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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Lostconfused
Member
Right because those are the things that all RPGs are judged for.Darklord said:
Visceir said:
Orsino was not bad at all through out the game the theme was mages all resort to blood magic especially when hopelessly pushed to a corner. He also had nothing to lose since The Rite of Annulment order was given.
Anders action was kind of odd but he claimed many times it was his personality that perverted justice into vengeance and as long vengeance possessed him is his deep dark desire to end the templars and circle will always exist and only a drastic action will force the mages and templar to finally go to war.
Anders action was kind of odd but he claimed many times it was his personality that perverted justice into vengeance and as long vengeance possessed him is his deep dark desire to end the templars and circle will always exist and only a drastic action will force the mages and templar to finally go to war.
Visceir said:
Some of those are avoidable if you choose the right dialogue or gained enough friendship. Some would of happened anyway but the game is not fun if you try to pander to ever-bodies feelings.
As for Merrill's mirror only the demon had answers so by killing it whatever knowledge it had is lost forever which is unavoidable I don't think there is a way to ever fix it.
If you strip out most of the non-necessary missions in DA2, you would at most have a 10-15 hour game. Chapter 1 was far longer than necessary. I'm not saying Alpha Protocol didn't have its failure, but Dragon Age 2 is far the inferior game. Respawning enemies (I don't like them in my FPS, why would I want them in my RPGs), convoluted end game, and horrible reusage of levels.Darklord said:
Basileus777
Member
I really enjoyed Alpha Protocol, but I have no illusions that it's anything but a mediocre game with poor gameplay and an excellent choice and consequences system.
I greatly enjoyed Alpha Protocol, including the gameplay. Some ways to play may be less polished than others though. The only part that seemed bad to me were the boss battles.
I could go into my standard rant about how much better flawed but unique games are than polished rehashes, but since DA2 isn't actually polished it doesn't really apply.
I could go into my standard rant about how much better flawed but unique games are than polished rehashes, but since DA2 isn't actually polished it doesn't really apply.
Guerrillas in the Mist
Member
Six hours in, I've been enjoying it so far. I like the focus on side-quests, and the lack of a "Find 4 Allies/Collect 4 McGruffins in order to face big adversary" plotline found in most Bioware games. But I'm now starting to see repeating areas, and the mid-battle enemy spawning happening all the time is getting annoying.
Not enough to stop me from really enjoying the game, though I understand some of the problems people are having with it, and I wonder if more development time would have solved some of the issues present in the game.
Not enough to stop me from really enjoying the game, though I understand some of the problems people are having with it, and I wonder if more development time would have solved some of the issues present in the game.
iAmMaximus
Member
Marco1 said:
It obviously has its flaws but I'm still enjoying it. There's a lot of interesting side-quests that keep me throughly entertained. Story takes awhile to get into but if you enjoyed DA:O, I say play it.
Been breezing through the game without a tank until you get to the Deep Roads. Required a bit of micro'ing to get past the two 'bosses' in the first section with my 2h dps warrior trying to take the brunt but isabella keeps taking aggro and getting squished which was incredibly annoying.
Lostconfused
Member
8 months too early for that call.kamspy said:
Lunchbox said:
I've been using Fenris as my tank ever since I got him, which was quite early on. I haven't used Aveline since the first couple or so hours so I don't know what she'd be like as a tank at this point in my game, but Fenris has been quite effective. And he's also more entertaining.
There's a lot about this game I really don't like but there are a couple of neat things. Some of the dialogue interactions are pretty fun. I've been running most of the game with both Fenris and Anders in my party and, for reasons that should be clear to anyone who's played enough, they don't really like each other at all. So they'll take every opportunity to take snipes at each other or engage in small debate.
Also Anders, being a mage, has a surprisingly lot to say in various dialogue situations. My player character is a mage as well and Anders will often pipe up regardless when some mage-related topic comes up. It's been frequent enough to pleasantly surprise me. In DA:O your companions would occasionally say something in conversations with other NPCs but not nearly as often as here, so it's neat to see they've at least spruced up that part.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
HixxSAFC said:
Build up her evade/stealth trees. I had the same problem.
