i like what they tried, having it centered around a hub city where you and your party live rather than just gallivanting around the world, and theres alot of potential in that style, but plot was disjointed...the characters were well written, but too subtle to be memorable, and the combat is ruined by all the bloody times more waves of peons spawn from the ether in every fight; it just gets really really really tedious, more so than origins. i enjoyed the refugee to important citizen part, the deep roads and 2nd act finale were great, bu the ending...
at any rate, i really do want to see can be done with progressing through time instead of location for a game, but da2 was an experiment; it taught us and surely bioware what they can do, but really isnt well put together on its own. some more evolution of kirkwall and the characters, an actual plot (doesnt need to be demon dragons, or even all that dangerous, but without some central goal the game is just a series of sidequests and even the plot quests feel superfluous), and less linearity (hawke is either jesus, satan, or inappropriate comic relief) are needed to make it really work as a full game.
and for the love of god, stop spawning waves of enemies during every fight. seriously, keep everything the same and just have me fight one group of tougher enemies for most fights, and da2 would be VASTLY improved.
i have never seen such a deus ex machina filled ending, and the conflict with the mages was far more black morality than gray which made it impossible to sympathize with either side. first there is meredith...apparently lyrium poisoning now lets you jump 100ft in the air and bring statues to life, which completely ruined any seriousness the fight was trying to present, especially when the freaking spider heads came out. and every freaking mage in the game that isnt your sister is evil; EVERY ONE. every apostate is possessed or just attacks on sight, the ones in the final battle attack you even if your on their side, and orsino decides that his people being attacked is the perfect time to turn into an abomination and attack his own allies. and yes, if hawke is a mage, he/she is the evilest of all no matter how you play them, because hawke is the one who causes all these problems to begin with. that ending makes no sense and then has the gall to be a cliffhanger; i dont even want to know what happened after that twilight zone episode of an ending, but the game cuts off anyway.
at any rate, i really do want to see can be done with progressing through time instead of location for a game, but da2 was an experiment; it taught us and surely bioware what they can do, but really isnt well put together on its own. some more evolution of kirkwall and the characters, an actual plot (doesnt need to be demon dragons, or even all that dangerous, but without some central goal the game is just a series of sidequests and even the plot quests feel superfluous), and less linearity (hawke is either jesus, satan, or inappropriate comic relief) are needed to make it really work as a full game.
and for the love of god, stop spawning waves of enemies during every fight. seriously, keep everything the same and just have me fight one group of tougher enemies for most fights, and da2 would be VASTLY improved.
