Do not want.
Well, Baldur’s Gate had multiplayer. I mean, it won’t kill the franchise. But seems like what the game is really missing is a lot of waist-high pop-up walls and auto-looting. Also, if they’d just go ahead and sell off my unused goods for me, automatically equipping the best gear I find, that’d be great. Also, would it kill them to fix the game to grind for XP for me while I’m at work? Or are they saving that for DLC?
Still loving the game. Just saying, is all.
I just finished it. My playthrough took almost exactly 40 hours (compared to 46 and 58 for my last two DA:O playthroughs). So not bad, but still a significantly shorter game. I’m sure I missed a bit here and there.
I played as a two-handed warrior. They’ve definitely embraced the tank archetype… even ditching the shield and emphasizing damage abilities I still had the lowest dps in the party by far.
I enjoyed it, but apart from the setting the game is far closer to the Mass Effect series than the first one. On normal difficulty the game is extremely easy until you get to some of the bosses, but I’m hesitant to increase the difficulty because the game doesn’t give you the same level of control over your party. I used to zoom all the way out and constantly micro-manage all my characters in the first game. In this game I’m generally unaware of what any of my party is doing at any given time.
I only ran into a couple bugs. There was one bugged sidequest in act 3 and a few inconsistencies with my imported save.
It’s decent, but (about seven hours in) I don’t feel there’s much of a plot driving it. It feels like the middle chunk of the first game — when you first arrive in the big city — but without any overarching dread that something bad is coming. It’s Fable 3 compared to DA:O’s Fable 2. The characters don’t quite crackle or endear like Alistair, Morrigan or Leliana.
I’m still enjoying it, but I hope it picks up a bit.
Wow. That’s harsh.
I’ve played maybe 15 hours (not sure, I think the DLC I downloaded confused Steam which says I’ve played 94 minutes which isn’t right) and there’s still no plot to speak of. Sure, mages and templars are being at each others throats in two dozen different quests, but it feels like 90% of the time I’m just doing sidequests for random people I met on the street. There’s no epicness to it, none.
I don’t think the characters are that bad, but it could be the bland background leaches even them of color - in DA1 you were doing Big Stuff ™ and so it mattered more when Alistair didn’t want to be the king or Morrigan tried to make you do her bidding. Now in DA2 you are just putzing about in a small town which doesn’t really give your companions a chance to shine either.
It’s a shame since there’s quite a few ways in which DA2 is better than DA1, IMO: combat, art, graphics, hearing your main character speak. But that’s all somewhat irrelevant when there’s no good story. I still really like the game despite its flaws, but it is one of those games where you can see how much better it could’ve been. If I could just play DA1’s story with DA2’s combat engine and graphics … drool
Question: is the demo just off graphics-wise? Everything in thr demo seemed to have poor textures comapred to DA:O, which made me wonder if they just didn’t include it for space and stability reasons.
There’s an official high-quality texture pack you can download from somewhere. Not sure how big a difference it makes but to my eyes the full game with those textures looks pretty.
I started again. My goody two-shoes dual-wielding rogue wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d hoped. Decided to restart as a wisecracking warrior with a penchant for very large two-handed swords, particularly as Aveline and that miserabilist elf warrior aren’t much fun and I wanted to fit the more entertaining characters in. Got a week off work from Thursday so may spend some time bonding with the Xbox.
I’m about 23 hours in and I have a question about a big confrontation that I can’t beat. Sorry to be so vague, but, you know…only read the spoiler if you’re that far into the game and things are coming to a head, I guess? [spoiler]It’s the big battle with the Arishok and his men. I’ve tried every dialogue option, and I always end up with him and all of his men attacking me at once – I’ve read that you can get him to duel you one-on-one? What do I have to have done to get that option? When everyone attacks my party, we die so very quickly. 
There’s really no way for me to beat this battle as things currently stand.
Edit: And I’m already playing this battle on Casual!
I’ve read that Isabella is the key to this – is this right? But I never made friends with Isabella – my character is a duel-weapon-wielding rogue, so I never took her with me or talked to her much, and I think she was only slightly friendly to me before she stole the relic and ran off. That was, like, many hours ago.
[/spoiler] I really would rather not have to load a saved game from that long ago and replay…am I totally fucked?
I agree with this entire post.
I do enjoy how this game allows you to immerse yourself much more deeply into the culture of the game’s story and explore the tensions between the different races, classes, etc. So it has that going for it. But I’m 23 hours in and still haven’t gotten the sense that all of this is building into any kind of cohesive narrative. I’m feeling like there isn’t much motivation for my character to go on living. 
On the other hand, maybe I’m just not far enough into the game to see it yet. And also, this is more original than the LOTR-derived story of the first game.