My biggest complaint so far is coming back from the deeproads and not having a character that can open up all these complex chests in the sidequests im doing right now. To make it worse, i am two levels away from having a character that can.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Can i give the elf warrior a sword and sheild or no? I decided to only use him in my next playthrough as a mage and havent tried. If i can only use aveline in my evil mage playthrough, i will be mad.
Basileus777
Member
Lostconfused
Member
Dear god no, he is so incredibly boring. Well maybe its ok because of that character combination. With Varric in the party you get some of the most boring and bland banter ever because of Fenris.Zeliard said:
Edit: But then again I like Aveline and think is an ok character, so I dunno, haters gonna hate I guess.
Finally completed it, loved the narrative and the ending and i think this is probably the best game ever in group construction and credibility. It doesn't have the best characters (Verric is pretty awesome though and most of them have their charms), but in terms of interaction, tension between them, input on the story, variety and so, this game is pretty amazing, Bioware has outdone themselves in this aspect.
Are we going to open a thread to discuss this spoiler free like ME2? I want to hear your take on the game. I think that, story wise, is much stronger than DA or ME2, it´s a shame the undeniable problems of the game will not let this aspect truly shine.
BTW, I really disliked Aveline but once I did her "special quest" to say so, and had her in my group with Isabela, she grew on me, hilarious exchanges.
Fuck you Anders, I have never been so disgusted with a videogame character ever, I trusted you, I helped you, and you go and do something so utterly stupid and miserable. And when I spare your life out of friendship, you come back to fight me?! rot in hell
Are we going to open a thread to discuss this spoiler free like ME2? I want to hear your take on the game. I think that, story wise, is much stronger than DA or ME2, it´s a shame the undeniable problems of the game will not let this aspect truly shine.
BTW, I really disliked Aveline but once I did her "special quest" to say so, and had her in my group with Isabela, she grew on me, hilarious exchanges.
Lostconfused said:
I like Aveline too that's because I always play lawful good/chaotic
Aveline and Isabella talk a lot lmao
when you help Aveline get a man and later on in the game Isabella tells her to try to put her thumb up his ass during sex
edit: beaten I should refresh threads more often.
Gamer @ Heart said:
If you equip Isabela with two quality daggers and have stealth abilities unlocked, she's a monster on the battlefield, whittling down enemy health bars quickly. Ambush in particular should be unlocked early on, since the advantage it offers is huge (100% critical chance if stealthed and behind the enemy; can also be combined with Backstab, which Isabela already comes with).
Lostconfused said:
meh Aveline. I'm a guardsman and honor and we must protect and law and order and I'm a warrior who's a woman so I must have a man-face, blah blah blah. Nothing there of any intrigue.
At least Fenris' backstory has a comically interesting bend to it considering the situation he now finds himself in: a party with two mages. :> And he doesn't hesitate to bring that point up.
Blue Ninja
Member
Started the third act, and
And yeah, Aveline's my main tank. Isabela called her a "woman-shaped battering ram", but I think the term "woman-shaped block of concrete" works beter.
suddenly I'm seeing old characters everywhere. Leliana, Nathaniel, and I'm pretty sure I'll be running into Zevran later. I lol'ed everytime one of those characters appeared, it was so awesome.
And yeah, Aveline's my main tank. Isabela called her a "woman-shaped battering ram", but I think the term "woman-shaped block of concrete" works beter.
whatevermort
Member
I'm 9 hours in and think that this is a far better game than DA:O. I'm playing on console, and while the story isn't as strong - the lack of a larger arc really hurts it - the writing is (in general) better, the graphics MUCH nice, the combat much more fun and the skill trees great. It's very much an RPG, and very much worth the 8s that reviews have been giving it. In my humble etc.
I'm also very pro-mage as my char is a mage, and Fenris doesn't take too kindly to that, so I've been building up a rivalry with him. I've found that sort of thing now tends to work more organically than it previously did. Throughout the course of the game, I've been consistent in siding with mages, and Fenris naturally isn't going to like that. The friend/rival meter doesn't feel as much like some meter I'm feeding points into, at least not as transparently as we've often seen from Bioware.
