Dragon age 2

[Araethuiel]

So I stumbled across this in the dragon age wiki recently"
"Hawke is the central protagonist of Dragon Age II. Hawke is fully voiced, can be either male or female, has a fully customizable appearance and, as in Origins, can be a mage, rogue or warrior."

Alter a few words, and you get this:
"Shepard is the central protagonist of Mass Effect. Shepard is fully voiced, can be either male or female, has a fully customizable appearance and can be an adept, infiltrator, or soldier".

That's right folks, DA:2 looks like Mass Effect:Fantasy Edition.
I'm most likely mistaken here (I hope so) but that's certainly what it seems like looking at the above...

What the hell, bioware!? You can't just ...just give us a generic hero guy/gal and tell us we care. That's what the whole beginning of DA:O is about, us getting to know our hero character as a person, and identifying with them. These shenanigans worked in mass effect, an action-RPG, but I don't see it working at all in dragon age 2.

And here's the link [link]http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Hawke[/link]





Postscript: I know I left out sentinel, vanguard, engineer. I just went with the classes hat most fit the fantasy counterparts.
Post-postscript: Having a tenuous link to the Warden-Commander redeems it slightly... but ONLY if you played as a human mage in the first game, and I don't see that having significant impact anyway.

 

[MasterChief892039]

You're a little late to the party - did you really not realize that DA:O was the medieval version of ME: 2 (or, alternately, ME: 2 was the sci-fi version of DA:O)?

Must be pretty thick, OP.

In other breaking news, Fallout 3; Original game? Or Oblivion: 1950s Edition?

Spoiler: The Horror!

 

[Dash85]

I take it you haven't been following this game a whole lot, have you? This... this has been known for quite some time now.

EDIT: with that said, I'm still quite excited for this game, I did not like the combat in the first one so I'm anxious to try out this one.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

I've played Dragon Age 2.
It's fine. I don't like the wheel-dialogue system, but I don't care enough to cry a river.
Stop whinging.

 

[Mechsoap]

I've played Dragon Age 2.
It's fine. I don't like the wheel-dialogue system, but I don't care enough to cry a river.
Stop whinging.

Oh my, are you a time traveller?

OT: Its Bioware, that's their receipt and it normally works. Question: did you like mass effect? then you will like dragon age 1/2.

 

[Woodsey]

Yeah, this is like, so 5 months ago.

Newest edition of PCG came through my letterbox today, and the review is MASSIVELY positive, totally wiped away any concerns - although the only one I really had left was in relation to the story structure, since a retrospective narrative can often not work, especially in RPGs.

Also: apart from being fully-voiced, that character description can be applied to Origins. You're whining about nothing.

 

[Araethuiel]

To be fair I haven't followed it at all. This is what aimlessly browsing the wiki showed me.
And mass effect is less RPG than origins, more action.
Don't get me wrong, it's awesome, I just don't see the formula working in dragon age...

 

[Dash85]

-snip-

Could you maybe shed some light on the character customization or are you not allowed to talk about it? EDIT: lol nvm.

Oh my, are you a time traveller?

OT: Its Bioware, that's their receipt and it normally works. Question: did you like mass effect? then you will like dragon age 1/2.

Game Stop employees got early access to the demo. OH nevermind, apparently they do not now, but he just replied with how he played it lol.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

I've played Dragon Age 2.
It's fine. I don't like the wheel-dialogue system, but I don't care enough to cry a river.
Stop whinging.

Oh my, are you a time traveller?

OT: Its Bioware, that's their receipt and it normally works. Question: did you like mass effect? then you will like dragon age 1/2.

Dear god, the secret's out!

Though sadly I am not. I was just lucky enough to play it in London last year, though I suspect the version I played was a little broken at the time of showing seeing as the character creator's sliders didn't work properly.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Personally, I've been using the name Dragon Effect 2. It is one of the two main reasons, the other being the dialogue wheel, I am fearful for this game.

 

[Brett Alex]

The story takes place over 10 years. 10 freakin years.

Any lengthy RPG that is gonna feel like its taking a long time in-game could do terrible things to me and I would still love it.

 

[Axolotl]

What worried me was the previews that said it would be more action orientated. I mean I didn't hate Origins but it was virtually non-stop combat, how can you get more action?

 

[darth.pixie]

What worried me was the previews that said it would be more action orientated. I mean I didn't hate Origins but it was virtually non-stop combat, how can you get more action?

Combat is quicker, more finishing moves (including for magic) and it's more fluid. I don't think they meant more enemies. That would be difficult.

