Beaten Dragon Age 2? Thoughts?

[jad4400]

So after several days of marathon Dragon Age 2 I just beat the game, complete with all the side quests and everything. I gotta say, it was a really good game, I liked the new combat and the story was fairly solid.

One part of the story that really stuck with me was:

Spoiler: DO NOT OPEN THIS SPOILER IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN PAST ACT 2

The Murder of Hawke's mother by the crazy serial killer, for some reason that part just really kind of resonated with me, partly because I liked the mother character, but also I think it helped reinforce the notion of Kirkwall being a chaotic city, despite everyone?s best attempts at imposing order. Also enjoyed the fact that the serial killer quest line was actually Chekhov gun

So for anyone who has beaten the game or are playing through it right now, what parts are you enjoying? Story, game play, characters? Any complaints?

Also remember to put stuff in spoiler if it is related to story, a lot of cool stuff happens in the game, don?t want to ruin it for others.

 

[ImprovizoR]

The game is great. I finished it today. It has some seriously epic moments. My personal favorite moment was

Spoiler: spoiler

When I was trying to stop the qunari and I bumped into Alistair. It was only a brief moment but so well written and shot and it made me feel like the world of Dragon Age really exists and everything I did in Origins mattered. And then Alistair gave me an amulet t hat belongs to his Warden friend (you from DA:O). It was really an emotional and special moment

Also I have to say this.

Spoiler: spoiler

There are a lot of Chekhov guns in this game. I like that a lot! I like how every character's story is actually deeply tied to the biggest twists in the game. The idol from Deep Roads is perhaps the biggest one.

The story is more mature and dark. You don't get to be the ultimate hero like in DA:O but it works surprisingly well.

 

[herr.Didi]

Finished the game about an hour ago. I was really hoping that the game would not end there. Cliffhanger much?
In my walkthrough:

Spoiler

Isabella walked out on me, and I was really frustrated because I never really got to know her well, my sister went with the Gray Wardens and I sided with the Mages, but I ended up killing both Meredith and Orsinus(dunno if you can avoid that). Speaking of characters, I really liked Alistair's joke when he says to the other guy(forgot his name) that The Hero of Ferelden has a name.
Still, I felt that the game lost the epic feeling that the first game had. It's kinda cool that you don't save the world, you actually make it worse, but there is no clear goal, clear bad guy you have to kill to make things better, and, I at least, wasn't that driven in the first place to sort the whole Templars vs Mages. I really hoped I would end up Viscount.
I still want to play it again however...

I said this again: if the game wasn't called Dragon Age 2 it would have been a better game in allot of peoples minds.

EDIT: hmm It seems that I missed

Spoiler

the bump with Alistair when chasing the qunari

Now I really want to play it again. Right now!

 

[Wayneguard]

I'm weird and I like to main tanks in fantasy games and I have to say that tanking in da2 rocks especially considering sustained threat generation actually works now >_> Also, I totally love the shield defense stance. It looks so badass. More loot, more quests, better tanking... i love this game.

 

[Pilkingtube]

OK I have a serious question, apparently there is some elf dude with white hair in this game, along with some gear for a character I didn't have. I've finished it and done most side quests (aside from those that bugged out on me) and I never met him, was he cut from the game or did I somehow miss an entire character? If so, how do I actually get him for my next playthrough?

Also, because I suck at doing spoiler tags i'll keep it vague.. but how many ending boss battles does a game need? I counted like 4 lol

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

OK I have a serious question, apparently there is some elf dude with white hair in this game, along with some gear for a character I didn't have. I've finished it and done most side quests (aside from those that bugged out on me) and I never met him, was he cut from the game or did I somehow miss an entire character? If so, how do I actually get him for my next playthrough?

Also, because I suck at doing spoiler tags i'll keep it vague.. but how many ending boss battles does a game need? I counted like 4 lol

I'm pretty sure you're talking about Fenris, you meet him by doing a quest early on in the game where you meet a Dwarf in Lowtown at night

 

[Pilkingtube]

Oh, the "please help me smuggle lyrium" guy?
I totally avoided helping him because I didn't wanna help the templars! Damnit.. I missed out on a character out of spite!?

..I'mma have to go play this damn game again.

 

[Pilkingtube]

Oh! Also, did anybody else find Merrill a bit weird? Without going into spoilers, no matter what I did, she would only get rivalry with me, I was nice.. mean.. funny.. flirty.. nothing. :/

And did anybody else find it weird that they let the Cullen guy's voice actor return.. but he's the same guy as Anders, yet they changed Anders' voice actor?

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Fantastic game with some plot pacing issues. Nothing happens until Act 3, story-wise.

Combat is among the most enjoyable I've ever played in an RPG. It was just the right mix of fast-paced action and tactical strategy on Hard difficulty. Only a few encounters felt too difficult or too easy to me. A lot of the encounters that were too easy were the throw-away random encounters in the streets at night, so I can forgive that.

Chracters were a mixed bag. I love Merrill and Varric, hate Fenris, Aveline, and Anders. Wish there was an additional Mage companion with healing abilities so I wasn't locked into Anders the whole game. Hopefully this is addressed via DLC characters.