Yeah I'm on Nightmare and Fenris has been doing a good job as tank. You're able to spec him effectively enough as a tank through various aggro/defensive abilities. Isabela is DPS, my player mage is also DPS with a bit of crowd control and healing, and Anders is mainly support/healing. Been working well enough so far, though a lot about the combat still aggravates me.
Delio said:
Yeah I'm on Nightmare and Fenris has been doing a good job as tank. You're able to spec him effectively enough as a tank through various aggro/defensive abilities. Isabela is DPS, my player mage is also DPS with a bit of crowd control and healing, and Anders is mainly support/healing. Been working well enough so far, though a lot about the combat still aggravates me.
What are the best trees to focus on for Merrill?
So far I've pretty much been focusing her on Primal and her own tree which seems to make her pretty deadly.
Also, I've pretty much been putting 3 Magic / 1 Constitution to her attributes and while her magic may be strong she is always the first to go down. Should I ReSpec her and put everything, or most in Constitution since she is a Blood Mage?
So far I've pretty much been focusing her on Primal and her own tree which seems to make her pretty deadly.
Also, I've pretty much been putting 3 Magic / 1 Constitution to her attributes and while her magic may be strong she is always the first to go down. Should I ReSpec her and put everything, or most in Constitution since she is a Blood Mage?
Lostconfused
Member
Well that's great he can go stew in his generic angst somewhere else, sarcastic Hawke don't give a fuck about his lousy childhood.Zeliard said:
those + friendship/rivalry points certainly get in the way it being natural. Certainly not when there are lines included in the dialog that are just there to either increase rivalry or friendship even if the outcome is exactly the same.Zeliard said:
Edit: I mean it is better than just +approval in DA:O but it kind of fucks up the whole thing when you disagree with a character on one thing but aren't a dick to them in all the other situations so you end up being in the middle when the point is to max out either one.
Although I do find it fun that I can piss of Merrill and Fenris at the same time by taking the middle road. But I guess that's just how it goes with extremists, either you are with them or you are against them.
GhostRidah
Member
I am still pissed I missed out on Isabella, ugh! =/
I'm about 7 hours into the game, still on Act 1 and just approaching the money I needed to raise. And... hm... I can definitely see where both sides of the camp for and against this game are coming from.
On one hand, having a framed multi-year narrative is definitely something that game stories do not really see a lot of, let alone RPGs. Moreover, setting the game in a single central location is definitely something that a lot of RPGs never actually try to attempt (and most often they completely bungle the "world" aspect where an entire globe can seem more sparsely populated than a small country). This gives a lot of room for a sense of believability in the characters since the characters do have their own lives to lead outside of adventuring and curb-stomping giant spiders/thieves/darkspawn/etc. However, if you're going to do all of that, you better make damned sure that your single location is interesting and that your characters are intriguing enough to give a damn about.
Character-wise, I'm kinda eh. Varric isn't really doing much for me, Merrill is kinda cute in her mannerisms but nothing completely mindblowing, Carver is Carth 3.0 with the "douchebag" setting cranked to 11, I actually kinda like Aveline, and I hate Isabella. Outside of Aveline and Merrill, I could really not care less about my other party members. And like ME2, BioWare inexplicably missed an opportunity to deliver on a very unique potential party member.
Story-wise, whoever thought that having the first third of the game follow "imma get rich or die trying" would be more involving than actually having some semblance of a main conflict surfacing should be slapped across the head with a killer whale.
Gameplay wise... Well, I'm kinda glad I chose the mage from the get go. At the very least, I'm always far away enough that I can see where my party members are on the battle field and won't be caught completely off guard by the second wave of enemies that spawn either directly behind you or right in front of your face.[/spoiler] But personally, the mage gameplay alone is the closest to DA:O's style in my experience; just with more flashy skills. Dunno how the warrior and rogue handle. It would probably be irritating for me to play without auto-attacking (you couldn't at least give us the OPTION for auto-attack? What in the hell, BioWare?)