Three posts in a row to say, I solved the problem in my first post: This probably won’t help you if you’re stuck in the same way, but I remembered that earlier I had gone to the Black Emporium and bought five respec potions, so I respec’ed my character and everyone in my party to make our abilities more focused, then I set to slaughtering everyone.
Speaking specifically to the demo, it was mentioned in the previous thread that certain DX 10 and 11 features were disabled for it, concerns about stability IIRC. There’s also, as previously mentioned, a high res texture pack pack floating around out there that significantly enhances the graphics. The official release is definitely a very pretty game, maybe not a huge step up, but definitely noticeable compared to the demo.
Re: the game itself…
Picked up a copy on the release date and I’ve been taking my taking my time with it. I’m nearing 30 hours in and I’m closing in on the end of chapter 2.
I like a lot of the streamlining that’s been done. Combat is faster paced and more, ‘immediate’ I suppose is the right word, but still tactical. Even without a wide view of the battlefield it pays to keep tabs on your party. 90% of the time the AI of warriors and rogues can handle themselves, but rogues will still occasionally overstretch themselves, especially dual wielders. And mages can’t be left to their own devices as their low health still gets them in trouble. My Hawke is a warrior but I still have to frequently reposition Bethany, Merril, or Anders to get them out of harm’s way.
I also really like the way the crafting systems been retooled. No more toting around tons of herbs and metal for when you need them. You find crafting resources now that are tallied up permanently and you can order potions/poisons/runes from your homebase as long as you have the money for it. Need healing potions? As soon as you find your first Elfroot source you can restock whenever you need to.
I’m not as crazy about about the lack of armor for party members but their defense goes up automatically as they level up so this one seems like a push. There’s no more juggling armor sets, but all the characters have a distinctive look about them which doesn’t change. Definitely shades of ME2 here.
The story…
In the first chapter, I have to agree with what others have said, there’s a lot seeming randomness about the plot as we jump about from point to point. It starts to feel like DA2 is “Sidequest: The Game”, but there are certain elements that seem arise time and again. Namely Hawke’s family, the conflict between the Mages and the Templars, and the presence of the Qunari.
In DA:O The world seems like it’s dropped in your lap from nearly the beginning and everything builds to that moment on the top of the towers of Denerim at the end. That’s not the case in DA2. You’re not a Warden and the fate of history doesn’t weigh on your shoulders. You’re a refugee of the Blight in Fereldan attempting to make their way in Kirkwall. The story is much smaller and more personal and it takes an adjustment of expectations. But there are some interesting veins to the mined here and there.
Specific spoilers through the end of chapter 2…
It’s become obvious at this point that the Qunari are in Kirkwall for a very specific purpose, but what they’re waiting for I’m still not sure. Though it seems that the endgame will be some conflict between the chantry, the apostates, and the Qunari with Hawke’s group acting as a wildcard. The framing device with future Varric and the seeker Cassandra is heavily hinting that something very important happens at the end of the game.
More possible general spoilers for the endgame…
I’ve read already that Leliana shows up to speak with Cassandra at the end, though I don’t why. Presumably if this is the case this will somehow still tie back into the story of The Warden and the Fifth Blight from DA:O.
The lack of ‘epicness’ to me is ok. I don’t need to save the world/universe every time. There is a problem with lack of direction. 90% of act 1 it doesn’t feel like you’re doing anything.
It’s like: Ok I’ve arrived in the town as a starving refuge clearly I have to find a way into the city and slowly build up my street cred and carve a place…blam years later. Wait what? Why did we leap ahead in time? Oh I see I’m already established…er ok. Now what? Earn 50 gold? Why? Why do I care? Oh the game tells me I should care. THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Establishing myself in the city was a goal. Allowing me to work with factions to establish a reputation was a goal. But that was all skipped. Now my goal is just a vague earn some money for something I might not even care about. Show me why I should care. Show me why getting on this expedition should be important to me. Don’t just tell me about it.
I’m not far enough into chapter 2 to be able to see if it is better laid out but once again with the transition it’s hard to tell if I will care. If chapter 1 had been better done it would have been great to see you go from running errands and street crime to high level problem solving and being an official not a refugee (though I never really did feel like a refugee) but I have the feeling it will be more errand running.
Just finished the game on normal playing a mage.
Thoughts:
-The menu system on this version blows, hardcore. They changed that for the worse.
-The combat system, on the other hand, is fucking awesome. Good on them for fixing it.
-The story/plot might just be the weakest I’ve seen in any BioWare game, ever. I’m severely unimpressed. The acts are largely disjointed, there’s not really a unified arc that goes through any of them, although the second and third acts are less blatant than the first… There doesn’t seem to be any grand, overarching narrative. Just “The city kinda sucks, go somewhere else.” “The city still kinda sucks, oh, and the dudes who looked like humans with corn rows in the first game are now some weird thing with horns, and they’re pissed.” “The city sucks more than it sucked before, and now there is some bad mage/templar stuff going on.”