I spent ~26 hours on my first playthrough on Hard as a melee Rogue with Aveline, Anders, and Merrill. Going through again on Nightmare as a 2H Warrior with Merrill, Varric, and Anders. The classes play very differently, which is great.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

Oh, the "please help me smuggle lyrium" guy?
I totally avoided helping him because I didn't wanna help the templars! Damnit.. I missed out on a character out of spite!?

..I'mma have to go play this damn game again.

Yeah that's the guy, though to be honest, you're not really missing much as Fenris is nowhere near the top of the list for quality characters.

The characters I liked were Merril, Sebastian, Varric, and Bethany

 

[white_salad]

Oh! Also, did anybody else find Merrill a bit weird? Without going into spoilers, no matter what I did, she would only get rivalry with me, I was nice.. mean.. funny.. flirty.. nothing. :/

And did anybody else find it weird that they let the Cullen guy's voice actor return.. but he's the same guy as Anders, yet they changed Anders' voice actor?

I think it;s weird that they changed anders. The jokey cat lover to mage rights fanatics? Annoying.

 

[Pilkingtube]

Oh, the "please help me smuggle lyrium" guy?
I totally avoided helping him because I didn't wanna help the templars! Damnit.. I missed out on a character out of spite!?

..I'mma have to go play this damn game again.

Yeah that's the guy, though to be honest, you're not really missing much as Fenris is nowhere near the top of the list for quality characters

While that's fair enough, when it game to near the end of my game, I was running out of living/present companions, so even somebody annoying would have helped! Regardless, the game came out on friday, it is now sunday (shut up, if i've not slept the day hasn't changed yet) so I can squeeze out another game over the next few days and hopefully grab (and keep!) some more companions!

 

[WorldCritic]

I beat it last night and I had a lot of fun with it. One thing that kind of annoyed me though was that some jackass sent me an email with fake spoilers that said the game was going to end a lot worse than it did. I was really thankful at the end to find out he was lying.

 

[Travis Austin]

I thought it was great. Since I don't know how to do spoiler tags, I can't say anything specific, but I was brought to tears on the mother thing..

I liked Fenris at first with his whole ripping people's hearts out, but then he started on his whole "Mages are evil and the bane of the universe."
I was happy when I...well I can't say.
Merrill was so naive.
I thought Anders was just a mages rights activist and wasn't that bad until he did THAT.

 

[Pilkingtube]

I beat it last night and I had a lot of fun with it. One thing that kind of annoyed me though was that some jackass sent me an email with fake spoilers that said the game was going to end a lot worse than it did. I was really thankful at the end to find out he was lying.

Yeah, somebody said that online to me (that the ending sucked), but from what I played through, the ending not only was fun, but pulled through a handful of plot points that were relevant as side-quests or minor-quests pretty early into the game!

 

[ecoho]

absolutely loved the game. That said i think its bullshit your stuck with carver if you go mage. I mean bethany was sweat and kind but carver is just an asshole. Btw thats more of a warning then a spoiler

 

[WorldCritic]

Oh! Also, did anybody else find Merrill a bit weird? Without going into spoilers, no matter what I did, she would only get rivalry with me, I was nice.. mean.. funny.. flirty.. nothing. :/

And did anybody else find it weird that they let the Cullen guy's voice actor return.. but he's the same guy as Anders, yet they changed Anders' voice actor?

I got full friendship with Merril really quickly, and all I did was just keep being nice. Not sure what you did to piss her off. As for Cullen's voice actor, I didn't even remember that he voiced Anders. Whenever I met Cullen I kept getting distracted because I kept remembering his actor's voice work in previous games, but not Awakening.

 

[white_salad]

I thought it was great. Since I don't know how to do spoiler tags, I can't say anything specific, but I was brought to tears on the mother thing..

I liked Fenris at first with his whole ripping people's hearts out, but then he started on his whole "Mages are evil and the bane of the universe."
I was happy when I...well I can't say.
Merrill was so naive.
I thought Anders was just a mages rights activist and wasn't that bad until he did THAT.

Oh god when he did THAT.

Spoiler

Killed that bastard. Like seriously what the hell.

 

[blaise_fire]

I liked the game even if the man I loved betrayed me and I killed him for it. I have to admit I didnt want to romanced him but I did accidently and ran with it... so I was looking for a way out.

My favorite part was the random party banter. And varrics cheast hair. ;D

 

[Pilkingtube]

Oh! Also, did anybody else find Merrill a bit weird? Without going into spoilers, no matter what I did, she would only get rivalry with me, I was nice.. mean.. funny.. flirty.. nothing. :/

And did anybody else find it weird that they let the Cullen guy's voice actor return.. but he's the same guy as Anders, yet they changed Anders' voice actor?

I got full friendship with Merril really quickly, and all I did was just keep being nice. Not sure what you did to piss her off. As for Cullen's voice actor, I didn't even remember that he voiced Anders. Whenever I met Cullen I kept getting distracted because I kept remembering his actor's voice work in previous games, but not Awakening.

That's the weird thing, she hit full rivalry with me, but was still totally friendly and nice to me, I no understand!