So far, I like some of the improvements (graphics... for main/speaking characters only, and the Qunari redesign is the only redesign so far that was actually pretty well done). Some of the alterations are kinda making me scratch my head a little, though.
On one hand, having a framed multi-year narrative is definitely something that game stories do not really see a lot of, let alone RPGs. Moreover, setting the game in a single central location is definitely something that a lot of RPGs never actually try to attempt (and most often they completely bungle the "world" aspect where an entire globe can seem more sparsely populated than a small country). This gives a lot of room for a sense of believability in the characters since the characters do have their own lives to lead outside of adventuring and curb-stomping giant spiders/thieves/darkspawn/etc. However, if you're going to do all of that, you better make damned sure that your single location is interesting and that your characters are intriguing enough to give a damn about.
Character-wise, I'm kinda eh. Varric isn't really doing much for me, Merrill is kinda cute in her mannerisms but nothing completely mindblowing, Carver is Carth 3.0 with the "douchebag" setting cranked to 11, I actually kinda like Aveline, and I hate Isabella. Outside of Aveline and Merrill, I could really not care less about my other party members. And like ME2, BioWare inexplicably missed an opportunity to deliver on a very unique potential party member.
Like how Tank-Bred Krogan had more potential than the Krogan we got in ME2, the Mage Qunari should have been a DEAD FUCKING GIVEAWAY for a party member. But he kills himself at the end of the quest. What.
Gameplay wise... Well, I'm kinda glad I chose the mage from the get go. At the very least, I'm always far away enough that I can see where my party members are on the battle field and won't be caught completely off guard by the second wave of enemies that spawn either directly behind you or right in front of your face.[/spoiler] But personally, the mage gameplay alone is the closest to DA:O's style in my experience; just with more flashy skills. Dunno how the warrior and rogue handle. It would probably be irritating for me to play without auto-attacking (you couldn't at least give us the OPTION for auto-attack? What in the hell, BioWare?)
So far, I like some of the improvements (graphics... for main/speaking characters only, and the Qunari redesign is the only redesign so far that was actually pretty well done). Some of the alterations are kinda making me scratch my head a little, though.
Lostconfused said:
Speaking of sarcasm, male Hawke voice actor doesn't tend to deliver sarcastic lines very... sarcastically, often times. It's unfortunate. A couple of times he gets it, but most of the time he doesn't deliver them with any real bite. Sarcasm should have a sting to it, but this guy seems generally content on vanilla delivery. And I usually pick the comedy mask option, so I've heard plenty of attempts.
Lostconfused said:
Well, most of the time you're simply engaged in dialogue over the philosophical matter of things, so there shouldn't be any different "outcome." They're responding based on the things you're saying, not some end result - the end result of most dialogue interactions anywhere is simply that they end (though occasionally fists are thrown). It would have been much better with no visible meter, definitely, but I still think this is a step up from what we usually see from Bioware.
It's other areas where this game has some glaring problems. The setting is possibly the worst I've experienced in a modern RPG, especially given the way you navigate it. You're in a single city for nearly the entire game, the outside areas are few and non-memorable, every single environment is terribly linear, almost every spot in the city is segmented into zones that you have to fast travel to and from, areas are re-used constantly and often in hilariously blatant fashion, and the city architecture that you spend dozens of hours in is boring to look at. If this were Game Dev Story they would have put 0 points into "game world" to make this game.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
The only way the "influence" system works is if it works globally, not just to whoever is in your party. Alternatively, you do the KoTOR2 thing where two characters are diametrically opposed to each other, so that if you gain the favour of one, you lose the favour of the other.
Otherwise, it seems fairly easy to game. Want to side with the Templars but not lose any "friendship points"? Don't bring any mages with you when you do.
Otherwise, it seems fairly easy to game. Want to side with the Templars but not lose any "friendship points"? Don't bring any mages with you when you do.