Bah.
-The ‘romance’ options are absurd as well, and just didn’t feel at all convincing. Tacked on, cardboard nonsense. Yes, I’m not playing the game for the romance, but it sucks that it’s almost non-existent and somehow I wind up with Isabella after a romance arc that can only be descried as “Wait, something was happening?”
-Oh my fucking God, copy paste dungeons must die.
-Also, missable content is fucking horrible. Didn’t visit the precise right shop in the right act to buy Upgrade A? Sorry, you’re fucked.
All in all it’s a pretty decent game. High 70’s, low 80’s. But it could’ve been a lot better and they really missed the boat on making it what it could be.
They might not been that great, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Merril’s robes transform from her green-elf-ugly-duckling -look into shiny white swan noble robes as a result of my romance. Those white robes are maybe the most dazzlingly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in a computer game.
Otherwise I might not mind that much, but having glued-shut doors everywhere really breaks my sense of immersion. Even if they use the whole building, they glue the doors shut so you can only go through it in one specific way whereas in DA:O you could wander around the various places like they would’ve been real buildings with hallways and doors and so on. Sure some places were locked but there were no concrete barriers blocking me from the unused part of the cookie cutter generic_mansion_01. Ugh. What adds to the stupid even more is the fact the map shows the inaccessible bits.
With Fade being the size of about three rooms and the entire Dark Roads are the size of half-a-submap of DA:O’s Dark Roads it sometimes feels like I’m playing some sort of fit for travel -version of the game where you adventure in a closet instead of getting a real dungeon to explore.
Not to mention it is idiotic that you get that crap from the shops for 2g instead of getting it where loot is supposed to get from, dungeons or maybe as rewards for difficult or long quests. But no, you go to slums and buy some extra pockets for your rogue. Or maybe you don’t, the armor will look exactly the same anyways. If I replay this I’ll just have to read a walkthrough to see where all the upgrades are, but for now I don’t care that much.
ME2 had really bad gear upgrade system as well (I’m still bitter I had to use the same assault rifle from day 1 to the very end due to missing both upgrades) so it’s not like it’s a first, but still.
Playing as a female character, the male romance options bugged me too. They’re so bland! Say what you will about Alistair’s whiny-ness (which I never saw, btw), he had a cute sense of humor, he interacted with your main character in a substantive way, and he was voiced by the awesome Steve Valentine who really imbued him with a lot of personality.
With these guys…why is my character getting flirt options with them? Who are they to me, again? I kind of fell into a relationships with Anders only by default, because the moody bad-boy elf dude triggered too many of my domestic violence red flags, gah.
Reflecting on this, I have to agree with you. I realize that a lot of what I was complaining about (i.e., no customizable companion armor) doesn’t affect gameplay at all; it’s just not what I was expecting. No way does this deserve a 0 – it’s well-designed, well-executed, no broken functionality, and it’s entertaining. It’s just not as entertaining as I’d hoped, but that’s not too damning a charge.
Well there are some shortcomings. Inexcusable ones too like the copy and paste areas.
This really shouldn’t have made me laugh, but it did.
I’m playing through as a mage (as always) and romancing Anders as well - bad-boy elf dude is all unfairly judgmental of us mages. Just because others become horrible abominations and doom the world doesn’t mean I will. Though I wish I were romancing the Anders from Awakening - ah Ser Pounce-A-Lot!
I’m still in Act 1 and I have to say I like quite a lot of the companions so far. Merrill is surprisingly adorable as I was expecting any female mage elf person to be cranky and arrogant. I’m a fan of Varric as well, as his dialogue is funny.
Especially when he rips on Carver. Whiny, mage hating brother that he is.
I actually like the storyline. It’s a change of pace from the DA: O story, for sure, but not necessarily bad. I like the fact that you start off as a relatively insignificant character thrown into the middle of things that are outside of your control. You’re not trying to become a great hero or saving the world, just someone trying their best to survive and take care of their family.
I think the story seems disjointed because it develops over a long period of time, chronologically in the storyline, but it does come together at the end.
[spoiler]The conflict between the Mages and Templars is what drives the entire story. I like the fact that the last battle is very morally ambiguous, even if events play out more or less the same no matter what you did. The mages are right to protest their increasingly harsh treatment under Meredith, and about their virtual slavery in general, but as Fenris said they have options that aren’t available to everyone else. Pretty much every mage does turn to blood magic and corruption when cornered, and throughout the entire game you were shown the consequences of that. I chose to side with the mages on my first play through, but all along I was questioning myself on whether or not it was the right thing to do.
Having Anders go off the deep end was a shock, though I guess not entirely surprising after the quest in the Chantry, and dealing with him, who I had befriended and used for a lot of the game, was a hard decision.
[/spoiler]