless still being employed as the mercenary of last resort).
4. Make the Grand Cleric and the Viscount players rather than bystanders.
5. Let the goals (and quests) of Viscount, Grand Cleric, Templars, Mages, and Merchants conflict with each other.
6. Put Avelline in a position where she has to decide whether to do her job following the Viscount's orders, or side with Hawke.
7. Make Avelline's (and the guards') friction with the ascendant Templars a major source of conflict in Act 3.
8. Show how the escalating conflict between Templars & Mages is starting to impact life in the city, instead of Kirkwall just being the site of the battle.

[cambiata]

I. LOVE. Hawke. And I even love that she never seems to have an impact on the shit sandwich that is Kirkwall. It's not that "this is how it is in the real world" is the excuse. It's that, "Kirkwall and the Mage/Templar situation in general had gotten so bad that even a certified badass with world-changing powers could not fix it."

Hawke's role as the person who almost, but not quite, saves people is why I made a very specific, painful choice with her in Inquisition. I wanted her to finally be able to fix something, to be able to save somebody, goddamnit.

Though I'm currently replaying Inquisition again (after having just finished my fourth replay of it, that previous time was as a Qunari dude who romances Cassandra) and for this game I used the Keep to make Loghain alive and Alistair the king of Ferelden with Anora. So for this one Loghain is the one who gets to redeem his previous failures. (also I'll be playing Trespasser as an elf who romanced Solas, and I'm super excited to see how that turns out)

Speaking of Trespasser and Inquisition, it's cool to me how hard it is in game terms for me to select "disband the Inquisition" as the final decision, even though while playing the original game I was all gung-ho for disbanding the Inquisition as soon as the main threat was taken care of. Normally such decisions are video-gamey to the point that you know that the good guy decision is X, and the bad guy decision is Y, and all you have to do is pick the letter that fits what you're RPGing. I like that they made it matter to the person playing, that it ended up to be a difficult decision even after all the lessons learned about holding on to power too tightly, and even though there's no actual consequence one way or another during this particular game (since consequence will all happen in DA4).

I really can't wait to see what they do with the next one.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think a big problem is people went into Dragon Age 2 expecting it to be epic fantasy and judge it based on those standards when it seems clear they merged fantasy and noir fiction. Hawke is as close to a private detective as can exist in a fantasy setting as is humanly possible without any actual concept of being a detective existing yet.

He investigates murders, kidnappings, is friends with the local police and criminal underworld both, and every.single.person.is.corrupt.

It's Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe in fantasy.

THAT'S why everyone is an asshole. You're in Sin City and Gotham rather than Middle Earth.