Lostconfused
Member
I didn't say he was a good voice actor. But if I have to put up with with a voiced character I might as well pick the sarcastic answer EVERY time.Zeliard said:
They are responding to how you are saying those things, not what you are saying. Hawke can pretty much say the exact same thing in two different ways to swing the meter in a different direction. I mean you even get a Yes/No option and even then No isn't a rejection its just saying Yes in such a manner that would get you +rivalry instead of friendshipZeliard said:
where you get an elven slave for your house. Fenris gets angry and you can Hawke can either say that he is just hiring her and you get +friendship for that or Hawke can say that its none of his god damn business and then say that he is just hiring her to +rivalry. I think there were some other options as well, wonder if you could have gotten Fenris to permanently leave the party at that point in time.
It is rather easy to game. In some conversations you can either piss off one character if you pick option A just to get +rivalry or you can pick option B to get +friendship with a different character without any negative consequences.firehawk12 said:
firehawk12 said:
Yeah but the whole siding with templars/mages thing is basically the core theme of the game and is built into many dialogue interactions you'll have, one way or the other. You'd basically have to never bring a mage to prevent such a thing, though since they're the only ones with healing abilities beyond pots, it's generally a good idea to have at least one mage (on higher difficulties at least).
I think the friendship/rivalry system isn't bad. It's obviously still very binary, since it's still two opposite extremes, and it would have been more effective if they'd hidden the meters and the notification of points entirely. But overall I think it functions well enough when it comes to what actually causes those meters to go up and down. It isn't quite as blatant as we often see from Bioware.
Lostconfused said:
I'm not really seeing the problem with characters responding differently to you either acting like an asshole to them or not, heh. That's also only one way they respond differently. You'll get varied responses if you choose to help certain people, or murder certain people, or take certain jobs, or if you're taking stances one way or the other, and so on. Often times the "good" option will net you rivalry points with a character, i.e. sparing someone's life or bargaining with a character that a party member hates.
Lostconfused
Member
Its a bit too easy to manipulate the characters whichever way I want. I want some consequences for being a gigantic jerk to some of them just for the sake of trying to max out a meter.Zeliard said:
Maybe I just have to live with the fact that sarcastic Hawke is a jackass with the heart of gold. He will help you with your troubles and make fun off you the whole time you are with him just cause he feels like it.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Hey, uh, so I'm still relatively early, I'm doing the whole Will thing for your Mom, and I just found it, and there was a Blank Heraldic Shield in the chest where I found the Will.
So Aveline is my Sword and Shield person, so I go to check out the new item. It's fine, +5 Armor, nothing crazy but better than what I currently have, Ser Wesley's Shield. So I Inspect it and I switch back and forth equipping between the two shields to see how it affects my stats.
Then I notice something. Now, I can be completely mistaken since I'm kind of out of it this afternoon, but the bottom left most stat is your Armor stat, right? That shows your current defense? It seems like whenever I switch these shields, that number is compounding. It keeps adding up. I'm at over 600 armor now. And I've exited out, come back, and my stat says the same.
Hawke's armor is 78. Aveline is near 600 and counting. Best shield ever or am I doing it wrong.
So Aveline is my Sword and Shield person, so I go to check out the new item. It's fine, +5 Armor, nothing crazy but better than what I currently have, Ser Wesley's Shield. So I Inspect it and I switch back and forth equipping between the two shields to see how it affects my stats.
Then I notice something. Now, I can be completely mistaken since I'm kind of out of it this afternoon, but the bottom left most stat is your Armor stat, right? That shows your current defense? It seems like whenever I switch these shields, that number is compounding. It keeps adding up. I'm at over 600 armor now. And I've exited out, come back, and my stat says the same.
Hawke's armor is 78. Aveline is near 600 and counting. Best shield ever or am I doing it wrong.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Still on my first year in the city. I'm liking it so far. I like certain design choices but others I'm not so fond of. Not having a bad guy or a storyline is one choice I feel kind of odd. So far it could have just been called:
"Dragon Age 2: The Side Quest Game"
"Dragon Age 2: The Side Quest Game"