I’ve been replaying Awakening, and man, reminds me of why I like this game so much. The expansion is not as good as DA:O but it’s still so much fun, and full of great story telling.
I’m playing on nightmare and still I’m only really challenged by the big bosses, though every battle is potentially deadly, specially if I don’t pay attention to what’s going on around me.
Speaking of nightmare, I tried the demo of DA2 on nightmare with a custom female mage hawke.
I liked that my family’s appearance changed based on some of my own chosen features. Also, the options are much better than DAO. I made a great Xena clone.
Nightmare is… really difficult. I love it! Almost every single encounter I only manage to stay alive by the skin of my teeth. It takes planning, careful coordination (even some melee abilities can cause friendly fire), and nerves of steel to get by. I got up to the 2nd Ogre and got my behind handed to me. I think I could have beaten it if I had been able to choose my starting ability, though.
Gah… I thought Japan was getting the European release date of the 11th, but it turns out we’re getting it on the 8th like the US. Which is a good thing, of course… 'cept I’m waist-deep in a rogue solo nightmare playthrough that I was planning to finish before playing DA2.
I think I can finish up DA:O today, but Awakening and the other DLC ain’t gonna happen.
I feel you… I left Lothering and went straight to Dalish Camp and the Brecilian Forest, get to the final boss and didn’t have a chance so I headed to Redcliffe Village thinking it was the next place I was supposed to go and got into the castle only to get beat by dogs. Found out I should have went to Lake Calenhad first and now I’m in the Tower… It all counts as progress but it feels like I have made none, and by looking at the map, I haven’t made enough to finish the game before the 8th… And I just found out about the wonderful feature of pausing and setting your attacks up, much needed feature but makes the game 100x longer. As someone said before, this game is a chore, it is also slightly addicting… I’m guessing your playing and the hardest difficulty and leaving your party at camp…? Suicide…
I had a really hard time during my first playthrough as well. Until you get a hang of the game’s mechanics and combat, it can be pretty unforgiving. But there’s no actual order that you are supposed to do the areas in. Most people recommend doing the Circle first because of the stat bonuses you get, but I think it’s actually not the greatest choice for those new to the game. If things get too hard for you in the other
areas you can go do something else to level up or get new equipment. But you’re locked in at the tower.
It was actually nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be and a lot of fun.
The official digital download unlocking date for the Asia/Pacific region is “0000h on March 8th”. It’s now the middle of the afternoon on the 8th here.
People who bought the game via the EA store and D2D are reportedly playing now.
I log in to Steam to find what?
“Available: 10 March 2011. This game will unlock in approximately 1 day and 12 hours”
EA needs to stop their petty vendetta against Steam.
So I started my first play through with a Rogue in DA2.
Nightmare difficulty.
First - the graphics are even better than the demo. I’m running it maxed out, all DX 11/DX10 features on and with the High resolution texture pack. Gone are the pixelated weapon handles and character clothing. I’m still in Lothering so I haven’t seen kirkwall yet, but man, the difference in the terrain is significant. The texture effects really add a sense of depth. It’s a very convincing effect.
Unfortunately it’s suffering from performance issues with Nvidia cards. It’s playable for me, but It’s not uncommon to see FPS dips to below 30 fps. I’m hoping they fix that soon. ATI cards do not seem to be affected.
Nightmare in the full game is even more difficult than in the Demo. In the demo I at least got to the second Ogre in Lothering without too much difficulty. That was not the case here. I managed to limp my way to the first real set piece battle in the prologue (the one that is two waves of darkspawn and the first features a spellcaster).
On my first attempt I had Bethany go in first so as to open up with a fireball. Bad idea. 6 crossbow bolts to the face prevented her form doing anything and the second volley put her down. In my second attempt I split the party up when the second wave came, trying to kepe them from swarming. That didn’t work either. I’m thinking I’ll have to to a better job of managing my rogue and Aveline’s taunt ability.
Another warning, Keep two-handed weapons guys AWAY from everyone else. They inflict damage on everything standing near them, and in nightmare mode that includes party members.
It’s not that bad. For one thing, the DA AI is a bit simplistic and it’s easy to pull mobs one by one most of the time (it’s a bit harder in cramped houses, but not too much). For another, rogues can eventually go into stealth mode at will and fling bombs around from stealth.
Also, dual wielding with Momentum and the second Bard song on (with a ridiculous Cunning and Lethality of course) is brutal. Even without backstabbing, you can pretty much ruin a normal mob in two seconds flat. It’s like a wall of daggers. With paralyze runes in them :D.
Picked the game up tonight after work and I’ve been playing around with it for a few hours now. I’m currently outside Kirkwall.
So far, I like it. Combat seems a more immediate and less tactical, though not greatly so. While leaving Lothering Bethany nearly got killed a couple of times because Darkspawn kept spawning behind us during encounters. Made me make sure to keep tabs on all my party members. The Ogre was difficult without being frustrating. A welcome change from the one I fought at the top of the tower in Ostagar in the first game.
Is this thread going to be the general discussion thread for the game now that it’s out? Should we start a new one?
Also, some dumb questions…
I’ve leveled up with several characters several times now and i’ve noticed there is no equivalent of the ‘skill’ trees. How does DA2 handle things like herbalism, poisons, and persuasion? I ask particularly because I’ve spoken to Athenril and Meeran in Kirkwall and I expected speech checks to come up but they never did. I refuse to believe that Bioware has released a game that doesn’t include speech skill checks. There is something wrong with the world if they have.