Honestly, I had hoped Bioware would go forwards with the story they released. What are darkspawn, will we go to the Black City, what are the archdemons? ...I was dissapointed ever since the beginning about it. I've also played at least the beginning. It's very 'Witcher 2' (2 characters talking about you). It didn't feel like ten years to me.

I however, don't doubt that I will dislike it while the rest of the world will like a new 'RPG'. That's what happened with Mass Effect 2 anyway.

 

[Mr. Doe]

Oh, its another one of these Dragon Effect threads.

 

[DustyDrB]

I don't feel like reposting everything I put into a thread a few days ago...

So I'll just link to it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.263683-Dragon-Age-2-Specializations-and-Skills-Info] (shows skill trees, previews, and a combat demo). The "Dragon Age 2 is Mass Effect: Fantasy Edition" supposition is just a myth. The only change that makes Dragon Age 2 like Mass Effect [footnote]Which my favorite game series, but I still like for each series to stay true to its own identity[/footnote] is the creation of the semi-predefined and voiced player character.

 

[Axolotl]

What worried me was the previews that said it would be more action orientated. I mean I didn't hate Origins but it was virtually non-stop combat, how can you get more action?

Combat is quicker, more finishing moves (including for magic) and it's more fluid. I don't think they meant more enemies. That would be difficult.

Yeah I hoped that was it, but the talk about it gave me visions of the Deep Roads repeated forever.

The thing that does make me interested in DA 2 was Bioware saying it's a more personal story, now if this means that they're finally moving away from the save the world type plots and actually trying to make a decent story then I'm definitly interested in what they come up with. I don't hold out much hope but I will be looking into DA2.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Yeah I hoped that was it, but the talk about it gave me visions of the Deep Roads repeated forever.

The thing that does make me interested in DA 2 was Bioware saying it's a more personal story, now if this means that they're finally moving away from the save the world type plots and actually trying to make a decent story then I'm definitly interested in what they come up with. I don't hold out much hope but I will be looking into DA2.

Yeah I feel the same way about the story. If they manage to pull off a more personal story, it'll make up for them not having the different character Origins.

I still think it's gonna end up like ME2 (I loved ME2, but it's definitely not the way Dragon Age should go)

 

[Axolotl]

Yeah I hoped that was it, but the talk about it gave me visions of the Deep Roads repeated forever.

The thing that does make me interested in DA 2 was Bioware saying it's a more personal story, now if this means that they're finally moving away from the save the world type plots and actually trying to make a decent story then I'm definitly interested in what they come up with. I don't hold out much hope but I will be looking into DA2.

Yeah I feel the same way about the story. If they manage to pull off a more personal story, it'll make up for them not having the different character Origins.

Well the thing is with a more personal story they can do far more interesting things, now when you're saving the world it's big and epic but it doesn't leave alot of room for any real tension,you kinow that in the end the world willl end up saved and lots of bad guys will be dead. It also means much of the story needs to revolve arund the player battling with an enemy that poses a credible threat to the world, which really restricts what you can do because most enemies like that must by nessesity fall within a few tightly defined archtypes.

Now a great example of how more personal stories can work in RPGs is Planescape Torment, one of the main reasons the story of that game is so brilliant is because it can go in any direction, it manages to maintain real curiosity in how the story will unfold. Now I don't have confidence in Bioware to make something quite on that level but DA2 really could be a step in the right direction.

 

[darth.pixie]

Well the thing is with a more personal story they can do far more interesting things, now when you're saving the world it's big and epic but it doesn't leave alot of room for any real tension,you kinow that in the end the world willl end up saved and lots of bad guys will be dead. It also means much of the story needs to revolve arund the player battling with an enemy that poses a credible threat to the world, which really restricts what you can do because most enemies like that must by nessesity fall within a few tightly defined archtypes.

The thing about this is that...the world is a bit too young to add personal stories yet.

I've said it before, but what I was expecting at the end, after my character died heroically, to have some sort of cutscene at the end with my character's corpse in the Fade (where souls supposedly go where they die) and the archdemon roaring in the background. (Then waking up, being either soul forged with the dragon or doing something to defeat it for good, go back to the real world, etc)

They left a lot of unanswered questions to which it seems we'll never get the answers.

An example of a world well done is the Forgotten Realms (now ruined by 4e and the Spellplague) where it was developed enough for personal stories yet still had some mysteries. It seems that Ferelden is all a mystery and Bioware isn't sharing the answers.

 

[Knight Templar]

So because you can no longer pick between different origins, it's going to be a clone of Mass Effect?
Doesn't that sound just a little bit silly?