So I'm at the part after the expedition (act 2 I guess?) and I've already lost my desire to continue. My hate for this game and for Bioware has peaked at this point, and I thought it had plateaued at Mass Effect 2. I am literally dumbfounded. My thoughts are an incoherent jumble. I'm seeing red jelly. Let's just start:
- Where is quickswap for weapons? What conceivable reason would they have to remove it? Playing rogue having to go into the inventory and manually swap bow to daggers in the middle of battle, that's the exact opposite of streamlined.
- Companions that can't change equipment, absolutely no reason for it other laziness or to profit off DLC outfits. Particularly annoying as I constantly find armors that I can't use, and no one else can use either.
- What's with the hundred varieties of unusable junk? Just give me fucking coins instead.
- No true overhead camera. I think they said it was to allow them more flexibility in designing environments (lol), and to have more detailed ceilings (lol). Could they be more full of shit? Trying to target AOE stuff with this bullshit camera is a joke, especially since it tends to stick on targets.
- Oh the reused dungeons, they're unique in that they were a totally unexpected letdown. I mean, we knew about a lot of the shitty changes, but nobody expected that. Maybe take some people off of that day 1 DLC to whip up another cave or something next time. That, or it was just to save space on the Xbox disc. Which is worse?
- Specializations don't have to be unlocked anymore. It was awesome in Origins to have to actually go out and find them, like Arcane Warrior is learned from the soul trapped in the phylactery. Now you just hit a level and poof here you go.
- The waves and waves of enemies. I can see how in some situations it would be appropriate, but it happens literally every fight. Makes strategizing and placement largely pointless.
- No skills. Persuasion is nonexistent; the most I've been able to do once or twice is to simply defer to a companion, but this has absolutely nothing to do with my character.
- Which brings me to a larger point, a little tough to put my finger on, just an overall sense of it being too simple and repetitive. Every quest is the same no matter what you're doing, it always end up in a fight with waves of enemies at one point or another and dialogue responses don't seem to make any difference to outcomes other than increasing friendship or rivalry with companions.
In Drakensang: River of Time there's a quest when you first arrive in the Elven area where you have to get rid of a bunch of pirates that are camped at the outskirts. You could fight them, you could negotiate a deal between the pirates and elves, or you could, using subterfuge in the form of dialogue skills and pickpocketing, gradually turn them all against each other until they just abandon the camp.
I have yet to see anything comparable in DA2, and I don't expect to simply due to the fact the lack of skills and dumbed-down mechanics can't support this sort of gameplay.
And while we're at it, let's compare another point in Drakensang RoT. Depending on what class you choose, the beginning of the game is quite different. If you choose a fighter-type, the main story has you enlisting in the city guard and doing guard quests. If you're a thief-type, you have to find and join the thieve's guild. I haven't tried a magic user, but I assume there's another path for that class type. Not quite at the level of the origin stories from DA, but enough that it makes it feel like the story is just a little more your own. And thats from a budget $20 game. With DA2 even with 20% off I still feel ripped off.
Halp?